Bought no orchid, but a bromeliad, a couple of hanging succulents, and something spiky, drapy and flowering that I suspect is two or three plants in the same pot. There were wonderful strawberries in hanging baskets, and although they were hung in the shade, I was too suspicious to bring one home - probably would have carked it on our shady patio, and that would have been too sad. Oh and an oxalis with large purple leaves and little white flowers. I wish I had at least asked about the care of the strawberries.

As I was paying the cabdriver when I got home a Chinese boy of about 8 years old, with no front teeth, jumped in the taxi beside me and closed the door. The driver smiled, thinking I knew him, but I didn't. The boy didn't answer any questions or talk at all, just wriggled and laughed, leaned forward and tried to press buttons on the driver's console, to grab my money, and so on. He wriggled out of the driver's reach and into me, like he knew me very well. While I was putting away my change the driver came around and pulled him, gently enough, out of the car, chiding him that the police would get him. When I got out the boy grabbed my arm and started pulling me down the stairs to the apartment service area, but I didn't go, because my hands were full of bagged pot plants with many dangling fronds, which made them hard to set down. But I'm not sure I would have gone anyway.