February 10, 2010

Of diet and roaches...

Almost half a year through and I have talked only two times with my neighbour. The first was within a week after I first moved in. The second happened today. Of course the subject for discussion has taken me off guard. Twice! She wanted to know if I had cockroaches in my room then, and she wanted to know if I had cockroaches today too.

Believe it or not there wasn’t any and I told her so. She was surprised indeed and gave me this weird look. I guess I should have been surprised too, because apparently her room, in her words, was brimming with roaches. Why should the pesky insects forsake mine?

So I was musing about it when suddenly I came across this quote by a personality in the highest echelons of European nobility. It said, “If it has four legs and isn’t a chair, has wings and isn’t an aeroplane, swims and isn’t a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.” I wondered if my neighbour heard of this, so that she should give me that weird look.

I may not be a Cantonese but where I am now you will be taken for granted because we pretty much look the same. Did she suppose I was making a feast of the creepy arthropods that there should be none left in my room? Well, I sincerely hope not.

Yikes!

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