Arrival of a New Year

In little over 6 hours here we will be welcoming in a New Year, 2017, and around the world to the East of us here in Brazil many countries have already done so. Lots of street parties, lots of alcohol consumed, millions of pound worth of fireworks exploded, no doubt thousands admitted to Emergency Rooms of hospitals around the world too, with partying-related injuries. For what? For the expectation that 2017 may be better than 2016, or that all this partying might make it so??
I will be spending the evening quietly at home alone - I may raise a glass in toast to loved ones far away, but have absolutely no interest in surrounding myself with masses of strangers getting high on alcohol and drugs, and listening to eardrum-bursting levels of music in the streets. I will, however, stay up past midnight, but only because I would be woken up by all the fireworks if I tried to go to sleep earlier! It is almost 40 years since I went out on New Year's Eve, in Durban, South Africa, and though it was enjoyable back then in South Africa, it was also ... I don't know, futile? For many it will probably be the best thing they do all year!!
The last time I celebrated NYE it was a dinner party at home with some close friends, and at midnight we went outside to watch some distant fireworks. We had a few drinks with a lovely meal, and it was far more meaningful and soul uplifting than going out to surround yourself with strangers, all intent on getting drunk as quickly as possible.
But whatever you are doing, however YOU celebrate the arrival of a New Year, I wish everyone all the very best in health and happiness for 2017!

Honesty?

I consider myself to be a very honest person - I have never stolen anything in my life, and cannot walk out of a shop if I notice I have been undercharged or given too much change, which happens occasionally. I can even recall years ago once when my mother had sent me up to the row of shops near our house in a Yorkshire village to get her some cigarettes from the machine (I was no more than 12 at the time) - yes, back then cigarettes were available in vending machines - and the machine (owned by the sweet/toy shop there) dispensed 5 packs of Kensitas, instead of one. Without a moment's hesitation I took them into the shop and handed them in - much to the surprise of the lady shopkeeper! I don't recall any formal teaching about honesty, but must have picked it up from my parents/grandparents (we shared a house with them till I was about 4) and have followed that philosophy all my life - if it isn't mine I don't take it!

This has occasionally annoyed (slightly) some friends when we have been out for a meal, say, and I point out an undercharge in the bill - once all our drinks had been left off, which was considerable! I called the waitress over to say there was a problem with the bill, and she instantly called for the manager - who arrived ready for an argument, but was immediately deflated when I showed him our drinks had been left off! I explained later to my friends that had we walked out without paying for the drinks, the waitress would probably have had to meet the shortfall for her mistake, and we knew how poorly they were paid anyway!

I have a young friend here, who looks afer my house during my enforced absences, and he came round the other day asking to borrow my post-hole digging tool as he had acquired a plot of land and wanted to fence it off. Knowing he isn't working, and is always broke I asked him how he got the land, and he says it was vacant so he took it. The conversation then went like this -
Me: "It was vacant, so you stole it?"
Him: "No, I didn't steal it - it is public land"
Me: "Public land? But it must belong to someone."
Him: "Yes, the Municipality, but it is public."
Me: "You cannot just take Municipal land and use it, that is stealing"
Him: "No, they weren't using it and it belongs to the people, so I just took it as I need it. It is the only way I will ever get land to build my own house on."
Me: "So if I want to build a house on a road, which is also 'public' land, that is also OK?"
Him: "No! That is being used so you cannot do that"
Me: "What if the Municipality has plans for the future for that land?"
Him: "Too bad - it is mine now!"
Me: " But that is stealing - you know it doesn't belong to you, you do not and will not ever have legal title to it. If someone comes and takes it you will also have no legal right to protection! Also what about utilities like water and electricity - you cannot get them connected unless you have legal title?"
Him: "That is no problem we will just find the pipes and cables and connect to them."
Me: "So you will steal water and electricity as well?"
Him: "Well, it isn't really stealing - just taking it."
Me: "Taking without paying is also stealing."
Him: "But if I hold the land long enough it will become mine. Everyone is doing it where I live, so it is OK"

Two weeks later I asked him how the land was coming along - "Oh, I don't have it any more ... I sold it!" Now, knowing that this is the mind-set of a friend I have known for 7 years and who I entrust my home to for 6 months every year, fills me with a certain amount of trepidation!

He also was sporting a "diamond" ear stud last time I saw him (if it is a real diamond it is worth thousands, so must be cubic zirconia or similar), so I asked him where he got that (as I mentioned before he is perpetually broke!), and he told me he found it - in his bedroom! So without even bothering to find out who it might really belong to (could be a former girlfriend, or family member as he periodically moves out of the family home) he got his younger sister to pierce his ear with a needle and now wears the stud! And, yes, he considers himself to be a decent, honest person!

"If it ain't nailed down it's mine!"

School Sports - Cricket

As we followed the UK public school model cricket was a major sport for us. We had a beautiful, very well-maintained, "oval" and pavilion, and a couple of other "flat" fields (notably part of the athletics field) that were also suitable for cricket matches.
The game was taken very seriously and our First Eleven competed against other Rhodesian schools (I make no apology for continually referring to "Rhodesia" as that is what the country was called, now Zimbabwe, back when I was at school), and was very successful, as were some of our junior teams. I was not that good, though I did enjoy playing, and we "duffers" used to play in what was referred to as "the leagues" - those of us who didn't make the main teams played a variety of sports, including cricket twice a week, like basketball, tennis, football, on a more casual basis. We played for our "house" (there were 5 residential boarding houses) against other houses with a schoolmaster sometimes in attendance as the "umpire", but it was very informal.
My final year I was appointed house "leagues" captain - I think I was the most senior, semi-sporty person available! In "leagues" I was one of the better batsmen, but more than likely because the bowling was of dubious quality (all the better players being snapped up by the main teams), but elected to play wicket-keeper as captain, as it was a central position where I could keep an eye on things.
The "kit" was supplied by the school and we used to have to go and collect it before the games, so between us we had probably 4 sets of pads, 4 bats, 4 batting gloves (of very poor quality!), 2 sets of stumps, 1 ball and 1 pair of wicket-keeping pads and gloves!
In that company I was pretty good at keeping wicket - the "fast" bowlers were slow-to-medium so I stood up just behind the stumps for all of them and not much got past me. The gloves were old and oft-repaired, though, and didn't have much padding in them,and one day I noticed the school cricket coach had paused on his way home and was watching us play. Sandy Singleton was also a Latin Teacher, but had played cricket for Worcestershire in the UK, and as we finished for the day he called me over and asked to look at the gloves. He said he had been impressed by my keeping, but the gloved left a lot to be desired, so he took them away to repair them (I told him these were the best pair we had in "leagues" so he agreed to look at the rest of the kit - as we got the main team cast-offs!). The following game day he was there with the repaired gloves, now sporting red dimpled covering over the palms, and much more effective! 
A couple of weeks later was the start of the inter-house cricket tournament, and our house cricket captain, one of the First XI opening batsmen, sought me out to ask if I would keep wicket for the house team!! Mr Singleton had sung my praise, and as we had no one else who kept wicket too, I was co-opted into the side. My first problem was that I had no cricket kit of my own! So I had to borrow school equipment from the "leagues" locker, including the repaired gloves.
The team training sessions went much better than I anticipated, my catching was well up to standard, though these guys hit and threw the ball ten times harder than my "league" team-mates! However it was when I got behind the stumps to face the first over that I realised the true gulf between the different forms of the game. Even their medium-quick bowlers ran in twice as fast as anything I had faced before, and the quick bowlers ... well, suffice it to say that I no longer "stood up" behind the stumps! I also soon found out I was missed a vital piece of cricketing "attire" - the box! For the non-cricketers out there the "box" is a cup, usually made of plastic, that protects your genitals from being crushed by a very hard ball being propelled towards you at a high rate of speed. After being hit twice in one game - and manfully continuing on after the first hit with barely a tweet of pain - one of my teammates took pity on me and loaned me his "spare". Now the thought of "sharing" an article that is used against the skin to protect a part of the lower anatomy may not appeal to some, but I assure you that it is preferable to the agony of a hard ball hitting the testes!
I kept wicket with a modicum of success throughout the tournament, and even managed to hit 13 runs (3 boundaries and a single) in one game before being caught attempting the 4th boundary ... in the same place! After that I was instructed to block and let the "real" batsmen score the runs - which peeved me a little as I was third highest scorer in the previous game (though we did lose!).