Badminton, Paris & Derby

After my last posting, I played badminton on the Saturday. Having only an on/off switch when I play sport, I went all out, as usual, and played for 1 1/2 hours non-stop with 3 Indian guys. Didn't disgrace myself and was invited to come back. As always, I felt great afterwards and continued to feel great for the rest of the day. Sunday morning, woke up still feeling great until I tried to move...Result: spent the day on the couch trying to remain as immobile as possible. I couldn't even sneeze as my poor stomach muscles complained so much that only a tiny little hiss would come out. Monday wasn't much better but as I had booked to go to Paris, up I got and on my way.
I am now sure that there is a God and He is laughing at me. I got to my hotel in Paris and, not being able to climb 1 step without pain, was delighted to find out that I had been allocated a room on the top floor. 6 flights of steps, agony all the way.
I was nicely situated near Sacre Coeur and the Montmartre area so headed out for a look. 200 more steps later, I found myself overlooking the city from the base of Sacre Coeur. It is a lovely structure but I like my churches older (it is less than 100 years old).
Wandered down towards the Moulin Rouge and was struck by how seedy the neighbourhood is. All the men on the street were approached in hopes that they could be lured into the sex shops & peep shows. Moulin Rouge itself was a disappointment. Very tired and run down. Not like in the movies at all!
Whisked myself off to see the Eiffel Tower instead and managed to get some fabulous photos of it (if I do say so myself!) No climbing for me!
Tuesday saw a trip to Versailles and a day spent in the palace and gardens. What a beautiful place full of history, elegance and scaffolding. Interesting points: the palace survived the revolution pretty much intact, a lot of the furniture also survived (including the king's desk, which has spring loaded compartments where the servants can fill up the inkwells and restock the stationery from without accessing the main part of the desk. Cool!), Louis XV & XVI didn't use the official bed for sleeping in - they would go to bed (observed by courtiers), wait for everyone to leave and then get up and go to bed in another, less ostentatious room. In the morning they would get up and go back to the official bed for the Rising. What a pain in the bum! Duty is a dirty word. Also, the queens had to give birth in public so that people could be sure that babies were not swapped and the heirs were really the heirs. Modern women should be thankful that they were not royalty of the past.
Wednesday was spent at the Louvre. My strategy was to race up to the popular 'stuff' and then spend the rest of the day strolling through the rest. The museum has a Da Vinci Code audio guide that is twice as expensive as the normal audio guide. I wonder how many people actually go for it. I found the Virgin on the Rocks, which is actually not opposite the Mona Lisa (it is in another room near the Mona Lisa). I had seen the Madonna on the Rocks at the National Gallery in London and was interested to see the differences between the two. The Mona Lisa was a bit of a disappointment. It is difficult to appreciate why the painting is so revered. I liked the Venus de Milo. She's very elegant. Some of the rooms were more spectacular than the artwork displayed in them. Their ceilings and walls were decorated with paintings, gold leaf & beautiful woodwork. When going through other parts of the museum, it was like being in the place by myself. There were very few people. When I came back into the popular sections and in the hall under the pyramid, the place was packed. Most people are just there to say that they had been there, I think.
I used the same strategy I used for the Louvre at the Musee d'Orsay. Straight up to the 5th floor and the Impressionists before heading down for the rest. Whistler's Mother was there. Thought of Mr Bean. Many of the famous works were on loan to other galleries. Starry Starry Night was missing. Lucky I'd seen it in Melbourne when they came.
I got back to London on Thursday night and headed up to Derby on Friday morning. Rosey came to pick me up from the train station. We went to Melbourne in the late afternoon! It is about 10 miles from Derby and is a very small town. It's 2 features of interest are the airport (it is the airport that Rosey and Mick use to get to Europe) and Melbourne Hall (which was not open).
On Saturday we visited Kedleston Hall (an old estate with some of the family still living in one of the wings). Mick was determined to have a picnic in its park come rain hail or shine and luckily the rain held off until after we finished lunch. It rained for the rest of the long weekend. We also visited Ashborne, which is famous for its gingerbread but there was no local gingerbread to be found.
On Sunday, we visited York. What a lovely old town centre with narrow cobblestone streets and old buildings housing shops selling lollies, tea, chocolates, fudge, books & clothes. We got to York Minster in time for Evensong which was a great disappointment. The choir performed a modern piece which, as Mick put it, sounded like their batteries were running flat. Churches should stick to performing the classics. The sermon was terrible. The 3 of us emerged confused as to what the message was, each having a different interpretation.
As we had lunch at the 'Most Haunted Pub in Yorkshire' on Sunday, Rosey and Mick took me to the 'Most Haunted Pub in Derbyshire' on Monday. Didn't see a ghost in either establishment. : (
Spent Monday afternoon watching a soccer match between Derby and West Bromley. Derby won, which means that they will go up into the Premiere League next season. So much carrying on!
Went to see Cabaret yesterday afternoon. Apart from the gratuitous nudity, it was great. Very moving. It is the first time I was watched it. Haven't even seen the movie version.
Fun is almost over. I start work on Monday. Have a week of induction.
Taffy (Eppie's brother) arrives on Tuesday. We will see whether we can get a place together.
Photos from my expeditions in the last 2 weeks are posted at the usual place.

Jobless no longer

I have a job! In the words of our old high school chemistry teacher, Yay! It is with a consulting company called Celerant so I could potentially be working anywhere around the UK or Europe, depending on the client.
So, events of the last week:
Got up at the ungodly hour of 5.30am last Tuesday to get to Heathrow for my flight to Brussels. Was in business class because the travel agent couldn't get a seat for me in economy. Bonus! Ate my second breakfast on the plane. (A-la Pippin) Had to sit around waiting at the office for 1 1/2 hours before my session started (with lunch). The session went well: group exercise, role-play, case study and interview. I had almost 2 hours to kill before my flight back so I took myself down to the old town centre (photos are on my website). The lovely narrow cobblestone streets are so full of character. The Grand Place is stunning and the Manneken Pis (the little statue of the pissing boy) is hysterical. He is on the corner of a couple of lanes and he is tiny. I overheard some people saying that he was one of the most photographed statues in the world. Bought myself some Belgian chocolate. Mmmm... Was very restrained and only bought a little bag. : )
They said that they would make a decision within a week but on Wednesday afternoon, the recruitment agent called to say they were offering me a position.
Had another assessment centre on Friday (in London but my tube line went down and was almost late in arriving). No food offered. : ) Told them I had another offer on the table so needed to know asap whether they wanted me or not. Got notification today that they didn't so full steam ahead with Celerant.
In other news, I went to a strange BBQ on Saturday with Yvette and her friend. It was a dress-up party where everyone was dressed up except us. There were nurses, soldiers, police, Fred Flintstone, cats and Smurfs. The Smurfs kept multiplying. Everytime I turned around there were more of them. Their blue paint kept coming off their hands and bodies too - onto clothing and their food (overheard one of them asking his friend whether the paint was edible...) During the BBQ, Suzi, Yvette's friend, told me that a colleague of hers plays badminton and might let me play with him and his friends. Got in contact with him today and will head down to Canary Wharf to play next weekend. Will probably get smashed. He's Indian.
Went to watch Spiderman 3 yesterday. After the previews, I am now dying to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Ocean's Thirteen and Harry Potter (all sequels!). Spiderman was ok. Not as good as 2 and definitely not as good as 1 but still good entertainment. I like the Spiderman series because it is more emotional than just comic book action. For the same reason, I loved the first X-Men, liked the second and hated the third (changed director and lost all of its soul). Same problem here (except no change of director).
Need to plan what I want to do for the next 2 1/2 weeks now as I don't start till June 4. Let the fun continue!

More drama & a nice weekend

Following on from the near-miss break-in on Tuesday, I locked myself out of the house on Friday evening. My landlady had just left for the long weekend and I went to collect my washing from the backyard when the backdoor slammed shut behind me. Crap. No shoes, no key, no phone... I climbed over the fence to get out to the front of the house and went door knocking on all the neighbours doors looking for a ladder to borrow as I had left a window open on the first floor. In the process, I almost locked a woman out of her house when she came to answer the door & almost caused a heart attack in an old guy who came to help me (he wheezed and huffed and puffed when he climbed over the fence after me to see the back door). After about 75 minutes of stress, found a guy down the road with a ladder. Got a case of the 'sewing machine legs' (as our rock climbing instructor, Simon, called them at Year 10 camp - remember him, Eppie?) near the top of the ladder before successfully breaking into the house. Not an eyelid battered in the street. Trauma over.
Took the train to Stratford-Upon-Avon on Saturday morning to visit my great-aunt Kong Suk Por's sister. Stratford is beautiful. Full of old houses and buildings. Took a hop-on hop-off bus tour around to all the Shakespearean sites. Only went into the Anne Hathaway house, which is a lot bigger than it was when she lived in it. A little bit of false advertising at many sites as to the exact historical timing, I think. The funniest things I learnt was that she was 26 (old maid!) and he was 18 when they married and that she gave birth to their first daughter 6 months after they got married! Hmmm...
Auntie Margaret and Uncle Bob took me to a pub for dinner, where I had the nicest fish and chips I have had since I arrived. Couldn't move afterwards!
On Sunday morning, I went to church with them. All this church-going - first evensong at Westminster and now mass in Stratford. Haven't been to so much religious ceremony in the last 5 years. I don't discriminate between denominations. : ) Had my first Sunday roast (roast pork with yummy crackling) and bread & butter pudding (got to try all the traditional British dishes).
After lunch, we visited Coughton Court, a 15th century and onwards house belonging to the Throckmorton family (a wealthy Catholic family). The house is famous for being central to the Gun Powder plot of 1605 (the one Guy Fawkes was involved in), when the wives of the men involved waited at the house for news of the success or failure of the plot to blow up the House of Lords. Of course, it failed and they all got executed. The house is huge! Lots of historical objects are on display here - a cope believed to be embroidered by Catherine of Aragon, a chemise worn by Mary Queen of Scots when she was executed and my favourite - the Throckmorton coat, which was made from sunrise to sunset in one day from the shearing of the sheep through spinning, dying and weaving to tailoring as a result of a bet. What wealthy people do (or have people do) in their spare time.
I have updated my album with the latest photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/frances.ip
Off to Brussels tomorrow for an assessment centre. Will have to get up at 5.30am and probably will be back home at ~10.30-11pm. Maybe I can get some Belgian chocolate. : )

Hair Raising Experience

Came across the nastier side of life today. Came home from an interview at around lunchtime and heard noises at the back of the house. Saw a shadow of a person at the bathroom window and then heard scuffling sounds at the back door. Went upstairs and peered out of one of the windows to see 2 youths leaping over the fence into next-door's backyard. There were scuff marks on the back door, the wheelie bin had been moved and there was a dint in the lid like someone had jumped on top of it to try to get up over the fence or onto the roof.
About 10 minutes later, I saw about 6 very similarly dressed youths wandering around the street and into the block of flats next door.
The police came and had a look around but just took a couple of notes and that was it. I made a terrible witness, not being able to describe them well at all. They had 'hoodies' (as the Brits call them) on and their faces were in shadow.
Have been jumping at noises & shadows all afternoon. The adrenalin surge from the incident left me very tired and I crawled into bed for an afternoon nap.

I was going to write about Australia's World Cup Cricket win before this happened. What a great knock from Gilly to guide the Aussies to victory! I have often been harsh on the team as they come across as being very arrogant (as do many of their fans) and it is good to see them go down every now and then if not just to make things more interesting but you cannot deny the warm happy feeling when they win something big like this. [What a long sentence!]
I have a great desire to comment on the pros and cons of the Duckworth Lewis system but will refrain from it and keep this nice. The farcical ending of the match highlighted one of the issues - mathematics can be used to model and calculate many things but it can't compensate for the human factor.