• Stillness on the water, the gradients and horizontal lines of the sky, blue tinged with yellow. The paddle-boarders calmly navigating the concrete columns of the pier. The crunch of our feet on the pebbles as we made our way back down the beach for one last time in Deal. The end of a proper easter break. Then back through to London.
• I said goodbye to my mum, the kids and Lizzy at St Pancras. And scooched through the capital, a quick ring around Tottenham and then onto the Elizabeth line to Heathrow. Catching a plane flight to the Busuu Madrid office.
• Spent a while looking for the where the Stewart Lee quote was from that Alice wrote about in last weeks weeknotes, it was from the Louis Theroux podcast.
• In Madrid, I opted for a hotel I’ve written about before. With mad see-through lifts and huge hangar-like space between the floors.
• One of the fun quirks of the Busuu office in Madrid is that it has two bathroom doors that open onto the same hallway. Meaning you get a choice about which door to use. I’m a left-door guy.
• AI will make your team faster, but will also create the need for 90 minute meetings with 10 executives to review the 19 page document it generated in 10 seconds.
• Sometimes people aren’t available for the evenings in the time you’re at the Madrid office. This means you have to eat alone. When eating alone it’s good to choose the places that make it feel like you’re not alone; Bar seating is good as you can chat to the staff, Canteen style tables make you feel like you’re only one seat away from potential friends. One night I ran to an upmarket burger joint and chatted to the doorman about not wanting to come inside because of the running sweat.
• Flight back I was sat next to a lovely mum/son family while I weeped reading the last few chapters of Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
• Goes without saying that Lizzy did the heavy-lifting this week taking all three kids to the north to stay with her parents. And she’s mentioned she is looking for a lot of praise in this weeks weeknotes.
• Back in London we spent a great day seeing friends (Hi Chris!) and playing cricket in the park. The middle kid admitting to me at bedtime that she “found the space game boring” and “I just like Cricket…”
• And we spent a good 10 minutes as a family all trying to dance to Angine De Poitrine.