when my grandma passed away 2 years ago we had a pigeon stay with us for 3 days straight, he sat on our balcony for 3 days without going anywhere, my mum took this as a sign from my grandma. she always asked her when she was still alive that when she passes away to come back and give her a sign that there is some other place after life. nothing happened for a couple of days until the pigeon came, it was significant in that my grandma always referred to herself as a “poor little pigeon”… she did have a little (or a lot) of flare for the dramatic arts in her. nevertheless those were the kinds of things she would say before passing away. every-time that i see a pigeon now i think about that day, and of course every-time i think about that day i get really emotional and sad. my parents were always working when i was little and Stefka (as johnny liked to call her) was always with me, tricking me into eating food while on the playground, teaching me how to read (and i was one of the first two people in my kindergarten that knew how) and my favorite, she would always (and this WILL sound kinda weird and funny) spank my calves and bum to make sure they were firm when i grew up :), but that was Stefka and i loved her, and i know she didn’t like me in the last couple of years of her life, and she had good reason not to, i was a brat and i caused my mum a lot of grief, and to her, my mum’s happiness was the most important. and i was angry at her at the time for not liking me for that reason but i now understand and i wish i could tell her how much i love her and how i miss her, and how i can still remember the sounds she made and the things she did with her hands when she was just sitting in the living room waiting for time to pass. my grandma had a long and happy life and i want to start writing down her stories before they get forgotten, i started a little notebook to write my families stories in but i have not had a chance to start filling it up, stuff is always happening and things that seem more important at the time always take precedence. i will make a true effort, however, and start putting pen to paper. 

the reason i went on this tangent is because i spent the whole weekend with charlie on the balcony-trying to give him as much time outside as i can before i disappear off to work for the whole week and today we had a visitor, a pigeon, and he came to sit with us on the balcony floor, and he kept circling around our balcony the entire evening, looking down at what we were doing, of course once charlie saw him he got a bit excited, of course not enough to do anything because if anyone is a chicken it’s charlie but that did not stop him from staring at the poor bird the entire time we were outside… i just wanted to say really how much i love and miss Stefka