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The world of work and the World Cup

SW6 — It’s been a really great World Cup. I am watching it with some South Africans. They were the ones saying it might be a train-crash of a tournament. And now they’re proud.

And they’re suddenly feeling quite Dutch too.

Here are 5 things I have learned that also translate into the workplace:

1. The [...]

The future arrived this week

BELGRAVIA — It’s sometimes worth pushing your chair back and having a moment to think.

What do you make of this picture (above)?

It’s from this week’s media and is a photo of the Argentina football team coming home.

I love it for all that is obvious about it. And also all that is incredibly weird about it. [...]

PICCADILLY CIRCUS — There’s a nicely dressed lady sitting in front of me on the bus – hair done, Dolce glasses. And she keeps falling asleep. It’s 7:50 am. And she’s on her way to work like the rest of us.

I am nervous for her neck, which keeps snapping. We don’t have the natural dexterity [...]

“Mirror, mirror on the wall…”

PARSONS GREEN — There’s a lady in a business suit sitting reading The Guardian. The Media Guardian is tossed on the bench beside her. Untouched.

It’s maybe symptomatic of a larger issue. And then again maybe I am just getting old. [Cue rant.] Why do the media need sections dedicated to… the media?

I find myself hanging [...]

A blog, for you?

OXFORD STREET — At my local Starbucks everyone this morning was ending their sentences with “…for you.” I think if I worked there I’d start doing it too. It’s a cross over from a number of European languages that add the possessive to sentences for emphasis.

We don’t really do it English so much.

Except we do [...]

Things that made us smile this week:

• Zoe Renault sues Renault over their new green car, the Zoe

• The quirkiest names on the high street: A Salt and Battery (a chippy), Curl Up and Dye (hair house) are amongst our favourites. And we should know.

• Jose Mourinho – we don’t know why, he just does

• Learning how to create artificial life

• [...]

“Shout abuse and run away.”

HOME — I’ve had a bit of an epiphany. Again. I realised that there may be another defining national characteristic that I hadn’t really understood.

I used to think that the national flag of the United Kingdom ought to be this:

Instead of this:

But maybe the one at the top of this post is even better?

In the [...]

London cyclists: We need a voluntary code

SPRINGFIELD — I don’t like being told what to do. My wife says that anyway.

But when I am on 2 wheels and fighting my way through London streets, I have that Canadian instinct for accommodation. I won’t put myself or anyone else into any peril. So I am constantly surprised when I get told off. [...]

“Free beer, or we’re outta here!” the new rules of work

A&H HQ — This is too much fun. Workers at Carlsberg have gone on strike because they have lost their right to drink free beer ALL DAY.

To be clear, they will still get free beer at lunch.

There is a business policy about not being drunk at work, they explain, etc.

I used to work in a [...]

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