Marathon man

Neither I nor Gerald Wang, Senior Journalist extraordinaire, could believe it at first ... but yesterday turned out to be his first year anniversary with Alphabet Media. God knows I tried to shake him off with a sequence of late night editorial sessions, random screaming from the rear of the office, and hours of interview transcription - but the fool seems to like it here.

This kind of aberrant behaviour is all too rare in Singapore, and is precisely why he fits in so well with the bunch of eccentrics who have come to collectively define the 'Alphabet Way'. Yes, we at 43c Beach Road like aberrant behaviour very much.

Very much. But more about that another time...

Anyway, we decided to celebrate his anniversary at Fat Frog, near where the old National Library used to be. Except that Fat Frog is no more, and has instead transformed into an interesting live music venue called Timbre (complete with the world's most hapless bar staff).

Needlesss to say, several wrong orders later, and after much red plonk from down under had been sunk, I turned to Gerald, gripped him by the shoulders and asked him to tell us what his time at Alphabet had meant to him. He dug deep, searching for the right words, and coming up with words that probably summed up how most of the rest of us were feeling: "My head. Very pain lor."

That's my boy.

(Pictured survivors: Eddie, J1, Gerald, Alanna, Minky, Captain, Jianggan)