julian has been back in singapore for three days, and i went out to robertson quay to meet him last night. he'd been having dinner at en bar with yen, choonping, (who tried to intercept me on my way to hug julian, but i manage to swat his arm out of the way to get to julian. admittedly i haven't seen choonping for months but surely julian was meant to be the star of last night's outing?) su-lin and jianyi. they'd migrated to canale for desserts, found no tables free, but discovered a full-blown 4/11 gathering. at least, at their table there were: adoree, chelvin and shaoling, not to mention cindy and xinyi, (cindy, xinyi and me, to each other: "what, you again!") and five of twenty is a fair portion? julian: hello, you have done something to your hair! you look like...like that actress. me, glaring: don't say if it's uncomplimentary! julian: ...uma thurman in that movie. (i think he means pulp fiction; i haven't decided yet whether he means it in an unflattering way.) choonping: no, you look like you teach chinese. ah well. despite a good lemon curd tart the last time i visited, i think i've quite definitely gone off canale. it is overpriced and the cakes aren't especially good.(we should have gone to ricciotti, says julian.) newsflash: julian has bought a house in philly! this is clearly a case of vimes' boots, as von was explaining to me a few weeks ago. also, much retelling of scurrilous stories about su-lin and the hole punch and the history notes, and of pizza consumption in cambodia. reminder to self, because i'd forgotten until i helped myself to it last night: julian's elbow (not to be confused with the vimes elbow: werewolves, for the discouragement of) is of a completely unacceptable standard. do not take it, not even to get your heels out of grilles over drains.

oh! and i just realised it's indigNation 2007 this week and next. wear lots of pink, people!

to be continued. i am out of the door now. poach, cindy and i are going to see tan pin pin's new documentary, invisible cities (although i prefer the chinese title, bei wang lu i.e. memorandum - catchier and doesn't echo calvino) this evening and i want to return some library books before that as well.