The Week In Short.

It has been a week of change.

Chronologically, my dad, in a protest against Starhub, reduced our once highly ample cable platter to a meagre basic package, all in bid to show Starhub that being the only cable operators here doesn't mean they can get away with daylight robbery. He's been trying to persuade my relatives to do the same. And succeeding, I think. With any luck, the Han family could well rival the Lee family soon.

After a week of belly flopping, my fish passed on. I was a little bit sad. Washing the fish tank thrice in a week, risking my arm to scrub out every inch of the tank, toggling with stinky chemicals and late nights spent reading up on how to treat ill arowanas ( See, I *did* study, just not for the exams. I would call myself an autodidact fish doctor, if not for the fact that my fish died casts some suspicion on my skills) didn't work, I guess. I've never really been one to fuss over the fish (possibly the only one in my family) - fish were my dad's hobby. Over the 11 or 12 years, we've reared koi, guppies, goldfish, more koi, fish I don't recognize, an Australian Pearlback something, and this arowana. Plus, I've never really taken to pets that can't even complete the the most primitive standard of "eat and sl....". Especially if they feed on worms, and smell, well, fishy. So even I was pretty surprised when I took to cleaning out the tank personally, in the middle of the night, no less (thanks suhui). I am not sure what Fish thought about having the person who cared about it the least attend to it singlehandedly in its last week.

But Fish died anyway. My siblings called it Sparky, but everyone has a dog-cat-hamster-rabbit named Sparky - I like something a bit more original, so I secretly called it "Fish". In the nearly six years it swum around pretending to be house decor, I never fully appreciated how majestic it was until it was six inches from my scrunched-up nose, sponge and hose. And I couldn't help but marvel again, when we buried it last night. A foot long, red-tipped fins that fanned out like a rainbow shroud and a smooth silver body that was irridiscent with light. I wish I could have done more. So we buried Fish in the garden, between the shrubs so the cat wouldn't get it, and now the tank is empty like it hasn't been in six years.