The boys have a rough week

On one level, Tris had a great week: He was elected Class Rep; came top in several of his exams and had the most positive parent's evening of his career in which almost all of his teachers said that he could do really well or was already doing really well at their subject. On another level, it was his worst week ever: The problem with the girls teasing him on the bus continued and two of his friends cut him out of things and then took his lunch and laughed about it - we've never seen him so down. Hopefully, things will improve after the New Year's holiday.

At work, Tim was busy trying to get his company's prospective Chinese partner to answer questions so that the two companies can sign an agreement when the Chinese team flies to London in two week's time; he was also trying to procure consultants to help him run the two projects that the Foreign Office is funding and was working horrible hours. All week, he was sandwiched between the UK Team that kept pushing for progress and generating new documents and the Chinese Team that kept failing to respond - value added = tiny; effort required = huge; extent to which he is enjoying his job = almost zero.