Today I chaired the traditional Monday morning management board meeting and then hot-footed it to Zaventum for the afternoon flight to Warsaw. Tomorrow the European Economic and Social Committee’s Bureau will be holding a special conference, under the aegis of the Polish Presidency, on the theme of ‘Sources of Sustainable Growth after the Crisis.’ This evening our hosts, the Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, spoilt us wonderfully with a welcoming reception at the Water Palace or Lazienki Palace (1689), the summer residence of the last king of Poland and one of the few architectural gems of the city to have more-or-less survived the terrible ravages of tha last war. That would have been great but the extraordinary icing on the cake was a masterful piano concert, performed by Kayo Nishimizu (here’s a video of her in action on another occasion) of no less than nine Chopin masterpieces, culminating, of course, with the ‘Polonaise’. My job provides moments of unforgettable cultural privilege for which I will be forever grateful: for example, my time alone with Magritte’s Empire of Light; the Escher museum in The Hague just last week; and now, this evening, Chopin at the Water Palace in Warsaw. Unforgettable and simply sublime.