My Christmas holiday starts!!!!! I don't have to go back to work until December 29th, which is more than a week from now!

So, my holiday starts with going to the movie theatre with my friend this evening. We went to see New Moon. Yes, I saw the movie already. I hadn't seen the same movie at the movie theatre twice since Titanic. But call me crazy if you will, I always know that that I would see that movie at least twice in the movie theatre. Now I just have done that, so I have to keep myself sane until the DVD comes out (ha!). Some time during the weekend, I'm hoping to catch Coco avant Chanel with my sister. And then some time next week, me and the same friend will meet again for Up in the Air. If I'll truly have nothing to do, I might try to squeeze in An Education. I'll see. :)

I also have plan to read Martin Amis's London Fields during the week off from work. Last year, I read George Orwell's 1984 during my Christmas/New Year week off, and I would like to do the same this year. But judging by my movie plan I don't know how much time I could devote on the book! I'll try my best.

Last but not least, I determine not to think about work stuff until December 29th. I'll see how successful I could be.

The office Christmas party was last night. The dress code for this year, according to the e-mail, was "business casual".

So, I showed up wearing my sweater and my trousers. But I saw majority of women there showed up wearing nice party dress and with their hair done.

Ok, I was naive.

I talked to someone this morning about my "embarrassment", and I complained that the term "business casual" was misleading. Finally, someone told me that this country was "sexist" and I should have showed up wearing something nice. He said, after all, the term "business casual" only implied to the guys that they didn't have to rent a set of tux. For women, however, they should still play it safe.

At the beginning, I was happy to see the term "business casual". I was happy that I didn't have to dress up. I like to dress nice, but apparently I don't like to dress up.

Today as I was filling up the gas tank of my car, I checked the meters and found out that since the last time I filled up the gas tank, I spent an average of 10.7L of gas to get my car moved itself for 100km.

That sucks! I'm driving a Toyota Corolla for the love of God! A small car according to the North American standard! The car's manual says the fuel consumption rating for my car is 7.6L/100km in the city. Before the bus driver's strike began and before I was forced to drive to work, my car continually beat that rating. Not any more. I have to wonder how much gas was burn because of the traffic jam that I got myself into every day.

And then, as the weather gets colder the car would burn more gas, too. The number will get worse.

Seriously, when the strike will end?

There's no end in sight for the strike.

Today, I called my auto insurance provider and told the rep that I would be driving to work. My old policy indicated that I didn't drive to work; therefore, if I get involved in an accident while driving to work, the insurance company had the right not to make a payment. The rep updated my policy to note that now I would drive to work, and that I would have to pay an extra of $8 per month for auto insurance.

On the other hand, judging by the distance I have to drive to work and by the current gas price, I would need to spend some $10-$15 per month for gas for going to work.

Currently, I have a free parking spot (I park behind my boss's house; he lives a few blocks away from the office). But if the situation continues I should offer parking fee?

And then I'll have to take the car into a garage for oil change more frequently.

If I continue to get a free parking spot, it would be cheaper to drive to downtown. Without a parking fee, I pay about $30 per month for driving to work. But the cost of a monthly parking pass in downtown could be anywhere from $70 to $120! While I pay $69 for a monthly bus pass.

It would be pretty hypocritical for me to talk about the effect to the environment in driving to work. If I'm so care about the environment I shouldn't have bought a car at all.

Anyways, it was alright during the first week of strike. But this week is a different story for me. I think it's because I take what most people would consider as the alternate route to enter downtown. Not too many cars took that route during the first week, but this week it seems that everyone is taking that route! And those stop signs don't help at all! I start to ask the amount of gas we burn while we idle our cars. Perhaps I should try entering downtown via the main route tomorrow.

The weather has been cooperating so far. This time last year we already got snow! Right now it's about 8 degrees outside. Some people can still bike and walk to places. Those who are really affected by the strike and couldn't get help from their friends and neighbours mainly are those who are normally being marginalized by the society (in fact, I'm still quite surprised that no one talks about car-pooling to work because of the strike; majority of my coworkers drive to work anyway). I feel sorry for these poor people.

Meanwhile, the bus drivers don't get the kind of sympathies I suppose they are looking for. Too many people in my hometown have access to vehicles as an alternate way to travel.

Not sure how it's going to end.

I SAW NEW MOON THIS EVENING. OME!!!! THAT CLIFFHANGER!!!!

(So I'm not spoiling anything here.)

(Oh... watching Rob Pattinson playing Tyler on the big screen in the Remember Me movie trailer was good too!)