It's H-O-T warm

This weekend has been unbearably hot. I know I was born in Australia (albeit accidentally I'm sure) but I seem to have lost any sort of ability to endure oppressive heat and humdity. Perhaps I used my endurability quota up as a child. It is actually so hot right now it makes me want to cry just for some sort of relief - a bit like the sky before a storm rolls in. I don't know how many dead sparrows I have passed this week. Lying on the ground - they have literally fallen from the sky. I have never seen this happen in Australia - somehow the birds were more resilient I suppose - but here the poor little things are falling from the trees and lying on the pavement as if they are in a deep and perfect sleep.
Last night I walked along the Rhine after 10 o'clock at night. It was lined with people having barbeques, cooking wurst, drinking , playing boccia. The air smelt Mediterranean and the mood was joyful. Basel, I have decided, is a town of many faces. Sometimes it can seem very repressed and unfriendly: other times it feels free and full of love.
Today I visited my Russian friend, O, whose grandmother has just died. She and her mother were in St Petersberg during the week while I looked after her cats. We had a coffee together and they asked me to stay for a while because the company of friends is important during the mourning period. We talked about many different things -sometimes heavy/ sometimes very light - in fact my friend's mother gave a very elegant soliloquy (in Russian which O kindly translated) about the connection between men, love and erections ( with appropriate hand gestures) which we all found amusing in a tragic sort of way!

Now I am going to have a cool bath and prepare to bid the worldcup farewell.