The Magic Flute & Toilets

It was in English! ??? Regardless, it was fantastic! The 2 roles they mentioned in their ads were the 2 that were the best - The Queen of the Night & Papageno. He was very funny and had a very rich voice and she sang her most famous and most difficult aria beautifully. They got the most applause when they came out to take their bows. Pamina and Tamino, on the other hand, were very pretty but had quite weak voices, Tamino in particular. Who cares anyway, they are just there as the romantic leads. : )
It has been a couple of eventful weeks at work. Firstly, I put in a request for a sandwich for lunch. My boss went out to get everyone's lunch and while he was out, I went to talk to one of the local managers. The discussion went on till 5pm. The whole time I was there, I was thinking about my lunch (stomach rumbling). On my return, I find that someone has eaten it! Being the way I am, I carry on like a pork chop, accuse Vincent of eating it during our team meeting (he denies it vigorously) and our boss accuses one of our other people (who also denies it). This, of course, leaves the client team members...The next day, Jean-Pierre came in in the mid afternoon and asked me whether I had eaten before he dared to pick up any of the food from the bench. Poor thing. : )
I was assigned the job of following one of the lab techs during the 12 hour night shift on Wednesday night. I went to work for Wednesday morning, went back to the hotel for a couple of hours nap and then went back to the plant at 6pm. I was there till 7am the next morning, tried to sleep, managed an hour, had a shower and went back to work. I was so tired by late afternoon that my brain couldn't function. We then had a big team dinner that night that I had to struggle through. !!
One of the most annoying things about the setup that we have is that you have to put on all your PPE to go to the bathroom. The toilets are upstairs in the same building but to get there you need to go outside and up some stairs on the outside of the building. Also, I need a key for the women's toilet. Taffy tells me that this is a necessity as if men can get into a women's toilet they will because they know that it is much cleaner than the men's one. Urgh! This reminds me of the toilets at one of the mines in the Hunter Valley. I had been told that there were only men's toilets in the workshop area and had been going there for a few days (disgusting in so many ways) when an old guy bumped into me as he was leaving and I was going in. When I came out, he was waiting for me outside to tell me that there was a ladies' toilet just around the corner! Geez!
Anyway, getting on well with all of the team and have started to get French lessons from the numerous French people on the team. We have started with the key phrases - about eating. : )
I also found out that Jean-Pierre does extreme long distance running. He does a race each year up Mont Blanc. 160km in 37 hours non-stop this year. The winner apparently made it in 32 hours. What the..?! Something to aspire to, Eppie & Chaitanya!
Eppie is arriving tomorrow morning for a conference. Will be going to pick her up half way between our house and Heathrow.

Music and New Project

On the weekend after we came back from France, we attended 2 musical events - the musical, Chicago and Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Evensong was fantastic, I finally heard a resident choir singing in its own church and it was sublime. There was also lots to entertain us: one of the choir boys did not sing - he stood slightly behind one of the other boys, kept his mouth shut for most of the time and occasionally moved his mouth a little in an attempt to pretend to sing (we think he got in trouble with the choirmaster afterwards) and the officiant behaved in a very strange and casual manner - he would bounce up ready to lead the singing and then slouch in his chair almost with one foot resting on the bench.
I started a new project last week. During the week before, I met with the Project Manager (PM), Vincent, a French guy living in London. The team is very multicultural - on the Celerant side: the lead analyst is from the US, the analyst is Dutch, the PM is French and me, on the client side, of the people I have met so far: the manager is French, as is one of the team, another is from Italy and another is from Spain. The only people who are British are the people on site. We have had some three way translations - one of the French said a word that I didn't understand, the Italian overheard and provided the English translation as Italians use the same root word.
Vincent and I had quite a funny experience on the train on Monday. We were to get off at Wakefield but when we got to the station, we couldn't open the door. By the time we found someone to ask, the train was leaving the station and we had to get off at the next station, Leeds. It turns out that on the old trains, you have to open the window, lean out and open the door with the handle on the outside. How are a Frenchman and an Australian supposed to know this?
On Friday, Taffy, his cousin David, one of David's housemates and I went to Brick Lane for some curry. We didn't know you are supposed to haggle for discounts and freebies so we got sucked in by the first restaurant, which offered us a free round of drinks and 25% off the bill. Turns out that 25% is pretty standard along the entire street. We were happy with the food we ate and the price we paid anyway.
I am off to see my first opera next weekend - The Magic Flute. Looking forward to it.