Sprung

Spring is here. The weather gods have turned their minds to hot hot heat and stormy flashes of rain. The jacaranda trees, with their short-lived and fantastically purple flowers, are in bloom. But I know spring is here because yesterday I saw two hummingbirds.

And yesterday evening I went on an exciting trip into the city with my friend Victor, back to heaven for a concert by Fernando Delgadillo, a Mexican singer of songs of great beauty and poetry (and sometimes humour). He sings extraordinary songs about ordinary life, and seems to be a pretty cool chap - he doesn't have a record company and releases all his own recordings. Being poetical, the lyrics are hard to understand, so by 1 a.m. (when we bailed) I was struggling with sleep and focus, but what I did understand I loved, and he has a hugely candid, endearing stage presence - a mixture of Jack the lad, scholar, granddad and bloke next door. He sang all my favourite songs (i.e. the ones I know) - Hoy Ten Miedo De Mi, Julieta, Entre Pairos y Derivas, and No Me Pides Ser Tu Amigo (all listenable-to on his website and findable on youtube). He sang beautiful songs I didn't know (Elephantes, one which I thought was called Hoy Estas Aqui but I think isn't, and lots I can't put names to). He told stories and made the audience laugh. At some point the listeners began quietly and feelingly to sing along to the most beloved songs. It was beautiful. And it was an evening spent with someone lovely.

Today, hungry and ill-slept, I was delighted to remember that my department was having tacos dorados this morning to commemorate the birthdays of me and two colleagues - we usually get together for a birthday breakfast every month or so. Having arrived ridiculously (unprecedentedly) early into work I was sitting in my office in the eerie quiet of an almost-empty building when one of those colleagues, who I am very fond of and whose birthday it happens to be today, walked passed the door. I wished him a happy birthday and he said you too, and I grinned and said it was a while ago and he said we're celebrating today, we're celebrating another day of life.

Right on.