Summer

I have been swamped with work recently - which explains the sparse amount of posts. And by work I mean besides meaningful work with decent bylines, they dump crappy stuff on me as well. I swear it's because I'm a temp that's why they think they can get away with it. But being junior in that convoluted chain of newsroom hierarchies, i guess they do get away with it.

Last night I went out with Q and am beginning to really appreciate his presence in the newsroom. There's just so many things behind the scenes that happen but you never fully realise until someone alerts you to it. We went to this nice chilled out place that has a band playing smooth jazz. It was fantastic. It's hidden in this stretch behind the main boat quay stretch of pubs, running parallel to it. So it wasn't too crowded, we had nice chairs, had couple of drinks and listened to the music and talked about life. The band who was playing, you would never have imagined they played good music if you met them randomly on the street. Actually, they look like computer science geeks - some slightly plump, most bespectacled, square dressing... and then the singer sang - and you would never have matched his face to his voice. true blue blues band.. which is the true beauty of music, i reckon. All that beauty is internal.

S called up later and after Q went home, me and S spontaneously decided to go to another bar called post bar at fullerton hotel... the atmosphere is pretty nice and we had free champagne coz S knew the manager. After getting rather woozy, we proceeded for some bar top dancing at bq. S goes mental when he starts dancing - actually, not really mental - I think the right word is CAMP. He perched atop the bars dancing with his pinkie sticking out and left hand at a 90 degrees angle. He was attracting so much attention that all the blokes in the bar (mostly foreign men) were all staring at him. Even I felt slightly jealous. And the sad thing is they were all hetrosexual men... even S. Sigh.

So much for not going out on friday night... was hoping to lie it low for a bit so I can properly party tonight but it seems like i'm gonna have to do that two nights in a row. I get so tired easily now! It must be age getting to me.... or the stress of work. Speaking of which, I got a taste of proper wall street this week. I sat in for this session between bankers/investors/financial advisors and besides being thoroughly bored about them bantering on bonds and asset management, I couldn't help but recall Herman Melville's Bartleby - these people sat around talking about money, oil prices and the wealth of the future - oblivious to the more urgent matters of life. Their conversation struck me completely false - dead as the portrayal of Melville's 19th century new york's wall street. It seems we've come so far in time, yet that same atmospheric staleness of the financial world hasn't changed regardless of time and location. I thought about my arty conversations with friends about life, while lounging on the fields on grass in the park, looking up to the big blue sky and contemplating the complexities of this world - how different and inconsequential the previous conversation seems in comparison. But isn't the stock exchange what keeps the world going, jobs coming, and provides families with food to eat? To be fair, that commercial part of life has its own excitement. And without such dry affairs, I think the arty conversations and contemplations that we have wouldn't seem as wonderful. It's like the knowledge of good and evil - we can't fanthom what good is, unless evil is there for us as a basis of comparison.

Summer is happening so fast it almost eludes me. I wish I was back in england to appreciate that only time of the year english weather isn't gloomy. (actually, many people will disagree that summer isn't gloomy in england) But at the same time, I am having quite a blast anyway.
On a completely separate note, English premiership starts today... yay! The only damper is Owen has moved to Real.. and we didn't get Morientes. bummer. but i'm sure this season promises to be a good one...