It wasn't my fault if the blamed old store caught fire and gave me a chance to help Ferguson move out some of the stuff that has been 'spiffed' till it looks like red ink had been spilled all over the price-tags.

The Khek speak Akha (or Hakkah), which is the language spoken by the Akha people of southern China Yunnan Province. The Khek were driven out of their lands into the inhospitable highlands of the Yunan in south-west China by the Han Chinese some two thousand years ago, but they spread father south beyond the frontiers of China into Kentung Shan of Burma, into northern Laos, Thailand, North Vietnam, and of course Malaya. Ioka is the name of the guardian spirit of the Khek community. The Khek shamans are believed to be in direct contact with the Ioka. In the Akha language, the word of this shaman is tumo. The Khek are a very superstitious people.

The building had the required tinclad fire doors.

“Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke[…]whom the papers are making such a fuss about.”