Familiar faces

The Sydney CBD is a small place. This is confirmed frequently by the fact that you cannot walk for five minutes without seeing someone you know or recognise, especially when you have as big a personal and professional network as I do. Sometimes I crave being back in London or New York, two cities that I know well. You can walk around at your leisure knowing you’re a face in the crowd and the chances of you having the unfortunate experience of running into somebody like your cousin’s irritating ex-girlfriend are slim to none. Other times, the intimacy of the city is enjoyable and it can be a nice experience to run into people you know, and see familiar faces.

Whether you love or loathe the fact that you see these familiar faces in the Sydney CBD, having spotted a friend, acquaintance or foe, no matter who you are, the mind quickly processes the appropriate move to make. A, Say hello, B, have a conversation, or C, pretend you haven’t seen them. Today, I notice an acquaintance from the past walking towards me, Jarred; his last name unfortunately resigned to my memory’s trashcan. Jarred is a guy I knew at uni. A nice guy, but we were never close or hung out and we would probably have very little to talk about, even though I haven’t seen him for years. I decide, however, that a quick chat would be appropriate and I let him know this by making very obvious eye contact as we walk toward one another. Obvious eye contact being the universal code for ‘I want to talk to you’, ‘I think you’re attractive’ or ‘I hate you’. I merely want to talk, so hopefully he recognises me and is aware that I don’t want his phone number or to punch him in the face.

Jarred recognises me and we exchange an upward head nod. This is more code, meaning ‘let’s speak’ or in some circumstances ‘hello, but we’re not going to speak’. It’s confirmed that the former is our intention as we retain eye contact. I meet him with an outstretched hand, “Jarred, good to see you, how have you been?” I have a lot to get done in the next couple hours so I’m hoping to have a quick in and out conversation, with the obligatory exchange of business cards. “Good to see you too mate. Yeah I’m well, thanks. Do you work round here? What do you do nowadays, still finance?” I briefly explain that I do indeed work round here in ‘finance’, but offer him a bit more detail on my exact role; I keep it short but to the point and then ask him where he works. I’m assuming he does O.K. for himself, but nothing spectacular. I make this judgment based upon his middle-the-range suit and the fact that he has made the very poor fashion choice of wearing a v-neck sweater under his jacket. He is also wearing a Dolce & Gabbana watch, which all but confirms my suspicion. Thankfully, he also keeps it short; “I work at a small M&A advisory house, working my way up the ranks.” Mergers and acquisitions being of interest to me, I’m actually interested to hear more about what Jarred and his firm do, but on another day and not in the middle of Pitt Street. We continue small talk for a minute or two and I genuinely want to take his business card when he offers it to me, I promise to call soon to arrange a coffee or beer.

I make it back to the building. As soon as I walk into the ground floor lobby I see another familiar face sitting on the coaches, Lucy Tricker. This is someone I will happily talk to for a few minutes, although she may not like it very much at all.