Meeting J

As planned, dinner was served under the night sky at the open food court at the Durian. Kang Kong (a type of vegetable dish, pardon my translation), Sotong (they are bloody hot and spicy, I must say) and Stingray (usually my favourite, but this was tasteless) spread out in abundance facing skinny small eaters like Cher and me. KL was our big-eating messiah in the absence of Ray. Poor Ray, as at 8 pm, he was still stuck in a meeting.

Cher and I had taken a bus from our office fairly early in that evening to meet KL. Civil servants are a fortunate bunch, I know - 5 days week, early knock off. But we have our misgivings too. And some was highlighted by a colleague, J, who we met on the bus. She has started to gaze through the classified section again and was talking about leaving for the umpteenth time. J and I are similar in one big way - full of crap, I mean, really full of it. Once, I asked her which industry would she leave for but she had no idea. Pretty sad, I think, though, I am not much different. Like me, she used to take a part-time degree course in Accounting, only to switch over to Management Studies, which earned my admiration for her appetite for change, except that it sets her graduation date back by something like 4 years - perhaps another of her crap? But undeniably, she is one smart gal and a faithful friend to those she cares enough to be true with. And I like to think she is true to Cher and me.

We parted at City Hall, but not before J gave me a pretty heavy lecture on something I wrote for MIW. Well, perhaps too heavy for a Friday night. I didn't know anyone who read so much into what I write. I was a teeny weeny bit flattered. J said that my writing shows that I am a person too much into my own thoughts, one who seems to have lost all contact with the real world. She was close to blurting the word "naive" out. Knowing her, I was not appalled or anything, certainly not by her remarks. She may also be right, as she gives pretty constructive criticism at time. I may be spending too much time by myself, which is only reflective of the lifestyle I have settled into. Somehow, I had stated my wish to hear more from her someday. If only all my friends are as forthcoming as J, but I am not complaining.