Home Sweet Home!

2000 > England

I never knew how much women loved to cook, but only at home

Aww.. my little Chinese peasant girl
Cooking up a storm of steam
The best in streetside cell phone sales
The corner cell phone dealer
I’m here in the kitchen, watching
Jingmei cook up a storm and I couldn’t be happier. Yes, I do enjoy her
cooking, for she is an excellent chief just like her
mom, although that’s not what makes me the happiest. No, I am smiling
from ear to ear because Jingmei is cooking in my kitchen. After three
weeks and countless apartments, I’ve finally found a home.

Brixton is one of the sections of
London, south of the Thames, with a thriving and diverse community. In one
afternoon of wandering, Jingmei found herself a great Chinese grocery, I
found way too many pubs, and we both were happily lost in the energy of a
warm London neighborhood.

And a real neighborhood it is.
Just like Adams-Morgan in DC, Brixton has the best and worst of city
living, all in a few square miles. My closest neighbors are fine people;
passing tea and cooking oil over the low backyard fences while making us
feel like part of a family. I’d almost forgotten how fun real city living
can be after three years of apartment living in cold and distant lands.

I’d like to tell you about my
housemates, but both are off for a week in Ibiza, leaving Jingmei and I to
wander around the house and break things before they get back. The fact
that they’d trust us to live here before they got to know if we were
psycho killers or not says a great deal about how well we clicked when I
came to view the room.

Jingmei never did figure out why
we spent so much time just talking with the current occupants of each
house and apartment, I looked at. She doesn’t yet appreciate how crucial
it is to be in a house where everyone gets along. She never lived in the
crazy house Dave and I did
when I first moved to DC or the joe-cool
roomies I moved in with for the rest of my DC living dayz.

Now, with my stomach growling for
the delicious fish ball soup, fried snow peas, tofu, and chicken wing
dinner, I’m gonna stop typing and start eating this feast before me.