"In the mid-90s, I was working as an admin assistant on the listings magazine of the London Evening Standard, and was about to be fired. OK, I wasn't that good at the job, but I was also done with it. It was on my mind that I needed an actual job, one that you could describe to someone: I'm an X."
"It was no special occasion, just the launch of a bar; this happened every night in the 90s, even Mondays. He was 43, but all old people look the same when you're 23, so I felt as if the viscount owner of the paper had noticed me from the top of his gold mountain and invited me to a ball."
A mid-90s administrative assistant at the London Evening Standard faces imminent dismissal and feels ready to leave the job. The assistant worries about needing a definable career identity and wonders when one earns the title 'journalist,' recalling a lawyer friend's contrast between profession and trade. Between a misdemeanour and a disciplinary letter, a senior colleague, Pete Clark, invites the assistant to a bar launch. Pete likens the assistant to Elmer the patchwork elephant. The assistant arrives late with a colourful, chaotic group of colleagues and observes their distinct personalities and behaviours.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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