Day 49: Went the funeral of a friend's father this morning. This photo works very well to illustrate how it feels to be in circumstances that are clear - the service, the emotion, the grief - and yet to be apart from it and if not invisible then certainly ill defined, due to language, lack of history, lack of connection. I sat next to him at a birthday party once, but didn't know who he was.

On a brighter note, today we have been married exactly 18 months, We went out for dinner on our first anniversary, and sitting at the next table was an old woman of a particular European style. The extremely elaborate gravity defying bouffant, the matching fluffy white dog, absolutely elegant clothes and bright red nails for holding the ever present cigarette. Today I saw her again, 6 months later to the day, in the supermarket carpark. She drives a very chic silver Mercedes sport car. It has a soft top but I can't imagine the hairdo would survive the fresh air. Live and lives go on.