I hate surprises. Obviously I hate bad surprises. Everyone does. But I'm not that keen on good surprises either. I'd rather have the enjoyment of anticipation, knowing that things are shaping up in the right way, than some big, hefty "SURPRI-ISE!" that totally ambushes you, and could end up -- well, anywhere, right?

But serendipity... That's great. That's just the chance unfolding of unexpected but nice stuff.

The last 24 hours have been full of serendipitous stuff. Like...

-- Finding a Thai restaurant in Broga. I'd never even been to Broga. It's quite close to our main campus, but you need a car, and no car I'd been in had ever gone in that direction. Broga is lovely. Must go back. It has a nice country feel to it. And it has this Thai restaurant, with at least one real Thai person, Thai news on the TV, and very acceptable tom yam gung.

-- Nigel deciding he wanted CAKE. So we had cake at Ben's. Mine was chocolate, banana, and caramel. Nigel's was tres leches. Both were exquisite.

-- Deciding to check out Speedy videos at Pavilion. We bought a couple of Korean movies, and bused home on a very crowded GoKL Blue Line to watch the first, Tabloid Truth. Nicely shot -- but horrendously violent. Aaaagh -- can there really be a need for so much finger-breaking? We're not deterred, though. We just need to do our homework better first.

-- Having breakfast this morning at our favourite Chow Kit market stall, which is mysteriously but wonderfully BACK! I wanted to eat everything, just to celebrate, but talked myself down to tempe, omelette, spinach and pumpkin, pineapple in spicy sauce, and green mango salad.

-- And, on the way, finding the doors... I hope there's been a good surprise here ("Look! Free doors! Buyer collects"), and not a nasty one ("I don't care if you were the managing director. I'm in charge now, you're fired, and you can take your door with you!")