THE FIRST RUMBLES

Ying Ying has a little pale purple plastic doohickey which her grandfather wishes to see. But she is loathe to relingquish it. Which is something I can get behind. There is NO reason why a little four year old girl who has learned the first five letters of the alphabet recently should surrender whatever that is. She's absolutely adorable, and doesn't know it.

That little girl will achieve much. Never give up what's yours, Ying Ying. Whatever it is. From across the room I couldn't identify the thingamajig, other than presuming the material to be matte plastic, pale violet purple, and probably shock-resistent.

And I was enchanted by the perfection of her face.
She looks like a brilliant moppet.
And five letters!

A. B. C. D. E.


I am a sucker for brilliant women. They make opening doors for them fun. I ascribe this to my cat Dorothy, back in Valkenswaard years ago. Who had an engaging personality and was far more interactive than her daughter Narnia, or grandkids 'Wild Thing A' and 'Wild Thing B', or her distant cousin Banes, a slithy tom who would come padding in from the yard whenever my brother Tobias played a musical instrument.

The rather pointless illustration above features neither women nor felines, despite both of those subjects being at the forefront of my mind. It's based, more or less, on a complicated dream before I woke up this morning, in which I was using liquid colours on canvas. It was raining in the alleyway next to the space in Chinatown where I was working. Interesting, because even though I spend a fair amount of time in Chinatown, I don't live there.

On my days off I go to Chinatown.

Yesterday I was at a chachanteng, a bank, a general store, a place that sells lottery tickets, a vegetable shop, and a grocers, plus a bakery for tea and an egg tart. Yes, there were women in all of those places, and some of them have cats too. That's all perfectly coincidental.


The lead-up to New Year has already begun. Mini nin-gou (年糕), red paper things in a huge variety, green plants you might want to put in your foyer, and such like. Soon every one will start losing their minds, and women will push and shove at bins with oranges and tangerines to get the nicest ones with stems and green leaves attached mine bitch I saw it first and no you can't have it mine mine mine I'm taking all of them they're all mine!

My family is deserving of the good fortune, prosperity and good health all these symbolic things and practices will surely bring, whereas your family isn't. Sorry. I hope you have happiness and luck! And some of sweetness. Eat dumplings!


All I really care about are the dumplings.



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