Tryphoon’s Lair

Altitude: 34000 feet. Distance travelled: 1196 miles. Tail Wind: 26 mp/h…

Here I am, riding the big bird again, overlooking Greenland, on my way to sunny CA for a couple of days and a long list of back to back meetings…

34000 feet… the best place to start reflecting…

Why here, why now? Well, simply llistening to some good old Soundgarden (following Audioslave’s live DVD) gets me back in the early years…

I was recently reading an article about basic physics around time and the single direction of its vector arrow (INTERLUDE: “please fasten your seat belts” says the anonymous cabin voice). This article triggered many thoughts about now, tomorrow and simply life in general, especially when looking at my baby daughter and the speed at which she is growing. One day she can’t turn from lying on her back to lying on her front, the next day she sits and the following one, she is crawling from room to room… All these precious moments are only there inside their own singularity, to be appreciated at a precise point of time and remembered, but never to happen again (well, at least until we decide start working on Thia’s little brother or sister).

Then today, music gets me back in the early 90’s and in the same way, makes me wonder…
Would I have ever predicted back then, that 15 years after 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s up”, I would be here, not healing at least 20 patients a day, married to an English Rose, father of the 9th wonder of the World (I have been told by my bro that his partner may have given birth to the 8th one, a year before Thia), stupidly frequent flyer, on my way to L.A. in the same way I used to go visit my parents 200 miles outside of Paris or even blogging in English when German used to be my second language…

And then, the inevitable “What if?” set of questions pops up! And the first person that comes up to my mind is Douglas “Doug” Rainey…. Boss at the Monte Cristo in Paris, alcoholic friend (and owner of the “double Jack’n Coke in separate glasses please”) , English teacher (mainly cursing) and special advisor when we had time…. I have been trying to get back in touch with Doug for some times (especially when in Las Vegas, his former home town) but he seems to have simply vanished from the surface of the earth… So what if I would have carried on working as a bartender with him, doing night shifts and drinking our bottle of liquor a night? Well, I would already be the owner of a lovely cirrhosis, that for sure!

What if I hadn’t had drinks one night with Christophe G in Paris, and decided to become an associate in his company (Tribe) and visit New York the following week? Well, I surely wouldn’t have found my job at Disney, thanks to his partner at the time…

What if I hadn’t joined Sarah once at our office local and had several drinks and shots with that old friend of hers called Keith B? Well, I surely wouldn’t be on this plane today and wouldn’t write this post…

So this place wouldn’t exist… so you wouldn’t read it…

Anyways, seems that the common link in most of my life changing moves or decisions in my life is pretty constant and is related to some form of bar/spirit/liquor trio… Sad sad sad!

“Flight attendant? I’ll have a double please!!!”