pension party postives

Everything balances up, and the party wasn't all negative.

For one thing, the servants kept bringing more plates of vegetables - a rarity in Bavaria. Broccoli. Real peas. Fresh asparagus ad nauseam. I was able to avoid dead animals altogether, while insensitive meatheads slagged off vegetarianism.

I made a point of speaking to everyone I knew, and several I didn't know, even some insufferable blockheads I have avoided for decades. And you know what? Once you talk to them, you end up pitying rather than despising them.

I chatted to a distant rellie who is also a hottie. Not just physically, but she has intelligence and integrity. Someone you could honour and adore for a good while before the rot set in. I only see her every ten years, but each time I realise that, if I wasn't already happily shackled, I would be pestering her. You know how once in a blue moon you meet someone you go gaga for, and you know there's a certain amount of reciprocation, even if only platonic? She's a class act, and as she was leaving she gave me her card - "any time you're in Hanover look me up".