SOME days you just cannot get rid of a colony. So it proved for Portugal in 1974 when, in a frenzy of conscience and pragmatism after its socialist 'revolution of the carnations', it tried to give Macau back to China.
Thanks but no thanks, said the world's waking giant. Maybe later. Twenty-five years later, as it transpired.
Next month, the tiny nation on the edge of Europe finally gets to wash its hands of the miniscule enclave on the edge of China, bringing to a close a 442-year chapter of history and making Macau and Hong Kong twin guinea pigs in Deng Xiaoping's 'one country, two systems' experiment.
The night of December 19 will be one of the longest of the year - and not just for the officials charged with keeping 'sinner in history'-turned-European Union representative Chris Patten and Chinese President Jiang Zemin at opposite ends of the banquet table.
For the handover falls just short of the winter solstice: the sun will make a mad dash to set on the last day of Portuguese administration, yet will have to be dragged kicking and screaming over the horizon to greet the first day of Chinese rule.
It is as if the heavens themselves will echo the hopes and fears of the populace. Few among the 96 per cent Chinese residents mourn the passing of the Portuguese. Past administrations - if not the outgoing regime - have more often than not been characterised by indifference, nepotism, corruption and incompetence. And while most welcome the youthful team picked by incoming Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah - the average age of his policy secretaries is 44 - there still swirls an undercurrent of uncertainty about the mainland's intentions.