Dear Sigurdur,

Thank you for your letter. It was a wonderful surprise.

I just came back from the city center where I've been to my favorite coffee place. I quite often go there after I've been to the post office with yesterdays letter. Patterns of movement start to show themselves. Patterns of everyday life. I usually order a regular coffee (which is self served from a thermos on the counter) because you can take as many cups as you like. Sometimes I buy a cookie with the coffee, but not always. Some tables are better than others because they have better lighting, and if one of them are free I of course choose that one. If more than one of them are free I choose the one in the smaller room, in the corner, closest to the window. If non of them are free I have to take another one, but if someone leaves I'm quick to change my seating. I need the light because I always bring a book, that's the main reason for me going there – to read. This is one of those cafés where people do that, they bring their laptops and books, and therefore it's not so noisy. Today I had company though so for the first one and a half hour of my visit we played a game of Scrabbles. Later, when my company had left, I picked up my book and went for a visit to New York in the early sixties and the development of Happenings. “Suddenly, mushy shapes pop up from the floor and painters slash at curtains dripping with action. A wall of trees tied with colored rags advances on the crowd, scattering everybody, forcing them to leave. There are muslin telephone booths for all with a record player or microphone that tunes you in to everybody else. Coughing, you breathe in noxious fumes, or the smell of hospitals and lemon juice. A nude girl runs after the racing pool of a searchlight, throwing spinach greens into it.” It was a nice but rather short visit. At 6 pm the café turns into a bar; the lights are dimmed, candles in old bottles lit and music from the twenties turned on. That's my departure time.

Thank you again for the superb lunch you cooked for us. I believe we all carry that moment with us as a great memory.

All the best,
Johanna