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.