A couple of weeks ago (time flies these days) I've attended a lecture by Sir Ranulph Fiennes at the Royal Geographical Society. In short Ran was a polar explorer but lately attempted Everest twice, climbed Eiger north face (as an attempt to cure his vertigo) and ran 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents... and all that after a coronary bypass following a heart attack. In other words, it was a pretty motivational conference, giving loads of good ideas ;) . But also showing that willingness can overcome pretty much everything...

with Ran

After the lecture, as I was asking for an autograph, Ran realised I was French and started to tell me (in French) about his French ancestor Eustache Fiennes emigrating to England along with the Norman invasion. Indeed his family used to live in the eponym village in the North of France. He surprised me a bit as he mentioned that his ancestor actually killed the English King Harold II at Hastings. It is assumed that he was wounded and/or killed by an arrow in his eye, but Ran suggested that his opportunistic ancestor used the occasion to finish him off with a large axe. That somehow reminded me a bit of Capitaine Haddock talking about his ancestor the Knight François de Hadoque.

Ultra motivation.