The Final Scala Bank Holiday

August 24, 2008

I was far from enthusiastic about going out again. It was more of an obligatory thing after having paid for the two night party pass. Or a better description was that I had nothing better to do. Well not exactly. Should I say there was nothing I felt like doing more? Close. The word inertia is appropriate too.

Salsa can be fun sometimes. Not always. Now and then it’s nearly tortuous. Saturday night for instance was about as awful as it gets for a London outing. Not to say that none of the dances had some nice aspects to it, but I think it is telling when the clear highlight of the evening was watching a plump hairless androgynous man with glasses and earrings social dance. I don’t think those words came close to justifying the entertainment value. How about freaky, funny and fabulous at the same time from a complete unknown?

Managing expectations is a key. When nothing good is assumed, any good thing would seem like a godsend. Re-writing history is another factor. The past often looks better than it really was with distortions time causes. If I own it, it is good. If I know it, it is important. If I did it, it was for the best. Smile and everything will look rosier. Self-delusion can be a good thing.

What is this turning into? Mid-life crisis? Go buy yourself a Ferrari instead. Get on with the story of the evening.

Mmm. I felt like chicken tonight. You need to eat more said Theo the other evening. Ghastly isn’t it was the reply. There is no need to try to lose weight. So how about having a big lunch this time around. Hop over to Kings Cross and indulge self with low-grade KFC chicken with meat falling off its bone at a lightest of pressure of fingers.

The place did look really dingy though. Oh so low class. How bourgeoisie the mind? How about curry instead. No. Up and down I searched for an alternative. Nothing looked remotely enticing.

Can you spare a change for food? Sorry no to a bum. I walk further up to a Burger King. No, it won’t do. I turned around.

Salsa tonight? A pair of nice-looking girls with fliers in their hand asked in the middle of the street. Thanks but I already have tickets. A number of other people they hit were already heading over to Scala with tickets already in hand.

Back in front of KFC for the third time or was it for the fourth of fifth time? Was it second time around that they took the garbage outside? There are some people inside this time. A man in suit and briefcase is wolfing down some chicken in front of a stand-up booth. I’m not exactly hungry but it will be a long night. As I was finishing, a couple with Macdonald’s bag and hamburger still in hand walks in and order more greasy food. Now here are people who are following a perfect recipe for gaining weight. The sequence of their food itinerary was beyond my reality until now. Maybe it should be called fast food crawl.

Back at the cue at the Scala were several familiar people including Andrea and her new friend. They took part in the day's activities as well and were already quite tired. After a brief chat upstairs while they were renewing their memberships, I spotted them only once more all of the rest of the evening. There must have been a fairly large group, but they were largely invisible in a crowd of over 1600. The only others from the mini bus I interacted with were Shila and Hayden.

I probably had more social greets and chats than usual. Marianne, Rico, Natalie, Andrew, Tracy, Liam, Mario, Anja, Lee, Albert, James, Amir, Yuki. Nothing heavy. Some extremely fleeting. Consequences of having been in the scene long enough. I think I was smiling more often, more open to strike up a conversation, more approachable. A few chats were with people I had never talked to before - some with no names exchanged.

I was in a good mood pretty much all night. The music started off nice. Del Salereo was the first DJ. The music stayed nice throughout. The dances were much better than last night. Heck, I even enjoyed the shows even though there were whopping 10 of them - in addition to 4 couples dancing in a competition (I picked the wrong couple to win). The highlights included seeing massive number of people involved in Laith Sami student team production themed Roxanne (Natalie was quite prominent in this one) and the awesome sounding music used by Ye Mambo. I wanted to inquire about the song but never got around to it.

I certainly did not think the night was without any redeeming qualities (as stated to me by someone). Managed expectations is key. Following an awful night helps. Left index finger is still sore. I broke in a new pair of shoes because the old pair was really falling apart - the new shoes performed better than expected.

I told Vish that I will try to visit him often - only managed it once before the social started and once around 3:45 AM as he was running out of music.

I'm developing some doubts about soundness of my On2 timing. I don't really have anyone in mind to diagnose it however.

When there's too much tension, relax. It's worth a try.

I stayed until essentially closing time once again for what I expect to be my last Scala Bank Holiday party.