THE FIRE WITHIN

The same couple got on the bus on the return journey as had been passengers earlier. They were speaking something European -- too indistinct to tell what language -- and the woman had a distinct Wenzhou look to her. Small, petite. There are more Wenzhouese in much of trans-Netherlandish Europe than Cantonese or others. Hence my surmise.

Where they had gotten off, a middle-aged Chinese couple had gotten on, with their college age daughter. A delicate bug-like young lady with brightly inquisitive bespacled eyes, dental braces, and an intelligent likeable look to her. Quite appealing looking. So naturally I didn't speak to them at all. My Mandarin is that limited that I have nothing interesting to say, and wouldn't say it well in any case.

When given a choice between creating a poor impression and creating no impression at all, go for the latter. It is by far a wiser decision. Just trust me on this.
Ignore the irritating daemon of curiosity within.
Perhaps look out of the window.
Ooh, scenery!

After all, if you're going to make a fool of youself, you can always do so in English. It's the universal language of idiocy. They even have parliamentary debates in that language.
In many places. Not just the United States and Great Britain.
You'd think they'd know better.

Lunch, when I finally got home, was curried eggplant rice stick noodles with various meaty bits and two kinds of hot chilipaste. I had decided to not go across the hill to Chinatown for eaties, seeing as I had become too peckish, and needed to clean up what I had knocked over on the way out in the morning.

It was too spicy.

And in all honesty, I hate taking the bus back during rush hour, for obvious reasons (all of you dress goofy, smell bad, and eat too much). So I'll head down later for a walk with my pipe when the crush dies down.

I'll fix myself a cup of tea before leaving.



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