New Years Eve 2017 1040

Having this past week been descended on by myriad colonial oenophiles I was placed in the position of having to go supermarket shopping on a weekend, something I detest. Of course, this weekend will be even worse considering the time of year.

Yesterday by the time I decided to actually do something about it, the lateness of the hour saw my enthusiasm dwindle to naught. I have no choice but to go today and may the Lord have mercy on my shopping trolley.

I omitted to mention in Thursday's blog something which occurred before dinner. With the pie already cooked and the pizzas assembled I had nothing to do before the guests arrived, all that remained to be done was turn the oven on, whack the pepperoni and jalapeno treats in and wait.

So I sat in my office watching some programme or other.

The block of flats nearest me and which is “in series” with mine starts about twenty feet away from where I sit and after some time my peripheral vision picked up something out of the ordinary.

I looked and to my mild surprise I could see smoke and flames, which from my vantage point seemed to be emanating from the wall. I say mild surprise because some very strange things happen in China which in fact turn out to be the norm.

However, I did go outside in my new slippers to take a more detailed look. The burning material appeared to be dried twigs and leaves and was stuffed into a window recess. It was giving off the blackest of smoke, almost the colour a burning tyre does and it was discolouring the concrete awning over the easternmost entrance.

Now, on certain days of the year I have observed multitudes of small bonfires but hitherto they have always been confined to pavements and up against the bottoms of walls. These are lit on certain days (no idea which festivals) and are an homage to deceased ancestors. To kick such fires in order to extinguish them would be sacrilege and aside from small black scorch marks on the walls, do no damage. But stuffed in a window recess?

I was puzzled but as the material had almost been consumed and the flames were petering out, that coupled with a couple of elderly men watching unconcerned close by, I went back inside.

Some time later a chap in his forties emerged, swept up the residue and cleaned around the window and the underside of the awning. I felt this incident to be most odd even for here. When Pat and Ariel arrived to clean I quizzed them as to whether that day was a special ancestor day? No. I then related what had happened and that I felt had it been a remembrance thing it would have been lit on the ground. They agreed.

I then opined that perhaps someone had a disagreement with the resident behind the affected window and it was universally agreed this was the most likely explanation. It is unlikely I know (the buildings are concrete and steel and not a high fire risk) but there was obviously a chance the entire building could have gone up, with the result that dozens of tenants' lives were placed in jeopardy. I rather wish I had observed the culprit in the act.

So in thirteen hours this year will leave us. I am sure there will be some readers who, like me, will be glad to see the back of what for me at least has not exactly been a year I shall gaze back on with unconditional fondness.

Without re-reading all my blogs, the highs and lows that immediately spring to mind are of course last spring festival when my Mother left us, the sports days in which I participated and thought for a moment I had dislodged the scaffolding in my arm, the memorable but utterly exhausting and debilitating Hogg/Alley grand tour of China and the subsequent exacerbation of the hip problem, Jacob leaving unexpectedly and the consequential additional workload placed upon me, the resurgence of my interest in cooking due to meeting two young piglets who would otherwise starve and of course, The Fart That Stopped The Lift! There were more but too many to precis here.

For all the vicissitudes of the year I cannot deny it was eventful, neither will I say I pine for a 9 to 5 office job in which the highlights are the office Christmas party and a fortnight in Tenerife every August. I don't.

What I do want is to wish all my readers a Happy New Year wherever you are and hope you see in the new year in whichever way pleases you most. If I manage to remain conscious it could well be that I hear the fireworks as a background to a box set of Planet Earth II........

Whatever 2018 has in store for us we can't run away from it so embrace it, defeat it and above all, revel in it! Hic.........