Thursday, October 30, 2008

New music

I got the new Lucinda Williams CD, Little Honey, yesterday. It's pretty good, but I found her lyrics to be somewhat upbeat, and I wasn't expecting that. Also, it's nothing that breakthrough great, either. Don't get me wrong, even her 'worst' stuff is 10x better than what most radios are playing and than what most artists are producing. She has a great voice, great music, and her lyrics actually tell stories.

The review from Rolling Stone magazine was good (then again, they seem to give everything a high star ranking)

The BBC review was quite harsh, but more honest, I felt.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Football (American style) ... and Poppies

NFL and Sundays (and a jigsaw puzzle in front of the TV). Life is good. It reminds me of last season when my friends and I would get together in a bar in Boston and watch the Pats play. What a great way to spend a Sunday.

Some comments from watching...

There are no commercials. In place of this, there are other announcers - the British guy looks like he's about 20 and has never gotten dirty in his life. There's another guy, and then Jerry Rice. They're doing a good job. The announcers during play are the same CBS guys you in the States listen to. Kudos to the announcers for wearing poppies* on their lapels.

I don't think I remember hearing the song "God Save the Queen" before - I was surprised that it's the same melody as used in the US song that ends with "...from every mountainside, let freedom ring." (oh, right, My Country Tis of Thee) - is it the same tune? Must google/wiki this.

It's halftime. They're showing clips and there used to be a Europe league or something? They just showed a clip and said "touchdown London." That just sounds wrong. London Monarchs?

* Poppies
An emblem on tombstones to signify eternal sleep. From ancient Greece, to symbolise resurrection after death. In the UK, it is used for wartime rememberance and you see it everywhere now, as we are approaching Rememberance Day on Nov. 11. You can read more here.

The significance is also shown in the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, a front line personnel in WWI from the Royal Canadian Army:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

My Current Desktop Wallpaper

My friend posted this: Castro's Favorite Color: My Current Desktop Wallpaper - and I thought it was an interesting post.

So if you click here, you can find what my current desktop is (recently changed from a picture from my holiday in Canada this year). Select October and it should be the first picture, of the Atlantic puffin, or as I call it, 'the flying penguin.'

I love National Geographic. Did you know they have photography contests? And you can order prints/copies of most of their photos?

Future Generator

On the London Transport Museum's website, there is a 'game' called Future Generator. It's a fun and informative way to look at how current choices will shape the future landscape of life in a city. It breaks it into 4 possible scenarios (as listed in my results below). Some of the potential results are interesting - such as playground games will replace electronic games!!!

While the Intro is interesting, it's the same global warming information we're all used to. Skip the Intro if you're on board with saving the environment. Watch it if you're one of those crazy people who think global warming isn't a problem.

There are 16 questions total, given in batches of 4. Interestingly enough, if you 'play' again, some of the questions are different. They're set up somewhat like the Myers-Briggs personality test, that is 'which do you prefer: a or b'. At the end of each set, a pie chart appears showing your 'future.' Be careful though, after question 16, you can click on your results, but you won't see this pie chart again.

I was 17% carbon controlled; 73% local living; 0% energy shock; and 10% always on.

Play the game and let me know your results! Click here

Museums and Opera

Today (Sunday) I am relaxing at home. I had every intention of going to church and then to the British museum, but yesterday was a busy day for me and it is raining / windy / raw today.
So what am I going to do today besides boring chores such as filing, cleaning, and laundry? NFL !!!! You read right. The NFL is playing in London today at Wembley Stadium. Saints v/s Chargers (when will the Pats be over here?). So I’ll be watching this on TV this afternoon and doing a jigsaw puzzle :)
-- Here is a clip from nfl.com about the players’ reactions to being over here (two well-spoken players)
-- This is a clip showing the NFL’s 30 year history of going overseas. Quite hilarious shots in Japan.
Yesterday (Saturday) I went to London’s Transport Museum and really enjoyed it. First though, my complaints. It is a loud museum – when I walked in, I was overwhelmed by the noises – there were speakers everywhere playing sounds of buses, subways, trains, etc. I get it. Transportation is loud. But I don’t need to be assaulted. Also, besides the children’s game of ‘find the numbers and get a stamp on your piece of paper’ game, there was no clear indication of the order in which to walk through the museum. If you did it right (i.e. followed the children’s game), you went in chronological order. Otherwise, if you just wander as I did, you go from the 1800s to the future and then work your way back through the 20th century.

What did I like about it? Well, I always like transportation stuff. The power, the purpose, the machinery. I think it’s part of the reason I so love Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The museum is in the old Flower Market at the edge of Covent Garden and they’ve maintained the building structure and incorporated it well. The old buses and sections of train cars they have are very cool. It reminds me of the Smithsonian American History Museum in DC.

Interesting things I learned / saw : (1) almost every picture of London they had used St. Paul’s Cathedral as the center, or it would be just a map showing the train lines and the image of St. Paul’s as the one landmark. I know this is in “The City”, but a bit bizarre that say, Big Ben wasn’t used. (2) In the 1800s, if you walked 30 minutes from St. Paul’s in any direction, you were in the country (I didn’t write down specifically what year this was. Sorry.) (3) In 1801, London had nearly 1M people; a century later, 4.5M. In the 2001 census? 7.2 M. (4) The wartime section was the most interesting to me – how women became in charge of a lot of the transport, how people were warned to wear white at night and that bus drivers couldn’t even see what stop they were at because of the complete darkness as a result of turning off all lights due to possible enemy bombings. (5) The museum has its own Flickr page. The ‘mega map’ and ‘Objects’ links are very cool


Then, I took the bus over to Royal Albert Hall where I picked up my ticket for the evening’s performance of Carmina Burana. Since I had time to kill, I walked down the street to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The V&A is a crazy place. There is just so much stuff there. It’s like a garage sale of historic stuff. I mean, do you really need to have that much of everything? And, the museum is laid out in a bizarre way. It’s almost as if they said, ‘hey, we need more space, let’s add a room here. What? Who cares if you can’t get here from the other side of the same floor and you have to go down a flight, cross to the back half of the museum, and then come back up. It’s art!’ The website seems much better. But, the museum is free and it was good to see so many people in a museum enjoying themselves. However, as I was a bit overwhelmed and over stimulated by everything inside, I only spent about 45 minutes there and then wandered until I found a place for dinner.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/

The best part of the museum was the Dale Chihuly piece hanging above the main information desk. It is huge and beautiful. I love his glass work. As a kid, my family and I went to the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Museum (now the Contemporary Arts Center) to see a showing of his work in 1992 and I’ve loved it every since. I think that is the one family, cultural outing as a child that I most vividly remember.

Yes, you have heard of Carmina Burana. It’s mainly sung in Latin, with a little Old German thrown in. I bought the program (yes, here you do not get the program for free, you have to pay 3-5 GBP for it!). In following along, my Latin was coming back to me more and more as the concert went on!
The opening and closing song / melody has been used in several commercials. Here are two – one for Gatorade (too bad it’s ruined by them using Manning and Jeter!) and one for Carlton Draught (a slight parody, quite funny).

The full lyrics are: (but the Garoade commercial starts in the middle of the second stanza and then cuts a few lines along the way)

O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis ;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.

Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis

obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris ;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris

sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite ;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite !


O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate – monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,

shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driving on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Paris

Here are some photos from my trip to Paris for work a week ago. I went the first weekend for the 'Bloom While You Work' seminar at the American Church in Paris on 'working in France' and dealing with the French culture, visas, customs, etc. Very good. I stayed the second weekend because the bell choir was playing at ACP that Sunday, and for a concert for Habitat for Humanity Saturday night. As I am now part of the bell choir there, it was best I stayed!

This time, I only got 5 bug bites (one on my back right where my bra strap is - NOT comfortable; one on the back of my left shoulder and one on the front; one at the end of my right eyebrow; and, one literally on my left eyelid, right at the base where the lashes are, closer to my nose than the outside edge - NOT comfortable!)

ACP - set up for bells (obviously).


Went to Monmartre with Amy the first Sunday and walked around - way too crowded for my taste! The guy in the blue shirt in the middle of the steps was playing the song "Hallelujah" (on the Shrek soundtrack) and everyone was singing along. Very cool. I love that song!


The ACP is just on the other side of the bridge. The steeple is that little speck to the right of the Eiffel.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Bugs

Well this is fun – I somehow got 7 bug bites…two on my upper left arm, one on my left forearm, one on my 2nd knuckle on my left hand (that one really hurts/itches), one on my left eyelid (that’s attractive), one just above my eyebrow ring (no, I don’t wear it to work), and one on my forehead where I part my hair.

My guess is either from sleeping with my windows open in the hotel Tuesday night, or when I was at the GDF SUEZ LNG Conference in Chantilly (just north of Paris) Monday/Tuesday – that was a more wooded area. But seriously, why do biting bugs have to love me so much?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Megativity

Gwen and Amy came up with this phrase for me Sunday night. They said that it’s not that I’m mean, it’s just to me the glass is always half-full, and even the half-full part could be contaminated, too hot or too cold, or sparkling when you wanted still, or you shouldn’t have it now because you might need it later, or… well, you get the idea.

And, actually, the past two days this has described me perfectly I think. I’ve been in Paris since Friday night – I went to a seminar Saturday and then Mon/Tues was the “1st LNG Conference” for GDF SUEZ. It ended at 17:30 Tuesday, but I left early (14:30) with two guys from GDF with whom I got a ride up. Honestly, I wasn’t getting anything out of the conference. Even at lunch as others were talking about the presentations, I felt like they had been in a different room than me since the things there were discussing I had completely missed.

I don’t know why I felt like I had to come back early. In my mind, I’m trying to make it a bigger deal, tell myself I was near panic or something just to validate my decision more, but that’s not it. Basically, François said he was leaving, asked me if I wanted a ride back, and since I rode up in his car, I said yes. The whole uncertainty (in my mind) of the end of the event - getting everyone to the train or to the tour bus, was beyond my comfort zone. The indecision of it all was too much. And, everyone else telling me which option I should do was too much. I was too nervous to say no to the offer of the ride and then have to face leaving at 6 p.m., and getting back to the city late but then during the whole ride back and even in the office, I was nervous because I left early for no good reason. That is, I’m nervous because I ‘cut class.’ If it were just me, I could’ve gone to the train station and been fine getting back. But, since it was with about 175-200 other people, all scurrying about at 5:30, I knew I couldn’t handle that. Why is it I felt fine doing the train by myself but then couldn’t handle the fact of everyone being scuttled about together? Part of it, I think, is that the last thing I wanted to do was walk around with people and lug my luggage and be a slow, fat, sweaty, red-faced person at the back of the line.

But, I know I was already in a bad frame of mind:
-- I wore navy tights Monday with black skirt. Not a problem for some people, but for me that threw me off since I thought I had packed black tights. I didn’t plan on that and just felt uncoordinated all day.
-- On Monday I had a 9 a.m. meeting I forgot about and was ‘fetched’ by one of the participants at 9:30 – and I have no idea what the meeting was about since my expertise is not in the financial hedging side of things per se, but people seem to think it is.
-- I was supposed to be working on a project, and I was, but then my boss and another coworker evidently had lunch with others to discuss. Later in the afternoon we had a meeting with the traders to discuss and I was 100% lost in all of it, even though I am the one through whom the ‘orders’ flow and then when others were leaving for the conference, my boss suggested I go with them – basically, to me, it felt like I was asked to leave the meeting early, that I was not needed.
-- My room at the conference center was nice, but the window had been open so there were a lot of flies in my room.

Things I did learn at the conference were:
Logistics
-- Never give people click-pens or else when they’re bored or trying to stay awake, all you hear is the clicking noise.
--The translation service was about a 5 out of 10 and the headsets really hurt your ears. And, because I was trying to listen to the French too, I think I lost even more of the content.
-- There was a photographer and a videographer and they were very intrusive, getting right up in your face and in your conversations to take pictures. Come on, use a zoom lens.
-- It started about 16:30 on Monday and ended 17:30 Friday. So Monday’s work day was horrible as you had to leave by about 14:00, and your Tuesday night is horrible. Why not leave at 8:00 Monday, have a morning welcome, then lunch, then speeches and dinner. Tuesday have more speeches, then lunch, end with a cheesy picture or something, and everyone can be back in town before too late?
-- They didn’t budget time well - things never started when they were listed on the agenda, speakers were rushed along, for some there was no Q&A time, etc. If you’re going to plan this, plan it well. And, there was no agenda other than speeches, coffee break, speeches, lunch, etc. – we had no idea the overall flow of information we were receiving, etc.

Participants / Purpose
-- The “experts” in the company are all middle aged white, French men.
-- A lot of the presentations were lacking substance – I felt it didn’t really address us as “one” group, nor did it explain well our operations, nor our “shared objectives.” It never became clear to me the purpose of the event, or how LNG is across the Branches, let alone in our Branche. I saw / learned no “common vision”.
-- If you want the “experts” of your company to come together to share skills, how is sitting in a darkened auditorium looking at PowerPoint slides the best way to do that?
-- The “big” actions launched by this committee thus far are publishing a list of members (employee list), organizing this meeting, and publishing an 8 page newsletter. That’s “big”?
-- If our working language is English for our Business Unit, why did our leader speak in French?
-- Wouldn’t the fact that no one was asking questions be an indication that something wasn’t going well? Usually there are questions when people are engaged, dead silence when bored.
-- Some of them have no idea how to summarize their responsibilities / job description in 15-seconds on less. You'd be surprised by the rambling.

Quotes
-- The mediator / announcer actually said ‘leaving the male world of seafarers now…entering the more female world of communications’ – this is 2008, right? Did I go back in time by traveling to Paris? To top it off, he continued by talking about the newsletter as a ‘newborn’ and other such baby analogies.
-- Someone actually said, or it was translated as such, that we should ‘capitalize on the fault lines’ – what? Take advantage of others’ distress?
-- One speaker would’ve made any speech professor proud by outlining his points, ‘I have 3 points on…’ but then he had 2 points, then 3, then 4, then 3…
-- ‘Size matters’ and, ironically ‘size doesn’t matter’
-- One presenter actually said ‘corporate culture is by no means a hurdle’ [to the success of a merger]. Really? Seriously?
-- It was an office bingo lovers paradise with enough buzz words to make your head spin – synergies, develop relationships, stakeholders, objectives, optimization, strategy, trends, scope, etc.

Well Miss Megativity, what were the highlights?
-- Remember those flies in my room? I literally killed 9 of them against the sliding glass door w/ my shoe and left the guts on the window and floor. I think that was what made me feel best all day Monday.
-- UIOLI = use it or lose it. That’s a good acronym, and fun to say.
-- We had little boxes w/ 7 buttons numbered in a circle w/ an “ok” button in the middle, to be used for interactive quizzes. The numbers were red and the ok was green. I literally found it therapeutic to press the numbers so they would light up (all would stay lit up) and then press the ok button – it would turn green and the numbers would turn off. I kept doing that over and over during the speeches. I felt like smiling and clapping at my success, much like my 17-month old niece would do.

I guess I should’ve just taken a ‘happy pill’ or ‘drank the Kool-Aid’ and put up with all of it, but I just can’t ‘turn on / turn off’ as some people can. For someone who is an ISTJ (Myers Briggs), this just wasn’t my thing. The “I” in me was being trampled on and the STJ part needed more structure. I think I was just tired and need of some “Megan time” since I hadn’t had that since last week.
-- Friday: went to work, took the train to Paris, getting in at 20:30 p.m., then met Julia, Gwen & Marissa for dinner. Away from ‘home’ (flat / hotel) from 6:00 to 23:00
-- Saturday was a day conference on ‘how to work in Paris’ that involved socializing and interacting with strangers from 9 to 5, from there Julia and I met Gwen & Marissa for dinner and drinks. Away from ‘home’ from 7:30 to 23:00
-- Sunday: went to church with Gwen, walked around and had lunch, then directly met Amy and walked around with her (to Monmartre), and then met Gwen for dinner with Amy. Away from ‘home’ from 8:00 to 21:00
-- Monday: met Gwen, Marissa, and Amy to take bus to work, then to conference. Away from ‘home’ from 7:00 to 00:30

See the trend – NO time to myself over the ‘weekend’ and I think it just really got to me. Anyway. Am hoping for the next three days to be ok in the office. And am looking forward to bell choir rehearsal Thursday night and playing in church (in Paris) Sunday.

Monday, October 6, 2008

The eyeballing game

I just took this really cool "quiz" - my score was 5.3, what's yours?

Castro's Favorite Color: The eyeballing game

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Good intentions

I tried to go to church today, honestly.

I woke up at 8:30, took a shower, got ready and left. However, I should've realised the signs pointing for me to stay in bed. (1) it is raining outside. and I have a cold, so going out in that isn't too smart. (2) the DLR ('tramway' that takes me to the Tube) is closed for repairs, so bus replacement service. (3) I waited for the bus for 20+ minutes in the rain. I told myself if it wasn't there by 9:50, I'd leave. Of course, it shows up at, literally, 9:49:53. (4) I get off at the next stop, Canning Town, to take the Tube. But, the Tube's Jubilee Line is also down for repair today.

At this point I would've had to wait for another bus to take me further west to Canary Wharf and get the Tube there; but, it was already after 10 and church is at 11 and I was pretty much exhausted from this little bit of activity. So, at that point I turned around and loandbehold a bus back to my stop was approaching. Stopped at the convenience store for a croissant for breakfast and a frozen lasagna for dinner and got home about 45 minutes after I left.

I'm back in my PJs and much happier about spending this rainy Sunday afternoon indoors.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Last Mango in Paris (or rather, last Train)

He went to Paris, as Buffett sang, but good luck leaving, I say.

The good news was, I got to go shopping. (Well, if you know me, you know that’s more like bad news as I really cannot stand shopping. And, I really don’t like wasting money buying things I don’t need. And doing this while jet lagged added to the pain.) But, as I flew to Cincinnati with only my carry-on bag from my trip to Paris the week of Sept 8, I needed to buy stuff. I just could not make 3 days worth of clothes stretch for 10!

What happened? Did you see the news, about the fire in the Eurostar tunnel (the “chunnel” under the English Channel that the Eurostar train uses)? Well, I had a 16:13 train out of Paris Thursday the 11th (yes, Sept 11th) and we departed just fine. About an hour into it, we stop. The announcer tells us there is a problem in the tunnel and we’ll be sitting on the tracks about an hour. After that hour, we reverse directions and head back to Gare du Nord (“North Station”) in Paris. Oddly enough, passport control was waiting and they just put two parallel lines through the top left corner of the “left France 11/09/08” stamp in my passport – that’s as technical as it gets? Two pen lines?

While on the train, I called our London office and our wonderful admin/travel woman and she helped me get a flight out of Paris Friday morning at 07:20, landing at London City Airport at 07:30. (The last flight of the night, BA Paris to Heathrow, departing at 21:55 was booked – because everyone else on a train or waiting in the station was also talking to travel agents.) Fine, I figured I could land and get to Gatwick for my 10:25 flight.

I then take the Metro to meet my colleagues/friends who were still in Paris as their train wasn’t until Friday noon. Of course, I took a few wrong turns in the crazy maze of walkways under Gare du Nord and ended up using 3 Metro tickets because I just couldn’t get to the line I wanted. I get to the station and when I come up to walk to their hotel, of course it is raining. Can I find my umbrella in my bag quickly? Of course not. So I show up at their hotel looking like a wet rat in a now sheer light yellow oxford shirt. The cover girl of fashion I tell you.

Marissa let me stay with her because I just didn’t feel like going through the hassle at the train station of booking a hotel with the Eurostar people. I wanted simple, easy, and fast. Plus, hotels were a hot commodity as the Pope was coming to town for the weekend. (Oddly enough, one of the last times I was in Paris was in 1997 with my dad and brother, just before Pope JP2 visited.)

After a delicious Indian dinner just off the Champs Elysee, we’re back in the hotel. Of course, I cannot sleep as I keep running through the timing of my 07:20 and subsequent 10:25 flights. Talking it through with Marissa, and looking up train times online (to get to Gatwick from the city), we realize that everything would have to be beyond perfect for me to make it, and even then, just barely. With rush hour traffic, and allowing for things like customs/immigration, we realized it just wasn’t possible.

So, I get on the phone with Delta at midnight – for an hour. They guy was very nice (and he was American, Delta must not farm out this service to India) and tried all he could do to help. But, he couldn’t change the departure city of the flight. He advised me to go to Charles de Gaulle in the morning and the ticket agent there could do so and I could be on the 11:45 flight. Perfect. I get about 3 hours sleep (after about 5 hours the night before due to going out for drinks after dinner at Harry’s and Kitty O’Shea’s – I know, an “American” bar and an “Irish” bar in Paris. Whatever.)

I just kept my cab for 05:00 figuring it’s better to be safe than sorry. At that time of the morning, nothing in Paris is moving, so I was at the airport by 05:25. Even the first flight out of this terminal (the Air France terminal) wasn’t until 07:15; the first Eurostar leaves at 06:43 I believe; even Starbucks doesn’t open until 07:30. Nothing gets moving early here – that will be a big adjustment for me!

I talk with the nice Delta man (first I started in French, and did quite well thank you very much; but he eventually switched to English). He couldn’t change the city of departure either since I had basically booked the cheapest fare. But, he could issue me a new ticket for either 1900 Euros or 50,000 Delta miles. As I had about 53,000 miles, I went for the latter and just paid the airport taxes. Now, I have a “return” flight from Cincinnati to Paris in February that I can change for $100 for use in the next year. Fine.

Of course I was bummed about not being able to actually have gone back to my flat to pack more clothes and things I’ve bought that I wanted to take to Cincinnati. Oh well. Now, I figure I’ve finished my Christmas shopping! Really, so long as you have your passport and a credit card, you’re all set. And, I just tell myself – it could always be worse.

Changing Channels

TV is bad…I am now sitting here watching Columbo (give me some credit, the Hallmark channel just called it a “classic” one of two pilots that ‘cemented the shows status for 30 years’). Actually, I’m trying to find any show like CSI … Law & Order, Cold Case, even Diagnosis Murder (i.e. Dick van Dyke, 1993).

What is hilarious about these “older” episodes (1990s) is how unsophisticated the criminals were, and the police investigations! Or maybe it’s just that CSI is so advanced? I mean, in some of these, the criminals are not wearing gloves, they leave clues behind, etc. And the cops never seem to find it. But, in CSI, they can solve a murder from a miniscule trace of a jacket’s fabric.

Anyway, I figured this was a great time to post this link about “People Who Live Without TV”. (And, if you have kids, I really suggest reading the article.)

This was me for 6 years; and, in retrospect, it was nice. I’m sitting here wondering what I’d be doing without a TV right now. Granted, having a cold and having my whole body ache (wait, that’s the flu), I’d probably be watching a DVD on my laptop; but otherwise, I’d be reading, going for a walk, going through the piles of papers around my flat, emailing, and being otherwise productive.

I’m not sure what I’ll do in Paris – part of me says only basic TV, so then I’m forced to listen to the language but part of me says getting a full cable package would be good for days when I just want to listen to English.

Anyway – do you think you watch too much TV? If you didn’t have TV, what would you be doing this weekend instead?

(oh, p.s., in the article, I was not the “guy” interviewed in Boston! Although I wish I had met him!)

Friday, October 3, 2008

postings to come

Ok, I know I am behind as I need to write about the Eurostar fiasco, my holiday in Ohio, my trips to Paris, the new bell choir I've joined (in Paris), and a variety of other things. I figure if I list all this out, put it in writing, I'll actually write and post it.

But, right now I just got home from Paris, and what is about a 5-6 hour commute, and I have a cold. I hate being away from home with a cold - and I am saying London is "home" because this is where my Puffs Plus are (I just want to hug that box and wipe the tissues all over my face because "boutique" hotel tissues are sandpaper; my Sudafed; my tea; my Vicks; a few other things I am probably forgetting; and my bed are. I just want to get a cup of tea, go to bed, and sleep til about noon. So much for doing anything cultural or touristy tomorrow.

Good night.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Life in Paris

Ok, on this trip to Paris I am being hit by major culture shock. There are several contributing factors:

1) I just didn’t want to be in Paris this week. Sure, I scheduled the trip, but there were meetings beyond my control that I needed to attend (such as my former boss from North America being in town). And, it’s Gwen, Marissa & Julia’s last week in the London office, so I’m missing that. Plus, I’m here for the entire week (Mon morning train & Friday late afternoon return).

But, it was good for me to be here all week because
(a) I got 2 days here myself w/ only one other person from the London office here;
(b) Some of the people I had to meet won’t be available the later part of this week; and,
(c) Gives my week some continuity

2) The Metro line that goes to our office is like the B line in Boston – the destination is Saint Denis University so it is overly crowded and mostly not with business professionals, but rather sardine-packed with students and crazys.

3) I got my new “GDF” laptop (I put that in quotations because even though we are now GDF SUEZ, we all still talk in terms of GDF things and SUEZ things). And, we are in a former GDF building and have to deal with GDF IT rules.

My laptop complaints:
a. It is a much larger (i.e. heavier) HP laptop and will have to give up my trendy little Vaio upon my move in January.
b. All the software is in French. Sure, you think you know MS Office and all of its menu commands well, but trust me, you don’t.
c. It uses Lotus Notes email, with which I am familiar, and like more than Outlook, but again, it’s all in French
d. And, I have my new email address, but it is only viewable on this new laptop and they do NOT have webmail and they do NOT allow forwarding to another account. So if someone emails me at that account, I will only see it when I am in the Paris office
e. Most frustrating of all is it has a French keyboard aka “azert” instead of “qwert”. Try typing my name with this layout. It took me sooo long yesterday to do any work whatsoever.
f. It uses Windows 2000. Don’t laugh. Yes, it really does look antiquated. Supposedly next year we’ll be upgraded to Vista (is that really an upgrade?) and switch from Lotus to Outlook.
g. I don’t have access to the LNG Department folder in “My Computer” – you would think that would be a given, wouldn’t you?

4) There is actually office space set up for us in the Portfolio Management team (5 of us) but we are at the complete other end of the hall, in the hinter lands. How we’re supposed to interact with the Operations and Shipping teams is beyond me. What, are we just expected to wander down there and ‘hang out’? From my experience in North America, proximity is key because if these teams haven’t had Portfolio input before, they’re not going to remember to stop and walk down the hall to ask us. Makes the job that much more challenging, and not in a fun way.
a. But, for someone who does like quiet, this location is good. However, for an introvert like me, it’s not that useful for job effectiveness
b. At least now I have a desk where I can leave stuff instead of lugging some of my things back and forth

5) Tea. I like to have a cuppa tea on my desk to sip on for a few hours. However, there is NO kitchen space in the Paris office. You cannot even bring in a kettle to plug in as brining in outside things to plug in is NOT allowed in big, giant, corporation land. Anyway, there is a little “coffee machine” out of which you get a really small cup of coffee / cappuccino / tea / hot chocolate / etc. All for 0.05 euros. It’s addictive – so cheap and the thrill is gone before you’ve started. The disgusting part, though, is the tea. You select the option without sugar yet what you get tastes like heated up Lipton tea from a can. When you’re finished, you can see the sugarwater at the bottom of the cup. Gross.

You may be thinking – what is her problem? Really, a laptop, a keyboard, a cup of tea…get a grip, right? Well, it’s these little things that add up to culture shock for me. Sure, I expect people to speak French, to not understand menus, to have to study maps, etc. but things like this that catch me off guard really put me off kilter! True, on my next trip here, I’ll be expecting them, but it’s still an adjustment. Really, this keyboard thing is troublesome!