Goodbye Gift

One of my favourite colleagues at work is leaving tomorrow, for a better position in another charity. I used my lunch break today to scour Foyles bookstore for a gift. I wanted to get her the novel that just won the Booker prize (The Inheritance of Loss) because she loves Indian literature, but it was sold out. I found a copy of David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day (which is very funny) tucked in the store's book trolley, behind the information desk, and made a snap decision to give her that instead.

There was nothing for me to do in the afternoon so I looked through some old magazines. I found a page-sized photo of one of Picasso's lovers, holding a flower (I don't know it's name -- it has a long stem and a wide cup, almost like a chalice); I wrapped the book in that.

The tube was crowded on the way home and someone smelled like a wet dog.