Friday 30th November, 2012

Well, its been a while. Sorry about that. I was ill last Friday. Wasn't at all pretty. I blame the minestrone soup I picked up from Pret A Manger on Thursday afternoon. Still, better now and I have survived, relatively unscathed, a week that included our office Christmas party. I was on best behaviour for that. There have been too many unfortunate scenes on past such occasions. The last one I recall I ended up having to excuse myself from my desk and spent almost half a day lying shivering on a bench on the walkway by the Thames in front of Nomura's office. Truth be told, although a little more circumspect these days, I was also slightly sulking this time as my proposed venue for our bash ( Le Rendezvous, obviously ) was voted down in a secret (rigged obviously) ballot and we ended in some very lame gastro-pub near Victoria Station. Ever with a mind to delivering value-added in these emails of mine I might tell you that if you make use of Lastminute Top Secret hotels facility and are looking for somewhere to stay near Victoria be careful you don't end up at Tophams Hotel on Ebury Street. I was feeling quite pleased with myself at having got a booking there because it was just 100 yards from where we were having dinner however my room was in the basement, smelt like a sewer and the bed was a fold out sofa. What a dump. I just remembered the strangest thing that happened to me that evening.....in the middle of dinner my phone buzzed in my pocket. A text from Hen: In history were the jewish people awful to the arabs or have I got that all wrong? x I never did get to the bottom of that one. There's a story there somewhere I suspect but I was already four or five glasses of red the wrong side of caring. Don't get the wrong idea of how I have spent this afternoon, but I thought I would share with you an educational website that was sent me by a friend of mine. Improve your French, your mouse-control skills and test your knowledge of global locations. http://www.tv5.org/cms/chaine-francophone/jeunesse/p-14809-Cartoquiz.htm And if you can beat my score of 321,459 points.....well, respect. But you will not be able to.... PS Nice cartoon in this weeks Spectator. A man in a chair at the optician. " The recession is finally over and my bishop is a woman " he reads off the board in front of him. To which the optician remarks "Well, I'd say you've got 2020 vision"