spent a good part of the day hanging out at sicc with my wife and my dad. the experience was made rather more interesting by large, male (don't ask how i know) monkey. this monkey had obviously gotten bored of the neighbouring nature reserve, and had traipsed across the road, across the carpark, up the many flights of stairs, to go for a stroll by the poolside.

let's name this monkey chuffles, if for no other reason but because 'chuffles' comprises 8 letters, whereas 'the monkey' constitutes 9 - and a space - which makes it 10. i was most taken by chuffles, and even left the air-conditioned comfort of the gym to take a closer look, carrying a weight plate, which i had been holding before i saw him. (a singularly irrelevant detail, but indulge me.)

if you haven't seen a monkey up close before, they're remarkably human-like. chuffles was ambling around, poking his nose into every corner, standing up on two legs so he could peer through a window into an office. he even plonked himself down on a railing and watched some tv for a while. presumably, he didn't think much of our local programming, because he left his perch to stick his head into the nearest dustbin.

following that, he went up to a girl, chased her away from her gym bag, and opened it up and peered inside. before he himself was chased away by a golfer who picked up the nearest bench and ran at chuffles with it, yelling strange and undecipherable threats. after which he put the bench down and looked like he was about to suffer an aneurysm. we have fallen far from the standards set by our forefathers in shining armour.

there actually is a point to this story, believe it or not, which i am getting to now. i went back into the gym, marvelling at how human-like chuffles was. i made the following observation on inter-species similarities to my wife :

"we're actually quite alike. especially when it stands up on two legs. it looks like a little pygmy. just a really hairy one."

a look of troubled dismay flashed upon the features of my wife. seeing that she had no constructive contribution to my insight, i went back to doing crunches.

a few minutes later, she came up to me, with a beautific grin of relief etched across her face.

"you're talking about the monkey! i thought you were talking about me!"

"of course i'm talking about the monkey. isn't it unfair how it can leap so high so effortlessly?"

she pondered this for a bit, then beamed at me :

"i'm just glad i'm not a hairy pygmy."

we don't like chuffles so much now, for later on in the afternoon, he grabbed the plastic bag containing my dirty clothes and made a run for it. my wife had to chase after him and smack him with a car brochure before he would release it.

well ok, so maybe there isn't much point to the story after all. i'd like to see chuffles come up with a better entry, though.