22nd July – Began reading The Brothers Karamazov. The three brothers are 20, 23 and 27, about the same ages as my three sons.
23rd July – One of my students had an alarm set for 5.17pm, the exact time of today’s sunset, the exact time she would be able to eat (Ramadan). This is new to me.
24th July – Tonight I glimpsed an unfamiliar light, warm and yellow, in the gap between the curtain and the window. I went closer and found a horizontal crescent moon, like a Cheshire Cat smile.
25th July – Learnt that the three people who work in the local café are all expectant parents. Something in the coffee?
26th July – Heard an old guy telling a young woman that he was “pretty full-on as a child”. “I was reading before I was two,” he slurred, holding his six-pack tightly in the crook of his arm.
