Time...

Time....indeed it is of the essence. "Time is money", "Time will tell", "Time will heal", However, it is amazing how hard it is to actually capture 'time.' Hours suddenly become a day (well, ok, yes, 24 hours to be exact), days meld into one another and suddenly months have passed by, even years. But what about weeks, you ask? Well, who needs those anyway when time is zipping by you at warp speed (much like Michale J Fox and his Delorean and flux capacitor). And so birthdays are forgotten, names muddled, memories grow fuzzy, and anniversary dates are jettisoned from our minds or catalogued deep in the remotest of crevasses in our brains. And the cruel irony of it all is that as the years parade off into the sunset, these crevasses get deeper, more remote and less accessible.

And so it is within this cruel and Alzheimer-like backdrop that time had its wicked way with me and spat me out the other end to this present moment: thirtysomething, thrifty and thriving! Oh yes, I hit that delectable milestone of the Big THREE OH on July 28th, 2005 (which in fact coincides with Peruvian Independence Day...) and those smart ones out there will notice that it is 2006, and so I am actually now 31!! And 'tis quite apt that as soon as I turned thirty my life has taken some drastic twists and turns. Well, technically speaking probably only one twist and one turn. It all involved a flight to Cape Town, a payphone, a substantial amount of cash, a doll, a flight to the UK and generally throwing caution to the wind... but let me not get ahead of myself here....


Rewind back to when I was a carefree, young twenty something, frolicking in the meadows, sipping mojitos in the sun-filled streets of DC, with all my own teeth and hair.... ah, those were the days! The days when I would shoot the shit with Wolfensohn and Wolfowitz over a working weekend at the office. The days when going to weddings was synonymous with going to the toilet (in that they are frequent and sometimes v laborious). Imagine, we went to 7 weddings in 2004: orthodox jewish wedding, Quaker-style wedding, non-denominational wedding, humanist wedding, my cousin Monica's wedding in Spain, etc. And that was '05...


It is high time that I got back on the saddle and kept you abreast of my ongoings. Well, actually, from now I will be keeping you in the loop of OUR ongoings: mine and my wife's Jillian! This will not come as a surprise to any of you - or at least I hope not... I'd like to think that all my friends know of the biggest thing that has happened to me in my short but sweet life so far. As i said, let me rewind a wee bit, as you might understand, these instalments are as much for you as they are for me to jump start my brain synapses to dig into the depths of my grey matter and unlock memories in the future (with or without my flux capacitor).

Life in Washington DC was at times as random as the travelling days of old. One minute we were at Reagan's funeral procession,... another we were walking down beaches topless (normally I don a nice one piece swimsuit...), or marvelling at the entrance prize at a happy hour in DC: whitening procedure for teeth valued at US$800!! WHAT is this world coming to really?! Well, Wyclef Jean graced us with his presence at the World Bank one day, getting down with good ole' Jim Wolfensohn! I walked the streets of DC with my newfound Indian friends, talking of 'chuddies' (hindi for underpants...don't ask) and slipping into a persona that many people think is more befitting my looks - Indian! The accent was rubbing off... while my dark skin still hasn't rubbed off.



We once went to two Jewish weddings in one weekend, in which I made a very large faux pas and went to kiss the bride hello (unbeknownst to me, she had not had any carnal contact for weeks if not months, ahead of the wedding, least of all with her husband...oops... I mean I didn't try to snog her or anything. She is Argentinean; it was perfectly normal to give her two kisses on the cheek...); there were many protestors (not at the wedding), including us, protesting a $115 parking ticket, NYPD blimp (brought to you by Fujifilm) flying overhead; too many police; Madeleine Albright and us watching a movie together... picture of Jillian and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman aka Jane Seymour.... (not Monica Bellucci, but not bad, not bad)... Bank and acronyms: WWF, PCF, CSD, TTL, ESSD, PD, PAD, PID... drove me nuts.



Speaking of nuts, on a work trip to South Africa, a man in a township in Cape Town spoke to me about the bible, and ezekiel revelation chapter 13:1.... about the meaning of the seven heads of the beast, with the ten crowns... equating to 7 hills of Rome and the 10 european nations... something about the anti-christ.... that the pope will make the way for the anti-christ (in the form of the black nigerian muslim-leaning potential pope in waiting, or the other one with jewish tendencies... Ratzinger supposedly). He then went on to speak about implantable micro chips, soon to replace all credit, identification and other cards. Inserted under the skin, the microchip supposedly will enable the surveillance and possibly the mind control of its recipient. He talked about how this diabolical device may very well be the mark of the beast prophesied in the Book of Revelation 13:15-17 to be placed either in the forehead or in the right hand during the Apocalypse: ". . . and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Supposedly, the Bible warns that accepting the mark of the beast may save your life temporarily, but later doom you to be tormented with "fire and brimstone." Oookkkayyy...



Speaking of torment with fire and brimstone, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz took the helm at the World Bank when I was working there. Woah, what a trip. And so it was apt that I should bow out of the multilateral hegemoth for greener pastures. But not before engaging in the most important endeavour of my life. Which brings me back to the flight to Cape Town, the payphone, the substantial amount of cash, the doll, the flight to the UK and the throwing of caution to the wind... it all had one purpose: to engage Jillian! As the well known.... hutu.... yes, hutu... saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words (yes, those hutus are superb artistes... stunning canvases...), so see below:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How I Met Mother Mary...

In the Land of Smiles (cont.)

New Ghana Cedi - the Value is the Same!