Today's lunch was at the new Pan Asia Restaurant on the new street Harbour Pointe, which opened just a couple of weeks ago. I like the new place, it's beautiful, but it's noisier than I like, and it was cold. We sat on the patio . . . warmer, quieter. The Water Lilies didn't meet this week so it was just Pam, Jean and me. I had the Firecracker Shrimp Wrap (shrimp and sesame seeds with Pan-Asia seasoning, Fuji apple slaw and avocado in spinach flat bread) with Cucumber Salad, a very satisfying meal.

With my hearing impairment, I have trouble carrying on a conversation in a noisy place. It's usually the huge, cavernous spaces where every sound is reverberated and amplified that I find the most challenging. Most of the newer restaurants I've been in are like this - hard surfaces, metal furniture, nothing to absorb sound so every voice, every sliding chair, every tinkling ice tea glass echoes a thousand times and my ears get muddled with the dissonant din. I'd much rather be able to hear my dinner companions when they talk.

.

The architectural detail I liked the most about this new place is the water wall. It's a high structure and runs the length of the main dining room dividing it from the bar with the water pouring down each side of it - very pleasing to the eye, but more noise to add to the confusion my ears hear.

After lunch I had an appointment with my doctor who gave me a prescription for Adderall XR. I start it tomorrow. When I got home, I saw my neighbor who had just come in from work and when I told him what I was taking, he started singing that old Rolling Stones song, "Mother's Little Helper."

What a drag it is getting old!