Thursday, December 27

Luke and I went to bed at 2:39 and we all woke up about 8:30. Luke had breakfast and his taxi arrived at 9:00. Off he went t the airport to get his plane to Mumbai. He will stay there tonight and then fly to Bangkok tomorrow morning. He and Kari should arrive within ten minutes of each other to start the next chapter of their adventure.

The day remained cloudy and overcast for the first time since we arrived. Irma went to Divine Supermarket by tuk-tuk, and we sat and read.

Now the cat we call Halo has arrived and is sitting nearer to us than it has before. Later it will walk carefully into the house and come trotting out with a chicken sausage in its mouth that must have dropped off the table yesterday.

in the evening Irma will make pasta and tuna and we will watch two lengthy Indian talkshows on NDTV in which politicians refuse to engage in discussion and simply repeat prepared positions again and again.

The house will feel distinctly empty without Luke here.