She is Mee Mee

She is Mee Mee and I am Nee Lee. Of course, she wasn't always Mee Mee to me. She was HK.

I moved into House No 12 - there were 7 of us in it. I first saw her in her room - this lovely, fair-skinned girl with a sunny disposition, She greeted me cheerfully in Cantonese, in which I am not fluent. Thank goodness we understood each other perfectly well in English.

Soon, I got close to this fun-loving, friendly girl, and we realised we shared a lot in common. For one, we both love to sing. We discovered we both used to record our favourite songs off the radio, and we both once kept a scrapbook of handwritten lyrics, copied down by listening to the songs repeatedly (yes, Google did not exist while we were growing up...) I remember I shared my prized possession with her - Herman's Hermits' My Sentimental Friend (which I actually requested a Radio 4 DJ to play, then recorded it on tape!) and she actually appreciated it - not many people her age would, I expect! I also remember we used to study for final exams together, while listening to the radio - we'd play both our radios, tuned to the same station, 1 in front of us, 1 behind, to achieve that "surround sound" effect (gosh... weren't we cute?! *blwekkkk*) And then there were the crazy times, the teary times, all those choir singing, and the mango-on-the-way-to-and-on-the-way-back-from-pasar-malam incident!

The following two years in the hostel were, I believe, one of the best times of our lives - for the 3 of us: HK, C and me. Other than being obsessed with The Sims, we shared laughter and tears, reflections and contemplations, instant noodles and late-night suppers. In the course of that time, HK became Mee Mee, C became Bee Ree, and I - Nee Lee. And, in accordance to the "ee" naming convention, we became the roomees instead of roomies (or roommies, as Mee Mee always insisted).

It is hard to characterize liking, and I am unable to detail the reasons I like Mee Mee so much, or the ways in which we clicked so well. I cannot make a list of our favourite topics for conversation, or how we can talk for hours and never run out of things to talk about. I cannot justify my want to tell her so many things, and my interest in listening to whatever she wants to tell me. I cannot explain how we seem to be able to read each other's minds sometimes, and somehow managed say the same things at the same time. It is the miracle of friendship. Both Bee Ree and I agreed, that being roomees, we know each other so well that we do not see each other's flaws anymore - our friendship is so strong it binds us and blinds us.

She will be married soon, our Mee Mee, and I am compelled to write this little bit about her, about us roomees and about the great times we had (are still having, and hopefully will continue to have for as long as we shall live!). Here's to your happily ever after! :)