It's a Small World adn we're all related........

It's been a fairly interesting day. Went to CGH this morning and a little mashine has been attached to my left arm. Blood pressure is going to be measured over a 24-hour period - which is a bit of pain in the bottom because....well......every so often the darn thing squeezes and the left arm numbs. But it's all going to be part of a good cause and before you know it, I shall be as happy as a hamburger on dope.

Leaving aside the very tight strap around my arm, life has been pretty cool - I actually did a few productive things and it looks like a bit of sunshine may be round the corner in a landscape that has been very much ordinary. Managed to make a few phone calls and start a couple of stories onto the stage of actually being published. This should help the finances rolling a bit quicker.

Anyway, the highlight of the day was crashing a street party. Lots of fun, full of champagne and good Italian tit bits. Beef cappacio and parmasan cheese, two of my favourite tit bits at such events was served. Italian Ambassador was the Guest-of-Honour. Poor bugger must be wondering who the heck the bald-headed guy in jeans, a crumpled shirt and a tube comming out of the shirt wishing him "Bonna Sera." Well, he was nice enough to shake hands and he didn't run out of the place screaming like he had seen a ghost...so I guess I couldn't have been that bad.

Well, it was the usual party, seeing the usual glamorous people.....some nice looking chicks. One even had to guts to tell me that I was looking at her and liked it when I told her I would have been blind not to. Women at these events seem to love flattery.

What was really funny was I met a Brit who knows the Petersfield area. He went to Bohunt, a comprehensive school in Liphok and so would have mixed Churcherians. Funny things is he actually knows Rusell Turner, a guy from the same year as me. Rusell was not exactly Brad Pitt (OK, considering I'm the fat blob who needs blood pressure taken over 24-hours, I shouldn't cast stones and keep my head focused on the mirror) but I envied the guy for getting a chance to date Cassie Czepil, who was by and far away the most attractive girl at Churchers in my day (And no it was not a case of Cassie being a plane Jane in the dog house. If memory serves me correctly, Cassie is slim, long-legged, has a wonderful snow white skin that would make a normal hetrosexual man melt). Well, he obviously has something going for him and it turns out he's married a Siekh girl (Ladies from the Punjab area, I am told, are quite special )

Anyway, leaving aside speculations about Rusell and fantasies about Cassandra, its really unusual when you are in Singapore and you meet people who know the life you had over a decade ago in another part of the world. It's like.....wow.....you actually know the place....and when you know people they know.......it's kapow, what a small world....but you get that feeling in a nice way.

Don't know but I think Paul could become quite a good friend. Heaven knows, one can never do with too many friends, espcially when you share certain memories of a certin part of the world that nobody has heard of.

I think that's the thing with small towns. I grew up in one. Coming back from Petersfield, Singapore seemed like quite a big city. But after living here, I really understand the smallness of the place. Its easy to know everyone there is to know. Go to one function and you meet people who go to the same functions. In the PR network business, Singapore is great, you get to know people more easily than you do elsewhere. Sometimes you can even inherit networks.

I had an advantage over other PR grunts....I could pick up the phone and get the Managing Editor of the nations leading women's magazine...she was Mum's junnior. It's easy to pick up the phone and talk to the CEO of DDB or the Regional Chairman of O&M, they know my Dad quite well. Let's face it, contacts are necessary and they're becomming more so. When I first interned at Citibank, I was told that I should not be embarrased because Dad played golf with Eddie Khoo, who was then the unit VP - I was told that everyone else had also pulled strings to get in.

All that is well and good but its important not to get stuck within certain industries or with certain networks. Royal Blood ends up deformed because of inbreeding, until a comoner comes along and injects fresh genes (William definately does not get his good looks from the Windsors). Likewise with inbreeding within the same industry - so its important for one to make a special effort to meet new people and mix with serval different networks. It keeps you sane. When I think about it, I knew Gina and I were bound to hit a rock eventually. Her insanity and my eventual intollerance for it aside, she only wanted to hang out with young teachers and I was not prepared to cut ties with my networks for her (though I did lose alot of friends during marriage).

One way I try to keep sane is by making sure I stay in touch with my army friends like Original Bear, Roy and Fat Boy Wong. We don't see each other the way we used to because of the usual different paths, careers, family commitments but when I'm around them, I get a perspective on life that I would otherwise not have. I think the same is true for the people whom I met from my past and don't know what I've been up to for the past few years.