kindness of strangers

This beautiful waiter was so caring and funny, he stood for five minutes as a very young guest chose his pizza, then I saw him across the room carrying a fully-laden table with quivering wine glasses, all without spilling a thing. He had flourish and verve but was not show-offy. Afterwards I bailed him up […]

4

Last night I went out for jazz and at the bar a man nibbling on the rim of his beer said thoughtfully, You are doing such a great job tonight. I said, Thanks! Then: Great job at what? Airily he said, Oh — just being yourself. When we all left he was standing at the […]

I showed up at the supermarket checkout at closing time with a tub of ice cream. She said, “How are we this evening,” and I said, “Well, I can’t speak for you, but I’m fine!” I gave her such a big smile she took a blink and stepped backwards. But she was game, we’re human, […]

2

It is summer and the lockdown is easing; I went to pick up my disreputable, battered guitar from a studio where I’d left it lying, the week before the virus took hold. Such a beautiful morning. The clouds are massed on spires like whipped cream on biscuits and the trees bend in all along the […]

I went down to the square to catch some sun. I had been sitting on the couch reading stories and eating toffees all day, though both toffees and stories were those I had made myself. It’s so warm! Warmer than it’s been in five long months. I found a bench and sat down to wipe […]

Wild animals are now approaching humans, desperate for water. Magpies are mimicking sirens. It’s so catastrophic we need a new word for catastrophic. And next year, and the year after that, those who are left will need a new word again. Heart is boiling with rage and grief. We saw this coming for so long. […]

2

In my twenties I worked at the front desk of the Queensland Art Gallery for a while. It is huge and immaculate and rather hushed. One day an old man came in, wizened and bent. He approached the island of our desk across the marble floor. “This the art gallery?” Yes, I said. His hands […]

2

One thing I love in Ghana is people seem so good and kind. Not all of them, I guess, but daily life seems to me founded in a beautiful mutual respect and helpfulness. I watched the ‘mate’ in a grinding and crowded trotro (a tiny bus) jump down and help the man who was slowly […]

2

The woman behind me at the supermarket checkout had a little pile of five caramel bars, two gossip magazines of the trashiest kind, the ones with really flimsy rattling paper, and a tub of flavoured yoghurt. She saw me looking and her brow contracted. When I said, “I’m so happy for you,” which in German […]

5

It is my birthday and I had kind of a depressing morning because (various reasons). But I reckoned I could make a go of the afternoon, and I was right. Riding out into the day aboard my trusty, failsafe, foolproof bicycle I zoomed around town for an hour or two looking for the restaurant, cosy […]