A Day in the Life of a PA

Recently I attended an evening for ‘influential PA’s in Mayfair’. This doesn’t necessarily mean I am influential on my boss (although I’d like to think it does), but rather that he is an influential person and I'm the one who controls his schedule. This isn’t the only thing I manage, however.

My morning starts at whatever early time CEO calls to ask me to pick up some medication for him or book a table at a certain place. Often these things require being written down and taking action immediately – not the sort I can put off in favour of a lie-in. My journey to the office takes 40 minutes, but getting out of Oxford Circus feels like hours! CEO is currently in America for a month over Christmas followed by a business trip causing a friend to say ‘that’s great! Don’t you have less work?’ Oh no. I have work but it’s running 5-8 hours behind UK time, so at 3am I’m getting calls from him to cancel a dinner reservation, add a trip to Mexico to his flight schedule and book a car for 5 minutes time. There are days when I feel like Andrea Sachs from The Devil Wears Prada, running around like a headless chicken whilst trying to locate an unpublished manuscript or help plan an A-list event without paying for any of it. At 6.30pm at the end of a long working day, in the same tone as Miranda Priestly, he might mutter from his desk: ‘Get me Patrick’.

I sit at my iMac imagining all the other PA's at the receiving end of my emails to be snooty and judgemental, in black sleek outfits, towering Louboutin’s (what else) and hair pulled tightly into a bun. I feel inexperienced with all I’m expected to handle - I’m trusted with insurance forms, car MOTs and tax renewal forms, when I don’t even do my own! This is how I’ve learnt to pay overdue road tax, fix an engine light after he forgot to fill his beautiful Bentley with fuel, sort mobile phone bills and pay daily parking fines. 

A dreaded call seconds before his flight takes off (literally, MOMENTS) and I fly into a panic. CEO is the sort to regularly miss his flights, and I immediately visualise my evening spent with my phone glued to my ear, liaising between our flight company and CEO, who will call me up in between the airline calls to check on progress, and then once a new flight is in place, announce he will stay in an overly-expensive hotel for another night instead and to move the flight to the following day. With a HUGE sigh of relief on my side, he instead tells me he has lost his kindle somewhere in Japan. The week before it was his iPhone in Milan, and his iPad in the magazine pocket on Eurostar Paris. And it’s my lucky self to call up every airline, lost property office, chauffeur, and hotel concierge to see if it has been handed in. In the list above, the only successfully returned item was the iPhone 6, which required verbally guiding CEO around the streets of Milan like a comedy spy escapade using the ‘Find my iPhone’ app on my computer to locate his other phone. It truly felt like a ‘Misson Accomplished’ once he was reunited with his phone. The story of his old PA receiving a baffled call from him one time: ‘Nora, why am I in Brussels?’ after boarding the Eurostar to Brussels instead of Paris quite by mistake - and without realising this error until arriving at the wrong destination - sends the office into hysterics each time it is recalled. I am still trying to come up with a way to glue CEO’s personal effects to his body… 

Plenty of times I end up rescheduling rescheduled meetings, and every so often - to keep me on my tippy toes - he creates his own agenda without my knowledge until he instructs me to cancel all meetings I have carefully manoeuvred into his tight schedule for that day - and often last minute. Other tasks include sourcing and wrapping up birthday and Christmas presents for family members, and keeping a steady supply of Badoit: the only water CEO will drink. 

Most evenings I am able to leave the office at a reasonable time (provided CEO has left the building), much to the annoyance of the 'sloggers' who find some form of satisfaction in staying in the office until 9pm. All I need is an internet connection and my Blackberry, in the event that CEO throws a crisis at me - without the need to be glued to my office chair.

I dream of getting mugged and acting terrified, whilst joyfully handing over my work Blackberry instead, and perhaps wine intake has increased since taking over as PA - something I aim to combat as a New Year’s resolution much to the disappointment of my gin-distilling boyfriend. I am learning to combat the trauma of this 24/7 job by regular blogging and heading off for an evening run where I can leave my Blackberry at home. Or just having reeeealllyyy long showers - I’m not so highly-strung that I take my phone into the bathroom with me. Yet. 

Three of the best… Taupe Nail Varnish

Tope, tape, tawp… I always struggle with the word. I shouldn’t, because it’s my favourite colour, and by the next sentence I will have researched, found and learnt its pronunciation. I am going by the Wikipedia entry of ‘taupe’ and will remember from now on that taupe [tope] rhymes with ‘goat’. Et voila. 

So, being a fan of the colour and the fact it looks really hot as a nail colour (natural, understated, elegant, chic), here are my favourite nail paints in the colour. For those of you who are unsure of what colour taupe is, it’s like a mushroom colour, or lilac-y grey and is absolutely beautiful. 

Models Own - Utopia 064
This one is like a really pale lilac. I love it, because it’s quite ‘pop art’ having near-white colour blocks on your nails - without going for the tippex look. Models Own polish dries rapidly and stays on well.

Nails Inc. - Porchester Square 213
Porchester Square is another favourite of mine and one of their ‘Hero Shades’ due to its popularity. It dries quickly and stays on for up to two days - and that's coming from someone who does a lot of hand-washing! The shade isn’t too pale - more like a pastel, and can appear darker in some lights than others. I’m looking forward to wearing this one with a nude/ pale pink blouse and black & white skirt tomorrow evening at a dinner party. 

Barry M - Cappucino 341
Usually I don’t go for Barry M as I’ve had bad experiences with it in the past. I always find it chips off extremely easily - it barely lasts a day. But the colour is deep and gorgeous, and if I’m not looking for a colour as deep as Chanel’s paradoxal then Cappucino does the trick for a night out or an event. 

…Other good polishes for mushroom lovers: Chanel Le Vernis Paradoxal 509 for a rich, darker and purple-ier tone; Christian Louboutin Zoulou for a chocolatey brown; or Rimmel Pro Beige Style 365 with the best nail brush ever (it’s about half a centimetre wide allowing for a smooth and bubble-free application to your nail). If your looking for a really ‘nude’ colour on a white-skin tone, then this colour makes it hard to see where your cuticles end and your nails start! 

A Big-Foot Problem.

So here’s the issue. I have big feet. Not ginormous, but big. Big as in, an 8.5 to 9... or in more universal terms, an EU 42. I come from a family of big feet, with my brother coming in at an astounding UK size 15.

I cannot go into a shop, point at a pair of shoes and know that they will have my size... or even that my size will actually exist. I will never be able to buy a pair of Kurt Geiger’s – or worse – Isabel Marant and Manolo Blahnik, as they only go up to an EU 41 (UK 7). When I’m buying a new pair of running trainers, there is no point going to the women’s section of Nike and selecting a pair of coral trainers with blue laces. It’s to the men’s department for me, to purchase some depressing grey and orange trainers (why can’t men wear pink?!) in a men's 42. There is some good news though... Jimmy Choo have attempted to accommodate for big-feet: they go up to a 42 AND they’re generous in sizing (I take a 41.5 shoe there). This has resulted in a wardrobe full of Jimmy Choos... and not much else!

I do not want to go to the equivalent of ‘Jacamo’ for women with big feet - It's not that there aren't shoes out there. But I want to walk into Selfridges or the Shoe Heaven in Harrods, and walk out with a new box of beautiful shoes. Setting up my own brand of shoe is not the solution – but making brands and manufacturers more aware of the target market they are cutting out will be a step in the right direction. 

People’s feet are getting larger as each generation gets taller. The average height of women in the 40s was 5’2 with a 3.5 sized shoe (UK), and by 2012 women were on average 5’5 with a size 6 shoe. Please can we admit that by 2015 the average shoe size might have hit a size 7? And let’s just point out that by average, I mean the MIDDLE. The number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data. This does not mean that a UK 7 is the highest size – it is the middle size, meaning that out of all the people with feet smaller that a 7 – there are JUST AS MANY PEOPLE with a size LARGER than a 7.

So why are shops still refusing to order in shoes sized 8 or higher? I’ve got money that I want to spend on shoes. Shoes that fit, and where I can wriggle my toes in the inch of space at the end. Shoes where I can try on a larger size if need be – and not have to debate whether I squeeze my feet into a size 7 and risk a life of curled up, deformed hammer toes or to never own a pair of Isabel Marant Bekket Trainers, or Manolo Blahnik Tayler Pumps.

I almost considered surgery to shorten my toes by a centimetre until I read a woman’s personal experience of hearing surgeons sawing through her toes while on local anaesthetic. I think I’ll just stick to Jimmy Choos and handbags until designers realise that big feet aren't necessarily ugly.

The Imitation Game - The Story of Alan Turing

I was extremely fortunate to get the opportunity to watch The Imitation Game on a pre-release DVD in the comfort of my own home. It isn’t the sort of film I’d be particularly interested in, but starring Benedict Cumberbatch, one of my favourite actors, Keira Knightley and Charles Dance (AKA Tywin Lannister), how could I refuse?

The film is about the life and extraordinary talent of Alan Turing, a mathematician from Kings College, Cambridge. He achieved the job position at MI6 working to decode secret coded messages sent between the Germans, and deciphering their Enigma machine. He soon realised that with 159 million million various possibilities of codes which were changed again at midnight each day, the human mind was not a reliable method of working out the codes and within weeks of arriving at Bletchley Park he had designed a giant machine that could try out every code possibility within the course of a few hours. With this large computer, they were able to break the codes, save lives and shortened the Second World War by at least two years. 

He spent his life hiding his homosexuality as it was illegal until 1967 and when arrested and charged for it, he opted for a government-mandated ‘hormonal therapy’ (chemical castration) – as opposed to jail where he would have been taken away from his beloved computing machines (by this time they had won the war). At 41 years old in 1954 he committed suicide. Just think what else he could have done for the country. Scientists and technicians later studied and developed his ‘Turing’ machines, which today we call computers.

Cumberbatch fits the role perfectly, adding his ‘Sherlock’ personality - verging on Aspergers - to the character, giving blunt and abrupt answers, taking everything literally, with an exceedingly intelligent and analytic brain, yet lacking in any ability to make friends or participate in 'small talk'. If you love him in BBC’s Sherlock, you’ll love this. The Imitation Game is a gripping movie which made me sit on the edge of my seat and cry out in frustration at several moments. Keira Knightley plays a very interesting and likeable character right from the moment she purposefully enters the room full of men applying for the role of a decoder and is patronisingly told that the clerical candidates are in another room. Turing gives her a chance to pass his 6-minute intelligence ‘exam’ and she beats all the other men.

Turing had to constantly prove himself to a lot of people – colleagues, commanders, generals. When his idea of a decoding machine was ignored, he wrote directly to Winston Churchill to ask for the £100,000 needed to build the machine that would win the war. There’s a heartbreaking scene (sorry to ruin it for you) where they have just cracked the Enigma code, and have gut-wrenchingly realised that there is about to be an attack on a British passenger convoy, of which one of their colleagues with them says that his brother is on that ship returning from war. They are faced with the dilemma of alerting the ship and RAF and saving 500 lives – or keeping Enigma and their success in breaking the Germans’ codes a secret and going on to win the war.

After the war in 1945 he was awarded an OBE for his wartime services, and in 2013, Turing received a posthumous by Queen Elizabeth II. This film is an absolute must-see, and has catapulted its way into my top 5 films. It's a thriller cross with being a drama and biography with moments of thrills, triumph and sadness. Hopefully now, through this great film, Alan Turing will finally receive the recognition he deserves. 

Three of the Best... Lush Products

Mask of Magnaminty - £9.75/315g

This green, clay-like face mask contains bentonite gel for soothing and cleansing the skin, peppermint oil to stimulate skin cells and reduce spots and inflammations, and marigold oil and chlorophyllin to treat the skin. It is a mint green deep cleansing mud that smells delightful and is soothing just to plaster it onto your face. Prior to tweaking their ingredients, this clay mask used to dry up and crack once applied - leaving your face stuck firm until you scrubbed it off. Now their new mask stays fresh and moist on your face until it's time to rinse the rough textured clay off. It's supposed to yank out debris from pores while exfoliating dry skin and calming redness - it's a one hit wonder to address many needs. 

With evening primrose seeds and aduki beans inside to exfoliate the skin as you wash it off, this is an added bonus for me - I love to scrub my face raw to remove oil and blocked pores. It leaves my skin fresh and smooth, without the price tag of a professional spa facial. This one's a winner! It's also Lush's only fresh mask that doesn't have to be kept in the fridge or used in a set amount of days. 

 

Ocean Salt (Self-Preserving) Facial Scrub - £13.25/250g

Ocean Salt is like a martini cocktail for your face. It contains vodka, grapefruit, lime, and salt and the odd times a bit has gone into my mouth it's like drinking a tequila cocktail with salt rim! The giant chunks of sea salt are rich in minerals and excellent for scrubbing away dead skin, whilst the avocado butter, coconut oil and seaweed leave skin soft, smooth and conditioned.

I usually emerge from the shower with a bright red face after using this - only because it's so exfoliating and I do like to attack my face with a flannel covered in rock salt scrub. It is so refreshing, and will get rid of any stubborn spots or blemishes you may have lurking on your face. 

Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter - £6.75/50g

This indulgent cuticle butter contains shea butter, mango butter, beeswax and cold-pressed avocado oil which are extremely beneficial for the skin: especially the cuticles which are prone to dryness. I love the scent - it smells like lemon sherbet and will brighten up any day. Another great thing about this product is that a little goes a long way - just the smallest amount spreads all over.

This intense conditioning butter leaves skin soft and hydrated thanks to all the oils and specially selected ingredients, and can be applied to any dry areas including knees, elbows, heels, brittle nails and cuticles. It spreads like butter, and soaks into the skin pretty quickly. My own qualm with this luscious pot of lemon cream is that it's quite greasy (when applied liberally) - my colleague brought a pot of it into work and left oil all over the phone handset! 

I don't have dry cuticles, but this is also a great nourishing butter to combat any damage from nail polish over-use, or for an evening pamper.

An Evening at Brasserie Chavot and Alyn Williams at The Westbury, Conduit Street

Yesterday evening, I was invited to an event at the Alyn Williams dining room at The Westbury for drinks and canapes, followed by a three course dinner at Brasserie Chavot, next door. I was amongst ten other 'influential PA's in Mayfair', invited to see and experience both restaurants. 

A few people knew each other, but as usual I was starting from scratching terms of learning names and meeting people. Uusally this is the best way by far to network your way around as there's no 'security blanket' in the form of a friend that you can hide behind and stand chatting to the whole night. The Alyn Williams is a wonderful restaurant within The Westbury Hotel  (37 Conduit St, London W1S 2YF), with thick carpet, a serene atmosphere and big wine fridges that act as walls. With a Michelin star, the service and champagne were delightful, and the canapes that were brought out were artistic and delicious. The two dishes that stood out were these small deep fried balls filled with a delicious light prawn filling and a light, crunchy covering, and these little toasts with tomatoes on top. This actually sounded way better when they were introduced by the waiter - it's just that I've forgotten the ingredients so I'm relying totally on how they looked! Shameful, I know. Mr Alyn Williams came out afterwards to greet us and check that we weren't all choking on his bread-crumbed balls. They were seriously amazing. 

Afterwards, we were taken into Brasserie Chavot (41 Conduit Street, London W1S 2YF), a large French-style brasserie. Most or the menu was in French, and the Maitre D and waiters were on form, knowledgeable and efficient. I went for the Salmon Tartare followed by Veal Ossobucco which was divine. The starters were around the £11 mark, and also offered oysters, snails and soft shell crab. Mains were £25-30 and included duck casserole, seabass and a ballotine of Cheval (horse). 

   

The salmon was the tastiest salmon I've ever had, with little balls of cucumber and served on a bed of pureed avocado. I cannot emphasize how incredible this tasted. The veal was also a memorable meal - it was off the bone, and had been marinated and served with sauteed green beans, artichoke and potatoes. It was mouth-wateringly tender, and held so much flavour. We were also served side dishes of salty chips with the perfect ration of crunch to fluffy potato, and tenderstem broccoli. We had wine to match our meals - I drank a spanish white wine which was glorious, but sadly, once again I have no idea what the name or grape was. The waiters were extremely knowledgeable on wine and at deciphering all the French on the menu. 

 

It was a really pleasant evening and I enjoyed meeting various other PA's in Mayfair. I chatted with two ladies from the Belstaff office, a French girl from JAB Holdings who got a fabulous discount off their house brands including Jimmy Choo and Bally, one woman PA to a celebrity couple, and another PA to the managing director of Conde Nast UK and President of Conde Nast International. It was very interesting to compare notes, and see if PA-ing had been something they'd always wanted to do. For me, it's just stepping stone to where I want to get to, but it was fascinating to see where they'd come from, how they got into running someone elses life, and if they wanted to continue. Most of the ladies I spoke to had been doing the job for more than 5 years!

We all decided to have a pudding seeing as the meal was on the house - I opted for a chocolate and pistachio 'pot de creme' which looked very interesting, and the pistachio flavour really came through. Due to my emerging food baby, I dug down to the bottom and ate most of the chocolate leaving the cream and biscuit pieces.

The whole atmosphere was elegant and secluded, and the noise levels were relaxed and mellow. Overall this was a really enjoyable and stylish venue to dine at - I hope to go back on a romantic and issue-free date night with the Boyfriend, and I will definitely be recommending it to my CEO and team.

Too Many Utensils Spoil the Broth

I was thinking back to an English class during my time in Sixth Form, when we were discussing kitchen utensils. It was a medieval recipe which required a host of utensils – almost longer than the ingredients list – which sparked the discussion. The open question was: ‘do you need all these utensils to be a successful cook?’

My answer was, and still remains a stoic ‘no’. But there was at least one person who felt that yes, with all the bain-maries, boning knives, jam spoons and twizzling noodle forks, you could become the next Michel Roux. I have paraphrased (and possibly exaggerated) what she said at the time, but you only need a bit of common sense to know that a fork is as good as a whisk, and a paring knife will chop up most things from cheese to salami to broccoli. Scissors make a more than adequate pizza cutter when times are really tough, and all these ‘shortcuts’ can also save a LOT of washing up.

In my opinion (as I am always ready to offer), what makes a good chef is down to what you can make out of very little. Growing up with parents who are ‘creative chefs’, I learnt there was little need to rely on recipes, and observed many a night when there was nothing to eat, them somehow producing a different and very tasty meal out of leftover food and tins found at the back of the cupboard, none of which required a fork and a microwave, I may add. Obviously I won’t be giving up my electronic milk frother anytime soon in place of a fork, but I am trying to highlight the fact that you don’t need a kitchen filled with every pointless accessory in the world, from egg cutters, banana slicers, strawberry stem removers, avocado scoopers, meat mallets and asparagus peelers (I mean, really?) to cook delicious home-made food from scratch.

Whilst I admit there is a distinction between having the knowledge and skill to create meals or recreate recipes in the first place, and the requirement of particular utensils to achieve the desired effect – such as a griddle pan – generally, I believe you do not need much to be a successful cook. The additional items might make a task easier or less mundane, but they are only a ‘helping hand’ and cannot help you achieve more than you are capable of.

This is coming from me who, during the first few weeks au-pairing in Paris, had to mash enough potatoes for five people with a bendy fork and make cakes without scales or mixing bowls – I think I settled for a salad spinner.

 

 An 'Egg cuber' and an avocado scoop. 

A Condensed Dissertation on Neurolinguistics and Aphasia

For my dissertation I wrote about Aphasia and language processing in the brain. It is in this post that I will try and shorten a 13,000 word thesis into a 600-word blog post for the 'everyday blog reader' - with all the boring bits (like referencing) taken out. 

Neurolinguistics is the study of how the brain ('neuro') processes language ('linguistics'). While neurologists study the brain and nervous systems, linguists generally study the way human language is structured. It is neurolinguists that have a particular interest in human neurology and the changed relationship between brain and behaviour proceeding damage to the brain - with specific focus on the precise location of brain damage or lesion (damaged brain tissue). I found this entire topic hugely interesting, and I hate to sound a teacher's pet but I LOVED reading up on this for my dissertation. 

First top fact. Instead of language areas in our brain being ordered into activities such as speaking, writing, and listening, it is organised into hearing words, speaking words, seeing words and generating words. Below is a really cool image of brain activity during a PET scan. The patient would have been asked to repeat words, read aloud, form sentences etc. This shows that different functions are controlled by different areas in our 'language centre'.

Second top fact is that no two brains are alike in the precise pattern of gyri and sulci (all the wrinkles and knobbly bits you see on the surface of a brain), although neurologists have identified a series of 'landmarks' common with all human brains. Landmarks refer to particularly large creases or folds in the brain and have long Latin names which I won't bore you with, and refer to the various areas of the brain's surface, names in the diagram below. It's a bit like a big mountain - all the rivers and streams running through it are named, but all the cracks in the dry earth are different and unique.

And a final fact, for all those GCSE psychologists studying Kanzi the talking ape (who only achieved a string of three words); Ever wondered why monkeys - our primates - haven't conquered the ability to speak? The frontal part of our brains are almost double the size of a monkey's, meaning we have enough room for a 'language centre'. Mind=Blown.

This diagram featured A LOT in my dissertation. #Landmarks #Gyri 

In most people, our 'language centre' (like a switch board for various language activities and processes) is in our left hemisphere - about 96% right handed people, and 70% left handed people. My paper focused on the effects of damage or injury to that particular part of the brain. Even with our brain encased in a skull of bone, this is not enough to protect it against impact. There are many ways someone can injure their language centre, or left hemisphere, causing an inability to speak or difficulties in particular language activities. This could be from an accident - a fall down the stairs, a collision, penetration, an attack or blow to the head; or an internal injury including blood clotting, stroke (when blood is unable to reach a part of the brain) or a lesion caused by infection or disease (e.g. meningitis). Resulting problems will vary depending on the extent of damage, and the location of damage. A particular injury might leave the individual exclusively with visual problems, or difficulties in moving particular sets of muscles. I focused on the injuries that leave individuals with language deficits, such as the planning, articulation and fluency of speech, and the various categorisations of aphasia - as not all aphasics (people with aphasia) suffer from the same linguistic and grammatical features. The largest single cause of adult language disorders is stroke, where blood flow to the brain is disrupted by a blood clot or a ruptured blood vessel. 

Much of our knowledge around certain brain areas and their relationship with our language abilities has come from studies of aphasia. Aphasia is the partial or total loss of language abilities following damage to the brain. Interestingly those with aphasia will not have suffered the loss of cognitive faculties or the ability to move the muscles used in speech, suggesting that there is a specific region in the brain used for speech.

The rest of my dissertation is very long and goes down several paths of study (clinical distinctions, plasticity, communication, epilepsy and split-brain patients, various neuro-scanning techniques etc). If you study Aphasia, you’ll learn about two important figures in your first lecture – Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke who provided crucial evidence for the localisation of language function to a specific region within a cortical hemisphere. This means they identified an area in the brain which controlled language by making several observations based on patients with language disorders and their subsequent post-mortem inspections in the late 1800s. It was pretty tricky and time consuming, as they had to asses a patient with communication issues (very slow and laborious speech with difficulty stringing two words together, or in Wernicke’s case, fluent speech that was complete jibber jabber and held absolutely no meaning) and then when they died, slice open their brain and see what area was damaged. They only had 2 or 3 patients each, but it was enough (at the time) to see a correlation between the damaged area and the subsequent language issues.

I really really want to say something about plasticity (I’m 400 words over my ‘limit’ already) as it was this phenomenon that got me interested in neurolinguistics. Neuroplasticity, or 'cortical remapping' is the brain's ability to change or adapt itself through the process of cell reorganisation, axon growth and synapse formation. When you learn a new thing – take playing the piano – your brain creates new pathways, and each time you practise or perform that task these synapses are strengthened. You may have heard of ‘muscle memory’ which is picking up a bike and being able to ride it, without having to remind yourself how to do it. This is because of the repeated practise, and strengthened synapses. There's an incredible paper by Thomas Munte which explains that musicians have a greater level of neuroplasticity and grey matter in their brains than non-musicians. Each fact just gets better and better.

Neuroplasticity, in my opinion, is the future hope for aphasics. Sadly there is a ‘cut off period’ where your brain becomes much slower at learning new things (which is why learning a new language becomes more difficult after age 13), and explains why a child with a trauma to their language centre has a greater chance of re-learning their language skills than a 60 year old. If we can find a way to kick start the process of neuroplasticity again in adults, perhaps this could help them recover particular language abilities. There is also debate over whether the right hemisphere has the ability to take on the language centre if the left is too traumatised (it doesn't, for various reasons).

A final note on hemisphere dominance: don't be fooled by those online tests: 'Right brained? Left brained? Take the test', plastered all over Facebook. Just because you're creative and artistic does not mean you're right hemisphere dominant, and similarly, if you're into maths and have an analytic brain, this does not automatically make you left-hemisphere dominant. Trust me, the way to find out your hemispheric dominance is a lot more complex than 'which colour appeals to you most'.

If somehow I've motivated you enough to read further, then the best book by far to dip your toes into is ‘Language and the Brain’, by L. Obler and K. Gjerlow (1998: Cambridge University Press).  

Home Time...

Our train was due to leave at 1.15pm, not giving us any time to explore another area of Paris except for shop for some charcuterie pieces and special beer for Ollie to bring back.  We felt we'd covered a large amount though and there wasn't much else we felt we needed to do. I'd also spent the previous day stocking up on sachets of Ketchup from the cafes we visited... so I finally got my scrambled eggs and bacon with ketchup for breakfast!

I felt nostalgic and quite sad at being at Gare du Nord - but not for the obvious reasons. As my Dad helped me move all my stuff out of the house during my gap year and drove me home via the ferry, the only memories I have of Gare du Nord (except from arriving there) are seeing off all the family and friends that came out to visit me during my gap year, and wishing I could jump on a train and go back with them. My experience in Paris definitely wasn't horrendous, but au-pairing can get lonely at times and I missed my family and my little dachshund who was probably about 15cms in size and two months old when I left. It was a delight to be able to get on a train hand in hand with my boyfriend, and go home. 

I've had a fabulous time over the last four days and enjoyed showing Ollie 'my side' of Paris - of course we did all the touristy things but there were various shops, squares, and eateries very much off the beaten track and out of sight from tourists with cameras glued firmly to their palms. I am relieved that there were no awkward moments where I bumped into Florence or William - the scatterbrain parents of my au-pairing family; we were not mugged or conned (although I would happily have handed over my work phone); and despite people saying how expensive Paris is, we came home with a surprising amount of euros (which I subsequently spent on Clarins at the duty free shop on Eurostar).

We did experience an 'attempted con' on Rue Rivoli when a man bent down to pick something off the floor (which we both saw there was nothing) and then tried to offer us a shiny ring he'd 'found'. As I am already an owner of one of these brass rings, we were both prepared and continued walking. 

You may wonder if I experienced anything new on my holiday to a place I know like the back of my hand (even after 3-4 years). Showing it to Ollie meant I could finally share this magical city with someone else - and not just my camera. We went up to the very top floor of the Eiffel Tower at a dizzying 300 metre height, something, surprisingly, I'd never done - it's only 4€ to the second floor, or 10€ all the way to the top, which is only accessed via lift. We also visited Jardin du Luxembourg, something else, shamefully, I'd also never done, and I also spent more time around the artists square behind the Sacre-Coeur, as I remember I only discovered this buzzing place during the last week of my gap year. We ate at fantastic recommended restaurants and drunk carafe after carafe of Beaujolais wine (usually I am not a red wine drinker but this...).

An extra day in this city of lights would have probably consisted of a trip to Sainte Chapelle, with its breath-taking starry ceiling (I would have had to drag Ollie in however), Musee Picasso, possibly the 284 steps up the Arc De Triomphe, shop for fur and vintage in the Marais and eat at my Granny's favourite restaurant, Le Verre Volé (67 Rue de Lancry, 75010, www.leverrevole.fr) although booking is highly recommended - sadly we were turned away on Friday night as it's so popular. 

À bientôt Paris - Until the next time!