Don't waste your life, Christian, my old gran used to say. That's the one who made a fortune in property, who left it all to me, my brother and my sister, only to have it stolen away from us by our poisonous aunt after my gran died and not the gran who hit the brandy bottle, when her husband died leaving her alone and penniless and drank herself to death, you understand. Somehow, I'm beginning to feel like I am doing exactly that, wasting my life.