The good old days

It always intrigued me as a child during family get together's and various other social gatherings when I would hear the elders talking about the subject of age. 'They grow up so quickly' well not quite in those words or in the English language for that matter but you get my picture, well some of you anyway ;-) And obviously because of my tender years I had no idea whatsoever of what they were talking about, but I was always curious by the way they would talk about time 'flying by' and remembering 'like it was yesterday'... So just today a few hours ago while I was reminiscing with my ONLY friend, who mind you deserves a high 5 for his unswerving dedication to helping me get on my feet over the last month or so (nice one Lala!). We were remembering some of our escapades during our University days (of which there were a fair few I assure you) and true to the elders famous saying, it really was just like yesterday that I was forced to walk around Leicester Square one fine English Summer's evening with a solitary sandal on my left foot after my so called friends or rather bandits! colluded to make a nuisance of me by step on the heel while I walked causing the strap to snap and resulting in me walking around with one sandal and the other in my hand much to their amusement as you may have guessed. And then there was the time when 6 of us managed quite conveniently to miss our flight to Portugal for a short break. And Lala! I don't care what you say and I know that you read this blog, I remain steadfast in my belief that you and your compadre were at fault for that. Nevertheless, it was just as well that your obscenity filled outburst helped us get the flight to Malaga.

So when we were told we would have to make our own way to Portugal along with a Canadian couple who were in the same predicament I knew this was going to be an interesting night... It is surprising how resourceful we can be when we find ourselves with a problem to solve, figure this one out. A 5 seater vehicle with 8 occupants and 8 pieces of luggage and the pansies amongst us (and there is always at least one) had there man bags. Sure we were the descendants of men who would cram entire extended families into the mini, but mighty Datsun Cherry. But this was something else and a 5 hour journey across rural Spain. How would we possibly cope? The funny thing is that we did and it is exactly those memories which tend to live with you forever and remind you of the good old days.

So over the last couple days I have yet again found myself thinking a lot recently, I guess the absence of a TV in my life has some part to play in that, as a result I am struggling to figure out whether or not the lack of media intake is a good thing or a bad thing? I guess it really depends upon how you look at it.
Oh, just to let you know I am back in the Midnight tonight in my usual spot, almost a week on from my first visit to the cafe which inspired this blog. It is actually a really nice place and the service truly is impeccable, in fact, I think I might just be tempted to drop my glass and assess how good it really is ;-)

So where were we... ah yes the good old media, you know I had a really scary thought this week while driving along Sheikh Zayed road to the office in JAFZA. I had just read an article in the Gulf News about national defense budgets for various countries.Naturally, I was surprised to hear that the US has an annual military budget of $700 billion but this figure was hard to put into context until I read that the second largest military budget is that of the Peoples Republic of China and stands at a paltry $77.95 billion! For some reason this fact really worried me, 'wow, that would be one incredible firework display' I thought to myself. Now the thing that disturbs me even more so than the obvious cataclysmic effect that such an arsenal could have on this poor little earth is that of mankind's fixation with destruction. Note* how I emphasize 'man' because lets face it give the other gender a shopping mall and a credit card and it doesn't matter if your North Korean or South Korean, lets go shopping girls! Well in Dubai at least. Did you know that the car parks at shopping malls here are free for the first 4 hours! 4 hours! And you have the audacity to complain that the football lasts too long, honestly what are you like..? Side tracked again arrghh! really must stop doing that. Oh! highlights of the 2005/2006 Champions League final are on!! I must take this moment to stand up and salute the Blaugrana whilst kissing the badge of course. And might I add Henrik Larsson is nothing short of genius.

Right looks like football fever has caught up with me and it is 1am here which means the game is about to start, and you know what that means... Until tomorrow I bid you farewell.

Visca el Barca, et visca el Catalunya!.

p.s. Jesus let me down... Turns out he can't start until the first week of February. Shame, I was looking forward to seeing what miracles he could :-) Rest assured, I will be logging a formal grievance to the All mighty when I say my prayers tonight :-)