...i had the dubious pleasure of being at work on a sunday morning today.

and as i was checking for something online, this purple little sign on the right side of the webpage caught my eye.

'when you're serious,' it had read, much to my incredulity, 'about love.'


the picture upon which the words took turns to appear on showed this long-haired young asian lady peering at her presumed boyfriend who was distractedly picking out something. i would assume that they are on a holiday. i stared at the ad, wondering what it meant as the two phrases continued to take turns to appear.

then like a pebble finally reaching the water in a well, i suddenly understood: love is important, they're trying to say.


...they wouldn't be advertising this otherwise.

in other words, people do not like loneliness and providing a companion for a small introduction fee can get you some quick bucks.


this must be why prosti - social escorting, ahem - is so profitable. because they sell 'companionship'. and you get to pick that sexy thing you can never hope to catch the eyes of out of the many of the sexy things you can never hope to catch the eyes of, just because you earned it.

the money, i mean.



...unless, of course, you flash your gold/platinum credit cards/wads of money liberally or, if you're a lady, precious-stone-encrusted enough to make the blindest person in the room approach and ask if you would quit the light display.

then you can start a conversation.

i'm sure for those who lack the looks but can still earn the bucks keeping the person hooked with sparkly conversation would be of no problem. for those who are endowed (with good looks, i mean) i'm sure you won't need the bling.

but since i'm no avid fan of rocks and do not own enough shiny credit cards to start with - i'm afraid that option is not open to me. my only currencies are an off-beat charm and a goofy smile and the hope that they work. :D

hmm.


'when you're serious about love,' they said.

so... what if i'm not serious about love but i'm serious about 'luuurve'? you know, the eye-brow-bobbing, hand-rubbing kind? the one with too many 'u's and an extra 'r'?

will i have to call the agency (i'm assuming it's an angency), to er, increase my chances? and what if i did? what if i am already meeting the occasional loser in life that i'd rather not meet with? does calling the agency mean that i'm setting myself up to meet more losers who need to pay to meet people?

does calling them mean i will become one?


or worse yet, is this a ploy by proxy to sell 'protection'?? i won't be surprised, neither, if this has something got to do with the government's plans to get us to have more babies.

boost the ageing country's growth, they say, give us a baby or three! where can you get a bargain like this, we pay you money to expand your family tree!

...bah. agencies. love. luuurve. babies and condoms. trickery!


and what does it all mean? that i need 'someone special' to be happy? a baby? maybe i don't know what i'm missing but if i don't know what i'm missing i won't know the pains of not having something, no? so it doesn't matter, no?

...so sincere congratulations to those who had found love, whatever that is. i'm slightly envious because you look so happy together, but still no loss of mine. maybe you're envious of me, too, for i do not feel for the moments when he/she is leaving on a plane bound for Somewhere Else, or when you fight, or when he/she has 'found somebody else' or worse, when he/she has 'found somebody else' and you hadn't!

...maybe like the girl who has everything but doesn't know the loss of anything i scoff at this four-letter word.


heh. and how ironic. it's got the same number of letters as the word that means procreation.

maybe it is youth's fire that still burns in me, the blind pursuit of movement and change, meaningful or otherwise that makes me put these on a lower tier. but what does it matter, when it doesn't matter? it will matter soon enough and that will come later. one step at a time, i always say.

as for the flashing signs - i get the message.



next step: set up an escort company. fancy being an investor, anybody? :D