In the middle of the night!

By Wathsala Mendis

The day has slowly come to an end. After working hard, you're ready to call it quits. You pack your things and go home to the loving arms waiting for you.

A nice hot bath, a hearty meal, a good family drama on TV, and you end up in your cozy little bedroom in your own little world. Life couldn't be more perfect...

But, hey, if you had to work at just that time of the day when everybody else is fast asleep lost in his or her dream world, how would you like it? "No way!" most of you would scream.

There are people out there for whom working at night is just a part of their job. They stay awake till the wee hours of the morning, at times when you and I wouldn't even dream of getting out of bed. Those in the medical profession, hotel and travel trade are just a few of them who have to be on call. What is it really like to work at such odd hours of the night? We spoke to some of those 'nightbirds'.

"It's very interesting," is how Brendon Meurling, Lobby Manager at Trans Asia Hotel, describes his experience. After undergoing training at Claremont Hotel School for three years, Brendon joined Trans Asia Hotel as a Trainee Receptionist five years ago.

He has to work 10 nights per month from 8 in the evening to 8 in the morning the following day, three nights in a row. But he's hardly the one to complain as working at night gives him more self-confidence and he gets to meet a lot of clients.

After 8 pm the Lobby Manager becomes the 'Night Manager' and is almost on an equal footing with the GM. If anything goes wrong, he's held responsible. Brendon is ready to take the challenge and says "It gives you the opportunity to make your own decisions." One drawback though is you tend to get a bit excited when there are a lot of people hanging around.

Once he finishes his work at 8 in the morning, he goes home, catches up on lost sleep, and is ready to report for duty at 8 in the evening. He does admit that he misses out on a lot as a result of his working schedule and has this bit of advice for those who're waiting to join this trade. It could become tough unless you really commit yourself to it, since you have hardly any personal time.

Roshini Dharmapala is into the eighth year of her career as a flight stewardess at AirLanka. Initially, when she had to work at night and had to miss out on family outings and parties, she thought, "My goodness! What is this?" But after sometime she kind of got used to it and managed to go with the flow.

"It's quite tough," she admits. They're picked up three to four hours before a flight leaves and once on board, there's no question of falling asleep. "You have to be on your toes. But it also depends on where you have to go. For example, if it's Europe, the flight could take anything from 10 to 12 hours."

Roshini prefers working at night since she doesn't have to do it every day. She compensates for it by grabbing a few hours of rest whenever she can and taking good care of herself. If necessary possible, she would swap a flight with a colleague to attend to family matters.

Being an air hostess means a little bit of everything. It certainly is a glamorous job, but it also takes a lot of hard work and dedication. A little bit of extra work is more than welcome. If you do your bit, rest assured your hard work is paid off, says Roshini.

DJ Shaon, the New Kid on the Block at Yes FM, joins in the line of optimists. An old boy of Mahanama College, he works two nights a week, hosting either 'Active Sounds' from 8 to 12 midnight or 'Overnight Drive' from 12 midnight to 6 in the morning. He rarely feels sleepy as he has quite a few people calling in and keeping him company, especially those who study late into the night.

Is he enjoying it? The enthusiastic expression on his face says it all. "Two days a week is not going to kill you," he adds for good measure.

To Dr. Kamal Wansapura of the ICU of Asha Central Hospitals Ltd., working at night is no different from working in the daytime. The workload is the same. However, it's more peaceful at night with very few disturbances. Most of all, it's not as exhausting as working during the day.

He gets to work at night once in three days from 7 in the evening to 7 o'clock the following morning. During that time, they do get to grab two to three hours of sleep or can always make up for it by taking the following day off. They don't have to work at a stretch.

Dr. Wansapura is thoroughly satisfied with what he is doing and has no complaints whatsoever about working at night. He's all praise for the devoted staff who make his job a lot easier.

"Unless you adapt to that kind of working structure, night work is really strenuous, as far as I'm concerned," says Bhahi, newscaster at Sun FM. Once you get involved in broadcasting, you have to shut off your personal life completely. At times it can get taxing. When he's doing the evening news, he goes home at about 10 or 11 in the night. If there's something really important happening, he'll have to stay still later. It's not predictable.

The following morning it takes a lot of effort to get out of bed. You have to really push yourself to get up. And maybe for the first 15 minutes after getting up, you feel so frustrated.

Bhahi admits that he has very little spare time and doesn't get to spend much time with his girlfriend. But that's not much of a problem since she's much busier than he is. Whenever he's free, she's not free; whenever she's free, he's not free. It clashes.

"But at times I feel that I'm being rewarded for working in the night. I develop a sense of responsibility and a good attitude towards work. You become hardworking. Not that if you work in the daytime you're not hardworking. Working at night has its advantages as well. It's a lot quieter. You're focused. You can concentrate on what you want to do," he says.

Doing news at night is no easy task. When you're scripting your copy, you should've no kind of disturbance, for it can really distract you. But in the night there's nothing of that because most of the people are gone. You can only hear the AC machines working. You can peacefully do your work. That's an advantage.

"I'm not really in favour of it, though. I'd rather work from 9 in the morning till about 6 in the evening, then go off and relax till the next morning," Bhahi says.

He adds, "Unless you really have to work late in the night, you shouldn't push yourself, because it can affect you in a latter stage. Now you work till about 12 midnight and sleep till 11 the following morning. You sleep it through and think, "Ah, it's all done with." But that's not true. It affects you later on. You can develop a lot of illnesses due to irregular sleep. So I hope not to be doing this forever."

Hard work, dedication, willingness to work long hours, and, above all, a love for one's job are the key to success in any profession. When it comes to those who work at night, the requirements are more demanding. It sure takes tough guys and tough gals to walk that extra mile. So here's hats off to all those Brendons, Roshinis, Shaons, Kamals, and Bhahis out there.

Cool Britania Style

Five days. Forty five de- signers of international repute. And about a billion mobile phones chirping, bleeping , ringing and basically driving everybody mad. London Fashion Week kicked off last month and hordes of fashion junkies dressed in basic black, Prada bags, Joseph overcoats and must-have Jackie O shades descend on the usually calm and verdant venue of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. Spearheaded by superdesigners like Alexander McQueen and Jasper Conran, old favourites like Red or Dead, Nicole Farhi and Michiko Koshino, and hot new talents like Hussein Chalayan and Tristan Weber, it is now more popular than ever before, an essential part of the Cool Britannia tag that Britain has been reveling in for the past couple of years.

Next season's Spring/Summer collections are lead by London, with Paris, Milan and New York coming in the next few months - and fashion's travelling circus of journalists, fans and buyers for major chain and department stores go into a frenzy of ecstacy as they try to figure out the next new trend. This is the way it works. There are around ten shows a day, most of which are in two huge tents set up in the lawns of the Natural History Museum. The rest are held in selected venues which have to be within thirty minutes of the main tents.

Each show takes anywhere from fifteen to forty minutes and there is a mad scramble to get from one to the other, with the cognoscenti and the media lugging their rucksacks and cameras around the streets and hailing every black cab in sight. Everything works according to London Fashion Week Time, which is to say late. Shows are always delayed by an hour or two, while a designer waits for a favoured fashion editor to show up or a model to stop having a tantrum or something. There are hundreds of people trying to blag their way into the shows - since it is closed to the public, there is a tremendous amount of bluffing, cajoloing, bullying, flirting and generalised posterior kissing going on. Once you get in, harried looking PR reps with microphones try to get everyone to sit down without causing any major diplomatic incidents. God forbid you seat together two doyens of fashion who hate each other. Kruschev and Kennedy facing off ? Pah. A storm in a teacup , my dear.

The week kicked off with a show by Bibi Russell, former model and currenty a Bangladeshi designer who is trying to raise funds to support 35,000 weavers of traditional cotton and silk handlooms. Thursday night sees one of the most fun shows of the season, as the traditional pouty faced models mingled with exuberant young students that Russell brought along as models.

They sang Bangladeshi folk songs, played the dolok and the veena, and generally bought amused smiles to the jaded fashion pack that had turned up. Definitely the most colourful show of a season dominated by greys and beiges - vibrant reds, blues and greens shone from the runaway, topped off by rural festival head dresses. Barbara Sansoni would have gone down a treat. Lots of infinitely wearable lungis and sarongs, and loose cotton drawstring pants - so rare to find men's fashion on the catwalks.

The elegantly dressed Vidal Sassoon turns up to watch the show - Sassoon sponsor the whole of the Fashion Week and Vidal knows the routine, greeting the bouncers by name as he stalks into the tent - for a man of seventy he's in amazing shape. The next day sees the eagerly awaited second collection from Anthony Symonds, a graduate of the by-now legendary Central St. Martins college of fashion and design, whose alumni include an amazingly talented array of designers like Antonio Berardi, Clements Ribeiro, and dozens more who are showing this week.

Symonds entitles his show 'Club Tropicana' in reference to the Wham song of the same name, and his collection was a direct throwback to Eighties trashy styles; lots of denim, huge gold necklaces and conservative black outfits with missing flaps and panels - 'Dynasty' meets 'Friday the 13th.' Tres forgettable in my book.

Far more interesting is the Tracy Mulligan show; formerly one half of the Sonnentag Mulligan partnership, she now makes her debut with a line of infinitely wearable clothing subtle, sophisticated and designed with an eye to what real women wear.

When Mulligan finishes working on a design she says two questions go through her mind: "Is it beautiful?" and "Would I wear it?" If both answers are yes, the garment is in. It's hardly rocket science, but it does make perfect sense. Friday night is closed off by big name Antonio Berardi, who showed slim shorts and white fencing jackets, sailor trousers and skin-tight vests. In the audience is Posh Spice Victoria and footballer boyfriend David Beckham rock up - the latter being known for an adventurous dress sense that even saw him wearing a sarong in London last year. More power to the man I say.

In addition there's Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall. By the way, if you're wondering why he cut off those beautiful red locks of his, backstage gossip is because his girlfriend threw up over it. So now you know. On Saturday, the Amanda Wakely Show pulls the Sloane Square crowd, the ladies who lunch and shop at Harvey Nichols - never Harrods darling, far too downmarket now. Wakely is probably best known as one of Princess Diana's favourite designers and it is easy to see why - elegant and understated describe her style, just this side of austere. Strong simple shapes and luxurious fabrics are shown off by glacially beautiful models who remind me of Greek temple maidens, their hair bound back in sheafs and chignons. Beautiful bias cuts in sheer fabric draped over a more modest sheath, contrasted by some exciting swimwear.

The retailers are now trying to take the upper hand by actually sponsoring the high priests of fashion and getting them to design exclusive chains for them - Chalayan for Marks and Spencers, Wakely for Debenhams. This way everyone's happy. The high street retailers get the cachet of having a big name designer, the designers get cash to go out and do the wild, wacky things that they want to do and the consumer feels just that little bit closer to the pulse of fashion's artery.

The very next show by Red or Dead couldn't be more different. Around since 1982, designer Wayne Hemingway always puts on a good show and the audience settles in anticipation. It kicks off with Mott the Hoople's 'Oh You Pretty Thing' as sung by Bowie and then goes into overdrive with a fun, funky show that highlights the best of eclectic London street style that is never predictable, passionately non-elitist and always affordable. There are three pedestals at the front of the catwalk and a multi-cultural bunch of male and female models strut their stuff, leaping from one to the other and striking ludicrous poses - it looked like the show was choreographed by the Spice Girls. Big beat boogie pounds out of the speakers overhead as the girls show off short flirty sports dresses, covered in sequins and glitter, while the guys wear superbaggy linen drawstring pants with split flares that drape over chunky, chunky sneakers. My favourite show so far.

On Sunday, Ally Capellino's show sees the presence of Alex Wek, one of the most unusual models around - strong, African features, about as far away from the popular definition of beautiful black women as you can get (see Naomi C for details). In the midst of the fey and the blonde, she stands out like a cold shower. So, the net result? Grey is the new black. Pearl grey, charcoal, pinstriped, whatever, grey is it. Or could it be orange? Burnt sienna tones, flashy Florida orange, fun, flirty citrus? I have no idea. But that's the whole point. Nobody does. Every season, the beauty press sorts through hundreds of shots and tries to identify a theme, tries to isolate the zeitgeist of what's happening out there, what will percolate down from the rarefied climes of the designers imaginations and enter the high street stores - Kookai, Oasis, Marks and Spencers, Principles.

What will the public take to, and what will they just laugh at? Peddle pushers (sorry, demipants as they are now being called), chunky clogs, gunmetal scarves, henna tattoos...the list of fashion hits and near misses is nigh endless. One things for sure though - either you've got it, or you don't. Doesn't matter what you wear or how expensive it is, style always shows. That's why next year I'm going in a Hawayan shirt, pink Bermuda shorts and cowboy hat. That should fox them.

A song for the child servant

Sri Lanka's Country Music Foundation (CMF) is planning a unique event later this year - taking a group of musicians to refugee camps in the northeast to entertain children.

"This project is being supported by all musicians who have been associated with the concert COUNTRY ROAD," a spokesman for the non-profit foundation said.

The CMF is now in the process of putting together COUNTRY ROAD VIII, the eighth in the series of country and folk music concerts, and hopes to take participating musicians to visit underprivileged children after the show.

"We hope this would turn out to be an annual visit - soon after the annual concert," the spokesman said.

The concert tour will be organised by UNICEF.

The concert is presented by the CMF in association with UNICEF and will be held on October 18 at the Trans Asia Hotel. The principal sponsor is Ceylinco Life Insurance and co-sponsors - Trans Asia Hotel, The Sunday Times and Gold FM, the "oldies" channel of ABC radio.

It will feature Cosmic Rays, Flame, Mariazelle, Anton (Goonetilleke) and Friends, Deva de Silva and Red Sands with Rohan on pedal steel guitar, and a "surprise but welcome" guest.

This year's show in addition to raising funds for a children's cause, is also significant since it is dedicated to country singer John Denver who died in a plane crash earlier this year. Denver's famous song "Country Road" was the inspiration for this show way back in 1988.

Denver songs and other popular favourites from Dolly Parton, the late Tammy Wynette (another popular country singer who hit the charts with "Stand by your man"), the Eagles, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young will be sung at the show.

The CMF in association with UNICEF has raised more than 750,000 rupees for children's projects in Sri Lanka through this series of concerts since 1988.

While the musical aspect is a key element of the show, CMF officials are hopeful that country music lovers who patronise the show would also reflect on the other cause - the needs and rights of children.

Children nowadays are growing up in world filled with violence and conflict. Growing up in a competitive environment, children have little time for play as studies control much of their lives.

Particularly affected are the children growing up in war-torn areas, children who come from a poor background and children forced into labour.

While the CMF/UNICEF combine has worked hard over the past few years to "light a candle" for these children and show the world that "we should care for these kids", COUNTRY ROAD VIII is focusing this year on child labour and child domestics.

Child domestics is a serious problem in Sri Lanka and according to UNICEF it is a hidden aspect of society because it takes place in the "comfort" and privy of many Sri Lankan homes. Sri Lankan laws prohibit the employment of a child below 14 years, but thousands of homes employ children below this age group. These children do not have a proper education, are often told to look after children older than them and often ill-treated.

CMF would like to focus on this aspect of child labour this year and suggests that - in helping and supporting a current UNICEF programme to stop this abuse - people and institutions should "make a resolution not to employ a child."

"Get the message across; tell your friends; tell your neighbours but most importantly ensure that it does not happen in your own backyard," says Dr Hiranthi Wijemanne, senior programme officer at UNICEF.

For CMF president Feizal Samath, the plan to take concert performers to refugee camps and visit children is almost a dream come true. Many years back, before the first COUNTRY ROAD concert in 1998, Samath's frequent visits to refugee camps in the north and east as a journalist for international news agency Reuters paved the way for the concerts.

"I visit these camps and come out emotionally drained. Their plight is pitiful. I use to wonder and think, what we as journalists could do to help these people, beyond just writing about them. Since I was involved in music as a hobby, I hit on the idea of having a concert for children because they appeared to be worst hit," he said.

Discussing the idea with his childhood buddy and co-performer Juragan Majid, Samath organised the first show in 1988 primarily as a "one-off concert". "But given the response at that show, we knew we had to continue this series." The rest is history.

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