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Lovely autumnal weather as I flit between commitments. Today it involved being vaccinated with the latest COVID booster at Essex House, hard by Barnes Pond, then back in time to welcome Gaia and Adam to continue work on our wildlife pond. Gaia brought three mongrel goldfish to start cleaning up the mosquito larvae in the pond. Other than that, October has included such things as:

Have also been working on the new book in fits and starts, realigning the content to the new title: Running Up The Down Escalator: How We Failed To Save The World – But Still Could.

After breakfast with Charlene (Cranny, from Volans) and Christian (Scarf), Marie (Sauvignon) and Sophie (Öberg) from IMS, Charlene and I worked for several hours, then made our way across to the Forum venue, Luxexpo’s ‘The Box’. Made some wonderful connections at and around the Forum today. Some fairly deep conversations with everyone from Environment Minister Joëlle Welfring to a psychology student from Germany, Joanna Krupp, in what she told me was her her first properly public speech. A number of invitations to come back, which I am very inclined to do.

Then flew home, dropping off to see Louise on the way, to discuss our Neste session in Finland from Sunday, before heading Barnes-ward to carry out one of the Zoom interviews for our new Crown Estate project – and another with Dean Hand, Chief Research Officer at the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), finalising my presentation for their upcoming conference in Den Haag.

Flew in to Luxembourg this morning via BA, after a very early start. Plane made an automatic landing because of thick/low fog. Reading Douglas Roushkoff’s book, The Survival of the Richest on the flight. Very impressed by the city’s free trams, which we rode to the hotel. Then worked energetically in Novotel before walking across to this evening’s event, hosted by Inspiring More Sustainability (IMS) with Charlene Cranny of Volans.

Sat next to – and later spoke alongside – Economy Minister Franz Fayot. Fascinating conversations and was stunned by the architecture of – and around – La Table du Belvédère. Already lots on invitations to come back, or to speak in other EU countries.

The latest in my Green Swan conversations reworked by Topia features sci-fi giant David Brin. What a joy!

After getting back into São Paulo from Paraná, Louise and I were picked up by Nina, a sister of a friend of Louise’s in Denmark, who drove us to Vila Madelena. We walked around this high creative quarter of the city, centre of bohemian culture and art. A visual feast. Fascinating visit to a cooperative supermarket. Lovely lunch in a small café, though – by no means atypically – I left my bag there and we had to retrace our steps to retrieve it.

Then we took the subway to the city’s main avenue, Paulista Avenue. There we went to a high observation point to look across the city, before taking a cab back to the hotel.