first week in France

Last week was my first somewhat normal week working and living in France. Not entirely, but somewhat. I travelled to Lyon (plan) Tuesday afternoon and caught up with Jim (from our Germany office, we're both Project Managers) at the flat. The flat is a 2-bedroom with a living (w/ pull out couch) and a small dining area and kitchen. And all stylishly decorated with flat screens in living room and bedrooms, so not too bad.

The next day I went into the office of the company we're partnered with in France and got neck deep in the projects I've kind of been ignoring for a bit. And I won't bore you with details, but mostly just scoping and setting up proposals and such for the French projects right now. And then for Thursday and Friday I mostly worked out of the flat and didn't go into the office, which means I could have been working on a beach in Asia (a consideration!!), but anyway... went out a couple times once to a good brew pub near the stadium... Gerand was it? So that was my first somewhat normal week in Lyon.

To keep things interesting, I left Lyon Saturday morning and headed to Paris by train. I've a friend here and spent Sat & Sun night. Wasn't a cloud in the sky and over 20 so we sat around in tshirts on the Seine Saturday afternoon... very rough... Then went to a house party on Sat night on the hill near Sacre Coeur (Montemarte). Here I drank what seemed a very reasonable / normal amount of beer, but in retrospective, drank too little water during the day, leading to nice headache Sunday morning. So Sunday started rather slow going to a markets (near Bastille) and we sat around in a sidewalk cafe for a couple hours. And then I got setup with a couple other friends going to the Musee Pampidou, which was free along with all museums on the first Sunday of the month. And was good because one of these friends didn't talk English so it forced the conversation for the afternoon/evening entirely into French, which is much better for my practicing!!

Well, that's about it. Had a nice home-cooked salmon dinner last night and now I'm on the trainsoon to go into the chunnel and should be at work in London in another hour. Must admit, I've spent ~€350 on trains coming home through Paris (which I plan to expense) rather than the €70 a flight would have cost from Lyon to London, but I'm not charging my travel time, so I feel no guilt. But it is still amazing that trains can be that much more expensive than flying. But travel city center to city center sure makes life easy (I left the apartment about 1hr 10min before my train was to depart, just try to do that for the airport!)

And my goal now is to stay in London for 2 weeks without any travel. I'm thinking I've got a shot!! Other goals for those who care:

- make all my French classes for next 2 weeks and actually do my homework
and practice occasionally (there's a few French group get togethers I
can attend if I get off butt)

- make it to the climbing gym again for the first time in 6 months

- get signed up with the gym across the street from work that work pays for
and I haven't registered with despite being full time in London since July

- getting telephone and tv at the flat tomorrow - have to stay home all
day :( internet will follow in 12-15 business days

- thinking I might by a plant for the flat and make it look like someone
lives there (did I mention I bought a print for the wall? a Lichtenstein...)

- I'm avoiding putting work things down as priorities to do, though the
sad realiity is....

- make plans for some trips... Netherlands in April to visit Jen, Darran
& Jenny and soon to be Lisette as well!, find a time for Canada in the
summer, and then my sister and her kids in August (Lyon and then Greece
& Italy I think is the plan) - but I'm also thinking of working in a trip
to somewhere new... was thinking Egypt, someone just planted the thought
of Istanbul... somewhere for just a 3-4 day weekend might be nice and
easily doable.

- oh, and I hopefully hired someone on Friday, but assuming they accept,
they won't really start until April 10, so I can't start dumping on them
until then. this should really help give me more of a life!!

Okay, I must stop writing and go for my pain au chocolat, jus d'orange et grande creme (whichis more or less a cafe au lait or maybe a latee from what I can tell). Priorities!!

So does this blog make my mother happy? And I'll have a phone in my flat so you can start calling me at 4AM! And my sister can rack up my cell phone with roaming charges in Paris while I give instructions on how to install a portable hard drive! Seriously, that's pricey tech support!! :)

(Quick little side note... it's the next day and I'm finally putting this into the blog... missed French class last night and went for some really yummy Indian food instead... just got my landline hooked up, the number for which I'm not going to put online!! now waiting for the Sky-tv guy...)

to watch or not to watch...

The biggest dilemma of my life right now is whether I should get cable and internet. Right now I snag wireless off the corner coffee shop and it is slow and unreliable. So here are the considerations:

- ~£30/month, 12 month contract for sat TV (w/ digital box w/ 40hr recording), high-speed internet and a phone line

- I'm supposed to be paying an annual TV tax that everyone with a TV pays; I've avoided it so far and could be prosecuted, but plan to play the dumb Canadian who is hardly ever here (not far from the truth). But if I get my sat TV hooked up, I'm going to have a hard time playing dumb (okay, I can still pull it off pretty easy).

- As soon as I commit, I'll get fire or want to move.

- If I don't commit, I'll be in London for 13 years without good TV.

- If I do commit, then I can watch Battelstar Galactica & Lost live on TV, recorded on the Sky digital box, or via high-speed internet (via my US work VPN)

- If I don't commit, I could take the ~£450 at the end of each year and go on vacation (this rationale falls apart because whether I spend the money on the TV has nothing to do with whether I'll go on vacation).

So it more or less comes down to the fact that I'm an analytical Libra who doesn't make decisions very quickly. An intuitive friend in the bar last night suggested that I treat digital cable boxes and women the same way... I keep looking at the specs, weighing the options, humming and hawing, and then do nothing until the decision is ultimately made by me moving countries. Ouch, but somewhat true! So maybe I should:

A. get married
B. get cable
C. A and read more books
D. B and go to the bar more often
E. A but only after B and only if B doesn't cause A not to happen
because I never leave the house

Well, too much babble about nothing I know. Besides cable/TV/, life is good. Was in Madrid most of last week for training and meetings. Came home Friday 9PM and found the construction guy (washing machine leak of months ago finally being fixed) had locked a lock on my door for which I didn't have a key. Forced me to go sleep at a friends Friday night. This week I'm in London for the entire week (yahoo!) and next week off to Lyon Mon-Weds for meetings. Hopefully be my first time staying in the new flat (Ed, Lisette, Robyin and others that have already made reservations - should be getting it any day now).

Only other thing new is that I'm taking French classes Mon & Weds nights. I've got homework to do tonight actually :) This and my time in Lyon should do wonders! I'm already much more fluent in being able to have conversations, but the future conditional, future proche and future simple are all causing me to revisit my past... quite strange!!

So between the travelling, classes, work still being nuts and some general trouble causing and visiting of establishments providing alcoholic beverages (Madrid was bad for this!), I'm rather out of control. One of my new year's resolutions was to slow down and haven't quite managed that yet. Though meeting with the recruiter at 4:30 this aft about some possible hires to support me this has been listed as high priority for him for 2 months now and still no one hired while our #1 competitor has laid off 25% of their workforce... how can we not find a suitable candidate?!?!

Did I mention I'm finally feeling 100%. Had a nasty something when I got back from NA, strep or mono or something that laid me out for most of a week with a fever and then kept me wiped for the next couple weeks (several family members back home had it all weeks apart, which makes it sound like mono, which would also explain the tiredness afterwards, though my niece just last week, about 3 weeks after I left, came down with a confirmed case of strep). Anyway, finally feeling like my old workaholic self. And speaking of that, I'm leading a conference call with the client in 2 minutes and I guess I'll be winging it!!

winter update...

My mother has complained I haven't blogged in while and whether I still have a cold (that was so two months ago!! quite healthy right now). And I hope I stay health as things are too busy right now. Everything is going very well, just 9.5 out of 10 on the pace. Mostly work, but other things too. Maybe I'll start off with the work Xmas party a few nights ago. I'll share a few photos (there are some others, but there are some work photos that just don't need to be widely distributed!). The party was at the Kensington Roof Gardens, which are owned by Richard Branson and supposedly a posh venue. Unfortunately it was cold and we never really got to take advantage of the roof garden (except Christian and I sneaking out the staff door to see the flamingos).

(actually, the dialog box to add photos is showing up on my 2nd monitor, which isn't attached - despite clicking the right boxes on the driver settings, it's still not working, so maybe we'll add photos at a later time!)

I have another Xmas party this coming week for the Olympics in the London Dungeons space. Not the official dungeons, but an equally neat space of mazey type rooms. I've been there once before as it's also like a club / strange space on Friday and Saturday nights. I'm sure it will be fun and messy.

Work in Ireland is still going full speed, but I'm not making any more site visits (maybe till March when everyone gets together for a meeting onsite). The project is still humming and I'm trying to delegate and hire someone to delegate more. And the delegation is largely because I've taken the PM role for two projects in France, one of which is completely in French, and I'm about to get thrown into another. I'm off to Strasbourg on Dec 15 for a few days to kick off one of the projects. We're talking about renting a company flat in Lyon so myself and others can have a place to go and stay for a week at a time type thing.

Had my first visitor come for a visit (friend from California) and that was nice. I felt a bit guilty that I didn't have more time to "hang", but work blows up when I don't stay on top of things. I have another visitor coming next weekend, but just for a couple days on her way to Africa.

Let's see... other things... I was in Madrid for a few days of meetings and team chartering. (my boss from France came for the meeting and we went out partying till 3AM the day before I led the team chargering meeting... bad idea!) I spent a lot of hours building a Data Management team over the past couple months (all non-billable!) and managed to do what every said was impossible and get two of the key team members (one from Milan, one from Madrid) sent to California for two weeks of training. Now if things don't go smoothly it's my neck on the line. And the really sad things is when I was getting the funding approved by the Global Lead, he asked if I should also go to California to oversee the training and make sure all goes well. And the really really sad thing is, I'm so busy, I had to say no. How pathetic!! Oh well. One of them is in San Francisco tonight and he's being taken out by a few of my friends, so that should lead to some good stories!

I'm heading back to Winnipeg on the 19th for 12 days. (12 days of Christmas?) Then I'm off to Chicago for New Years! Chicago has always been on my list of cool cities to visit and a friend and I have excess Hilton points and we're staying at the Drake for 3 nights! I know nothing about the Drake except it was often the hotel you'd here at the end of Oprah or Wheel of Fortune or some show like that where they'd say "Our guests stay at the Drake located on the .... blah blah". Anyways should be fun.

Okay, must get a move on as I'm off to a French movie this afternoon with some friends. Have been going to this French conversation class thing every Monday and trying to practice as much as I can. I think in the new year I'll be taking proper classes, too. I better since the proposals and workplans and such on one of my projects is entirely in French. Yikes! Hope all is great with everyone!

update from Northern Ireland

Well, I say update from Northern Ireland, but I'm actually back in London for 72 hours. And even then I went up to Birmingham yesterday. But I figured I'd visit my apartment to make sure it's in one piece. Quite a strange feeling to be coming back to London and have a sense of coming home (maybe not home home, but home none the less). Though the flat still does need some work to feel like home (like say something hung on a wall?!).

I've got a good set up in in Derry (aka Londonderry depending upon your religious & political persuasion) with a nice flat (5 of us in the same building), though it definitely wouldn't be my city of choice if I ever chose to live in Ireland (would definitely choose Belfast or Dublin). I'm really looking forward to having some more time in London, but as far as field jobs go, it's a good set up with good people. And the UK driving is coming along... I can now say I am 98% when shifting with my left hand and staying on the left (wrong) side of the road. I still find myself routinely trying to get in the passenger door to drive and can't reverse looking over my left shoulder, but will probably come.

Work has been quite intense lately. I'm managing the Northern Ireland project and doing very little "field work" despite the fact I'm in the field (I spend most my time sitting in the field trailer drinking lattes). But the budget has tripled since I took over and has gone from me managing 1 or 2 people to having a team of 4-5 people full time and many others part time with me trying to hold on to the reins. I've been working from site trying to train up the field team and deal with all the clients that want to come and see the site. Has sometimes felt like I'm getting very little done and everything is piling up. But everyone (including bosses and clients) and very happy with the status and prospects.

At the same time I was in Lyon for meetings a few weeks (month?) back and I'm now senior hydro for a project in Strasbourg. I need to do a site visit and kick off some work there in a few weeks. Apparently the client is sold that the N. Ireland project is going so well and was quite impressed at the meeting and Ireland site visit, so now they want me to the same in France. So I'm getting lots of kudos (literally told I have been the turning point for sealing the contract for the next 3 years across all of Europe), but lots of pressure to keep up the pace! Sheesh.

And then at the same time I've been given the task of recruiting another hydro for the London office and a data manager for the Milan office. I'll probably head over to Milan in late October for a visit while some staff are visiting from the US. The sacrifices I make... :) Starting to get involved in recruiting and my more regional roles are great for the career, but I have time to do this like I have money to burn (which obviously I don't with the stock market down - though I must say I've been hoarding cash in savings accounts for the past 18 months and I'm feeling like a genius right about now).

Well, that's a lot of babble all about work, but that's certainly been most of my life this past month. What else... I made some friends in Paris during my travels to Lyon and that could be fun in the coming months (especially as I have more upcoming work in France). And I've been on a couple dates with someone I met in London (though she's a doctor living in Birmingham, so definitely limitations). And I've bought my ticket home to Winnipeg for Christmas and Chicago for New Years (home to Wpg on Friday Dec 19 and leave Wednesday Dec 31). And there are 3 flies in my apartment.

Oh, almost forgot, I think I'm almost a Canadian employee again! At least they've screwed up and can no longer direct deposit my US paycheques / expense cheques - a sign the transfer really is happening!! Not sure if you can all follow this as I know I can't.... I'm currently a Canadian with a US work visa based in US but working in the UK with a UK visa (I'm double visa'd right now). Soon I'll be a Canadian employee being paid in Canada but paying taxes and living in the UK with a UK Visa. Follow? All I know is that the original UK offer was ~35% more than my US salary and the CDN expat offer is ~15% more than that and since I got CDN Expat offer the CDN dollar has gone up 5%, so I won't complain about the $1800 (!) plane ticket home at Christmas (should have worked that into the Expat contract!). Okay, heading back to Derry in a couple hours so must do some errands...