The Fan, Bryanston

Monday, February 28, 2005

From five stars "Perfect! * * * * *" to one star "Cruddy! *" -- totally subjective coffee-shop and restaurant reviews.

Service: * * 1/2
Food: * * 1/2
Ambience: * * *
Babe Count: * *

Oh, goodie! This week, it's MY turn! Last week, I got drubbed 21--6 by Peter 'The Doc of Dice Death'. Tonight, I'm playing Branko, and he's throwing diabolical dice. It's just not going well for him. And it's really not helping him much that he's accepting EVERY double I offer him. Which means that instead of losing just one point each time, he's losing two, and sometimes four when I gammon him.

But I'm happy. I need a good win. And when I rip his pubic hairs out one by one to gasp him into a 21--6 defeat, my smile is unshakeable. And the minestrone with the large foccacia was tasty and nutritious.

So I'm in rather good spirits about approaching my ex-boss, who's greeted me politely tonight. I sent her an sms earlier in the day suggesting that it would probably be a good idea if we call off our feud and work it out in a meeting.

"Did you get my sms earlier?" I say.

"Yeah," she says, not unpleasantly. "Did you get my lawyer's letter last week?"

I did indeed. And I've been thinking about it. Her lawyer's letter was unpleasant. Much less pleasant than MY lawyer's letter. And what I've been thinking about this particular letter is that the more this stuff carries on, the uglier it's going to get if we don't work it out amicably. I LIKE this woman. She LIKES me. Otherwise we wouldn't be in the same backgammon club. And she wouldn't have hired me.

And you know what? I just don't feel like playing chess with her anymore. I feel like playing backgammon.

"Yeah," I say. "I got your lawyer's letter. And I really think you and I need to talk. It doesn't need to get that ugly."

She's busy this week, and so am I, so I suggest that we meet one evening next week sometime. She says, "That'll be great. We'll speak early next week to arrange it."

Who knows? Maybe we'll head this thing off at the creek.

In the meantime, I start my new gig tomorrow. I'm the producer of a huge project. We'll be making South African tourism DVDs. Yeehaa! Lots of glamorous travel around the country, I suspect! Can't wait. Maybe I'll meet some more lawyers on my journeys?