The Opposable Thumbnail: Down By The River. Groove Armadillo

Without question, sitting outside in the shade (or even the warm sun) at a foreign restaurant or cafe is one of life's true joys. The picture is of the riverside restaurant by my apartment in London. Not that I am there much. Watching, observing - enjoying the buzz of conversation but not actually listening - not being directly involved with it. I dislike it if people are speaking English. In fact I loathe it.

I like being alone sometimes. I’m in the company of others most of my life. It’s at the heart of my work. So perhaps that’s why I find it hard to stay fixed to a book or a play if it doesn't totally take over my mind. I guess we used to call that escapism. We now have a science, a methodology and a fortnight of courses to explain the actual condition.

So there are two thoughts about the above (or maybe it's the same thought). The restaurant is foreign, the conversation isn't important to me. It's all energy. This is the only time I can think when not being in the conversation. It is great.

So what's all that all about?

I’m positing that if I were in the conversation I wouldn't be able to enjoy the distance I am from it

My brain would be excused having to compute the arcane or the ordinariness of these casual exchanges.

I simply imagine the miracles that may be being borne through these conversations.

The intense possibility of it all. The objectivity of just the pure and imagined scene of it all.

Expectations cannot be dashed by the ordinary.

Possibly because it's the new and unique feeling that we all get from being in a foreign town - I'm jazzed.

Could it be that it simply enables me to ponder. Ponder the possible.

That's an amazing space, it's rare and where I can get to really think, be inspired - be. Be but without all the usual conditions or constraints.

Weird? Not really.

I'm long over with the small talk, the often facile and tawdry conversation that seems to occupy so many daily lives. I want that time back. Actually I need it. I am getting more selfish as I get on with my life. I'm really not over generalizing but I want to choose the conversations I have and can have.

It’s pretty obvious I guess.

I don't care to put myself into the position where I have no choice but to hear about John Terry's bedroom habits or how someone downed 30 Remolacha's (Mandarin Vodka, Cointreau, Jus D'Orange sugar and beetroot served straight) in one night.

I do actually like people. (You wouldn’t think that would you!)

I like them from a distance. Sad to imagine for some perhaps but that's it. Sorry. I stay very optimistic but I increasingly have to choose how and where I spend my time to stay that way. What’s so fascinating is that through the lens of technology and the interface of the internet or screen I find that I am actually able to identify many more people that I like and that I do want to have a relationship with. I’ve had far better success this way than randomly bumping into people in a bar or at the dinner party of people I should have said no to.

Sound familiar?