Fish face
(Tiger soft toy: Suzhou, China)
I am displaying my foolishness at being a newcomer here in China and coveting items like this one. The shops have begun selling all manner of Chinese New Year ephemera in readiness for the festival in mid February (on the 14th, this year). I asked Ying if he could explain the surfeit of fishes and fish related decorations. As far as I understand, a fish stands for prosperity and the red colour is lucky. The Tiger, as we must all have learned by now, is significant because this year will be the year of the Tiger.
This is Fish Face, a little red Tiger we rescued from the supermarket. By rescued, of course I mean that I pleaded with Ying that we could have him and he finally relented. I was attracted to him because of his pleasing countenance and wonderfully round, ecstatic eyes. He has a very excitable face and I’m particularly entertained by the fact that he has a fish for a nose, presumably to bring him prosperity. He manages to be very cheery, yet unsettling simultaneously, with a set of razor sharp teeth. I’m not sure if the character on his forehead is significant.
He at least provides an example of the sort of amusing item swamping the supermarkets at present; everything is red, festooned in lanterns, fish, tigers and turtles and many have long trailing tassels falling underneath them. We were paying for our shopping at the till and the Tiger had no price. We had to wait ten minutes whilst a security guard located the abundance of Tigers and attempted to select the correct barcode. Ying was berating me for my choice of purchase and informing me that the guards were taking and grinning about the lost ‘little Tiger’ over their walkie talkies.
aww he looks like your own personal pokemon! he’s great! really enjoying the posts again rosie, alittle bit of you, here on my computer x
[...] So to some of my other mini adventures – luckily, my recovery was tempered with a long owed favour to a friend, involving a few hours of computer work. I still had the ability to use a computer mouse so that allowed for a day of moderate rest while I clicked my way to repayment of a long overdue debt. Even with ‘the hands’, I managed to do some DIY and I put up three shelves. Yes, I think that’s amazing as well. Every time I am in my bedroom, I pause to admire my handiwork, basic and shoddy though it may be. After the bathroom fiasco of last year, the pimp palace* is full of pieces of timber, a sink, tiles, floorboards that were never used, and so on. Being of a resourceful nature, I have used the floorboards as shelves. I managed to borrow a drill, buy the wall brackets and I even managed to convince two friends to cut the pieces for me. I’m almost competent at drilling, but even without the hand injuries, I am dangerous with a saw. Aside from the cutting, I managed the entire operation single handed (as it were) and I am rather pleased with the outcome. What was a bare, space wasting recess is now a neat little bijou storage corner for books, DVDs and silly (light) ephemera that has no other permanent home. The sharp eyes amongst you might spot Fish face the tiger from China. [...]