sent from: London, UK. destination: San Rafael, California, USA

A couple of weeks ago on our way out of work there were a cluster of press photographers, outside a church, waiting. I asked who or what they were waiting for – “Philip Gould’s funeral”. The name rang a bell, but it wasn’t until later that I realised I had watched a very moving interview he’d given when he was in the final stages of cancer. I had not known of him prior to that, but he gave the air of someone you would have liked to have known, a good human being. Last night a friend told us, very movingly, of the recent passing of his father, and I remember something from Hamlet that I expect, or hope, to give me comfort one day:

But you know, your father lost a father,  
That father lost his, and the survivor bound  
In filial obligation for some term  
To do obsequious sorrow

 I am thankful for my family, and for life.

Last Sunday we went to the Little Angel Theatre to see this amazing show – The Old Man With Enormous Wings. The puppets are superb and the performances so subtle. You would swear the faces and hands articulate with emotion, even when you know it is impossible.