Housewarming

Good friends make life so much fun and enjoyable, and indeed that was how I felt on Saturday when I had my official housewarming party. A bit belated I guess, considering I moved into this new apartment five weeks ago). But it took me two weeks to get things settled and then the London assignment came up, so one thing after another, finally I set the date and sent out the invitation on Tuesday.

I started the party preparation in the morning, made two trips to the grocery store, getting the beer, liquor, snacks, paper cups and so on. And the birthday cake (two girls had their birthday on Friday so I decided to give them a little treat) was delivered around noon. By 4 pm, I got everything ready and got to relax a bit before the guests came. It was a bit strange feeling waiting for the guests, it is kind of like “now it is your party, see how it will turn out.” Even there are more than ten people confirmed coming, I was still a bit worried, there are always people who drop out at the last minute. But after the first group came, people turned up one after another, I finally ran out of all the glasses, even champagne glasses, wine glasses had been put into use. So paper cups, which are not my favorite, since they are against my environmental concerns and don’t look very elegant, had to be used as well. The party stretched quite long, started around 6pm, and the last group left around midnight. At the peak, we had around 16 people in my house. Everybody seemed to have a good time and liked my new apartment which certainly made me very happy. And the two girls who had their birthdays on Friday were both surprised to see the cake.

After the last guests left, I found out there were too many bottles of drinks from Vodka, Gin, Whisky to red wine, white wine, beer, juice and sodas. Gosh, almost enough for another party! Well, now the new is out that everybody knows that I am moving to London in two months, so there will be a going away party as well, but most likely will be in some bars, so people are more relaxed and could go wild if we want.

And to show my dedication to some fine and serious cooking, I have started cooking for myself this week, something I haven’t done for a long time. Actually, it was not that difficult and time consuming as I thought. On Sunday night, I cooked some shrimp, stir fried some veggies and steamed rice in the microwave, all in all it only took me forty minutes. And I had my first real dinner in my warm apartment, with some wine, quite enjoying myself. Well, for a minute, when I looked out of the window seeing all the city lights and looked around my nice new flat, I almost couldn’t believe that I am leaving so soon. I said to myself, Jenny, Jenny, Jenny, you are the girl always on the move. You can’t stand a life that is too easy and comfortable so that things get boring. Yes, I guess that is me, which I can’t change, and I probably don’t want to change either.

As of today (Tuesday), I have been eating cakes for breakfast every morning, well, the leftovers from the party does last quite a while. And I still have half of the chocolate cake （a friend brought for the party.）in my refrigerator. And as a new habit, I have a little drink before I go to sleep every night, anything from wine, Vodka cranberry juice to some sweet stuff like bailey. Not a bad treat for the cold winter days in Beijing. From last weekend, the harsh winter is hitting us in full force. My face just goes numb after ten minutes exposed outside.