Just another weekend

Sleeping in till 8.30, 9 o'clock. Grocery shopping. A run on Saturday, aerobics class on Sunday. I may meet a friend for lunch or dinner, and spend time on the couch with a good book and the weekend newspapers (I heart Sunday Times especially). How different is Amelie's life. Since July we've said hi and bye at our Sunday aerobics class. This week, I got chatting to her. She works for a big Japanese (once American) investment bank. Not very newsworthy in itself. However, she does so all day and night Monday to Friday and a few hours Saturday and Sunday. Basically, all she does outside work is spending a few hours in the gym Saturday and Sunday before heading to the office. She asked me, knowing what I do for a living, if I had any time to see London or a museum or anything. Hell yeah. I didn't move here to work all the time. Surely, work can be a pain and some projects require round the clock attention. But mostly it's 40-50 hour work weeks. And nights off to go to the gym or meet friends. And the amount of work I've had to finish in the weekend has been very limited. Amelie is young, she only graduated a year ago. Will she learn what life is about when she gets older? Or is that me being judgemental and is she truly happy and fulfilled with her life as it is? The look on her face when I told her my working hours, suggests differently....

Is that a crunch in your pocket?

From a London paper:
City boys are buying up huge quantities of Viagra to cure their poor bedroom performance - caused by the credit crunch stress. And lawyers, bankers and hedge-fund managers are ordering deliveries at the office to avoid awkward questions at home. The credit crunch and long hours have led to a surge in under 35s who need help.

The same paper explains how the credit crunch increase divorce rates. Women don't want to be married to poor bankers anymore, men decide to divorce whilst their salaries (and therefore the alimony) are at a low. Gotta love the City...