幻覺就算變成錯覺 也算是體驗過一遍

word.

The pastry fiend is happy

I have been waiting for this moment for so long!

My first first canelle!

I keep hearing about the bakery Canto 6’s wonderful canelles but everytime I go there, they are gone. Doesn’t matter if I go at 10am, 1pm or 3pm (okie, so the last two timings are not the best)…. they are always sold out.

So anyways, on my way to the movie “Towelhead”, I decided to swing by Clear Flour, supposedly the best bakery in Boston to pick up some bread. Lo and behold, they had canelles!

So what if Clear Flour is not known for its pastries, it makes damn good bread so its pastries can’t be bad… can it?

Oh I’m going to walk on the wild side, I swooped down and carried away all 4 canelles before some pastry cop bust me for taking too many.

So now I have my canelles in front of me.

Okie, one canelle.

I ate one on the way to the cinema, I couldn’t wait. Another I ate along with my new housemate whom I gave one as well.

So I’m left with the last canelle.

My little morsel of pastry heaven.

Running on empty

So I have this older gentleman friend…

Okie, he’s not really a gentleman and it’s not that kind of blog post. But he is much older and has been doing well for the past few years.

But anyways, he’s a higher level executive at a software company and he has been posted to the US for the past 2 years. Unlike most expats, he’s extremely frugal and have been diligently putting away money from his allowance and salary into his big biscuit tin.

Suffice to say, his allowance here is pretty ridiculous and he has managed to accumulate a big honey pot of cash after two years.

We started talking about what he has gained by his posting and beyond the wonderful cultural and travel opportunities, he revealed he has amassed close to 200K in cash just by being here!

OMG.

It would take me years to save that kind of money.

Of course it’s not an apples to apples comparison but it still made me wonder about work in general. A mental image bubbled up:

Working = always running on the same spot.

Maybe I’ll stay in bed today.

It’s only sexy when you’re not working it

“Oh you’re in advertising? Isn’t that so much fun?”

Not if you’re actually in advertising.

Usual images of advertising agencies emphasize the sexy and glamorous – the martini lunches, the creative television advertisements, the dressy advertising executives.

But reality is seldom that and I rarely find books/movies/tv shows that really capture the pathos of advertising.

AMC’s “Mad Men” captures that desperation pretty well but that sense of ennui is detached from the advertising trade. Don Draper, the lead character in the show, is desperate… but not because he’s in advertising.

Afterall, it’s the 60s where everything goes. Meaning they still have long martini lunches, come up with snazzy catch phrases and have a swinging good time. Though it’s depressing to see how screwed up their lives are, they still seem to have alot of fun.

The people in Joshua Ferris’ “Then we came to the end” however are modern advertising people. Meaning they are desperate… desperate cool ironic hipsters but still desperate nevertheless. And unlike “Mad Men”, they are desperate because of the soulless work they do day in day out but can’t bring themselves to leave.

“Yet for all the depression no one ever quit. When someone quit, we couldn’t believe it. ‘I’m becoming a rafting instructor on the Colorado River,’ they said. ‘I’m touring college towns with my garage band.’ We were dumbfounded. It was like they lived on a different planet. Where had they found the derring-do? What would they do about car payments? We got together for going-away drinks on their final day and tried to hide our envy while reminding ourselves that we stil had the freedom and luxury to shop indicriminately.”

Hmmm… sounds like modern advertising to me.

Okie maybe it’s a bit cynical but it’s still pretty accurate to me.

Whoever asks me if advertising is as fun as they think should really read this book.

It will set them straight.