no stories about the kids this week, because they have gone to phuket until next week, but earlier last week they came over to look at the bats. sarah continues to read enid blyton (good girl! she has progressed to the five findouters!!)

i do like them - the famous fives are too active (i am allergic to outdoorsy books) and secret sevens are for much younger readers (also a team of seven detectives is unwieldy - i wonder they aren't always losing somebody) although i did get the idea of entry passwords from them when i was little. (i wonder if knock knock jokes derive from this tradition. swordfish!)

ariel has got a new haircut. my dad says he looks most dashing with his hair all tousled (with a little bit of gel) and in a button-down shirt. "what a nice haircut! lau-ku wants one like yours, but i haven't got much hair." me: what an understatement, pa! you haven't got any hair!

my pa is inexplicably proud of reaching sixty and receiving his senior citizen pass. he says he hasn't had to top up his ezlink for a week - he was so worried he went to the machine and had his trip record pulled up not once or twice but thrice - but found that at the reduced rates and with various senior rebates he's more than halved his transport spendings. ("wa wu senior citizen pass!" he tells all his friends. another friend, whipping out his wallet: "wa ma si wu!" they turn to a third: "luh wu bo?" "this september.")

you know what, i really have to practise speaking teochew when i get home - everything sounds so much funnier in teochew. i wonder what my dad will say if i offer to go to the clan association and take a beginner's conversation course in the old mother tongue.