There have been a number of significant changes in our neighbourhood this summer.  Sadly, two elderly ladies, in their nineties, passed away. One of them recounted how, as a young girl, she had seen a plane with five wings fly low over the street, and both were eloquent on the rapid evolution of technology. Equally sadly, two sets of neighbours, one Spanish, one German, have moved away – one family to more permanent accommodation in another neighbourhood and one because of retirement. We went to the latter’s farewell party in the early evening. Karl – or ‘Charlie’, as I have always known him – has lived in an iconic house that many a German EU official and MEP has stayed in, if only temporarily, on arriving in Brussels. The good news is that ‘the German connection’ will continue and Charlie is not moving that far away.