so i go to chinatown with darryl and adrian and we stuff ourselves silly at dimsum but before that we get very much rained on. do you think boston rain is clean? i asked hopefully, having, i explained, just washed my hair that very morning, but the boys snort and i accept the rebuke. darryl says, it's like being in singapore! sudden showers! warm rain! but adrian and i point out that tropical architecture is designed for tropical climes, and if this were singapore, there would be a lot of void decks and mrt stations and covered walkways and at the very least, shops with awnings to duck under, whereas in temperate zones sudden downpours are just bad taste. but, darryl says, there must be some nostalgia value in all this. when was the last time you got drenched in the rain? he asked me. yesterday, i returned, this being something i felt sorely about, as any woman with a trolley full of boxes would be, when caught between home and post office. afterwards we decide to go walking in the northend and have coffee and gelato, only adrian and darryl are devoted to simon's. and then we all roamed home.