So last night I went out for dinner with some dear friends of mine, Jonathan and Truus.
Given I hadn’t seen them for almost 3 years, it was fantastic to catch up and at the end of the night, we decided to go for a walk along the canal and grab a night cap.
As we were strolling along the beautiful streets, we passed a pub and by pure chance, realised that inside there were 2 planners we both knew from our time in Singapore.
Let’s get this in perspective …
I haven’t been to Amsterdam for almost 12 years – and by pure chance, I happened to walk along the right street on the right day at the right time and with the right friend so that he spotted 2 planners we both knew, who themselves had decided to go for a late tipple on a Thursday night.
On top of that, the 2 planners – one Scottish residing in Singapore and one Dutch, residing in Delhi – had met each other by chance as one was there on holiday and the other was there on a stop-over before going on to India.
And to make it weirder is that the reason we all know eachother is because at one point in the past, we all worked in Singapore – even though now, only one of us is still there while everyone else lives in a different country.
They say it’s a small World and that adland is a small industry but even if I take on board those considerations, it still blows my mind that situation could happen.
Saying that, it feels kind of good.
Thanks to technology, the industry I work in and my loud, opinionated gob … I can feel pretty much assured that wherever I go in the World, there’s probably someone there I can call a friend. Well, maybe not a friend [I have weird ‘rules’ about when that word can be used] but someone I know, who I can share some time with.
However it also raises another consideration …
Thanks to technology, the industry I work in and my loud, opinionated gob … all the fights I pick and all the bollocks I talk can be heard, discussed & reacted to in the blink of an eye … so if you’re anything like me and have an inability to keep your opinion to yourself, then may I suggest you find something that can overcome any/all negative views, because if you can’t, then even Osama Bin Ladin can’t hide your dirty little secrets from adlands wide circle of eyes and ears because the buggers are everywhere, not just connected online, but in little pubs on little streets in Amsterdam.
Anyway, to my colleagues at W+K, Niko, Jonathan & Truus, Gavin and Dede [plus Katie Dreke, who I’ll be meeting before I go to the airport and head home] thanks for ensuring the shitty experience at the Pulitzer didn’t overshadow the wonderfulness of being back in one of my favourite cities in the World … Amsterdam. It might of been a short time, but as the prostitutes in Thailand say, it was a special time.