MY STREAMS AND SWAMPS

Russell was outside enjoying the sun when I left the restaurant. I had not seen him since February, when I heard he had been in the hospital with pneumonia. He was there for three weeks, and now seems more or less recovered, though still not up to one hundred percent. And he has somewhat given up on the bakery, because the others don't go there till late afternoon, when it's almost time for supper. I too have not been going there as often.
I like space to sit down at tea time; they're often crowded till well past then.

Lunch was excellent. Didn't go to the usual place. Had an egg on top. Found out that the simplified version of 窩 is 窝 (two strokes less, big deal). Five strokes for the radical (穴) under which you'll find it in the dictionary, then seven more strokes for the easy version.
Or nine more for the right version.

No idea what the table of Europeans thought about their lunch, and they spoke too softly to listen in and figure out where they were from, which was disappointing. One of them had a claypot dish, which may have baffled him somewhat.

I always find it interesting when tourists stroll into a chachanteng.
It's not standard Chinese like in suburbia or Europe.
Or, saints preserve us, Iowa.


Halfway down Russell's alley three grammar school girls were enchanted by a kitten which found them equally fascinating. I watched the four of them for a minute, then proceded further, encountering another young feline plotting to scale the wall and seize the fluttering pigeons, not fully aware of how impossible that plan was. Beyond there, more tourists.

You will find Asian Water Monitors near nullahs and streams, and even by the shore. They consume amphibians, crustaceans, carrion, and fish. Some people consider them lucky. The Cantonese name for them (水巨蜥 'seui geui sik'; "water monitor") differs slightly from the Northern Standard, 圓鼻巨蜥 (yuán bí jù xī; "round-snouted monitor". The two part term for 'monitor' simply means enormous lizard in both languages.

They are not eaten, I don't know if they taste just like chicken, and some berserk individuals have kept them as pets despite the bite being quite dangerous and often leading to horrible infections. They have an affinity for streams and inlets. Hong Kong is, largely, too urban, so you'll have to go into the New Territories (新界 'san gaai') to run into them.

Kittens and silly little lap dogs are just the right size for a mature monitor's dinner. I have never heard of a pet being snatched, but it probably does happen. I wouldn't let my child near them if I were you. They lunge if they feel threatened. Or hungry.

I mention this because I feel somewhat grumpy when I'm on the bus heading down to Chinatown for lunch. And snappish. It's that low blood sugar before eating.
And I hate packed buses.


Also, I feel somewhat threatened by tourists stumbling around my habitat.



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