It is a strange feeling I have when considering the fact that over the last forty years or so and since I was first able to grasp that fact that clocks went round and that most people got blitzed on cheap wine at this exact time of the year, I am sitting here all alone and in a hotel that might only have only one other guest apart from myself.
I am imagining the evening ahead and the countdown to midnight. I will probably have something to eat shortly, an offering from the menu (spaghetti bolognaise perhaps?) and a glass of Heineken. I finished my last novel on the plane here; so a movie later? They like to voice-over movies here – western films have two sound tracks, one in Vietnamese narration the other with the original voices behind. It is possible to understand the English soundtrack but it does give headache as the ears work overtime. But HBO and Star World Channels are normal – perhaps I can watch RoboCop 11 or a Japanese Manja cartoon - yikes?
My feelings are certainly strange. I changed my job to spend more time with my family but …….. anyway, two years I say and then time to move on ……… but here and now I will simply enjoy the silence and the smiles of the Vietnamese (who consider me as a guest of honour as the other guest is a recluse) and spend the last day of this year sober and in bed before 10pm.
Tomorrow the ship comes in, I will do a survey/inspection and then be home on the 2nd January 2011 – slightly late but I never did have any resolutions anyway except that one that I never manage – to be home for New Year.
Waiter – service please!
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