Old Acquaintence Ain't Forgot
A visit to Surrey to see my mates
21 July 2000: Old Acquaintence Ain't
ForgotBeing obsessive/compulsive about
planning things, I had this day pre-planned to a T. I was to meet D at Gatwick
Airport where the taxis gather. D and I worked together on a publication at my
last publishing company. He's in Saskatoon, I was in New York, and the rest of
the lot were in Surrey, where typesetting was done. The printing is done in the
West Country. That's the e-world in action. Lots of email and overnight
packages.Now, since I left the last
publishing house, when a new company bought us, the New York office has been
downsized like crazy, but the UK office has been left as is, and is thriving, I
am happy to find. Most of the folks I worked with there are still there, and
they were happy to see me. So, we go on my pre-arranged lunch. It's a lovely
sunny day so the gang there decides eating outside the pub on the lawn at the
picnic tables would be a nice idea.
I once again have fish and chips, since
you can never have too much of a good thing. I also an unfortunate tomato and
onion salad. Unfortunate because I forget how iffy tomatoes can be, and how pale
they can look, and how flavorless and chewy they are when they are pale. I also
had a lemon-lime concoction. It's hard to describe. Sort of tart with a minimum
of fizz.I wind up sitting with J and D,
and J says she's glad that everyone who "knows and loves Seth" is at lunch.
There's about eight of us. Luckily, there are more than eight people who know
and love me in this world. There's even more than eight in the UK. I am
fortunate.We're munching away happily in
the sun when we see an odd sight--a picnic table complete with umbrella capsizes
right there on land. Seems an older man and woman, both heavy, sat on the same
side of the picnic table, which featured seats attached to the
table.We went back to the office after
lunch and D and I sat in J's office and chatted a while. J will be heading a
much enlarged staff in new offices at year's end. J currently manages fewer than
15 and now there will be in excess of 35 people. She has picked office midway
between the current place, in Newdigate, and the other office being merged
in.J's office is in the back of the
one-storey structure, and her windows look out upon a farm. Cows and horses have
greeted her some days. I was glad to be here again, in this smallish office with
it's contiguous well-organized staff, who are always professional yet fun.
Everything changes, and soon enough this will change too. It's good to spend a
sunny afternoon in an unlit office with a green field for animals just a yard
away. I love my skyline views, but every time I spend this much time out of
doors, near nature, I feel like I have to question just about everything in my
life, quite frankly.A new employee I
don't know drives me and D to Gatwick. We take the express train (£10.20)
to Victoria, and then meet up with D's wife at an oddly quiet pub. Oddly quiet
as it's a balmy Friday in London, which is swimming with people who've worked
all day or been touring. I am completely mad for Indian food, and S and D allow
me to strongarm them, so we go to a Balti house near Seven Dials. I am told the
next day by a man in Warwickshire that balti means bucket, and that's sort of
how it's served to you. They bring a cast-iron pot to the table. The food is in
a thick tomatoey sauce. I had a lamb vindaloo balti, and I polished it off. S
was still a bit sick from the previous night's libations, so she had plenty left
over.
We're
in a gay part of town. A preponderance of men in ultrafashionable tight shirts I
could never get away with wearing, and muscles, drinking out on the street. The
British let you drink openly onthe street, something that's against NYC law. Il
Duce Due, Mayor Giuliani, would go nuts
here.It's late when we walk to the
Embankment tube stop. We practically have to wade through all the folk in the
street. London is just awash in people. It's worse than New York, I think,
sometimes. I think I like cities better during recessions. No so many ambitious
folks with mobile phone out and
about.The construction on the Jubilee
line extension is finally over, and I transfer to the Jubilee line at
Westminster. The station's transfer area is massive, especially on a London
scale, where the older stations are about 25% smaller, in terms of escalators
and stairs. D and S told me earlier they plan on making a tour of all the new,
airy stations. The extention goes along the south bank of the Thames, linking up
to some of the other stations, and inevitably to the whole system, after
crossing the East London line and area around Greenwich, home of the idiotic
Millennium Dome.
Posted: Fri - July 21, 2000 at 01:45 AM
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Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:04 PM
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