- hi jon can i -

Tempus fugit. Time flies. An old metaphor that flows from our lips naturally that concisely describes the fleeting, transient nature of time. Such succint elegance. Such brevity yet sufficency. But here's an interesting twist to things: has the phrase ever been interpreted as a noun instead? Non, mon cherie. I think not. That's right, a noun.

To describe the one-time acquaintances, the users and abusers. To bring them into perspective, to give them more recognition than they perhaps merit, to ridicule them, even. I speak rather brusquely of those annual friends, those who don't give you the steam of their piss all year round, until the month of May (it is thus not by chance that May coincides with the highest concentration of obsequiousness all year) each year when they decide to dig up your number from their organisers housing the parties they never thought to invite you to, the concerts they forgot to ask you along to, the date of your birthday that lies empty.

And these Time Flies (get it now?) troop down on you all bug-eyed and with all the ebullience of a teenager with his/her first iPod/PDA/Blackberry/electronic talking parrot.
True to their nature, they buzz about your face like the incessant critters that they are, returning again and again having been swatted away, importuning you with requests to let them lay their feelers or tarsuses (all 6) on your notes and answers (Holy Grail, anyone?), the only part of you they have any interest in, oblivious to and apathetic of the truth that your own mountain of problems needs scaling, and offering nothing in return; no help, no sympathy, no sirree no. Having extracted whatever surplus they can out of you and satisfied with their harvest, they proceed to retreat to their bins and disappear for yet another year to recharge in preparation of their next assault on your bulwark of resources.
Tempus fugit. We are dying from the moment we're born. Just so you know.

Maybe such perspicacious commentary ought to be limited to the narrow confines of my mind. But where's the fun in that?
Some badly-needed emollience in my currently implacable state to prevent further harangues and diatribes please.

In any case I've edited the plane announcement entry below slightly.