Ginger-ly speaking

"Straight and square" is not usually what you say to a woman. "Straitght and suave", perhaps. "Straight & sexy" might take it too far. "Straight and in banking" now ranks slightly below "straight and stricken with ___" (fill with your favorite horrifying disease). I know we all have one. In mind, I mean.

Anyway this I was telling my 10-minute barber at the Japanese outfit by the MRT station. Generally they say "konichiwa" but sometimes they do "bonjour". Those pranksters. I was at the barber's because it was getting a little hot at my work place. No, I am not talking about the workplace romance (how did you know about that?), but the fact that the sun now pours right in and I am too lazy to pull down the double blocking-blinds.

Of course, the barber's was not where I wanted to be. The glorious sun on my desk reminded me of the glorious lout of a ginger tomcat that I saw just this morning, sprawled on a warm tin roof splashed with the vitaminous 9+ am sun. Yes, I go to work late. There he lay languidly, curled now, stretching in a moment, doing various tomcat-like things, which is to say not much. Some running his paws around his face, licking and rolling around, which I believe is the feline equivalent to a human loafer running his hand through his hair, spitting and watching TV.

Soon another ginger, but one sans stripes, emerged from the shadows of the smokestacks and airconditioning compressors. He seemed to be having a nice morning, after a hard night's sleep, and suddenly saw the original ginger far to his left and was stricken with the look of a fear, the sort that struck me at the sight of the pan-spit corners at the hotel in Shirdi. Meanwhile original ginger spied something - presumably a hardworking, industrious cat that was licking itself or something - and became enraged and started walking toward the edge of the tin roof. I did not wait to see the proceedings.

But I sure wish I was sunning myself this afternoon on my desk, and for a companion of another stripe (wink! wink!) to give me some company. I settled for "Konichiwa".