The day after Christmas is called Boxing Day. I first heard about it in New Zealand. I tried to google the topic and according to About.com apparently the concept originated in UK and Ireland when servants take a day off and masters give them Christmas Box. Servants who received presents also go home to their families and give christmas boxes themselves. Another view was that churches put in boxes to collect money for the poor on Christmas Day and is opened the next day. Still another idea was that of great sailing ships setting sail with a sealed box containing money on board for good luck. If the voyage is successful the box was given to the priest, opened on Christmas Day and I supposed to explain the following day to be boxing day gives the money to the poor.
To recall this is my 8th Boxing Day in New Zealand and for the first time I had joined the throng in its celebration. In here People say that prices of goods on sale are at its lowest and therefore shoppers take the opportunity to troop to the stores to get the best buy. On my first year of boxing day in 2006 I am not sure if the idea sinked in on me. I was only new then, had very limited resources and unsure of whether there was a job available for me soon enough and so I cannot be bothered. The next boxing days I guess I was at work and happy for the time and a half rate plus day in lieu. 26 December 2013-I am not working while awaiting the start of my next job, still with limited resources and faced with upcoming expenses for the move but this day I am particularly prompted by the urgency to fill the box to be sent home.
Rem and I drove to Dressmart early enough to get a park. We waited for about half an hour till the doors to the mall was opened and amazing it was, we were overwhelmed with the stream of shoppers moving in the stairs. It was early and we opted not to eat breakfast and running short of luck I happened to take in a big gasp of human odour as I managed to save Oxygen for my brain. I felt nauseated and fainting. We went straight to the shop we were aiming as we were not really there for a spree - personally I was only needing to get what was on my list to send to a few people. I can say, the price was no different from when it was a couple of days I visited the mall. Shortly we started to feel hypoglycaemic so we decided to get some sushi and headed back to our next target.
Awaiting home was the need to set the house flea free. We have been having flea bites lately and the sting was unbearable. We decided that on the first day when shops open we should get a flea bomb and we went home to do the job. While the smell of the chemical was strong we drove out for lunch to a Filipino restaurant. After a couple of hours we were too exhausted and decided to doze off. It was about 21:00 hours when I woke up and as I turned the light outside the house - the fuse in the main switch blew off. I felt upset as I was wanting to finish packing our stuff. I knew it was too late to be ringing for help and I supposed everyone must be tired. I decided to ring a friend who was in Australia who was two hours late than my time. I hoped to get some helpful instructions anyway I was too scared to touch anything in the fuse box. To alleviate my frustration I simply took the incident to say that I needed rest and must go back to sleep.
Post the Christmas activity, Rem was back to work and I was left to do my unfinished share of the chore. I am back to packing and loading the car. Seeing all these boxes my thoughts came back to the idea of Boxing Day. So for 2013, Boxing Day is all boxes for me. One box can qualify to the idea of the English Boxing Day late it may be; boxes of stuff to be put in the storage for Rem's use and boxes of my own stuff ready to go to Wellington. Indeed a load of new beginning is set for the next year.
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