Day 271 : New Year

Today was the last day of the year.  We had a nice party at Samantha's house with oysters, foie gras, and lots of amazing nibbles prepared by Sami.  And thus we end 2018 and start 2019 which means we have to remember to change the year when we write checks.  It strange that so many expectations and resolutions are carried by this simple change of date.  The 31st doesn't even have any kind of theological, astronomical or climatological significance. Nothing happens on the last calendar day of the year that could warrant all this effort.  Maybe we should rethink this holiday and move it to the summer instead.  We already have xmas in December so we don't need another holiday that month.  I think the 21st of June is a better candidate.  Its the longest day of the year (ideal for partying) its hot (so we can do it outside) and it signals the transition from spring to summer, seems much more appropriate than a cold boring day in winter.

Any way Happy New Year to all my readers.  2019 will surpass your expectations especially if you have none. 

Day 270 : Flows

Dinner Menu:

Really good French restaurant in the middle of nowhere (Thanks to Samantha)

My old friend Gallya who is a Politics professor specialized in immigration is staying with us in the south west of France.  She is in the process of writing a book on migration and security and has mentioned a few times the fact that the number of people residing in a country different to their one of birth is less than 4%.  After some research on the internet it seems that less than 10 million people migrate each year (that's less than 0.1% of the world population.  In view of these numbers it seems strange that immigration has become such an issue in Europe and the United States.  The most  surprising thing is that anti-immigrant feelings are often strongest in areas with the least immigrants.  It's clear that people are not afraid of real immigrants who live next door, go to the same local school and come round to borrow bread.  They are afraid of the virtual ones who exist in their imagination.  Maybe the best way to resolve the "immigration issue" is to let more in rather than less.  Imaginary monsters are much more frightening than real ones. So lets transform our immigrants into neighbors.

Day 269: Books

In my rules post I mentioned that one of my 2 firm rules in life was to only buy books on kindle.  As all rules must have exceptions I recently bought (and just finished) the latest French Prix Goncourt in printed form.  The book is very well written (despite a slightly disappointing ending) but a lot of my pleasure was derived from the medium as well as from the content.  My position for the last 7 years (since the acquisition of my first kindle) was that the important thing in a book is the content not the form, but I now have to admit that I may have been wrong (see Fianna!).  In spite of all my efforts I cannot deny that reading in electronic form is not as satisfying as turning the pages of an actual book.  I think there is still a place for kindles when travelling or for re-reading certain books or authors but form now on I will be finding my primary reading material in bookshops once again.

Day 268: Video

This evening Samantha brought out an old home video that her brother had taken at the Millennium party 18 years ago where a lot of the people who are here this year were present at the time.  This was new to most of us and of course despite the poor quality of the film its quite fun to see people as they were in on 31st of December 1999.  However, I have no regrets that I do not have more movies from my past.  I was against taking a video of my wedding to Fianna and this confirms my decision. No video could come close to recreating the feelings and impressions I had during those two days, so why would I want to replace my memories with someone else's vision.  Memory has a life of its own and chooses to highlight or obscure different things.  Seeing a video of a memorable occasion is like seeing the film of a book you enjoyed.   It doesn't matter how good the movie is, its never going to be as good as the "film" you imagined when you read the book.  

Day 267: Meals

Dinner Menu:

• Soupe de dinde avec avocats, oeufs durs et piments
• Pain à l'ail
• Salade verte
• Fromages

As you may have noticed my meals have quite a prominent place in this blog.  I have been fortunate to have gone to a number of good restaurants in my life and to have cooked quite a few passable meals myself.  And yet when I think back to my most memorable meals, they were usually simple but enhanced by their context.  Here are my top 5:

1. Fresh bread, goat's cheese, olives and fresh tomatoes in the foothills of the Mont Ventoux in the middle of a hike with my friend Gilles
2. Saucisson, avocado and lemon in a shepherd's hut in the Pyrenees with my daughter  
3. Freshly slaughtered roast pig from the next door neighbor in a village outside Moscow with a bunch of friends invited at the last minute.
4. "Daddy's rice dish" at my great aunt's apartment in Paris, where the recipe was given to me by my uncle who had just come back to France after having raised cattle in New Caledonia.
5. Black market Caviar from the Caspian sea smuggled back to Paris and eaten by the spoon with Fianna, Sasha and Louis in our apartment in rue d'Antin.

In each of these occasions the intrinsically good food was magnified and enhanced by the setting, circumstances and people who made up the experience.  A really good sophisticated meal is enjoyed in the present, for it to last in the future there needs to be an additional ingredient which appeals to other senses and emotions.

This is why discovering an amazing meal in a small simple restaurant in the middle of nowhere will always be a more satisfying experience than dinner in a *** Michelin restaurant (however excellent it may be).

Day 266 : Surprise

Dinner Menu:

• Blanquette de veau
• Riz basmatti
• Salade verte
• Fromages

Today Gallya (my girlfriend from a long time ago) arrived with her husband and 2 children.  They will be spending the week with me here in the Gers, in addition to :

• my "current" wife
• my ex-wife
• my mother 
• her current husband
• my father
• his current wife
• my sister
• her current partner
• my half-sister
• and assorted children, nieces and nephews

Often people are surprised that my divorced parents still get on and that I still have friendly relations with my ex-wife.  But to me it is the opposite that is surprising.  I can understand that love does not always last forever but why should it turn to dislike rather than friendship?  Surely if there was love then there must have been attractive qualities on both sides? I've always felt that in some ways it should much easier to like your ex-partners once the complications of love are out of the way.  Love creates a lot of mutual expectations which can create tensions in a relationship, in its absence it  becomes easy to just be friends.

If you dislike (or sometimes even hate) someone you used to love it's as if you were rejecting a part of yourself, refusing to accept your past self as a part of who you are now.  

Day 265 : Christmas

Today was Christmas day.  In keeping with the family traditions we had a quite impressive pile of presents under the tree which were distributed in a relatively orderly fashion by Joachim.  Everybody seemed happy with their share of "treasure" and we were then able to move to brunch, afternoon walks and evening charades.  A pleasant time was had by all thanks to (or despite) nearly everybody being high on "Mexican hot chocolate".   

Day 264: Presents

In many countries there are poor deprived children who are already playing with their Xmas presents tonight.  This is true in Germany and some of the Nordic countries among others.  I would like somebody to explain to me why Father (or Mother) Christmas would deliver all the presents the day before ? In our family we have always opened presents in the morning and usually the presents would not be under the tree until the day itself.  Christmas is many things of course, family time, good meals, good will, conversations, more food, family tensions, walks, even more food and in the end good cheer for all.  But I will always remember coming downstairs in the early morning as a child in my grand-parents' house in Strasbourg and seeing the amazing pile of wrapped presents under the tree and then waiting eagerly for the grown ups to wake up.  I can not be that child again of course but I like to remember it vicariously which is why  I will remain a firm proponent of the morning event.

Merry Christmas Everyone - Mazel Tov!

Day 263: Towns

My Dad and I went to Agen today for some traditional last minute Xmas shopping.  Agen is a small town of 34,000 inhabitants in the south of France between Bordeaux and Toulouse.  This is typical Gilets Jaunes territory and we noticed quite a few cars proudly displaying fluorescent vests on their dashboards.  As we wandered around the relatively empty town centre I wondered if these small towns have a future.  If I was not living in a city Paris, Lyon, Nantes or Strasbourg I would prefer to live in a village of even in the country side rather than a small town.  Considering that you can now live in the middle of nowhere and still have access to anything you need thanks to Amazon why would you choose to live in a small town which has neither the buzz of the big city nor the absolute calm of the countryside.  I can imagine the world in 100 years being composed of concentrated mega-cities and tiny villages spread out across the land everybody connected through lightning fast internet and served by armies of self driving delivery vans.  It would be pretty cool!

Day 262 : Late

Dinner Menu (Thanks Sami)

• Poulet roti
• Pommes de terres roti
• Broccoli al dente
• Salade verte 
• Fromages
• Reste de gateau d'anniversaire de Louis

Contrary to the US Army we left a man behind today. Fianna, Zephira and I were due to meet up with Ruben at the Gare Montparnasse in order to make our way by train to Bordeaux and then on to Samantha's house in Mauroux.  Alas a combination of factors (alarm clocks, metro breakdowns, etc) meant that with only a few minutes to spare before the Train left Ruben was still nowhere in sight!  We had to make one of those snap black or white decisions.  Do we go on without him or do we wait for him? As I am writing these in lines from our comfortable guest house in Mauroux  you can guess what decision was made.  It does pose the interesting question of what is a reasonable amount of time you should give yourself to get to the airport or station when you are travelling.  I have historically erred more on the side of minimizing my waiting time, but that probably doesn't really make sense.  Why not allow an extra 20 or 30 mins as a safety margin?  The time you spend before leaving is usually dead time anyway.  I think there is an app in this.  It would detect where you are and on the basis of your chosen mode of transport would emit a high pitched noise to tell you you needed to go (I guess this is called a calendar).  You could make it more interesting by getting it to ask you some key questions to decide when you need to leave:

• How important is this train or plane?
• What are your alternatives?
• How expensive are the alternatives?
• What do you need to do the same day before leaving?
• Do you stress easily?
• Are you used to travelling?
• Are there connecting flight/trains/cars?
• Do you have spare cash to spend?
• Are you travelling with others?

See you tomorrow Ruben.

Day 261 : Solidarity

Dinner Menu:

• Salade de betterave et feta
• Gratins de ravioles aux champignons et lardons
• Yaourt de brebis et 1/2 pomme

In solidarity with Theo I unsubscribed and deleted all my media apps (Netflix, OCS, Prime Video. Hulu).  Well actually, it's more because I felt I was getting sucked into a never ending vortex of series which was not adding anything to my life (I mainly blame Louis who told me about Brooklyn 99 which has around 125 episodes and I'm already on 107 after 10 days ).   Since the arrival of Netflix I have occasionally (too often) binged on series : Friends,  The Fall, Jessica Jones, Stranger things, The Good Place, The Good Wife, The West Wing, Breaking Bad, Le Bureau des Légendes, Peep Show, Casual, The Handmaid's Tale, Homeland, Fargo, Seinfeld, The Amazing Mrs Maizel, The Crown, Black Mirror, House of cards, Game of Thrones, True Detective, Mariella, Ozark, ... etc...(and that is a real etc).  It is very similar to being on drugs (except cheaper and easier).  You always want to go to the next episode which allows you to pass (or waste) your time pleasurably but with no added value. This is worse than TV was in the 70ies when I was growing up.  At least you had to wait between episodes of Dr Who back then. Now it's just an uninterrupted stream.  I know you can't stop progress but sometimes progress is regress!

Day 260: App

Today was a 500 Kcal day:

• 1 apple (36 Cal)
• 1 bowl of cottage cheese (120 Cal)
• 1/2 a tomato (6 Cal)
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil (27 Cal)
• 1 1/2 krisprolls (78 Cal)
• 1 egg white mushroom and shallot omelet (109 Cal)
• 1 spring onion (7 Cal)
• 2 pickles (8 Cal)
• 15 radishes (9 Cal)
• 1/2 square of 90% dark chocolate (30 Cal)

As you can see after some intensive research I have identified the ideal food tracking app to help me in my new diet.  When  you look for an app on a smartphone you are usually confronted with dozens of different options.  I don't really understand how any of these app developers make any money, most of the apps are free and dependent on advertising. Anyway I knew that I needed the following features:

1. Extensive of ingredients with their calorie content
2. Easy interface
3. Capacity to easily my total calories for the day
4. Preferably free with no advertising
5. Integrated with my exercise and weight apps (yes I have those as well)

My final choice is MyNetDiary (just in case any of you were wondering) now I need to use it systematically.

Day 259 : Diet

Dinner Menu:

• Egg white omelette with tomatoes and mushrooms
• 1 square dark chocolate
• Total calories: 93

As I have said many times all diets work its just a question of finding the one that works for you.  My 2 day fasting has not been as successful as I hoped so I am moving to a different approach.  From now on I will limit my calorie intake to a maximum of 500 kcal three times a week. (overall that is actually less than fasting 2 days a week).  After some intensive research I have determined that on my diet days I will limit myself to combinations of the following foods:

• 1-2 Apples
• 1-2 Tomatoes
• 2 Cucumbers
• 1 Spring onion
• 100g of mushrooms
• 10-15 Radishes
• 2-3 Dill pickles
• 1-2 Bowls of Cottage cheese
• Egg white omelette
• 1-2 glasses of Tomato juice
• 1-2 krisprolls
• 1 square of 90% chocolate

If I stick to the plan I will lose 1kg per week which means that I should hit my target weight by the summer.  

Day 258: Opium

Dinner Menu:

• Rôti de Chapon à la romertopf
• Pommes de terres et carottes au four
• Salade verte

Yesterday Theo came home from school and asked me if he could swap his smartphone for one of the old Samsung "dumb" flip phones that I have in my old electronics drawer.  He wanted to remove the temptation of constant calls for attention from youtube, whatsapp, internet, etc which he felt was a too easy distraction from concentrating on school work.   Even though it seems very radical, I completely understand his approach.  Its similar to my approach to eating I find it difficult to limit myself, it's easier for me to fast completely than to just reduce.   I would be tempted to do the same thing except that I do find my smartphone useful for non-social media apps (Scooters, Maps, E-mail, Newspapers, travel & Banking).    I would definitely buy a smartphone which did not allow me to have any social media or entertainment apps.

It seems that the opium of the proletariat has gone from religion to television and is now social media. 

Day 257: 17th of December

25 years ago my son Louis was born.  He was born in Strasbourg like me, because at the time Samantha and I had moved to Russia and we were back in Alsace for the Xmas holidays (and because we weren't sure about experiencing the newly private soviet hospital system).  By the time Louis was 2 weeks old he had travelled 3,500KM through France, Germany, the Baltic Sea, Finland and Russia in the dead of winter in a Ford SUV (Maybe that's why he later went on to study in Canada).   The first great lesson that Louis taught me is that children are different.  For example I quickly understood that, contrary to Sasha, spanking Louis had no impact whatsoever on his behaviour and therefore was pointless.  Sending Louis to the corner on the other hand was much more effective. Thankfully we moved on from this confrontational situation to a more normal competitive approach:

• Who could bounce the most tennis balls against the wall of our terrace in Belgium
• Who could swim fastest
• Who discovered which BD
• Who could swim the furthest at sea (see Gataca)
• Who was the best at foosball
• Who could climb the highest tree
• And who could take the longest cold shower (actually Louis hasn't taken up that challenge ...yet?)

It's been a pleasure and an education to watch my children grow up to be quite different (with some similarities) despite the fact that I believe I was pretty consistent in my approach and in my mistakes.

So thank you Louis for having taught me how to be more philosophical about outcomes and consequences.  I'm sure I was a better father to both you and Sasha thanks to the different perspective that you brought to our family.

Happy Birthday

  

Day 256: Dating

Dinner Menu:

• Dos de colin avec carottes et courgettes au four
• Pommes de terre en robe des champs
• Haricots verts

Today's subject is not one that is relevant to me any more, but as it happens a few of my friends and colleagues have mentioned their experiences on dating apps recently.  I remember that dark time before I found true love (my wife reads this blog), where I tried internet dating and in the end decided it was not right for me.  Originally I thought what does it matter how you meet? Is a smartphone app that different from a party, a bar, a sports club, an office or a university? Isn't it just another way to meet potential partners?   But actually I think it is different.  If two people meet after an internet exchange their first physical meeting is reduced to yes or no will I sleep with this girl/guy. Meetings in all other contexts are completely different. The relationship develops over time you don't always know that a romance (or sex for my more literal readers)  might be a possibility.  You could argue that smartphone dating is more efficient (especially if you happen to be a consultant) but I'm not sure efficiency is always the right answer.  

Day 255: Cleaning

Dinner Menu:

• Blanquette de veau
• Riz basmati
• Yaourt de brebis et banane

The rule in our house is if you do the cooking you are not involved in the cleaning up and as I usually do the cooking (unless I'm not eating)  I rarely get the pleasure of exercising my hygiene talents, however as Theo made dinner tonight I cleaned up with some help from Fianna.  I did a thorough job and had the satisfaction of a job well done which made me think that in life there are two kinds of people : Cleaners and Cooks.  So what are the positives and negatives?

Cleaning

+ It takes less time
+ Its relatively simple to do it right
+ You can see the difference which makes you feel good

- Other people don't appreciate it
- Its after the meal when you want to go to bed
- Its boring (no creativity involved)

Cooking

+ It allows you to use your creativity
+ You get to decide the meal
+ Feels good to feed your family

- It takes longer
- You can get it wrong
- Success is dependent on others appreciation

In conclusion I would say that either of those activities can be rewarding if you approach them with the right attitude (If only I knew how to spread the message to the younger generations!)

Day 254: Lock Down

It seems Paris will again be in lock down tomorrow just in case the Gilets Jaunes haven't quite stopped their protest yet.  I know up to now I haven't really minded all the agitation, but now it's starting to interfere with my Xmas shopping.  I don't mind having to go everywhere on foot but I'd like to have access to the shops. Going down the Champs Elysée this afternoon I noticed most shops getting ready to protect their windows from potential wreckage on Saturday.  I think the Gilets Jaunes should call a Xmas truce.  If they are still unhappy in 2019 they can start again in January.  Then again maybe I'm not understanding that the breaking and looting is actually a new form of Xmas shopping I should go out with a sledge hammer rather than a credit card tomorrow.

Day 253: Routine

Today was a fasting day.

In everyday life its easy to get into routines:  Cycling every morning, getting up at 6 AM, watching a series before going to bed, sitting at the same spot for dinner, having a whisky in the evening, having a coffee first thing, standing at my desk, listening to the radio in the cold shower, reading the Guardian, etc...

And yet I don't seem to be able to make fasting a "routine".  Every time I fast its still an effort, it doesn't get easier (or harder to be fair).  You would think that after a while it would become automatic but no I still miss food especially in the evening.  It's not a question of pleasure because standing at my desk, taking cold showers or sitting in the same place at dinner are not particularly pleasurable, and yet they are easy to keep up.  Smoking became a habit quite quickly as did giving up. 

Maybe I should start smoking again to replace the eating, or I could do chewing tobacco (better for my lungs)!

Day 252: Gifts

This year we are doing Secret Santa for Xmas.  My mum organised it all through an internet site.  Children and young adults are excluded its just the adults. I understand that there is a facility on the app to tell your secret santa what you might want, but I have forgotten how to access the site.  So in the hope that my santa reads my blog here are some possible Xmas gifts for me:

• Intégral Jérémiah N° 3 or 4
• Intégral Blueberry N° 3 ou 4
• Interesting socks (size 44-45)
• Cycling shorts (XL)
• A 60 minute playlist of the best songs to listen to while cycling
• A cool sports head band
• A surprise

Now if the person who I'm getting a gift for could send me a similar list that would be perfect!  Also if all my children, nephews, nieces and sisters (under 20) could send me their lists that would be great.

Day 251: Ethics

Dinner Menu:

• Risotto aux fruits de mer
• Fromages

As part of a class project Theo developed a (short) questionnaire on the ethics of genetic manipulation (Français  American).  The last question is about how much genetic modification of your child you would be prepared to do on the assumption that it is scientifically possible.  You would expect most people's natural reaction to be to agree to eliminating  major diseases or mental deficiencies but then you get into more difficult issues (Physical characteristics, Sex, Height, Colouring, Obesity, Intelligence, Creativity, Speed, Breast size, etc).  My first inclination would be to say no we shouldn't mess with these characteristics but then again why not?  Where do you draw the line?  If you can eliminate asthma or myopia why wouldn't you? And if you agree to those why not make sure your son is at least 1M80 or your daughter is under 70Kg?  And why not choose an IQ of 110 rather than 90 (if you can) ? It seems to me that human nature is to modify and adapt our environment and to use all the tools at our disposal. I find it very difficult to define lines that should not be crossed.

Day 250: Rights

My Dad pointed out in his blog (Universel) that today is the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  His blog was about the concept of universality (which I'll be happy to come back to).  For my part I had a look at the content of the document.  There are 30 articles which would seem reasonable (although that is three times as much as God's rules). But when you look at them more closely you find a mixture of quite fundamental rights mixed in with what I would call aspirations rather than rights.  Of the 30 articles a good third are not fundamental rights as they are very much open to differing interpretations.  Of the remaining 20 at least 10 are repetitions of other ones. Which brings us back to the original 10.  If I was asked to vote for a Universal Declaration of Human Rights I would vote against the present version.  A truly Universal declaration would need to strip out all these specific cultural aspirations (Right to work, Right to Education, Right to Marriage, etc) and stick to simple undeniable human rights (life, movement, opinion). 

Day 249: Socks

Dinner menu:

• Gigot d'agneau aux carottes
• Latkes
• Flageolets
• Yaourt de brebis, banane et myrtilles

Louis has an interview tomorrow so we were checking that he has all the required clothing.  

• Dress trousers 🗹
• Shirt 🗹
• Jacket🗹
• Formal shoes 🗹
• Funky socks ⌧

That's right since the demise of the tie (see my previous blog) the only way to express some creativity and originality is through funky socks.  Since being introduced to this concept by my friend Shane I have eliminated all my blue, grey and black socks.  Now I only have multi-coloured  socks with stripes, dots or other motifs.  The next step (which I'm not sure I ready for yet) would be mismatched socks.

Day 248: Empty

Dinner menu:

• Raviolis aux truffes
• Fromages
• Yaourt avec banane plantain

In view of last Saturday's excitement the media and the government colluded (unwittingly I assume) in dramatizing what could happen today.  Instead of violence and insurrection we had a lot of riot police in the streets a few gilets jaunes walking around the center of Paris and a limited amount of tension, nothing like what was announced.  In the morning Theo mentioned how nice it was to be in a quiet city and later in the day I went to pick up Louis who flew in to Paris today and I was delighted by the lack of traffic in the streets.  Having experienced a day of Paris with practically no traffic I can't wait for the ban on motor vehicles to come in to force in Paris.

Day 247: Transfer

Yesterday I read an article in the Canard Enchainé the French satirical newspaper concerning the money transfers of immigrants back to their home countries.  Worldwide immigrants in rich countries transfert more than $450 billion  back to their country of origin which is a great help. The scandal (there is always a scandal!) is that the cost of the transfers is on average 7% of the funds.  That means that immigrants which are usually not the richest people in our societies get "taxed" 32 billion $ just to be able to send some of their hard earned income home.  That's equivalent to the total amount of Development Aid distributed by the United States.   I'm surprised that nobody has developed an app  yet which would allow the transfer of money from a phone to another for a nominal fee.  I think I will add this to the list of projects I should develop as soon as I am made redundant from my present firm.

Day 246: Desert

Sasha is off to the Wirikuta Desert which reminded how much I love deserts.  The first time I realised my attraction to deserts was when I was in Egypt shortly after Sasha was born.  At the time I was there for only 3 days and mainly spent time visiting Cairo and the Pyramids but I remember looking out to the desert beyond and feeling a pull a bit like when you are on the edge of a cliff (but less dangerous!).  Since then I have visited Namibia which has the Namib and the Kalahari desert both of which would have been on  my list if I hadn't seen them already. I think it's the ruggedness and emptiness that pulls me.  And, of course, that deserts cannot be tamed.

Anyway here is my priority list of deserts to visit:

1. Heart of the Sahara (Mali/Algeria/Chad)
2. Gobi (Mongolia)
3. Gibson desert (Australia)
4. Atacama desert (Chile)
5. Chihuahua Desert (Mexico. For Blueberry)

Bonus:  Wirikuta (depending on Sasha's experience), Arabian (depending on Politics) and Dasht-e Kavir in Iran (to annoy Trump).

Day 245 : Top 5 Places

Inspired by my Dad's blog today (Voyages) I thought I would do a series on "Top 5s" starting with:

Top 5 places I would like to go to the restaurant in :

1. Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. Kyoto, Japan
3. Ho Chi Mihn city, Vietnam
4. Guadalajara, Mexico
5. Addis Abeba, Ethipia

Top 5 places I would go hiking in:

1. Costa Rica
2. South Africa
3. Alaska
4. Bhutan
5. Madagascar
6. Bonus: Afghanistan (when things get safer)

In future blogs I will also provide Top 5s places for other activities such as: Skiing, Seeing the New Year, Swimming, Reading a book in a café, Seeing the sun rise, Spending a night with my wife.   I'll consider requests for other activities on a case by case basis.

Day 244: Office Party

The reason I'm in London is to participate in the end of year wrap-up management meeting and then to attend the management Xmas dinner.   You know there is something fundamentally wrong with an organisation when people are dragging their feet to free a free meal with liberal amounts of wine.  In most of my previous companies I looked forward to the Xmas dinner (which was not limited to management) and which was usually a fun event.  I'm pretty sure that most of the dozen or so people who are attending would rather be somewhere else.  If we wanted end of year parties to be truly useful we should tell people they can either attend or their share will be given to their favourite charity.  At least dysfunctional organisations would then serve a purpose.

Day 243: Storage

I'm in London for two nights.  I don't come very often so I'm hoping to take care of some unfinished business.  When I left London I brought most of my stuff back to Paris bit by bit over a few months.  However, by the time I had to vacate my flat I still had too much stuff to bring back in one go.  I decided to rent a locker in a storage warehouse to leave my stuff.  As I was still having to come regularly to the UK at the time I chose somewhere cheap but quite a way from the centre.   More than a year later I have probably paid over £400 for a bunch of stuff that I have certainly not been missing (I don't even know what's in there).  Hopefully tomorrow I can get my stuff, throw away what I can't carry and close down my useless box.  Conclusion: you can never get rid of enough stuff when moving!

Day 242: Resignation

Dinner Menu:

• Osso Bucco et sauce tomate aux champignons
• Spaghetti
• Fromage
• Carré de chocolat noir

In France the Gilets Jaunes are asking for Macron to resign in the UK most MPs and Journalists feel that Theresa May will lose her vote in Parliament which mean she would be under pressure to resign.  In both cases this is missing the point neither Macron nor May's resignation would change anything.  The alternatives in the UK or in France are either as unappealing or worse.  A change of leader or of political party would not make any meaningful difference in either country as far as I can tell.   Both countries are facing their own version of a crisis in representative democracy and a solution needs to include a transformation of the system.  Considering the failure of our professional politicians lets start by moving to part time volunteers, I don't see any down sides. 

Day 241: Response

Dinner Menu:

• Coquelets au four
• Pommes de terre sautées
• Carotte à la crème
• Salade verte
• Fromages
• Glaces Ben & Jerry's

Another day of confrontation between the Gilets Jaunes and the Police.  Another day of being inside the "secure enclave" that is put into place around the Elysée Palace.  Although I have expressed my limited sympathy for the movement I understand why the complete lack of an appropriate response from the government is stoking up frustration.  I don't think the state should necessarily give in to the disparate and uncoordinated demand of the movement but they should be at least recognising the need for more radical change.  We don't need another country to fall to populism.  If Macron doesn't want to finish his mandate as a lame duck President like his predecessor he needs to address the desperation that is being expressed.  Most of these issues only have long term solutions but you don't get an opportunity to implement the longer term solutions if you don't do visible short term measures that give people hope.