Give and take

We're likely to reciprocate if someone's nice to us unexpectedly.

- MARC WILSON

It's rubbing it in to tell you I'm travelling to a conference, taking a slow route through North America, while New Zealand "enjoys" winter. As a consolation, Houston and New Orleans have been marked by thunder and lightning and sudden tropical downpours.

Galveston, though... a little humid, but otherwise delightful. In Galveston, we experienced our first Southern Hospitality, "Social Hour" at our bed and breakfast. "Fancy a complimentary Old Fashioned?" "Yes, indeedy," says I. And it was good. Social hour ran quite a bit longer than an hour, and there was another Old Fashioned, too. Over two evenings we offset about two-thirds of our lodging cost in cocktails.

It also wasn't the only complimentary beverage. At the first Galveston store we walked into, we were offered a free wine or beer. We're not in Aotearoa any more, clearly. "Um, could we have a water please?" my wife asked, and a couple of bottles of water materialised. We browsed a bit to make it clear we weren't just there for the water, and bought a humorous dish cloth.