My last bit of travel for the year was to the UK, ostensibly to have internal discussions and a holiday meal, but it turned out to be a really good opportunity to build on our strong relationship with UCL.
The weekend before - still in November! - I was able to kick off the snowboarding season with a sneaky trip up to the Alps.
The slopes were really decent for this early in the season. I did get caught out at one point by the slopes having a different topology than usual: it's somewhere I go so regularly that I could almost snowboard down the slopes blindfolded, when in their normal state, but sometimes at the beginning of the season things haven't quite settled. Thankfully not a major fall, just a good wakeup call.
In the evening I walked Daisy (our cocker spaniel) by the lake before heading to my daughter's concert.
My daughter is in a couple of rock bands - one with her music school and the other with friends she met there. There was a special evening to raise funds for the school at the iconic Case à Chocs in Neuchatel, so she ended up performing twice, back-to-back, as well! In total her two groups performed 20 songs… it was quite the set. And this was after having been in bed with the flu for 3 days, so I couldn't have been more proud of how she managed.
On the first Monday of December I headed to Geneva to take my flight to Heathrow.
On arrival I took the Elizabeth Line out to Slough, where I met with an old friend and a sibling for dinner.
The next morning I was back at Slough Station to take the train the other way into the city centre.
It's a straight shot from Slough to Tottenham Court Road, where it's then a very pleasant walk along Charing Cross Road to get to our Covent Garden office.
On the Tuesday we met as a research team for our Christmas lunch at Wagamama's, and I then ended up in a solid block of back-to-back meetings for the rest of the afternoon.
There's a new pub across from the office called The Stranded. It's not the most pleasant environment, but it's a) really handy and b) the beer is only modestly over-priced.
We had a lot of fun hearing about the "world's best beach" from Allin. Which is, would you believe… in Scotland. I kid you not.
Allin, Tomas and I ended up grabbing fish 'n' chips nearby. As you have to.
The next morning Tomas I walked along the Thames to get some breakfast.
It was a good way to start the day.
Our Wednesday was very much focused on UCL: in the morning we met with Hugo Spiers and Fiona Zisch, in the afternoon we met with Sean Hanna.
After a long but productive work day, Dagmara took us to a nearby Chinese restaurant to eat some delicious dumplings.
On the way back our Airbnb, Tomas and I stopped off at the Marquis - a Covent Garden institution - where these was an excellent concert by Laurie Wright. He has an amazing voice, and it was a real pleasure to hear someone with such raw vocal talent backed only by an under-tuned piano. Quite the experience!
Our Airbnb was right next-door to the Princess of Wales pub by Charing Cross Station. So we had to stop off for one last beer and to learn the rules of cricket. Well, Tomas was learning, I was doing my best to explain… much like a discussion I had many moons ago with Jim Quanci.
Thursday morning was a chance to catch up with Simon Bee, who joined Research from the Tandem team a few months ago and took the time to travel down from Sheffield to meet with Tomas (and say Hi to me).
Afterwards I went back to Tottenham Court Road to catch the tube back to Heathrow. The immersive display by the station is appropriately festive.
On the Friday I had another busy work day - with an important technology share-out to our divisional leadership - but afterwards I could head to the mountains to meet with Haley Bruinwood - a colleague from the US - and her husband, who were stopping over after a week in Barcelona.
I only stayed for the Saturday - in any case on the Sunday it was due to rain - as I wanted to hear my daughter sing again, this time in the Red Church in Neuchatel.
It was a very different context to the previous concert - this time a candle-lit choir singing Orthodox hymns in various Eastern languages - and it was, quite simply, magical.
I'm now definitely very much in the holiday spirit: the tree is decorated, the Zoom background is updated… 😉
I recently invested in some Hue Festavia "smart" fairylights, which can change colour according to music or even the TV. I do like them, though.
I'm gradually winding down now - after this week I should be able to spend even more time in the mountains, all being well. In case you don't hear from me beforehand, I wish you all a wonderful, festive break, assuming you celebrate at this time of year.
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