My Dinner With William and Peter

As I mentioned earlier, my friend William and his roommate Peter are in town celebrating Christmas with William's parents. William is a big freak, he won't mind me saying this, and very cool ... he won't mindme saying tht, either.

We were supposed to meet up on Monday evening after I got off from work but William ended up making an impromptu trip to Portland with his brother and another friend to go to Powells Books. William called me at work around 5.00 PM to inform me that there was a change in plan. "We're just past Chehalis, headed to Portland and Powells. I'll see you tomorrow." They spent a few hours in Powells, one could do no less, and then headed back, arriving home at 2.00 AM! Madness!

So we met up on Tuesday night. We decided to go to dinner and Peter, who is Taiwanese, wanted to go to a local Chinese restaurant. Peter finds Chinese restaurants in America to be amusing and the food is nothing at all like what is served in a restaurant in China, Taiwan or Hong Kong. For one thing, the rice in an American Chinese restaurant in western rice and loaded with soy sauce. Also, chow mein and moo goo gai pan is strictly American ideas of Chinese food. And don't expect a fortune cookie in a restaurant in China, Taiwan or Hong Kong! That's also strictly American. I thought that was very interesting.

William brought three of his toy cameras with him: a Holga, a Russian twin lens and a Diana camera. William is very into toy cam photography and now I can understand why after having a look at these nifty cameras as well as the two books he brought with him. The first was the Toy Camera Handbook which had details on a variety of toy cameras and where one could obtain them. The second was a copy of Lightleaks magazine which featured a variety of examples of toy cam photography. All in all pretty darn swellegant. I've been pondering getting back into photography and a toy cam, especially a Diana, would be a good way to go. You can find more information about toy cameras at Toy Camera and at Lulu.

After dinner we went back through town to a small park across the street from the bank so that William and Peter could photograph the Christmas lights. I must say that whoever created this display did a very good job. Then I dropped them off at his parents house and headed home where I found books waiting for me.