Ismar: I Think We Had More Interesting Childhoods When The Mayor asked about the games we loved to play as children, I did not think first about something very special. I thought about soccer. Maybe this is normal in Brazil. Maybe not only in Brazil. The first memory is not always the most important one,…
I knew before we started that this would be difficult. Some topics are easy for me. When we speak about customers, meetings, football, discipline, trust, preparation, I can find my way. These are things from my daily life. I know them. I live them. I can explain them with stories. But playful thinking? That was…
Monday morning, the 18th of May, The Mayor called me Mr. Brand, and I said, yes, here I am. I was ready for hedgehog. In our garden, we have five hedgehogs now, and somehow they had become the important people of the house. The Mayor said they had questions for me, because hedgehogs want to…
Episode 47 begins in the usual state of Peeling Potatoes readiness: technically live, spiritually scattered, and administratively suspicious. The Mayor is trying to make windows smaller, find his questions, check the episode number, remember what day it is, and pretend that twenty-five prepared questions means he is in control. Fruitloop calmly reveals that she has…
It was Friday, not Monday, and already that made everything a little bit different. Normally when The Mayor and I meet, it is Monday morning, eight o’clock, and the week is standing there with both feet on my chest. But this time it was Friday. The sun was shining, the engine was warm, the grill…
I am in Croatia at the moment, staying at a campsite near Rovinj. I thought I would send a few impressions. Not a big story this time, just some photos from the campsite and from the town. Rovinj is a beautiful place, with narrow streets, old houses, the sea, boats, and many small corners to…
This week was one of those weeks where the weekend was far too short, the white school socks refused to stay clean, and the house felt like it was spinning out of control. I can point to exactly one cause for this: life in the Fruitloop lane. Monday started as a slow morning, but the…
There are mornings when life feels beautifully organised. And then there are mornings when I leave my apartment on the 14th floor without my glasses and my phone. This Thursday’s Lunch meeting began exactly where many honest conversations begin: with someone saying, “I’m okay. Just okay.” That someone was me. Fruitloop greeted me warmly, already…
Join the conversation; come as you are. In May, our Theme of the Month is Play. Not just games or laughter, though we welcome both. Play is also curiosity, freedom, creativity, risk, imagination, and the small moments when language becomes less about being correct and more about being alive. Our Brida Tables are online conversation…
I already knew before the weekend even started that I would be tired. At work I was covering colleagues who were on holiday, and for two weeks it would continue like that. Four mailboxes to manage, different countries, different offices, different people asking for things at the same moment. Spain maybe open, maybe closed. France…
