July 4th, Independance Day! I just returned from a nice dinner at Vincelottes with my American friends David, Kelsey, Verena and Russel, who returned once again to Mailly for some days in the country. I joined them for half a day and will be returning to Pantin tomorrow, but it was worth it! The rainwater recovery is connected and working like a charm, the irrigation system configured and working, and the greenhouse is basically done (thanks for Flo, who set the entire structure up last weekend with the help of Max and myself). I’ll be back next week with Mathilde and Effi to stay longer, and enjoy even more my favorite place.

First sunburn of the year! A beautifully hot weekend at the cottage with quite some rain-water-recovery-work plus a full kayak loop with Effi along our favorite water route overexposed me to this ultraviolet radiation. Alongside my poor skin it hopefully radiated my long-COVID-or-whatsoever away, I’m struggling since the beginning of May with health issues. Everything but decent breathing is back to normal, or almost. I even managed to go for a slow jog last week, hopefully to be repeated this week. The next weekend will be cottage again, this time I’ll bring Florian and the kids to tackle the setup of the garden greenhouse, install the new irrigation system and connect it to the rain water pipes. Monday morning nine fifty, it’s time to start working.

Tuesday morning nine o’ five, and I am sitting in the sun on the veranda of a beautiful cottage somewhere in the North East of Poland. Two cats are begging for attention (and probably food) and despite a solid sleep I still feel somewhat jet lagged. The weekend was a blast, intense though with never-stopping and early bird Effi but also with everything-managing Mathilde on my side. Delicious breakfasts, endless walks and a climb on top of the Pałac Kultury to first take a look at the new museum of modern art from above, followed by a visit from the inside (with colleague Mike who joined the party). Warsaw changed a fair bit, I haven’t been in town for over seven years and it’s transformation to an ever more modern city kept going. Still vibrant, still great to explore. Family is now back home and the next days will be in TopScore mode for our first ever developer retreat. Wojtek got his fancy Volvo back on time, both brought us safe and quick to our destination. It’s now time to start the week.

I just filed my annual tax declaration, hooray. It’s been less complicated as last year, also thanks to always helpful Claude. This weekend is beach ultimate time at La Baule on the Atlantic: since I made it through the first selection process, a second and final is now due. Bad timing since I’m pretty down, I caught once again a virus from Effi. Anyway, it’ll be sunny, sandy and hopefully fun. Next week is family weekend at the cottage, the week after is going to be intense with all the kids at home but no Mathilde… and if I’ll survive this one I’ll be flying to Poland with Effi, to meet Mathilde for the week-end, hand-over the baby and spend a developer retreat week in the Lake Region with Mike and Wojtek. Back to my coughing, my aching neck and head, and my for-no-reasons tired legs.

Two beautifully long weekends and almost 3 Eimer gefüllte Sumpfkalkfarbe later, the Dortoir is dressing up for its final destination.