A Fire, A Flower Show And Prawn Noodles

Just 24 hours. But so many things to report!

This morning just past 1 am, while I was suffering an unusual bout of insomnia and fiddling with the TV remote and wondering if I should just get out of bed and see if anyone is online for a chat, the fire alarm rang. The shrillness and loudness of the alarm invaded my little flat, I decided to pee first in case it turns out to be a long night - talk about presence of mind!

When I opened my front door, I saw my neighbour from the opposite unit peering out his door too. We both confirmed we don't smell smoke, I closed my door and debated what to do next. The fact that there was a fire bell shrilling right outside my door made it impossible to stay inside the flat, I took my mobile phone, keys and put on my overcoat and went downstairs. I realised I didn't take any official documents or money with me when I evacuated because I didn't really believe there was a fire in the building, but I guess I should have grabbed them nevertheless.

There were about 6 people downstairs when I came down, dressed in their various sleeping attire as it was already 1.20 am. We hung around a bit, and then I decided to circle the building to see if there was any sign of smoke. None. Then I saw the mains board with lights lit up like a Christmas tree reflected on the building's security door, so I went back in to have a look. It said the fault was in "Level 9". A quick check with the folks outside confirmed no one was from Level 9, then it struck me, there was NO Level 9 in the building, my quick-thinking neighbour then said he was going to check on Unit 9 and sprinted upstairs.

When he appeared 5 minutes later, he said when the old man who lives in the unit opened his front door, he could smell smoke and told the man to open all his windows to air the place up and hopefully the alarm would stop. We waited. No luck, the alarm was still ringing. Then in the distance, we hear the fire engine, could it be coming for us? The sound came nearer and a fire engine drove past us, it wasn't going very fast and when we saw that it had bypassed us, we started waving our arms. They saw us, stopped and turned the engine round the corner and came round the back. A bunch of big, burly firemen piled out of the fire engine and leisurely strolled up to us. We told them about Unit 9, so a couple of them went upstairs to check the situation out while the rest of them just hung around downstairs.

Another 10 minutes later, 3 firemen appear from upstairs, turned off the alarm and gave us the all clear. There wasn't a real fire, only burnt cooking. As it was past 1 am, I suspect the old man may have fallen asleep while cooking till the pot burnt, triggering off the alarm. Well at least now we know the smoke detector and fire alarm work in this building.

Thank goodness it was a warm Spring night, it wasn't cold waiting downstairs in the open, but it sure was an exciting 30 minutes...

That didn't help my insomnia and I finally got to bed at 3.30 am. Didn't get much sleep as the next morning, we were going to DJ, a posh departmental store, to check out their Spring Flower Show. Apparently, every Spring, they deck out the whole place with exotic flower arrangements. They didn't disappoint. It was fabulous. Spring was really in the air, it was 26C, I was in a short-sleeved tee shirt, skirt and clogs. I even had sun block on. It really makes a difference when it's warm and sunny. Psychologically, it seems to be such a boost, everything seems more cheerful, hope seems abundant. There is nothing a little solar therapy can't help...

I'm glad Winter is over and Spring is here.

And to top off a perfect day, I had an absolutely delicious Prawn Noodle Soup for lunch, the stock was so yummy, rich and sweet. They were generous with the prawns and pork pieces. It just can't get better than this. Mmmmmm.