Hanging out

I spent this sometimes rainy and non-summerlike July weekend with former neighbours on the other side of the lake.

We watched a couple of movies, an unbelievable film on the HD screen about insects (see photo), ate well, caught up on our creative activities, friends and daughters. Theirs was about to land in her home country and everyone breathed a collective sigh when the sms came in “landed” from her. When my own daughter flies although she is about to leave her 30s, I am mentally in the cockpit with the pilot making sure he keeps his mind on his job, and I was willing to mentally help the pilot land with this teenager as a passenger.

I remember their daughter from the time when we wondered if her two top teeth would ever replace her baby ones. Many a times we made cookies in my flat. Hollowing out a jack o'lantern she chose that we would make a two-faced pumpkin. with a happy and a sad face rather than decide on one. She would invite her friends in to see my penguin collection. Many nights we would watch The Missing Link with the "mean teacher" and vote of the contestants ourselves. One of my favourite memories was when she and her friend appeared on a Sunday morning and we “shot” each other with rainbows from my grandmother’s prism. I am told she is now taller than her mother, having experienced another growth spurt since I saw her a couple of months ago.

Her parents are also the source of good memories, nice discussions and sharing. A lazy Sunday morning, a good breakfast and I read as they did a chore or two, more chatting.

Not that we did anything special, but that is what made it very, very special.