The bird
I did something silly while I was in Japan. I gave away our bird.Don't get me wrong, there's no way we could have brought in a live one. japanese customs might have deemed it necessary to turn it into yakitori.
It was a lovely ceramic bird, yellow and blue in colour. nothing more than a simple pottery whistle. But, filled with water it sang like a true song bird. Michelle had entrusted it into my safekeeping.
You sound like a real bird when u play it, she and Alex said. It was a nice compliment. Everytime I played I imagined a red-breasted Robin, lungs all puffed up and ready to expell its song into the wilderness.
Many of the Japanese were intrigued by the bird. It helped that I held it in my hands like an occarina while playing. Snug and warm, as though unwilling to let it fly away into the emptiness of the concert hall.
The Tsu conductor who hosted me was pretty impressed by it. The children loved it; probably imagining that there was a real skylark in the auditorium.
She asked, Can you Help me Get one? (after my sheepish acceptance of a silly gift that I enquired about).
So I gave it away.
Michelle was mighty peeved at me I guessed. No amount of coaxing could convince her to let the matter slide.
Guilt-ridden, I looked for some way to get it back in singapore. I found Similar ones online. But they cost an arm and a leg, the same amount as a real bird.
I decided to go by the roundabout route. Spoke to Suntec information (where she got the bird) and was put in touch with the vendor whom she got it from. So, a replacement bird will be on the way, if all goes well during our meet tomorrow.
It was interesting to go on this bird hunt. I felt like some gameshow host, trying to search for things lost and never found. It helped that the vendor was from China and only spoke Chinese, so I had a mighty difficult time communicating with him. Exciting.
Will it work out?
I'll let you know in the weekend.
posted by leo @ 11:32 AM
2 Comments:
I bought the bird cos it was cute and I thought it was appropriate for ASEAN medley. Yes, I was rather mad when I heard you exchanged it for a toy you wanted. But after thinking about it, it doesn't matter if you can't find it, I probably have no use for it anyway.
I was at Suntec on Tuesday, and found that the bird push cart had disappeared. So I reckoned you wouldn't be able to find it.
It's ok if you can't get a replacement. Sorry for the trouble!
Haha..its ok lah. Something that I should do anyhow. I've gotten in touch with the fella already. If all goes well tomorrow, can even let you have your pick of those that i get (planning to get one for genus as well, just in case).
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