Just a min
(Korean curry: Glasgow, Scotland)
My current flatmates are a flighty bunch, never really around in the flat for communal activities, whereas I am a fairly constant feature in the daytime, glued to my desk, scrawling like a dervish. This morning, however, I went into the kitchen, pyjama clad, to wake myself with a hot mug of tea. There, in a whirl of steam and smoke was Min making his breakfast. He kindly invited me to share it with him and I was obviously quite delighted. He cooks breakfast daily; often noodles or curry or all manner of food I have to guess at from the residual cooking smells in the kitchen. This time it was Korean curry – which is very like the Japanese curry I occasionally make.
This chance culinary encounter offered us a chance to chat, which is something we very rarely have the chance to do. He is an architecture student; for anyone who knows the Glasgow School of Art course, they will realise he hardly has time to shower, let alone hang about in the kitchen on a Monday morning with his sleepy flatmate. The kitchen is my favourite room in this flat. If it’s a nice day, the sun positively streams in and floods the place with heat and light. I often work in there, at the kitchen table as it is a definite 5-10 degrees warmer than my north facing studio / room at any time of the year. On those occasions, I move my chair with the sun, creeping across the room to keep a patch of light on my back or legs. It’s a very pleasant feeling. I take these things for granted, being a freelancer. I imagine if I was to go into a ‘proper’ workplace again, I would find the lunch breaks too stringent, the offices too drab and the possibility of chatting in pyjamas, having a cooked lunch or catching some sun would be out of the question.
He’s leaving in June which is a shame as I felt we were just getting to know each other, but then again, living here this is what I have to get used to. Aside from the furnishings, I am the only consistent feature of this flat. It’s quite a responsibility when I have to find a new person to live with, as I’m not just inflicting them on myself but on another person as well! Luckily, I have never had a disaster. There was a man who came to look around who stayed for a long time and wouldn’t leave. I had to feign a phone call, but he was hanging around in the stairwell for another long while. Then there was the trembling guy who was definitely on drugs. But thankfully they both eventually left and I found different, saner people to occupy the rooms of my home.
Hopefully Min, Ishbel and I will have a chance to party before he leaves us. She is off gallivanting around the USA at the moment with a theatre production, so co-ordination is a tough call for us. Luckily, I got a superb Korean breakfast (with a mug of tea) and was able to catch up with Min’s busy life.
– Today Rosie is drawing and working on the big NHS project –
