Dear friends & family,
2018 was another EVENTFUL year for our family. THERE WERE many changes, pages being turned, and new adventures beginning.
Alice is 18
Alice, turned 18 this year - which we celebrated with one of Laurent’s special gâteau marbré - and graduated from high school with high honours at the French Bac. After some trepidation, she was offered a place at Exeter University to study Medicine. This happened at the speed of light...and we are all getting used to our new separate lives, in London, Exeter and Canterbury.
We celebrated Thomas’ 20th Birthday in August. Thomas continues his journey STUDYIng Anthropology at the University of Kent, digesting books and research papers.
Thomas is 20
Last summer, Thomas did a trip on his own in Central Europe exploring Budapest, Prague and Bohemian Switzerland and caught the travelling bug.HE enjoyed attending a conversation between Yuval NOAH Harari AND Natalie Portman in London in September. Thomas is also perfecting his cooking, which his Canterbury house-mates seem to enjoy (and we do toO!).
For LAURENT AND I, 2018 was the year of our 20th wedding anniversary, which we celebrated in Amsterdam. Laurent continued his exciting journey as CIO of Eurostar. Eurostar launched new trains and added a route to Amsterdam this year, which we tested. In his free time, LAURENT CONTINUES TO love to read about technology, philosophy and the world, bake beautiful breads and enjoys going out in the many THEATRES, museums and venues London & EUROPE has to offer.
I left TES Global at the end of 2017, worked on my ellpha project with my friend Stephanie (CEO of ellpha). We have launched both a charity and a social enterprise AND developed a working prototype of our Bias Detection Engine. we also recruited GREAT friends and supporters who share our vision, and have prospects who ARE INterested in testing our solution. We also attended TED Women in NOVEMBER.
I joined Amazon at the end of February, to head the UK Books vertical, and I am immersing myself in the complex Amazon playbook and peculiar culture. And when things get a little intense - they do - I reframe my experience as an incredible learning journey (and yes, I love books in all FORmS!).
View from our new home Terrace, 80 Tennyson Road, NW6 7SB London
We also moved home this summer and are now LIVING in Queen’s Park, in a small house overlooking the poetic Paddington Cemetery. We love our new home and neighborhood (BuT MISS OUR LOVELY COMPAYne GARDenS NeiGHBoRS).
We managed to squeeze in our busy year a family holiday in Indonesia, exploring Java and Bali, visiting fabulous temples and doing, like every year, some diving together. We loved our time in Indonesia and are saddened by the recent natural disasters and suffering following the earthquakes and tsunamiS.
Bali, August 2018
As we are sharing our 2018 highlights, the planet is getting warmer, Brexit is pure chaos, Macron is falling from his piedestal and Trump is still the improbable President of the United States...
Happy 2019 - Bonnee Annee 2019
