Giggly guppies
(Charlotte laughing with the fish: Ying’s house, Singapore)
Shortly after excitably snapping my sunglasses clean in half, Charlotte calmed down a little. When she arrived she was very coy but soon blossomed into a chuckling commentator on her surroundings, “cat…fish…chair…feet…” It was after giggling at the guppies that she migrated indoors to pester all the adults. I personally thought the whole sunglasses affair was amusing – I wasn’t convinced they were UV protective anyway so perhaps she did me a backhanded favour. She’s the daughter of a friend of Ying’s family and I met them at a CNY reunion lunch in Singapore. She entertained us for at least two hours with her hilarious antics, her most adorable asset being her miniature paunch pressing against the fabric of her dress, a traditional Chinese ‘Cheong Sam’. She is sitting on the balcony overlooking the lush vegetation that Singapore is veiled in. I was not surprised to find greenery, but it was so verdant and abundant that compared to China, Singapore is a plant life paradise.
Ying’s mum, with the help of their maid, Wati, had produced all the makings of a sumptuous hot pot. Hot pot is one of my favourite Asian dishes; everyone generally has a little mesh net or chopsticks for grabbing the morsels from the pot of soup, it feels like that battery operated magnetic fishing game I had as a youngster. In fact, it’s even more fun fishing for food rather than articulated plastic fish.
The fish in these tanks are guppies that Ying’s dad is cultivating. Unfortunately while we were resident in the flat, a naughty lizard had been caught swiping the smallest ones from the nursery tank. I am still attempting to convince Ying that we should get some fish, but since we are considering moving to another apartment soon, I’ll be waiting some time for a live project.
Today in Suzhou it is raining incessantly and it appears it will do so all week. I am spending my second day in PJs and I’ve run out of cough mixture. I’m stuck here, as I know getting wet will prolong my condition, so I’ve been inside drinking cooling tea instead.
