Diego..

There are people who come and go from life like a speeding truck on a highway.Some just zip past without much notice and some leave a trail and are followed till out of sight. I dont know how many people like that I have met in my life.Very fine people who leave me with a warm and happy feeling of knowing complete stangers and liking them.Pity I dont remember them all. But I recognise the feeling which is common for them all.

I had been in this beautiful cosy house just by the sea for a week alone. I would not have imagined a more realxed comfortable existence. But I missed talking. Or just presence of another person.

Diego is a house repairman by profession. I mean he said he paints, fixes doors, plumbing, tiles et al for the house and loves "cafe noir". He is half Italian half Spanish and lived most of his life in Marseille. Originally he comes from north Italia. So he spoke Spanish, Italian, French but "pas anglaise". And I spoke very little french. I had the most creative conversation with him over a cup of black cafe. Trying to explain who I was, where I stayed, what do I do ? And he was equally expressive with his signs and few english words that he remembered from school.

When I mentioned his name and look resembles Maradona, he gave a throaty laugh, said he follows LOM , Marseillian home team. (Incidently there is a Argentina France soccer match in the Velorome stadium and Icould not get the cheap tickets.Damn!) He was excited about his trip to Alps for skiiing next week. He explained me what to do to enjoy skiing the most. I could understand only half of it. He talked about his work a little bit and cautioned me against few damp spots and leaking taps in the house. As warning he would keeping shouting "Piscine" at the end of every sentence and I would smile as if I understood. Later when I looked up the word piscine it meant swimming pool.Ah!

In the end, he left when he taught me how to say good bye in Spanish, Italian and we had a 15 minutes long good bye exchanges in 5 languages. It was very good to see such a happy boisterous man and he rubbed off some of his "boisterousness" in me that I wanted to go on the street give a loud hello to every one.

Adios! Bon Chance!