Day 118: Holiday

Today was a fasting day.

I'm less than 48 hours away from going on holiday to Los Angeles and I have never needed a holiday as much as this one.  Up to now I have regarded holidays as a nice thing to have but not a vital necessity.   But this time, I really feel I need a complete and total break from my current work environment.  I now understand why people say they need to recharge their batteries or have a complete rest.  It makes me wonder if needing a holiday is not a sign of being in the wrong job?  I'm not saying that if you are in great job that you enjoy you should forsake all holidays, but I think you probably appreciate a holiday as something different to do rather than an absolute necessity. 

Short blog today.

Day 53: Mistake

Dinner Menu:

• Salade de Crabe Royal
• Cheesecake
• Eau pétillante

Yes this blog title looks like a mistake as yesterday's blog was number 117 but in fact I am correcting a mistake which happened between Blog 52 and 54.  Somehow I lost blog 53. I was going to renumber all my blogs but then decided that quirkiness is endearing.  Since I'm on the subject of mistakes, I went to dinner with my friend G.  this evening. He changed jobs last year and  finds himself in a similar situation as me.  He is being asked to do things which he feels are fundamental mistakes and are detrimental to the company.  The worst thing is when you feel that communication is all one way, there is absolutely no listening capacity from the other side.  We were wondering if its an age thing? We are just not prepared to sit and listen to self important idiots spouting nonsense just to hear themselves talk.  We have enough of that on the news!  Maybe once we are both fired we can play squash and start a business.

Day 117: Préfailles

I spent a short weekend in Préfailles a small village by the Atlantic ocean where my extended family occupies over 50 houses (mainly in the summer).  It's always a pleasure to meet up with my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc because we are all very different and yet we all appreciate each other.  The sea was a bit rough but quite warm (19°) for someone who is used to cold showers every morning.   It's strange how you can get attached to a place just because you are used to going there.  Although the village is nice and the coast is picturesque there are certainly more beautiful or wild places in France.   And yet there is no doubt that I have a strong attachment to this place.  Theoretically I could imagine retiring here (don't tell my wife).  The only other realistic options for my retirement (in France) would be Ardèche (but that might cause some family tension) or Paris (but I do increasingly resent living in a big city).   I'm sure I may have to consider other countries too at some point...

Day 116: Architect

Dinner with 2 architects:

• Salade verte
• Aubergines à la poêle
• Chèvre chaud sur toast aux céréales
• Tarte aux abricots maison
• Badoit

Fianna and I are spending the weekend by the ocean in Préfailles (my family village). As my mum hasn't arrived yet we are spending out first night as guests of Ph.- F. and E. who is my mum's first cousin.  Our delightful hosts are both architects and have worked together in their agency for all their professional lives.  I mentioned to them that Architect was one of my dream professions, (it seems  that's what most possible say).  In my defence I have executed on that dream to a certain extent having bought and remodelled 10 house or apartments over the last 27 years.  As I am writing I realise that I would have probably been a very difficult architect.  If I had to take into account a client's wishes it would probably drive me crazy. Contrary to what I have been saying for years, rather than an architect, what I would really like to be is a promoter who buys, transforms and sells buildings. 

So it all comes back to my favourite game when I was young: Monopoly!  

Day 115: A/C

Today was a fasting day.

As I wrote a few days ago we are experiencing a heat wave in Paris (and many other places) at the moment.  A number of people (mainly American) have complained about the lack of air conditioning in Paris and asked me if I have any. My standard response is no I don't have a/c and if I did I would rip it out. One of the first things I do when I arrive in a hotel (even in India or Australia) is switch off the air conditioning. For some reason I find it much more disturbing than heating.  I find that a/c disconnects you from your environment, also it is a prime contributor to global warming representing around 10 % of residential energy consumption. So people use a/c to compensate for increasing heat which in turn causes global warming.  And we are supposed to be the rational species on the planet?

There is such a simple alternative solution, yes you guessed it : Cold Showers (no energy consumption involved)

Day 114: Prison

Dinner Menu:

• Pressé Mozzarella de Buffone, tomates confites, légumes grillés, basilic et gingembre, pico de gallo
• Oeuf poché au saumon fumé (maison) courgettes rôties, piment d'Espelette
• Moshi au thé vert
• Eau pétillante

I usually like to find a reason from my day to justify my thoughts on the state of the world but I can't find anything for today's subject (unless I feel my work is a Prison, probably not a fair comparison considering I am payed a pretty fair salary for my "time").  

Prison is what is now universally used to punish people who have broken the rules deemed important by society.  That covers a wide range of actions depending on the country.   The US that bastion of democracy locks up more people than any other country in the world (over 2 Million).  There are two reasons for using prison

1. To stop them from committing further crimes
2. To punish them for the crimes they have already committed.

While I can see the logic behind the first point at the same time it seems a little arbitrary.  Most people agree that prison is not a great rehabilitation tool so are we not just delaying the problem? Unless we say that all "criminals" should get life sentences which would probably be considered a little harsh (and expensive).

As to the 2nd point can we not think of better punishment than prison which costs the state a lot of money for no discernible benefit to society or to the prisoner.  Here are some possible alternatives:

• Assigned to their residence
• Community service
• Mobile phone ban for 1 year (especially younger criminals)
• Special uniform (for example T-Shirt saying "I stole an apple")
• Diet of vegetable soup
• 5 minute Cold Shower 2x a day
• Forced to watch "Titanic" every day (I can't stand that movie!)

You get the picture.  There must be lots of ways to get a message across to people that their behaviour is not acceptable all of which would be better than Prison.

Day 113: Happy Birthday

Thank you Fianna for an amazing evening, a delicious dinner and a magnificent view (of Montmartre and the Eiffel Tower).  Yes today was my birthday.  Just in case you are wondering I still woke up with a 5 minute cold shower, did 4 mins of plank and did not have any alcohol even at my birthday dinner. I was wondering if I could give myself a blog day off as a present but that was not part of my initial deal so as you can see that did not happen. 

Why people say Happy Birthday or Joyeux Anniversaire are they implying that my 364 other days of the year must be sad? I wonder what the standard phrase in some other languages in Vietnamese or Inuit is it the same phrase?  And should it really be addressed to me rather than to my mother?  (I'm quite sure it was a bigger event in here life than in mine, certainly as far as memories are concerned).

Well having checked it seems that in Vietnam everyone has the same "birthday". Your age changes every year on "Tết" day and you start at 1 which is not a good deal since that would make me 57.

Birthday Menu:

• Virgin G&T
• Amuse bouche
• Tourteau en fine gelée / kumbawa / coriandre fraîche
• Turbot sauvage / crémeux de romaine / salicorne / thym citron / champignons
• Le Nuage / framboise / menthe Suisse / huile d'olive
• Badoit

Day 112: Like

I must say that, as my sister pointed out to me in an e-mail this morning, I must stop using phrase "I must say" in my blog posts.  In addition she gets 3 points for having the guts to correct her older brother and hopefully contributing to making my blog a better, slimmer blog.  Having checked I see that I have used that redundant fill in 17 times in 111 blog posts, which I agree is probably 16 times too many.  From now on I'll use "like" to be in sync with the modern world.

You know, I am basically not actually sure why we literally use these very pointless words like like.

I spent a lot of time and effort eradicating those words from my children's vocabulary (quite successfully I must say) and now I find that I have to put in the same energy into tracking down these verbal misdemeanours in my own blog!

Day 111: 32°

Fianna's friend F. told her that she tried to make a move to cold showers recently.  It seems she managed to go down to 24° before cursing me for having encouraged her on this path. (FYI the water in my shower is 14°).  I'm a big fan of hot weather but the present consistent 32° for Paris in July is worrisome.  Drought and fires are hitting western and northern Europe to an extent where most sane people would agree that the speed of change in our weather patterns is unprecedented.  In spite of these warning signs our response is quite underwhelming.  As Bruno Latour (a friend of my Father's)  points out in Le Monde it is interesting to see how people are prepared to mobilise (even violently) to defend their territory and yet it is much more difficult to get the same level of commitment for environmental causes.  And yet global warming and environmental disruption could ultimately change territories quite radically.

Maybe the solution is just a branding issue.  Instead of expecting scientists and politicians to solve the problem let's get advertisers to re-brand environmentalism  into territorialism, in the current populist era that might actually work! 

Day 110: Lottery

As I mentioned yesterday I think the next step in democracy is to move to a lottery system.  In reality most government work is done by the administration who prepare options and carry out the decisions.  The politicians are there to arbitrate between options and to avoid the dangers of technocratic government.   The problem is that even the most well intentioned politicians seem to spend most of their time thinking about getting reelected. So I would like to suggest a government based on the following principles:

1. All "political" representatives will be selected by lottery
2. All citizens over 18 will be eligible for the lottery
3. Citizens can only serve one 4 year term in their lifetime
4. Participation in the lottery is not compulsory (you can ask to be removed)
5. The national assembly will comprise 500 members
6. The senate will comprise  5-10 members from each region
7. There will be no head of state or prime minister
8. The government will be composed of 25 members selected from the 2 chambers
9. Government members will be reselected every 2 years
10. Individual government members can be revoked by a vote of either chamber
11. This system to be implemented at all levels of government
12. Remuneration would be set at the same level as top civil servants

By removing the need to be elected and the possibility of serving more than one term "elected" officials would be more likely to focus on making sensible decisions.

One thing is for sure the assembly would  be much more representative.  The law of probabilities would guarantee that a lottery system would result in a much more balanced chamber in terms of gender, profession, age, ethnic origin, class or intelligence. 

Day 109: Democracy

Dinner with Guests:

• Melon au Porto (I know I'm not drinking alcohol in July-August but this is eating!)
• St Pierre aux courgettes, tomates et basilic
• Pommes de terres au four
• Fromages
• Fraises, framboises et airelles

They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  We had some Israeli-American friends over for a last dinner (before they return to the US) and one of the topics of conversation was the impact of Trump on the American democratic system.  One point of view is that the election of Trump has been a wake up a call to the fact that we cannot take freedom, democracy and liberal values as a given.  Thanks to this disastrous election and the resulting policies Americans will realise that their vote actually matters and that disengagement has consequences.  I hope that is indeed what will happen but I must say that my initial reaction is more to despair of the democratic system in its current form.  If democratic elections can result in a brainless fool being head of state then I'm not sure what is the advantage over the Monarchy.  A famous Churchill quote is that "democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time" but I think that is a cop out.  If democracy is not working then we need to find a different version rather than just assume that we have somehow arrived at a definitive system. 

As a first suggestion I think we should revisit the original Greek democratic system which was based on a lottery. Lets replace elections with lotteries, I'm pretty sure the results could not be worse than our current crop of politicians. 

To be continued tomorrow... 

Day 108: Iceland

Simple Meal:

• Maquereau fumé
• Pomme de terre et cottage cheese
• Salade verte
• Carré de chocolat noir 85%

I went to the cinema with Fianna this evening.  We saw an Icelandic movie called Woman at War.  The main story is about an Icelandic woman who for environmental reasons is against the development of a big aluminium plant in Iceland.  Taking matters in to her own hands, she proceeds to repeatedly destroy the electric wires and pylons bringing the electricity to the plant.  It's a very original film with great music, beautiful cinematography and some quirky elements.  But the reason I wanted to talk about it is that it explores the interesting question of the difference between legality and morality.  She is clearly doing illegal things by destroying costly state and private property and stopping the factory processes.  At the same time she is the main character, and she is preserving the earth for future generations (our children) so I'm guessing that a lot of people in the theatre were routing for her.  Most people (as long as they are not religious - see Blog 42) agree that killing people for your ideas or beliefs is never acceptable, but how much property damage can you carry out before you lose your moral right? 

Day 107: Rebel

Dinner:

• Tarte à la tomate
• Salade verte
• Yaourt avec des cassis
• Carré de chocolat noir 85%

Fianna cam back from work today enthused by a seminar she attended. Francesca Gino an Italian Harvard Professor who has written a book called Rebel Talents talked about the benefits of being a rebel in your life and work and how to develop and unleash the rebel inside you.  I must say that although I'm sure the seminar was interesting and full of stories I find it bizarre to write a book on how to become a rebel. Is there no sense of irony left in the world? Did nobody point out to Francesca that following instructions on how to become a rebel is the antithesis of what an actual rebel would do ? In addition to the book you can do a test to see what kind of Rebel you are.  The test has four possible outcomes of which three are different kind of rebels and 1 is a non-rebel. Assuming that the population is distributed evenly between the categories that would mean there are 3x more rebels than non-rebels.  Surely there is breakdown of the internal logic there?  If the conformists are in a minority don't they actually become the non conformists in spite of themselves?

To be fair I should probably read the book before criticising, then again maybe that's the rebel in me.

Day 106: Measurement

Today was a fasting day.

Up to now I haven't really been tracking my weight loss.  But I have decided to buy myself some electronic scales linked to my phone to be able to monitor my progress. In business a key principle is that you can only manage what you measure.  This definitely works for companies but I wonder if it applies to other areas of life?  Should we have indicators for:

• Hours spent on screens per day
• Hours spent in transport per day 
• Steps you walk in a day
• Kilos lost in the week
• Meaningful conversations you have with your spouse per month
• Words you exchange with your teenagers per day
• Books you read per week
• Phone conversations you had with your distant (in km) family per quarter
• Random acts of kindness you did in the week
• Lights you forgot to switch off in the day 
• And of course hot showers you avoided!

Smartphones have been around for just over 10 years I expect that within the next 20 years they will come with a "life dashboard" application which will give us (or somebody) full control of our lives.

Day 105: Name

Dinner:

• Cocktail sans alcool
• Salade verte avec râpé de carottes
• Sole au four sur julienne de poivrons
• Moshi au thé vert

As I watched France win the World Cup last Sunday and witnessed the hero worship of these footballers and in particular of Mbappé I was thinking to myself that probably there will be lots of Kylian's born in France this year.  Actually it then made me think about names and naming conventions.  In a big chunk of the world names include a first name (which is chosen by the parents) and a family name which is often the father's name or a combination of the father's and mother's name.  But I wonder what is the point of this constraint.  Why do we need a minimum of 2 names ?  Why should our last name be the sames as our Parents? and why are we stuck with a name chosen by our Parents ?  Surely this is an unacceptable restraint on our freedom of choice?  Although I'm content with most of my (4) names I think I would have liked to have had the option of replacing or choosing some of my own. On reaching 18 everyone should have to confirm their name(s) or choose their own through a simple procedure (for example when you are put on the electoral roll).  Then again if I think back to when I was 18 my name now would probably be Fabien Wodehouse Blueberry Jurdant, probably not a massive improvement!

Day 104: Security

Today was a fasting day (although I did allow myself an evening spicy tomato juice).

World cup fever continues in Paris (and probably throughout France).  Another million people (the sames one I guess) went to the Champs-Elysées today to welcome the players back to Paris and wave to them as they were bused to the Elysée Palace for a reception with our (decidedly) lucky President.  I have talked about some of the positives of this event, but there is one aspect which for me jars quite significantly.  During the past 2 days (3 if you count the 14th of July) the whole area has felt as if it was under military occupation.  Somehow, having barricaded streets manned by heavily armed police does not make me feel more secure, it makes me feel less so.  I understand that when you have 1 million people getting together for a party you need to plan for things going wrong and some people possibly hurting themselves in their over excitement.  So having paramedics on hand might be a good thing.  But there is no benefit to having visible armed police.  I grew up in England where the concept of police carrying firearms did not exist for a long time and is still limited to special units rather than to street officers.  I do believe that violence (especially state violence) begets violence (to a certain extent).  If our police "protection" were unarmed and dressed in red, white and blue track suits rather then ominous black armour, I'm sure the whole experience would be happier and smoother.  

Day 103: Joy

Dinner:

• Salade verte
• Falafel
• Moshi au thé-vert

So France is world champion once again, 20 years after our first win.  In 98 I lived in London so I was a little removed from the action. This time I am in the heart of Paris a few minutes from the Champs-Élysées.  Fianna and I watched the match at the bar across the road, we went there at 3pm for a 5 pm start just in time to get some good places.  The atmosphere was crazy during the 2 hour wait so you I'll leave you to imagine how it was during the match and after.

I have to say that there are few cities which are so suited the expression of collective joy.  To see the Champs-Élysées and the Place de l'Étoile full of happy people from all walks of life is quite amazing.   There is something magical about football which creates an incredible sense of community.  No other sport quite manages to create the same effect.

Romain Gary said Patriotism is the love of your country where Nationalism is the hate of other countries (as my Mum reminded me a few days ago).  Today is definitely a day for Patriotism it's all about sharing joy, togetherness and openness.  The French Republic's motto is Liberté - Égalité - Fraternité, the third one often seems forgotten ... but not today.

Day 102: 14th of July

Today was the 14th of July (Bastille Day for my Non French readers).  2 things happen on that day in Paris.  There is a military parade in the morning and a fireworks display in the evening.  Although the parade took place round the corner from our apartment I did not feel the need to go and watch.  As you may have gathered I'm not a big fan of armed force and I really cannot see what a display of military hardware has to do with the revolution and its slogan of liberté-égalité-fraternité.  A big banquet on the Champs Elysée would be a more interesting way of celebrating.

For the evening fireworks Fianna and I decided to avoid the main crowds and watch it from a café on the Place de l'Alma.  We left a bit too late so we ended up standing most of the time along with thousands of other people.  What I don't understand is that when the fireworks start all these people proceed to take out their smartphones in order to film lots of heads and some blurry exploding lights in the background.  If you are going to watch the fireworks through your screen why not just stay home and watch it on TV? The picture is much better.  It seems that nowadays nothing can be enjoyed in the moment just as it is.  Everything needs to be shared not with the people who are there with you but with those who aren't.  I'm not sure that this constant sharing of photographic moments is really sharing.  I believe social media is actually disconnecting us from the here and now.  Things only exist in other people's eyes...

It's never too late to close your Facebook account.

Day 101: Moralilty

Dinner:

• Gaspacho de mangue
• Poulpes et poireaux
• Eau gazeuse

I went to the theatre with Fianna tonight.  I am not a big fan of the theatre mainly because I find that the seats are designed for people half my size which makes for uncomfortable experience.  However the main actress is a friend of  Fianna's and it was based on one of my favourite books : Les liaisons dangereuses.  As I know the story quite well my mind drifted a little during the play and I wondered if the story had any meaning outside its context.  The play works because of the particular morality (especially feminine) of the 18th century which frowned upon sex and seduction.  In the 21st century  (in many parts of the world) sex and seduction are not moral issues anymore they are personal decisions.  As long as there is no power or force involved people are left to do what they want with no social stigma. So I wonder what morality will look like in another 200 years.  Are there still things that we find immoral nowadays and that will seem normal in 2200 ?  Privacy might disappear under the pressure of social media.  Clothing might become optional as global warming will have raised average temperatures by more than 6° C  (especially if I don't succeed in my 1 billion people taking cold showers objective).  And finally it looks like lying is already becoming standard practise certainly if you look at what's happening in the US with the Peacock President.

Day 100: Progress report

Since the start of my Blog 100 days ago, I have

• Written 100 blogs
• Taken 103 Cold showers (sometimes I take 2!)
• Enjoyed 29 Fasting days
• Avoided meat 7 days
• Abstained from Alcohol 13 days

The top 5 readers in the competition so far are :

1. S_sh_
2. Julian Farod
3. R-b-n
4. AuntC
5. Dedalus

My top most read posts are:

1. Environmental Cold Showers 
2. Competition
3. Long life
4. Fasting & blogging
5. Western

The top 5 countries for readers are:

1. France
2. Canada
3. Germany
4. USA
5. Portugal

I am disappointed that the cold shower trend is still limited but we still have 365 days to get to our 1 billion converts and to save the planet.

I have also lost one of my most faithful readers: Julian Farod has disappeared behind the Great Chinese Firewall and it seems that my blog is considered subversive by the CPC which means he doesn't have access anymore (he still got 2 points for trying).

Is everyone up for another 100?  Is that a loud screaming yes I'm hearing or is it just an echo from Tuesday's semi final. 

Day 99: Science

Today my Dad wrote about wrote about Science as a Religion in his (Blog) thanks to which he gets 2 points.  I must say that I don't really see how the two are comparable.  If anything Science and Religion are opposites.  Religion is about certainty it does not allow for argument or dissent you either believe and accept or you are in sin.  With science there is never a definitive answer.  Although many people (usually non scientists) like to either believe or deplore that science has all the answers, in fact science only has today's answers, tomorrow's will probably be different.  The best route to success in science is through new and different views of the world which often means upsetting the established order.  I'm not sure that advocating free love, the right to abortion and the non-virginity of Mary would be the best route to becoming Pope.

Day 98: Final

Today was a fasting day (yes I'm still doing those on top of all the other constraints).

So France is through to the Final of the World Cup.  Interestingly this year I have some kind of association with all four of the finalists: France (I was born here), Belgium (I'm half Belgian), England (I grew up there) and Croatia (My children's Nanny for 7 years was from there).  Despite these multiple connections I am still hoping that France will win on Sunday.  Some of you might point out a certain inconstancy since I have repeatedly spoken out against Borders, Nationalism, and Patriotism.  I spent formative years of my childhood in Yorkshire, I grew up in Alsace which is the least French region of France, I read more books in English than in French, I am married to an American and I choose to write my blog in English (using the excuse that some of my readers don't read French).  And yet I still feel French. What that tells me is that feeling part of a social group does not need to be linked with where you were born, where you live, what you look like, what you think, what you eat and drink or what you believe. It seems to me that nationality should be treated like gender is today (you are the gender that you feel irrespective of biology). Why not have the same system for nationality?  If you feel French, Brazilian, Afghan or Kenyan then you should be recognised as such.

In the mean time: Allez la France 

Day 97: House of Cards

For the past 2 years politicians in the United States and the United Kingdom have been engaged in a self destruction exercise.  I won't bother talking about what is going on in the US as it is so farcical that I wouldn't be surprised if future historians looking back on this presidency will assume that they do not have all the bits of the puzzle.  This US President will surely be known as the Peacock President (for his vanity and his brains).

What is happening in the UK is more interesting in that it shows the limits of direct democracy and the advantages of representative democracy.  Today two of the leading advocates of Brexit resigned from the government in dissatisfaction with the state negotiations. Which negotiations you may ask? The ones with the European Union? Absolutely not.  Since the "People's Brexit Vote" the British government has been spending its time trying to figure out what it meant and what they should try to negotiate with the EU. All the debates have been inside the Conservative Party (with Labour being able to avoid making choices or having a clear position thanks to being in opposition).   In spite of all this debating and internal negotiation we are still no nearer to understanding what the UK position is on its future relation with the EU.  So 2 years of frenetic political activity leads us to the following conclusions:

1. Asking complicated questions in a referendum where the answer can only be Yes or No is pointless (A bit like asking a child which flavour ice cream he or she would like but only allowing yes or no as an answer) 
2. Politicians have an extraordinary capacity to ignore simple facts and unpleasant realities
3. Politicians can spend their whole time navel gazing this does not seem to impact the machinery of government in any meaningfull way.
4. If (?) politicians are irrelevant do we really need governments?

Day 96: Retirement

Sunday Dinner (late snack):

• Pain des fleurs
• Tome de brebis aux orties
• Roquefort
• Crottin de chèvre
• Eau

Notice the absence of saucisson, paté, ham or rillettes!

Yesterday the beach we ended the day on was the one in front of R.'s recently acquired beach cottage.  R. is a french friend of my father's who recently arrived in Portugal to take up residence there and spend his semi-retirement watching the sun set over the ocean.  As my dad also moved to Portugal after his retirement it made me wonder where I might live in the future.  Setting aside the fact that I probably won't be able to afford to retire until I'm 90, I do wonder where Fianna and I might move to next.  It's strange that many people (mainly city dwellers) feel the need to retire in a different place to where they may have spent most of their working lives (maybe its part of putting work behind you).  Lets look at my options:

• Strasbourg or York (where I grew up). I'm pretty sure I would have a hard time convincing Fianna to move to either of those
• Préfailles (place of my holidays): A little too much family for everyday life 
• Los Angeles: Very far from Europe and still a big city full of cars
• Ardèche or Drôme: A bit too close to Fianna's ex
• Dordogne: A bit too close to my ex
• Lisbon: Too portuguese 
• London: Not since Brexit 
• Tel Aviv: Not until the the palestinian issue is resolved
• New York: Too expensive and too late

It seems I'm stuck in Paris arguably the most beautiful city in the world with the best food and, hopefully, by the time I retire all ICE vehicles (#10) will have been banned from the city and it will have clean air and noiseless streets (save for the sounds of birds).

Day 95: Beach

Fish, Octopus and more Fish my meat free diet is certainly not protein free in Lisbon.

As we are in Lisbon (which is by the ocean for those of you who are geographically challenged) and my wife was probably a sand crab in a former life (sorry I can't find anything more exciting that lives on a beach) we spent the day at the beach. Beaches in Lisbon come in many varieties usually made up of a combination of the following characteristics:

• Windy or hot
• Far or not so far
• With or without traffic jams
• Small, medium or large
• Chic, bohemian or low brow (with tattoos)
• Sandy, pebbly or with rocks
• Crowded, less crowded or nearly empty

I don't really understand the concept of spending the day on the beach.  Its as if someone suggested we spend the day on the edge of a swimming pool, what would be the point of that?  I really enjoy swimming in the sea but the beach is just the bit that you have to cross to get to the enjoyable part.  What is enjoyable about the beach ? You get sand everywhere including in your kindle, its usually too hot so either you get burnt or you put cream on which means you get even more sand on yourself, its too bright making it difficult to read properly and there is a high probability that you will be surrounded by loud obnoxious people.  The most surprising thing to me is that the most crowded beaches are the most popular ones.  People spend their working week packed in public transport or stuck in traffic jams and then they congregate onto overcrowded beaches at the weekend. I guess I should be thankful... at least our beach was practically empty.

Day 94: Alcohol

In Europe and America drinking alcohol (wine, beer or spirits) is seen as a normal thing to do especially in social occasions.  In most cases if you say no to any kind of alcoholic drink at a dinner or party people will ask you if there is something wrong with you or if there is a special reason.  As you may have noticed in some of my menus I myself am partial to an occasional drink of whisky or wine.  And yet I realise that alcohol is:

1. Unhealthy
2. Fattening
3. Expensive

I'm at an age where I certainly don't drink to get drunk or even slightly tipsy.  In fact I drink mainly because I'm used to it and possibly because it is the social thing to do.  I'm not sure either of these are good reasons.  So in order to go from drinking out of habit to drinking erratically I have decided to do a dry July and August (It seems that I have decided to cram all my new year's resolutions into one year). I'm sure I'll appreciate my future occasional drinks all the more.  The world alcohol market represents $4 billion a day.  If the world decided to not drink alcohol one day a month we would collectively save $50 billion a year.  

Day 93: IQ

I had lunch in a small restaurant with my dad and my daugther (see My dad's blog).  In keeping with my meatless summer I ordered the fried octopus with salad which came highly recommended. During the course of the meal conversation roamed from the high intelligence of octopi (?) through blogging,  to the ideal education system (which seems to be the absence of system). I mention this not because we were debating educating octopuses (I checked) but because Sasha mentioned that she had some friends who have stopped eating them because they are deemed to be highly intelligent.  I find it interesting that IQ is used as a food classification system.  Clearly fruits and vegetables can be eaten as nobody has ever debated the relative intelligence of carrots or bananas.  The difficulty comes with higher life forms.  We are probably safe eating snails and oysters but what should we do with tuna, salmon, sheep, cows or rabbits?  Even more complicated: pigs (supposedly highly intelligent), dogs (eaten in Asia), cats (eaten when very hungry), horses (eaten in France).  Finally we come to dolphins which are universally admired and praised for their intelligence but are eaten in Japan.   I'm not sure that IQ is the right indicator for making diet decisions.  

Day 92: Species

I am writing this from my father's kitchen in Lisbon.  I am here because Fianna had a conference in Lisbon and we decided that it would be nice for me to join her and spend the weekend.  In the plane I watched a crime series and read the Guardian.  I found one of the articles particularly interesting in its demonstration of the absurdities of science. A scientific team based at the Leibniz Institute in Berlin and led by a Professor Hildebrand expect to be able to recreate the Northern White Rhino (NWR) of which at present there are only two specimens left both of which are female (No information was given on their sexual orientation). The procedure is based on a complicated mix of genetics, stem cells, IVF and Southern White Rhino surrogates.   The reason I find this absurd is that having eradicated the NWR we are now ploughing significant resources into trying to resurrect it.  Wouldn't it have been easier to not hunt them all down in the first place?  Considering there are hundreds of species disappearing every year mostly thanks to human activity would it not make more sense to invest in conservation rather than trying to resurrect them ?  Surely Jurassic Park and Frankenstein should have convinced us by now that science isn't always the answer.

Day 91: Football

First meat free day:

• Lunch: Sashimi
• Dinner: Taboulé, Tarama, Falafel, Spinach samosa, Humous, Greek Salad
• Water

I know I wrote about the world cup a few weeks ago (#73) saying that my interest was limited because it was being held in Russia.  In fact I have let myself be drawn into the spirit of the game and I watched a few matches or parts of matches.  There are two things that stand out for me and keep me interested:

1. Football is known as the beautiful game and I have to agree that it is easily the best sport to watch.  The rules are clear and simple, there is constant movement and scoring is sufficiently difficult to be exciting.  Although I was never much of a football player preferring rugby, basketball, tennis or cricket, I can still appreciate that football is a more interesting game to watch than any of my favourite sports.
2. It is probably the most democratic sport that exists.  Players come from all sorts of backgrounds, not only socially but also ethnically.  Teams especially the best ones are composed of the best possible players nobody cares where they came from.  In the present times I find it fitting that neither Italy nor the USA (whose immigration policies are a disgrace) even qualified for the world cup.  In football nobody cares who you are or were you come from or even who you support.  Fans of losing team stay interested till the end and find other teams  to support.  Even though it is a competition at the end of the day it is a communal experience which bring people together.

Allez la France  or Brazil or Belgium or even England 

Day 90: Vegetarian

Today was a fasting day.

Our friend F whose house we were at this weekend told us that she has stopped eating beef and pork (not quite vegetarian but on the way).  At first she did it just to see  if she could, but then quite rapidly she realised that actually she had no desire for meat anymore.  I have to say that for some reason I found this interesting.  Even though I have been around many vegetarians in my life (including my mother) I have never had the slightest inclination to give up meat.  But as I prepare to go to Los Angeles on holiday in august I think it might be a good idea to give it a try by having a meat free summer.  For some reason I usually put on weight when I'm in the US (except if I spend most of my time in hospital).  I'm not sure if cutting out meat helps to lose weight, but I'm sure it will be healthy and it will make my mum happy. Anyway it seems this is the year of giving myself challenges:

• 4 minute plank every morning
• 5 minute cold showers
• 2 days fasting per week
• 1 blog entry every day
• And now 2 months meat free

   

Day 89: Weekend

It was over 32° C all weekend in Paris (you must all be really grateful to have switched to cold showers thank to my blog #2).  As I mentioned yesterday we spent a relaxing  weekend eating, drinking and resting in hammocks which R & F have astutely dotted around their well thought out and really pleasant garden.  As R's passion is carpentry rather than the economics of the world fishing industry (which is what he does at the oecd) he has recently managed to negotiate that from the 1st of september he will work only 4 days a week (for a 10% reduction in salary) and with a commitment to  do 4.5 days work in 4 days.  I must say that I would happily sign up to a similar deal.  I would rather have 4 days of more intense work but then 3 full days of rest. A three day weekend feels much more appropriate: 1 day to wind down, 1 day of rest and 1 day to get ready for Monday.  I'm sure there would be a significant drop in work related stress, illnesses and burnouts which ultimately would benefit everyone.