Well, as many of you may have seen from previous posts on this blog, I am a bit of a fan of the spicy dipping hotpots that are so popular in Beijing and am often found lurking in many of the local restaurants that are dotted all over the place. However, as all the Chinese will tell you, nothing is better than cooking up your own hotpot at home.
Hence, due to the rather cold weather we have been experiencing lately, I headed down to the Gome shop (a bit like Comet) today and purchased my very own electric hotpot cooker. Me and Siqi washed and chopped veggies and plenty of tofu and meat this afternoon and then cooked up an extra spicy stock and dipped away to our heart’s (and stomach’s) content. Absolutely delicous.
Have a look at the photos, I reckon 10 out of 10 for presentation 
First of all, I would like to apologise for my poor communication skills recently! I have been very busy moving out of my old student accommodation and into my own apartment here in Beijing and have had very little time to send emails, make phone calls or get on the internet. If you have sent me an email or a Facebook message and I have not replied, please be patient… I will get back to you.
Anyway, I’m finally here in my new apartment. Things are starting to slot into place and theres not much left to buy now. Broadband internet arrived a couple of days ago and in less than a week I will have my own computer and wireless access throughout the house. After that, there are really no excuses for me not getting in touch with all of you back at home.
The apartment is newly refurbished and has a kitchen, shower room, entrance hall, sitting room, bedroom and balcony. It is about a 10 minute walk away from the university and the owners live on the same floor in the flat opposite. They are an elderly couple but have been a great help and often invite me around for food or take me to the market to help me haggle down to the lowest prices possible! They also have a lovely little dog which I can take for walkies whenever I go out
The kitchen has to be my favourite part - it has real chinese style gas hobs which put gas hobs in England to shame (they are huge!) which means some proper stir frying business! Since I have moved in I have cooked pretty much every day and haven’t been to restaurants at all! The living room also has a sofa-bed (if you are passing by Beijing then feel free to come and stay) which is handy for guests. After a couple of trips to Ikea and some Chinese markets its starting to look nice and has most of the basics I need to get by. I think by the end of this week I should be able to properly settle down and then start to think about what I intend to do with the remaining winter holiday (we start our studies again in March).
I’ll leave you with some photos - which will fill you in much better than all the waffle above. Have a look for yourselves, it would be nice to hear what you think. The blog has a comment system and it is there to be used !!!!
Jono
