Last Sunday I was on my way back from Denmark. Seated in 26B, between a fish-eyed Dutch guy and a juvenile Russian girl wearing her older sister’s shoes and her mum’s eau de toilette.

As the seatbelt sign went off I grabbed my Moleskin to do some scamping. I typically find my best eureka moments appear seven miles above the ground. Probably because I’m terrified of flying and don’t want to kick the bucket before having had a great idea.

After roughly five scamps I got the sense that the Dutchman was inspecting my Moleskin with interest.

I scamped harder. Who knows who he might be.

A few minutes later I realised little miss sunshine on my left had joined in on the fun. My Moleskin had been challenged by a lavender ‘My Little Pony’ notebook accompanied by a pen with a unicorn rubber tip.

Bring it on.

I hunched over my notebook, only to notice her unicorn pen had already perfomed more drawings than my Staedler. The humiliation.

She had produced about thirty scamps in two minutes.

I could do better.

But before I could say vodka she had moved on to storyboarding TVCs. Damnit. She was on a rampage.

I began to scamp websites, apps and ambients just to show her I was a 360°, integrated, cross-media creative.

I squinted at her immature notebook again. She had flipped over a new page  and was scribbling away under the title ‘Song lyrics’.

This was a battle I couldn’t win.

I was beaten, smashed, outscamped. By a nine year old. I could tell by her lurid eyes, that she’d done it on purpose. She truely was thinking like a child. I couldn’t keep up. Maybe I’ve lost my own inner child or chimp or guts. Maybe it was the air pressure, the bad coffee or the dodgy Dutchman.

Whatever it was, I couldn’t keep up.  She on the other hand had no issues splurting out ideas from all thinkable angles. All I can say for sure is, if she keeps thinking like a child, you’ll find her in Cannes.