Article for 2013 Apr 02

2013

2013 Apr

Apr 02 Tue

The starling didn’t take the plunge, didn’t plunge its head into the cream pot. It delicately dipped its beak and sipped the delicacy. The bird was cautious, and thus did not get wet.

We however did. We plunged ourselves into a rainforest walk, where there was an abundance of rain for us to walk through, a scarcity of birds for us to walk to, and a pair of suspensionbridges for us to watch the surf from, overlooking an Indian Ocean inlet. The supermarine structures were superlative, but - in contrast with the stagnant humidity of the jungle - the winds were fast and strong, and thus - in contrast with the heat of the treeland - on each bridge it was as frigid as a rigid digit.

(Not that my fingers froze up: I was keeping them active by taking photos.)

The wind wouldn’t wick the wet and weariness away, so we stayed wet and weary - in contrast with the lively unsoaked starling - and so this jungle walk was the least loved, the most mephitic occurrence, the poxiest part of the day. Certainly not the crème de la crème. Neither was the cream the starling creamed off, as creamy as it was, and neither was the starling itself, as sweet as it was. Rather, my favourite part of the day was when I got a hundred and one Scrabble points for POXIES[T] on a triple-word-score, forming OP and NO perpendicularly.

I was unsure about playing POXIEST - does the noun “pox” produce an adjective “poxy”, and does that adjective produce a superlative “poxiest”? But I went for it, and went with it, and committed myself to it, and played it, and Dad confirmed it was a valid play.

One instance where taking the plunge was a good idea.