What a tournament this has turned out to be! I believe for the first time in history we’re having a World Cup semifinal round without Germany, Brazil or Argentina.

France have beaten Argentina and Uruguay, and have a devastating mix of pace and strength. Mbappe and Kante are playing the best football of their lives.

Belgium look super sharp on the counterattack with KdB, Hazard and Lukaku dispatching Brazil comfortably. I also read this interesting article on BBC that predicted Belgium to win the Cup at the start of the tournament.

Croatia’s famed midfield of Modric, Rakitic and co started very promisingly but seem to be running out of steam, just getting by a resilient Russia on penalties.

England are playing their first semifinal since 1990, going where their ​“golden generation” never did. They have had the easiest path in the tournament, but are displaying a calm belief and confidence missing in earlier editions.

So hard to predict anything further. I’m just going to sit back and enjoy!

Tale out of Sofia’s playgroup as told by her teacher today.

The kids were playing with the talking pen today. I told them to ask mock questions, and that the pen would respond.
Kid 1: Talking pen, what colour is this?
Kid 2: Talking pen, what animal is that?
Sofia: Talking pen, where is my sister Sasha?

Woah, I never thought I’d get here! Though I didn’t hit my goal weight of 64 kilos, I came close—I’m currently 67.5 kilos and still losing fat!

What you see above is a graph of my weight loss over the last 6 months, with the data taken from my Healthify.me logs.

It’s not just about weight though, that’s just a number—I feel so much fitter. I’m currently bench pressing around 90% of my body weight for 20 reps, which I’ve read is expected for someone at an intermediate fitness level. My stamina and confidence are at an all-time high.

I’m going to go after my original goal, though I realise the effort required here on out is going to increase and demand more of my time.

Gracias, Andres.

I joined DCCPER mid-2015 after connecting with Luke via Twitter a few months earlier.

From its humble beginnings; Luke, Joshua and Co scaled the team to over 60 employees and firmly established it as one of Goa’s most buzzing startups. During my first year here, I had the opportunity to work on some really cool projects for startups in India, Canada and the UK — under the mentorship of a British design director and a French CEO.

In my second year, I was given the opportunity to step up to design management. Though initially skeptical, I decided to give it a shot and it turned out to be one of the best professional decisions I’ve made. I led a team of 3 designers with varying skillsets in addition to my IC capacity, doing the best work of my life in this period.

Mid-2017, the company had a 37 Signals / Basecamp moment and we decided to put all our collective energy into Numadic—a supply chain visibility platform we had been working on many months prior. I came onboard in June that year.

At Numadic, I led the UX function across all touchpoints — reporting directly to Luke, collaborating with Product and Sales to decide what to build, leading the UX team to design and refine features and handing off to Engineering in a monthly release cycle. I also contributed in other ways like designing pitch decks for investor calls and meetings, designing collateral for recruitment drives and other such projects.

It’s been an excellent 3 years at DCCPER / Numadic, and I can easily say we had it all here — a highly talented diverse team, investor funding, exciting projects and products, a culture that rewards meritocracy, autonomy and ​“never settling”. For a team of our size coming from small villages and towns in Goa, it still amazes me how much we achieved in such a short span of time.

A big thank-you to Luke and Joshua, for always pushing and being there for me. Many thanks to my teammates, especially in the Design Team, for bringing out the best in me over the last 3 years. It’s time to move on to my next challenge, and I plan on taking a short break while I assess my options, and the path forward.

Final lunch with the Numadic UX Team at Goenchin. Wayne, Mushtaq and Yesh — you’ve been great designers, and even better human beings. It’s been a privilege working with you. I have no doubt you are all destined for great things.

I’ve been waiting for years to take the family to Agonda and Palolem—and we finally made it here this weekend.

These two are considered the last of the ​“virgin” beaches down South Goa — clean, calm and untouched by domestic tourists. I heard so many good things about Agonda from Luke, Wayne and others and I have to say it didn’t disappoint! Miles of beach stretching for as far as the eye can see, bounded by mountains and clear blue water.

It’s a good 2h drive to get there from Panaji, but it was totally worth it. We stayed at The Gardenia, which was located in between both beaches.

Now that the girls are a little grown up, we’re really looking forward to more trips like this.