An eye for an eye

Remember I talked about the break-in attempts in the neighbourhood? The weirdest thing happened to us on New Year's Day.

We may not have the entire family at home on that day but we definitely have at least one person around at any point of time and it was full house at night as we cooked at home. We were very surprised to find out the heavy plastic canopy we use to protect our chili pepper plant went missing on Jan 2.

It is crucial to protect the little white flowers on a chili pepper plant in order to harvest chili pepper. In our case, we were especially careful with the Jalapeno as the first two trials failed and we went from scratch (seeds were stored in the fridge, many early mornings to check if there is any seedlings in the flower bed...etc). When the flowers appeared, we were ecstatic. Not only it was the first success, it meant we would have a reliable supply of Jalapeno. It's not easy to buy fresh good ones in Hong Kong!

In order to protect the precious flowers from rain, strong wind and bugs, we spent hours looking for big strong plastic sheets that we can use to make a canopy.

Then, on Jan 2, the biggest sheet above the chili pepper plants went missing. The Knots of the strings to the lamp post were undone. There were evidence that whoever borrowed the plasic sheets tried to take the sheets for the other flower racks but found it too difficult and gave up half way through. We went to the refuse collection station. Interviewed everyone at home and at the management office and finally found the cleaning lady who gave us the most clue. She saw the sheet in front of our garage and looked dirty. So, she threw it away with the other rubbish.

The cleaning lady said the sheet must have been blown away from the roof top. Ok, the sheet is the thick clear plastic type. Given the size ( 25 ft across and 10 ft wide), it would be at least 20 lbs. Unless you flip it, it's not something that "floats". Plus with the knots undone??

Someone must have borrowed it for reason unknown and decided to chuck it in front of our house after his/her deed was done. I was angry because it was a clear intrusion and if that person really needed to use the sheet, it' very easy to ring the door bell.

I looked at my Jalapeno and decided if I ever find out who did it, I'll make sure that person will have some thing being pulled away from his/her body just like how the white flowers got tormented by the wind a rain!