Chimney watch

Good grief. Who would've thought that watching a tiny chimney on tv could be so exciting? Will there be smoke tonight? Probably, because there hasn't been an announcement telling the world that the college of cardinals has left the building... (Haha.)

I'm sitting glued to my sofa (except for now, of course - and damn it, if the puff of smoke arises while I sit here!) and watching BBC World's live coverage from the Vatican. The cardinals in the Sistine Chapel are voting away behind locked doors and people all around the world are watching that chimney. Any bets on when the college of cardinals will arrive at a result and the Catholic world will have a new pope? I'm thinking Wednesday, third ballot? :) That could be a bit optimistic, because that would mean only eight rounds of voting (one tonight, four per day from tomorrow on), but hey, I'm an optimistic person. And I'm thinking they might select an Italian pope again. A wild guess.

Btw, I'm not going to bet my money on any of this. Not one cent. So that you know and there are no misunderstandings. You can bet anything you want, I'm just playing with the thought. :)

Edit about 10 minutes later: Well, there was smoke. And also an oddly intense moment, when the BBC reporter pondered: "That does look white to me..." Gasp! But after a while, it was clearly black smoke. Quite a bit of it, too. I wouldn't have thought 115 ballot cards on a string would've made the chimney huff and puff for so long. I wonder what chemicals they use to secure the color of the smoke? Hmm.