Friday, March 6, 2009

A large monkey

There are some giant soft toys around. The other day a girl biked past with a monkey, the size of a three-year-old child, leaning on the handlebars.
It is not everyday you see such a large, soft, toy being transported by bike. It seemed to suggest something fun or funny or exciting had just happened. But according to the girl's face, this was not the case. If I was to describe the expression I would say, bored.
Maybe she has to transport this monkey every day and I just happened to catch her this day.
Maybe it was not her monkey, maybe her friend left it behind by mistake and she had to return it - though how you would forget bringing over a large monkey, I'm not sure.
Maybe her boyfriend always gives her oversized, soft toys and she has dozens of them crowding her bedroom and she was biking home trying to imagine where she was going to put it.
It was good to see a bike being used to transport larger goods. I was impressed from my short visit to Shanghai, just what it was possible to fit on a bicycle - a whole pig carcass, a stack of carefully arranged shoeboxes. As soon as I have something to transport, I always think, I need to take a car.
Maybe I should think again - the monkey looked happy enough.

No comments:

5 Favourite Sights Seen

  • 1996 Watching tropical lightning turn night to day, outside a little wooden church in a small village in Sabah.
  • 2004 Flying down the Rainbow Valley at 8000ft in a cessna on a clear blue day.
  • 2003 Seeing and hearing Michael Schmacher rolling out of the pit garage in his Ferrari in Hungary.
  • 2009 Chancing upon 100 or more dolphins just off the Kaikoura Coast swimming around, jumping out of the water, doing somersaults and generally having fun.
  • 2006 Finding a pool at the bottom of a waterfall in the bush at Kaikoura that was full of playing baby seals.