June 25, 2012

My dearest,

The heat is unbearable. The sun beats down on us mercilessly. It’s like summer two years ago when we were in Budapest, crossing bridges and hiking up hills to reach castles. Unbearable, truly.

We found a solution back then. Bottles upon bottles of sparkling water all over the city. So many brands, so many choices. Some even flavoured. Grapefruit. Passionfruit. Apple. Back home, water was water. No such thing as “sparkling or still” — simply water.

We became addicted to the stuff in less than a day and drank nothing but sparkling water for the rest of our trip, comparing notes on how this bottle tasted versus that one…

It’s June again. Summer all over again. I head to the fridge and grab a bottle of sparkling water. This one’s from Taiping. I slice up half a lime, squeeze its juice into a glass then I pour the sparkling water over it. Bubbles, a frenzy. I leave a fresh slice of lime in the glass, floating on the surface, hissing away.

And we drink. Huge gulps. Oh yes.

Water is water but who knew it could sparkle so, just like you, my dear?

Yours, ever and always.