Streaming and order of precedence

Hi all,

I've recently had some issues with the streaming operator and the
order of precedence used when mixing it with the member function
operator (operator .) Example code is below.

*************************************************************************
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;

class A
{
    public:
        A() : i(0) {};
        int f() {
            i++;
            v.push_back(i);
            return i;
        }

        void reset() { i = 0; v.clear(); }

        int i;
        vector<int> v;
};

int main()
{
    A a;

    // Order of action:
    // - Member functions fire from RIGHT to LEFT.
    // - Insertion operators fire from LEFT to RIGHT
    cout << a.f() << a.f();
    cout << endl;

    cout << "Vector contents a: ";
    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < a.v.size(); ++i )
    {
        cout << a.v.at(i);
    }
    cout << endl;

    a.reset();
    int k;
    // Order of action;
    // - Member functions fire from LEFT to RIGHT
    // - Addition operator fires.
    // - Assignment operator fires.
    k = a.f() + 3*a.f();
    cout << "k: " << k << endl;
    cout << "Vector contents a: ";
    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < a.v.size(); ++i )
    {
        cout << a.v.at(i);
    }
    return 0;
}
*********************************************************************************
OUTPUT:
21
Vector contents a: 12
k: 7
Vector contents a: 12
*********************************************************************************

The result of this seems to indicate that the . operator for the
member function call has different associativities in the different
situations. I must be missing something here, but I haven't been able
to find anyone to give me a conclusive answer on it. Can anyone here
shed some light on it?

Cheers,
Daniel.