A Mabel Fable – Chapter 2

These are strange times and are getter stranger by the minute. Yet, at the same time they also getting less strange as we reach yet another new normal. I think I may have mentioned somewhere the euphoria we have experienced when doing something that used to be normal and everyday. The first time we went out for dinner, after maybe 5 months, we felt this sense of euphoria and looking round you could tell other people were feeling it too. At the moment we’ll take anything that gives us a boost and one certainly learns to appreciate small triumphs.

One such experience we recently had regarding that little dog that we rescued from the street. If you remember, we started feeding these puppies born in a ditch at the end of our road. Eventually there was only one left and while feeding it one day a car came round the corner and hit it. Of course, we took it home and eventually paid for it to have surgery. Then came the problem of rehoming it as Nell was not a fan. Eventually, a lovely couple from Sweden said they would take her the only problem being that they lived 20 hours by bus away. Stunningly, they had a bus company take her all the way to where they lived and thus began her new life under a new name – Stella. Occasionally we would get updates about her and photos and all seemed well. Recently, however, one of the two lost his job but managed to find a new one in Yangon. Now, they have moved back here and the other day we met up with them and Stella for the first time. Stella was just as friendly as we remembered her to be and her injury was barely noticeable at all. It was wonderful to see her again and to experience first hand how loved she is by her owners. With things being like they are here in Myanmar I have a feeling that that chapter 3 of this fable will see Stella in the countryside of Sweden (probably wearing a coat).

Other pleasures we are experiencing right now are the changing of the seasons and what that means for plants and animals. We are now coming to the end of our third year here and I would say that we are only just getting a feel for the seasons beyond dry and wet. The plants that I put in a year ago are now all flowering again much to our delight. My grass project is going excellently with a thick carpet like texture to it in places. The changing of the seasons is also when you see snakes as they tend to move from one hideaway to another. I was incredible excited to have our first snake in the garden. It was a small checkered keelback snake which, beyond sharp teeth, is apparently harmless.

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Finally, a final. My football team (that’s soccer to the Americans), Sunderland, made it to a final. The English Football League Trophy sponsored by Papa John’s Pizza! We played at Wembley – the home of English football where we haven’t won since our famous FA Cup Final win against Leeds in 1973. We’ve played there 7 times since without a win. We were playing a team exactly 1 league below us in places so we should have won and we did. Funnily enough, it was an American who scored the winning goal. Another triumph and another example of something we have to be grateful for.