The Diary
of
Anne Ku

30 November 2000 Thursday

SNAKE BELLIES

The belly dancer lured a shiny black snake out of the basket and wove it around her body. Oblivious to her dance, the musicians in the back continued playing exotic, intoxicating Arabic music. My eyes were captivated by the snake's movements, fearing it would come towards me.

The blonde man sitting next to me remarked,"I was born in the year of the snake." I quickly worked out that he must be 35 years of age. "I could be 23, you know," he responded to my guess. Or you could be 47, I mused.

Later on, after we each had our shiatsu massages, we came across the belly dancer and her snake again. He's eight years old and totally harmless, she assured us. My snake friend draped the snake on my arm while allowed its head to slowly and silently move into his jacket and around his waist. Were they in tune with one another, I wondered, as they seemed so natural together. The snake was long and heavy. How could it not be poisonous? Their relationship reminded me of the one I have with my ginger tom cat. So close, but yet so far away.

We walked outside for a breath of fresh air. A young man stood smoking on the balcony. He pointed to a skyscraper in the distant Canary Wharf and told us how he proposed to his girl friend in the restaurant at the top. We chatted politely. He traded beef on his own account. "Not pork bellies?" I inquired. No, just beef. "Not mad cows?" No, frozen beef as a commodity.

The party was still going on strong. Among strangers, the snake man and I tried to find something in common to talk about. He was tired of shouting. I was tired of standing. So we leaned on the balcony, with the rain drizzling down. Twenty-eight stories above London, we finally found our mutual passion: TRAVEL. We could be in the Middle East right this moment, with all the belly dancers walking around us. We could be in Africa, where he was going for the third time. Or we could just be in London, wishing we were somewhere else.

Yesterday

Tomorrow

Related diary entries:

Dinner on Top of the World

Definition of a gentleman:

One who detects how you're feeling before you realise it yourself. For example,

"Please, have my jacket," he said as he took it off.

"Then you will be cold," she pushes it away gently.

"No, I won't. Please. I shall be cold if I see you shiver."