Many years ago, when I was a young boy of five, my mother asked me about the highlight of my day. “Lunch,” I replied cheerfully, reassuring her that the thousands of dollars she was spending each year for my private education was money well spent. Always an overachiever, I managed to capitalise on my love of lunch and was awarded with the “Best Eater” award.

I know that Andy Warhol believes that we all get our 15 minutes of fame. I’m just concerned that by earning “Best Eater” in kindergarten, I might have peaked a little early. I’m imagining my obituary now.

But I digress. What do I love most about my new job? Is it the fact that I’m surrounded by hyper-intelligent colleagues who stimulate me and provoke lots of new ideas? Or is it the newfound responsibility that I’m enjoying most? Maybe it’s the chance to work with industry-leading clients at board level to deliver real change right across their business?

Nope, it’s the canteen. After years of eating in the mediocre canteens of some of the largest companies in the world, I’m absolutely blown away by the quality and variety of the food we have at our office. Today, for example, I had grilled lamb steak with a red wine and mustard reduction, served with sautéed baby potatoes and a trio of julienne vegetables. For dessert, I had a caramelised tarte tatin with crème anglaise. And a glass of fresh-pressed apple juice.

Frankly, it’s better – in terms of quality, presentation, and definitely in terms of value-for-money – than much of what I’ve had in many restaurants in the UK. And it’s leaps and bounds ahead of anything I’ve had in any other canteen, bar none. If the staff canteen is like this, I can only imagine the culinary delights that await me in the client entertainment rooms. I really am blown away.

So there it is. Nearly a month in the job and the highest praise I can offer is that “lunch is my favourite part of the day.”

Still, I suppose there’s something about maintaining purity of form. I look forward to my annual appraisal.

Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out. I think we must have the poshest canteen in the country. Lunch today was a starter of frogs’ legs followed by a main course of seared salmon, green peppercorn sauce, wilted leaves and sauteed new potatoes.

Not your typical school dinner!

My new employer is a big sponsor of the arts, and is currently sponsoring a Rodin exhibit at one of the London galleries that opens next week. By way of promoting it, they’ve commissioned a number of performance artists to interpret some of his pieces. These guys stood in our lobby, statue-still, for the better part of four hours.

Nearly statue still. One of them stuck his tongue out at me.

Way, way too creepy for 9am, if you ask me.

One of the reasons I wanted the new 35mm lens is that it captures the world very much as the human eye sees it, making it a great “walk-around” lens. To that end, I thought I’d include pictures of “us as we are.”

Jerome, surgically attached to his Blackberry

Matthew, pulling faces as usual

Aude, on the telephone

Daisy, cleaning her arse

Despite a late start, I managed to turn up to my birthday party in the end. It was fantastic, loads of food and great presents.

One of my presents was a lovely new 35mm lens for my camera, enabling me to take lots of great pictures. As you can see from the photograph above, the camera is no longer the weak link in the equation. (Aude will be receiving lessons in “how to use autofocus” shortly. In the meantime, please enjoy this blurry blob with a sharp brick wall in the background!)

It seemed like such a good idea at the time. Saturday was a warm, sunny day and the last little bit of the Indian summer that we seem to be having over here. Since I hadn’t had the Corvette out for a while, I thought I’d take the chance to take it out for a quick spin and give it a bit of a wash.

I made it as far as the petrol station about 8 miles from us before the ignition system on the car decided to give up the ghost – ironic as the previous owner had replaced the vintage mechanical ignition system with a modern electronic one to avoid problems like these!

There was a ‘modified car’ show in the area. All of which were breaking down left, right and centre. Which meant that I had to wait nearly six hours for a tow truck to appear.

No one wants to see their Corvette like this!

Which meant that I ended up being late for my own birthday party. My 31st year isn’t off to a stellar start!