The Aussie Spirit
Well, its still March so I figure I had best get on with trying to type up an update.
Last time I think I had left you just before the Bond ball. Essentially, we had dinner at Nick and Celine's place and then moved on to the ball from there. Both Gab and Andrea came although they were shattered from their flight and ended up leaving early. The highlight of the night was the group charity auction. Nicky had suggested that I offer a wine tasting as a charity thing for the tsunami victims. I got my offer in at the last minute, just a day before the ball itself.
Mine was the last item to be auctioned and ended up creating quite a bidding war with my lovely friends Yves and Marianne bidding the eventual winners up to 600 euros! Goodness only knows what I am going to serve these people now that they have bid that much. On the positive side, it has enabled me to help save a large number of sea turtles though a charity called Naucrates based in the Nicobar Islands and which lost two of its volunteers to the waves.
Unfortunately for Nick and Celine, their dinner was auctioned first and whilst all of us so called friends were tied up at the bar trying to purchase drinks and so the bid went to the same group of guys who got my tasting. When Nicky tried to se if they would on-sell us the dinner for a premium, she was told "you snooze, you lose"! I am kind of hoping the kids still keep the outfits for a dinner for us a later date...
Following the auction, we had a great time dancing on until nearly 5am. Thankfully for me, my wonderful boss agreed beforehand to take my place at the wine tasting on the Sunday morning as I can only imagine what kind of state I would have been in following a late night on gin and tonics!
On the Monday and Tuesday it was back to the tastings at the wine competition.
By Wednesday I was all set for the speed dating that Nicky had talked me into attending. It went OK in the end although was badly organised and didn't finish until midnight. It was funny to see how it went talking to so many people for such short amounts of time.
On the Thursday, Gab and Andrea hit the travel road again leaving me for a quiet weekend where I went along to a birthday parties for a couple of friends here where I basically didn't know anyone.
Finally, in the second week of March, our expert group meetings for work started. From then until now, I have barely had a minute to myself. I was going to meetings all day and then on to dinners in the evenings as well as trying to finalise preparation work in between.
On the plus side, my Dad was in town for just about the whole time which was great. He stayed at a hotel but we spent most evenings together. On the weekend, I went to the Board meeting of the International Wine Law Association where I was elected the new secretary. This will create some additional work but seems to be a really interesting group of people. To top off getting elected, the conference this year is to be held in Mornington Peninsula at the end of October so they are going to fly me back to Australia and I will be able to fit in some time at home in the first couple of weeks of November it looks like at this stage.
After the meeting on Saturday morning, Dad and Kirstin came and picked me up in the car and we drove over to Alsace for the weekend. We ended up meeting Gab and Andrea in Strasbourg so that they could come back to Paris in the car with us and do some luggage transfers. We had a wonderful time although unfortunately too short. We stayed in a gorgeous little medieval town and travelled around the area including visiting a castle. Dad also managed to eat some local delicacies which made the rest of us a little green so he was happy too!
It was head first into the toughest part of the meetings at the start of the following week with my own groups getting together but all went very well. I certainly don't recommend to anyone trying to work in that many languages though on a regular basis as it can cause some major misunderstandings no matter how good the interpreters are. Five languages is pretty much four too many as far as I am concerned.
On the Friday of that week, my participation had pretty much wound up and which enabled me to get on a plane to Edinburgh to give a speech to the French British Lawyers Association about wine law. I was only minorly set back to discover that there was no slide projector for the fab power point show I have organised with the help of my work experience student and the fact that I had to speak basically without notes to 50 people! I stayed in a cute B+B the first night and then managed to get out to see Kevin and Catherine before they headed off for the weekend. They very kindly lent me their home and car while they were away so I had a great weekend on my own just driving around Edinburgh and spending a ridiculous amount of money on new clothes.
Yes, I know it seems silly to live in Paris and go to the UK to buy clothes but I have found unsurprisingly that the French don't design for 6 foot girls. In any event, it was a very relaxing way to unwind after a hectic couple of weeks.
On Good Friday we were given the afternoon off work although it is not a public holiday here in France which I consider to be an absolute travesty. I was kept smiling though by the aussie spirit mentioned in the title. As some of you may recall from a much earlier posting, I tried to get into the Australian Embassy on November 11 when I had the day off work on the basis that it was not a holiday back home. Notwithstanding, the Aussie staff were not to be fooled so easily out of a day off and I found the building closed. On Good Friday, I figured that maybe the Embassy might be open as it is not a holiday here but it would seem that I again underestimated the Australian commitment to time off and I found the place closed down. That is the kind of job I would rather like I think where I get the public holidays of two countries. I am trying to talk them into it at work as we are international after all but it doesn't seem to be working.
In any event, my smile was further maintained when Alix arrived here to spend Easter with me that evening. We had a very pleasant quiet weekend and pretty much kept to ourselves. We went to the zoo on Sunday which was a nice walk around and then ate at my work mate Ignacio's house that night where a mix of four languages kept us talking.
Aside from that, we didn't leave the house over much except to keep stocking ourselves up on more French food.
Alix's friend Catherine and husband Josh are now here with me for a couple of days before I unwind again into a quiet weekend with a possible big night on Saturday for a mate's birthday.
Anyway, I fear that I have again strayed into a "what I did on my holidays" style post here and beg your forgiveness. As always, I end in promising to try and write more often so as to give you better anecdotes.
Air kisses all around.
Last time I think I had left you just before the Bond ball. Essentially, we had dinner at Nick and Celine's place and then moved on to the ball from there. Both Gab and Andrea came although they were shattered from their flight and ended up leaving early. The highlight of the night was the group charity auction. Nicky had suggested that I offer a wine tasting as a charity thing for the tsunami victims. I got my offer in at the last minute, just a day before the ball itself.
Mine was the last item to be auctioned and ended up creating quite a bidding war with my lovely friends Yves and Marianne bidding the eventual winners up to 600 euros! Goodness only knows what I am going to serve these people now that they have bid that much. On the positive side, it has enabled me to help save a large number of sea turtles though a charity called Naucrates based in the Nicobar Islands and which lost two of its volunteers to the waves.
Unfortunately for Nick and Celine, their dinner was auctioned first and whilst all of us so called friends were tied up at the bar trying to purchase drinks and so the bid went to the same group of guys who got my tasting. When Nicky tried to se if they would on-sell us the dinner for a premium, she was told "you snooze, you lose"! I am kind of hoping the kids still keep the outfits for a dinner for us a later date...
Following the auction, we had a great time dancing on until nearly 5am. Thankfully for me, my wonderful boss agreed beforehand to take my place at the wine tasting on the Sunday morning as I can only imagine what kind of state I would have been in following a late night on gin and tonics!
On the Monday and Tuesday it was back to the tastings at the wine competition.
By Wednesday I was all set for the speed dating that Nicky had talked me into attending. It went OK in the end although was badly organised and didn't finish until midnight. It was funny to see how it went talking to so many people for such short amounts of time.
On the Thursday, Gab and Andrea hit the travel road again leaving me for a quiet weekend where I went along to a birthday parties for a couple of friends here where I basically didn't know anyone.
Finally, in the second week of March, our expert group meetings for work started. From then until now, I have barely had a minute to myself. I was going to meetings all day and then on to dinners in the evenings as well as trying to finalise preparation work in between.
On the plus side, my Dad was in town for just about the whole time which was great. He stayed at a hotel but we spent most evenings together. On the weekend, I went to the Board meeting of the International Wine Law Association where I was elected the new secretary. This will create some additional work but seems to be a really interesting group of people. To top off getting elected, the conference this year is to be held in Mornington Peninsula at the end of October so they are going to fly me back to Australia and I will be able to fit in some time at home in the first couple of weeks of November it looks like at this stage.
After the meeting on Saturday morning, Dad and Kirstin came and picked me up in the car and we drove over to Alsace for the weekend. We ended up meeting Gab and Andrea in Strasbourg so that they could come back to Paris in the car with us and do some luggage transfers. We had a wonderful time although unfortunately too short. We stayed in a gorgeous little medieval town and travelled around the area including visiting a castle. Dad also managed to eat some local delicacies which made the rest of us a little green so he was happy too!
It was head first into the toughest part of the meetings at the start of the following week with my own groups getting together but all went very well. I certainly don't recommend to anyone trying to work in that many languages though on a regular basis as it can cause some major misunderstandings no matter how good the interpreters are. Five languages is pretty much four too many as far as I am concerned.
On the Friday of that week, my participation had pretty much wound up and which enabled me to get on a plane to Edinburgh to give a speech to the French British Lawyers Association about wine law. I was only minorly set back to discover that there was no slide projector for the fab power point show I have organised with the help of my work experience student and the fact that I had to speak basically without notes to 50 people! I stayed in a cute B+B the first night and then managed to get out to see Kevin and Catherine before they headed off for the weekend. They very kindly lent me their home and car while they were away so I had a great weekend on my own just driving around Edinburgh and spending a ridiculous amount of money on new clothes.
Yes, I know it seems silly to live in Paris and go to the UK to buy clothes but I have found unsurprisingly that the French don't design for 6 foot girls. In any event, it was a very relaxing way to unwind after a hectic couple of weeks.
On Good Friday we were given the afternoon off work although it is not a public holiday here in France which I consider to be an absolute travesty. I was kept smiling though by the aussie spirit mentioned in the title. As some of you may recall from a much earlier posting, I tried to get into the Australian Embassy on November 11 when I had the day off work on the basis that it was not a holiday back home. Notwithstanding, the Aussie staff were not to be fooled so easily out of a day off and I found the building closed. On Good Friday, I figured that maybe the Embassy might be open as it is not a holiday here but it would seem that I again underestimated the Australian commitment to time off and I found the place closed down. That is the kind of job I would rather like I think where I get the public holidays of two countries. I am trying to talk them into it at work as we are international after all but it doesn't seem to be working.
In any event, my smile was further maintained when Alix arrived here to spend Easter with me that evening. We had a very pleasant quiet weekend and pretty much kept to ourselves. We went to the zoo on Sunday which was a nice walk around and then ate at my work mate Ignacio's house that night where a mix of four languages kept us talking.
Aside from that, we didn't leave the house over much except to keep stocking ourselves up on more French food.
Alix's friend Catherine and husband Josh are now here with me for a couple of days before I unwind again into a quiet weekend with a possible big night on Saturday for a mate's birthday.
Anyway, I fear that I have again strayed into a "what I did on my holidays" style post here and beg your forgiveness. As always, I end in promising to try and write more often so as to give you better anecdotes.
Air kisses all around.
posted by Parisienne at 10:52 pm
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