No Time

A lack of tenant but all her things, and the end of the contract for another tenant has resulted in some multi-tasking. And by that I mean: meet the tenant replacing the tenant leaving, show the house, clean the house, move her in, find a new tenant to replace the one who is not coming back, clear out her things, clean, move in the new folks, sort out deposits, rent money and other niggly needs, all while convincing a couple of local youths that payment will only take place AFTER the job of weeding the garden is done and not just because it's lunch time, change a couple of standing orders, wash all the duvets and pillows, buy new sheets, get keys cut, visit the bank, replace the strimmer, get whacked in the knee by the car door after mistiming the shut-the-door nudge, check the tyre pressure, eat, sleep, use Skype and say hi to the neighbours, and all without water as it has been switched off for road works. At least I've got the telly...

Copping it

I've been nicked!

OK, I've not, but I did call the police this morning.

My tenant has not been in the house for a number of weeks, has been sacked from her job, is not answering the phone or email, and has absconded with the rent money while leaving all of her belongings in an unholy mess.

Two very lovely coppers came round for a little chat and by day's end I had another excuse to size up their uniforms when they told me that she was alive and well but preferred to live in London.

All's well that ends well, and even better when I got a final follow up call from Headquarters just to make sure I'd been informed.

Faster than CSI, nicer than 'Police Camera Action', I'm happy to cop it again sometime soon ;-)

Scottish Blend

I've come back to earth with a bit of a bump - lots of administrative things to sort out. Don't know how my mother does it all for me ;-)

At least here the tea is so good that it's a brilliant pick-me-up. I think I've drunk more today than in the past year combined.

Homeward Bound

Well, that was the summer that was...er...wasn't. Well, of course now that I am leaving Paris, summer has hit with a 36 degree upper cut. While Scotland, ahem, is hovering around 13 degrees. That's an even bigger plummet than from Asia to Europe. Time to look out those blankets...

Last Tango in Paris

What to do on a final - and scorching - Sunday in Paris?

Why, do everything of course.

Arty farty classical concert? Check.

Stroll in a beautiful garden and a restful snooze on the grass? Check.

A reminder of a unique place on a scorching day? Also check.

Yummy dinner? Definitely check, but I think you've seen enough pics of me holding an assortment of alcohol.

Residence Secondaire

Sometimes, one of the best things about Paris is being able to get out of it. Many other cities such as London or, you know, Midland, are great big sprawls of urbanisation. Instead, the centre of Paris is really quite small (although packed) and within half an hour the banlieue are also merely a concrete memory.

Like other urban dwellers, many Parisians cannot afford the 10 000 euros per square metre purchase price, and instead choose to rent a flat in Paris and buy a larger place in the countryside up to 2 hours away. These 'secondary residences' are quite an institution in France. Life in Paris sometimes seems very fast - always with something to do, somewhere to go, someone to see, and so the weekend breaks in the country house become almost necessary.

Plus you can then throw cool parties for your mates. 

OECD

The Organisation for Economic Development (OECD, in French: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, OCDE) is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It defines itself as a forum of countries committed to democract and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identifying good practices and co-ordinating domestic and international policies of its members.

That's what the website says and it's not just a load of blah blah, but it's certainly not the whole story. Like another international organisation - the European Parliament - the Organisation is full of people who can speak on all sorts of boring subjects, those who can bore people on all sorts of subjects, and those born to the subject of champagne. All sorts descend from their assorted gorgeous Château offices, or cafés, or wherever it is that they mostly hang out at the OECD in order to attend the Summer Party.

The warming weather provided some opportunities for photo taking:

as well as jumping on that ol' gravy train...

And finally, 'Sound Policy's greatest triumph to date: getting those bureaucrats dancing!

No Reason

Sound Policy

The OECD's current tagline is 'better policies for better lives', which has led to a nice little ditty for El Puma's band made up of OECD colleagues:

The band once again featured in this year's Fête de la Musique line-up, nabbing a 6-hour spot in front of one of the Irish pubs.

The music was fantastic - the band are really playing as a band now rather than just as a bunch of individual musicians who just happen to be playing together and their hard work really shows. They are all very talented and gave a really good show, though by the end some teenage moshers had taken over the front row and were stepping on pedals and grabbing mikes, so that was a bit crazy.

But I will probably remember the night for its horrific transport. Strikes and a lack of organisation led to a reduction in the number of metro trains available, which led to intense squashing at rush hour. A very elderly gentlemen eventually managed to exit a carriage at one of the steps but was left swaying on the platform gasping for breath with all his might. It was horrible that people just continued to rush past him as he was quite clearly in need of help. Getting home was equally bad. Metros were supposed to be running all night but weren't and with a 45 kg amplifier, we weren't walking very far and not biking at all. So we joined the 90 minute taxi queue at 2am.

The music is coming along but a little more effort is required on the logistics side of things for next year... 

A Design For Life

Lucky Ralph Lauren the American fashion designer has both the money and the taste to purchase and restore classic racing cars from the 1920s to the 1960s such as Bentley, Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Porsche and Ferrari) and then show them off around the world.

Here comes the sun

4 Roues Sous Un Parapluie

A different type of tour company in Paris who take you on a tour of the city in a 2CV, either with the hood down if it's fine or hood up in the sort of weather we are having recently. Highly recommended either way.

Home Improvements

There have recently been some home improvements...

Like a lampshade from Nepal...

And curtains from Bangladesh...

..all makes a proper little pied à terre in Paris.

Pentecôte

France has 11 public holiday todays (compared to 8 in the UK), 2 of which fall in June - Ascension and Pentecost. As you might have spotted, both of these are religious public holidays and are religiously given across continental Europe, but not the UK*.

I celebrated with tea, tea and more fine French tea in various parts of the City, which enabled me to pedal past classic spots such as Montmartre, Galeries Lafayette, the Opéra, the rue Sainte-Honoré (Pradaville), the Louvre and Notre Dame, Concorde, les Invalides, and the Eiffel Tower, all while avoiding the tourists as I whipped by on my free city-bike. Talk about a holiday.

* Actually, Brits got the Pentecost public holiday until 1967 when it was replaced with the Spring Bank Holiday at the end of May.

Brest is best

For SuperSonia's SuperComment, this post needed a bit of a revamp.

Finistère (the bit in red below - thanks to wikipedia for the map) comes from the Latin Finis Terrae, meaning End of the Earth (much like Land's End in England). Finistère is the Westernmost region of France and if it wasn't so flat, would be a bit like Scotland's West Coast, complete with sweet little ports, white sandy beaches, and absolutely baltic water. 

Still, some folks bravely had a go:

 

French navy graveyard where these frigates are moored until presumably Bangladesh has a spot for them.

Then it was back to Brest, the main metropolitan area of West Brittany. It's also a huge military and commercial port and for this reason was bombed extensively in the Second World War. Similar destruction is currently underway as the city attempts to construct a tramway.

A room with a view: breakfast by the sea.

Living Well

June

The country winning the coveted 'Where Ingrid Will Be In June Award' goes to...

FRANCE!

Slight change in weather conditions compared to what I've been used to but am secretly enjoying the cold after all that tropical sun and humidity. Just wish I had a more useful wardrobe. But you know, when in Paris....

Unterdorf vs Oberdorf

Champagne Supernova

We make and take calculated risks in life. Such as whether 'come in fancy dress' really does mean what it says; whether blue and green can be worn together; whether bungy jumping will in actual fact burst a blood vessel in your eye...you know, that sort of thing (bungy jumping does by the way). We win some; we lose some.

So can you believe that I actually made a calculated risk about how much my precious laptop was worth - and it turns out to be less than my desire to have my champagne in easy reach? 

I was doing some German administration (necessary as I have been awarded a German Scholarship for my European Fieldwork stage) during the week with the help of my mum, and drinking a champagne/grenadine mix at the same time (well, technically we were still celebrating the wedding of my cousin..er, yes, a few days after the party...) and as I really, truly do value my laptop, I moved the champagne glass a whole 10cm AWAY from the computer. Clever non? Yeah, really, really smart. Because it meant that when it went over, it projectiled on to the computer in great waves before bouncing off the keyboard all over my administration and award documents.

You can imagine the brouhaha from yours truly. 

Eventually the documents were dried and the red stains removed via photocopying and the computer was put to bed in a box of rice.

I've lost the backlighting of my computer keyboard, which was one cool Mac Pro feature, and the battery no longer charges - although the computer works fine when plugged into a socket. And the smell of sweet champagne wafts by every so often, but I guess that will stop once the sugar starts attracting dirt. And the keys no longer click with that satisfying metal-on-metal sound but now have more of a sticky thud. It could have been a lot worse and I'm very grateful for everyone's help and sometimes outlandish but sucessful solutions. 

Now for the reassessment of my risk assessments.

I spy with my little eye

For those of you in the know...
a)

b)

 c)

 d)

 e)

 f) This one might be a bit harder:

a) Cycleway to Spöck Baggersee b) Swimming in Spöck Baggersea at 10 am in the morning (extra points if you recognised El Puma) c) The Annual Karlsruhe Schloss Train Ride Tradition d) The Schloss e) The Schloss Waterlillies f) P10 - the new bar built on the 10th floor of one of the car parks, with real sand. Real beer too.