The Shanghai seas
(Sawfish in the Aquarium: Shanghai, China)
I think it was me that insisted we go to the aquarium, but the other three were game for it too. On Friday, myself and three other girls (Susan, Liz and a girl affectionately termed ‘the Llama’) went to Shanghai for the day, the premise being that the Llama wanted to visit IKEA and since the boys are still away, it provides the chance for a day out and late night without missing them completely.
We managed to squeeze in everything on the list, each part suggested by a different person; aquarium, H&M, element fresh, the fake goods market, M&S and IKEA. Yes, yes, it’s a list compiled by ex pats, but I got my aquarium in. I’ll admit I did also buy shorts in H&M and a couple of items from the market (Ying’s birthday is coming up very shortly…). I even surprised myself with some IKEA purchases, but only essentials, I swear. I find trawls around that particular Swedish shop an extreme test of my patience but thankfully our time there was so brief, I hardly had time to inhale a hotdog before we were piling fondue sets and cushions into the back of the car.
Particular highlights for me were our exploits in the market and the inhabitants of the aquarium, many of them completely alien to us. There were ‘cowfish’, little buttercup yellow affairs with horns and a boxy, cuboid body, colossal newts the length of my arm (though we never did find any label naming or even acknowledging them) and purplish bruises of creatures called ‘sea apples’. What they are and do was unclear, but they have the appearance of a swollen, plum coloured slug, covered in yellow polyps. Lets put it this way, I wouldn’t want to find one in my paddling pool. This one is a sawfish, named for fairly obvious reasons. I have never seen a fish like this ever in my life. It is incredible. It really looks as if the saw has been a hurried afterthought, moulded on the end of the nose in case of emergencies. Most surprising is how un-ferocious the fish looked, despite his impressive arsenal of spines. He did seem a rather sorry character however. It is so difficult to keep animals in captivity and retain their state of mind.
Thanks for showing the photo of the sawfish. I never know that
a fish can have such attractive lips like a girl. Do you think that
she is smiling.
Love the photo! It looks like some sort of alien being. I really enjoy visiting aquariums, but I also have misgivings about how all these creatures, particularly the larger ones, are kept in captivity. Hope you’ve been enjoying Shanghai.