Wow this few days have been quite busy. Hah not as in the i-need-to-hand-in-my-essay way though. So that's good.

Yesterday was rather hectic cos Pohning's French flatmate, Celine, invited us for crepes in the afternoon... and some of her friends too. And we readily agreed to help her make the crepes, so fun! But there were other things to be done, like Poot had to get her laundry done since she's leaving soon... and I had to help her carry them down to Shackleton cos the laundrette there is bigger. And after that, we came back and helped Celine mix the crepe mixtures for a little while. Then I had to go over to Shuying's place, cos she cooked things and invited people over (on the day she was flying!). Plus I owed her money and I wanted to return it to her before she goes back. Then I went with Poot back to collect her laundry... and then I went back to get some things from Shuying, like left over potatoes, onions, cucumber etc. Oh ya, and a banana... cos I was telling her I haven't eaten any bananas since I came here cos it's quite ex. So she was determined to keep one for me... from the bunch that she bought from the open market, where it's cheaper.

After that, I went back to Poot's/Celine's... where they had started cooking the crepes and some of their flatmates and their friends were there. Oh and one of Celine's friends. Now I can see what Poot meant when she told me that when they cook dinner, the British flatmates would just sort of talk among themselves so Poot and Celine usually talk to each other. Cos even if they tried to make small talk with the Brits they would feel so awkward and excluded. Cos Celine's French friend was sitting at the table with the flatmates, and they just kept talking among themselves. Oh wells. I guess it's actually normal la. I mean, if one foreigner sits among a table of Singaporeans it's quite likely that everyone will talk among themselves and not talk to the foreigner also right. Even Celine said that her friends all happen to be international students cos since we're in UK, of course the Brits will mix together and in France she would do the same as well.

Anyways, back to the story. So... after some time more of Celine's friends arrived. In total there were two French guys, one German guy, a Taiwanese couple and Poot and me. And Celine of course. Later the flatmates and their friends left the kitchen and the rest of us were just chilling and talking. I can't believe it, we managed to do this until like seven plus!!!! And the main topic was actually movies. Me and Poot, and I suppose the Taiwanese as well, were a bit diao with the German guy cos he kept like having the impression that we're from China. Just because we look Chinese. As in, he kept slipping when he said things. Like, blah blah blah so is it also like that in China? Then like all of us will be like... ermz... speechless... then Celine would be like, they're from Taiwan and Singapore. But then the conversation will usually just like steer in another direction. But then I don't actually blame him la. I guess it's a slip of tongue cos we all look Chinese to them. Like if you asked me to identify a French, German and Brit without letting them speak, I'd probably not know the difference too.

After Celine's friends left, the three of us started clearing up the kitchen. Hmmz... teamwork really makes the chores get done faster and less boring. And me and poot wanted to cook dinner for Celine. We cooked fried rice with mushroom and chicken, baked potatoes, stir-fried wu gui dou ['tortoise' bean??? haha they call it fine beans here] with mushroom and chilli, and soup from the chicken bones, onions and carrots. We sorta overcooked by a lot. Cos potato, plus rice... super filling! And we cooked super a lot of rice too. I already ate like triple my normal portion for that dinner, and in the end there was enough food left maybe like for two meals. And the whole pot of soup was untouched cos by the time the three of us finished eating a lot of the food, we had no space left for the soup. Bleargh. Me and Poot ta pau-ed half of the left over food each, and I was left with the whole pot of soup. Celine was like, 'Happy New Year Jessica!' And we all burst out laughing. Heh... I was telling Poot I can drink ten servings of soup for ten dinners from that pot. I think I'd probably be sick of onions by the end of that.

And guess what time we ate our dinner? Nine. Cos we took one hour to cook everything. Yes... one hour. Actually ok la, that's about the same amount of time I take to cook a proper meal back in Singapore too. Just that here it's much easier. 'Aiya, sui bian la, just everything dump into the rice cooker and eat lor. No time! Need to do essay!' Hahahaha. Wells by the time we finished eating and cleaning up everything it was eleven plus. I think? Then I went back to my flat to borrow the vacuum cleaner (or hoover, as they call it here) for Poot and Celine, cos their flatmates somehow threw away the bag of their flat's vc cos it was very dirty. We were like huh... so where are we supposed to get another bag from? And Celine was leaving this afternoon so she really wanted to get her room vacuumed by yesterday. By the time they finished with the vacuum it and came up to return it, it was past twelve. Actually it was quite convenient, since their flatmates were at the flat next to theirs for Christmas dinner/party. Which started at nine.

This morning, me and Poot were actually supposed to meet downstairs as usual at 8.30 so that Poot could go for the Psychology lecture at 9. Ya la, I haven't gone for Psychology since the first lecture. But whatever. Both of us ended up oversleeping! I suddenly woke up and when I looked at the clock, it was like 8.35 or something. I quicky called Poot on her handphone cos I thought she'd be like waiting for me downstairs. But it turned out that she was woken up by my call. Hahahah we were damn comical. Cos Poot was doing last minute tidying up and packing and stuff last night, and also doing a write-up for her studio composition which she was going to hand in today. So she slept at three in the morning... aiyo poor thing. Apparently she wanted to call me at two but she thought she better not. Hahahah. In the end we went to school quite late to hand in her studio. And yada yada...

Then we took a bus down to the city. Yay! We went kai kai-ing! Hahahahah. I think I'm becoming crazy under Poot's influence leh. How... someone save me. Yepz, anyway, it was really fun cos finally we could (window)-shop to our hearts' content without the thought of some assignment lurking in the corner of our minds. Lots of nice clothes in H&M... hah but then, no money. I settled for some Primark stuff, like track pants for me to wear in my room... I've been wearing knee-length shors and actually it's not really cold. It's only cold when I go into the kitchen. And anyway I decided not to make my flatmates too disgusted with my hairy legs by wearing something long. Hahahaha.

One bad thing about shopping today was that, there was time constraint. Cos my flatmates were doing Christmas dinner tonight and they invited me and of cos I told them I'd be there. But I forgot that I'd be babysitting. So I decided that I'd just cook baked potatoes for them and like leave it in the oven and leave them a note before I go off. So I had to be back quite early. In the end, just as I was adding herbs and salt and oil to the potatoes before baking, my flatmates came back from Tesco's with chicken etc. So I told them I'm not going to be able to make it yada yada. And I think maybe cos I haven't really joined them for anything since start of term, they weren't really surprised. But they were like, 'oh you shouldn't have done the potatoes'. But then I felt bad cos I told them I'd be there yet I pang seh. Haha. When I came back home they had slotted a card under my room door.