A Bar in Berlin

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A very quick post tonight as the charger for this laptop has died, and the battery is crap at holding charge (replacement on its way courtesy of Prime, tomorrow). Over the years, I've met many interesting people, either on home turf, or on my travels. I've written previously about the peach woman [blog posts passim], among others, but one chance meeting still stands out for me. I was overnighting in a hotel in Berlin - I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but there certainly would have been no detail, if I had - and after going for a meal locally, I fetched up at the bar of my hotel for a nightcap. I'd been sat at the bar for twenty minutes or so, when a very imposing African gentleman, in a bespoke suit, took the next bar stool to me.

We engaged in conversational pleasantries, exchanging details and offering the reasons for our visits to Germany: I was to attend a European project meeting at Gut Gremmelin, a couple of hours by train away, the following day. He was on a trade mission for the Ministry of Tourism for Zambia. We exchanged cards - as you do - and he offered me a whiskey, as I'd just supped the last of my schooner of bier, which I duly accepted. Over the next hour or so, closely observed by his evident security presence standing by the door to the bar, also dressed in Saville Row's finest, we drank several more whiskies, as he unwound and proffered me his very interesting life story. We were just two middle-aged married men far from home, from vastly different backgrounds, chewing the cud and consoling ourselves over drinks in a foreign environment. Fair play to Patrick, he wouldn't let me pay for a single drink. BTW, I'll return to the second business card shown tomorrow...

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