MIDDLEBURGH

A Tale of 2 Watches

I try and visit the Latimer’s in Singapore when I can and the other week I did.....

Jun, Tony’s wife has a special place in my heart ever since she ordered a Chinese meal for me. It was late and I was in the only restaurant open in Saarbrucken , Germany; The staff didn't speak English; the menu was in German. In desperation I phoned Jun in Nuneaton, explained the situation and handed the phone to the waiter. Minutes later all the staff were fussing around and food arrived as if by magic . More impressively, the following evening, without a word being spoken, I got the same treatment (and different food) The regular German clientele noted the VIP service!!.

Jun tells a wonderful stories about when she first arrived in England. She went into a Chinese restaurant and the staff realizing she was an overseas Chinese, apologized saying she wouldn’t like the food (which was tailored for us gwaillos) Since then she has always negotiated in Chinese with the staff to get a proper meal.

Tony has two daughters Kelly and Barbara. This time Kelly surprised me by presented me with "my" watch. On my visit before last, I bought a potato masher (well I would wouldn’t I) but unfortunately I left it with my watch at Tony's. On the last visit I retrieved them both. When I pointed this out there followed a "no you didn't":"yes I did" conversation. It transpires that Tony had a similar broken watch which had been palmed off on me last time and since it now works it seems Tony wants it back !!! :)

As an aside both Tony and Kelly are into martial arts so I am disinclined to argue with either;This is Kelly in November 2002

Tony moved in August closer to town and relocated the plants and pond from his previous condo. Based on size of the goldfish I suspect Tony will shortly apply for a fish farm license and one of the bamboo's is apparently growing at rate of 7 inches a day. (I wish mine would) Tony suggested this was an adaptation to survive grazing panda's not that he is proposing getting one. Having a free range Panda in your back garden would not quite the same as having a goat for the lawn . Its worth noting that tourists should be circumspect when visiting asian zoos. Singapore Zoo is experimenting with free range cats and in Japan they practice capturing escaped polar bears evidently a posibility . Makes Shenzhen Zoo look positively safe

Tony had a look at this blog and was very distressed with the picture showing two of my old girlfriends: He felt that it was in questionable taste and uncharitably suggested that when I referred to them as "old" girl fiends I was guilty of understatement. It didn't help things when I pointed out that one was now a grandmother.

We went for a meal in one of the open air food halls that are so common in Singapore. When the boys come visit they will have to layover in Singapore. I suspect they would appreciate the wider variety of food and things as compared to HK reflecting the wider ethnic mix in Singapore.

Posted at 5/01/2005 08:57:00 am by David Middleburgh   Permalink

|