Amigos

Michele and Tiziana are old volleyball friends from London (Michele used to play with us and Tiziana is his girlfriend).

Like me (Ravi) they are expats of a sort - both are from Milan but they spent many good years in London and grew to love this city. This is why I say "expats of a sort". Many non-Brits living in this cosmopolitan urbanity develop an attachment to it which means while you may not be British, you certainly feel a Londoner. And for many of our friends and family who have left in recent years – Andrew and Sally, Amir, Derek and Sandra, Sunil – the nostalgia of past lives in London runs strong.

Anyways, just two weeks before Kirin was born, Tiziana gave birth to the lovely Joel. The three of them came over for a visit a couple of weekends ago, and we spent a lot of time walking through some of the city’s great parks (Hampstead Heath and Regent’s), wandering around Highgate Cemetery to see Karl Marx's grave and spending a lot of time meeting in the living room in the middle of the night to change nappies. Two babies in one small flat does prove just a touch more noisy!