Naively I assumed that evening classes were about self-improvement, about going to the trouble of doing Conversational Spanish in preparation for your holiday on the Costa Del Sol. It didn't take long to work out that this is, is in fact the only way that the 40-60 age group are able to meet members of the opposite sex on-the-look-out without having to resort to the dreaded personal ad, or hang about by the pesto sauce on singles night at the supermarket.
By week three I noticed that people had started to bring some dry white into the coffee breaks and only the saddest people bothered to go back in for the second session (-since the flirting, not the lessons are what they are actually here for.) The Spice-up-your-meals-for-one lot, well, they should be ashamed - all hot flushes and neatly ironed corduroy - they don't fool me. I can well imagine what's going on in that stock cupboard, I can tell you. They can't all be running out of A4 lined pads.
Evening classes are a hotbed of sexual flings and flirtations - 'beginners' as it were start with Watercolour classes on a Monday, graduate through Aromatherapy on Thursday and the very brazen go for Life Drawing on alternate Wednesdays. Such a brilliant cover, too!