As you know, we have students that rent rooms in our basement and although we don't have much interaction we do see and hear them from time to time. We have been very lucky and have not had any problems except for the odd plugged toilet now and then.
Our most recent student was Hau Tran who has been here for the last 7 weeks as he completes an upgrade in his trade. Hau is one of a kind (just like Cameron) and if I could tell you his nationality I would - but suffice it to say he looks Hawaiian or Polynesian but with a huge wild afro under a ball cap. A very nice fellow to say the least and much at ease with himself.
I mentioned that we see and hear our students sometimes but I forgot to say we also smell them. That does not mean they smell - it means that they cook bacon every single day and not just for breakfast! No complaints here - who doesn't love bacon!
However, a few evenings ago Hau was cooking his evening bacon and apparently studying very intently when the smoke detectors suddenly went off. Our house has about 12 smoke detectors and they are all wired together so it is pretty hard to miss even a small bacon fire. That is what happened - when I ran downstairs Hau had the frying pan in the sink and it was still burning brightly. The apartment and the first floor quickly filled with more smoke than you would think could come from one small frying pan.
I remembered that we had fire extinguishers in both the apartments and once I located it and read the instructions the fire was quickly put out - first time I ever had to use one and it did the job quite well.
There was no real damage done except for a lot of smoke and noise as the alarms would not go off until we had John bring down some fans from his place and clear everything out.
After the smoke cleared we left Hau to his studies and kidded him that he had apparently picked the right career as he was certainly not cut out to be a cook. The whole episode was rather amusing and no harm was done - Hau cleaned everything up and even saved the bacon. He wrote his final exam on Thursday and we bid him farewell with an invitation to return anytime. End of story? Not quite...
We also clean the student apartment every weekend, mostly just to tidy up and keep an eye on things - we do not enter the student's rooms as that is their personal space. Now that Hau's room is available I went in to see what needs to be done for our next boarder who arrives in January.
On the night table next to the bed I found the following note from Hau:
"Thank you for everything! I left a gift card for Canadian Tire. That should do for a new fire extinguisher. If not, you will find something to buy there. Ha Ha - Merry Christmas! - HauI took the picture below just as I found it. This small but meaningful and funny (the receipt is a nice touch) gesture has helped to kindle a little Christmas spirit so I thought I would spread it around. Hope you enjoy!
