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At just after 7am on a Sunday morning, cold sober, wide awake, and warming up to my morning walk, I heard the sound of a saxophone being played.

At that time the faraway sound was particularly mournful and sad.

I walked on. I drew closer to the sound. I spied the sax player. Brass sax to his lips, he stood, all alone, on a balustraded balcony. All the listeners of the night before must have crawled off to their beds, leaving him pouring out the last of his soul to the breaking sun as it crept back up into the sky to start the new day.

I walked on. Just minutes later, a counterpoint to the sad sound of the saxophone. I saw a sad silence as an ambulance drove away, going back to the hospital. No lights flashing. No rushing wheels. No siren sound.

I don't like the sound of a silent ambulance. I'd much rather hear the scream of its siren or its high-pitched warbling wailer. The sound of a silent ambulance is the sound of death. The sound of the siren is the sound of a life that someone is trying to save.

Maybe the sax player had a good year. I hope the person in that silent ambulance had also had a good year - in fact, a good and full life.

This sixth year in this new Millennium, was a good year. No hurricane slams. No tsunami. Not too many murders - only three, or was it four? A lot of shooting though. In town, up the country. Bullets whizzing all over the place. We're on our third PLP Premier now and the changeover was smoothly done.

Mould Busters

It looks like we might have to fly in some 'Mould Busters', or maybe just go back to building the typically Bermudian way. I reckon that damn few old-timers perished from 'mould', and most Bermudian-designed, Bermudian-built houses deal very well with mould or 'dampness' as the old-timers call it.

But with all that mould marching about up there in Prospect, scaring and distracting everybody, I guess that nobody remembered that the 2006 school results have still not been published. Perhaps this year that sneaky mouldy 'aspergillus' ate the school results.

As one of my many Christmas presents, I was given a copy of the Royal Gazette's Headline book and I spotted the front page story on my brother - Carlton Askia. I'm grateful for that gift, as I never did keep a copy of that paper, and thought I'd lost that bit of family history.

In all, a good year. Next year, as with every year, there will be some surprises, some shocks, some sadness. But there will always be much joy, much happiness, and much fun. Mostly, I think, there'll be a lot of good stuff happening next year. Not because any one or other political party is in charge; or because any one man or other is Premier. Mostly it'll happen because most people are innately good. Most people are kind and considerate. And most people do the right thing most of the time.

So, even though Dubyas and Tonys may continue to mess up; even though Vladimirs and Mugabes will continue to poke at those who disagree with them; even though wars and conflicts won't cease; it'll still be a better and fairer world than it has been in the past.

So I hope that you had a good 2006. And if, in 2007, the ambulance should have to come for you, I hope that it picks you up and goes screaming back to the hospital.[[In-content Ad]]

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