choonping was a lovely nuisance as usual. he had got out of work for the day on account of a spinal problem, and was in one of his pendulum moods, so that one moment he's uncooperatively and darkly reticent and the next he's sunnily and extensively sardonic. yesterday, at the baking party at su-lin's, he came to scrutinise my folding of egg whites into the hazelnut/butter mixture, and after a few pursed-lipped moments, and satisfied he'd seen all he needed to see, he said cheerfully: "oh well, thank god you have other not inconsiderable talents." *whoop* ah well, i never claimed to be a domestic goddess, you know. and the cake turned out pretty well, so i can't have screwed it up too much. of course, it's hard to screw anything up in su-lin's kitchen, supervised by the baking expert. i love being over at su-lin's. the afternoons are peaceful and idle, or else chattily inconsequential. i don't say it's not a long trek to bukit timah, but once there in the coolness of 48 coronation drive, you could, as i did, read childhood favourites, take a nap, read the newest installment on everyone's blogs, go downstairs again to meddle in su-lin's tuition session, (her tuition boy aspirates his words too much) saunter into the kitchen to steal cake, watch vcds, laze yet somemore, discuss the difference between victorian and elizabethan corsets, and the former's relation to the modern push-up bra with choonping while he ponders his new paedophilic direction and whether to take up greek, and generally plotting to make away with jude the green teddy bear and/or su-lin's cousins. su-lin and choonping make me laugh.