Yum cha cha cha

You will all be heaving a sigh of relief that my mad evil rantings shall subside for a while as yesterday, after taking Felix back to the dentist for other THREE fillings he needed (why is the bad teeth gene more dominant than his father's never-go-to-the-dentist-tough-teeth gene?) we all went to yum cha, finally talked to each other and everything is back to normal. Yes Felix and the dentist. Six fillings, an amazing dentist, a very brave and 'good' (I hate that word in relation to child behaviour, but there you go) boy and much money later... seriously, Felix was so unbelievably good. Amazing. Anyway, yum cha. The best food invention in the world. How many tasty little steamed morsels can you ingest at one sitting. Stunning prawn dumplings, tasty scallop and spring onion ones, the most incredible green beans tossed with chilli and ground pork - salt, heat, crunch, divine, silken tofu in ginger syrup, mango pudding, warm egg custard tarts. Seriously, it is my idea of heaven - a constant supply of food laden with flavour and variety. The boys were angels (there were yum cha 'incidents' when they were younger that make me cringe, including one where the waitress actually brought the dustbuster out while we were still there and eating...) and love it as much as we do. Felix even shares my love of chicken's feet. So proud. A side incident of yum cha in Sydney's Chinatown is the boys seeing a whole different cultural vibe than they get on our white bread insular peninsula home (although there are pockets of some diversity from Pacific Islander, Greek, Italian and Slovac heritage). They also get to see a touch of the underbelly of a city life - homeless people. We passed a a man begging and apart from Felix's attempt at the same while waiting for his father and I to finish post yum cha Chinese cake buying at the best little Chinese cake shop in Sydney, I didn't think much about it. Then, last night, after we finished the next chapter in The Magician's Nephew (as we build up to reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) Felix asked me about the man who looked sad and dirty and only had 'two big cents like I do'. Well, what followed was a pretty intense discussion about there being people in the world who don't have anywhere to live etc. He was so upset about it, almost in tears. He finally said "maybe we could go back and give him some money?" and I realised just how hardened I've become to such people. So jaded to the mindset that if you give them any money they'll just go and buy grog or drugs with it, blah blah blah. While Felix was devestated this man didn't have anyone who loved him.