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Despite having recently bought a new Parker (this was mainly to replace the one I gave away the day before leaving Amsterdam), I needed a new pen. The thing is that during my Finance years, I got into the habit of using roller balls pens, but now that I mainly write mathematics again, roller balls are not suitable for the art of abstract and advanced mathematics. I knew I would need to go back to a fountain pen, a Parker, of course, and if possible a Sonnet series.

When I woke up today I knew it was the day. I was in the perfect mood to buy a new pen. So I went to the Pen shop on Oxford street and fell in love with a new comer to the Sonnet series: Dark Grey Lacquer Silver Trims, with a gold nib. Very beautiful, while being sober. It is perfectly balanced with its center of gravity at the perfect place. I love it :-)

Hardly anybody knows why I like fountain pens and why I am very faithful to my pens, and very faithful to Parker (that's one of the stories of my life I have always kept secret...), but the following video shows the relationship that some (most) academics have with their pens (^.^) : A beautiful mind climax scene [ from 3:30 to 4:40 ]

Our friend from Oxford, the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics, Marcus du Sautoy, has decided to follow Dawkins' steps and now has his own TV show :-)

First episode at the BBC iPlayer : The Story of Maths. Episode 1. The Language of the Universe

I was watching a video of Evan Williams and Biz Stone (Twitter) [ Short Messages, Big Impact: Twitter Founders @Biz & @Ev ; fora.tv ] when Aubrey popped up and we started talking about the founding of Computer/Internet companies. That's when we realised something: Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Evan Williams and Biz Stone (Twitter), Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (Google), and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) all dropped out of School (either College or Ph.D.)

Interesting..., above all given that few people in history (if any) ever had as much impact on the world as those guys.

[update] Biz Stone (Twitter) actually eventually came back to college and completed his bachelor. I don't know about Jack Dorsey (Twitter)

08.30am : Woke up, a bit tired (not surprising after a night out with some female escort friends).
08.55am : Finished showering. Waking naked in the flat having fun throwing away stuff I won't be needing anymore.
09.15am : Went to my neighbour to give away the contents of my fridge, including a nice salmon that I had bought the day before but really didn't feel like cooking and eating so early in the morning.
09.30am : Realised that my bag could only take .v5, not .v5 and .v3 together. Came back to my neighbour to also ask her to keep Lucille.v3/phoenix for me until further notice.
10.30am : The old landlord, new landlord and guy from the agency are in.
10.45am : Wishing that I had my camera with me because seeing four business-type men inspecting a flat (and quite a gorgeous one) is priceless. Women should see that once in their lives :-)
11.15am : Gave my keys away and was walked to the door by the landlord who kept complementing me on how nice a tenant I have been. Good to hear :-)
11.30am : Managed to go to my favourite luxury pen shop to buy a new Parker pen, silver Sonnet series (left my previous pen to one of my female friends the night before).
11.35am : Had the crazy idea that I since my flight is hours away, I still have time to do a new piercing. The logic was that it would go well with my wedding ring, my watch and the new pen which are all silver.
11.50am : Realise that the piercing place only opens at 12 o'clock and that I have to wait 10 minutes under the heavy rain. Never mind it's only water and my laptop (Lucille.v5/alexandra) is only half flooded not totally flooded yet...
12.03pm : Signed the discharge form, so that the staff cannot sue me if I die, ... or maybe it was the opposite. Too Long, Didn't Read.
12.10pm : Lied down on the operation bed, trying to count the number of tattoos of the girl who is about to make another hole in my body.
12.12pm : My heart missed a beat when I saw her coming to me with the needle. WAITAMINIT ! Is she not going to put some product for the the anaesthesia ? I mean, the last time I did a piercing, in Birmingham, the guy did a local anaesthesia to me !
12.13pm : Being explained by the girl that in Holland anaesthesias for piercings is illegal.
12.14pm : Pascal to himself : "Fuuuuuck me !!............"
12.15pm : After a short discussion with myself during which I thought that after all, other people in Holland have already done this; and that they survived. So there is no reason why I would not survive as well. So I might as well do it. (Actually this discussion with myself was a learning experience, because I fully realised that I am able to willingly endure an unknown amount of pain for an unknown amount of time on the sole basis that someone else did it before. I had never realised I was that crazy.)
12.16pm + 0 seconds : After a deep breath, told her she can do it. (Saw needle approaching my flesh. Hoooo Lord, I am so going to regret this...)
12.16pm + 4 seconds : Operation is finished and she says that I can stand up.
12.16pm + 5 seconds : Was about to congratulate myself for being such a strong and courageous man, when I realised that actually it wasn't painful. I clearly remember feeling something like an object going through my flesh, but it was painful only the first tenth of a second, after which it was a sliding sensation that my mind simply had not experienced before (not at this part of my body anyway). Not pain, something different. Something almost pleasant actually, but I have masochist tendencies anyway...
12.19pm : Back under the rain, all wet, heading to the airport. Wondering what Aubrey will say when she sees it ...... Thinking about it, I settled for the following probabilities


     15% : "You have a new piercing Darling. I knew you would do that! I thought about it a couple of days ago, and thought that you might do that before leaving Amsterdam."
     15% : "Pascal you look gay again !"
     15% : "Pascal you look gayer than before !"
     15% : "Pascal I thought you said that you don't want to look gay anymore !"
     15% : "Pascal stop doing gay things. Doing gay things makes you attract women the most !"
     20% : <speechless>
     05% : "Ho my Godness, This is soooooo cool. I want one !"





Last thing, while I am thinking about it (I am actually writing this entry in the plane -- KLM), I have been travelling back and forth between London and Amsterdam over the past year, using both Easyjet and KLM. KLM is much better. Better planes, better airport, better flight attendants. Compared to the beautiful and nice (Dutch) KLM flight female attendants, the small, fat and incredibly irritating Easyjet female flight attendants look like a bunch of Nazis, above all when they try and prevent me to do the stuff that I want to do on the plane (most of the time, but not always, totally harmless activities involving digital devices).

Last week we visited Kew Gardens (the Royal Botanic Gardens) and I enjoyed it. You can find extremely wide range of plants (more than 30,000 different kinds of plants), beautiful natural scenery, insects, fish and other interesting creatures in the gardens. The gardens are huge and it is not easy to see everything within one day. You can find houses, museum, gallery, palace etc. I was so impressed by the oldest pot plant in the world - Cycads which are believed to have been living for at least 228 years. Cycads are known as "living fossils" because they have remained unchanged for millions of years. Try to image that dinosaurs and cycads existed on the earth at the same time! Another interesting spot is the treetop walkway (18m high and 200m long) and my friends said that it was actually moving when they walked along.

If I have some kids, I will definitely bring them to the gardens. It will be so great to explore the interesting world of nature. I believe learning will be more fun outside a classroom.




Cycads - the oldest pot plant in the world

[Naif Al-Mutawa: Superheroes inspired by Islam, ted.com]