The Kindness Of Strangers

Yesterdays P&L: GBP 230.00

Yesterdays Booze: bottle of rioja

Yesterdays Soundtrack: Simple Minds

Markets are crazy just now and I just don't have the resources to trade them properly but I bet some hedge funds are making a fortune. Didn't take long for the Greek contagion to spread to Spain. The American deficit is about to exceed its GDP. GDP or gross domestic product is a bit of an odd indicator as nobody is really sure about the accuracy of the number. In the case of Uncle Sam it is generally around fourteen trillion dollars and global output is about forty five trillion dollars. America is clearly in a shocking fiscal situation. Even the British Empire, exhausted after the cost of the first world war and maintaining the cost of an empire that covered a quarter of the world wasn't so indebted. Something has to give sooner or later.

Someone I don't know recently gave me something. I am always amazed at random gestures of affection, and every time they crack me up. I am the guy who has a tear in his eye when he unexpectedly receives a birthday present at work. A lot of people think my family must have been unnecessarily harsh when I was a child, but this isn't the case. I have avoided people on situations like this since I was about eleven years old. I guess I am essentially a very selfish person, but it's more than that. One of my many ex girlfriends, the princess, said I seem to hate the possibility of being happy, even for just a moment. She may have been right. She claimed that I wasn't a real person, that I was hollow inside. This isn't true, I do feel happiness, I just find it hard to express it.

Today mostly I was listening to Simple Minds. South side boys, like me I suppose. Like U2, (who would go on to much bigger things), they have a Celtic flair for the dramatic. The top five songs I listened to:

See The Lights - "I want to tell you love, I'm too proud to cry". Soft rock, but this really appeals to me. I wonder how many people go through life regretting their pride and what it cost them.

Waterfront - Many Scottish people have a natural affection for the sea. it's been part of my life forever. I have never lived far from the water, even if it was only the dirty old Thames rolling through London. When I was a child, the waterfront was the docks and when we would go there we were either meeting my father or joining one of his ships - I'll never forget the activity, the smells and the endless possibilities. Nowadays they wharfs are quiet and filled by office workers or full of apartments.

Belfast Child - Simple Minds are one of those bands with social conscience, but the problems that happened in Ireland are very close to Glaswegians as so many of us have Irish relatives. Isn't that so absurdly English to call the situation there "the troubles". What I remember most about Belfast was how the ordinary people just treated everything like normal, children wouldn't interrupt their game just because a group of soldiers was moving through them or an armoured personnel carrier was moving past them.

Don't You Forget About Me - The huge hit from the movie Breakfast Club. I remember seeing them in concert somewhere in Europe, probably at some stadium in Italy and the guitarist standing on a speaker ripping out the opening chords - brilliant.

Theme For Great Cities - An instrumental song, in the eighties bands would often throw in these kind of songs as fillers but this one is different. Back when I used to drive, I remember having this on the stereo as I drove around the m25. What is it about cities that draws us to them, the need to be with other people? I am sure I would be happy without them but I love the heartbeat of a busy city, crossing London bridge at eight thirty in the morning knowing you don't have to go to work, walking down Sukhumvit in Bangkok as everyone ignores you. Only in great cities can you be surrounded by millions of people yet still be alone.


In case I don't see 'ya...good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!