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.