Self Fulfilling Prophecies

It is my firm belief that as you get older your personality doesn't change. In fact your personality traits become more and more pronounced. Linked to this is my realisation that you also spend more and more time finding reasons or examples of things that justify your instinctive positions or beliefs, sort of "marking your own homework" or "reverse causality" if you like.

I have a tendency to be very open with people – rightly or wrongly, I rarely play my cards close to my chest. However this is not because I am some sort of goody two shoes, it is more to do with the fact that I am extremely forgetful. Lying and giving half truths requires a great deal more effort than being open – I am really no good at remembering what I told who when. Furthermore being an economist by background I am very aware of information asymmetry so I much prefer to give everyone the same data!

As such, I am glad to see that this RFP, which has been run on the basis of concealing information and only releasing data to certain people at certain times, is not going as smoothly as one might hope. Apart from feeling hopelessly tired and exasperated, I also feel happy because this experience has taught me that trying to remember at 1AM in the morning why you only told one senior executive about one change and not another change, and why another senior executive has different information, well, it’s just a bit of a mess really. 48 hours to go and counting, although my bank holiday weekend is looking in grave danger……I need to get to bed. Goodnight campers.

Hobnobbing with the stars

I feared the worst as I reluctantly dragged myself from my bed this morning to go to the airport for the final week of this RFP. Imagine then my surprise then when my journey was punctuated with a very pleasant 1 hour and 15 minutes travelling in the company of Francois Bayrou. For those of you who don't know him, he's the French equivalent of the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg (who he was actually going to meet). He was a very pleasant chap who is famous in France for breeding race horses. No surprises for guessing that our conversation focused on equine rather than political subjects as we took the Stansted Express into London (both travelling in second class I'll have you note). For those of you not up on French politics here's a link...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francois_Bayrou. It's a funny old world. Needless to say my little ray of sunshine was thoroughly rained away as soon as I stepped over the Old Bailey threshold.....another late finish as my hotel bed beckons.....

The Final Countdown

Those of you who know me well know that there is little in life that can sap my will to live. Unfortunately the RFP I am currently working is doing just that. Thankfully in the words of the great Swedish rock band Europe, it's the Final Countdown. We need to get the submission ready for Friday and then I will definitely be looking for other things to do. It's been a thoroughly unenjoyable experience but I've learned a lot about how not to do things - there you go, looking on the bright side already! Anyway, "bon courage" for the new week as my French friends would say - I think I am going to need it....

Mad as a box of frogs

I'm all for exercise but I think I would rather spoon my eyes out rather than be a London cyclist....this is largely because I think it is a fate that has already been meted out to most Black Cab drivers....as I criss-crossed London yesterday I was astounded that my taxi didn't kill anyone as my driver juggled no less than three different pairs of spectacles at high speed (sun, reading and normal). I always enjoy coming to London although I think I must spend too much time in the countryside in the weekend because I am always astounded by the noise and pollution. On the other hand, I have to say that given the choice I would like to be able to "enjoy" the smog a bit more at the minute - we are working ridiculously hard and there is little of it about when we get out of the office around midnight.....but before I get back up on my soapbox I'd best get my nose back to the grindstone.....

Teacher's Note: Must do better

I have to say I am a bit angry with myself. I've managed to get through the whole winter without a cough or a sniffle but today I feel physically awful. I have a runny nose, I'm bunged up and whilst I slept overnight someone has quietly inserted a razorblade into my throat making swallowing a joy. Working a week of 17 hour days back to back and not being able to go for my morning run is definitely not the right work life balance for me. What is more frustrating is that it could all be so different (see posting from earlier in the week). At least the sun is shining this weekend and I'll get out and ride some horses tomorrow. That should hopefully help bring things back into kilter.

Apart from that, the good news is that there still seem to be a steady flow of opportunities coming our way and the bench is down to around 11% so that's all very pleasing. Once I get over this hump at the end of the month things will hopefully return to normal. I can then start to spend the time required on some other bits and pieces - there's even a nice little data migration opportunity in Paris which sort of tickles my fancy for some strange reason. More anon....

Let the Dog see the Rabbit

It's been a frustrating couple of days with some sickeningly long hours. We're working on an RFP response for a C&HT client and what it's taught me is that what looks like being a very well run affair can actually be stifling in terms of excessive interruptions and status meetings. Doing the actual work takes second place to jumping through hoops and meeting artificial internal deadlines. Trying to grab an hour here or 30 minutes there is not the way to think through or design a solution and even less of a reliable technique for writing a coherent response document.

Thankfully things are looking better today and we are moving ahead. There you go, moan over. Well not quite actually. When going down to the canteen for lunch in OB, I was accosted by an excessively sun tanned young man offering me sweets. My 18 months in Belgian has taught me to be wary of such people, but basically he wanted to tell me about our great new desk booking policy. Personally I think it is another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy and more of a pain than anything else. Needless to say we didn't agree on this point. We disputed the point until I was sick of chocolate (3 sweets) and then I left. On reflection I think I owe my willingness to openly whinge to complete strangers to my French wife. 7 years ago I would never have thought about doing such a thing (although I would probably have still taken the chocolate albeit more sheepishly). Such whingeing is just not British, stiff upper lip and all that. Anyway, I suspect I need to watch this developing characteristic for fear of being labelled a hot head in mild mannered Britain.

My slightly ruffled feathers were smoothed thanks to a lovely lunch with 4 AIMS colleagues - Gana Bhat, Vikas Sindwani, Sai Chin Li and Andrea Sulzenbacher. They really are a nice bunch! You really are a nice little group all in all.

Watership Down all over again....

I wouldn't like to be a chocolate Easter Bunny at this time of the year. After not having eaten chocolate for 6 weeks during the period of Lent, I am now on the warpath and ready to devour any little cocoa/furry animal as of tomorrow, Easter Sunday. Happy Easter to you all and enjoy the time with your families - I know I am going to be savouring every minute of my chocolate induced indigestion.
STOP PRESS: One other piece of great news is a new baby in the group - Duncan Slater's wife has delivered a fine specimen yesterday called William James Stewart. Congratulations to the Slater family!