A farewell to arms (and Maria)

Last night was the leaving-do of one of my friends from uni, Maria Tabuo, held in London. And as Blondie sang "Maria, you've got to see her," which is what I did. Going to London also allowed me to take my passport from my grandfather who had kindly collected it from the Chinese embassy the day before where it received a visa stamp (I went for the 2-3 day service). Afterwards I made my journey to Clapham Common where the bash was being held, fortified by a third of a bottle of wine from my time at my granddad's. I was the first to arrive at Restaurant Eco and in my boredom I turned to drink (is this how alcoholism starts?), a cheap but decent Italian beer. Maria wasn't too late; the group was mostly of her church mates - of those I knew beforehand Mims was there and Simon came directly from Eurostar almost, after another round of gallavanting in Europe. Anna and Danni arrived after the meal to find us a suitable bar to go to and indeed it was, where the music volume was no impediment to conversation. Au revoir Maria, but hopefully not farewell.
I don't know why I listen to Any Questions (or watch its TV euivalent). The panel is so constructed that the members either corroborate my existing views or infuriate me with their outrageously unprogressive sentiments and I don't want to get angry, because that is antithetical to happiness. A case in point was Joan Bakewell, comedienne, saying that the '7/7' (a nasty name of reducing tragdey to numbers anyway) bombers were all from Pakistan. Err, three were homegrown Yorkshiremen and the fourth was Jamaican-born. Then she said Pakistan was in South-East Asia. What?!?! Pakistan is in South Asia. That's like saying Britain is a next-door neighbour of Cyprus. Despite getting her facts more twisted than Ken Bate's mum's tits in a mangle, she did manage to say something quite lucid, in that the conflict between Israel and some of those who border her is a result of mutually retrospective injustices. One side does one atrocity, prompting a reciprocal atrocity from the other, which drives the other to respond. History lives in the memory, not just books. The only way out is tolerant forgiveness. If Israel had held its anger in check, Hizbullah were rapidly fading as a force in Lebanon, if Hizbullah had gone through the proper channels they could have effectively highlighted the plight of Lebanese in Israeli prisons and kept the emphasis on Israel's offensive in Gaza. Although adherents of Christianity find it hard to implement (since we are all human), forgiving one's enemies is the greatest sign of compassion and will earn you the greatest amount of praise, something we could all do with.