Choices

Yesterday I went to pay the deposit for my teams Christmas lunch. Where we are going is just round the corner from where G works so we met up and had a stroll and a chat, which was a really pleasant way to spend my lunch break. Despite the rain. It did seem to stress the restaurant that I wanted to pay the deposit though, as the manager was off dealing with an ‘emergency’ and everybody else seemed too scared to touch the computer system. I did finally manage to get them to take the money, but they did huff and puff a bit. Who would have thought that it would be so difficult to convince a restaurant to take your money?

I then asked colleagues to say what they would ant for each course of the meal and one person, who claims she isn’t a fussy eater, had to have every item described to her in detail so that she could see if there was something she didn’t like in it. It turns out she won’t eat raw salmon, doesn’t like tomatoes, won’t eat anything that might have been friend. You get the idea. This is the same person who said that wherever we picked would be fine with her – but then when I ran through a list it turned out she won’t eat Chinese, Indian, fish and chips, Mexican, Spanish... Again… you get the drift. She is a really nice person, just possibly not very self-aware.

Since I read War and Peace I have lost a bit of my enthusiasm for reading. I think it might in part be because it is quite difficult to think of a book to flow on from that with (and might explain why one of the book’s I am reading a children’s book!). A book I am reading at the moment though is “Fooled by Randomness”, which basically looks at whether we too easily see patterns that we think can predict the future, including in the money markets etc. We also draw assumptions because we basically see the past as a really key determining factor of the future, but often we base this on flawed data or just not enough of it or assume that because that is what happened in the past that it will therefore happen again. It’s an interesting read, although it would be an easier read if I knew more about the money markets. He does kind of argue for a simpler and less complex life though and I am interested in his take on that (but he is somewhat arrogant and kind of rambling though…). Anyway, there was a quote in it that struck me:

“I was at the age when one felt like one needed to read everything, which prevented me from making contemplative stops”

Sometimes I think I need to take more time to let the things that I have read sink in...