Day 149: Time

Dinner Menu:

• Tarte à la tomate de grand-maman
• Salade verte
• Fromages
• Carré de chocolat noir 90%
• Badoit

Finally it seems we may get rid of the summer/winter time change.  I read in today's Monde that the European Commission is going to push for this aberration to be stopped after a poll of European citizens found 80% in favour of single time.   I have never understood the purpose of introducing a different time twice a year.  I always felt the inconvenience of  having to adjust your sleep patterns twice a year far outweighed any potential benefits which never actually materialised.   I do find it interesting that the plan is to be on permanent summer time (which is the artificial one). Before the introduction of the change we were on winter time all the time, now we will be on summer time all the time - I guess that goes with global warming ;-).  Since we are deciding our new time maybe we should be more radical. With the new time on the shortest day of the year the sun will rise around 9AM and set at 6:30PM, if we want longer evenings now is the time to express our opinions. Also lets not forget that we are making a political statement.  If we decide to move to permanent summer time we are getting closer to Chinese time if we move to winter time we would be moving closer to the US. Considering the present occupant of the White house I'm thinking the Chinese option may be a better bet.  

Day 329: Poll

The European Commission has launched on an opinion poll on whether we should maintain summer/winter time.  I have already spoken on this subject in my blog #149. In order to ensure we finally get rid of this pointless exercise in bureaucracy I urge you all to fill in the EU's questionnaire which can be found at this address:

https://questionnaire.assemblee-nationale.fr/785621?lang=fr

In order to assist you  I urge you to answer : 

1. That your experience of time change is very negative
2. That time change should be forbidden
3. Its very important that the EU decides to stop the time change
4. We should chose Winter time as the permanent time
5. France's Time Zone should be UTC+1 (Like Germany, Italy and Spain)

We have until March 3rd to fill in the questionnaire please encourage everyone you know to fill it in!

Lets help the European Commission do something visible, practical and popular.

Day 273 : Bet

Fianna and I went out to dinner with some friends this evening.  One of them was American and happened to be a Trump/Sanders supporter (yes interesting combination).  Anyway, during our conversation we talked about what might happen in 2020.  Many people including on the left feel that Trump could well win again, but I don't agree.  As Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time".  Despite all evidence, I believe that enough people will rely on the facts and their senses rather than their beliefs and resoundingly send Trump packing when the time comes.   In order to back up my views I have agreed to a bet on the outcome of the 2020 election. The stake of the bet is honour rather than cash.  It made me realise that betting is actually a way of acknowledging defeat of rational argument.  Since I haven't convinced you with my argument I will propose a bet to try to scare you in agreeing with me.  Whoever loses the bet has to wear a hat and shirt given by the winner for a week.  I hope my counterparty is oblivious to ridicule!   

Day 27: Procedure

Today was a difficult day at work but also highlighted the absurdities that “protective” laws can lead to.  I had to go to London to fire 2 employees. 

The first one was let go under a redundancy programme (in short the company is not doing well and so we have to reduce certain positions), the legal process requires the company to go through a number of consultation meetings before actually making the person redundant.  This was the second meeting and after asking her if she agreed to have a “without prejudice” conversation we were able to rapidly agree on an amicable parting of ways. Her only question was: Why did you not offer me this at our first meeting 2 weeks ago?

The second was more dramatic.  A consultant got himself into dire financial straights complicated by a difficult family situation.  The emotional and financial stress led him to using the company credit card for his personal expenses to the point where he had a debt of close to £10,000 on top of all his other debts to banks and credit firms.  The company warned him and tried to give him some time to pay off the credit card but his predicament was not resolvable in the short term. So the company decided to call him into a disciplinary hearing (which I had to do since I am Managing Director of Europe). The problem is that as the facts were clear and recognised there was no other possibility than to find him guilty of gross misconduct which meant that he would be fired with immediate effect and with no compensation.  During the meeting he did not dispute the facts he just asked if he could have some time (6 weeks) to finish the project he was working on and hopefully find another job. However, because the problem was a gross misconduct and procedures are quite inflexible we had no latitude to give him more time (even though it would have been in our project’s best interest). The worst thing is that he would have been much better off if he had resigned a week ago, which he could have been told to do unofficially but nobody knew enough or cared enough to do so.  So the “machine” of rules and procedures which are there to protect people end up crushing this particular individual.

How do you protect individuals and at the same time allow for the fact that every case is different ? I can imagine that issues like this and worse come up everyday in judicial courts. Maybe laws should be indicative rather than absolute?  And most importantly sentencing should only be limited in its severity not in its humanity. 

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 158: Internship

It's my niece's birthday today and it's an eventful time. Not only is she turning 21 (I think) but she just graduated from UCL (I hear it's a pretty good university ;-) ) and she is now starting an internship at a think tank in Washington. Congratulations on all the good news Z.  More importantly she gets a point for giving me a subject to talk about in my blog.  Her internship is taking place at a very well known and well funded think tank and yet it is unpaid.  I find that absolutely unacceptable.  An internship is a full time job often requiring more hours than a normal job as the intern grapples with new requirement and seeks to demonstrate his or her value.  An intern cannot have a paying job in parallel so he or she must either have savings from a previous job (in which case why would they now be an intern) or assistance from his or her family.  This is a flagrant case of discrimination against people who come from families with limited means.  It should be illegal to propose unpaid internships.  Interns carry out valuable work and although they are benefiting from the experience the organisations that hire them are also getting value.  An intern just like an apprentice should have the right to a minimal subsistence wage.

I don't know if there is an Intern Union in the United States, but if there isn't it's time somebody (you know who you are) founded one!

Have a great time in Washington Z.

Day 82: Exhibition

Evening Menu:

• Spaghetti Vongole
• Fraises au yaourt de brebis
• 1/2 carré de chocolat noir
• 1 verre de vin blanc 

Today was a Sunday and Fianna had organised a visit to the Grand Palais to see an Exhibition titled Artistes et Robots.    This exhibition was actually my idea despite the fact that I am often disappointed when I go to museums or galleries, not because of the exhibits themselves but because of the environment which you have to contend with.  The main problem is the sheer number of people that they allow in at any one time, despite being able to reserve ahead of time you still end up surrounded by people in front of you, behind you, next to you all moving at a slightly different pace.  So either you have to wait to see a particular piece or you feel pushed along as the queue builds up behind you.  I would prefer it if they let less people in at one time so you could actually take your time, stand or sit in front of specific pieces to really get a feel for them.  

Anyway, the exhibition was interesting, ultimately I feel Robot art is still Human art. The robot is just a sophisticated paintbrush nothing happens without the initial human idea. 

Day 296 : Numbers

I mentioned a few months ago that I sold a big project (which probably saved my job at the time). At the time the client asked how much time I would personally spend on it, and I responded whatever was needed.  As it happens I have spent quite a bit of time on it and especially building an excel model, which is something I really enjoy.  There are two things that I believe I'm particularly good at in my work:

• Identifying and communicating an issue and a solution (Negotiating)
• Simplifying and identifying trends in numbers (Modelling)

The balance of my career has been more on the first one which means that I miss the numbers side.  There is something inherently satisfying in making large amounts of numbers get organised and tell a story.  When I see my colleagues or clients struggling with unwieldy, complicated and untidy spreadsheets I feel like just telling them to let me do it properly for them.  I wonder if I could have a second career in numbers ? After all in the old days there were "public letter writers" so I could set myself up as a "public excel modeller".

Day 219: Early

In a short period of time I seem to have trained myself to wake up when I need to but without meaning to.  As I mentioned a few days ago I am now waking up a few minutes before my alarm goes at 6AM to go for my bike ride.  I think its a combination of the physical activity and the regularity of my wake up time.  But this morning I had to go to London which meant that if I was to do my morning ride I would have to get up at 5 rather than 6.  I put my alarm for 5 AM and this morning I woke up at 4:55. So now I have trained myself to wake up before my alarm even early in the morning.  I regret that its taken me 56 years to discover this capacity.  Not only does it feel good to get up early in the morning and have a full day, it feels even better to be independent of technology.  I'm going to test my wake up capacity on weekends to see if I can move the time and still reliably wake up.  

Day 125: Daylight

Dinner Menu:

• Guacamole avec chips au mais bleu
• St Jacques au vin blanc, olives et crême fraîche
• Spaghetti sans gluten
• Carré de chocolat noir salé

Daylight hours are quite different in LA compared to Paris.  In summer the sun rises around 6AM and sets before 8PM where in Paris in the sun will set closer to 10PM.  Those 2 hours make a big difference to how I feel in the evening and to the time I go to bed.  I find it interesting that despite humanity's capacity to adapt its environment (rather than adapt to its environment) we are still affected by external events.  As I sit inside writing my blog with the light on I realise that I am more tired than I would normally be at this hour (and its not the jet lag).  I'm not sure which one I prefer.  On the one hand its nice to go to bed earlier as it makes for a longer morning and I can imagine that its probably to have a constant amount of daylight time.  Summer and Winter daylight times are quite close in LA.  In Paris it is nice to have long summer evenings and cosy winter evenings but you do need to adjust to big differences in daylight time between summer and winter.  Before pronouncing myself on this important question I think I would have to live for a full year in LA in order to have had the experience of a relatively even summer and winter.  Maybe I should suggest a family Xmas in LA!

Day 4: Western

I had a nice WhatsApp conversation with my daughter S-sh- (I'm using code to protect her privacy).  She is in Colombia studying shamanic use of fire (probably a slight simplification).

I was then going to do my whole blog about her, but decided to keep that for the 12 of June (hopefully I'll still be blogging).

I went to see a new western tonight "Hostiles".  One of these modern slow western where the implacable ennemies (a soldier and an indian chief) ending up understanding each other.  The slowness and the photography of their long trek from New Mexico to Montana is what makes the film.  It's nice to see that my favourite movie genre hasn't quite become part of history yet. Surely, it should be clear to all that westerns have it all:

• stunning photography: they are set in amazing empty landscapes; 
• hightened tension: it's always life and death;
• great music: who can beat Ennio Morriccone 
• ethical dilemas: who is the goody and who is the baddy; 
• philosophical questions: nature versus civilisation; 
• great dialogue:  "I saw three of these dusters a short time ago. They were waiting for a train. Inside the dusters there were three men. Inside the men there were three bullets."  (Bonus points to the first one who can tell me the film)
• romance: ok I'll admit they fall a bit short there.

For those of you who are not yet aficionados, but are keen to fill this aching gap in your lives here is my top ten westerns of all time. Some people may disagree just like some people may vote for Brexit, take hot showers or eat chocolate that is less than 95% ...errare humanun est.

1. Once upon a time in the west - Sergio Leone - 1968
2. Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood - 1992
3. My name is nobody - Tonino Valerii - 1973
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - George Roy Hill -1969
5. The magnificent seven - John Sturges - 1960
6. High Noon - Fred Zinnemann - 1952
7. The wild bunch - Sam Peckinpah - 1969
8. The man who shot Liberty Valance - John Ford - 1962
9. Django unchained - Quentin Tarantino - 2012
10. The good, the bad and the ugly - Segio Leone - 1966

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 31: One Month

So I have been blogging for a month.  I must say it gets harder rather than easier.  You have to find the time, which is not always easy. Contrary to my Dad's blog which is a morning blog,  I do mine in the evening and sometimes it gets pushed back quite late. It takes between 30mins and 1 hour to choose a subject, write a blog and then re-read and edit it.  The hardest part is finding the theme of the day, as you may have noticed I like to include musings on life and the human condition with more mundane matters like  (sorry can't use that word as I'm trying to wean the teenagers in my family off it, much like genre in French) such as (much better) my menus, trips and work issues. If it's time consuming and difficult, I must be getting rewarded somehow.  My readership is (for now) quite limited, I seem to have 5-6 core readers even if one of my Blog days have reached close to 150 readers.  I do get comments, encouraging e-mails and an occasional chuckle from Fianna in the morning which is of course gratifying even if it is limited.  Would I stop blogging if nobody read it?  Or only one person ? probably not.  To be honest I am probably doing this entirely for myself.  Because I have set myself a challenge, and I am too stubborn to accept defeat.   It is the same "pleasure" as taking a cold shower, doing 4 minutes of plank or going for a 1hr run every morning (I'm not doing that last one by the way).  All of these things are decisions, nobody in their right mind would do them thinking they will find them pleasurable.  The common theme is that you can't try it out.  You have to decide to do it before starting.  If you try a cold shower why on earth would you do it again? Or if you try to to do a morning run you will not do it a second time.  And its the same with blogging.  I made a decision a month ago and now I'm stuck with it for at least another 11 months.

PS: Although we have come to the conclusion that this is personal mind exercise that is disconnected from my readership, don't stop reading, it does help and I have a personal goal of having been read at least once in every continent.  I'm thinking Antarctica may be the hardest. 

Day 355: Watch

I've always liked watches even as a teenager. My current watch was given to me by Fianna, I like the Milanese mesh bracelet and the minimalist design.  But I'm wondering what's the point of having a timepiece on your wrist in the 21st century. I'm often at my computer which displays the time permanently and I always have my smartphone with me which gives me the exact time instantly.  So in reality my watch is just an accessory like a hat or a tie.  Maybe I need a watch detox so that I can wear it occasionally rather then everyday?  In over 40 years I don't think there has ever been a time where I didn't wear a watch.  As this has been the year of breaking habits (even if only temporarily) I'm going to try going watch-less for a month.  Maybe after my detox I can then learn to have my watch on my right hand which is where I should wear it since I'm left handed.

PS: As an early warning I am now 10 blogposts away from the end of my Year of Blogging

Day 146: Track

Dinner Menu:

• Salade verte
• Flan aux courgettes
• Pêche au yaourt
• Carré de chocolat noir
• Badoit

For her birthday one of Fianna's friends gave her a fitbit tracker.  This is a small rubber bracelet which constantly monitors your activity. During the day it counts your steps, monitors your heart beat, your distance walked and your calories. At night it monitors your sleep and periods of wakefulness or unrest and it can wake you up at just the right time in your sleep cycle.  So now every morning I get a full report on my wife's night time activity (excluding any that I may have participated in).  Although in a previous blog I advocated tracking as a first step to improving things, I'm not sure that this is true of our sleep.  It seems to me that the information being produced is just something to worry about rather than a means to act.  If my wristband tells me that I slept 7h32m56s  and during that time I woke up 3 times and had 32m8s of restless sleep what am I supposed to do with that information? 

Day 204: Past

Dinner Menu:

• Salade de tomate et mozzarella buffala

This evening Fianna took me to the bar of the Lutetia as a surprise. This old parisian hotel has recently been completely renovated, but more importantly it's the place where Fianna and I had our "first date" to use American terminology.  The new bar is spacious and has a modern trendy feel to it.  The service is impeccable and we had a pleasant experience.  However, you can't compete with a memory.  Aside from the fact that we were in the process of falling in love which is a special time, I remember the old bar as being small, warm and cozy, feutré as we say in French.  The learning point from this experience is that we should never try to re-create the past.  Our memories should stay firmly in our minds to either fade or embellish over time.  Our time is so short we should create new memories rather than relive old ones.

Day 5: Homeless

Today I go up later than I like to on a Sunday.  I woke up at 7:30 but then fell back to sleep around 9 until 10 am!  I finally arose to a beautiful sunny day in Paris.  As I was drying myself after my cold shower (see this is the subliminal messaging I was talking about in my first blog) I was looking at the empty offices of the building on the other side of the street.

Those of you who have known me for a long time may remember that 15 years ago I helped a homeless woman get off the street and back into employment merely by providing her with shelter in the quite small attic room which we had in our building at the time.  (Don't worry this is not a self congratulatory piece about what a wonderful person I am).  I remember that she told me that just having a warm private space for the night without having to fear being robbed or molested, made all the difference to her state of mind and capacity to find work.

After some quick research, there are at least 5,000 homeless people in Paris. At the same time there is 18 million m2 of office space which by definition is empty every night and on weekends (see the link to my first paragraph?).  That's 3,600 m2 per homeless person even if 1% of that space was made available to homeless people at night and on the weekends that would be a generous 36m2 per person.  Having a roof over your head, access to a toilet and running water makes a huge difference to your physical state, to your hygiene and to your sense of belonging to humanity.  Is this such a crazy idea, I don't think so. Are there some practical difficulties, probably but none of them are insurmountable. Surely in the present environment where capitalism and business are seen as contributing to injustice in society this would be an ideal (and useful) PR exercise.  I suggest setting up the Bureau du Coeur (non French readers can look up Resto du Coeur an effort to bring surplus restaurant food to the homeless).

No menu today, however here is what we bought in our local "food stree" (the list is in french as we are talking about food):

Poissonnerie:

• Fillets de turbot
• Tarama maison
• Pave de saumon sauvage

Boucher:

• Osso buco
• Paté de lapin maison
• Saucisson aux truffes
• Chorizo piquant
• Jambon "kintao"

Fromager:

• Figou (chevre avec une figue à l l'interieur)
• Roquefort
• Tome de chevre au orties
• Gouda au truffes
• Mimolette
• Brie au poivre
• Crottin fermier
• Ravioles (fresh from the river - private joke for my children)

I think Fianna bought some vegetables and salad but I have no room left!

Day 190: Xmas Travel

Dinner Menu:

• "Daddy's pasta dish"
• Salade verte
• Eau pétillante (maison)

It's that time of the year where we have to start planning for Xmas.  Probably the only time in the year my family (excluding my wife) manages to plan ahead for something.  This year Samantha has kindly agreed to host us again in and around her village in the south west of France.  In previous years this would have entailed an 8-9 hour drive from Paris costing around 150€.  Now thanks to Fianna's Electric car it will take half the time.  As the Electric car is not practical for long trips we will take a TGV to Bordeaux (2hrs) and rent a car (1h30mins).  True this will probably cost more but think of the environmental and economic benefits.  A train journey saves a lot on CO2 emissions plus I will need to keep myself busy with a book or a film both of which are non polluting economic activities.  Everybody wins!  

Day 279 : Parenting

Diner Menu:

• Couscous aux merguez
• Yaourt de brebis et banane plantain
• Carré de chocolat noir 85%

As the parent of 2 children I have learned (the hard way) that parenting is much more of an art then an exact science.  However, I think there are some simple rules which make things easier both for the parent and for the child.  One rule that I have tried my best to live up to (probably with some lapses, I should check with Sasha and Louis) is:  Mean what you say and do what you say. What do I mean by that ?  I'm sure we have all come across parents who have difficulty in getting their message across to their children.  Go to bed, Clean up your room, Stop playing with that ball,  Do your homework etc...

At some point in the process a parent will often have to spell out the consequences of being ignored (no pocket money, no screen time, no telephone for a week, no going to a friend's house, etc...).  So once you have made the consequence clear you need to follow through : Do what you say!  I am always amazed at how many times I hear parents telling their children something and then not following through.  How is a child supposed to know when his or her parents mean something if there consequences are haphazard and completely random?  The necessary corollary to this is : Mean what you say!  If when you say something you will actually carry out then you must be sure that what you say is realistic and proportionate.  Never threaten things that your child knows will not happen (We'll go to grandma's house without you, you'll never have friend's over again, the cleaning lady will not clean you room anymore, etc).   

Every time you threaten something you lose a little bit of your authority, and every time you threaten something and don't follow through you lose even more.

Day 365 (bis) : End!

Well this is it.  After 365 days my blog is finally coming to an end.  I know there have been ups and downs, good and bad, controversial and bland, funny and depressing so I appreciate those of you who have managed to stay with me all this time.  My blog has been a great outlet but also a burden sometimes.  On average it has taken me 1 hour a day which, if you subtract 7hrs of sleep and 9hrs of work, represents 12.5% of my personal and family time (25% of my evening time).  My darling wife has been very understanding (even appreciative sometimes) but I think I need to increase my level of home interaction.  I have the feeling that I haven't managed  to convince a large following to take up cold showering or close their facebook accounts but I hope I have occasionally informed and provoked.

I would like to thank all of you who commented, sent me messages of encouragement, referred to me in their own blogs or just occasionally read it.

This blog has been made with 100% organic thoughts and is completely recyclable.  No animals were harmed in the process.  No slave or child labour was used in the production of this blog which is certified as 100% free of nationalism.

Just in case you were wondering the blog competition was won by my sister (hiding under the pseudonym of Aunt_C).  She therefore wins the right to takeover my blog for a year (you're welcome!  Ruben came in second thanks to a concerted effort in the last quarter and Julian Farod (10 retroactive points to the first one to tell me who that is) came in third after being in the lead for the whole of the 3rd quarter.