Wednesday, May 6

Irma gave me a generous amount of gifts for my birthday that included two t-shirts, some perfume, a matching rucksack, and more. She had a meeting in the morning (a real one that involved leaving the house and going somewhere else) and so I opened them after she returned.

Some considerable time after she returned, in fact, since she arrived back with noodles and spring rolls that she had picked up somewhere, and found me sitting in the middle of a (virtual) meeting.

She also gave me something that she had found, to her shock, during our weekend of spring cleaning. Auo had bought this for me as a present when she had gone to Chile with Irma, and both of them had forgotten about it when it next came time to give me presents. It had lain hidden in the cupboard ever since.

I realise that it constitutes the last gift I will ever receive from Auo, and a wonderful surprise too. I photograph it with tears in my eyes. I feel something that I know will never go away.

Later we will sit in the garden and have a glass of sparkling wine to celebrate my birthday, and the fact that it has just become warm enough to sit in the garden drinking sparkling wine.

While out there I will put up a new bird house for the birds that got evicted from their house after ten or so years by a couple of slightly bigger birds. The long-time residents still sit in the garden so hopefully they will spot the new, empty house, and move in.