Closing a chapter

So much has happened since last Friday that I have been literally swept away in a tsunami of events to the point where I am seriously considering a course of therapy, consuming a bottle of Bombay Sapphire all by myself (I can order one from my room, it will cost about sixty quid), and wondering whether I can get away with bitch-slapping those people who made my life a misery for the past 18 days.

I have slept all day today but can barely manage to do anything other than wear my dressing gown (not that you need to imagine me wearing nothing else but a dressing gown. Still. It's all for your information. To make it real, you know?). Let me break down everything:

1. The deal broke. The deal broke! The deal broke!! There is no deal. So why am I still here? That is because I am now officially furniture of the Shilla Hotel. No. The reason is because my client was until the eleventh hour thinking that there would be some guardian angel coming to bail him out. It's all over. I can fly back tomorrow.

2. My grandmother was hospitalised and my mother is worried sick about her. This is not good news.

3. My little sister was ill. As in, fainted. As in, had heart palpitations. Good grief.

4. My other little sister got dumped and I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet.

5. M. is flying over on Saturday. This was a complete surprise. He didn't even say anything about it until he was ready to book the tickets. Wheeee ------!!!! This, and the fact that my secretary finally came back from her holiday (if you ever have a good secretary, keep her at all costs. She saves you so much time and money she is worth her weight in gold), is what is going to stop me from going into The Incredible Hulk mode. Green never was my colour, anyway.

I was walking around downtown Seoul in a daze this afternoon after having had lunch with my dad (of course, filled him in on the whole story and how much the other side's counsel were complete jerks and should be strung up like dried bananas on a pole up the Seoul Tower and then blown to the moon). I thought about very little other than a bath and sleep.

M. says we need to talk. I think it may have something to do with the fact that the hours we have spent talking were cut down significantly during the frenzied death throes of this deal, even though I tried my best to set aside some time for him. I resent the fact that I didn't manage to do nearly as well as I thought I'd do in finding time for him. I resent the fact that I have had to hang up on my parents and my sister and M. calling me because I was in some meeting dealing with some incredibly greedy people and some unbelievably rude and annoying lawyers. I resent the fact that I feel like a ship-wreck that has been put through a mangling machine and chopped into minute pieces. Would it have been any more bearable if the deal had gone through? I have considered this, but I have concluded that the answer is no. Life is too short for such pain to be considered a glory.

Time to close the book on this one. I'd better order that gin and tonic.