Angelique Kidjo

In a previous blog I wrote a lot about Angelique Kidjo, the singer/composer/UNICEF ambassador from Benin, one of whose concerts I attended by pure chance and ended up changing my life.

Thanks to youtube I can share a little bit of the magic with you. It may not change your life but I believe it'll make you smile.

Postcards from a work trip

How is it to work with one of the guys at the very top? Surprisingly, not so different from what one could imagine. He's brilliant, efficient, always-too-busy, all his life seems to be about math and his two sons, and he looks like a truly good person.

Working in the biggest company (and not in some branch, but in the worldwide headquarters) gives me mixed feelings. On one hand I feel proud about it, on the other hand I feel indifferent. I can get away with it because my work is inocuous and I know that my ideas about the corporate world won't change just because I, for a few weeks, am part of that world which is not mine.

In this city where cars are more important than people, going around by bus is a daily adventure. Once I got off one stop early (it was raining, it was dark, on the freeway all stops look alike) and I had to wait for another 45 minutes for a bus to somewhere, to anywhere.

If home is where the friends are, here's where I'm closest to home. Some of them, like me, continued their journey in places far away, but the rest are giving me warmth and good times that I'm going to keep well inside me until we meet again. Thank you.

A day in the world

Dancing Brazilian music in a Russian bar in Estonia. New friends from Spain, Austria and Finland. Back in the hotel I receive an e-mail from an Israeli mathematician inviting me to visit him in the United States.

And here I am. And this is what I am.

When it rains

What can you do when it rains
it rains
it rains
it rains
but to close your eyes,
your cheeks soaked,
and run
and run
and run
and run