That collapsing of hierarchy in Japan rings so true - people from the top and bottom meeting and mingling. They’d never even come into contact in the West with many layers of gatekeepers and protocol in between them.
When we got legally partnered at the British embassy, the gauche youth who did the deed in the consulate section arrived wiping coffee off his shirt apologizing for an accident. Typical of the causal, careless way the upper classes behave towards the lower orders in the UK. At the end of the legalities, I asked him to call Alastair Morgan to let him know we were done. ‘You know Alastair?’ A look that hovered between apprehension and panic in his eyes. ‘Yes….’ And I smiled while he gulped, made the call and escorted up to Alastair’s terrace for champagne and nibbles. Alastair Morgan was then the head of the commercial section and probable future ambassador. I’d bumped into him on a committee and we’d got on well. In London, he’d only have driven past me in a limousine while he worked on some papers.
Even before the action begins, the local color is tantalizing.
Thank you for reading!! Action coming.
Sugarcane fields. I didn’t expect that!
Kyle shouldn’t trust that Westfield chap.
Oh you have an eye…
how cool...!!!
That collapsing of hierarchy in Japan rings so true - people from the top and bottom meeting and mingling. They’d never even come into contact in the West with many layers of gatekeepers and protocol in between them.
Very true! Part of the life abroad I’ve found.
When we got legally partnered at the British embassy, the gauche youth who did the deed in the consulate section arrived wiping coffee off his shirt apologizing for an accident. Typical of the causal, careless way the upper classes behave towards the lower orders in the UK. At the end of the legalities, I asked him to call Alastair Morgan to let him know we were done. ‘You know Alastair?’ A look that hovered between apprehension and panic in his eyes. ‘Yes….’ And I smiled while he gulped, made the call and escorted up to Alastair’s terrace for champagne and nibbles. Alastair Morgan was then the head of the commercial section and probable future ambassador. I’d bumped into him on a committee and we’d got on well. In London, he’d only have driven past me in a limousine while he worked on some papers.