Today I am restless. Picking stuff up, putting it down. Pacing. There's an edgy crackle of static in the atmosphere. Like something continually tugging on my sleeve, but just below the level of my consciousness, so I can't see what it is. Prickly. Interesting. Reminds me of the way my old flat in Muswell Hill used to feel. Odd things happened there - baffling and illogical. Appliances turning themselves on. Footsteps. Things disappearing and turning up in ridiculous places. We pretty soon gave up trying to explain the inexplicable and just got used to living with it. Phlegmatic for the most part; with the occasional (and understandable) freak out. If you've ever lived in a place like that, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Have tried to distract myself from the restlessness with cashew nuts and web-based research. Mainly into the symbolic meaning of the cashew nut. Not much to report, except that as a food offering during Chinese New Year celebrations, cashews mean wealth or gold. As do dried apricots, bamboo shoots, pumpkins, oranges, mandarins, kumquats, fried bean curd, clams, egg rolls, grapes and stuffed cabbage. There's a rather literal theme running through all this - things that are either yellowish (like GOLD!) or round (like COINS!). I was a little thrown by the stuffed cabbage, but apparently the shape is reminiscent of an INGOT (still literal, if a little unconvincing). Other less literal offertory food stuff include prawns - liveliness, and onions - cleverness. Good.
In other news, I am extremely pleased that a shop has opened on our high street called 'Bango Mango'. (Who wouldn't be? What would you rather do - nip into WHSmith, or Bango Mango? No contest.) However, I wonder if they are aware that in some circles, 'Bango Mango' means a sex act involving breasts (aka 'mangos'). Judging by the cut of the dresses they are selling, they may well be... But just to confuse things, 'Mango Bango' is a health-giving fruit drink, and also an attractive and popular shade of orange nail varnish. There's a world of difference depending on whether your bango comes before your mango.
Incidentally, a mango is yellowish and sort-of round. The spit image of a coin. Be lucky.
Have tried to distract myself from the restlessness with cashew nuts and web-based research. Mainly into the symbolic meaning of the cashew nut. Not much to report, except that as a food offering during Chinese New Year celebrations, cashews mean wealth or gold. As do dried apricots, bamboo shoots, pumpkins, oranges, mandarins, kumquats, fried bean curd, clams, egg rolls, grapes and stuffed cabbage. There's a rather literal theme running through all this - things that are either yellowish (like GOLD!) or round (like COINS!). I was a little thrown by the stuffed cabbage, but apparently the shape is reminiscent of an INGOT (still literal, if a little unconvincing). Other less literal offertory food stuff include prawns - liveliness, and onions - cleverness. Good.
And again, you made me haw.
ReplyDeleteI was especially disturbed at first, because I suspected your mango shot was a bowl of whelks. I had a hairy moment.