The Sea-Monkey Chronicles

American comics were a source of wonder in my youth. At the front end, you had the superhuman characters, the vivid colours and the bold stories. When you'd digested all that, there was an additional thrill in looking at the classified ads, and getting some kind of measure of the US lifestyle. They had grits for breakfast, whatever that was. They wore X-Ray Specs and incredibly, they kept sea-monkeys in a jar.

Apparently, you just added water, and these fabulous creatures emerged. There were illustrations of these beasts, and they looked oddly human, with regal expressions and happy, family units. I used to dream of sea-monkeys and imagine how they would enrich my life. They would be my personal pals and I their ultimate ruler.

Later I grew more suspicious of advertisements and my fetish for sea-monkeys abated. But miraculously, Father Christmas delivered a package to our home a few months ago. We had sea-monkeys. And so my kids prepared the little chamber for them, adding powders and nutrition. The mysterious eggs were added. Over a period of weeks we noticed some little creatures in the water. From modest specks, they have grown into discernible swimming creatures. They hang out together, they negotiate the plastic galleon and I suspect that they are starting to breed.

They don't look remotely like monkeys though. They are brine shrimp. But I don't feel too bad about this. Another childhood aspiration has been fulfilled.