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| Life Kandi |
12 Jul 2004 19:33:05 GMT |
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Well, I've finished BMG. My last day went reasonably well - we had lunch at La Noche, a Spanish tapas bar and then leaving drinks down at the Larrik. I even got a whipround and a card which left me felt kinda akward. I guess i'm good at generating attention on demand but am not used to having me put in the spotlight by someone else. Still, it was a kind gesture and even Margaret, my Lib-Dem nemesis, bought me a couple of wicked gifts - bamboo woodchimes and some worry dolls.
So how do i feel now that i've left? Pretty good in some ways, pretty bad in others. Sorry, that was a crappy answer but it's the most accurate thing i can think of. I'll miss some of the people there - Dru, Pete, Nish, Trev and - yes - Margaret. The people in the other departments i worked with briefly were also pretty nice to me (though i guess they didn't have to work with me on a regular basis). I'll miss the laid-back environment and the beautiful leafy suburb feel of Putney. But i won't miss the tediousness of the work i did. Nothing was particularly challenging and no-one listened to any of my ideas. I don't mind having my concepts rejected so long as thought have been given to them. I won't miss being paired up with a drunken idiot on the grounds that he has a PhD and knows a bit more than i do. I sure as hell won't miss that journey. But then it was all in the balance from the beginning, BMG have employed me for far longer than they realistically should have. My boss wasn't always great to me, but he did leave me alone. So I'll miss the place but i won't look back on it with much sadness.
The thing that vexed me perpetually at BMG was the way they let good people leave without much of fight. I mean, i wasn't really that great, but each of my co-workers that left, Johnny, Paul, Mike, etc. all wanted something the company could give them and yet it chose not to so they walked. Johnny wanted a pay-rise in comparison to his talents. He's now earning a shocking amount as a contractor. Paul left because he was bored and looked for work in Australia (this was before he got married there). Mike - this is a good one - wanted to take a sabbatical to go travelling, something he's always wanted to do. They turned down his request and lost one of the best project developers and engineers i've seen in my short working experience. So I sure as hell learnt a lot of things you shouldn't do in order to keep a department healthy and efficient. More fool me for wanting to be just a programmer. Still, they also have good people there who will no doubt flourish; Nisha with her lust for professionalism, Bernadette's a great Java person to have on board, Dru learnt a lot from her time there as a work placement, and so on.
So I'm going to take a short break and attend some more interviews. I kicked off Saturday by getting fabulously drunk with Katherine (I woke up the morning after with a big lump in my pocket killing my leg, turned out to be a shotgun laced with sticky sugar and absinthe). Sunday, I sobered up and took the train to see Mike R. Not having Josh to drive us everywhere (he's in Spain "living la vida loca" as he says when he gets wrecked), we had to take the train. We went to Southampton and saw Farenheit 911, which was brilliant. Moore's a strange one - his books only serve to annoy me (why does he insist on appearing on every cover?) because they're usually full of anecdotal inaccuracies laced amongst the true facts. In comparison, Al Franken, another "comedy liberal", writes books in the similar vein of rage and exposure but he has a team of Harvard students to check the facts. Having said all of this, I have always loved Moore's documentary style and F911 is truly a stunning peace of work. Put it this way, the cinema audience cheered at the end. Most people found the film funny, sad and engaging, but ijust found it so sad because the shit that goes on it really happened and is happening now. I wanted to stand up and yell "YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE? YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!? BY GOD, THE LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD ARE ACTING LIKE FUCKING CHILDREN AND YOU CAN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO GO TO THE POLLS OR DEMAND AN EARLY ELECTION!!!!!" Instead, I just drunk all of Mike's Pepsi.
Afterwards Scouse and I went to some really awful venue in Leisure World (of which the Odeon cinema was a part of). I think it was called HotShots, and it was entirely my fault. You see - we were going to pass on by minding our own bidniz, but i suddenly spotted an airhockey table and really fancied a game. I'm really, really bad at airhockey but i love playing it nonetheless. It's programmer's catnip. So, after paying a quid each for me and Scouse to go "whip it up some" on the 'hockey table I was much vexed to find all THREE tables were out of order. I looked around at the array of unconvincing neon signs and cardboard eightballs hanging from the ceiling. The venue was the nearest thing i've ever seen of Disney's "Pleasure Island" in real life - it was bustling with teens trying to buy underaged in the "bar" area while others were content with playing video games and watching the big screens. All this on a Sunday evening. I was pondering over a drink whether or not to kick some kids off Turbo Outrun while Scouse was perving at all the jailbait totty in hotpants. I felt really, REALLY old until the VJ played Shanks & Bigfoot. Everyone can relate to "Sweet Like Chocolate".
Our final port of call was the BambuuBar. It was brand new and surprisingly sosphisticated. The dress code refused anyone dressed like a chav which made a refreshing change. I hate Burberry. As me and Mike sat drinking, I saw a flyer for Hed Kandi. Hed Kandi!!! I remember when the first album came out (I was in BPM in Leicester at the time) how all the people in the shop were surprised at the nice artwork on the cover. I've strived to mimick their designs ever since.
So we left after just one drink (It was Sunday night, i had two trains to catch, let's not get carried away here folks) and I arrived back just before midnight. Now that i'm dolescum, I have a thirst of going out on nighttime excursions and knocking up on old friends across the country.
See you soon.
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| Security Clearance: 5 |
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