Aslaug Astrid is a romantic novel consultant in a pulp fiction publishing house. That means she spends her working day reading romantic hospital novels, upstairs-downstairs romance novels, Victorian love stories, love stories from medieval times and any other sorts sugar sweet amorous reading love sick women who visit stores and gas stations to find something to fill their time with buy. It is well known that over exposure to this kind of silly nonsense can create strong shifts in one’s view upon the world so it is no wonder Aslaug Astrid is by no means unaffected by her daily work.
Any man with a stethoscope and a white coat or pipe smoking man in English tweed jacket with a red sports car that crosses Aslaug’s path creates strong amorous feelings in her. That her exceptionally grumpy aura, bulky body and otherwise unappealing behaviour has little or nothing in common with the women she read about all day has never struck her and will probably never do.
How Aslaug Astrid with her overdeveloped hypochondria, unattractive exterior, unfriendly attitude towards her fellow human beings in general and distinctive east-end dialect has ended up being a regular guest at Moxie’s that otherwise is frequented by smug west-enders is hard to say. But as you might have guessed, the moment you are a regular at Moxie’s there’s no turning back. Any way, Aslaug Astrid’s many failed amorous encounters give the rest of the female regulars a rich source of malicious amusement.
Retrorambling 
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