Tuesday, December 31

We decide to stay in for New Year. We have sat in beach restaurants often enough, watching police officers with big sticks disciplining crowds that need no disciplining.

I walk down to the beach in the late afternoon to see if things have started yet. They haven’t. I spot a very few people on Lighthouse Beach. Either they will all arrive simultaneously in a couple of hours or the restaurants will have a very quiet night.

I walk down to where Hawa Beach begins and catch a few people strolling along the shoreline. I use a setting on the camera I have rarely used before to capture them in motion.

Soon the beach will hopefully fill up and we will sit at home listening to fireworks in the distance. Shanti will take no notice of any of the noises. Either she has hearing problems or she has a remarkably calm nature.

Since she can hear us call her easily enough, and now recognises her name, we suspect she has a supernaturally calm nature.