Leila had slept really badly and was upset but couldn’t pinpoint it. She told her team she’d be in a little late and so started work at 10am. They made coffee with the Ethiopian beans for the first time which was really nice. Leila decided she wanted the following morning off work for a rest, which made her super productive today and she got quite a lot done despite being tired. She broke for a live workout at lunch time too which was really hard (and she only had 1kg weights). Meanwhile, Alex worked on his ADB entry trying to get the predictive model to work. He continued working on this until around 4pm when he had a call with Marco about his potential return to QB. Marco had been making protein bars from crickets. Leila then prepared for the second half of her diversity session which was the small breakout groups. It went really well and people seemed engaged and happy.
Leila logged off after the session and went to regroup with A upstairs at which point an ice cream van arrived right outside their front door. L was so excited as it was the first time she had ever had an ice cream van come literally outside their door, but neither her or A actually wanted ice cream so they just stared at it out the window for a while. Then they headed on a walk to Regent’s park and A explained the ADB contest to L and they chatted about nowcasting GDP (note: a few days prior L wrote in the blog that she had no idea what this means, now she does). As they were turning into Regent’s park, they bumped into Ruki and her boyfriend Will and had an awkward chat for a few mins. L was so shocked and therefore conversed a bit awkwardly and then felt about it and messaged Ruki straightaway. L and A then walked to the pond chatting and it was really sunny and nice. They then walked side by side and listened to a bit of a Guardian Long Read on violation of young people/future generations constitutional rights on climate change and then the discount rate applied by the civil service on public spending (which leila does not remember from uni, but A does.. of course).
They then went to Lidl to pick up food and divided and conquered which was successful, except A left L behind in the store and headed home without her by mistake (she was right behind him). L joined a call with Areef who was showing her his personal strategy powerpoint whilst A made a beautiful dinner of haddock and veg cooked in the oven, with a side of soda bread. He allowed L to have a little dessert (pictured) which was one spoon of yoghurt and some frozen fruit. A convinced L to take the morning off the next day and start work at 12.30 and so she emailed the team, and is thankful to A for convincing her because it was the right move. Then they finished off The Theory of Everything and headed to bed.
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 