Food, Films, Fun.

Everytime I go with the Family to one of those Chinese restaurants for dinner, I inevitably end up having to finish most of what's left on the table. This is in large part due to the Sister's penchant for variety, which means as many dishes as she thinks is nice, with the emphasis on variety and 'reasonably priced specialities' (which is really a non sequitur), all portions 'small please.' But as we know a lot of 'smalls' add up to a copious amount of food when the volume is combined. That coupled with their total inability to eat decent amounts of said dishes (a few mouthfuls is NOT considered eating your share IMO-my dad tries but he's getting old) means I end up with food piled on my plate, at times unceremoniously dumped by the Sister who goes ,"Nah, It's very nice, finish it. I'm too full." Much like how I used to feed my grandma's dog, Beckie, years ago, tossing bits of chicken under the table till she screamed. Only I never want whatever it is the Sister dumps on my plate or looked at her like how Beckie used to stare at me, imploringly.

A la carte Chinese buffets are the worst and dinners I absolutely dread, because the dishes all come at one shot fast and furious. By the second round, because the mad woman usually orders halfway during the first round, everyone is absolutely stuffed and the sight of yet another plate of kungbo prawns or whatever special handmade stuffed tofu dish is enough to induce violent growls of protest from a churning gut. Buffets are terrible affairs when not dining with like-minded partners with a similar capacity for food.

Anyway, thankfully tonight wasn't a 'buffet' dinner, just your usual a la carte, which isn't a whole lot better. I've come to this sad realisation that we always order a lot more than what your average four person family is expected to order. From not so subtle hints like "Oh, still want XXX dish too?" and that faint expression of shock before rapidly smoothed over impassiveness takes over to downright blatant ones like "Wow, I wouldn't have thought that you could finish all that." Yeah, might as well give us signboards with the word Glutton emblazoned in bold font.

So this waitress at Sichuan Dou Hua restaurant was certainly one of the more discreet and well-trained ones, freezing just a tad as if to wrap up the orders and repeat them back at the eighth dish but recovering admirably when the Sister rattled on, only stopping at the eleventh. Excess / leftover after a few mouthfuls food as usual ended up on my plate. Thankfully, the food was good and the portions manageable. Plus they didn't come all in one shot which would have resulted in the inevitable minor gastronomical discomfort. It's just that I missed my Saturday night run for the second week in a row and I always feel fat after coming back from a Chinese dinner, all that oil... Just means I'll have to jog longer tomorrow, after I'm done with that infernal 800 word Regulating the Corporation piece of shit report.

I finished X/1999 last night or rather early this morning around 4 am. I know, I told myself just one more episode before I go read one article and head off to bed. Ended up watching all remaining eight episodes out of this 25 part series. You know how it is the last few episodes get so damn exciting, especially when people start dropping left,right,center like flies. Last couple of peeps who died were really sad, I cried when S***** died. I'll just put it down to the late night staying up late bit. But really, even though I saw it coming 15 episodes ago, they still had to go kill the funniest, most likeable and arguably the cutest guy in the series. Screaming, weeping girls don't cut it like the demise of a cute and likeable chap. Still the series is really good, not least for the fighting of which there is plenty, angst and sacrifice that is balanced somewhat with comedy and drama. Go watch it. If you want it, you can always go bug CS. I'll be transferring it to him next Wed along with Tokyo Babylon, the side story about the Sumeragi family.

Currently grabbing D Gray-man off one of the direct download hosts on Aarin Fantasy, promises to be a great series. That, along with Bleach and a couple of other unwatched series, Yami no Matsuei and Gravitation promise to be more than enough to fill up the May holidays void, I hope. Did I mention how much I love the tag team combo of Direct Download Hosts and Internet Download Manager? 15 simultaneous connections at speeds of 200kb/s and above make for happy days and a 5 hour complete download of the 24 currently subbed episodes of D Gray-man. Let's not even start about the yaoi/ manga bit. Lol.