Had dinner at Jen's place. Simple affair, well, relatively simple as Jen's house is a major crossroad for assorted drop-ins ranging from family to neighbours, to friends of various family members. Our party comprised me and June, Adrian and Mary (who brought her dog, Millie to see her mom, Ashley). Adrian is now obsessed with deciding which car to purchase, having test driven his latest 3 options (a BM, a Lexus and a Merc) this morning. He is now canvassing our opinions on which car we think he looks best in. I told him I think the BM, since the other 2 seem more like the type elderly gentlemen would drive, but then I could be wrong. >shrug< Don't know much about the car market 'cos I'm not in it. My cars are virtual.

June brought over the agar she made today in teddy bear and rabbit shapes. Simple pandan flavour in the first layer and a hand-squeezed coconut milk base layer. Nice, firm consistency and not too sweet. Jen's home-made guacamole starter was delicious -- so good I took some home on my t-shirt. Last time it was Ragu sauce. My t-shirts get nervous every time I take them to visit Jen.

We discussed how antisocial June and I are with our neighbours. It's true. We'd climb the stairs if we see our neighbours get in the lift before us, we quickly and quietly slip into our front door to avoid attracting attention from our neighbours who always keep their doors open whenever they're home, we check if the coast is clear from our door peephole before we leave our house. When we do these things, it doesn't seem so wierd to us, but talking about it, it really does seem that we are a pair of neurotics. Definitely not kampong-like behaviour but more consistent with city dwellers from NYC. June says she wasn't like that before she met me, and I believe her.

OK. You must think I'm totally nuts, but I make no excuses for my behaviour. My social circle is small, tight-knit and I like it that way. As I experience life, I sense that when people treat you well, it's because there is a potential in you that they think they can exploit in return. I hate being evaluated in terms of how much profit I can make for others and therefore how much they are prepared to invest in me.

It was like this when I was working in the private sector, then I got tired of providing service so that people like Ong Beng Seng and Kwek Leng Beng could get richer and richer. Actually I hardly made them a cent, but it was the principle, you see? It was so pointless helping someone already rich get richer, when I thought the right thing to do was to help those who were not yet rich create opportunities to become rich for themselves. So, among other things in my life, I decided to dump the private sector and teach instead. Great. Big philanthropist I am. Besides, it's fun and there's holidays and stuff.

Funny how your mind wanders, jumping from topic to topic like this. Oh well, this blog is supposed to be self-reflective anyway. Ended the evening watching "Along Came Polly" which was sweet and funny, light entertainment for all. A pleasant evening.