June is here, the best month of the year! And a new record at the horizon: we’ll be returning yet again to the cottage the upcoming weekend, it’ll be the seventh time over the last eight weekends! With May behind, I also hope that all my coughing, headaches and other physical annoyances will stay behind me. Just like last year I struggled a fair bit and had to pause any physical activity for weeks. Restart is today, with the heat wave behind us I hope to get a grip again on fitness. The cycling weekend in the Auvergne with the Gleïzes brothers is approaching, while my 48 hours Burgundy loop moved back into “a crazy idea” state. Back to work, beta.gouv is driving my days with loads of janitor work on the Lucca application. This week will be my last with TopScore, while the Indian software shop NexTurn seems to do its best to step into Mike’s, Wojtek’s and my shoes it just seems that they’re way too big for them. Time will tell, but chaos seems unavoidable. Good luck to the communities, which I served starting with FFindr back in 2007 and which will have to do without me once again. It was a pleasure, and I’m going to miss the Ultimate Central world almost as much as my TopScore colleagues!

Ciao Torino! Already back on Frecciarossa from our four day weekend trip to this uncharted Italian city. With the big kids at home, Mathilde and I only had to deal with Effi aka Topolina, which was quite a heavy lift by itself. I cannot remember when I last slept through the entire night, and she’s specially tough on sleeping when away from home. Anyway, away from home it was and we had a good time nevertheless discovering Torino. Hosted by a true Airbnb and a perfect host Didie, we started all our four days at the same infinitely delicious place to get a coffee and some Italian sweets for breakfast. The Torino Exposed photo festival happened to be on, guiding us to some worthwhile exhibitions. The Fiat car test track on the top of the Lingotto building was probably the most stunning, combining industrial culture with some art and breathtaking views on the snowy Alps. Public transporting back and forth, enjoying ice cream here and there, watching the highlights of the ongoing Giro at night, and being worn out by Topolina’s infinite energy. Good days, good memories nevertheless. It’s Italy, impossible to not enjoy yourself here.

Back from a week of summer-like vacation in Mopertüllingen! Vacation? Not really! Much had to be done to finish all work in the former Siebenschläferzimmer. In the meanwhile, Dad finished insulation in the TT-Room, which concludes all roof-related work some three years after it has been fully redone. I’m just as done as the work, good that an easy and short work week is ahead. We’ll be back at the cottage on Thursday night, the May madness of long and longer weekends has started. Bernie the cat now fully moved to the countryside, we built her a tiny house with an automatic feeder, as well as a smart flap to do the bouncer work.

Now in Pantin I can focus on transitioning my job from TopScore to another meaningful project that got confirmed last week: fighting cabanisation with French beta.gouv.fr, which is building public service’s services! Maybe this way I can help fixing some of the problems that cause pain and frustration and damage faith in the state and thus democracy. Just like the devastating issue I had with the tax authorities.

I’m spending a day at Station F with former BlaBlaColleague Anne-Laure, who’s currently building an AI-powered skills assessment and career coach platform. In the meanwhile I’m dealing with a few issues (my Paris apartment is causing maintenance headaches; TopScore is being dismantled by its owner) and have had some good moments (an Easter weekend in Lorient with Mathilde & Effi; cycling to and from Maupertuis with Nicoko under summer sun in two days; finally receiving the reimbursement of a heap of wrongfully claimed tax money by dysfunctional administrations after 5+ months of hassle). The impactful and nasty doings of TopScore’s owner Fullsteam also forced me into job hunt mode, which already lead to a handful of interviews. Things are moving fast, almost too fast. But at least they’re moving.

TopScore Retreat is on! I’m back in the US despite all the mess that’s currently going on. My fresh new passport works as expected, and the father-son road and train trip to and fro Neustadt to fetch it was much fun. It’s a special retreat, for two reasons: firstly, Liam is not part of the show for the first time in its history or almost, and despite running the retreat in his hometown, he unfortunately couldn’t join. Secondly, and sadly, it might actually be the last: the continued complexity that’s being added to basically everything by owner Fullsteam is making everybody’s work-life a challenge. So it’s now only seven of us to retreat to a house in Jersey City’s The Heights, not the best house nor the best area but it checks all the boxes. We started with a weekend and some fun city activities, all connected to strolling through Manhatten. Icecream, scavenger hunt, food, Washington Square and Central Park, we did it all or almost. We managed to meet Liam in his fancy Manhatten apartment and keep working and cooking away all day.