Somewhere in the summer of 1999 I went to Vienna to do research for my novel “The Story of My Baldness” – originally written under the pseudonym Marek van der Jagt. I stayed in Hotel Royal together with a girlfriend. Getting acquainted with Vienna was one of my greatest pleasures -- till now at least.
Tonight I went back to Hotel Royal to have dinner in the Italian restaurant next door.
I ordered a bottle of champagne to give to a friend I was going to visit after dinner.
“You take the bottle home?” the waiter asked.
“Absolutely,” I answered.
“I’ll give you a paper bag.”
He came back with a paper bag.
“Don’t trust the paper bag,” he said. “It would be a pity for the champagne.”
But to paraphrase Marek van der Jagt: What’s a little accident when one has known happiness?