On Trades. Nothing owned, everything on Loan with interest to pay.

I lost my bands last Monday. It was one of the oldest relics of my pupillage. I remembered buying it at one of the stalls at the KL Court cafeteria (odd thing to be selling at a drinks stall) after an LA  where i read in chambers discovered that he had his robe but not his bands for a High Court hearing. I was at KL Court at that time obtaining JID's by the armload at one of the magistrate's court, the LA knew this. So he sent me an sms asking me to find a spare pair of bands post haste. So i did. 

It was nothing fancy. Just a polyester bands with velcro fasteners at the end instead of the usual bands on strings type. As a token of his gratitude for saving his (turkey) bacon the LA bought me a big McDonalds lunch. When asked about the band he said: Simpanlah. Saya dah jumpa saya punya terselit dalam kereta. Lagipun nanti awak mesti pakainya nanti. In the end it was a worthy trade for me. A big lunch for a cheap band that would later go around (most of) the peninsular with me. Later on i found out that you can rent the damned thing from the Bar Room for pittance. But of course it would be better to own one. 

Going back to last Monday, I was in hellfire rush to an appeal i was already late to (or so i thought) when i realized my bands were not where it was supposed to be. I was exactly where the aforementioned LA was years and years ago only there are no pupil for me to call upon. But it ended well. I got what i came for from the appeal but the price was a new pair of bands and the loss of an old one. A worthy trade?. It seems that way. 

Either way, it marked my ongoing passage from nowhere to somewhere.. Maybe one day, i will get There. 

I cannot truly own that win because many hands contributed to it to which i give thanks to, Hands of Fate is the first and obvious one, my colleagues, friends and mentors. But as aside, can one truly own anything really? Or is it just our desperate attempt to mark our brief presence here on this Earth. Our means of saying: i was here.  

Anyway, of course it felt weird using a new pair of bands in front of a  judge I have never appeared before in an area of law i am not familiar with but it was a transition of sorts, something old for something new and a reminder for me that bands, relationships and jobs, they don't last forever and that the two certain thing in Life is Change and Death.