tonight: went to dinner at serangoon gardens with julian and shaun wong, whom i don't think i have seen for ten years it must be. at the newly renovated chomp chomp we ordered chicken and mutton satay, orh luah, rojak, stingray, and julian criticised the way i pour beer, for a) not tilting the mug when i poured b) pouring too fast ("you're too impatient") so the foam surged over the rim c) overcompensating by pouring too little. the trick is to pour slowly and fill the mug, not to pour quickly and only half a mug just to keep the foam at a safe level, was the implied lecture. in fact, none of the above happened because as soon as i started to pour he hurriedly removed the bottle from my grasp. after that i meant to persuade all into a long walk in serangoon gardens, but it was severely truncated (the men turned back) so it was milo dinosaurs and ice kachang, and then to brown box for tea. julian and i go to the counter and both fought to take the bill with our cards, but the cashier said, only if we spent $20. so i look in my purse and put down a $10. she says: mumblemumble.35. so julian lays down another $5. she looks at us expectantly again and says: mumble mumble 35. somewhat confused, julian puts down another two, and again the stare and: mumble mumble 35: perplexed, i put down another $2, and she says, annoyed: mumble mumble $18.35!! whereupon we chorus, but that's $19 we gave you! and she looks down and counts the bills and says, oh! and gives us our change, and allows the waitress to serve up our teas and a hemisphere of blueberry-vanilla-oreo "bomb." julian declares that psychology is obviously not a science, tries to draw a duck, tells us we should all have the courage to write books, and then we got on different buses and went home.