Wasn't it the Chinese who invented everything (and often forgot about it)? Gunpowder, tea, bras... (Yes, bras. They used bandages to suppress unwanted suppleness.) They have that saying, May you live in interesting times... Which, in fact, is a curse... Interesting times, that's what we're having right now... We start at The Dolphin with a few beers for the non-patients and healthy mineral water for me. Trax beaming like a four-year-old on X-mas eve, Jockel trying to look like an elder statesman, me, fatter than ever and lousy tempered. Interesting times. Trax started an affair with our Helluva Baby Hella, Jockel's about to be promoted, and I'm on medication due to stomach problems... Mineral water! Nobody will believe a kraut drinks anything like that. Take it from me: we do, but we don't like it.

Jockel, due to his promotion, will have to go to Hannover, which is about 80 miles away, so it's a bit of a farewell-party. As we trot towards the sauna, he comes up with the latest bra-manufacturers' gossip: this time it's the women of Israel that are said to have an average cup-size of C, and practically no demand for anything below B. We nod along; I've spent some months in Israel and in Lebanon, that was a great time... All those sabras with their tight-fitting tailored uniform blouses. And didn't Chesty Morgan come from Israel as well? And then again, I recall an encarved picture of the Queen of Sheba - well, that's vaguely the same region - at that Hatshepsut temple opposite Karnak, on which my native guide solemnly remarked that apparently she suffered from macromastia. And indeed, a few thousand years old, and still bulging enormously kneewards. A case for our friend from the North, who, so soon after reaching membership status, lost it...

What are they talking about? TraX, still beaming, describes Hella's reaction on his morphs - she said, "Wow, how nice, and you've done it all by yourself?" - and the very next day the whole directory was missing on his comp. Had to restore it all from his recycle bin. Not exactly the reaction he had hoped for - he's thankful still about her forgetting to empty 'recycled' - and I could mail him the missing files... Now he uses an encryption software that hides the whole stuff... Which brings me to the good old question: how do our visitors and downloaders, and last not least the content creators, handle their stash? I mean, it can't be that all of us live alone, and have nobody of the jealous kind around? And then again - that hardcopy problem... I'd really like to know how others solve it. But back to traX. In fact he experiences JustMeMike's hypothetical question: would you dare to have a relationship with a (local) sex symbol? After ten days he looks like it's still to his liking. The problem, he says, is not the impact her presence creates, or the envy from men and the dislike of women; no, the problem is total incompatibility in any other field but sex and erotic matters. Take whatever you want, he says, music - I say Mahler, and she says "what?"; literature - I say Pynchon, and she says "what?"; painting - I say Pollock, and she says "well, dear, your head's overheating again, and see, I've got a beautiful place for it to cool down a bit..." We oscillate between envy and compassion.

Till our Helluva Baby arrives, and finishes our party with a simple, "Let's go!" TraX gone, all we feel is envy. Envy. Jockel will be a great shot in the ministry of silly walks at Hannover; me, I'll get rid of that godd*** ulcer, but traX - he's living our fantasies. Lucky guy. I hear he stopped morphing for a while...