Dim sum

Yesterday's lunch, where I introduced two friends of mine, one Chinese, one Malaysian, who had never met before, went extremely well. It was odd that my Hong Kong Chinese (and part Irish and part Portuguese) friend, who had been in Britain since she was six, spoke accentless English, whereas my Malaysian friend, who came here aged 16, has a very strong accent and can't pronounce 'r' at all.

I'm still not sure if I really like dim sum. It is, I suppose, the Chinese equivalent of the Greek meze or the Scandinavian smorgasbord - a series of small dishes, meant for sharing, with lots of different flavours and ingredients, most of which were glutinous and slippery, as if the prawns or pork had been rolled up in a melted slug. The Cantonese call it 'yum cha', which means drinking tea and indeed, we washed it down with vast quantities of Chinese green tea. If you look up dim sum on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum - you'll see that there are quite a few rituals associated with it, including a lot of finger and table tapping.

Miraculously, the food didn't give me indigestion. I felt fine afterwards, as we explored Psychic Alley in Queensway (the psychics hadn't seen us coming; none of them were in. Or else they had seen us coming, and had all scarpered in alarm). Still, as I had already read the tealeaves of the pair of them, we had no need of any more psychics. I think I had caused enough alarm with myh visions of weddings and babies!

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Our neighbour is now off the big ventilator and is breathing with the aid of a much smaller one, which is a good sign. He is a better colour but, though they have decreased his sedation, he still hasn't come round. Mr G, who knows a lot about medical matters, predicts he'll have regained consciousness by Thursday. I hope he's right, as his wife is going frantic in case he turns into one of those poor souls who are trapped in a coma for years and years...

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The little vixen is getting so tame that when I am putting her food down, she sneaks up behind me and is waiting only a couple of feet away. If I make eye contact she runs off, so I am careful to keep my eyes on the ground. See my wildlife blog for the latest photos.