Christmas Eve Watercooler
Hi all. This will be your Watercooler post for today. I've just got home from doing some last-minute shopping. Tomorrow will be partly spent with family and friends, and at the last minute I got worried that I might not have enough alcohol on hand. I always over-cater when I have guests, but the thought of being caught short as a host is unbearable. My fridge doesn't even have enough space for all the extra bottles.
When I went out in the four o'clock twilight, somehow I thought that by this stage on Christmas Eve, the supermarket might be near-empty, but no such luck. I could barely manouevre in and out of the car park because of all the loaded trolleys sailing majestically through it, and had to suffer a longer-than-usual exposure to tapes of cheesy Christmas records while waiting in the queue. I swear I'll explode if I ever have to hear David Bowie and Bing Crosby sing Little Drummer Boy again. Why didn't I take my iPod and noise reduction headphones with me? I could have been listening to Jeff Buckley's Grace, or something else that I want to hear (maybe Snow Patrol's latest?) - anything but piped muzak, even if it meant that I would get my toes run over by someone else's trolley because I wouldn't hear them saying "excuse me".
Driving home in the dark, I couldn't help thinking what I usually do at this time of year - I'm not too fond of the short days of this season, but the winter solstice has passed (December 21st), and from now on, our days in the northern hemisphere will be lengthening. Long before Christmas was celebrated as the birth of Christ, the Romans were marking the winter solstice with feasting and gift-giving (Saturnalia, honouring their God Of Agriculture), ancient Babylonians marked the feast of the Son of isis (the mother Goddess) and the pagans of northern Europe had their own solstice celebration, known as Yule (in honour of the pagan Sun God, Mithras). The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe, as some of us did at our virtual holday party a few days back, began with the pagans, for whom it was a fertility ritual. To me, it really feels natural at this time of year to symbolically mark a turning-point, whatever our exact beliefs or traditions may be. The thought of those lengthening days (not to mention that there are 26 days to go before the Australian Open begins, and only 11 days before the 2009 tennis calendar starts rolling, in Brisbane) always makes me feel at least a little optimistic.
Between Christmas and New Year, I'll be running a few more pictures of the TWibe's "Moments of 2008" in the tennis calendar, as we look back on the old year and see in the new one. I'll also be publishing the account of my Rafa Euro-Spectator Slam - it's not really about one player, but about the experience of following the ATP tour over an extended period.
Today's picture is a moment that was nominated by several people - Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka's Gold Medal win at the Olympics on 16th August. The colours here are just right for a late Christmas card. And talking of rituals - did anyone ever work out what Federer was doing with his hands here?
-- Rosangel Valenti