right. now i can die happy becos i've finally gone to opiume and it was lovely! xinyi, jiahui, poach and i were there, an rgs night out that was lacking addy, mingchen and cindy to begin with, then dwindled down further when su-lin was imprisoned by her tyrannical parents and xinyi had to leave for a play. this makes two nights in a row that i've been at empress place, which i love. i have only been there once when i was a child, and i don't remember what i saw there, only a memory of being there with my parents. it's re-opening as the second wing of the asian civilisation museum later this year, and i can't wait for that to happen. i've always liked the acm better than the other two. the history museum is old and mouldy, and if it's not careful it'll be like the beijing natural history museum in 20 years. my parents favour the art museum, because they both used to teach at sji. i like the sam too, it's a very beautiful and well-designed museum, but i do think the acm is really my own discovery. not a place that my parents brought me to, or the school herded you on a bus to go to. it opened when we were in jc, and i went one day because i was curious about it, so that that, and the memory of coming out of the old museum in the late afternoon with my parents make me look forward to being at this one.

jiahui, poach and i had dinner at siem reap ii today. i've been hounding people to go for weeks now, and though the food was quite good it was not all it was hyped to be. but good lah. i think the original siem reap at holland village might be better. poach had the southern vietnamese duck curry, jia and i had vermicelli (next time i'll do the laotian laksa). old fashioned vietnamese fans were turning slowly in the ceiling, and cambodian and laotian art (supplied from their own galleries?) on display. we went next door to bar opiume with its lovely low leather couches and view of the singapore river. like indochine waterfront, the bar is entirely glass-walled. we sat outside instead of in. tea lights at every table, and clusters of bamboo. xinyi came back at 10 after her play. i felt happy and comfortable to be there with them, laughing and wondering when xinyi will be the new prime minister of singapore, or poach the principal of rgs. hah! we left at 11.30 because jia has to work tomorrow, and xinyi and i wanted to catch our last bus. i can't get used to the idea that all my friends have got jobs already, or have jobs lined up for them, so that this time next year they'll all be gainfully employed and me? i don't want to think about that now. *head in sand* on the way back i thought about nooteboom's all souls day, and this scene in which the four friends, having met for drinks in berlin, move off in four directions at the end of the night, so their departing paths formed a cross in the snow. i thought it was strange and exciting and a little unreal, but i realised last night that poach was going back to bedok, jiahui was heading west, and xinyi and i going back north to serangoon. so maybe all parties split this way.