deletion
After watching an ecstatic Mourinho celebrating on Barca's home ground, F and I said goodbye to each other. That's another Taiwanese friend packing her bags to return to her familiar territory, and that's another number I am deleting from my mobile phone contacts. Overseas students come and go, and I am used to it. Each year they fly to the old empire for an overpriced one-year Masters programme. In summer they take advantage of low-budget airlines to do their grand tour, then before you know it they are jetting off to the Far East again. That is the pattern. Friendships can be short and shallow, unlike the old chums you've met in high school and college, but I don't say no to building these short-term relationships. It's not just because you may not see them again for a long time, it's because you want to know a variety of people to make life more interesting.