Quiet as a Skinny Church Mouse

I have just managed to complete a second week working from home. Having a small period of quiet after a busy start to 2011 has really helped get things back on an even keel. It’s been fun to be able to do my work but also spend time with the family and also Pich. Next week looks like it might be more of the same before I start travelling with a trip to Zurich towards the end of the month. On the other hand I am missing the fine food of some of the restaurants where I normally go – eating Maxime’s leftovers, soggy half eaten biscuits and cold spinach really doesn’t compare. That plus the fact that it’s Lent (meaning a self imposed embargo of chocolate and fresh milk) mean that I suspect I’ll be one skinny church mouse in six weeks time; either that or my Saturday trips to McDonalds with Maxime need to be a bit naughtier...

Like a Grown Up

I was proud of myself this week. Despite 2 piles (of un-read books next to my bed) good, 3 piles bad, the lure of the Amazon was too great and I purchased another book online. I wasn’t proud of that compulsion to flex the plastic, but I was proud of the fact that I read the book within 5 days of it dropping into my mail box. I am obviously overlooking the fact that it was a pocket sized little thing which was only 88 pages long and used large font. All in all I found the “Xenophobe’s guide to the Swiss” a most enjoyable read. I’m almost looking forward to going back to Zurich in a couple of weeks now that I feel like a responsible adult who reads the books he purchases online.

A Whole New Dummy

One of the books I read recently was A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. I found it particularly interesting. Basically it contends that we are moving out of the information age and into the conceptual age. No longer is analytical, procedural, “left -brain thinking” key because all of this type of work can be done offshore and by computers. In the future the key skills that are going to be important are those that are managed by the right hand side of the brain. The top 6 skills that we need to develop are storytelling, playing, design, infusing meaning into things, providing symphony (basically providing clear overviews of things) and being able to empathise with others.

Empathy, an interesting one. Daniel Pink convincingly suggests that the inability to “offshore those jobs that require high levels of empathy” is the reason why we will always have doctors and nurses close at hand. Maybe then I should be reassured by the events of last night when Maxime, who never had a dummy when he was a baby himself, happily took himself off to bed with Gaston’s dummy firmly between his teeth. Rather than walking in your customer’s shoes, Maxime is obviously trying to walk in Gaston’s booties. I now obviously feel quite confident that life is going to work out just fine for him, even despite Delphine from the crèche suggesting that he’s hyperactive.

Mucky, Naughty Saturday in Bangalore

Yesterday Maxime and I had one of what my Dad calls “Naughty Saturdays”. We headed off to the stables relatively early; in fact he had woken up at the crack of dawn exclaiming that the sun was no longer sleeping and that he was a “happy boy”, so that obviously meant it was time for action. On our way there Maxime was easily placated with his little Makka soft toy (http://www.flickr.com/photos/techstyle/1151945401/ for the uninitiated) and a large plastic plane. Makka was carefully stuffed into the plane with one arm popping out of one window and a leg squeezing out of another on the opposite side, so I naturally asked Maxime where he was headed. I thought maybe Paris, Zurich, London or Barcelona – some of Papa’s regular destinations. The answer was no, although there was a resounding “oooooooooui!” from the back of the car when I asked whether or not Makka was going to Bangalore. I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew then that I would be left in peace for the next 8 hours and 45 minutes.

On our way back from the stables we stopped at McDonalds. It was there that I realised both that Maxime is a true O’Brien, and that I am getting a bit cannier with him. After he had successfully polished off 6 chicken nuggets (Happy Meals only provide 4 so he naturally had to have 2 of mine), I asked him for a chip. He made a conscious effort to find the smallest chip in the packet....and then broke it in half. It became quite clear that young Maxime will never die of hunger. My revenge was sweet however because like a shamed celebrity with a blanket over their head, I managed to whisk him out the back door of the establishment and into the car so he didn’t see the soft play area. The only difference was that rather than a blanket, I used some stewed apples to convince him that he wasn’t being duped in any way.

On our return to Biarritz I picked up my new Clark Kent Superman like glasses which Maxime found a bit funny but Sandie seemed to like (after a couple of servings of Martini). Unfortunately the glasses did not convey the super powers I needed to remain calm when at 5PM, only 2 hours before we had 20 people turning up at the house for a dinner party, Maxime decided to spill a tin of white paint just outside the front door. He was duly dispatched to his Mamie’s house where he was quickly exchanged for a bottle of white spirit. I then spent the next hour scrubbing concrete with a wire brush. Thankfully everything ended well and we managed to get everything done in time and Maxime was even dressed up in his knight’s amour and sword to greet everyone with a welcoming prod.

Today Sandie is currently having some girlie time with a friend whilst I try and manage the three at home. Maxime has just decided to take off his trousers and nappy so I’d best go and deal with that before we end up with a mucky Sunday as well.

Message to Wife

Wife, you may well be sleeping now, but if you’re up in the middle of the night to feed the children, could you please remember to remove their dirty nappies from the sink in the bathroom? I am quite happy if you want to re-establish your “temporary bin in the bathroom” system that you started a couple of days ago – that was a good innovation on your part. Please respect the sink. Thanks. Husband

Halcyon Days

I’ve always been an early riser and Sunday is the day when I don’t shave or wear my contact lens. For the rest of my life routine and organisation is the key to getting stuff done. So imagine my surprise to conclude that I’ve been really quite efficient today despite being unwashed and in pyjamas till 4PM in the afternoon. Remarkable. It feels like being a student again, or at least what being a student should have been like if I hadn’t been getting up at the crack of dawn to do my football training outside Dominic's bedroom window before settling down to a day of work at 9AM each week day morning. Ah, that takes me back.

The Perfect Procrastinator

I blame myself for underestimating him, but I just didn’t believe that someone so young could be so devious in his efforts to avoid going to bed. This is little Maxime’s bag of tricks to stay up late.... (1) watch Makka Pakka, Upsy Daisy and Iggle Piggle on the TV in the night garden – nothing happens before this is finished, (2) prod his brother and sister to make them cry to distract attention away from himself, (3) quietly hide in his brother and sister’s playpen by slithering under various large toys, (4) insist on speaking to Papy John and Mamy Moiw on Skype, (5) insist on going to his bedroom using his little horse shaped bike (much slower than walking), (6) insist that every single one of his eight favourite soft toys are present in his bed, including of course those that he has hidden around the house, (7) insist that he has a drink of water, and finally (8), insist that both mum and dad sing “bah bah black sheep”, together, and individually, (thankfully for Sandie he makes no stipulation about us singing in tune). It’s funny, but all that seems to be worth it when you hear him say “night-night” in his high pitched little voice; although going forward I think we are going to have to start putting him to bed shortly after he gets up following his afternoon nap.