I have met a lovely and shapely girl in the countryside who was accompanying her parents on a "constitutional holiday" rather than a vacation (at least, that's how they termed it). Grete (that's her name) told me that they had decided to get out of their hometown for a day due to the recent passing of her brother, Gregor (after a long illness, some wretched bug took him), but had decided to stay for a week longer. Her parents seemed quite a bit odd, and kept pointing out that Grete is such "a lovely and shapely girl", and that her change from a wan, thin waif to a lovely and shapely girl had taken place while they had all been focusing on her ill brother. It seems that she underwent quite a metamorphosis in that period, and though she has odd parents (who are obviously trying to marry her off), she's quite vivacious, is witty in conversation, and has a certain compelling joie de vivre. I kept having the thought that her name wasn't right, and I think I may have even blurted out "Gretel" accidentally, just to hear myself account for the missing "L". Lol. First impressions are often operating as placeholders for paradigm shifts however, so I think I'll just see how things pan out. She's cute, but the whole experience seemed a little Kafkaesque.