This year as always, we reserved a special premium Christmas cake. This year we chose to go with Sadaharu Aoki, the famous patissier that went to France and came back famous! He still lives in Paris, but he now has a couple of shops here in Tokyo. His cakes are truly to die for and this year, his cake was just amazing! It's a cake made especially for the Christmas season. The cake is truly special as it isn't simple round or square. It's squarish but upon closer inspection, it looks as like a piece of objet d'art. It was well worth the expense and I especially enjoyed it. I think my partner perferred last year's cake from Pierre Herme. So anyway, choosing the cake is one of our traditions during the holidays and something I really look forward to.
Now, I have to say, my partner got me truly upset the weekend before Christmas. He's been quite busy lately with not only work, but drinking with his colleagues as well as friends. Sure it's ok and I don't mind but when it's 3 days a week every week, it gets a bit lonely. He even took a day off for golf! This is all during the holiday season. I always try to look at things positive and I told myself that all this will give me time to work on my designs so it's in fact, a good thing. No worries. Sunday arrived and we were plannning on going to Roppongi to see the Christmas Market from Germany. We planned to have lunch there. 11am came around and he started looking annoyed so I asked him what was wrong. He said that he was looking for a certain software and he was sure it was somewhere in the office. Ok, our office is tiny, but the thing is, we have tons of nick nacks and unless you are organized, it is almost impossible to find things. Still, it's tiny and not impossible. I ended up helping him look for this elusive software....he doesnt even know what it looks like (strange), but I just couldnt stand around watching looking for it in vain with utter irritation on his face. After a couple of hours well past lunchtime, he came hopping into the office with some news saying that the software was in his other laptop in the bedroom! Ok, I was happy with that. I dont know why but I actually said to him that I was sorry he had to go through that. He did NOT apologize for making me go through that. He just sort of breathed out sigh of irritation and fatigue and said to me that we should just leave before it gets dark. Well, of course I was starving to the point of weakness and felt extremely sad. It felt like I did something wrong and was being punished for it. All of a sudden I realized he didn't even have the courtesy to apologize for what he put me through. Sure, it's no big thing but hey, I was looking forward to a nice Sunday with him after being home alone most of the past 3 weeks. I finally felt drained and didn't even feel hungry anymore. I tried my positive incantations but nope, didnt work. Words just started to tumble out of my mouth. I'm so tired......yadadadada....I wished you just said sorry......i'm not hungry anymore....let's just go get your sweater you needed for that company thing......yadadadada......I was just mumbling to myself I think.
In the end, we went to the market and had some Chinese food for dinner. I was in a good mood by then and thanked him for taking me. But then I started to feel really weak and fell asleep early.
I woke up the next day with a terrible headache and for the next 3 days, I was in bed. Now, I dont know if this was due to my stress level being so high or what, but I actually felt depressed during these three days! I mean really, I hardly ever get like this. I was actually having a hard time thinking straight. All I could feel was emptiness and could not remember the meaning of my life. What a terrible feeling. It actually took effort to get me out of that slump. On the third day of my bedridden days, I forced myself to go rent a coupld of DVDs so I could make myself not think. It actually worked and I felt better when Friday came around.
Wednesday was my partner and I's Xmas dinner at home. I didnt have much appetite since I was still sick, but still I was happy. Just depressed and happy. Strange. Friday came around and I had dinner with friends at Nobu. Christmas dinner with my friends at Nobu was actually really great and we all decided that we should go have dinner at a uber fab overpriced restarant once every 3 months! They all agreed and so we will go to New York Grill the next time. Sure i've been there many times, but my friends never have. I love that place!
I got an iPhone for Christmas! I already have a cell phone mind you. However he though i would like to play with all the applications on it. You know I actually like it and he's paying for the bill for 2 years so that's cool. He also treated me to a lovely dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Saturday the day after Christmas. That was nice too. Love that hotel. I got him a really nice tote bag for men. Handmade by a japanese craftsman. It's something he wanted and the bag is one that I almost bought for myself but was too expensive in my opinion. Perfect Christmas present though. He likes it and I like it so much I want to take it away from him. Just kidding. hehehe. It's that nice!
I received a nice gift box from my sister! That was a nice surprise! I got some decaf coffee from my mom. I sent my mother some dried persimmons and sweet potatoes. I had a hard time deciding for my sister and so decided to save it for New years. We don't exchange gifts in Japan during Christmas anyway and celebrate New Year's Day more. I will get her something nice then.
So all in all, I did have a nice Christmas albeit with a few bumps along the way. Sounds like life doesnt it?
