Deja-vu living

So, I'm back in halls, in a room the same way round as before, but now a much better view out over the canal. I can hear ducks! Which is nicer than the car park although I used to people-watch out of it.

Had a good run up here too on my bike - really enjoyed it. Especially when we got to the enormous traffic jam and I could go between the lanes and through the lot! Ahh joys of having a bike. Also found it can go at near to 50mph - awesome though a bit scary!

Now waiting for new flatmates to arrive still, this being the 2nd moving-in day..

(Bit later now..) Been talking to Freya in the kitchen, who also moved yesterday and is a first year. Note on the table from Aaron, who we didn't see this morning but will be back Thursday. Also Amy who's moving in now, and will be back Thursday too, both of them 2nd years. Two more to go!

Going into town now with Freya show her where things are, and poss get some food essentials instead of going out to sainsbury's the other way, as haven't been in Derby for ages!

:D Good so far!

My car..

...is now off on it's own adventure without me, as I'll be passing it along to Marcus soon this evening. Or tomorrow latest.

So goodbye car, I'll miss you lots and lots! Even with the spiffy lil Vespa I'm replacing you with, you served me well for this year.

I think I'll miss it most when I'm in rainy ol' Derby and I'll just be getting wet on the scooter.. instead of sunny days here going to the lake or Lyon or whatever. But that's more a weather thing. Been fabulous to have it though! *sigh* and off I go back home without it.

Will have to get used to right-hand drive again too!!

stress.. stress.. stress..

Hmm.. damn I've not updated this much recently at all.. Sorry everyone! All 4? 5? of you.

So, as the title suggests, I'm getting to crunch time. It's not really that stressful if I discard the whole will-everything-fit-in-my-cases dilemma, which I'll find out over the weekend. Or even the will-Marcus-get-back-about-my-car-even-though-I-only-emailed-him-at-lunchtime one.

Mainly its the arrrghhh-work-not-finished-and-working one that's getting to me today, and well.. finding it hard to not bang my head on the desk at work or start screaming/swearing in frustration. And it's difficult to be motivated to get it working when I'm not convinced it really matters to anyone if I do or not. Though I know that's not quite true, it's what it feels like, and I know they'll just pass the job along to the guy (described in my review as utterly amazing and wonderful etc.) who will be joining the team in July and has worked on this system before I got there. I'm pretty sure he actually built most of it. So.. hard to keep going, for these last two days.

Pah, doesn't stop me stressing out about everything anyway. That's what I'm like, and Mum, yes I totally blame it on your genetics!! Thank god Dan's coming out on Saturday. He'll help me chill out ^_^ and I'll be calmer by then anyway. Probably.

My own mini-road-trip

Ok, so firstly, yes, I should have totally updated this sooner, but I just didn't feel like it. Therefore won't be as fun, and much more descriptive..

I had Thurs 21st May off work anyway, and took Friday off too. Plans changed a multitude of times, but I finally decided just to go somewhere on my own. I was going to take the train, but drove instead, just in case my plans for a room on the Saturday night didn't work out. No rooms to be had anywhere on Thurs, so I spent my time chilling and planning..

I drove up to Interlaken on the Friday, and had a wander around the town on my own before finding the hostel for the night. This is where I met up with two Canadian guys, Alex and Paul, who were on a Europe trip, and we hung out for the rest of the night. It was nice to have some company. The hostel was surprisingly full of families, some with quite small children, and not all the student-y backpackers I was expecting. I was happy though - cheap and I got the last available bed!

I got on the road early on Saturday (partly from being woken up since 6.30am) and took a fantastic mountain road to get to Luzern. Took my time, and enjoyed the amazing scenery. Got to Luzern, and the hostel there, and then met an Australian woman, Gail, at the bus stop towards the town centre. Ended up hanging around with her all day doing the usual sight-seeing things - she has children around my age, and we had a nice time just ambling around the main part of the town. The bridge was amazing - although I never knew it had burned down in 1993, which was a real shame. Spent quite a lot of time too by the side of the lake relaxing or reading. I actually met too with Gail's husband and the Swiss family they were staying with - had some amazing crepes on the dock in the evening before going back to the hostel. (note; banana and chocolate go really well as a filling...!)

Then, again I was up early on the Sunday, had breakfast with a girl from my room - it was just nice to meet new people even for a short amount of time! We actually talked quite a fair bit before going our separate ways. I went back into Luzern because I hadn't seen the Lion sculpture, and wanted to see the view from the towers. Couple of hours later, after a lot of walking up and down the main hill and the towers, I drove back to Geneva - through the middle of the day and in 30 degree heat! It was worth it though, and I'm proud I managed all that on my own really.

Total distance: 562 km / 349 miles

urhm, something

because I feel I should write something about what I've been doing..?

Ok, well, haven't been doing much anyway. Getting to the flow of wrapping everything up really.

Although, plans for this weekend had drastically changed. Now, I've decided. I'm driving to Interlaken tomorrow, then from there to Luzern on Saturday and I'll make my way back on Sunday.

Thats a good enough plan for me. I contacted couch surfers, but really, it's far too late to sort that sort of thing out. I was going to take the train but am driving so I have more flexibility about finding somewhere to sleep. As it is, I'm going to Interlaken and Luzern in that order as I know they have hostel rooms free at the moment for Friday and Saturday nights respectively.

Really, I'm just going to wing it. Got a book of hostels with plenty of alternatives so should be ok. Worst case, I pay more for a hotel, or sleep in my car. At least I know I won't nearly freeze this time..!

Normally I would book ahead. But UBS card can't be used online as it's not like a debit card. So being spontaneous is the way to go!

I'm sure on Sunday or Monday I'll have a lot more to say :) And I'm looking forward to Chrissie visiting on 1st June too, woohoo!

New watch & lil ramble

Right, so today, I went off into Geneva to go to Swatch and make up my mind about which I was gonna buy. I came away with one of the ones I saw in Lausanne a fair few weeks ago, and here it is...

I really loved the hearts :)

I'm also thinking of getting the second watch I saw, as they're not that expensive, and I like the idea of having one every-day watch, and one a little more formal and smart.

We'll see though about getting the second one.

I also spent a lot of time in the Apple store looking at the iPod Touch. Dunno why, but it appealed to me. However, common sense took over in the end, and I didn't buy one. Not that it's not great and all, but with the "Netbook" (small laptop) I'm after - the Samsung NC10 - it would be superfluous, and I'm still happy with my mp3 player... so there's no need to get one. I'd much rather have an Android phone sometime in the future (when it's actually affordable) instead! :)

P.S - as an explanation, Android is Google's mobile operating system, so basically their answer to Apple's iPhone..

Chocolate Crispy Cakes!

So, earlier I made some chocolate crispy cakes to take to the show, for the cast to nibble on when running back and forth for costume changes. They were Easter ones, I went to Jim's British supermarket here in Saint-Genis to get the Cadbury's mini eggs. I know it's a little late for Easter, but hey, we spent all our time in the theatre then!

For no particular reason, I took some pictures, as I was making them I was thinking about what I could write in a blog post. I had looked up some recipes for this, to get an idea of quantities and decided to write up how I did mine!


I used normal chocolate, 150g in a glass bowl and shoved in the microwave for 2 minutes before pouring rice krispies over and stirring them in until they were all covered, and just kept adding more in small amounts - till it looked about right. Then spooned it all out into cases, adding 2 eggs as I went.

I decided I didn't have that many, so put the first lot in the freezer and made a second batch. Ran out of mini eggs, so resorted to the ones I had left over that Mum gave me when I was last home. And again, left them in the freezer as I thought they wouldn't harden up enough in the fridge for a short amount of time.

Then realised they were too solid so left them all out on the top to soften them up a bit before throwing them into boxes and running out to go to the theatre!

The final number I made...

Had some lovely thank-yous, especially from the ladies chorus who had them, so I'm really glad I did make them. Took me about an hour in total, or less, I don't really know. Was fun, and as I still have chocolate left and rice krispies I might make some more cakes for my friends at work, because, why not eh?

Just going to add some more Chess pics onto facebook. We have the after-show party tomorrow too, and after that, I hope to stay in touch with some of them. More trips (as last Tuesday) to the pub and karaoke bar are needed!

First Show Night

is tonight! Woohoo!

After all these rehearsals in the theatre, slowly adding more costumes and sorting out the lights, well, it's strange that it's now show night! I have some pictures from backstage which I'll post to facebook now, and I'll take some more too over the show nights.

Last night everyone watching said it was really good, much better than we'd done before, and somehow it had all come together really well. Which is great to hear.

I hope my friends from work who are coming to watch it tonight enjoy it too.

On with the show! Yay!

Just a quick note

The wallets and purses were found in the theatre where they'd been thrown into one of the toilets. Lovely.

Finally got back to the police station in Nyon yesterday after rehearsals (remember, I'm car sharing, so we couldn't go before as the others had stuff to do it being Easter and all) and got my stuff back.

Chopped up all the credit/debit cards that had already been cancelled, and got back all my ID things, in a perfect state, despite being still wet (as they'd just put everything into a plastic bag and not let it dry out). So, gave everything a wash, and my wallet is drying out nicely. Only annoying thing is my Moroccan purse, bleeding red dye which isn't good, and stinks of that cleaning stuff you use to clear up sick. Will be throwing it away most likely as it's not getting rid of that smell..

Got everything back though, so it's all fine. I realised only last night, my student ID was in my other purse here anyway, so I didn't lose it in the first place. I'd also forgotten my 1/2 price Swiss train card - has my photo on anyway - that I'm very glad I got back.

...that's all folks!

Yesterday at the theatre

My wallet and purse got nicked out my bag in the downstairs dressing room, first night in the theatre! Not just me either, 3 other people got done too.

Really, I'm more philosophical than I would have thought before - ok, despite waking up at 3.30 and unable to sleep for hours because I was so tense and stressed. I could have done without the hour in the police station too so late at night, but they were really nice about it. Meant I parked outside my building overnight instead of someone else's private space by the road, or my underground garage - I was too tired and didn't want to hit my car, and got a 35 euro fine at 9am this morning for the pleasure of it.

Now, overall, it's ok. I won't see that cash again, but they found all the wallets thrown into the toilets (in the theatre by the dressing rooms, we'd checked, so I'm guessing some other ones nearby on the college grounds or something). So, despite all my bank cards being cancelled this morning before I heard about that, my driving license and Swiss and French cards have been recovered at least, which is 20 quid and hassle saved.

Assuming they're in ok condition; the wallets/purses were described as being in a 'bad state' so I'm guessing I won't be using them again and just throwing them out. My small purse I bought in Morocco I'm a bit miffed about, I mean, it cost 4 euros but I thought it was cute; the main wallet I'm not bothered so much about.

I'll just have to go to Marrakesh again to buy another! It could have been so much worse; they didn't take my car keys, phone or the bag itself for instance. As Susan said in an email earlier about this to the rest of the cast, it was certainly a lesson. And my handbag is so light! It's amazing how heavy it was before in comparison. It won't be going with me to the theatre again though, that's for sure.

yay shopping!

Drove up to Lausanne yesterday, with Elizabeth and Marthe from work, to go shopping (as Geneva is so rubbish when not buying Prada and the like). Despite the weather being a bit horrible, the shops were really full!

I bought a sunny-yellow summer dress from Zara, and a comfy green cardigan and hello kitty knickers from h&m. Was so nice just to be shopping, and having a bit of a girly day!

Ooh, and we did actually go to Starbucks too, which I normally avoid.. but the Vanilla Latte was yummy. We were talking about all sorts of things, and must have spent ages in there!

And also went into the swatch shop, saw a nice watch there (only 80-odd francs) so thinking about getting that instead of the super-expensive (but kinda for my 21st) Raymond Weil watch that I totally adore and love - but I think I might be too scared to ever wear for fear of scratching it or god forbid it getting stolen or lost. So, cheaper one it is! Still going to look for some different ones though, I really could do with one with the date on it!

Thanks CIC!

No, not really. All they've done is mess me about again and again. Now I have to sort out the fact that my car insurance hasn't been paid to AXA since December. I got letters from AXA to find that out, the bank didn't even tell me!! I also noticed, from the overall statement I had to get from them today (it's not sent to me, otherwise this wouldn't have happened repeatedly) that the reason I don't have enough to pay AXA is because they keep charging me for 'interventions' because my payments aren't going to AXA.. Or that's what I can figure anyway.

There's no way I'll get any of those charges back either, they just won't hear of it. I have to talk to Stephanie in Douvaine (and ONLY Stephanie) as she's my registered bank rep or some such crap. Sent her an email (in English, she sends me them in French) and she didn't answer any of my questions about charges, just told me the balance was 0 and that the problem was my car insurance payments weren't getting paid. Helpful. I keep asking for them to transfer me to an English-speaking person in Saint Genis, but they never do.

Talk about being immensely aggravating.

In the snow!

Well, we decided to spend two days in Chamonix (instead of one day in Crozet, then one in Chamonix) as it actually turned out cheaper with the lift passes, as we only needed to pay for the small slopes for beginners (much less than the big slopes) and to hire everything from one place for both days.

Ended up staying in the car Friday night, as the hostel was 28 euro's each and we thought that was just too much, even if it is cheap compared to other places in Chamonix, we wanted to save the money.

Well, anyway, we had a great time on the slopes, I feel I've really improved for one. We had the slopes to ourselves for most of Saturday too, which was good, and the weather was gorgeous! Even if I caught the sun a bit, Russell won the imitating-a-tomato award. I think they both really enjoyed themselves, and after both days had really picked up the skill of it. Was the best fun I'd had so far snowboarding!

Will be adding some pictures and videos on facebook before too long, and might come back and add one or two videos to the end of this post when I've found the best ones!

Now though, I was just happy to have a day without doing anything since I've been running around so much recently! I've had fun, it's just been one thing then another for a couple of weeks. Been nice to clear up some of the stuff in the flat and chill out, spending the day in my pyjama's like everyone should do on a Sunday sometimes.

Mad about Motors?

Wow, my feet ach just a bit now from walking around the whole of the Palexpo arena today at the Motor Show!

Saw some pretty cool concept cars, and sat in random ones (not the super expensive ones though..) but to be honest, after a while it all blurs together.

There was a cool games area, with Nintendo Wii's and DS's and Playstations all with driving games running, and an F1 simulator thing I'd liked to have gone in (but long queue). Best bit was having a go on the Segways though!! Very funny, and now I want one, unfortunately there is the small snag of one costing 10,000 swiss francs (~ £5,000).

Pete and Russell seem to be having fun so far though! They spent the day in Geneva whilst I was at work yesterday, and then we went to Bains de Paquis for fondue in the evening, which they were both surprised by how good it was!

Now looking at two days in Chamonix, hopefully we can find a hostel tomorrow night to save driving back and forth! (which was a change of plan somewhat..) Also looks like there's going to be really good weather up there this weekend, which is fantastic! More on that in the next blog post I guess!!

Hallo aus Berlin!

Ok, so second part really from the previous post... I've been in Berlin the last couple of days!!

Arrived Saturday morning with Anne, Alex, Michi and Simon, met Nina at the airport, then Merlin and Jonathon later at the hostel/train station respectively. We went to the Reichstag building (parliament) and up to the roof-top glass dome which you could walk up inside, and cool 'cause it was free! Had really good Indian food that night too.

Sunday was our main day being touristy, with free walking tours in the afternoon around the main sights to see, and the stories and history that go with them. I thought they were really good, and I think I learnt some more about Berlin and the Wall, even if most of it I don't really remember all that much.. Still, it was interesting, and we had a fun guide, for my half of the group anyway; we split up over two different groups.

So then Monday we went up in the TV Tower, even though there wasn't much of a view at all, I was still able to find the main buildings in the city apart from the Reichstag, as it was just a bit too cloudy to see that. The rest of the afternoon, we walked along a random canal near there and the Town Halls, then went to the Judisches (Jewish) Museum which was open late, so we spent quite a lot of time in there. That was also really interesting, but in the end far too much to see. The main thing for me was the architecture itself; the building was shaped as a zig-zag, so was fairly easy to lose track of time and surroundings. I think a lot of thought was given to the exhibition and the building though, and I really enjoyed looking round it. Very thought-provoking too.

I think that was pretty much it, landed back in Geneva this afternoon, and now have bank and car insurance nearly sorted (hopefully done by tomorrow) and shiny new number plates on my car. England on Thursday, wooooohooo!

Up-LIFT-ing

So, this is a little later than planned, but more on that next.

Last Weds-Fri I spent my time in Geneva at the Lift09 conference and I have to say I had great fun there!

Weds was taken up with workshops, so I went to the Web of Things in the morning session and then 'What can we get out of the lift community for the other 362 days of the year?' in the first afternoon session. Another I wanted to go to in the second part of the afternoon was fully booked, but was videoed so I intend to catch up later.

Thursday and Friday were both talks, which I found really varied and interesting. Some were more than a little bonkers, such as carnivorous robotics and one woman's story about when she walked around Australia. Others were about such things as 'metromantics' (an idea I rather liked) or a project in Cameroon for women to find husbands online. The big finale on Friday evening was Vint Cerf from Google, who invented the protocols for TCP/IP and is one of the reasons we even have internet. So, basically an internet/geek demi-god.

Met with a fair few people too, was nice to recognise and talk to people at different points, and I played on the Atari in the breaks (hehe) - although Pong was pretty popular actually.

It was a really interesting time, and I'm going to apply for a student ticket next year to see if I can go again, which would be awesome! It's a very inspiring place to be/event to be part of.

Snowboarding..

was really fun!

But now I'm in a lot of pain. ow ow ow... tomorrow is going to hurt.

And we're talking about going next weekend too. Madness, but fun!



There's a video Anne took for me :)

Here we go...

Finally! Going snowboarding with Anne and a couple of other people on Sunday at Crozet (where I went with Dan and the snowshoe-incident) and am really excited.

It reminded me of OkGo so I thought I'm include the video here. It's one of the most-watched on YouTube - nearly 44 million views when I went just now!! Well, for one take, it is pretty impressive. Took them something like 17 tries if I remember rightly..



Let the hilarity begin!

Life on Where?

Ok, so I knew it was a bad idea to look; but the US-version of Life on Mars?? Ouch. It's horrible to watch, and I'm hardly into the first episode. They have the same scenes as in the original, just mashed up the dialogue over the top of them and just made it more "American".

I think I have such a problem with this because it didn't need re-doing. The original, ok, is totally British, well.. that's the point! The characters they created in Sam and Gene Hunt were just brilliant, with a dynamic that went across the whole cast.

This new version just doesn't have the mystery, suspense or dis-oriented-ness about it of waking up 30 years in the past. Even the music fit in seamlessly, and now it feels like they're just playing over Bowie's songs to make a point instead of in the background and actually creating atmosphere. Still, the Twin Towers appearing was a nice touch.

I knew it would be difficult to like, but it's still worse than I expected. Why can't they just show the series as it is? Why did it need changing at all?? They didn't re-make Hustle, so why re-make this? Still, I can see me watching it at least to the end of the first episode, if for the same reason as before; they did the whole experience-thing of being in 1973 before, maybe they could do it again. Especially as I don't have a clue what it was like then, that's essentially why I got hooked in the first place!

On the plus side; new series of Ashes to Ashes should be running soon, which for a sequel series like it is, was surprisingly as good as the original. (Go BBC!!)

Hello Retainers..

Ow. Least they came in the post eventually though Mum sent me a parcel last week, and it beat the orthodontists by 2 days! They made it though, that was a relief.

Goodbye braces!

Yes! They're gone! Feels really strange, but so good to have them off, and my teeth back to being nice and smooth. It's amazing how straight my teeth are now, they must have been more wonky than I realised before, and look so different. I'm not sure how much of that is because the brackets and wires have gone or not though.

Tiny bit worried that one tooth has moved out of place really quickly and I haven't got my retainers through the post yet (fingers crossed they come tomorrow to work) and I know the tooth will be forced back and the sooner it moves again, the better.

That's enough about teeth.

Er.. rehearsals tonight were good. Got my overalls and check shirt for my random 'wander-around-the-back-of-the-stage-moving-stuff' role as a removal person; both are huge on me but I don't mind. Seen the band costume for "Merano", could be worse, but they might have to make another pair of shorts now, as they didn't fit me or Vanessa. And the top they've given me for "Bangkok" does make me look like an 80s hooker. Which is the point, but it's still weird.

All I intend to do this weekend is sleep. And possibly think about sorting out my stack of paper that masquerades as my accounts. Not quite as bad as Bernard Black (look about 4 minutes in), but feels as hopeless.

Snow shoes and stuff.

So, in the last week I've been back at work again (woo.) but it's been ok because Dan came out to visit (YAY!) and on Saturday we went up to the nearest resort to Saint Genis, called Crozet. Once we were above the cloud line, it was amazing to see the difference having sun and blue sky, with snow all around and an amazing panorama of the Alps, Mont Blanc and the Seleve. Geneva, the lake and all the countryside around it was completely obscured under a big blanket of cloud. Good to get up there and breathe some fresh air.

Hired some snow shoes, and went for a wander off-piste up the slope to the side of the ski slope. Sat down for a bit at the top before coming tumbling down. Really tranquil and quiet though, apart from ambient noise from the skiers, but easy to block out. We were on our own up there for quite a while really, despite a few others as mad as us to be walking about.

Definitely investing in some ski trousers; Intermarche down the road has a closing down sale, which is perfect as apparently it was a good place to get stuff that was not as crazy-expensive as I'm sure it can be round here. Also considering buying a snowboard (crazy as that sounds) as there's at least one for grabs on the Cern marketplace, and would pay for itself instead of hiring one if I go only 3 times.

Think I have the ski/snowboarding bug. I can see how it's addictive alright, and all I've done is visit a couple of slopes!

Started Chess rehearsals too now; yay! But tiring, especially twice a week. Bit annoying I'm already missing 2 out of the 3 planned weekend rehearsals (not including the Technical ones which are compulsory) as I'm in England from Thursday-Monday this week to have my braces off (woohoo!) and booked a trip with my friends to Berlin in March!

Might be in Brussels in February too. We'll see on that one though, depends on the number of days of holiday I'll have left with one thing and another.

New Years' Resolutions; must update this more often. Must see more of Switzerland to use that railcard I bought.

Festiveness and snowyness

So; haven't updated for a while, so decided it was time to, or I'll stop doing this altogether, which I think would be a shame.

Christmas has been good, back in England, lovely to be home again, and just chill out. Saw couple friends too, and managed to see most of my family. Went down to visit a certain someone (you know who you are) in Bristol for couple days, which was great fun! ^_^

Came back to Geneva for New Year; delayed flight because our plane, and all the others, couldn't get out of the Geneva airport due to really bad weather. Made it in the end though; near 5 hours late. In the end, just watched the New Year (or Bonne Annee) celebrations on the telly, as it was mostly magic acts or acrobats, no translations necessary, which was actually fairly good. Got the can-can at midnight instead of Auld Lang Syne, but you can't have everything! And people were setting fireworks off in the street.

Went back to Fort l'Ecluse yesterday for the afternoon, then into Geneva for a wander round the lake before getting a boat back to the car. Driven all around the lake today; up to Lausanne and Montreux to Chateau Chillon, which is the other extreme end of the lake from Geneva. Was fantastic fortress/castle thing to look round, although shame there was not a slightly better view.

Then drove the rest of the way down the lake, past Thonon and Evian (yes, the same place as the water) and where I used to live in Douvaine and through Geneva to get home.

Plan to get to Lyon tomorrow, and then Chamonix -possibly by train to save driving again- on Sunday.

Lovely to have so much snow around too; proper, stays-all-winter, crunchy snow!