Eating Out

We had visitors over the New Year holiday, so we took them across the street to an all-you-can-eat buffet barbecue restaurant. A charcoal barbecue on every table. You do your own cooking. It's convenient, it's open-air, and they don't mind us having Tai with us. Usually he lies on the concrete floor while we eat; but this is winter season, and even in the tropics it can be pretty cool at night, so the ground was a little too cold for him. Instead he curled up on a chair next to us.

He's usually a good boy, never pestering us or begging during the meal. But this time, he must have been really hungry and insisted on sitting on my lap while I had my dinner. Well, at least I thought it was because he was hungry. Turns out he was after my chopsticks. He loves to chew chopsticks. To him, there's no difference between a small tree branch and a chopstick. They make for great chewing. I won't let him have free reign with them, though, for fear he chews it to little pieces and tries to swallow them. As soon as the end of the chopstick is nicely crushed, I take it away and we start on a new one.

The best part is that nobody bats an eye when we have Tai with us at these restaurants. He's always so polite and friendly and quiet, and the staff often comment about it. The perfect guest.