dinner at kitchener road with the first thursdays girls (yes, i do know today is tuesday. su-lin is going to bali this thursday. and in anycase, in the future we will be the first wednesdays club, because i can't do thursdays anymore. so that some nitpicking von-type doesn't say, eh but today isn't thursday!) at a heng wa restaurant (which addy, being half-hengwa, had proposed, although she says the waitstaff don't speak hengwa, so no opportunities for ingratiation there.) at one point of the dinner (the surreptitious birthday song) we all became nearly hysterical , but it's impossible to explain why, so i shan't try. you had to be there. i love you, girls, even if we're practically aunties.

consumed, in order of arrival at table: chrysanthemum tea, prawns in broth (in bamboo container), homestyle tofu, hengwa beehoon (peanuts, taukwa, lots of clams!), deep fried aubergines with bak hu, hengwa lor mee (bit too soupy for my liking), gulu rou, somewhat caramelised yam, grated gourd patty/pancake. there were also these fascinating bamboo clams that came in a hotplate. they were lightly sweet and juicy and firm and you dipped them in salt.

random:

cindy and i, passing menu to xinyi: we don't know how to pronounce this word.
xinyi: *laughs uncontrollably*
me: do YOU know how to pronounce it?
xinyi: ...no...
cindy and me: ah then! laugh so much for what!
xinyi: laughing because i don't know how to pronounce it.

~~

on addy's innumeracy:

me: she rang me up yesterday and said, i'm going to book the table. are we six or seven?
cindy: does she think she's two persons?
poach: minzhi was telling us that when we [addy, poach, cindy and i] roomed together at links you asked, who's the fourth person?
addy: you've been saving this up for years!

~~

on how the civil service uses a separate internal mailing system but the wrong information still gets into addy's mailbox with regularity:

addy: [hushhush department that i should not mention here] accidentally forwarded me a sensitive email and they had to call me to tell me not to read it!
me: why are you still here then? how come they haven't sent masked men to take you out?
addy: shut up!

~~

about going to swa garden with choonping and enjoying liver rolls:

addy: that's the first time i've liked liver. what's the dish, it's like ngohiang but has liver inside...
me: it's called kwa huey.
everyone: wah! so smart!
me: i'm half teochew of course i know what kwa huey is!
xinyi: i'm also half teochew and i don't know what this kwa thing is.

~~

su-lin removing a stubborn piece of plastic backing from cake:

xinyi: oh, well done su-lin!
su-lin: yes, it's my night for shining.

~~

on poach's deficient cake cutting skill

su-lin: you've cut it crooked!
poach: it's a round cake, how could i have cut it crooked?
su-lin: it's off centre - you've cut the chord, not the diameter
xinyi: wah. no wonder you got A1 for physics
cindy: hah? what have chords and diameters got to do with physics. [ add: rightly righteous. i've just remembered she's the only engineer of the party]
me: basic geometry can!
su-lin: it's e-maths what
someone: you got A1 for physics?
su-lin: yes.
me: what did you get for physics poach?
poach, vehemently: B3!
su-lin: aiyah, do you care? you didn't like physics what
poach: oh, and YOU did?!
someone: oh no, is this the poach equivalent of minzhi and higher chinese?
someone else: su-lin is everybody's enemy.

~~

xinyi: ohh...i think i've got heartburn! ... what's heartburn?