Spoiled witless

So, here I am in the 30-35 age bracket - and it ain't so bad. The blow was softened by being taken out to lunch by my work, being showered with presents and flowers and cards, and spending the extended weekend in Vienna. Despite all this, I still get a little emotional hiccup when I read yet another article about how the best time to have babies is in your twenties. Yeah, that advice would have been just soooo useful when I was out picking up idiots and getting my heart trodden all over, singing along to Cornflake Girl and taking "arty" photos of myself for school assignments.

As ever, the best technique I have come up to deal with the nagging discontent and occassional panic, is meaningless distraction.

In this case, trying to recall bits of my early High School German classes as we found ourselves trying to navigate the streets of Vienna without the aid of a German-English dictionary. Luckily, those slightly-scary Austrians all speak impeccable English. And I'd already memorised the most important phrase before we left: Haben sie einen tische für zwei personnen? (Have you a table for two?)