Emotive votive

When we have guests I quite often light four votive candles in silver holders which are arranged on the corners of one of the mirrored trays that hold Waterford glasses. The flicker of the candles provides a pretty effect with the cut glass.

On Friday we had visitors from Shanghai who had obviously decided to take Mohammed to the mountain, by coming here to make us feel more guilty about not going to visit them there last month. Unfortunately the new votives seemed very reluctant to stay alight, and so several attempts ended up with the drizzled wax leaving its unwelcome residue. In the cold light of day when I subsequently photograped them they do also resemble a deposit for a sperm bank, but let's not dwell on that.

I had decided to use the holders having recently purchased a batch of candles, albeit from a different source. The silver containers were in an unpolished state, so I rectified that

using a toothbrush to work on the pair of rope pattern holders, which we bought a few years ago in Hue, Vietnam. Anyway after faffing around and failing to keep the candles alight, I extinguished them and thought nothing further of them for the remainder of what turned out to be a very long but enjoyable reunion, which involved drinks here, dinner at our nearby favourite French bistro, drinks at our bar, owned and managed by a delightful friend, further drinks at a roaring night club, and a night cap at a newly-met couple's penthouse in the building next door but one, and home to bed by 2 am. 

Votive expletive.