My two weekends here in London have so far had one red ribbon ... Good friends of yesteryear. I feel rejuvenated having had the chance to sit down and talk to them. It reminds me that although you are not working currently and might start questioning your talents and abilities, you are the same guy who has accomplished and achieved a wide variety of different things and that if nothing else, has been able to establish some great friendships.
The moment of the weekend
Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the weekend was going to what Jorden and I would find out was a high-risk Championship football game between QPR and Cardiff on Saturday. Jorden and I met in Beijing in 1990 and I worked out that he is my oldest friend. (defined as the friend that I have known for the longest that I regularly keep in touch with and not as the one who has spent the most amount of days on this earth.) He was visiting London for the weekend and as we had spent so many days playing soccer together in the yard what better way to spend the afternoon than to go see a game.
Here are two old friends that only see eachother approx. every 5 years... sitting in the stands laughing and joking... Who would have guessed we would be sitting next to one another 15 years down the line in London watching footie in the rain. One thing struck me though...
There is a frightening contrast between the privelged upbringing that both Jorden and I were fortunate enough to experience growing up and the one that many kids in the crowd were experiencing. Instead of the sweet angelic sound of "Come on QPR", we repeatedly heard "You worthless c#~£, your so %&£@£$@ $#/[." The words came from two 10 year old kids. What more, as we turn around we saw their dads approvingly tapping them on the head saying "good one son, he's a $£$£€£€$£ $€£@$€@€"... I didn't even know what a c#^£ was when I was 16 nor that the word existed... its a sad reality though and one most definitely not only unique to football stands in London... ironically though it is organising sports events that I wish to do in the future... Rich Strom... providing the platform for kids to scream profanities since 1928...
I'm glad that there aren't 10 year old kids screaming insults at me as I'm sitting here hunting jobs. Somehow I don't think I'd be as productive...
As I sit here on a rainy Monday evening, a fun and relaxing weekend now in the past... seeing my friends of yesteryear and feeling the support I have from everyone I hear from both near and far... there's definitely a connection with how productive I am. Today was a good day at work... my boss would be pleased... I identified some "out-of-the-box" ways to get my foot "into the door"... its this energy from you guys that keeps me going...
My only question is, if there was only Elvis and I at work today... does that make him my boss? Tune in next time to find out...:-)
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