i fear max brenner at the esplanade is too quickly becoming a late night fixture for all of us. was there again last night with addy, yen and su-lin, after seeing the passion of st joan. which really shouldn't be in a frivolous entry about hot chocolate, so i won't write about that yet.

now that the fullerton chocolate is no more we're cramming into max brenner instead. (is fullerton really no more? su-lin says her sister rang them up and they said so.) i thought of having a chocolate shot, but was very much gratified by my final choice - a drink of dark chocolate with orchid oil. not over-creamy, not too much milk, and the floral-scented aftertaste seems to bring out the compelling bitterness of the dark chocolate. just as we had settled down choonping and julian called to find out where we were, and swooped down on us from orchard ten minutes later, followed, an hour later, by jianyi. i was surprised the two of them were still in town. i'd gone, in the early afternoon, to see home run, the new jack neo movie, with them, and watching a funny movie can only be made funnier with choonping's running commentary. at one point, when the little girl was standing on a chair doing sums on the blackboard, i complained, "chey, never pay attention also get full marks meh?" and cp said "must be humanz lah" and julian burst out laughing. okay you had to be there.

[oh, and about homerun, i quite liked it! i think the reviewers have been too harsh. sure it was slapstick at times, which jack neo movie isn't? and parts of it were overly sentimental-moralising, and of course the allusions to the malaysian water dispute are too blatant. but i don't think we should be expecting it to be some kind of international art house movie. it's good on its own terms, and better than the earlier jack neo movies. julian pointed out the cinematography was really quite good. the children were very endearing - the simple charm of a child's logic and all the aww moments and kampung days. and it really is rather funny!]

i suppose i most love these humanz outings. they're the happiest days, and they're the ones, as i've said before, that don't get journalled and can't be reproduced. you had to be there. julian with his well-timed, well-chosen bursts of song that always put the finger on the right issue. choonping saying: "that was a lovely conversation, okay let's have another one" addy on the mindef written test which she managed in 10minutes. julian and i exchanging books and book recommendations (i'm sending everyone to the eyre affair.) yen and addy poking fun at the civil service. jianyi and choonping expounding on the relative merits of each ministry or stat board's location. choonping brought back my saki, an occasion that ranks amongst rarities of rarity. choonping with yorkshire tales of scandals involving vicar's sons. (if choonping features more in this account it's because i was on his end of the table, and anyway choonping makes himself very much present in any gathering. *bleah* )

by the way, ballet under the stars is this weekend. are we going as usual? jianyi says we can measure the years by how many b.u.t.s-es we've gone to, and that starts us on the one-third gone statisticagain. gah i miss rj days. we need a huge humanz party. 1b is having a class party soon, zak and alfoo appear to be organising one at usha's, although addy also offers her house. alfoo says to bring things that remind us of jc. hm. i could bring my school tie and some evans-graded essays with really sarcastic comments. hey and does anyone have the 1b class poem that usha wrote? fwd it me. kam sia.