Christmas is five days past, but yesterday I felt a little Christmas spirit return. Without doubt, Joyeux Noel, or Merry Christmas in English, is one of the best films I've watched this year. It's a lovely, touching show set in World War 1. A little odd, yes, for a Christmas movie, but it's based on a true story, of how on Christmas Eve in 1914, several stretches along the French-German Front were at peace because the opposing soldiers held unofficial ceasefires. The movie simplifies this by focusing on one location of the truce. Parts of the film seem a little exaggerated and frankly, cheesy, but its overall effect leaves one with a sense of sentimentality and hope. And hey, I'm a sucker for world war films that are shot in German or French.

When I was in SAV on Wednesday, I realised that I didn't want to go back to school after all. That may sound strange to many school-hating people out there, but initially I was actually looking forward slightly to school because the holidays were getting rather dull and long. Truth be told, this seems to me to have been the longest stretch of holidaying I've ever had. All the past year-end breaks in secondary or primary school seemed too short. This one seemed almost too long. Now, it's not long enough.

I guess it was looking around at all the people present, people whom I am going to face next year, that made me realise my reluctance. I don't want to meet everybody again. Even the people I don't personally know. Maybe the best way to describe how I feel would be: I don't want to be immersed in the lifestyle and culture of school again. It would be lovely if I could just study with the people I like and hang out with, and if the whole campus belonged to just the few of us. Strangely, this isolationist sentiment just reminded me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. In fact, wouldn't it be great to walk down Orchard Road one day and find the streets deserted, and having the whole place to yourself? Ok, now I'm sounding morbid.

Work does not create satisfaction.