Some People Call It A One Night Stand...

Today's P&L: GBP -380.00

Today's Booze: 1 litre of Smirnoff Black

Today's Soundtrack: more Duran Duran

Trading in the summer is so difficult. Anyone who doesn't think bankers are paid too much should walk around a trading floor in July or August. Volumes are way down, which allows easy manipulation of the markets. I got burned a little on some harmless FTSE 100 trades. The market has been waiting all day to see the results of the stress tests that we are assured will tell us if any of the banks are at risk in the event of a double dip recession or a European sovereign debt crisis. It is all meaningless of course, if there is one thing we have found out, it is that the banks lie and manipulate their figures to a level that would make Enron executives blush. The government is fully complicit in this as they know that a major bank failure would spell all kinds of doom for the economy.

I am beginning to find the endless corruption in the west tiresome, of course the seemingly constant drive to lower education standards stops the proles from asking questions. You wonder what the red top tabloids would say about some of the things that happen in this country if they took place in the third world. Not to say the third world is any more noble. A Standard Bank research paper estimated that in the last fifty years Nigeria has generated over six trillion dollars in oil revenue. I have spent some time in Lagos and would give you fifty quid for the country.

My health is quite good lately, (thanks Euro Anon). My most recent blood tests showed I had serious Anaemia, whatever that means, but generally I feel well and look quite sharp. The stalker is back harassing me. Don't get me wrong, she is a wonderful woman but I guess I am just too old to be told what to do. She is infuriating because while criticizing me, she refuses to recognize her own behaviour - at least I know when I act badly, she seems oblivious.

Today I was listening to Duran Duran. When I was in a band as a teenager, this was the band I most wanted to be in. The top five songs I listened to:

Last Chance On The Stairway - A song about a party about to end or something more desperate? To me it means the inevitable end everything comes to. You know how you just know when something is past its time, could be a relationship, could be a job - you just get this feeling that its over and no amount of talking or patching up is going to repair the damage.

Save A Prayer - Its a cliché, but this song reminds me of lots of exotic women I have slept with in exotic places. I suppose I have been luckier than most but being an alcoholic isn't all supermarket spirits and bottles of cider. I travelled the world and was usually staying in high dollar joints. Strangely, it doesn't remind me of any specific girlfriend, like the lyrics say, "Some people call it a one night stand but we can call it paradise".

Hungry Like The Wolf - This song is quite high energy and reminds me of the lunatic - she was definitely the kind of woman who went out hunting for men.

Rio - "And that means so much to me, like a birthday or a pretty view". Great song, kind of reminds me of my disposable life. Things that seem so important are really irrelevant. I wonder if someone like me has a mid-life crisis where I yearn for responsibility and commitment?

Skin Trade - I love this song, It is so well produced but also quite seedy and it isn't just the subject. We all work for the skin trade in one way or another, I am fairly harsh on strippers and hookers because I have lived in countries where you don't take your clothes off to buy a new set of rims for your car. Try telling a stripper in Vegas that in Cambodia a girl will stay all night with you for ten dollars. I suppose it just annoys me that so many strippers write blogs expressing how intelligent they are and how empowered by their jobs. I am no feminist but if I had a daughter, I sure as hell wouldn't want her stripping for a living.


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