SEMC Wake

The end of life party took in the Scholar, then onto Dukes for the main part, and then onto Baa Bar. I'd prepared for this party by making some jelly for the first time ever - lime jelly made with tequila, and lemon and orange jelly both made with vodka. It went down with some better than others I have to say, but I was very pleased with the result, and I was in the Scholar at 5PM handing some out. There were already a few in when I arrived, and quite a few arrived on the train shortly afterwards. We stayed there for an hour or two for some warm up drinks (some didn't need too many as lunch time hadn't been wasted) and it seemed to be pretty much the usual Scholar crew with some additions.

Next stop was Dukes, and we seemed to be amongst the first there too, and took the chance to get some food before things got too busy - duck pizza, if I remember, a first for me and not bad actually. People seemed to keep arriving all evening and there were groups of SEMC staff all over the place. Dukes was well and truly taken - even outside there were a couple or more groups and it was a fine enough evening to make the most of that. There were also a few people there, who, like me weren't actually at SEMC on the last day, having left a while ago, but who still wanted to say good-bye. SEMC was a great place to be; highly stressful at times, managed (from Sweden) by obstinate lunatics at times, and sometimes bloody difficult to actually reach owing to the fragility of the local motorway networks, but it was still the best place and the longest place I've worked. It also had the most girls too, which is not to be sneezed at in this industry - it is very male dominated.

The third venue is much more hazy. The Baa Bar on Deansgate locks was where quite a few of us went after Dukes closed. This seemd to involve a lot of shots, with 'mini mexicans' figuring largely, as well as others like 'traffic lights'. I'll perhaps add more to this section as I remember it or as it gets passed back to me from others who were there :-) The photos here were taken relatively early in Dukes, and don't really reflect the number of bad heads that were evident next day.

At least most people seem to have used Facebook or LinkedIn to keep in contact and within these 2 networks there have been a host of groups set up to make it even easier to stay in touch. What did we do before these? It's similar to the "what did we do before mobile phones" question. It will be great to stay in touch with everyone though, and this is the first opportunity these types of sites have had to prove their worth in my lifetime, so we'll see. It seems a few have now got new jobs, although not most obviously. Of those that have, many have had to accept contracts in London, or have even taken permanent roles there. And therein lies one of the sad things when a major employer in an area closes. The sudden dumping of a lot of people with the same skills set, particularly in a recession means that poeple inevitably end up leaving that area, at least in the short term. A few have even left or plan to leave the country.

There were a couple of other unexpected bonuses afterwards too, including another new Facebook connection which cheered me up in the aftermath...

A Little Sanity Break

In small gaps between trying to deliver on 5 birthdays, Eva suggested a trip to Dunham Massey. Other than regretting only having a shit SEMC camera phone, the one thing I noticed was that all the trees on this estate looked fucked. I know it's still not spring proper, judging by the lack of life in them yet, but those that were still standing looked like they were survivors of a nuclear blast, and would soon join many of their mates who had already gone 'roots up'. Is there something wrong with the country's trees? In a few years time will I come back to find that the only trees left are conifers? Perhaps things will look better when they get leaves, but if I were one of those deer I would be wondering exactly what was to become of my 'sanctuary' other than a small sign saying "do not cross" at the edge of a large moor. The deer do seem a lot less timid these days, perhaps as a result of seeing so much more of us, and having no choice in the matter.

Au Revoir Again

Another leaving do. Isabelle (head of table) got 7 months out of her contract and is the fourth or fifth (I've lost count) of the audio team to be axed. She actually finishes on Tuesday 31st of March, so I'll miss out on croissants on that day, as there's a far more important engagement back in Manchester, which is where I'll be. We all met up in a Mexican restaurant for the obligatory meal before the party got underway properly. Interestingly a couple of the previous victims turned up too, though not all, as it seems there is some selective 'keeping in touch' going on. The main thing I remember about this evening is that a night club basically opened up out of the floor after the restaurant business had finished. The owners simply carried the tables and chairs away and the music got turned up, and the captive audience simply got on with the next stage. There were also quite a lot of English people in the (by now) bar too, which made it more interesting from a lone English male perspective. At the end of a busy night of partying, a few carried on to another night club, as they often seem to do, to continue until 5 AM. I didn't because, (1) I'm too old for that, and (2) I had a flight to catch on Saturday at 11AM, and I would be up at pretty much my normal workday schedule. Next week would be very hectic, as I would have 5 birthdays to deal with, and one if not 2, leaving does to squeeze in.

Chez Moi

I've just got back from my fourth French lesson in my third different group. This one felt right; not too easy, not too hard. It's only supposed to be temporary though, for 3 weeks, but I think I'll end up staying in this one - I hope so anyway. There were 4 others in the group too, and it was much more fun all in all. School would have been much more fun if you could have tried the different class/teacher combinations for each subject before settling on one. I won't be having another lesson for 10 days or so now anyway, due to an imminent return to Anglettere.

Once again though, on returning home, I find that the guy who's house I'm sharing is not here. He never is. Most, if not all weekends, he buggers off on Friday night and returns on Sunday evening. So henceforth, I am going to reverse the relationship. From now on, I will be referring to my French residence or something like that, and my lodger - that's Michel, the guy on the deeds (pronounced Michelle for those too bone idle to read the earlier posts). Right now, he'll either be refereeing football, watching football or playing darts, and won't return until midnight. If he gives me enough notice of when he's going to be about (or not) at weekends I might consider double letting his room. I must make an effort to see where he leaves my motorbike keys too...

RHS=0

Four Months and Counting

Well I've been told I have until the end of April here to look forward to at least. Peter, my English buddy was only told today, but I was told about a week or so back (he's in a different team). There was a bit of a panic generally with the remaining contractors, as they were being pushed unusually close to deadline day before being told. One of our team, Isabelle appears to be leaving next Tuesday, although we hope there may be a late reprieve, but it looks like another of the Audio team bites the dust. That's number 4 out of the original 12 when I started, and I guess there will be more croissants - not good. I won't be here for them on Tuesday though, as I will be returning to Manchester for a few days this coming weekend, mainly for the final SEMC leaving do. My carrier this time is Air France, and the flights are quite a bit more expensive than the BA flights I got last time, but the connection times are very much better. I'm wondering if I'll ever be able to make use of the dirt cheap BMI Baby direct flights that are running during summer, as they're not all that convenient, timetable wise, for someone working, and there aren't that many flights anyway and are subject to oversubsription.

Back to School

I had my third formal French lesson today, and this time there were 2 other people in the class, one Spanish and one Polish. They are both way better than me and I'm starting to think that joining 15 lessons into an intermediate class is not going to work. I'm going to get a 3 week reprieve though, as the classes are being divided up between the remaining tutors as one is going to have some surgery. I will be back in easy street again for these 3 weeks, although not back in the "je suis" class. I still find it very difficult to understand what people at work say, but not so bad understanding the tutors, presumably because they enunciate better. I'm also trying to locate a crib sheet with the 1000 & 2000 most common French words, as it is reckoned that 80% of conversation uses roughly just 1000 words and 90% about 2000 words. The other 10% can bugger off as I've only one lifetime to spare on this, and I reckon 90% will do just fine. In practice, any other new words will then be acquired as needed, perhaps as a result of a particular role or interest etc. I'd rather concentrate on correct grammer after that point anyway, as I'm a bit of a grammer natzi with English, and I reckon I'd enjoy being able to do the same en francais :-)

Pique-nique

The sun was shining again, as it has been now for a couple of weeks, but now it's starting to get pretty warm too. It was 24'C today, and it's only mid March, so one of the main reasons for coming here is paying up. Symbian in Sweden? Too cold, dark, and expensive thanks. There isn't a great deal of work on at the moment so people are barely in the office for 7 hours, let alone working for 7 hours. Case in point; today a few of us went for a picnic instead of lunch. A big bunch of pizzas, soft drinks and vino were collected on route to the park near work, and after eating we just sat and sunbathed for a couple of hours before returning to work. This included our boss BTW, so no guilt got in the way. As it happens, I do have a lot of work to do, as I'm busy trying to get a silicon vendor's software running in a PC environment (ie Carbide & the emulator), so that they have a better product to sell come the inevitable carve up. No one else here has any emulator experience at all, as they've never used it, so I get to do the brunt of this work, which suits me just fine as the further I get my legs under the table in this job climate, the better.

In the evening I had another French lesson. My first on Monday was far too easy, given that I studied French for 5 years at secondary school. Tonight was different; I sat in an intermediate class, and one that was already 15 lessons in too, and this was far harder. From the moment you set foot inside the building, only French is allowed, and it is very hard to be put on the spot and asked to form sentences in real time. It's hard enough writing it in an email, but this is what it's all about, and I'm sure in a couple of months it'll get easier. It's going to be two 2 hour lessons a week from now on, which should make a big difference in three months I'm told. The advantage of the place I've enrolled at is that I can pay lesson by lesson, so if I'm sacked after April, I'll at least not loose out on the 500 euros a three month course costs.

The Bad, The Ugly & The Good

The less said about the start of the weekend the better, but I won't ignore it completely. Friday's weather forecasts had promised blazing sunshine for many days ahead, so on Saturday I woke feeling quite chirpy at the thought of a couple of lunch time pints watching the dippers get thrashed at Old Trafford, followed by a day in the sun. So, in the De Danu Irish pub again, and a full Irish breakfast to start with. After that though it all went pear shaped quite quickly, and was even more unrecognisable by the end of the match. The so called beautiful game, summed up by the dippers' heroes with the phrase "pass & move" had been hijacked by a couple of set pieces and two hopeless punts down the pitch by a keeper fit for fuck all else. That said, the silver lining here, and I will find one if it kills me, is that there are now estates all over Liverpool feeling all smug that the title race is back on, and when they come back down to Earth in May, the crash will be all the harder. Shame. And long live the Manchester Ship Canal.

I did manage to get out & about in the sun afterwards though, and had a potter around Toulouse. It is smaller than Manchester I think, or at least Manchester seems to have several focal points, whereas Toulouse only has one main centre point. I squeezed in another haircut and tried to locate a decent gym in the evening, which is proving quite hard. Nothing here opens early, in case I haven't made that clear yet. The working day doesn't really start in the office until after lunch, there are no shops open other than the bakeries when I set off to work, and there are no gyms open before 9AM. In Manchester the gyms have queues at the doors at 6:30AM, mainly silvertops who wake up with the birds after 3 hours sleep, but usually with a light scattering of professional types who can't fit a session in anywhere else. Here things are different and while it's not as hopeless as Greece for getting things done, it takes some getting use to. I imagine the Germans would be horrified. I still don't understand how they lost the war(s), and I've read the books. My gym choice has boiled down to one really, a chain, which would entitle me to use any of their facilites throughout Toulouse, whenever I can find one that is open, and all for the reasonable price of 110 euros a month of 600 a year. WTF!? Well over twice what I would expect to pay at home. I haven't decided yet; partly because I now seem to be on a one month rolling contract, which makes proper planning a problem.

Sunday was to bring lesson 4 in my skiing carrer - obviously without an instructor. I chose Guzet this time, as it is supposedly a bit nearer than the previous two places I'd been to. In fact, it took longer to get to because more of the journey was off the motorway, but it did have the cute advantage of taking me off at the exit just before the toll booths and after a free 80 mile blast. I also got to see some fantastic countryside with picture postcard villages and great scenery. At one point I was stopping to take pictures so often I was in danger of not making it to the resort for a decent time. Guzet itself is comprised of three resorts in one, and I was aiming for the very top, where the slopes were flatter (presumably before heading into vertical drops down the sides of the mountain). I'm still impressed at this stage that my car is running so well - a true testament to German engineering, as it will be twelve this year and there's been fuck all wrong with it, ever. It's still bloody quick and goes round corners on rails, and it halls itself up these mountains like it was 6 months old. It takes nearly half an hour to get from the foot of the mountains to the resorts on top, as the roads are pretty twisty and there's a fair height to make up.

When I did climb out of the car, I found a pretty small resort, but one I immediately liked. Everything was in easy reach - important if you're wearing ski boots - there was plenty space to park, and it was clearly a beginner's atmosphere. I'm not generally thrilled to be surrounded by ankle snappers, but I make an exception for skiing, as it seems to indicate a lack of anything too dangerous. Says he. I started with a few laps of the warm up slopes, and then decided to tackle something a bit steeper. A bit too much steeper as it happened. I reckon I got about halfway down before I hit the deck - none of it controlled and speed increasing all the time. It's a good job I hit a bump really, as at least I hadn't yet reached terminal velocity. I spent a minute lying on my back when a couple of attractive female skiers sauntered by, very slowly, and controlled, and they seemed amused to be greeted by a middle aged man saying "bonjour" whilst lying on his back halfway down a mountain. I got to practice my 'getting up again' technique, which I had perfected by the end of the day. Basically you push yourself up with both your skii sticks, and it reminds me how you do can do a similar thing with the paddle to right a canoe that you've gotten out of shape. I tried this slope 7 times in all, and it didn't get much better as things went on. All I managed to get right in the end was that I didn't overshoot the lift to get back to the top again after the first few attempts. I ended the session going back to the practice slopes for some skills training. Here, on a gentle slope I found I was pretty good now, compared to four visits ago, but translating this into something meaningful is proving a bit harder.

I quit about 4:30PM with a beer, and by the time I had got changed, the second half of the England vs Francy Rugby match was about to start in the bar. The slopes shut at 5PM, so the bar also filled up with the ski instructors. We couldn't believe our eyes, as England were 28-0 up at half time. The South of France is seriously into rugby, and there were a lot of unhappy bunnies in that bar. England then scored a try a few minutes into the second half, and my cover was blown. The locals thought this single cheer was quite funny though, and I was spared being thrown off the mountain. More fun can be had with this at work too, so the weekend ended better than it started :-)

RHD=0

Mental Note

...that next time I decide to go to the De Danu, to check the sports calender. Tonight they had three of the four European Cup ties on at once. What a hopeless chaotic mess.

Five-a-Side - sort of.

I got roped into a five a side game today. I was sent an Outlook appointement last week, and tentatively accepted, but then lots of others dropped out, so I was required. Actually, it's 4-a-side and on a smaller pitch than we would use in England, and with proper fake grass too. At least 4-a-side is close to a normal game. They have another game here, called jorky ball I think, which is two teams of 2 in a box like a squash court. It's suicidally fast and requires a level of skill & speed I have never possessed (I was a career goalkeeper). I've been asked to join in with this in the past, but they don't bother anymore now! I expect Thierry Henry stared in one of these cubicles..

This game was my first in my entire time as a Symbian programmer. Until I went to London to join Symbian, I'd played footy twice a week and done kickboxing twice a week in Manchester, but since London.....absolutely nowt. I was expecting the worst, but all in all it wasn't too bad. Obviously I stopped being able to run in any meaningful way after half an hour, but a more considered approach allowed me to take out the oppostion's strikers just at the end of their mazy runs, ie when they were knackered too. There was quite a strange mix of players - two of the best were also the two biggest, to put it very politely. I've seen this before actually, they often have very good balance, and are hard to knock off the ball. The audio team architect is quite good too, and not on my team, so he ran me ragged. But I was by no means the worst and I will improve as my fitness increases and allows me to maintain a decent pace for a full hour.

The only drawback for me really is that these games are lunchtime, which means (a) missing a fab lunch in the canteen (b) feeling hot and sweaty for the afternoon in the office. Same again next Tuesday though - hooked again now...

Toulouse Cathedral

Otherwise known as Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse. What more can I say about this monstrosity. If it were a person it would be called Quasimodo. It was started sometime around the 13th centruy, and then various setbacks occured, such as the death of its architect and lack of funds for completion, and it was still being completed as recently as the last century. I think officially it is two almost complete churches bolted together, but three are pretty obviously there at least in large part. The rose window is in one structure, the clock tower is another, and the third, a gothic design, which can't really be seen from the front is to the sides and forms the majority.


It is very scary to look at and shows how art has the power to stir emotion. I think picasso would be proud of it anyway. Inside the problem gets worse, although they have managed to distract from it here with an abundance of classic religious art, and many other fineries, such as wood carvings, sculptures, dozens of satellite chapels etc. The main problem seems to be that the two main structures do not line up and do not even cross in an orthodox manner. There is a huge central column inside which is supposed to rectify these shortcomings, but which just looks out of place like nothing I've ever seen in a building like this.


It's quite interesting to see how other project types than software can go badly wrong and yet the powers that be will simply keep driving the death march to its inevitable conclusion. I'm pretty sure they would have just kept throwing bodies at the problem in exactly the same manner, until at the very least it had a roof, and they could crack a bottle of champagne against that central pillar. Eventually the project would have been in such a mess that they would have got contractors in and that's perhaps why the money kept running out...hmm...


I feel kind of sorry for the old dear, and it is after all Toulouse Cathedral, so it certainly pulls rank over St Sernin, which is much more classically beautiful. Above all though, when I step into a building like this, it always fills me with awe that men could even contemplate building such structures without JCBs, dynamite and power tools, especially given its start date, though I'm pretty sure the body count would have been high. We're lucky in the UK to have so many post Norman specimens about...

Two Good Results

Man Utd won the League Cup Final , and Peter and I watched this in "De Danu", the Irish pub we'd visited previously. The pub had a predictably partisan support for the home side (Wembley being nicknamed 'Old Trafford South'). That's 4 out of a possible 6 trophies won this season now, if the Charity Shield and World Club Cup can be counted, and I'm already including the league in the completed list as we will not loose 25 percent of our remaining games. Fact.

On a completely unrelated note (to my French adventure), Facebook has proved its worth by turning up 2 friends I haven't seen in years - one for 25 and one for 15 in fact. The odd thing is that they were lurking in someone else's friends list (thanks Bill), and suddenly sprang out while I was 'chatting' with him. Small world...