YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL

His girlfriend has six sisters, nine nephews and nieces, plus one brother (the youngest of the siblings, mid-twenties) and a cat. The cat appears to be well fed, judging by the photographs. The two youngest nephews, less than a year old, are rotund. Then he and Stephen segued into discussing leisi (利是), which, with that many recipients, becomes slightly problematic. But if like me, you are a Caucasian, then precisely like the polite notice for the respected uncles not to smoke a certain distance of the doorway, you won't understand that.

[各位叔叔們 門口16尺範圍 不准吸煙 'gok wai suk suk mun, mun hau sap lok chek faan wai, pat jeun gap yin'; "dear uncles, within sixteen feet of the doorway, smoking is not allowed".]

Hey man, I'm white. Nix farshtay, okay?

After which they talked about learning how to drive back when the world was young and all cars had stick shifts. And seldom caught fire. Because they were built tough.
I didn't mention that certain vehicles are exceptionally flammable.
They go up in flames almost at the drop of a hat.
Just not made like they used to.
Tssk, tssk.

Look, if you even so much as think of a bottle of gasoline with a rag or about flicking your lighter, mistakes are going to happen. It's simply a crappy motor car. Like it's made out of pressed cardboard or something.

There's a good reason why they didn't put an ashtray in there. Smoking is bad for you.
It interferes with your sex life.

Instead of an airbag, it has a hosebag.
Or maybe that's in addition to.


The cat is an orange tabby (橙色虎斑貓 'chaang sik fu baan maau'). Very pretty. But not as attractive as the silver grey youngster with thick slate grey striping I had seen outside a store earlier. Which looked almost like it had some panther or leopard in its genetic makeup, despite being geographically far distant from any 豹貓 or 雲豹 populations.
An immature beast, several months old.
And quite appealing.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================