lovely moments of human connection

Pat, the cleaning lady who tidies up the part of the department, which includes my little office, surprised me by wishing me "Gong Hay Fat Choy!" on Thursday. i didn't expect many people to know but she was so sweet to say that! she thought i might have taken a few days off! i wish i could....! i suppose i can if i wanted to but i had such a long X'mas break in Germany....so it'd be really cheeky if i did have another break!

later that evening, Ruth and Ruthbuth came over to celebrate Chinese New Year's with me. i thought it was such a lovely gesture that they did. we had a fusion-sort of miso veggie-seaweed soup and some rice noodles (mee sua) with a stir-fried tofu, spinach and dried mushroom sauce and we had mini (Spanish) mandarins with Quark (soft cheese which is commonly consumed in the continent and hardly anywhere else, but i found it at Safeway....which i thought was quite a surprise) for dessert! it was simple but beautiful....i only wished i had some of mummy's amazing Kuey Lapis to share...but i had some of that when mummy and papa came to visit in Dec. so i shouldn't moan. :c)

yesterday, i popped over to Ruthbuth's after visiting the bike shop to have my dynamo lowered a little so that it doesn't make that horribly loud noise when i use it... it was good fun to see her flatmates again, i tried to explain to Franella what i am trying to do in my PhD?it was difficult but we managed to come to a common understanding of the complicated theories which was a relief! .... and it was lovely to be invited to stay for dinner which was a scrumptious pasta-veggie casserole and lots of interesting discussions ranging from our opinions of festivities, struggling to be disciplined in our respective postgraduate courses, why most Scottish people rather leave home than stay, and also sharing with them my interesting letter-writing friendship with Uncle Albert and Auntie Helena?. it's lovely to know that you have friends about that you could always pop in to say hello!