Monday

I started trying to tell a story yesterday but then wildly digressed. I'll try again: Friday evening Sunshine was doing important job-related stuff so I was on my own for dinner. Often, I take these opportunities to further explore the row of Japanese restaurants along Lê Thánh Tôn Street near the Sài Gòn River. But I'd already done that--she'd also worked late on Thursday. Many of the places I used to go without her have closed down. That's the subject of yesterday's digression. But Friday I decided to eat at Au Parc again. Au Parc is a wonderful place about three blocks from our house. I mention it a lot. If I seem a little ho-hum about being there again Friday night, well it's just because I eat there about three times a week. I start to feel guilty I'm not trying new things more often. But dinner there is always so super. Lately, one of the waiters has adopted me as an unofficial English language tutor. Maybe that’s going too far. This only started because he'd made errors in his workbook. He'd discovered the right answers already, he just needed to know why there were right. He questioned me for about twenty minutes before taking my order. His English Language exam is coming up soon. Since then, he's always got a couple questions handy whenever I arrive. But I'm not a very good unofficial English Language tutor. Friday, when talking about the book I was reading--Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories--I tried to explain what fables were. He asked if they were like metallurgy stories. How dumb am I? He actually had to type something into his mobile phone translator before I understood. Yes, I told him, like mythology--only about animals instead of gods. [Cavin]