The end of one era

I suppose we had it coming. We've known each other for well over a decade ... in the case of Michelle and I, a knee-knocking two. It's all well and good being in the same madding city and meeting up to reminisce about 'back in the days', but as Stefan astutely reminded me over tea this afternoon, with this lot it has been about far more.

London life empties people's pockets of precious time (and $!), which is why it's so significant that our group has made it a point to meet up regularly.

We have a smorgasbord of characters - in the food spectrum we are overly represented by the meat, chicken feet and foie gras lovers (though Michelle's rather tasteful Lipid Adventure of the Liquified Kind might have put some off liver for eternity). For sure, nothing stands between them and a hearty Royal China dim sum. Not even the feeble -but earnest!- protestations of the non-prawn-eating pescatarian.

Professionally, the group is dominated by Driven People With Serious Jobs in Big Companies ... apart from myself, of course. And yet -hallelujah- not one is the bland, cookie-cutter product that a PWSJ often is.

Last night Shri and Deepa very kindly had us over for an incredible dinner, quite possibly the last get-together before Michelle heads East, Ramesh and Julie move to Clerkenwell, Shri and Deepa to Highbury. Ste and I still have some months before disappearing to Zurich, but in many ways, we met to bid farewell to an era. The photos will say it better.

At one point, Ramesh a.k.a. Taro (real name in birth certificate) and the token Malaysian, showed off a calculation game that once stumped even the mightiest brain, Karthik Muralidharan. The numerate amongst us were impressed ... Deepa rightly suggested that it had to do with multiples of nine. I stuck to taking photos and my humble mental sums.
Here we have 3/4 of the Regent's Park Sunday Morning Tennis Team! Watch out, we cuss like sailors! Don't mistake Julie's smile for weakness - she was lobbying for early morning tennis the next day. The levitating white blob is Ramesh's napkin. Voices told him to do something spontaneous, so he flung it at us. Indeed, some things never change.




Spirits were high - there was good wine, women ... and Michelle bellowed a song of sorts. Wait, hang on, it was actually a taunt about my abundant white hair (again) and I am putting her down on record as having said that SHE WILL QUIT HER JOB IF SHE FINDS A WHITE HAIR ON HER HEAD.

I will miss doing this. Terribly.