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!