“In the basement, converted into a restaurant, I was waiting for a friend. The basement was marked by a concrete ceiling covered in silver paint, swollen snakes of corrugated pipes and overpainted walls with smudges. The restaurant consisted of tables with thick candles, a bar in the back and four waiters: two blondes with short legs, dyed from brunettes, and two puny natural brunettes with curves. In the absence of customers, they clung to the bar counter, looking at the only other visitor besides me - an overweight chewing man in a sandy jumper...”