Wednesday: Windows

There was a farewell reception tonight for the Hermanos, our dear friends who are moving to Brazil.  We will miss them - they have really made the time special here.  But as we are godparents to their little daughter, we know we will be seeing them again, wherever we can make it happen.

This was just next door to where we said goodbye to them.  A bit lazy and a bit off kilter but it will have to do.  

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As a distraction I have read quite a lot over the last few days.  Yesterday, I finished 'Less Than One  - Selected Essays' by Joseph Brodsky, the Russian emigre poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987 (the youngest person ever to receive it).  It was actually a reread.  Years ago I borrowed a copy from a friend and it impressed me hugely, particularly the essay 'In A Room And A Half', a moving essay about his parents' lives in their communal apartment in Leningrad.  I saw it in a bookshop not so long ago and bought it, a little worried that I would find the essay disappointing after such a long time.  It was as powerful as I remember.