The week that was

The smiles of the week: a delicious Argentinean steak dinner with an old Belgian friend (made even better by the fact that he didn’t ruin the hand cut chips by putting mayonnaise on them); a horse that continues to go well; a wife that continues to be delightful to be with; and professionally, a meeting with a company (and the partner) who I had actually turned down a job offer from a few years ago – the welcome was genuinely warm and it was nice to see him again.

The stats of the week: I was reminded that Barack Obama earns 400,000 USD a year – a snip compared to that of the Singaporean leader (http://www.economist.com/node/21542479); that Ronaldo does 3,000 sit-ups a day (puts my New Year's resolution to shame), that S&P downgraded France and Austria to AA+ as well as downgrading 7 other countries. The pound climbed one centime as a result (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204542404577158561838264378.html); and that during a memorable bonding moment with Gaston, he completed his first “10 yoghurt marathon” with his Dad – a proud moment indeed.

The moments of despair: The overriding feeling at work of why, if what we do is not very complicated (understand a client’s problem, sell him a project, deliver the project), is everything so dastardly complex – sales, delivery, operations, rewarding our people. Surely there must be a better way to do things…

The “oh no” moment of the week: when Sandie picked up Maxime from school at lunch time to find him, with an accomplice, punching a little girl and then sticking the boot in as she fell off the wall. Sandie was, quite rightly, outraged and Maxime was punished accordingly. When interrogated as to why he had committed such a heinous act, he twisted his face in near confusion trying to understand why his mother was asking such a stupid question, “well…because she’s a girl of course”, was his retort. Thankfully the teaching assistant was more sanguine, saying that this type of thing was not uncommon at their age. I now understand why France has never had a female president – almost a reason to vote for Marine Le Pen (not quite, quand même).