i met an old friend online today - sven - whom i'd known back in first year, but who went back to france after that. we used to icq a bit, although we'd lost touch since i lost track of his last email address and he switched to msn which i almost never use, in fact never. he was back here to visit last october, when he was doing a semester at penn, and that time we went to the farmers' market and then had breakfast together at higher grounds, and that was the last time we'd seen each other, i think. we'd talked vaguely of me going to paris to visit him over christmas break, when i was on my london trip, but the train ticket was too expensive, and as it was, christmas at york was one of the best christmases in my memory

[i'll always remember the dinner that choonping, su-lin, von and i had in the kitchen of choonping's hall - unduckable sling shots of jokes and insults and school memories - we all laughed so hard i thought one of us would have to be rushed to hospital anytime now, and of course choonping's famous (and perfect, i do swear) turkey dinner must be advertised far and wide. and by god we ate that night - yorkshire pudding and apricot-walnut rice and a turkey of enormous proportions that with sufficient backswing is quite certain to damage you on contact. and two kinds of su-lin's famous cookies, and brownies, and plenty of dessert.]

but sven. someone told me he'd switched to msn, and i added him, but what with the france-us time difference and the times that we're usually on we've never bumped into each other. and anyway, i almost never go on msn, what with icq and aim it was too much of a hassle. (i should probably get trillian - although people tell me it crashes all the time) it was really when i accidentally clicked on the icon this afternoon that i saw him online. i'm terribly glad. if sars clears up all over asia by the end of the year i'd love it if he could come visit singapore.