Ala has left yesterday. Lilla will be leaving tomorrow. These days are sad and confusing. Lucka is returning home next Saturday while David and I will be visiting Vancouver but in the week after the four new ones will arrive, even before David leaves. So I think these days are the ones when the gap is most obvious. Despite what I said on Sunday, I am sad.

I like(d) them, each of them for different reasons and in a different way, depending on what my inner voice told me and depending on the amount of time I spent with them. Time. Time was so short. In fact, one feeling invariably applies to all of them: I wish, I had more time and could have got to know them better and I don’t want them to leave. Each of them as a person of his/her own, of course, not as a group. Because what I said on Sunday is still true. With these people it’s a bit like with different kinds of liquor. Enjoying them separately is a pleasure but mixing them all together causes headache.

I didn’t see Ala anymore before she left, but she left me a moving little farewell card. The flattering personal lines I will keep to myself, however, I want to share a quotation. I’m I bit puzzled why she has chosen it, but I like it very much:

“Always set a high value on spontaneous kindness.
He, whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.”
(S. Johnson)

And now I have to leave. Last supper lunch with Lilla. I’m sure I will barely recognise her flat as it must be fairly empty by now. Packed suitcases and bags all around. The thick scent of farewell. Melancholia...