The pain of love

Once you get beyond one hundred you would think love did not enter the equation anymore,just getting up and breathing would be sufficient surely? The problem of course is memories. There are parts of this planet I am unable to visit without profound feelings of regret and melancholy. For reasons I cannot go into (HMG would take a very dim view) I am unable to visit the Obecni Dum in Prague without bursting into the most unmanly tears which is a serious problem as the Memsahib refuses to visit with me. Likewise I find Reading Railway station a difficult place to be.

I love Czech beer - the best in the world undoubtedly so visits to Prague every few years are compulsory. I was there this summer with my great great niece - a charming child of Antipodean origins. I told her my great state secret and she too wept for all that I had lost. 1943 was not a good year to live in occupied Europe and to be a kind of under cover travel agent was even more risky than most occupations.

And so to music. Certain places are also associated with music. Smetna's "My Country" will be for ever linked to the Obecni Dum, dark nights, Nazi patrols, love in the dark and my dear departed - well I cannot go there - state secrets - but I know we will meet again. Mind you there will be quite a queue and half will be holding rolling pins or similar weapons of domestic violence.