They had a few firecrackers to play with. It was supposed to be a simple affair. Just light and move away.
They had let off a few big ones and a few small ones. Now they were going for another big one.
He lit the fuse.
He made a move to get away.
His foot hit the side of a tile.
The firecracker popped and the others laughed.
Then he realised there was blood on the ground. He looked down and saw a cut on his foot. It was gaping.
He came to look for me.
As an ex-SRN and ex-RM from England, I took one look and knew this was a touch-and-go case. Would he need stitches? He didn’t want to go to the Casualty Dept for the doctors to have a look.
Firmly I instructed him to get some ice on it. Perhaps the bleeding would stop, and the swelling would reduce. A bit of strong tape might hold the edges of the wound together.
Which is what we did.
A few hours later he decided he wanted to have a doctor look at after all. He left with his friends and instructions from me on what to say.
There, the doctor washed and dressed the wound and gave him an anti- tetanus booster shot. He didn’t need stitches.
I think the first-aid helped.
But we also prayed.
No, no pictures. Might be too gory….
I do not exaggerate. This young man literally pulls the dough to make the noodles. You can see a video clip of it in 
Here you can see it bubbling away on the stove, made into a lovely soup, fit for a king! Indeed, legend has it that the emperors of China loved this dish.
The queue folded back on itself three times!
And queue he did.
But what the people really wanted was the duck and the proprietor kept bringing in more and more of that.
So we got out duck finally and went home with it. But it wasn’t cut. The man didn’t have the time to spare to cut it up. He said in Chinese, “Every year also like this! I never cut! Never finish if I cut!”
Yes, totally gone…..
