it's three in the morning and i'm eating bread with more nutella than can possibly be good for any human being. minyin and i went to amoy street in the blazing sun at noon determined to be nuisances for the afternoon only to find that big apple has moved again, now to tampines (from bukit timah, to serangoon gardens, to amoy street, and now tampines. help lah. a restaurant has no right to be so damn peripatetic) and i steer us to neil road instead for guotie. (steer is probably inaccurate.) i submit that this neil road place makes some of the best guoties and xiao long baos in singapore. the guoties come piping hot with skins just thick enough to provide texture and crisp enough to crackle in your mouth, and the filling is of chives and minced pork. their xiaolong baos are aromatic pouches of steamed meat and the clear soup within is an fresh sweet juice. also shared a lotus paste guobing. very gratifying. afterwards we trot to tea chapter and spent three hours sipping oolong, peeling tea eggs and pondering tangyuan fillings. it rained at 3, which was a relief. the weather hasn't been all that bad these last few days, surprisingly. which means i might get my hair cut. i hadn't wanted to when i first got home, though i badly need one, because long hair can be bundled off the the neck, but short would get all over your face getting you hot and bothered in this weather. i might now, if this mildness keeps up. (only 86F today, that's practically nothing)

met with tjan at newton afterwards, and my phone died on me. i'm thoroughly fed up with it and anyway i've seen the phone i want so if all goes well i might be walking about with a new phone by saturday night (i wonder how long this nutella will last it's only been home one day and i've polished off a third of it). met tjan at newton mrt at 6.30 for makan at newton hawker centre. disappointing orh luah and terrible cai dao kueh (white) but satay was excellent. i wonder how to make ketupats. maybe zak's womenfolk can teach me. heh. downed some starfruit juice too and walked to town so that i can find a fourleaves or breadtalk. tjan has a hush-hush internship with mindef, and since it's hush-hush i can't say anything about it here, because he won't tell me anything. where he works, he would only divulge, "they massacre my reports like they're doing prac crit." teehee.