Last Wednesday.

What a good day today.. :)

Woke up pretty early, around 8am.. Checked on the marinated meat.. all turning out nicely.. :) Went grocery shopping again.. bought drinks and some ingredient for tomorrow.. Didn't do much packing today.. Had some toasted baguette for breakfast..

Stayed in the kitchen the whole day and made some good progress today.. Started preparing for dinner around 12pm.. as I worried that I might be overwhelmed later.. but on hindsight, I was too "Kiasu".. I had everything under control, actually.. Just need to be more confident about my own estimation next time..

First, the prawn fritters... Cut some carrots in thin strips and diced some onions, then I made the batter for the fritters using just flour, water and an egg.. Of course, some prawns too.. and here is the end product..
After finish frying the prawn fritters, I started cooking my stew pork too.. Had it on the burner for more than 4 hours..

Then around 2pm, Christy moved in.. with all her stuff.. helped her carried some of the stuff up her room and showed her all my empty cupboards around the house.. then it was back to my scanning.. and Face-booking.. :p

Chua and Jeff was on time.. was here 6:30pm sharp.. :) then Seow Hui arrived.. then Erick.. Nadia was held up.. but everyone just chat and joke while waiting for her.. at the same time I did my last dish, Mixed vegetables with Hoisin sauce.. had to cook rice twice, since I no longer have that big rice cooker.. and with the other two dishes (stew pork and steamed egg with minced meat) prepared earlier, not including my prawn fritters.. When Nadia arrived around 15min after 7pm, everyone just digged in.. luckily no one complained about the meal.... :) They ate up almost everything!

After the meal, I brought out the last quarter bottle of Ume-shu and Watanabe-san took out his home-made Ume-shu.. Then Watanabe-san gave us some expensive grapes for dessert.. They were sooo sweet... Then Christy came back and brought out some mooncakes.. again, everyone ate them all up, almost all... :p For once, no one actually want to eat the cake that Erick bought.. :p :p :p

Seow Hui had to leave around 9pm as she leaves about 2 hours away.. but the rest stayed back and chatted till almost 10:30pm.. As usual, we talked, joked and laughed.. Gonna miss these kind of sessions in future.. :(

Frankly, towards the end, I just kept quiet and try to savor this last gathering.. I did feel the sadness.. although I can't really put a finger as to the exact reason why I was sad.. I think the human factor out-weights the environment change factor.. Although I didn't hang out with them very often in the first 2 years, but ever since I came and stayed in this house, I hang-out more with them because of Aishah and Sarah.. I realised that I am not THAT old.. :p I can still "click" or "connect" with them, when they are between 4 to 10 years younger than me...

Thanks guys and gals for the wonderful memories.. Stay in touch via FB, ok?!?!