Predictable Spread

I’ve moved over to a hotel.  The guesthouse accommodation was sold out from this evening through the weekend.  This hotel is much nicer and I can expense it, but my routine is now jolted.  This place has a club lounge where they put on a generous if predictable spread.  There’s all the wine and champagne you can drink for the few hours they make this all available. 

Someone has texted me.  “How about now?”  I walk about this lounge with a glass of champagne in my hand, talking to someone who is over in Dublin.  I try to stand off from the diners.  But it doesn’t really matter.  The tolerance for noise pollution is high, just like the tolerance for particulate air. 

Another colleague has been taken by surprise.  So have I.  We need to talk about this suddenly.  I have my odd mix of meatballs and stewed sole that I pick at, as we pick apart what has happened.  There is the remarkable view of Pudong outside with four of the world’s tallest buildings that I regard like wall paper.

The free evening has taken its toll.  I settle in with the best of intentions to work.  But it won’t last.  They have put a tray in my room that has six cookies and an enormous brownie.  This is what they always do.  It’s very kind if robotic and off-target  And I always start with just a corner of the brownie.  And I always look at the corner that is left in the morning with a clarity that now is very far away.