New flatmates

Deux fois plutôt qu'une à part de ça! Effectivement ce week-end mes deux nouveaux colocs sont arrivés. Il s'agit d'Alex Vaval, un gars de Repentigny que j'ai connu par l'entremise de mon ami Mathieu le fameux moonerboy de Paris qui fait la une des journaux du Québec ces temps-ci... Et l'autre, Lindsay, est une américaine bien sympatique qui est à Londres pour étudier l'architecture et le design.

Alors comme le veut la tradition on a célébré l'occasion au champagne, pour partir cette nouvelle relation sur le bon pied!
Après qqs bons verres de bulles illuminés, on est allé se payer la traite au meilleur restaurant Colombien à Londres, Los Guadales (53 Stroud Green @ Finsbury Park tube station). Je pense qu'Alex a bien aimé leur Ribs BBQ, qui sont probablement les meilleurs aux mondes!!!

Ceci étant dit, je vais m'ennuyer de mes anciens colocs Neil et Zane, que je tiens à remercier pour les beaux moments de cette dernière année et plus.. des colocs fantastiques!

Arrivederci!

NHL Ice Hockey in London!

Ce week-end je suis allé voir un match de hockey, oui-oui un vrai match de hockey de la NHL qui est venu faire une tournée promotionelle a Londres! Tout un match à part de ça, pas de bagarres, mais beaucoup d'action et des beaux buts. Les Kings ont lavés les Ducks par la marque de 4 à 1 avec trois buts en avantages numérique... comme dirait Mario Tremblay; "le nerf de la guerre c'est les unités spéciales"! J'ai l'impression que les Ducks étaient encore dopés de champagne!

Un gros merci à Alex Dubé (un ami québécois qui vit aussi à Londres) pour l'invitation! Il y avait aussi Jack et son p'tit bonhomme de 3 ans qui a 3 noms.. eh oui apparament William, Bill et Guilaume c'est la meme chose?!? Il est bilingue alors il répond de tous ces noms ;-) étant donné que mon frèrot s'apelle Guillaume et mon fillieul William ça m'a surpris! Anyway, il était bien sage et m'a rapellé mes neveux (pas qu'ils soient si sage que ça... hahaha ;-) que j'ai très hâte de revoir!

Avec un peu de chance je serai effectivement à Montréal sous peu... mais bon je vous en dirai plus rapidement... fingers crossed!!

Work Uniform

Look what's the latest trend at the office... yes the uniform is making its comeback!

Must be the start of the school year?!?

Happy Birthday!!!

C'est la saison des fetes dans la famille Forgues! Il y a eu la petite princesse Florence au mois d'aout, Sylvie au debut du mois de Septembre et William mon filleul favori que j'aime si fort le 18 Septembre.

Oh la, c'est juste le debut ca! Apres il y a eu Vero la maman de Felix (le p'tit a mon ti-frere comme on dit en vieux quebecois). Et puis c'etait au tour de ma belle maman Marie de feter sa fete hier (dans le sens qu'elle est belle comme une rose; pas que mon pere est remarier ;-).

Aujourd'hui c'est la fete a Guillaume mon ti-bum de frere (well des fois il l'est ;-) qui a repris sa vie en main depuis qqs temps et qui, ma foi, m'impressionne enormement! Guillaume, fais attention a toi et call me si tu veux te faire donner des lecons de vie par ton vieux frere...

Finalement tout ca se termine avec la fete de Dominic le premier novembre! Dom travaille tres tres fort et ses 3 gamins le tiennent bien occuper, alors bonne chance pour prendre un p'tit break et faire la fete (p-e pas comme a ton 30ieme, mais quand meme.. ;-)

(faut aussi noter la fete a mon chum Perry le s'4 novembre au soir comme dirait notre ancien premier ministre favori a qui j'ai eu le privilege de serrer la main - non non, pas pour lui graisser la pate quand meme ;-)

Bonne fete a tous et a toutes!!!

Je vous aime tres fort!

Tony the Tiger "On Air"

I have recently been asked to give my views on "stuff". Below you will find two links that direct you to two interviews I have given. The first link is a video link where I discuss a roundtable dinner I particpated in. The topic is pension in the UK. I have four small sluts.. I must say that the first one is particularly terrible, although it gets a little better after that...

http://media.asset.tv/signoff/?2381PICsignoff.wmv

Le second est une entrevue a propos de la circulation a Londres et des differentes options prises par les gouvernements pour faciliter tout ca. En particulier il parle de la Congestion Charge (qui selon moi est une tres bonne idee!). Le journaliste, Benoit Chapdelaine, est venue nous interviewer pour plus d'une heure mais n'a garde que qqs secondes de notre entretien :-(

http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite/desautels/2007/09/17/001-transports.asp

Mon court extrait (encore une fois pas tres fort en communication le Tigre!!) se retrouve au debut de la neuvieme minute. (PS Il se peut que le reportage audio ne soit pas exactement sur ce lien.. cherchez pour "transport urbain - quatre villes, quatre approches", dans la section "zone de peage")

OK, sur ce je retourne travailler a mes mathematiques financieres, pcq c'est clair que je serais un artiste chomeur!! (bien que - "J'aurais voulu etre un artiste..")

Enjoy!

Day-trip a Dover

Sue et moi sommes alles passer la journee a Dover. Une belle petite ville cotiere au sud-ouest de l'Angleterre. Il y a plusieurs traversiers (comme vous pouvez le voir sur les qqs photos..) qui traverse la Manche pour se rendre en France.

On s'est promener d'une extremiter a l'autre de la plage. D'un coter on a une belle vue sur les "White Cliffs" et de l'autre on a visiter le Chateau de Dover. C'etait fascinant, il y a pleins de tunnels secrets (ouais maintenant que je vous l'dis ce n'est plus un secret, mais bon...) dans les flancs de la falaise. Il y a eu plusieurs operations militaires historiques qui ont ete dirigees depuis les tunnels pendant les nombreuses guerres auquelles l'Angleterre s'est livrer (et laissez-moi vous dire qu'il y en a eu un paquet!). L'histoire la plus interessante est p-e le "sauvetage" de 335,000 soldats en une semaine, apres que les Allemands eurent pousser les Anglais, Francais et Hollandais sur les rives de la Manche au debut de la seconde guerre mondiale (plus precisement a Dunkirk/Dunkerque).

On est aussi aller manger une bonne bouffe dans un petit bistro aux abords d'une belle marina. Une superbe journee quoi!

French visitors

Hi

I know I know it's been a while since I last posted.. let's cut it short, I just got very busy and... lazy to be honest ;-) I will try to do better in future, but no promises (eh, as a good consultant you need to learn to manage expectation!)

That being said two weeks ago I got some nice visits from Paris! I finally met Mathieu's girlfriend. She is a very nice girl and I wish them a massive load of happiness! I look forward to go and see them in Paris. BTW congratulation to Mathieu for his recent professional achievements!
On the picture from left to right: Alex (Mathieu's cousin), Mathieu himself and Cherie. All of us spent an enjoyable night at O'Neil in China Town.

Arrivederci amici!

TTT

Calm

Christmas Shopping!

Hey

God it's Xmas in less than 3 weeks - already! It seems like it's always christmas?!? Not sure why.. anyway today I went christmas shopping at Harrod's, they have so much nice stuff! I manage to get everything I wanted (and more) in one afternoon.. I'm not a big fan of "buying" gifts, but the nice about it is to wrap them up with a glass of bailey'son ice while thinking about the people whom you will give teh gift..

Being far far away from most of my friends and my familly, I don't really know what to get them, but I think I managed to get cool stuff without having to work overtime! Below is a picture of the Oxford Street's Christmas lighting (and Sue). Not where we went today, but a picture I wanted to post ;-)

Another original picture is the following one?!? Can you guess what it is made from...

This was my first weekend to stay at home (without having to work) and it was great!! Nothing to do, no obligation to go anywhere - it's good to be home once in a while!

Ok, got to go dinner now, talk later, and don't forget I'll be in Montreal from 15 December to 13 January so let meknow what you're up to and we can go for a few drinks, or a movie, or a game (Montreal Canadian of course!!).

Ok enjoy your Christmas shopping!

Tony xxx

Weekend in Italy

Hello!

I spent the weeken in Italy, how nice! First comment, the food is way too good in the Italian Mountains!! I must have brought back 2 extra kilos!!



Sue and I spent the weeken doing close to nothig, how good was it! We slept till noon almost every day! We went for three days... but it went like a couple of hours.. can't believe I'm now getting ready to go back to work..:-(



Hope everybody is fine! I'm going back to Montreal in less than 3 weeks for X-mas! Montreal get reaaady!!

Ciao ragazzi e ragazze!

Antoni xxx

Yelllow!

Last week Sue and I went for some very good Chinese duck... hummm succulent ;-) We went to Bayswater by Hyde park, a very dynamic area, lots of restaurant and lots of people!



We then went dancing in a club called Secoya at Ruby lo - don't ask me to spell it or tell you what it means?!? But anyway we had a great time dancing and having a few coktails, it was quite nice to go out for a change, hopefully I can go out tomorrow as well, but I'm so tired these days!!



I am posting a couple of pictures of our night out...

Weekend in the office :-((

Unfortunately, I mean too much is too much, I spent another weekend in front of my computer.. At least this time Zane and I turned the kitchen into an office, this was probably the most exciting bit of the weekend. (it's not quite true given we had flatmate drinks on Sunday night...)



Effectively, I had to do some more work.. I have put myself into a very annoying situation.. I have take on to do something that I barely qualify for and my boss is not even happy about it because he thinks I am doing something that I should not be doing and he needed help on something else more important and quite urgent! In fact I must admit he is right, I feel like I'm waisting my time, but I need to finish what I have promised to do, except that this piece of work might actually finish me instead!

Well, I'm pretty stressed these days, but I guess that's part of learning?!?

Anyway I have survived so far, and hopefully I will survive till Chrsitmas so I can see the beautiful kids on the picture below! They are my brother Dominic's kids; William, Laurie-Ann and Florence the cutie little baby girl.. Aren't they sooooo cute? Yes they are really cute and I'm really looking forward to see them.. less than 6 weeks and that's it! I'm almost counting the days..

Poker Night

Hey,I finished second at the plate competition of the Threadneedle Poker Challenge!!!
Plate competition means the competition for the losers of the first round.. but still there were a few people to beat (30 +). I even won a set of cheap chips and a bottle of Moet & Chandon!!

Just to be clear, that does not mean I am good at poker, it just means I don't like Jack Daniels!! This is because the theme was Jack and Poker, but I don't like Jack.. and they did not not want to give me vodka... so in a nutshell, everybody was piss-drunk, I just had to wait a little bit and clean the tables of all those "all-in", before any cards were on the table I must say!

In any case that was a great night to remember, for those who can... Afer the poker they treated us to some proper Champagne at the bar of the Soho Hotel.. hummm Champagne is good! After the hotel bar we ended up at Little Italy, a nice bar/restaurant on Dean Street, I think?!? I ended up dancing the night away with some very interesting ladies, and gentlemen!


Oh by the way, Threadneedle is a 'great' fund manager in the UK that invited Investment Consultants to a night of fun to get to know each other, one might say.

Mini Office

Hi guys!

It's been a while! I have been prety busy with work recently.. To my fortune, my flatmates are also working hard so we can all boost each other morale! To that effect I have turned my room into an office, the picture below was taken last week.

On the picture is my flatmate Zane. She is Latvian (Lethonie) and she works at organising conferences for Markus Evans... She works so hard, I feel bad when I come home before 8 o'clock!!! But her efforts are paying off so far.. She has managed to book 5 people last week alone... (10 in a month is very good so...) For this reason we had a celebration on Sunday night - picture below.


Just one glass, but what a good glass ;-)

Other than that life is quiet.. I am going to Montreal in 6 weeks, yippee!!!

Have fun and take it easy!

Climate Change march

Hey guys!

It's been a while... busy week here in London (and busy weekend..)! To be frank I have not much to say, other than "The Departed" from Martin Scorsese is a pretty good movie,my movie of the year personally - but I cannot remember seeing more than 3, so?!? Actually, I watched another good film/documentary/fiction on Mr B*$sh a$$a$$ination produced by the BBC - small budget but really interesting.

No kidding other than that I've been working hard to make stuff happen. It's a bit crazy, when you want something to happen, you need to do it! (it's sounds obvious but it is not that obvious - anyway this is no website to complain..) So let's just say things are now moving, slowly but surely! Patience will be rewarded!

Finally, you may have received an email from me or someone else, but in any case below is a link to a website about Climate Change. They are advertising a march in London and other major cities in the world on Saturday 4 November. I might go myself. I am starting to think/realise this is a massive issue, and not for our children. No, this is for us to sort. Not in the future, no, right now.

www.campaigncc.org

For me the point is not to cry and try to be full green and go back to living in the wood, not at all. I love the city life and the modern world. But we need to manage it and take some action to control and slow it down. Just a fact (well more a blur forecast..), imagine the UK under water? Imagine 500 000 000 people from Asia having to move from one country to another over 10 years - I can see a lot of line-up at the custom and the visa offices!!!And maybe some war on the back of it? How about fighting to live on a mountain?? How about fighting for water instead of fighting for oil?

That brings me to Quebec, Quebec needs to take the lead on managing its water reserves effectively. I am not too sure what is hapening in Quebec at the moment, but I hope the government is not selling our water to some stupid corporation (for silly money..) and stuff like that.. Certainly something to look into.. If I was journalist this is what I would be investigating day and nights!!

In a nutshell, Quebec is very well positioned to be a global leader in energy and ressources in the future, so let's make sure it doesn't screw up!

OK, have agreat week and don't worry too much about it, I have faith in the human race although I don't tryst anyone ;-) Think positive 'stie!

Ciao!

Video Percutantes!

Suivez ce lien pour une vidéo fort intéressante publié par Milot, voyez aussi mes commentaires parmis les autres commentaires.

Lien vers une video troublante.

En même temps, ca m'incite à me questionner sur internet et sur le pouvoir que ça a de changer nos vies, et encore plus probablement celles de ceux et celles qui n'ont jamais eu accès à l'information (lire les pays en voie de dévelopement et certains pays victimes de dictatures).

Ils doivent capoter quand ils réalisent que le monde est un peu pas mal beaucoup fou?!!?

Sur ces belles pensées je vous laisse!

Picture as promised!

Here is the picture from Kinky Mambo! At last! Seriously the "add image" function in Bloger is a little sensitive and random?! Anyway with a bit of imagination it does work!

Kinky Mambo!

Well,I have been pretty quiet this last week on my blog.. it's because this last week has been so quick! It was exactly 168 hours since I last wrote something, but it seems like this wasjust a few minutes ago.
Time goes by so: quickly; quickly..
In fact last week has been pretty busy, Wednesday I went to a kind of "pastorale" group where we had a discussion about Climate Change.. Some of this stuff is freakin' frightning! Island diappearing, more tornado, tsunami and tralala, millions (if not billions!) of people forced to emmigrate, but where?!!?

Thursday was a company drink to celebrate great financial achievement in Q2, since I joined in May, I was only allowed to finish 2/3rd of each drink ;-) Below is a picture of one and a half secretary, She is Emma Conigliaro and that's how she looked when I left!! Did you know that 12 2/3rd is equal to 8 drinks?!?!

Friday, ehh what did I doon Friday?? Oh yeah, I work till midninght again.. but it was sorta better than go out..exceot there were not so many great people!? I was working on a very interesting project, a project that could make a few people a little rich... but for me it's all about the fun!
Saturday I went to Kinky Mambo with Fern.I club that I wanted to try for a while. It was a great night til a stupid biatch try (and succeed) to still my drink that I just bought!? This was a frightning experience! It was a bloody long time since I met someone so bad, she stole my drink and although I spent 5 minutes to explain her the situation she seemed convinced like Jesus that she was right, the worst was to come I decided to be cool and go at the bar to tell the barman, and the stupid guy offers me a straw?!? He tells me to share, like I need anyone to teach me a lesson about sharing?!?!? Anyway I finished by shouting at the manger, poor Carlo (a German guy with a Spanish name and a Mexican face) he offered me to double my drink, but double or not I had enough, I don't like bad people.. so we left on this very sour note.. below is a picture of Fern and I before the incident,obviously, I'm all smilly ;-) (Actually the picture will follow in a separate blog, I'm having again soem problem posting pictures?!? I think there is a max of 2 pictures per blog?! If anyone knows about it, please let me know!!)
This whole experience gave me an occasion to put in practice my new philosophy of life (well new since Hong Kong...). Forgive quickly, kiss slowly, which I dramatically failed to put to practice.. shame on me! Oh well at the end of the day, it unfortunately reminded me why the world is such a mess, talk about climate change!
Then yesterday I had pancake with my flatmate Zane (picture shown below) and we watched Basic Instinct 2, a good but freaking movie! Poor guy, or poor girl?!? who is crazy?!? Me or the producer??

Then I invited Zane to the Church in Angel, for teh Sunday night Praise Night, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to sickness.. I did not realise the priest could be sick?!? Anyway we ended up having some Nacho in my favorite Mexican place, Desperados (just a few door form teh Kinky Mambo!). We walk back home to try and get rid of teh Nachosand the pancake (and the popcorn!)..
And this was my week in a nutshell! Nothing crazy but yet a crazy week!
Ok, hope you are doing well and talk soon!

Quiet Weekend

Apres tous ce qui a été dit, finalement j'ai rien foutu de tout le weekend.. et ce fût bon!
En fait j'en ai profité pour mettre de l'ordre dans mes trucs, et most importantly j'ai mis mon blog a jour..
Je vous invite entre autres a visité les blogs de Mathieu et Gabriel, mais surtout le fameux site des Québécois en Europe! (voir liens à droite de cette page..)
Sur ce bon weekend at souriez, c'est gratis ;-)

Saturday in a few minutes!

Well, forget what I said this morning! It looks like the day has been longer than what I expected!!!

We are approaching Saturday (less that 20 minuets here...) and I am still at work waiting for my "stichastic run" to finish..

Well while I was writing these lines it finished running.. it's working but the results are not quite as nice as I hopped :-( Oh well, it looks like I won't find the solution to the pension crisis in the UK today - well given there are only 2 minutes left to the day anwyay!!! I will just go to bed and Monday we'll try again!

Ciao guys!

Antoni

Friday.. Yippeee!!!

Yeah it's Friday!

A couple more hours of work and then take a seat, put your feet up abd enjoy the melody of the weekend! After a busy week, the weekend feel so good. as usual I don't have any plans.. maybe Cafe de Paris tonight, ou une soirée in the City??! Tomorrow, maybe a night out in METRA, question de pas perdre le beat! Sinon, p-e que je vais finalement pouvoir me reposer un peu, ca fearit du bien I think!

OK, I'm cycling to work now!

See you soon!

Happy Birthday Yin!!

Today is Yin's birthday, she is 22. I guess 22 Chinese years is the same as 22 Western years??!

Poor girl, she has to work today.. on her birthday :-( Below is a picture of her (in pink on the right) at the KTV Karaoke bar in Guangzhou taken in July this year.



Yin, have a super birthday - it's a shame I am not there, I would have taken you to the Karaoke! Have fun with your classmates at dinner tonight!

Antoni xxx

Another day at work

Hi guys

Another day at work, another day trying to change the world!

The picture below is a good exampleof interesting things I'm doing at Aon (my new company). There we tried to find an investment that would reduce the pension Scheme risk (or volatility of teh funding level for those interetsed). Looks like we managed to model something nice, on the left side pure UK equity return, on the right a combination of cash and call options...



What stands out is the reduced volatility (ie narrower range of possible returns out of 1,000 simulations) with teh cash + call option! All the credit to my colleague James and my boss Chris the Clever Squirrell!!

OK ciao, let me know what you think!

London weekend

Un autre Samedi, un autre soire au METRA... Beaucoup de musique, beaucoup d'amis, beaucoup de russe et une tcheck...




En bon représentant de METRA je me suis assuré que tout le monde ait du plaisir, y compris la Tcheck!

En passant, j'ai pas encore réussi à mettre mes photos sur le site.. jèy travaille, p-e flicker ou Yahoo! ou kodak, ca devrait etre la au plus tard le prochain weekend! Par contre je peux maintenant mettre qqs photos dans le blog.. un petit pas pour les bloggers et un grand pas pour moi!! ;-) Plus bas une photo avec Wang (sorry ca marche pas super bien encore! pas capable de mettre plus de 2 photos dans un texte... Milot help me!!!) le Vietnamien et une autre avec une de ses amie..





Continuer à commenter mes articles et me donner des news.. Merci à Milot the mooner boy pour le premier commentaires! Eh oui une autre liste de voyage, ce Parisien d'adoption n'arrête jamais.. De mon côté, ce sera un long weekend à Turin le 24 Novembre et Montréal du 16 décembre au 13 janvier.. Longue vacances de Noel et travail au travers de ca.. Looking forward to my new room in my new parent house...eh oui Tanguy rentre au bercail pour le temps des fetes! Si je continue, je vais battre le record de mon oncle Louis qui est resté chez ses parents jusqu'à l'âge de 33 ans, si on se fie à la légende!

7 fêtes en deux semaines dans mon entourage proche. William mon filleuil favori le 18, Véro le 21, ma plus belle des mamans le 23, Guillaume le 24, Dominic le 1 Octobre, Yin la Chinoise le 3 Octobre et Sylvie qqs part around le 15 Septembre... Bonne fête à tout le monde! Je vous aime et vous embrasse!

Une triste note; ce weekend une tragédie s'est produite au Québec. Un viaduc s'est effondré à Laval.. 5 morts un paquet de blessé, beaucoup d'incompréhension. Un accident horifique, une société traumatisé pour qqs mois, beaucoup de questions... Mes prières sont avec ceux qui sont touchés le plus directement par le drame. Je leur souhaite beaucoup de force et de courage.

Ok, au boulot mainenant. Bonne semaine!

Weekend à Rome

Bonjour à tous!

Me voici donc a écrire mon premier récit d'aventure! La dernière année a été pas mal rempli. je sais pas comment sera la prochaine, but let's hope it will be worth talking about!

J'ai passé la semaine dernière à Rome avec mon amie Sue. Elle y allait pour un ¨away day¨avec son groupe de travail. Comme je les connaissais (elle a joint Towers Perrin, la ou j'ai travaillé pour plusieurs année), I decided to crash their party!

À part le vol canceller, qui nous a obligé à poireauter à Standstead airport pour 5 heures, le week end a été merveilleux! Ca a pris une bonne heure et qqs 20 hotel avant de trouver une chambre, mais ca a vallu la peine, on est tombé sur un super chic hotel et ils nous ont fais un bon deal, bien sur après que je leur est fais des yeux doux...

Dimanche on a marché de la place du peuple jusqu'au colisé... 30 degrées celsius, gros soleil, des boutiques ¨class¨, des espresso à faire jouir, des belles italiennes, le bonheur total quoi!! Gros changement du 9 a 11 dans un bureau sous-climatiser et surpeupler de Londres! Mais faut souffrir un peu pour se réjouir!!

Le soir on est allé au resto et prendre un verre avec le reste du groupe, une belle soirée sur le bras de John, vive les Australiens en voyage!! Je vous recommende les photos, avec une trentaine ca représente un roman (a 1000 mots par photos ;-).

En gros un très bon weekend pour le moral! Ca mets les choses en perpective et ca incite a travailler fort pour quèil y ait dèaures voyages comme ca!

Bon, je retourne à mon train-train quotidien!

Ce soir on s'en va manger du Koréen à Piccadilly circus!

Je vais essayer de raconter qqs unes de mes aventures sur ce blog, question de faire savoir à ma famille et mes amis ce qui se passe de bon (ou de moins bon) avec moi! Je vous suggère de me donner des nouvelles via les commentaires à mes articles, baring inmind that everybody in the while wild world will read them ;-)

Ok, bon weekend et à bientôt!

My first post

Ca y est je me lance, Gab et Mathieu m'ont enfin convaincus de blogguer!
Voyons ce que ça va donner!