i could not be dragged out of bed this morning, so the parents went to lunch with friends without me. the maid made up a lunch from yesterday's abundunt leftovers, and i asked von, who was at potong pasir, to come by for lunch because after all, he was in the vicinity and there's the nel. after lunch we adjourned to my room where i sat him by a new box of chocolate assortment. when von said to me that he was decimating my chocolates, i said cheerfully for him to help himself. much afterwards, however, i discovered that that was not a figure of speech but, in fact, a mathematically-correct statement. of the tenth of the box he left me, the tri-layered one was unscathed, which is good, because that is my favourite of the lot. the thing about a box of chocolate assortment is, the ones with dark chocolate always have the centres you don't want and the centres you do want come with milk or white. why anyone would eat milk or white chocolate is beyond me. dutch pirates, i am told, once raided a ship carrying a load of chocolate and threw everything overboard in disgust. which makes me reconsider my admiration for the dutch.