1. The world’s most expensive croissant
Last week, I learnt that I should probably start keeping receipts and checking the card reader before I tap it…
On a recent holiday to France for my sister's wedding, I dutifully headed to the local supermarket to resupply the 16 hungry guests staying at the venue, after which, I nipped into the closest boulangerie for a croissant beurre. The croissant was two Euros and remarkably average, by French standards, which is to say, world-class compared to the rest of the world.
I think about croissants multiple times a day, but I thought nothing more of this specific croissant until a few days ago when performing my monthly audit of my credit card statement. Immediately, I could see something was off, and it didn’t take long to see why…a charge of £1,760 (2,000 EUR) came into focus, causing sweat to start beading on my receding hairline and my heart to start racing. I racked my brain to try and remember if I’d spent almost 2 grand on something in the last few weeks, and quickly concluded I hadn’t. As is often the case, the merchant name on credit card statements can be quite cryptic, so it took me a few minutes to figure out that my small, post-supermarket croissant had cost me 2,000 EUR, presumably due to the errant placement of a decimal point on the card reader. Before frantically calling my credit card company to perform a chargeback, I briefly allowed myself to revel in setting the new world record for the most expensive croissant. Incidentally, the next most expensive is 10x cheaper and isn’t even French!
I’m often quite scornful of my parents for keeping receipts every time they buy something, and even more so at my Dad, who keeps a handwritten ledger of his transactions in his cheque book (yes, they still exist). He cleverly rounds up each entry, meaning that he always has more money in the bank than he thinks. As usual, their habits aren’t luddite and old-fashioned, just commonsense and sensible. Perhaps I should rename this newsletter to “lessons from my parents”.
2. Quick-fire things I learnt last week
In 2014, coal made up almost half of Greece’s energy generation. Just a decade later, solar and wind have tripled to 43%, with coal now only accounting for a meagre 6%. Go Greece!
The therapist and writer Sheryl Paul defines anxiety as "a feeling of dread, agitation, or foreboding associated with a danger that does not exist in the present moment." - spot on!
A Socratic principle that is more relevant than ever: Knowing what is right, over being right.
At the time of writing, we are 49.47% of the way through 2025.
Have a great week, all 🙏