AT THE TABLE OF HAPPINESS

It's one of my very favourite bakeries. The charsiu sou is exceptional, the egg tarts divine, and the coconut macaroons quite delightful. Sometimes late in the afternoon I head over there for hot milk tea and a pastry, and spend an hour just watching the interactions between regulars, staff, and wander-ins. The business has helped me maintain my sanity these past few years, and I have happily patronized them for the better part of a decade.

Friends work there.

One of them got stabbed yesterday by a neighborhood lunatic who went behind the counter and without a word attacked. Last I heard the injuries were life threatening, and she's at a local hospital. That's all I know.

I fervently hope that she survives, and heals completely.

This is my neighborhood, naturally I'm upset.

Our society is broken.



Ten days after my emergency appendectomy at a nearby hospital I headed over there for milk tea and an egg tart. That was four years ago. I needed that.
Three years before I had some nice pressed vegetable and meat shred fried rice there for a late lunch, with plenty hot sauce. That was the week I stumbled head first into wall after blacking out, and realized that, at some point, I would really need to see a doctor.
After picking up refills at the Chinese Hospital pharmacy I've usually gone there to happily read about possible side effects while enjoying a pastry or two and a milk tea.
This place, and the people who work there, are dear to me.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================