dad came home from church and into my room just before 7 in the morning saying, hey, midnight curry? midnight curry? if you want any, we've to go now. immediately i abandon von who had been just about to tell me about the m.f.k. fisher papers he had obtained permission to view and was down the stairs in 3 bounds. i haven't tasted this for at least 9 years, even though it's just down upp serangoon road, a mere 3 bus stops from jalan naung. they only start business at midnight and close at about 7 in the morning. you can't get me to wake up before 7, and though i'm frequently awake till 2 or 3 the parents want to go to sleep then. yeenteck and i tried to go once, this past june, at 2am, but the crowd was so great and there was no place to park. they're still open when i passed them this morning, dad said, come quick now. we get caught in a flurry of vehicles on the road divider while 4 buses pass us by. time was passing us. dived into the shop in time though not much food was left - thick gooey hainanese curry rice with *oof* unbelievable porkchops and steamed cabbage and dau kua - so damn bloody good you have no idea. i have forgotten to accredit the hainanese with curry rice. i have decided to get up at 6 and go at least twice more before i go back to school.

went to woodlands library yesterday, and now all my library card spaces are full. started penelope fitzgerald's innocence, while standing on the mrt from woodlands to tanah merah, which is a rather long way to have to stand! also got a pair of shoes at charles and keith, at causeway point while waiting for the library to open. woodlands library has a LOT of books, but it's chronically disorganised. finding a book there is almost as much a matter of patience and serendipity as is finding a book you want in a secondhand bookshop. it's roughly alphabetical, no doubt, but you know the copy of julian barnes you really want is sandwiched between two W authors, and that you'll much sooner come to SAY than SAC, even though the shelf says SAF.

had popiah at an aunt's house at changi in the evening. good spread of ingredients! crab meat and salted fish bits and stuff my mater doesn't usually put in hers. but i still think my mater's popiah tastes better! popiah is a lot of trouble to make, and if we didn't have a maid to help with the grating and chopping my mom would never make it, i think. i should learn to do it properly before it shi1 chuan2 or something. but i'll need lots of offspring before i'll consider it - then i will set one to chop turnip and one to chop dau kua...