A Night in Notes

Two quotes from my work Christmas party: nice enough people to work with, fantastic folks to share a drink with.

"Yeah, I covered the G20 protests for ___. "
"Oh, and how was that?"
"Really quiet, nothing happened at all. All there were were people from the media looking for a story to beat up."
"Oh, so you had the hippies going around looking for examples of police brutality, and the suits going around looking for examples of mob violence?"
"Yeah, all they seemed to do was beat drums."
"What is it with hippies and tom-toms anyway? Is it supposed to represent the primal beat of their soul, or some fucked up notion like that?"
"I don't know, but that's all that happened. I mean, once I was walking down a laneway that came onto Flinders Lane, right past where the police had set up operations for the event, and there were hippies sprawling down in the laneway. I said, hey, did you know that was the police headquarters there? They were just, 'huh'? They didn't have a fucking clue."
"Well, there's your story for you, anyway. You could have written back to ___ and said, 'A lacklustre performance all round! Next time, I expect a bit more mob violence and police brutality! I was very disappointed!'"
"I know."
"At least tell me you trashed a McDonalds ..."

***

"Do you mind if I smoke?"
"I don't smoke, but I don't mind at all if you do."
"That's good."
"I was born in the 1970s, so we kind of got the tail end of the 1960s and 1970s smoking culture, before the nanny-staters really got hold."
"Yes, I remember when smoking was first banned in taxis; at first they were all, 'No, smoke away, I don't care.' But now they're worried they'll get fined. It's insidous."
"Now you can't smoke in pubs and clubs."
"It's terrible."
"And it's not really the same, is it? I mean, all that filthy festering smoke is good for the atmosphere, really livens the place up."
"Now you get thrown out by the bouncers if you so much as light up. You can still do all the illegal drugs, though."
"What's the world coming too? Even France are banning smoking."
"Italy, too. I had high hopes for Germany."
"How did that go?"
"Banned."
"Shit."
"There's always China."
"Oh, that's true. You can do anything in China, though. You can even open up new carbon-fired plants in China. Yeah, there is always China."