had lunch with my parents at orchard hotel today and then went to tanglin shopping centre to the only shop where my mother and i can manage to shop together in agreement. a small boutique run by a woman called winnie shin who does beautiful linen clothing. bought a black wrap skirt with ivory contrast stitching, slim black pants with side drawstrings, a sleeveless white v-neck biased-cut top, and a loose, dark greyish-brown blouse with mandarin collar and beautiful silk-knot buttons. went to tangs afterwards so my mother can buy a thermal flask and a new glass teapot and some ba1bao3 cha2 ingredients. also went over to the ymca to register for a ballet class - it's supposed to start next week, but it's been postponed to july 21. i wonder if, in the meantime, i should take a class at dance arts at specialist centre instead. that one, i recall, was very demanding though (i felt like jelly after my first lesson) and i wanted to start slow. perhaps i could take something at the hougang cc as my parents suggested. yoga perhaps, or malay, or lindyhop. was in a hurry to get home afterwards, because jared was driving over to collect his key and return a book. he's going back to charlottesville tonight - wish i were going too! jared, when he came, was very tanned - he'd just got his boating licence and has been out diving all weekend. he'd asked if i wanted to go with his family yesterday, they were taking the boat out to pulau hantu and doing some diving, and my heart leapt at the idea of being out in a boat (thanks to joel, who was the person who'd first taken me - back when we were in jc! i thought i wouldn't like it but i did, but nowadays joel can't be bugged to take me *meaningful look*) - but scuba-diving - i guess not. i don't even like to swim. (not a phobia, although i'd much much rather not) so i had to say no thanks. all in all, i was happy to be home though, saving kittens and kacheowing my parents take a lot of energy and can keep you very busy.