between the early start of the christmas weekend and now, i have

• learnt to make crackling
• cooked boxing day dinner for 10
• using my new favourite kitchen toy, a mezzaluna
• tramped around in 6inches of pure white snow
• helped to make a snowman for the first time in my life
• spoken to my parents twice in a week (a record!)
• and also to every other member of my nuclear family for the first time in months
• apart from actual sleeping, spent the equivalent of 3 days lying in bed watching teevee or reading
• watched the whole of season 1 of M*A*S*H on dvd
• watched most of season 1 of Northern Exposure on videotape
• read ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ by Haruki Murakami
• and also ‘Snobs’ by Julian Fellowes
• and am halfway through ‘Anansi Boys’ by Neil Gaiman
• played Murder Mystery on New Year’s Eve
• following which learnt that red wine, brandy and cava are NOT a good mix
• but wintermelon, carrots, onions and split red lentils are brilliant together for soup, especially because my wisdom tooth is cutting my gums and the inside of my cheek
• smoked the last of my duty-free cigarettes
• amongst various other things…

and so here are the things i ought to do in 2006

• graduate from university with sufficient enough honours
• completely remove gluten from my diet
• make more long distance calls
• have fun with the best friend when he moves to london in february
• introduce best friend to everyone
• move house/flat to somewhere in east london
• travel around england and wales more
• return to singapore sometime or other for a visit
• learn how to plant/garden in containers
• get to know more people, especially people i like
• stop smoking, or at least restrict it to social occasions
• make better use of my library membership
• learn how to negotiate with landlords and lettings agents
• cycle as much as possible
• be less critical and dismissive of my fellow humans
• oh, and of course single-handedly eradicate poverty and conflict, correct climate change, revoke all laws restricting freedom of information and speech and expression and/or only allow the narrowest interpretations of ‘national interest’ or ‘national security’, and become the first female prime minister of singapore - well, we can dream, can’t we?

hope the last week has been as gluttonous and slothful and as filled with alcohol and bad behaviour as mine has been.

onwards ho!