Today I went and had dinner at Sala Thong near Darwin College by myself. No comments on the food. What was interesting was that I ended up sitting at a table next to another American. It was middle-aged lady with her son, and she guessed that I was American judging from my accent when I was ordering. I found out that she was a New Yorker and that one of her relations lived in California.
I was amused to see how she interacted with her son. She would compliment him for saying "please" to the waiter. "You did a good job saying `please' when asking for water!" I later learned from her that she almost completed a PhD in Psychology, which explained why she was consciously using positive reinforcement in raising her kid. She said that had she met me last week, she would have invited me over for Thanksgiving dinner. I thought that was very nice of her.
The son was apparently into martial arts and wore a t-shirt that had Wing Chun in Chinese on it. I suggested to his mom that they could try watching Ip Man, and she was excited to find out that it has a connection to Bruce Lee.
One can have interesting conversations at dinner even when you don't go to a restaurant with company.
