Moving without traveling

It was a cold and ordinary night. A man blinks, staring dimly beyond caged windows toward the last of winter's breath, black leaves rustling against a faded blue canvas. Rock music crashes and wails too quietly to be obnoxious, enough to spark a tiny rebellion.

One day. One day the passage would be complete, marking the end of the beginning. A new entry will have established itself - the sesame seed bun crowning the hamburger of events filling one man's lonely life. Only time would tell the type of meat and vegetables to follow.

A luminous glow just beyond his conciousness snaps into focus, revealing a landscape of light and shadow punctuated by straight edges and symbols. He was looking at something, looking into something - but it was too indistinct to pinpoint. His attention remains on the light, fingers drawn to the symbols.

It was then that his purpose became clear. What of the meat? Had the bombastic buns gotten the better of him? Something stirred deep inside the man.

A flash! All at once it came to him. These words, this was the meat. This was the meat, and the meat was him. It was all clear now. The frilly lettuce, as much a part of him as the bombastic buns. But weren't these simple ingredients just a literary device intended to illustrate a properly structured story or essay?

He could not remember, and it no longer mattered.

C.

Sod it all, I'm moving to France!

I'm not literally sodding it all and moving to the land of criminally sexy accents and unusual cars. There was also a time when I considered joining the army, but I didn't do that either. Probably a good thing - can you imagine me in the army? Let's consider that for a minute...

Okay you can stop laughing now, and allow the story continue unabated if you please.

Where was I. The story begins at Nice airport as I'm coming out of Customs at 0030 looking for the sign with my name on it. The nice lady leads me outside to the clean-cut driver wearing a yellow turtleneck and vest. I instinctively walk to the wrong side of the HUGE silver VW van and am only half surprised to find the lack of a door. This was a bit of a mind-fuck the first couple of times, especially in the taxis, climbing into what should be the drivers side and having the car move without any input from me!

I'm staying in a hotel which is conveniently 5 minutes walk from where I'll be training this week. It's at a place called Sophia Antipole which is basically a largish technology park - sort of a "Silicon Valley" French style. The view from the Fortinet offices is fantastic, showing each of the various sites set into the bush connected by winding roads.

My routine for the week starting Monday is firstly the morning ablutions, then to say "bonjour!" to the hotel staff, eat breakfast (extremely-long-toast + ham + cheese, hard-boiled eggs, croissant+jam, apple juice), then walk up the hill to Fortinet. Here I insert a tiny cup then pop in a small cartridge, and take my first shot from the magical espresso making device. Espresso to die for from an auto-spastic machine - wonders never cease..

The coffee continues during the day, just because I can really, as I try my best to take in the information being directed from the front of the class by the friendly pom-turned-froglett named Michael. I'm learning about a particular flavour of firewall appliance. The content is fairly dry but interesting enough when my eyes aren't completely glazed over.

Virtual domains... high-availability clusters... route-based VPNs - dear oh dear! I forgo coffee at this point and turn to overly sweet chocolate.

My first jaunt one evening was with one of my fellow students out to Antibe. We took a taxi and discovered the hard way that they start the meter running the second you put the phone down. Well that's what expense claims are for! We wandered around the old town of Antibe which is rather pretty (but fairly dead at night), and selected a Chinese restaurant of all things. Dinner consisted of battered and fried frogs legs (yum!), salad and hearty discussion about what it's like to grow up as a Jehova's Witness.

I don't know which was scarier - learning how frogs legs are prepared (the legs are chopped off while they're still alive), or learning the in's and out's of JW society (the legs are chopped off while they're still alive). In a manner of speaking anyway.

The next jaunt the following night was to the city of Nice for dinner with a bunch of the lads. €75.00 after our departure we select a nice restaurant, where we share pizza and drink Hoegarden (amongst other flavours) under the awning. One of the guys from Norway tells me that in the north where he's from it can get down to -50°C, and that they have to dig tunnels in the snow to get to work, and they sleep inside freshly slain reindeer for warmth.

Actually I made that last part up (what wasn't stolen from ROTJ), but the -50°C was true - the sentence just needed fleshing out. Too tipsy to remember what he actually said. I switched off after the fly fishing. Lovely fella. Cool accent.

The course finished on Thursday and so does this chapter. On Friday I picked up the car (a nice surprise) and began the next leg of the journey, whereupon I revisited Antibe, discovered Cannes, had my brains dribble out of my ear-holes in Monte-Carlo, and got completely lost in San Remo. I'll fill you in on the details soon.

Pics are up (see right) - more on the way.

Au reviour
C.

sugarsugarsugarsugar

Broccoli is good for you. Especially if you eat an entire head of broccoli (steamed, with parmesan cheese). And then a bag of corn chips with salsa just for a bit of balance.

It's pretty much business as usual at the moment in London land. Walking to work in -4 degrees C isn't exactly my idea of fun but we manage somehow, it's not so bad because there's not much wind. Tonight there is supposed to be 10cm of snowfall in London which is the most in 16 years. Pity I left my truncheons at home!

I was supposed to be in Paris this week for training, but that unfortunately fell through due to a cock-up so it's been postponed until next month. Woohoo I can't wait to see Paris! I will probably take the weekend there too and come back Sunday night, to take proper advantage of my stay there. I'll hire a car and go for a bit of a drive and try my best not to get lost. Whee!

Nam-kem has been a little under loved lately. I haven't had a lot to say lately I guess. Originally this began is a bit of a travel journal, but since I'm relatively settled there isn't much to say travel-wise. What I'm saying is that nam-kem will probably continue but it will probably start to morph slightly. So stay tuned (I know you're still out there!).

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So what have I been up to lately? Well I've been making an effort of at least one meditation sit per day, and one group sit per week in town. Trying not to freeze my arse off on my way to work and blagging rides when I can. Once I get to work I've been busy performing big updates to the network at work (ie. breaking stuff and doing my best to fix it), which has been an exercise in patience and frustration.

Have started climbing once a week. I'm reading a bit but I keep putting my books down in strange places and losing them so I have 3 books on the go right now. Been downloading episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Heroes religiously as they come out, and cursing the fact that they come out too slowly. I've also been spending a bit of time lately getting to know a special little lady which has been really lovely. I went on a date! A real live date! We had Thai.

The plan at the moment is to get a normal Work Permit through my current job, and to enjoy the travel opportunities I receive through the job and save a bit of money. I have been thinking about taking some papers at uni part-time. Nothing too drastic just some arts papers, I'd like to explore my writing a bit.

So those of you in the southern hemisphere I hope you're making the most of the sun. Spare a thought for us in little old London.


Au reviour!
C.