yeen teck's going to be in new york for a year and a half! he's been promoted (twice!) and will be posted to the UN as first secretary. (me: wah! what does a first secretary do? are you still an underling? nb. see thin cucumber sandwich post.) he promises to take the fanciest flat his rental allowance would stretch to (me: is that very fancy? yt: the kind with a doorman!) so that visiting friends (such as myself) can recline in bathtubs and be fed peeled grapes. and that he will drive up often to see me (me: but i don't want you to see the grotty cubicle i live in! yt: no problem i'll sleep in the car. (this is probably a limousine he's driving up.)) and take me out for seafood. this cheers me up considerably: although von has sold his once-tender soul for a life of middle class affluence (interspersed with periods of nominal existential angst) and moved out west, i shall still have yeen teck (and julian!) nearby for manly shoulders to sob into, and the hope that, with a critical mass of friends rooting themselves in the east, von might return to the fold.