One year ago, when leaving Calyon, I got a gift, what I would say, a "golden" parachute. It was in fact a real jump in parachute, at the airport of Le Havre. Because of  the deal I did with Axa in Brussels in September 2007, I didn't have the time to go there at the autumn of last year. During the Winter, it was the season for ice climbing and all free week-ends were already reserved for this activity. Second, jumping at 200km/h in the cold air is not really interesting.

During this Spring, I got work at home, thus, it was really difficult to find a week-end, and almost all week-ends were wet.

Finally, since the ticket I got to jump had an expiry (20th September 2 ...

As explained in this subtitle of this blog, it is my personal blog on it-quants... Personal, it means that I will use it on items not necessary professional. For instance, considering the renovation of my apartement, and since that I have some problems with a company, "specialised" in parquet flooring services, I will put there some information on it, and sorry, but at first, in French, in order to explain to all French potential clients what they could expect...

Fin février 2008, des devis ont été établis par la société SARL DPRB, domiciliée 278 rue de Rosny, 93100 MONTREUIL, pour la rénovation de mon appartement : peinture, faux-plafonds et pose d'un parquet. Les travaux ont commencé le 10 mars. J'ai été obligé d'utiliser de l'injonction de faire début juin pou ...

After 3 weeks in Bolivia, I'm back. The management of this website can continue: the roles of the in between registered users were updated today.

Concerning the holidays in Bolivia, after 2 weeks of altitude acclimatation - one week around the Titicaca lake and one week of trek in the Cordillera Real -, I had 2 peaks to climb: the Pequeno Alpamayo (5370m) and the Huyana Potosi (6088m).

Because of an edema of the face the last day, I could not climb the Huyana Potosi. The following picture represents the Pequeno Alpamayo, picture taken at 7am and just before final assault.

After one year without taking one day of holidays, it is time to take some and to go somewhere in South America. After three years without visiting these countries -I was already in Peru, Chile and Argentina -, I will go back there, in order to climb two little peaks (5400m and 6100m). During my absence, it could be that some rights will not be given as expected.... I will be back the 25th July.

For those who want to see more pictures of climbing and want to wait a little new pictures, they can go on the site of Poudre-Glace, a mountain guide agency, there: www.poudre-glace.com/albums/2008chamcogne/index.php.

If you have some problem to contact me on Friday or during the week-end, it is normal. On January and Februray, this is the Ice climbing season, it means that I am training some week-ends in the French Alpen, sharing my time between Brussels, Paris and Chamonix or Grenoble.

So don't be impatient to get some answer on the week-ends, I can answer only during the week.

For those who want to contact me or meet me, I'm working now in Brussels for an assurance/bank, making the migration of an Opics Misys system to the Sophis one.

That was not really the expected case when I left Calyon: I should have to work in fact for an english/chinese investment bank in Paris, but, because of some ununderstanding signature process and because of some budget reduction related to the subprime crisis, the intern project manager prevent me that I could not work for them the morning of the starting day of the mission, after two months of negotiation.

The contract in Brussels is a one-year contract, I will be free again at 30th september 2008, so, please, don't contact me before for other missions.

After 3 years at Calyon, London then Paris, working on Sophis toolkit in the IT FO Equity Derivatives team, I left this French investment bank. Yesterday was my last working day there. I will start a new mission in another bank on next week and will continue to work on Sophis products.

Looking at the logs of the web site yesterday, I wonder of the number of banks and funds, worldwide,  which are now connected. Even if people don't participate really in forums as I will - only few people are asking for information -, most of them are taking a look each day.

I left Sophis in 2000, working on Sophis Risque since 1998 and after the migration of this software from Mac platform to the Win32 one. Like other independent workers who left this company at the same time, like Hubert de Monts or Sam Lessani, I think t ...

Yeah, beautiful weather when rising the Stok Kangri, just a little sick at the beginning of the treck because of altitude illness, getting nausea and vomiting during the first three days: sure, directly sent at 5000m, I never saw such acclimatation, even in Peru or Nepal.

158 mails sent, and probably two times more to make sure every recipients would read it...

Yesterday, we (I and one my colleague, actually my former and soon-again-to-be boss) invited our beloved co-workers and pro. favored contacts for a leaving drinks. So many people, reflections of finally not so many years. But what years ! Man !
Paris, Tokyo, London ,and then the merger between Credit Lyonnais and Credit Agricole, back to Paris. So many people left (for as many different destinations !) and so many new hired to compensate or launch our lastest critical P-1 project (no, not this one, THIS one. Stop being silly ;o)  ).
So this was probably the last time so many people from here will have to actually LISTEN to what I had to say.
In two days from now, I'll bid all of them farewell. Oh, my sinking heart... When I dreamt it would be a life-long experience...
For the best or the worst, as in any union and split-up, ...

This blog entry is certainly the last before taking some holidays in Ladakh (Indian Himalaya), from 11th July to 28th July. But not the last post on this site: I will surely publish some resources before my departure.

During my absence, I will give administrator rights to Guillaume Leroy, in order to maintain a good reactivity on all subjects, from user registration to posts on forums.

Concerning the trip in Ladakh, I hope that I will have better weather than last year, in April 2006, in Nepal, when I attempted to reach the Mera Peak (6476m), but forced to turn back at the base camp (4900m), due to 3 days snow tempest. We got no news from people blocked at high camp (5500m). T ...