GAAAHHHHH!!!

This is handy! Really handy! It's 11:00pm and I'm in the computer centre. I have to give my project presentation tomorrow at 10:00am. This presentation is to convince "the panel" that I am on top of my work with my project, that I'm going to complete by the deadline, and that my project shouldn't be demoted to a half unit one.
So, why am I in the computer centre? Because my computer has decided that tonight would be a good night to die!
This is going to be fun!

GAH!

Well, after a highly unproductive weekend which seems to have vanished into nothing, followed by a successful Young Enterprise sales today and Friday, I am now faced with the task of completing a mountain of work, the majority of which is due this week. I have to hand in/present/do the following:
Monday whenever I get it done - Young Enterprise Posters
Tuesday 9:00 - French Written Coursework
Tuesday 12:00 - Weekly Meeting with my Project Supervisor
Tuesday 16:00-17:00 - Man Young Enterprise Stall
Tuesday 19:00 - Photography Society
Wednesday 10:00 - Project Presentation
Wednesday 20:00 - Karate
Thursday 9:00 - French Oral Presentation
Thursday ~14:00 - Computational Optimisation Coursework
Friday - Wander round the Art/PhotoSoc Exhibition and look at my photos

Next Thursday I also have a piece of Compilers Coursework to hand in and at some point I also have to write a letter to France to try to get out of paying the council tax they're charging me for (€266 - more on that when I've got time!).

This is going to be fun!

(Oh, and I've run out of milk for coffee!)

A Reunion

I had a great weekend this, erm, weekend. Friday night we all got dressed up as Pirates for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" night at the union. As usual we got together for pre-union drinks (the music is always more palatable after some alcohol) and, as it was a Pirate themed night, someone had brought rum so there was an interesting combination of drinks on offer. Thankfully I was sensible - I've no desire to recreate my 18th birthday which, for those of you who weren't there, finished with me being unable to walk unassisted.
When we got to the union there was a steel drum band playing. Normally I quite like this music in a relaxing on the beach sort of setting. I'm by no means the best dancer but despite that I don't think a steel drum band is the best choice for a union night. We didn't stay long as a friend of a friend (who was visiting) had over indulged a bit and was feeling quite ill. So, we did the natural thing and went back to order pizza.
I had been a bit worried about Saturday morning. I was going on a trip with the Photography Society and had to be at the station for about 10:20am. I haven't been sleeping very well recently (going to bed at 3am probably doesn't help) and after having been to the union, I wasn't sure if I'd manage to wake up.
Anyhow, somehow I did wake up and made it to the station where I met the others and we waited for a train before running the length of it (in the pouring rain) trying to find a carriage in which the passengers weren't already squashed up to the doors. We did that twice but eventually got to London.
We were going to see an exhibition called "Twilight" at the VA museum. It offered 8 rooms displaying works by 8 photographers. As the name suggests, the theme was of photos taken at twilight and how the lighting portrays different moods and qualities to pictures taken during the day. Many of the works were excellent however, I found the exhibits themselves were too poorly lit in many cases to be able to appreciate the photos. Anyhow, it's inspired me a bit to go around and see if I can take any good photos at twilight around campus. If I do so in time I might be able to submit them for the upcoming PhotoSoc Exhibition at the the Student's Union.
When we'd finished I made my way to Stockwell to meet up with 2 guys (and the girlfriend of one of them) who I lived with in my second year. Due to my year abroad, I am a year behind them now. They have both graduated and have "proper" jobs and seem to be doing pretty well for themselves. I was glad to meet up as they are good friends and we don't see each other enough nowadays. In the evening, we went out and met with another girl we'd shared the house with. We picked up some curry and went back to hers to chat, eat, and drink beer. I had a great time catching up and reminiscing about the antics we got up to that year (turning the contents of her room upside down...and then putting it back again because we thought she might not see the funny side, mowing the lawn in unusual shapes, dropping a plastic duck out of the bathroom window,...). Around midnight, we left to catch the tube back to the guys' house where I stayed the night. We spent Sunday chatting and eating pizza and then I left in the afternoon to head back to uni. I really enjoy meeting up with them all but it makes me wish I was in their position
- earning money, living in London, having free weekends,....
So, after a good weekend, I'd better get on with the work I should have done....

Impossible

It's impossible. I give up!
I had previously never started a piece of French coursework before about 10pm the night before it was due in. I thought that I would try and buck this trend by writing the 600 word comparison of 2 newspaper articles today (today is Saturday, it's due in on Tuesday morning at 9). It's now after 2 in the morning and I've only managed 278 words.
I must stress that this isn't because it's difficult and I've spent the entire day researching and racking my brains trying to work out what to write. Oh no! It's just soooo mind numbingly dull and tedious that I've managed to procrastinate most of the day away into oblivion. I feel so uninspired to write anything that I've decided to leave the rest until Monday night. I even have notes so it shouldn't be too difficult. I'm just counting on the fact that I will have no choice about doing it then will mean that I will have sufficient motivation to put fingers to keyboard and type out some gibberish.
This wasted day has taught me to stick to tried and tested methods. Perhaps this is a lesson that I should not try to change life habits and get work done early.

Flat Forehead Syndrome

Being a student is a tiring occupation, however I've been surprised at just how many people have been falling asleep in class. I haven't done it...yet....although 2 hours of Computational Optimisation will make most people sleepy. What's more surprising is that people aren't just falling asleep in lectures, but also in seminars, when the teacher is only about 10ft away from them.
This reminds me, I need to get hold of some of those caffeine mints...

My Week

I've decided to rename the days of the week to fit my current lifestyle.
The week starts with:

• "Mad Panic Monday" as I realise how little work I've got done, and how much needs to be done, for....
• "Shitty Tuesday", which starts with a rubbish French class at 9, is followed by a 1 hour break in which I try to convince myself that i do have something to show my project supervisor, followed by my advisor meeting, then lunch, then 2 hours of computational optimisation in which I try not to fall asleep (but almost fail). Next is...
• "Weekend Wednesday" because "Shitty Tuesday" is over and, whilst I don't have any lectures I do have stuff to do. I will convince myself that I have a whole week to get work done before next Tuesday (whilst knowing that the majority will be done on Monday). This is followed by...
• "Tongue-tied Thursday" as I have Pratique de l'Oral at 9 am and will be tired and unable to speak French properly from staying up until 2 completing the preparation for the class. Next would have to be...
• "Freedom Friday" as the week is finally over (and it starts at 12). I'll treat myself to an afternoon "off" and do basic stuff like go shopping or do washing. This is predictably followed by...
• "Sleepy Saturday" on which I make no effort to get up before 12 as I'm a student and I'm tired. Finally,...
• "Study Sunday" is spent procrastinating on Facebook with my work laid out in front of me.

And there we are, a typical week.

Like getting blood from a stone

I gave up on the French last night. I read the front of the booklet we were given at the start of term and it said we just had to prepare notes ready to do the synthesis in class. There were 10 of us today. The lecture starts at 9 am which is never a good time for a lecture as everyone's tired. Nonetheless, yet again we had the majority of the class sitting in silence will I and 3 or 4 others made all the input. I can't say my points were particularly good but it got to the point where the teacher had waited so long for someone to say something that I just made any comment about the texts, no matter how poor it was, just in the hope of encouraging some dialogue. I could kind of understand if we were all in the 1st year and a bit shy about talking French BUT WE'VE ALL BEEN ON OUR YEAR ABROAD! We've lived in French speaking countries and spoken the language with natives. Surely it shouldn't be difficult to speak to each other. If she doesn't know it already (she's French), I'm going to teach the teacher the expression "Like getting blood from a stone" so she use it when she describes our class to the other lecturers.

Stupid French

I'm getting a bit fed up of my French courses. Sitting here, at 11:30 pm, the night before a French lecture, attempting to stick together 600 odd words about 2 articles I care very little about, I wonder what the point of these French courses is. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be studying French, however the modules that I have to do offer very little...of anything.
I have 2 hours a week of French from 2 half unit modules: Pratique de l'Ecrit and Pratique de l'Oral, a writing and a speaking class. Every year the structure of the courses is the same. For Ecrit we have to read an article/text or 2 and write some sort of summary or synthesis by following a strict format. There is very little chance to express anything in the way of personal opinion and the courses offer very little in the way of useful skills.
The speaking class fares little better. The first 2 years were quite good as they involved analysing adverts in the 1st year and films in the 2nd. This year we are focussing on written texts but, as with the writing class, we are forced to follow a particular format in order to gain the marks.
Our coursework for this module revolves around a presentation on a text as well as a debate. The debate this year will be a bit of a farce I expect. There are only 3 people in my class. One person will "chair" the debate while the other 2 of us argue our various points. I can only hope that we have opposing views otherwise the debate will be very short!
The upside to having just 3 people in the class means we all have to speak. In this way, my oral class contrasts nicely with my writing class in which there must be about 16 people...and no-one speaks. We all sit there with our work in front of us and the teacher asks a question about it. I contribute in classes however I don't like to always be the first one to say something.
So, we all sit there until I or one of the few other contributors gets fed up of the silence and answers the question.
I'm certainly not brilliant at either of the classes but it's difficult to feel enthusiastic about these classes especially when the material is so uninspiring.
Ah well, back to work.

Facebook

I think this song speaks for itself and pretty accurately describes how a lot of today's students spend their time: "On the Facebook".
For those that don't know, Facebook is a social networking site grouped into communities of educational establishments. You can see profiles of people at your uni but need outside people to add you as a friend before you have access to theirs. The site recently made some controversial changes which mean that most of your actions - such as posting a message on someone's wall, changing you photo, adding details about yourself and suchlike - are made known to your friends through a sort of news feed. Whilst this has many good aspects as it can make you feel more in touch with all the people you've added as your friend (even though you barely know a lot of them), it does make it a lot easier to stalk people....

It is inadvisable to eat wasps

A few friends came over last night. AS the night drew on, we were getting hungry and decided to order a pizza. We settled on Domino's "Meltdown" which offers three different levels of spiciness. We went for level 2 which, along with the meatballs, Jalapeno peppers, chilli cheese and American mustard, also adds fresh red chillis.
I'm quite glad that we didn't go for level 3 as that would have added chilli flakes which would have filled in the small gaps where there wasn't already something hot.
As it is, after the last slice which appeared to have more chilli slices than pizza, I feel a bit like I've eaten a wasp.

Smarter than you!

The British are more intelligent than the French!
I base this on the fact that, whilst the guy who took over my internship in July (who is now back at uni) has 35 hours of lectures per week, I only have 8. This can only mean that the French are less intelligent and subsequently need more tuition. There's no other way to look at it.

Damn Freshers!

Gah, stupid freshers! Not only did we have a fire alarm this morning (ok, 9:45 wasn't such an unreasonable time I suppose) but I think I'm getting Fresher's Flu. Ok, so it's more like a slight cold but I feel like blaming someone.

Enterprising

I've joined Yound Enterprise this year. I did it in College and i think it's a great scheme. Essentially you set up and run a business for the duration of the academic year. It's great at giving you an insight into how a small business can function and really helps develop interpersonal skills.
At college we made personalised, printed T-Shirts and we are probably going to end up doing something similar this year (although hopefully better). I'm a little dissappointed that there isn't any sort of inter-university competition but we may try and organise something with other local unis.
There is one potential issue: I'm the only guy...in a group of about 10. Ok, on the one hand I'm single,....but on the other hand (and without meaning to be too sexist), how easy it to get 9 women to agree on anything?

Blackout!

Yesterday saw the end of the world! Ok, I'm exaggerating a lot but there was certainly a lot of inconveniece caused. At about 12:30pm, there was a power cut to the university (and to Egham so someone said however this is just hearsay). This meant that, apart from there being no lights or power (obviously) there was no access to the network, and no water (I assume it's pumped everywhere). Some lecturers decided to cancel their lectures but, unfortunately, mine didn't so I had to sit through 2 hours of Computational Optimisation, in a dark room, with, well, lets just say he's not the most charismatic lecturer we have.
Afterwards, I came back to my room, and was feeling quite tired so I decided to lie down for a while until the photography social I was due to go to at 7:00pm. I turned my radio on so that, when the power came back on, it would wake me up....... Eventually I woke up at about 6:45pm of my own accord, slightly disorientated as you don't really notice how much abient light is provided until it's gone. I headed off to see if the social was still on despite the blackout. It was and by then a lot of places had lights back on but I gather the power was restored to my halls at about 7:30pm.
Not quite sure what caused the power to be out for so long but I seem to remember power issues at the start of other years. I'd make some joke about them not paying their bill....but I can't be bothered.

What a way to wake up

Before I went to sleep the other night, I tuned my radio into a random station so I'd wake up to music rather than "Nick Ferrari - God of Radio" (ok, that's not quite his tagline but it sounds like the sort of thing he thinks) on "London's LBC". The following morning, I woke up to Johnny Vaughan on Capital FM interviewing none other than David Hasselhoff! They played his new single which has to be one of the funniest/cheesiest things I've heard in ages. Below is the video for your viewing pleasure.....

Well, I feel safe!

The inevitable happened today. I have a swipe card to access my building, flat and room. When I enter my room I have to put the card in a slot by the door so that the lights work. It's all very fancy but doesn't seem to take into account that people will often want to go from their room to the kitchen without locking their door.
Anyhow, today I did that and accidentally locked my card in my room. So, off I went to the "New Halls Reception" to ask for a temporary card to get back into my room. The conversation went something like this......

Me: "Hi, I've locked myself out of my room"
Receptionist: "Ok, what room are you in?"
Me: "XXXXXX hall, Block X, Flat XX, Room X"
Receptionist: [Looks for number to program temporary card which is on a paper list sitting on the desk] "Ok, here you go. Bring the card back next time you pass"

Note that at no time did she ask who I was, did she verify that the name I gave was that of the person who rents my room, nor did she take note of who she had given the temporary card to. So now I have a card which, now that I've used it to get in my room, can't be used again (it's one swipe only)..........unless I go on ebay and buy a magnetic card reader/writer. All it would then take is for someone to distract the receptionist while I run off with the list of codes and everyone would be receiving second hand laptops and stereos for Christmas!

Obviously it's unlikely to happen, but if one person can think of it then why not more? I'm going to mention it to the manager of the halls if I can and hope it was just a mistake.

The Ice Palace of Temptation

I've just been to Tesco in Egham to get essential stuff like a whisk so I can make pancakes. Whilst I was there I went into Iceland to see what was on offer. I had forgotten what a magical place it was! 2 Pizzas for £1.50, Ready-Meals £1 each, 6 fish fillets for the price of 6! I'll soon become fat from all this frozen goodness.

Stand in line and empty your wallet at the door!

So, this being freshers week, I went along to the Freshers Fayre today. I've decided I'm going to be far more involved with societies than I have been before. Plus, I don't know many people here so I need to try and make as many friends as possible.
This year I've joined: the French Society (£5), the Photography Society (£5), Ninjitsu (£7 with the first training session being free) and I'm going to sign up to Karate (£7 possibly with a free first session). On top of that everyone who wants to join a society has to buy sports insurance (£6), plus I also got some room contents insurance (£79) which is cheap until you factor in insuring a laptop.
I also signed up for the Milkround which is a free service which sends details of carreer and internship opportunities, and some Entrepreneur thing (I couldn't really hear as we were right next to a speaker in the uni hall but it was free). I'm probably going to take a look at joining the Tech crew at the union if I've got any time. They do the sound and lighting for union events and, as well as being interesting, it's also paid!
I didn't do too bad for freebies either. There was someone from The Happy Man (a local pub) giving out vouchers for a free drink, I got some cinema vouchers, a notebook, some Haribo, and some condoms which inevitably get thrown out at student events such as these.

Level Up

I've just been to the language department "Welcome Party". It was mainly attended by final years and it seems that, now that we're back from our year abroad, we qualify for the next level in small talk.
No longer are the first questions someone asks us, "Where are you from?", "What are you studying?" or "Where are you living?", but rather "Where have you been?" and "What did you do?". I could read this as the establishment of a whole new pecking order of who had the most successful year, who went to the most exotic destination, who got the best results and who had the most rewarding experience........but then again, it could be just another topic of small talk.

The Forgotten Student

Computer Science is a normal degree course. French is a normal degree course. Computer Science with French is not a normal degree course and as such everyone seems to forget about me (I'm talking about admin people here). No-one seems to know about my course and so I end up telling the admin people things they should already know. I went to hand a form in at the French office and was told that I wouldn't have to do the oral exam as, now that I've changed to Computer Science with French the year abroad doesn't count. Erm, wrong. I showed the lady the piece of paper from Comp. Sci. describing the courses which clearly states that I have a year abraod between my second and final years which is organised by the French department.
Ah well, it'll all get sorted eventually.

Back at Uni! Huzzah!!!

Finally, university has started! I moved back up on Sunday with everything packed into my Beetle. The car made it without any problems and, unlike when we'd packed it for a car boot sale earlier in the summer, I could see out of the windows this time (which does help when you're going along the M25).
I'm staying in Gowar, one of the new halls, this year. Rooms are arranged in flats of 8 ensuite bedrooms with a shared kitchen and mine is at the end next to the kitchen. Considering the halls are 2 years old I expected them to show at least a little sign of having been lived in but they are almost pristine. I say almost because my sink has a crack in it where the building is still settling and things in corners keep breaking but that is being replaced.
It hasn't taken long for things to begin to feel normal again. For instance last night (my second night here) we had our first fire alarm go off due to someone spending too long in the shower with the door open, or having a candle in their room, or something along those lines. As usual it was at midnight but it's the little things like being woken up in the middle of the night by a loud, high pitched noise that make things feel familiar.
I don't have much on this week as it's fresher's week which is basically just a week to spend queueing and doing admin stuff. As I'm doing a weird course combination (Computer Science with French) things aren't straightforward for me. For example, my college card expired at the end of June so I have to get a new one. I also have to get a new NUS card (as we do each year) but can't get that until I've got my college card....which they aren't issuing until next week. Oh, and I didn't receive the email about the French oral exam which was sent a month ago and so I only found out the details by chance last week when I asked a friend.
Still, I didn't get eaten alive when I went to hand in a form at the Computer Science office. It's often hit and miss as there are 2 secretaries and only one of them seems to be nice at any one time....and it's not always the same one.
I've got my timetable and have 8 or 9 hours of lectures per week (plus a meeting with my project advisor) and I have Mondays and most Wednesdays off so there's plenty of time to drink study.
Tomorrow I'm going to work on preparing for this oral exam and then there's the Fresher's Fayre to battle through on Thursday/Friday and my exam on Friday.

A wonderful time at Blackgang Chine

I'd forgotten how much fun it could be to act like a kid.
On Sunday I went to the Isle of Wight with a couple of friends. We went to Blackgang Chine for the day to celebrate the birthday of one of them (which was on Monday). Blackgang Chine can, loosely, be described as a Theme Park - it is a park, with attractions, different "lands", and even a rollercoaster. However, if you take a look at the website, you will notice that it doesn't quite match Alton Towers for thrills. We made the most of what was there and had a great time acting like children. The "Funny Mirrors" are indeed very funny and are an excellent way to enter the park (ok, perhaps a hint of sarcasm there).
The rollercoaster there gives some hope of including a thrill in the day, however I'm afraid in this case it's important to emphasise the "coast" in rollercoaster (for 2 reasons in fact - it's slow AND it's next to the coast!). Indeed, the bus journey was more sickening than the rollercoaster. It took 2 different bus rides to get from Ryde to the Park (which is on the south of the island) and we decided to sit on the top deck of the double decker bus. I should point out that this was a bit of a novelty as we don't use buses often (sad I know). It was only during the journey that we realised just how hilly the Isle of Wight is.
Although definitely for the child in you, if you do ever take a trip to Blackgang Chine, I can particularly recommend the "Funny Mirrors", the rollercoaster, the knobbly dinosaurs and of course I mustn't forget the gnomes!

Congratulations!

Unfortunately, due to my "no-names" policy with this blog, this post isn't going to be very good to anyone other than my friends from home. But anyway....

Congratulations to my two good friends who got married last Saturday. I wish them both every success and hope they will be very happy together.

With them getting hitched and other friends getting jobs etc having graduated this summer, I'm beginning to feel a little left behind. Still, I'm really looking forward to getting back to uni.

Big City Life

I went to visit some friends this weekend up in London. I've decided I'm going to be living there once I've finished uni.
I went up on Friday afternoon to meet a couple of good friends I lived with in my second year of uni. They have a 2 bedroom flat in Clapham North and are about 5 minutes walk from Brixton undergraound station. Despite its reputation, what I saw of Brixton high street seemed really nice. Ok, we only got as far as the high-street but the whole area seemed clean, calm and well policed (OK, so seeing 2 groups of about 7 policemen walk past may be a sign but even so....) We spent the evening catching up and the following day we went into London.
It really made me think about when I was in Paris and how much I loved being so close to the city. My friends' flat is in an ideal location being in the (slightly) cheaper part, south of the river, just outside central London.
Saturday evening was the other reason I was up in London. A friend of mine from home/college was having his Stag night! We went for a meal and a few drinks and had a really good time. I don't think we got him drunk enough though as he was the first to wake up the next day.

As I said earlier, I'm definitely going to move into London after my degree. The friends I stayed with suggested about me moving in with them next year which would be great if they're still up for it.
I can't wait to get back to uni. It feels a bit like life is moving on without me but I want to catch up so I can move on too. Whereas I had thought I would probably move back home after uni and find a job here (as I quite like it in the south), I'm beginning to see that there's not really going to be much to come back to. My old friends will have jobs and may have moved away and most of my friends I've made at uni or in France will be scattered too. We're moving house soon so it's not like I'll have that to keep me here.

I haven't lived!

I'm 21 years old, about to start my final year at uni and - despite what I had previously thought - it seems I haven't lived!
I've travelled round 13 European cities in one month, I've been in a hot air balloon many times, I've flown in a microlight, I've taken part in more than one ballooning world record, I've played 3 different musical instruments, I've reached brown belt in Karate and I've lived and worked in Paris for 10 months to name just a few things I've done.
However, despite this, I do feel that I have failed. To start with, I weigh just 9 stone. This is no kind of acheivement when you see that the girl in this BBC news story weighs 34 stone and she is both younger AND shorter than me!
The second example of how little I've done comes from a young lady my mother met the other day. This girl was 20 (a year younger than me) and, it seems, has done far more than I have. She is already married, for the second time, and has not 1, not 2, but 4 children, the first of which she had when she was 13.
I look at these two people - both younger than me - and realise how much work I've got ahead of me.
Still, there's about a month left before I get back to uni - I'd better get started!

Campaign for Common Sense

After seeing a label "Contains Nuts" on a barrel containing loose nuts I have been moved to use my web space at Google Pages. I am hereby starting a Campaign for Common Sense. The aim is get rid of stupid signs and labels such as the example given above and to fight against the ridiculous amount of tolerance given to stupid people.
Over the coming days I will (hopefully) be adding content to http://alasdair.ross.googlepages.com which will, until I get around to getting my own domain name, become the home of my struggle.
I invite you all to join with me and rally against the idiots and the people too dumb to realise that Peanuts ARE nuts and that there is no need to label them as "containing nuts"!

Changes

Ooh, shiny!
You may have noticed some changes on here (well, that depends if there's anyone reading this I suppose). Blogger is in the beta (testing) phase of a new version so I thought I'd give it a go. It makes changing the layout far easier and, as you can see, I've added photos from my Flickr stream and a top 10 chart for the songs I listen to as provided by Last.fm (although at the moment I still need to tidy the layout up and make sure all the text fits).
I'm thinking of making my own blog at some point (rather than use this Blogger one) but that would mean buying a domain name and depends on whether I get round to learning any sort of web development.....

What I love about the internet

I've just watched MySpace: The Movie . I really recommend you download and watch it. I really hate MySpace.com and I think the way this film portrays typical pages will help explain why. I will admit that I haven't used MySpace, nor have I spent much time on the site but that was because I felt physically ill from the abominations created by people on there. I thought I was going to go blind after seeing pink, Matrix style text scrolling down a red background.
Anyhow, just wanted to post the liink to that movie. I'd better go before this starts becoming a tirade about everything I hate on the internet and chavvy people.

Titsup!

"It's funny what life throws at you". This is something people say when something unexpected and unfortunate happens to them. This sentence is pretty stupid as the thing that happens is rarely funny.
A week before I moved back home I brought some of my stuff back. Up until that point I thought my life was pretty damn good. It was that weekend that I found out that everything had gone "titsup". No-one died or anything thankfully but I feel a bit like everything I knew and thought was stable has vanished.
I've been back home for almost a month now. I still haven't got a job but I can't say I've tried too hard to look. There are some adverts in the paper I'm going to chase up though; I need to get some money to do some things to my car (but that's another story).
I finally managed to upload the rest of my photos to flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/aross . It took ages - I did 294 in one go.
Well, that's all I have to say at the moment.

What a palaver!

I'm home...eventually!

As always, I...well, lets just say I wasn't as far in advance with my packing as I should have been on Friday. I ended up packing and cleaning until about 5:45 am - yes, am. I wasn't sure if it was worth going to bed but decided to get a couple of hours sleep. I woke up again at 8:30 am on Saturday to finish things off, attempt to pay in some money, and have my Etats des Lieux.
Unfortunately, as it was the Saturday after Bastille day the banks had decided to take an extra day off so I didn't manage to sort that out. I'll now need to write a letter etc to send back my card and cancel a couple of things.
Dad arrived about 45 minutes before the Etats des Lieux was scheduled and so we managed to get everything into the car and hang the net curtain back up etc. The inspection went fine. The lady didn't notice where I'd scraped the blu-tack marks off the wall (they actually tell you to scrape them off with a blade - the walls aren't painted and are pretty crumbly, but also they aren't flat and have this stupid grooved texture, a bit like an artexed ceiling). She told me that I'd have to pay for someone to come and do a bit of cleaning. I asked why and she said there were some marks. So I asked where these seeminly invisible marks were. "On the microwave and fridge", she said. "Erm, where exactly? I don't see them", I replied. She pointed out a couple of small marks in the corners (honestly it was nothing that wasn't there when I moved in) so I asked if I could just clean it there and then. She said that would be ok so the only thing I ended up paying for was to have my carpet cleaned. They give you the option of getting it done and providing the receipt or letting them do it....but if you get it done yourself and they aren't happy then they'll charge you anyway. I figured it would be easier just to let them do it so, together with the €43 I'd had to spend on dry-cleaning blankets, pillows, etc (another thing they require everyone to do), a new bog brush for 1€ (which I paid for with 2c and 5c pieces) and a new saucepan for about €6 (mine was scratched) I ended up paying about €90 JUST TO LEAVE! Plus, I was told I will get my deposit back within 2 months.
Despite how it may seem, it did go quite smoothly, and so did the journey.
Well, almost.....

We had left earlier than planned and were on track to arrive at Calais in time to catch a much earlier ferry. This would have been great as it is another 2+ hour drive from Dover to home. However, 20km from Calais we broke down. We stopped by an emergency autoroute phone and, after consulting with the RAC, attempted to contact the autoroute recovery people. Unfortunately that phone didn't work so we had to limp to the next phone. We explained what had happened and, after 30-40 minutes, a (slightly grumpy - in a french way) man turned up with a tow truck. He took us to the ferry port and we waited for the next ferry (still earlier than the one we were booked on) before we were towed onto it. All this time, Dad had been in contact with the RAC to find out what would happen once we got to Dover. They told us that there would be a tow truck waiting there when we arrived to take us back home. We confirmed what time we'd get there and all seemed to be going fine.
Once on the ferry, Dad contacted the RAC again to let confirm that we would be arriving soon and that all was going to plan. It turned out the plans had changed and we were to be towed to a compound from where we would pick up a loan car before driving ourselves home as they didn't have someone who could tow us all the way. Right, ok, that's not so bad. Unfortunately, when we arrived the lorry wasn't waiting for us and arrived over an hour later. We then had a 15 minute drive to the compound where we picked up the loan car....which had no fuel in it. We had to spend a further 20 minutes looking for a petrol station. It was about 11:30 pm (UK time) before we actually started the journey home. Remember of course that my Dad had got up at about 2 am to drive to Paris that morning and I'd only had about 2.5 hours sleep. To add insult to injury, we had to leave all my stuff in the car (except valuables) and the car didn't get delivered until Wednesday so I still haven't finished unpacking.

Anyhow, enough ranting about that. My car, the beetle, arrived back from the garage on Wednesday morning so I've been happy driving about a bit. I'm trying to get in contact with local friends but I've still not had responses from everyone. Most of them have finished uni now so I'm not sure if they're staying up there or coming back.
This weekend I'm going to LUGRadio Live 2006. Woo! Yeah!......and none of you know what that is. Well, I'll enjoy it. It's a computer-y, geek-y event with lots of speakers coming and supposedly a party in the evening but I've no idea what that will be like.

I think that's long enough for now. I'll update again soon. Hopefully I'll have a job (or at least have found some adverts for jobs) by then.

The End

It's 12:44 am on Saturday 15th July. In less than 11 hours I have my Etat des Lieux (room inspection) to leave my apartment. I probably ought to finish cleaning/packing but I thought I'd write one final entry from Paris.

This week I have been trying to work my way through my list of things to see. I've not completed it but I'm happy that I've seen most of the important bits. I went home last weekend so lost 4 days of sight-seeing there but this week I have got in:
Tuesday: Lunch with friends from work and Arc de Triomphe
Wednesday: Chateau de Versailles
Thursday: Opéra, Saint-Chapelle and the Musée Rodin

Today is Bastille day. Unfortunately I wasn't awake in time to get down to the Champs Elysées or Place de la Concorde to see the military parade but I did see and hear lots of helicopters flying over. I spent most of the day attempting to pack and clean and offloading 1€ worth of 1c and 2c pieces at Monoprix to buy a toilet brush. The cashier wasn't impressed.
This evening I went to Trocadero. There was a fireworks display on the Champ de Mars, next to the Eiffel Tower and Trocadero would have been the best place to watch it. I say "would have" because I got there a little late and it was absolutely packed. It was litteraly a crush as people pushed forward to try and get a glimpse. The police had put a barrier up to stop people going too far forward but I don't really understand why the barrier was positioned where it was. I managed to get a few glimpses and caught other bits by watching the screens of digital cameras in front of me. After the official display, the area became a bit of a battle ground, a bit like on New Year's Eve. People started launching their own fireworks and bangers. At least I didn't see any fall back into the crowd this time.

I didn't bother trying to catch the metro at Trocadero to get back as there were too many people. Instead, I walked to the Arc de Triomphe to see the Champs Elysée one last time. I realised while walking that my opinion of Paris has changed. A while ago I couldn't imagine myself living here. I saw myself staying for short periods with work but couldn't imagine staying for a long period. Tonight I realised how much I'm going to miss the place; the architecture, the metro (despite the people on it and the fact that it smells), the ease with which I can just nip into the centre for a drink with friends. I would live here again, although next time I'd be more central and I'd try and do more (see more shows, visit more temporary exhibitions, etc).

People often mistake the French for being rude however I've come to learn that this is wrong. (What I'm about to say applies to the general public and is not based on individuals - the french are very friendly when you get to know them.)
They are not deliberately rude, and they do not, not care about you - You just don't matter to them. I think the French are seen as having a more relaxed lifestyle but I think it's because they just don't think about other people or things. They worry about themselves (and those close to them) but things like a job and people in the street seem to be just annoyances which get in the way of them enjoying themselves. I could be wrong, but that's how things come across to me.

So, as there's not much time left I'd better stop this and finish packing.

Au revoir Paris - I'll be back!

Endings (Part 2)

It was my last day at work today. After 9 months, my internship is finally over. I've been really lucky to have done this internship as I've had a view of a large, international company, from its headquarters, that I wouldn't have got anywhere else. I've worked on a lot of different topics and gained a hell of a lot of experience which I'll be able to take with me and hopefully apply to other positions.
As it was my last day, there was a "Pot de Départ" with a some champagne and nibbles. My boss made a little speech and I was actually quite touched, both by what he said and comments other people made. He went over the fact that I'd worked on a lot of different things - including taking minutes in meetings which he admitted to having never validated (a bit of a running joke between me and my replacement) - and mentioned how people had been impressed that I always spoke French (the official company language is English). Other comments people made were that I have always been cheerful and always given time and been willing to help. I think that one of my biggest faults is that I don't tend to say "no" to people if they ask for help with something, but it was really nice that people had noticed that I made time for them.
I thanked them all for having welcomed me into the group and for having put up with me for 9 months and said how much I'd enjoyed working on so many different topics.
An envelope had been passed round and my boss's secretary, who I've worked with quite a lot and helped with her English, had been out to get a few presents. I got a couple of company souvenirs (note block and laptop travel kit: mouse, cable adapters,...), quite a lot of FNAC (similar to Virgin Megastores) vouchers, and a hamper full of paté, fois gras, jam, a half bottle of wine, and some sweet bits.
I ended up not leaving until about 6:30. Despite it being my last day, and although I didn't really have any reason to stay that long, it took quite a while for me to compose a goodbye email to people and say final goodbyes etc. Perhaps subconsciously I didn't want to leave; I've spent the best part of a year there and got to know the people. It feel's strange in a way that I probably won't see them again, and I'm dissappointed that I didn't get a chance to get a photo of the team, but I'll send them updates every so often to let them know how I'm doing.

So, that's it, the end of an era. I am officially a tourist now. I'll leave Paris for good in about 15 days and that really will be the end. This is a slightly odd moment in life in some ways. This year has been a chapter of my life that hasn't really had to much to do with the rest of it. I've made completely new friends, spoken a different language, worked rather than studied and attempted to find my place in a different culture.
When I go back to uni that will be a beginning of an end. I'm going to have to start again with fresher's week and making new friends (most of mine will have left when I return) yet at the same time it will be the final year of my degree. Well, I think I've over used the whole "beginnings and endings" thing a bit now.

Next week, from Sunday (I'll be sleeping tomorrow), I've got to try and visit all of Paris. Despite being here for so long I've done neither the Arc de Triomphe nor the Eiffel Tower. There's a new museum I might go and see on Sunday if it's not packed. If not then I'll go to the Grand or Petit Palais. At some point I've also got to go to the Palais de Versailles, the Cité des Sciences et Industrie and visit the quarters of Paris I've hardly stepped foot in.

@+

Endings (Part 1)

So, this is my last week at work, my friends (English ones) have pretty much all left and from next week I am officially a tourist.
It's quite sad and hasn't really hit me that everyone's gone yet. I've made some really great friends here who I am going to make sure I stay in touch with. I know this is something that everyone says but this time I will. Really.
The last few days crept up very quickly so we didn't have one big goodbye with everyone there, but instead we had a few smaller ones. I ended up going out every night except Friday last week and, with the Fête de la Musique on Wednesday night I was pretty tired.
La Fête de la Musique is a national festival on 21st June for which concerts are held all over the country. Most concerts are free and the artists range from big names to unknowns and the music ranges from Jazz to Classical to Indie Rock. Despite the fact that there was a big concert at La Defense (French Pop music) I went to Bibliothèque François Mitterand to an Indie/Rock concert on the recommendation/invitation of a friend. I only heard 2 sets but the 2nd of them was Razorlight! Despite the rain and the fact that we had to walk from Pont de Neuilly to La Defense (the station had been closed due to the number of people) it was an excellent evening.

Sunday saw the start of the Fête du Cinema. This lasts until Tuesday evening and, once you've purchased one full price ticket, all further tickets at any cinema are just €2.
On Sunday I met up with the stagiaire who used to work with me. We had brunch at Breakfast in America, a very popular American style diner, before going to the new cinema at La Defense to watch "Paris, Je t'aime". Neither of us knew what this film was about but had seen plenty of photos about. It turned out to be a series of short films/clips about people in Paris. They were mainly romantically themed but it was good and the short films were well integrated together.
Tonight I went to see "Dans le Peau de Jacques Chirac". This was also very good and also quite unusual. It was made entirely from Archive footage of Jacques Chirac and is a satirical comedy of his life. There is an impersonator doing a voice-over to tell the story and tie it all together. It was very well made and had the whole audience laughing at times.

Well, it's late but I've still got quite a lot more to say so I'll stop this for the moment and pick it up again tomorrow.

La Mentalité Française

My replacement told me the other day that the French work at 100% during the week.....
20% Monday, 20% Tuesday, 20% Wednesday,........

Another quote, which doesn't translate too well:

Le poésie, c'est comme la merde. Ca ne s'explique pas, ça se sent.

Le Quart d'Heure Francais

So, there was another strike today. It was an RATP (Paris transport network) strike over the fact that the RATP want to extend the running time of the metro and RER (suburban lines) at night by 15 minutes. As usual, the strike wasn't as bad as everyone thought, it was just more crowded as people panicked about whether there would be any trains.
This seems to be a pretty petty reason to strike in my view, but it's not the most stupid. Apart from the homeless man going on hunger strike to raise awareness for the fact that homeless people are forgotten about once winter is over, and the politician going on hunger strike because a Chinese company wanted to close a factory near him (or at least that's the gist of the story that I caught), I think a strong competitor for "Most Stupid Reason To Strike" were the staff at a municipal swimming pool who went on strike over working conditions (fair enough) and THE FACT THAT CHLORINE IS USED IN THE WATER (what??!?!?!!).
Ah well, this is France.

Normally I aim to leave my apartment at 8:15 am. I wasn't too pleased to wake up this morning at 8:18 am. Thankfully, my replacement has taught me about the "quart d'heure francais". In other words, as long as you arrive within 15 minutes of the time arranged, you're on time.

Apart from no longer being able to remember major parts of the English Language, I think the "quart d'heure francais" is going to be one of my main problems on returning to the UK.

A Big Surprise

The weekend of the 24th-28th May I went back home. We had planned to have a barbeque for my Birthday on the Saturday as I wasn't home on the actual day. I flew home with Air France as the...wait a minute...."weekend"...."24th-28th"...."Surely that's not right" you're thinking.
Yes, I can confirm, the French are impressively lazy. Not only do they have more Bank Holidays than we do in the UK but they also have "ponts" (bridges). This means that when a Bank Holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday they take the Monday or Friday off too. I've been told that if it falls on a Wednesday they don't just take the week off but to be honest it wouldn't surprise me.
So, as I was saying, I took the plane back as the Eurostar would've cost over 300€ just for the return ticket. It was good flying and we even got a free sandwhich and drink which surprised me (you can tell I'm used to flying low-cost).

When I got home I had an even bigger surprise. For my birthday my (wonderful) parents bought me...well...pictures speak louder than words:


It's bright Orange ("a proper Beetle colour" as a friend said) and, for 1970, is in great condition. I've put some more photos on my flickr page here.
The "barbeque" was great although, due to the weather it wasn't a barbeque. Still it was nice to see everyone and I owe a(nother) thankyou to Mum and Dad for organising, cooking, inviting etc.

So, I'm back in Paris now on the final stint until I finish on June 30th. Work is going quite well and it's definitely more fun working with someone (my replacement has arrived and apparently I'm training him although sometimes I just feel like I'm pointing out all the problems he's going to have). To be honest I'm looking forward to the end though. I've had a great time here in Paris but I want to be getting back now. I know I haven't visited as many things as I should have, and I'll do that in the fortnight I'm here once I've finished working, but I'm not sure Paris is everything people expect of it. I think I've been here so long that it's just become "home".
I have enjoyed working, and I've learnt a lot about many different things. I've learnt more about people, communication and "work" than I have about IT but it's definitely been a valuable experience. Although my French has improved tenfold, unfortunately my English has deteriorated and I often find I can't remember a word or can't think how to put a sentence together. So, if I talk gibberish to you when I get back, just give me time to work out which language I should be using.
I think the thing I'll miss most about my time here are the friends I've made. Admittedly they're nearly all English and it's probably related to the fact that we're all "in the same boat" but I feel closer to them than I have to many people I've known. I am a little dissappointed not to have made that many French friends but I feel pretty sure that I'll stay in touch with those I do know. After all, it's an easy way to get free accommodation ;-)

Ok, well I'll finish for now as I may have a meeting at 8:00am tomorrow (I'll be glad when they're over with!).

21

It was my 21st Birthday yesterday. I'm officially old!

To celebrate I went out with 7 friends to a French restuarant near Place Monge, the student quarter. I had a great time and had a lovely meal.
I figured I'd better try the "escargots" for starters - I'd chosen a French restaurant for the cuisine after all. They were quite nice but to be honest there isn't really anything to them. They are quite small and you only really taste the sauce. The worst part was trying to eat them. I was given something resembling a dentist's tool to hold them (kind of a big, sprung pair of tweezers) and a little fork. The snails were followed up with roast lamb and then a "Mariage de chocolat". Delicious!

So, what's been happening the past month? Well, recently I've been (attempting) to write my work placement report. I've finally got it finished and sent off - it's quite a relief to have it out the way.
In other news my replacement has arrived. I don't actually finish until the end of June so it was a bit of a surprise to find that someone would be arriving so soon. 4 interviews were scheduled and so I had to explain what the new intern would be doing. Only 2 interviews were actually held, the first candidate phoned up saying that he had several other positions but really wanted this one and asked to have a response that day. He got the response - a Yes. Sounds like a good tactic to get a job. He's a nice guy and its good to be working with someone rather than just on my own. It's quite funny to watch his reaction when I tell him about how somethings gone wrong or how its not unusual to have to remind CIOs to send documents you asked for weeks ago.

Good weather, weekends and Dinosaurs

Well, I'm really beginning to enjoy my weekends. Work may not be thrilling but I've done a bit more sight seeing and taken plenty of photos.
Recently I've been to Invalides (Napolean's tomb, a hospital for war injured, war museum,...) Notre Dame (up the towers, I'd already been inside), the Louvre and a Country house but that turned out to be closed.
I've put photos up on my flickr page www.flickr.com/photos/aross and I've also bought a subscription so I can upload more.

The view from Notre Dame towers is excellent. I've even got a photo of an anti-CPE protest as it went past. The weather has been excellent most weekends (although it's bucketed it down this afternoon).

I've also been to the cinema a few times. I went to see "Firewall" with a friend from work a couple of weeks ago. It was quite good but I was amazed at how old Harrison Ford looks. But then I guess we tend to immortalize actors in the characters they play so when I think of Harrison Ford I expect to see Indiana Jones.
I'm not just watching American films though. I've seen more French films here than American ones. The latest film I've seen is called Jean-Philippe. It's about a man (Fabrice) who is a massive fan of Johnny Hallyday (French rock superstar). One night he is walking home drunk from a bar and starts singing Johnny Hallyday songs. He wakes someone up who shouts at Fabrice from his window and tells him to shut up. When he doesn't stop singing, the man comes outside and knocks him out. Fabrice then wakes up in hospital. Things all seem normal until he gets home and goes to the room in his house in which he had his collection of Johnny Hallyday memorabilia and finds.....it is full of a collection of beer memorabilia. It turns out that Fabrice has woken up in a different reality - one in which Johnny Hallyday never became a superstar. Fabrice then sets out to find Jean-Philippe Smet (Johnny Hallyday's real name) and turn him into a superstar.
It was quite a good film. A bit cheesy at times but the dinosaur moment didn't come until late into the film and they weren't too big.

Ah, yes, I should probably explain what I mean by "the dinosaur moment". After I'd seen "Combien tu m'aimes?" and "Angel-A" i noticed that towards the end of French films they tend to go a bit strange. There's a moment when things turn and become a bit odd. In Angel-A for example it was when the lead female character (I've forgotten her name) grew Angel wings and flew off towards heaven with the lead male clinging onto her legs. Since then I've always asked myself at what moment the dinosaurs will arrive in the film. The dinosaur moment is therefore the moment when things go a bit strange. I have a theory as to why this happens - it all comes down to money. Obviously all films have a budget, however I reckon with french films the producers are quite conservative with it at the start of the film. As they near the end they suddenly realise "Wow, look at all this money we've got left. Ok, I've got a great idea. I know this is a romantic comedy but how about we have some 50ft tall robots rampage through the city?!?" and they end up spending the leftover budget on stupid effects or twists in the story.

I'm going to see another film tonight called "La Doublure" - Hopefully there won't be too many dinosaurs!

The National Tantrum

Whoops! It's almost a month since I updated this. Unfortunately that means I will have forgotten plenty of details and that I'm going to have to write several posts as I try and recount what I've been up to and in order not to bore you in one go.

Well, where do I start? First thing, the riots are over. The government eventually backed down and has withdrawn the CPE (contrat premier embauche - first employment contract) following the national tantrum led by the students. This is good news for my English friends over here as this means the universities are finally open again (although there's been the Easter holday for the past 2 weeks) so they can get back to studying for their degrees. Unfortunately due to the university closure, they will now have to have lectures on Saturdays to catch up on all the lectures they've missed.
Although the CPE has still been withdrawn, there are still a few die-hard commuists.... *ahem* protestors who are still trying to get the entire loi des égailités des chances (the law which the CPE was a part of) withdrawn. There are also a couple of people protesting about the CNE (which seemed to be forgotten about). The CNE is basically the same as the CPE but only for companies with 20 or fewer employees.
I am quite amazed at the protests here. The students went on strike over the CPE, some journalists have gone on strike, I think because their paper was being taken over (or something like that), and there's also a homeless man who has gone on hunger strike to raise awareness of how everyone forgets about the homeless after winter. Now, this just seems stupid to me as students, journalists and the homeless are all people who do no work anyway so I'm not sure how they can strike.
Speaking of hunger strikes there is also a politician who has gone on hunger strike. From what I gather, a factory owned by a chinese company was due to close in his reagion. Obviously this would be bad as many jobs would disappear - so, he went on hunger strike and now the chinese company has decided that it probably wouldn't be good if he died and they'd better keep it open.
I'm going to check up about that last point as I may not have the complete story. If I'm wrong I'll update this.

The stikes/manifestations against the CPE have been quite interesting to watch. It's difficult for me to decide if it's "democracy in action" or a national tantrum. I've seen Jacques Chirac support the Prime Minister one week, and then seen the government back down and remove the law. In short, Dominique de Villepin has lost all hope he may have had of becoming the next President.

Perhaps we just put up with too much in the UK but it has seemed very week of the French government to have backed down on this issue. In my view, a firm hand was needed to do something to encourage emplyers to create jobs. To me, the 2 year period in which you could be fired for no reason seemed a bit too long but it would've allowed employers greater flexibility to employ people for short periods.
I'm expecting more protests in September when the students protesting this Spring have finished uni, been on their month long holiday (France basically closes for August) and then find they can't get jobs in September.

I can't say I'd be proud to live in a country where the government will roll over if you have a tantrum because you don't like a law which has been introduced in your best interests.

I predict a riot

Mardi Noir - Black Tuesday - The End of Days

So there's been a bit of trouble surrounding the CPE recently. Ok, so perhaps it's a bit more than "a bit of trouble". For those of you that don't know, the CPE is a new contract that the French government has introduced to try and reduce the ridiculously high youth unemployment rate.
The main issue with the contract is that for up to 2 years there is pretty much no job security. There is what is effectively a really long trial period in which time the employer can fire you at will. The idea being that employers will be more willing to create positions if they are not fearful of firing people when they are no longer necessary. Labour laws are particularly difficult in France and may people who get fired take legal action against their ex-employer.
The situation has been made worse by the fact that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin did not negotiate the terms of the law with social partners and the law was passed in the evening during the holidays (when everyone was skiing and subsequently not there to protest).

So, people have been up in arms trying to get the law withdrawn and for the past few weeks there are been several "manifestations". Universities have been closed and blockaded - most of the people protesting against the law are students (but not just from universities, some are from colleges). In fact, most of my friends have been off uni for over 3 weeks and are, understandably, getting a bit worried about their work and the summer exams.

Today there was a general strike. From the newspapers (well, Metro) and people I know it seemd like this would be really big. This time it wouldn't just be students, but the Post Office, the RATP and SNCF public transport workers, and anyone else.
To be on the safe side, so I wouldn't miss the meeting I was meant to have at 8am (which didn't happen in the morning) I went to work by bike this morning. I was a little annoyed to read www.lemonde.fr at lunch to find that 70% of the public transport system, including my bus route, was running.
Anyhow, the world didn't come to a stop. I don't know if anything happened during the day on the March from Place d'Italie but by the time I got home (after running from my apartment to La Defense to pick up my dry cleaning having just cycled home) there was some good rioting on TV. The manifestations have attracted unemployed youths from the banlieues (suburbs) and they, along with the Paris youths were making a bit of trouble at Place de la Republique. I wasn't there but, thanks to Sky News I do have some interesting pictures to show you.
After a few hours and a fair bit of tear gas and use of the water cannon, the CRS (French Riot Police who are notoriously violent) managed to disperse the crowds.

So, as you can see, it's all fun in Paris!

The week

I was really tired for most of the week. Going to bed late on Sunday didn't help and things just built from there.
On Tuesday we had another of our big monthly meetings. This time it wasn't held at the office where I work but was on another site to the north of La Defense. It's a big site in 4 parts and is easier to get to than where I work.
I left work at about 17:30 and went home, picked up my camera, and went out again to try and get some pictures of Paris as the sun was setting. By the time I got to Place de la Concorde it had already set but I managed to get a couple of the obelisk and the Eiffel Tower lit up.


Whilst I was there about 8 police vans went past. They were off to see off some more people protesting about the CPE (I'll write about this soon - probably this weekend as there may be a general strike next Tuesday).
Afterwards I went to a place called "The 5th". It was quite a good place - beer was €3.50 a pint which is the cheapest I've seen it.
The next day I was so tired at work. So I did the obvious thing and went to a French friend's place for pasta. A few of us got together as one of the girls from work has left (she's finished her internship).

Despite being tiring, the week went pretty quickly and Thursday evening was spent packing ready to go back to England.

It neither rains nor pours

It's amazing how much we take things for granted. You never realise it until you're made to go without something. When I first arrived in Paris I bought bottled water. Not because the water's not safe to drink or anything but it just kind of became a habit. Anyhow, not too long ago I stopped buying bottles. Big mistake! ..........

Friday night I went to "Night Fever". It was at Elysee Montmartre again (like the rock night was) but this was a disco night. Lots of 80's music. I'm not sure I'd have chosen to go but the guy down the corridor was trying to convince us all to go and I thought it might be a laugh.
Anyhow, in the end only me and the guy on my corridor went. It wasn't bad but it would have been better if more people had come. The music was pretty good and the DJ was as good as at the rock night.

Saturday fairly uneventful - sleep, shopping, haricut - until the evening that is....
So, back to the water. I went to get a drink Saturday evening and found that I had no water. Not a drop. Not from the kitchen taps, the shower or even the toilet. I went down to ask what was up and it turned out that a pipe had broken in the underground car park. Although the whole residence wasn't affected, a column of apartments - mine included - had no water.
I guess it was too much to expect something to be done quickly, in France, on a Sunday. I ended up filling up some bowls at a friends' and on Sunday I attempted to have a shower in one of the apartments they'd set aside for drought ridden people. I say "attempted" as, although they were kind enough to provide apartments with water, hot water was a bit too much to ask for.

Sunday I watched the Grand Prix with the guy from down the corridor and then we went to our friend upstairs' apartment to watch the appaling England v. France rugby match over some beers and crepes.

Almost cultural

Well, I was almost cultural this weekend. The guy on my corridor had told us all about a free classical music concert being put on at the Maison de Radio France last night so we arranged to meet outside an hour before the start in the hope of getting tickets. 2 of the 6 of us who were going got there a bit earlier and managed to get in just before we joined the queue and, unfortunately they ran out of tickets so we didn't get to go in. So, we did the next best thing and headed for a bar!
This one was at Grandes Boulevards not too far from Galeries Lafayettes (a big department store; on the same scale as Harrods and with similar prices) and it was happy hour when we arrived so we had a couple of drinks before heading for a crepe.
One of the girls that the guy on my corridor goes to uni with joined us while we were at the bar and invited us to come and meet her Dad. He was staying at the Hôtel de Crillon so we didn't pass up the chance to say Hi. The Hôtel de Crillon is one of the most luxurious hotels there is and is just off the Place de la Concorde at the end of the Champs Elysee.
So, that's about it for now. Time to iron my shirts and head to bed ready for the week ahead. Yay, work. Fun :-/

Rockin'

Ok, second post of the night. But I know a friend of mine won't stop nagging me if I don't write more!
So, I've got a lot of work to do at the moment, it's not exactly thrilling, and getting asked to re-write an analysis of a survey because "partially satisfied" users don't actually count as satisfied is a bit annoying.
I was looking forward to the weekend and going out. I didn't really have much planned but knew some people were going to Culture Bière on the Champs Elysee. I got asked if I wanted to go for a Chinese with some friends from my building but I was already half-way through cooking so ended up going straight to the pub. Anyhow, I had a good time there and, just as we were leaving, one of the girls said she was going to a rock night at a club/venue tonight and asked if I wanted to come along with her and her friend. I figured "why not", I hadn't been to a club since I'd been here and thought it would be good. I'm not usually a clubbing person but as this was rock music I'm not sure it counts as "clubbing". Anyhow, it was fantastic. The venue, Elysee Monmartre, is at Pigalle which you may have heard of as it's the red light district. The venue isn't in the red light end but it's close enough. They played some great music (everything from Franz Ferdinand to The Killers to Blur to The Darkness and then some 80's (the French seem to be obsessed with 80's music) and Elvis) and the hall was pretty big. There's another night next month so I'll try and go again and see if I can get some more people to come.
We left at about 3:30am having got there at about 12-12:30 and caught the night bus back. That was a bit of an adventure as, after my friends got off, I carried on to Pont de Neuilly which was the end of the line. Pont de Neuilly is on the way to La Defense before the road crosses the Seine. So, I got off and crossed the road to wait for the other bus which would take me to La Defense....only to find that the wait was going to be 86 minutes! Standing in the cold at 4:00 in the morning on my own wasn't too appealing so I caught a taxi the rest of the way.

Anyhow, it was a great night and I'll try and go to the next one. Otherwise there's "Night Fever" which I think some of my friends are going to this Friday but I'm not sure about that one yet.

Puck Off!

A couple of weeks ago (Saturday 25th February) I went with some friends to watch the ice hockey. The local team Club Olymique Courbevoie was playing Dunkirk at home and as it was free we thought we'd go along. None of us had ever seen Ice Hockey before and we didn't really know the rules so it was interesting trying to work it out.
It was fantastic! I'd never seen it before and knew it was meant to be quite violent. It was incredible the speed they went at. I am thankful for the toughened glass screens they put in front of the stands though. They weren't right up against the rink so you didn't get people faces being squashed against it as they got rammed into the side (which would've been funny) but considering the speed that the puck goes.... In fact, being in the audience isn't completely safe. The puck did come over the barrier twice and landed in our row both times. Once it hit some kid on the foot/ankle so the team doctor/coach came along and sprayed something on it (to numb/cool it I guess).
Anyhow, after a bit of a warm up, and after someone had driven around on a little tractor thing to melt/smooth the ice the match started. Courbevoie seemed to be doing pretty well and were leading 2-0 by the end of the first third. It was interesting trying to work out what some of the penalties were. The woman on the tannoy seemed to be saying things like "Incorrect Charge", although, having read the wikipedia page it seems there are legitimate times when you can hit/barge/ram people. It was a little difficult to follow at times as the teams are allowed to substitute players at any time, and every so often the whole team would swap. When players beat each other incorrectly they have to go in a sort of penalty area for 2 minutes (or 4 minutes if they do something really bad) and, I must admit, it did seem like Courbevoie were in there far more than Dunkirk.
Anyhow, it kind of went downhill after the first third and Dunkirk went on to win 7-2. I thought Courbevoie played pretty well though and will probably go to see them again.
If you want to see the "COC's" you can visit their website at www.cochockey.org (no joke!).

I've got a page at Flickr now so you can see some more photos I've taken while I'm here. If you want to see the ones of me with my friends you'll need to sign up and let me know your user name so I can add you as a "friend". There are plenty of photos you don't need to log in to see though so take a look at www.flickr.com/photos/aross .

Catching up

Well, I haven't updated this in a while. (Thought I'd start by stating the obvious).
Things have been a little slow recently so I've not really had much to write about. Nearly all of my English friends have had exams recently so they've either been revising, taking the exams or at home recovering from the exams. I'm not sure which I'd prefer; work or exams and then some time off.
So, what have I been up to....?

I've been to see Angel-A. Before I went, I looked it up on the IMDb. The comment there said that it was a "Romantic Comedy". There didn't seem to be much in the way of French films to choose from and, between this and whichever other option there was, my friend and I figured we'd go for Angal-A. Now, when I think of something that's described as "romantic comedy", I tend to imagine a film with Hugh Grant in it. Angel-A is not a romantic comedy by any standard. The film is shot in black and white and tells the story of a guy (a swindler/wheeler-dealer) who is at the end of his rope. He owes lots of money to lots of people who are likely to kill him/beat him up. Whilst walking on a bridge, he sees a police van approach and thinks the police are after him so he climbs over the barrier to hide from them. Once there he figures that his life is pretty much going down the pan so he may as well jump. Just as he's about to, he looks to his right and sees "Angela" - who is also about to jump. Anyhow, she jumps, he follows her and drags her out of the Seine (and into his life). From then on Angela takes it upon herself to help André (the guy) sort out his life/problems.
I didn't think it was a bad film - the French was a little hard to follow at times because it's quite and the characters speak quite quickly - but it did the usual French thing of going a bit weird at the end (there's a clue in the name). Whenever I see a French film now I keep expecting to see a dinosaur arrive near the end and eat the main character.
We went to see the film at George V on the Champs Elysee. You'd imagine it to be posh and a nice cinema. Unfortunately it felt like we were sitting in a corridor and wasn't particularly clean.

I've also been to a party on a boat. My friend from work (the one who has now left) invited me to a party her university was having to celebrate everyone getting their degrees/masters. It was held on a boat called the Charlestone which is moored to the bank of the Seine. I arrived a bit early and subsequently felt a bit awkward being on a boat, not knowing anyone there, not even being from the university, and speaking another language. I got chatting to some people as more arrived though (it was pretty empty when I got there) and felt a bit "British" wondering why no-one was at the bar yet when the prices were so cheap (the uni's seem to subsidise events far more than in the UK (or at least at my uni)). I had a good time though and it was a good night ......... apart from the disco. French music doesn't exactly have the best reputation but even the people there thought it was bad when the DJ started playing TLC - No Scrubs remixed and sung by some Indian guy.

I've also been doing a bit of sight-seeing. I went to Ile de la Cité a couple of weekends ago. I looked round Notre Dame and then visited some remains from Roman Paris. Notre Dame is pretty spectacular (both inside and out) but it was rubbish weather so I didn't go up the tower this time. The main reason I went to the Ile was to see the bird market. There's normally a flower market but every Sunday it's a bird market. Unfortunately it's been cancelled due to the bird flu scares. :-/
To the left is a picture of a point just outside Notre Dame. All distances in France are apperently measured from this point. Despite this fact, it's pretty unremarkable and most people just seem to walk over it without noticing it.
I really like the gothic architecture of Notre Dame. I'll go back again soon to take some more photos but here are a couple:



I've started putting some more pictures up on Flickr. You can see them at www.flickr.com/photos/aross but if you want to see ones of me and my friends then you'll have to let me know your flickr login.

That's about it for now. I'll try and get back into posting on here so I won't need to write such long posts again.

Before I do go, I was given a chocolate bar by someone at work.......

Boy, I love Mondays

So after the comments at the IS Convention I figured it would be a good idea to show how close we are to communicating something (6 things to validate (well, a little bit more on a couple of them)).
I printed them all out and left them for my boss. The rest of the day was spent doing some things on the intranet and, oh yes, trying to sort out the application that everyone needs to enter the details of projects into.

Originally some modifications were meant to be made and a new version released in the last week (of work) in December. This didn't happen and the developer told me it would be ready the first week of January. I received no phone call but I was at the IS Convention too. Today I phoned the developer to find out what was happening. Apparently his laptop is broken and he lost all of the development work he did. Seems a bit stupid of a professional developer not to make a backup but...
Anyhow, the new version won't be ready until January 30th and, although he can make a modification for Wednesday so that people can enter their data, I don't think it'll all be ready in time for the meetings next week.

Anyhow, that's work out the way, here are some photos:



Until this weekend, catching AIDS from the washing machines had never been something I'd worried about before.






Here in Paris there are quite a lot of dogs. They're all very small as it's not very practical having a large dog in a city. Plus, you wouldn't be able to take it on the bus.
Yes, that's right; you can take your dog on the bus if it's small and in a bag!




Here's a nice photo of La Defense to finish with:

Strange Foods

The French are obsessed with coffee. They rely on it, they can't function without it it would seem. If you were ever fighting a war with France you could forget about knocking out the electricity supply or the phone network. Simply stop the productions of coffee.
To highlight this obsession, (and probably to make it worse), Pepsi has introduced a new drink which as far as I know is being trialled in France:

Yes, that's right, it's Cappuccino Pepsi!

I can't say I'd buy it again. It tastes like they got a load of coffee flavoured boiled sweets and dissolved them in regular Pepsi.

Anyhow, at Auchan yesterday there was a 1€ section so, as well as the above bottle of Pepsi I also picked up some noodles. I know this doesn't relate to French tastes but I'm still a little uncertain about the instructions on the back...



I have to ask: WHO EATS DRY NOODLES???

Smoke and mirrors

Phew! The 2006 IS Convention is finally over! All in all it went pretty well.
The first day was probably the better organised of the two. In the morning there was a visit to a hosting centre. I wasn't sure if I was going to go on it as I may have been needed to help on the Campus (where the convention was held). In the end I did go. It was really interesting and probably a good thing that I did go as no-one else from the Campus was going so it was useful to have someone to tell people where to go (not that I knew either)!
We had lunch back at the Campus once we got back and then the convention started at about 14:00. There was a video at the beginning which was good (and a little amusing from my perspective) followed by some presentations including some outside speakers from Michelin and Gartner. Next came the demonstrations.
There were 2 demonstrations given in the main hall and then the demo tour started. This consisted of 5 demonstrations repeated every 20 minutes. All 200 people had a different colour corresponding to the group they were in and then each group had a leader to take them round the demonstrations. Despite one of the demostrators turning up from the Netherlands with a his lorry full of servers later than we'd hoped, it all went quite smoothly.
We had run a bit late with some of the presentations but somehow this delay disappeared and we went for dinner on time.
During dinner there were some magicians who came round to do some close up tricks at the tables. This was followed by a short show at the end of dinner. They were really good, especially considering how close we were to the tricks.
After dinner the bar opened. Now the Dutch and the English have a reputation for, well, lets just say they make the most of the bar. I've been told that one year the bar was emptied. I should stress that it's not a proper bar. The beer isn't on tap (it was in those small 5-6 litre kegs) and the other drinks (If there are many) are just kept in cupboards below. This year there was enough beer (they ran out last year) and in the end only one French guy stayed with the Brits and the Dutch. I stayed with them until they all left as I find those sort of moments interesting. People loosen up a lot and say a lot of things they might not otherwise say. You often see people's true opinions come out. We left the bar at about 1:30am.

I woke up at 6:45 the next day (same as the day before) to get ready for the final day. The day started with another external speaker, this time from Renault. Unfortunately I couldn't listen to this presentation as I was helping with some last minute changes to the workshops which came straight after. There were 8 workshops and everyone had been put into a workshop based on their 1st or 2nd choice which they made (or should of) when they enrolled. The problem was that, with 200 people there would inevitably be some people who didn't turn up. We didn't want to end up with one workshop half empty so the final organisation of who was in which workshop had been done the previous day (once we'd found out who had turned up). Due to some duplicated names I ended up running round sticking up names of who was in some workshops. I also found the materials for the workshops hadn't been loaded onto the laptops.
After the presentation, the people left the hall and found their workshop from the board outside or from the printed lists we'd photocopied. I joined in on one of the workshops and then spent most of lunch gathering up the presentations that had been made.
After lunch someone from each of the workshops gave a presentation on what they'd found. This was followed by a presentation on things to come in 2006 and then a Question and Answer session.

During the workshop presentations there were several comments saying they'd like more communication on projects and the general status of things. This means work for me. Part of my job involves writing newsletters after each of the monthly meetings we have and also producing reports on the status of projects. Despite having written the letters for September, October and half of November, having 2 reports ready and a third needing about 5 minutes more work, none of them have yet been published. This is because they are all waiting to be validated. The newsletter for September is waiting for an article from my boss. I'm a little concerned that on Monday I'm going to be asked why this hasn't been published. I'm not quite sure how to say politely, "Because I'm waiting for you to do your bit and validate them/write your article. I have emailed them to you and handed them all to you several times.".

There could be another problem next week too. The week after next are several meetings looking at projects and deciding whether or not to go ahead with them. For the meetings, each Division is supposed to have entered some financial data into a program (which I am meant to look after despite only breifly being shown what it does). This data must be entered by Jan 13th however.... Before Christmas a new revision was to be developed and put into pre-production for me to test before they replaced the old version. I phoned the developer the week before Christmas to find out what was going on as he still hadn't sent me the pre-production version. He told me that he was delayed and would call me the first week back in the New Year. He didn't (plus there was the Convention to finish organising anyway).
Basically, as the data for this year can't be entered into the program until the new version is out, the new version needs to be tested and then released, it is unlikely that the Divisions are going to be able to meet their Jan 13th deadline. This may not be too bad as apparently, since this program has been available, the data has never been entered in time for the meetings. It is only used twice a year, nobody likes it and I don't think it's very well designed.

So, the convention went well, but despite me thinking that there would be a bit of a break now that it's over, it seems like I'm going to be pretty busy.
I have learnt a lot from what I've been doing though. I've got a lot of admiration for the people at the Campus who organise these events all year. There are so many small details you need to take into account. I've also realised how much can be going on which no-one notices. Despite doing a couple of things at the last minute, people still get the impression that everythings ready and working as it should.
Another thing I've learnt, and it's probably the most important thing, is just how much you have to hassle people to get things done. I'm amazed at the number of emails and phone calls it takes just to get a response.

Right, it's the start of the month so that means I need to make the dreaded trip to AUCHAN!!!

Here we go...

Well, things are finally coming together for the convention.
I've received most of the presentations, the people doing the workshops have been sent all the details and materials and the demonstrations will be tested tomorrow.
I'm going to go to the Université Campus (which is where all the conferences, conventions and courses are held) tomorrow afternoon and stay the night so that I won't have any trouble getting there in the morning on Thursday. The Campus is outside of Paris, not too far from Versailles. As I should also be able to go on the visit which should be good. It is a visit to another site where a lot of the IT systems are controlled (I think. I haven't had much to do with the visit).
On Thursday I'll also be staying at the Campus. There's going to be a dinner in the evening with a magic show which should be interesting. I'm also looking forward to the presentations and workshops of course ;-)
I'll post on Friday (or Saturday as I may be celebrating that it's all over) to let you know how it all went.
Here's a picture of La Grande Arche de la Defense.

Tasty food???

I'm a little dubious about this place. It's just up the road from me. I've never eaten there.

Ah, it's good to be back

Well it was my first day back today. I started at 9 and left after 7 having spent the day working on the convention. I can't wait until it's over!
The picture to the left is of the key to my office...which I don't have anymore. Yes, I had to move out and there are going to be 2 or 3 people in there now (yes, it was a very big office). I'm now stuck at the end of the corridor in a sort of open plan space. On the bright side I have a new computer at work so at least that's one less thing to wait for.
To the right is a photo of a cartoon that's on the wall next to my desk. I think it gives a nice insight into the French mentality. The text translates as: "So that there will be as few grumblers/malcontents as possible you should always pick on the same people".

A new year, a new start

Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and had a great time last night.

I had a good time at Christmas. I went down to Poitiers by train and met my parents at our house which is about 40 minutes drive to the east. Christmas dinner was great as always and there were lots of nice presents.
It was pretty cold but luckily we've got a big fire there so it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately there was no decent snow (only a couple of flakes) but at least it was sunny.
We got a bit of work done on the house (there's lots to do) and it was nice to relax for a bit.

I got back to my apartment on Thursday and was a bit unsure about what I'd be doing last night as nearly everyone I know is in the UK or on holiday elsewhere.
Luckily not everyone had left so I went to some friends' apartment not far from Gare de l'Est where we all helped make some Chilli con Carne. After that we headed for the Champs Elysée to celebrate midnight. We arrived at about 11:50 and there were loads of people there.
This year there was no official fireworks display. I think this was due to the recent riots and car burnings in the Paris suburbs. I think this was a bad decision as it meant that people just brought their own fireworks. There were lots of people setting off firecrackers in the road and I saw a rocket go up...and then back down again into the crowd. Luckily it didn't explode when it hit the ground!


There was also no big countdown so there were about 5 random cheers as people celebrated what they thought was midnight. It was good fun though and I opened the bottle of champagne I'd brought with me. Afterwards we walked back to the apartment and chatted for a while.

I've been in Paris for about 3 and a half months now so I'm about 1/3 of the way through my time here. I guess it's about time for a bit of reflection...
Coming to Paris has been a big change to my life (obviously). As well as learning lots of French I think I've become more independent. Working has been an interesting experience. It's not always been everything I'd expected but generally I enjoy it. I've made lots of friends although I think I need to do more with French people as most of the people I know are English. I also want to try and relax and settle into the French lifestyle a bit more.

Now I've got a new digital camera I'm going to start putting lots of pictures up. The one at the top of this post is the view from the top of the steps up to La Grande Arche de la Defense. It's several pictures stitched together so that's why it looks a bit weird but in the centre, in the distance you should be able to see the Arc de Triomphe.

I hope you all have a great 2006!