Friendship

June 2009. I was sitting alone at breakfast in my hotel opposite the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. I was due to meet friends for a concert and I was taking a short break to explore this marvellous city.

A lovely Japanese lady approached me. She had been sitting at a neighbouring table. She spoke virtually no English. I spoke absolutely NO Japanese.
She asked, "Alone?".
"Yes"
"You like classical music?"
"Yes."
"Present" she said, handing me an envelope.

It contained a ticket for the Berlin Philarmoniker concert at the Waldbuhne for that evening. Sir Simon Rattle, Yefin Bronfman..... and the concert had been sold out for months and months......

We went together, still with few words to communicate, but we did discover that we could understand something

Netrebko
Gheorghiu
Tosca
La Boheme.

We were both passionate about opera and we exchanged email addresses (also not an easy task)

We've kept in touch.
We met up in London last year when she was visiting to go to Covent Garden.

This is the greetings card she sent me this Christmas

A very special card for a very special friendship