von and i have lunch at porter square and then he helped me carry groceries home. (v: "but not the toilet rolls. i hate carrying stupid toilet rolls.") i was perfectly happy for him to suit himself. toilet rolls are lighter than bottled water and milk.) we boil water and brew some of the tie guan yin that he had obtained by treachery before but now willingly dispensed. in fact, he was very magnificent and bought me lunch and dinner and two raspberry-filled krispy kremes at the supermarket because i was having terrible sugar cravings. (krispy kreme is going out of business in mass. already they have relinquished their sole foothold in dunkin country by closing down the prudential shop.)

so i shall say that he is a good von. i shall also say su-lin is a good su-lin, but that must go in another entry.

[darryl comes and drinks tea in between and scoff my donuts and then goes to a concert.]

von agrees that my room is a war-ravaged zone and makes a bed on my zabutons instead. i give him a pillow, and with ponder settled down on his tummy, he falls asleep. a while later he mumbles incomprehensibly at me

me, with headphones on: hmm?
von: grumpmumgurm.
me: taking out earphones: what?
von: if i start to snore, throw something at me.
me: but you've been snoring for the last twenty minutes. anyway that's why i'm listening to the radio!

having got that out of the way, von goes back to his noisy activity and only ceases two and a half hours later when darryl called to find out where we were going to have dinner. we agree to meet outside cambridge one, and if a table was not to be had quickly, to go to border cafe or veggie planet - both on the same street - but something was up - there were unusually large dinner crowds in every restaurant in the square - so we make for iruna (which is never crowded, being unknown to harvard students this side of the river) only to find that it has closed! that was cause for unhappiness in itself, but utter ho to find it has been replaced by a singularly obnoxious and exorbitant restaurant of no known pedigree and a most tasteless name. we didn't want to go out of the square and it was getting rather late - so somehow we ended up crossing the road to - von scoffed and scorned when i produced my nric at the door - until darryl handed over his as well. i am not the only one who can't drive. darryl had the jamabalaya, and von and i had a sort of weak curry - very pale and totally unspicy - with vegetables and chicken strips, but extremely comforting, hot and somewhat coconuty, poured all over rice, so that it is like eating an angmohified version of mui fan. the beer was too fruity and watery - magic hat 9. from the way the boys were so positive about it when we ordered i thought it would be better - but i think i might stick with the cambridge amber in future.

and then von wanted ice-cream so it was to toscanini's, but when we suggested consuming it in the usual spot on top of the widener steps darryl pleaded cold weather (he was without a jacket) so we went into the boylston lounge instead. and soon the ice-cream was all gone and it was late and we all went home.