Tuesday, August 3

Irma has some shopping she needs to do and has suggested that I might sit and have a beer while I wait. I sit on the pavement terrace outside O’Popo where the barman asks if I have had the vaccination.

I have got used to this since we arrived in Riga so I say, ”Yes, both”. He looks at me for a moment. ”You fool”, he says. ”The virus doesn’t do you any harm. It’s the vaccine that gets you. You know that, don’t you?” I give a non-committal smile that you can read anyway you want and say nothing.

As I sip my beer a bird joins me, and sits there watching me for about five minutes. Eventually I feel almost obliged to photograph it.