Birthday drinks and all the girls round the table have statement hair. A man with a bald head and a beard is in full tiger make-up. Later, it is explained, he is going to a fancy-dress party.
We are introduced and I compliment him on his look. He asks if I want to know his middle or confirmation name. 'Both', I suggest.
I ask how confirmation names work. He tells me that, when you are confirmed, you get your pick of the names of the saints to add to your own. I ask what St Joseph did. 'I don't go in for any of that stuff now', he replies.
(St Joseph was, of course, the husband of the Virgin Mary. As well as bringing up the saviour of mankind for an absentee father, he was a carpenter. Beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1870, he was, according to Wikipedia, 'the unofficial patron against doubt and hesitation, as well as the patron saint of fighting communism, and of a happy death'. A lot of responsibility.)
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