The last time I received a similar "Greetings from Childers by night" postcard was thirty years ago. On the back of it, my best friend Noel had written, "Hope your outlook on the future is not as black as this; mine is but that is inevitable."
At the time, I had no idea how prescient and indeed deadly serious his message was until a couple of months later I received a phone call from a woman. She introduced herself as Noel's sister and told me that Noel had just passed away! - click here. Before you break out the champagne and start celebrating, let me assure you that I have no intentions yet of following my best friend's example, even though this postcards pretty much reflects my outlook on the state of the world and my place in it.
On this last weekend before her departure, I'm receiving last-minute instructions from Padma on how to defrost precooked meals from the freezer; on how to operate the microwave and rice cooker; on how to go shopping for my groceries; and on how to tie up my own shoelaces.
There's a fine line between solitude and loneliness. Should I come close to crossing it during the next five weeks, I shall put on my shoes - now that I know how to tie my own shoelaces - and do a bit of "socialising".
