Fans for the memory

This is one fan, showing both sides.  I was given three fans a while ago by a young Chinese student staying here.  One was hideous, and I gave it to a charity shop an age ago.  Of the remaining two, one has a landscape on it, one has peonies.  Today I decided I preferred the landscape one, but I think this is the one I took to my cousin Strat's funeral.  It was a hot day in July.  I tried to get a translation of the text, but the cousin I asked (Ben C) said his Mandarin wasn't up to it.   I hope it doesn't just say "Fans R Us - the Sin Qin Fan company for all your personal ventilation requirements".  I'd like to think it was a piece of classical poetry - or even a quote from Mao (probably not).  Sadly I'll probably never know.  

We used to have a lot of foreign students visiting, until 2015, when we decided to stick with AirBnB.  They could be very interesting, but mostly they were just teenage boys, with few opinions and little curiosity. Some of them brought "interesting" gifts - some welcome (chocolates and biscuits and honey), some of dubious value (coffee table books) and some interesting but never likely to find a home here (wind up windmill musical boxes mad of bamboo, a cut out picture of a cat, a Ukrainian lucky charm).   Fans are sort of useful, but I already had 3... and they are seldom necessary, unless one goes to the theatre in the summer a lot. They don't wear out and need replacing either (not in England anyway). I suppose they are an "acceptable gift" because they are attractive, pleasing and inoffensive.  

This makes me reflect on how many of the things I will be discarding this year are gifts.   Over the last few years I have been happy to get rid of items which are gifts from people I no longer see.  I had a particular friend who used to give me regular birthday and Christmas presents (and I her) these were nearly always objects that seemed a bit clunky to my taste, or with a design that wasn't in keeping with my austere standards.  It was a delight to dispose of them and feel I didn't have to keep them out of loyalty.