A study on the psychology of restaurant diners has concluded that if you serve them a really delicious starter followed by a mediocre main course, they’ll rate the main course much more negatively than if it had been preceded by something equally mediocre – a phenomenon known as ‘hedonistic contrast’.
We’ve all experienced this, of course. I thought my economy seat was broken until the cabin crew asked me to put it up for landing during my first long-haul flight post Trustafarian (even my nephew struggled to adjust to my post T situation, failing miserably to hide his dismay that I’d moved into a tiny Notting Hill flat rather than a recording studio).
Conversely, bad experiences make us appreciate the average days all the more while we can also get used to too much of a good thing.
But in the spirit of florist Orlando Hamilton’s mantra, ‘love and be curious’, new experiences, challenges and directions help us to appreciate the good and the bad.
Meanwhile, I have been teasing Tom for failing to get it on with a beautiful journalist friend who had invited him to review some five-star hotels in Italy. ‘She keeps making a point of saying we’re such good friends and emphasising the word friends,’ he said.
‘But she invited you to a Belmond hotel. I want to get married in Hotel Splendido,’ I replied, adding; ‘I would go for you but I really like 20-somethings right now.’
‘Well get it out of your system and then end up with an old git (like me).’
