A couple of weeks ago I found myself talking about going home. I made the mistake of mentioning it to my brother, who told my mother, who told my father and next thing I know, everyday is a battle towards buying tickets.

“Is there any risk of you not coming anymore”, my father wonders.

“Are you postponing so you can say there were no tickets left”, my mother wants to know.

“Is Alina still coming for my birthday”, the sweetie pie asks.

And so I booked the first flight I could and landed late on Monday, after a weekend of courses and a week of running around in circles – V finally deleted my Mac from his iCloud, by mistake, but nonetheless a very unpleasant experience, since I lost everything from my harddisk.

Yesterday morning, the cutie pie woke up wondering where I was.

“She’s sleeping next to you”, my mother replies.

And so she decided she’d skip kindergarten and just wait by my side, guarding me until I decide to wake up. Haha! Can you imagine?! I couldn’t sleep that long, gifts and kisses followed, we played together and she tried braiding my hair, saying that I look like her mother, but where is her mother (the parents are divorced) and it all broke my heart. I told her everybody would be here for her birthday, just a day away, and she’ll get cake and lots of hugs, too.

Then we went to a coffeeshop for cocoa and banana cake, where she insisted on not speaking to “omii”- “mans”- to everybody’s amusement.

In the afternoon we went to visit my grandma, who is 92 and feeling poorly, it was very sad to see her that way, but at least I got to say good bye, in case I don’t see her again.

The trees were still heavy with fruit, I love quinces, they remind me most of home. We cracked some walnuts with our heels and ate them right there, Diana picked the last tomatoes to feed her baby dolls and I got overwhelmed with warm childhood memories.

Today is my niece’s birthday, we’re celebrating it with the whole crew and all her friends, too.

xxx, Alina