my pa doesn't go to movies often nowadays, but he depends on me to tell him the plots of interesting ones. at the last minute my mothe went to meet ju chi's flight herself, so i had some time before meeting su-lin at taka to see goodbye, lenin, which amused my pa very much when i described it to him tonight. there were about ten people in the cinema, unsurprising for a tuesday noon, of course, and i'm very pleased not to be in school or at work.

took ju chi to newton circus later that day for dinner: chili crab, otah, hokkien mee, kangkong, stingray, rojak, and a big plate of cockles (remembering the japanese ambassador) the rojak was a mistake, he didn't like it one bit, but the cockles were one of his old favourites. (we orderd a tray of them, pried the shells apart, extracted the cockles with toothpicks (they spilled murky black fluids onto our plates) and dipped them in lime and chili) like peanuts, ju chi said, addictive. the stingray was excellent, and i enjoyed the crab tremendously, but juchi liked the hokkien mee best, reminiscent of his nanyang u days. we took him to little india for nasi briyani the other day, something else he had enjoyed back in the 70s, but could seldom afford in those days, because the drumsticks cost so much. (he calls it indian curry rice with raisins) one day someone should write a book about food and poverty.