The interesting bit to me, was when they tested my heart rate (resting, and standing), I actually, believe it or not, scored in the "athletic" range. Apparently my heart responds particularly well to stress (i.e. the stress of having to stand up), and between that and my resting heart rate, I'm actually tremendously fit. Admittedly, given how much and how hard I work with my personal trainer, the guy doing the assessment wasn't surprised by this. He said, "I'll bet you know you're strong. Yet, I'll bet you also know you weigh too much. And 70-80% of losing weight is diet. That's awesome that you work out so much, and definitely keep it up, but you've really already done about as much as you can do through exercise to lose weight, now you've got to focus on what you eat."
Also, when looking at my spine, I scored exceptionally well on posture, rather well on flexibility, and was told I need to work on my core more (but those are always the toughest exercises for me at the gym anyway!) Hence, although a confirmation of what I already knew, still nice to see it all confirmed through tests.
I then went back to the office to get some work done before I was due to meet my friend Rick, an old friend from Balliol who now works at Google. He e-mailed me in the middle of the day to suggest that we might ask the Young Dutchman to join us, given that the Young Dutchman is now working for Google.
I was running a bit late and so had to dash out to meet them both at the Google offices near Covent Garden, which thankfully turned out to be closer and easier to get to than the old ones. It was very funny to me to see the Young Dutchman dressed casually however, as he's normally in a suit most of the time when I see him!
We went for Vietnamese food at Rick's suggestion, to a little place in Covent Garden that he knew about. Interesting food, probably not what I would have gone for on my own, but a good change of pace and a great opportunity to try something different. And it was just a good opportunity to ask Rick about what was going on in his life, and hear from the Young Dutchman how his first days at Google were going.
Now, I love the Young Dutchman. Probably more than I love anyone who I'm not related to. But he was absolutely driving me nuts this evening with a funny tick that I'm sure he wasn't even aware of. Because as Rick and I discussed the Mission District in San Francisco, life in Singapore, the houses in Palo Alto and other places around the world, the Young Dutchman kept chiming in with things like, "Yeah, the Mission is great," or "Singapore night-life is insane". Except I just wanted to turn to him and yell at him, "How could you possibly know what the Mission district is like? You've NEVER been! And we both know that!"
Of course, I refrained, because I reminded myself that he's merely 24. When I was 24, I too wanted to seem worldly and well-travelled and talked about places I'd never been as though I were intimately familiar with them, because I didn't want to admit I had not travelled as far and wide as the company I was spending time with. Yet, I'm sure also at 24 I didn't realise how foolish this made me look.
So Rick and I would just catch each other's eyes and give a shrug, as we could afford to be generous with an over-eager 24-year old who wanted to prove himself. Yet, it did remind me of quite how young he is, even as some days he seems ready to take over the world, knowing everything and everyone in it.
As well, the Young Dutchman was rhapsodising about how amazing everything was at Google, which I'll admit is an amazing company, but what mildly irked me was that he was going on and on about things that happen at my company too. Like having a boss who helps you find new roles internally, or getting access to data that you need. It was a losing argument, as in his mind, no company could be as great as Google, but I was annoyed at how I couldn't make him understand that there are lots of good companies out there, that not every company seeks to destroy the souls of its workers in cubicle farms. I'll admit, I haven't been totally thrilled in my job as of late, but all of a sudden I found myself hugely defensive of my company, which all things considered is a really good employer. There was no convincing him however, as in his mind Google was the only company worth working for, and anyone who didn't work there was living in some corporate hell. And so he continued bragging about things at Google, as I muttered under my breath, "But that happens at my company too", while Rick just shook his head at me, as though to telepathically say, "Don't crush the bright young thing, life will do that to him soon enough." He's right, I know, and I need to be more understanding of the Young Dutchman's over-eagerness.
After dinner, we weren't quite ready for the evening to be over, so we walked to a pub nearby that I'd never been to, that happened to be Dutch! Rick got the first round of drinks and the Young Dutchman got the second, about the first time he's ever paid for ANYTHING with me (although I suspect he was wanting to make a good impression on Rick, who he sees as an older-brother figure). Although I laughed, in typical style, the Young Dutchman managed to chat up the barmaid when he got our drinks (although it probably helps that she was Dutch!)
Finally, we reached the end of the evening and parted ways, while Rick walked me back to the Tube, and talked to me a bit about how much the Young Dutchman had been pressuring me to come work for Google. He asked, "You two have a somewhat co-dependent relationship anyway. Could you really work together?" And I had to laugh as I thought about it, and told him, "Honestly? He's just about the only friend I really could work with."
As indeed, despite his capacity for driving me nuts at times, he's also one of my favourite people to bounce ideas off of, to simply hunker down and program with, or just spend more than 24 hours a day with. So yes, maybe that's where we're headed. They say you spend more time with your work colleagues than your spouse, and so perhaps that is exactly what I should do, is spend time with the one guy I could spend more time with than a spouse!
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