Now we are one

Yet another anniversary: I've been "hanging out" with you for exactly one year today, Sam, having arrived in Sao Paulo to meet you on October 27, 2010. Feels like a hell of a lot longer to me, and probably like a lifetime to you. 5.44 am. I'm staring at the nearly completed Shard, through my bedroom window, our window, a giant lighthouse on the doorstep. There was a lot less of it, and the beacon less bright, when your journey began here in this cosy corner of a foreign field. January 17, 2010, according to some sources.

Playing the price

A Brazilian woman, mother of one, at a recent playgroup in Oxford: "In Rio we owned our own place and earned more; here we are renting and on lower salaries. But with all the subsidised or free services available to you as a parent, as well as all the other things that make life here so much easier, we feel wealthier living in the UK."

Brazil is calling

So said the huge, wrap-around billboard ad on the Waterloo IMAX cinema, as we strolled in central London today. I turned to P and said: "Don't answer ! Let it ring."

A Job well done

Like many, I feel a sense of loss and sadness today that I can't imagine applying to any other fallen "business leader". With his "Just one more thing" presentations, Steve Jobs always represented the future rather than the past - the cutting edge in technology with a human face.

As someone just posted on Twitter, "Steve Jobs was born out of wedlock, put up for adoption at birth, dropped out of college, then changed the world. What's your excuse?"

I previously mentioned the Apple founder on this blog and also referred to his famous address to graduating students. Jobs may have been very tough as a boss - perhaps even cruel at times - but his humanity and vision is what we all remember as an era finally draws to a close.

RIP Steve.

Update: Interesting obit in the Telegraph, not always flattering.

Update 2: Beautiful tribute from his sister Mona.