O.R.

I met up with Jane Austen, a former office colleague who had turned her back on Credit Investigation, shifted careers in mid-life and is now a Registered Nurse, over coffee.

And barely a month after my entry on Fat Variations, she predictably said, "Lester..." some people still call me by my first name, "...you look OK, but I can see your prominent belly from afar," thank you Mademoiselle, you are so nice.

"Oh, it's because I have stopped attending dragon boat training," I attempted to provide an explanation.

"...and your scalp, I can clearly see it from here..." she pointed it out, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's just the hair cut, and the gel I'm using," I lied, I didn't use any.

"Your skin is still fair, although a shade darker," Am I signing up for a porn movie, I wanted to ask her.

Jane Austen has this unequaled ability in saying the most unflattering comments in the most polite and serious manner. It's different if say, Che or John were saying these things, because I know it was done in the spirit of levity, and we're simply going to have a good laugh in the end. But with her, she delivers her lines with the severity of a dreaded disease. Which makes it devastating.

Anyway, she wanted to ask my advice about sterilization procedures inside an operating room- she's currently doing a research on it. Why she thinks I know anything about what goes on inside an operating room is beyond me.

Sometimes, people really overrate me, not that I mind, though. She reminded me of Chelo, another office colleague who called me up very early one morning to ask for my help about her assigned MBA case study. And then there's Shaq, who asked me if I have a study on carbon dioxide. "The whaaat?" "You know, CO2 gas." He works for a gas supplier.

Jane Austen and I ended up talking about the Nursing Industry and her prospects for working abroad.