A funny day today - before breakfast I had a call from a client in the UK 99% certain in confirming that I had won a new contract with him (his actual description was "it is more sure than Brexit"), but that it would take a bit of time to sort out the paperwork. Now contracts have been given out by HM Government recently for millions of pounds without the level of due diligence required for this bit of work, which amounts to about £8,000 over two years. Still, every small victory has to be celebrated, and it was a weight off my mind.
So armed with that knowledge, I headed for the market at la Flèche for all sorts of goodies, but rushed around a bit rather than taking my time and enjoying the scene as I needed to get to the office supplies and copy shop to get the Christmas cards printed. Last year it was so easy - here is the computer, insert your USB stick, select the file you want to print, do a test print, buy a ream of expensive heavy paper, put about 50 sheets in the printer tray, decide how many you want and hit go. All done by me. I got to keep the rest of the ream of heavy paper, which doesn't work in our printers, to use "next year". Back I go today with my trusty USB key, the rest of my expensive ream of paper and a light heart, only to be told I would have to send the file by email, had to buy a new ream of paper, and to book a time to come to collect my prints. As they also didn't have the required envelopes and printer labels, I left with what I went in with and a problem still to be solved. So much for using local businesses (although it turns out they are big enough to sponsor a boat in the Vendée Globe race, so not that needy)!
This image is actually pretty relevant, as for the first time in about 13 years, I have had some sort of office Christmas party! OK it was actually a professional society special interest group Christmas do, but that's the nearest I get nowadays. There were games and competitions, including a scavenger hunt, all done by Zoom and hosted by the 2019 Most Interesting Mathematician (she kept her title in 2020, as they couldn't run the competition).
Since then I have been stung by a hornet that was trying to hibernate in my office, so I'm not very happy and typing with one finger. Here is a pretty view to round off the post.
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