Quiet Week - Semaine tranquille

We had a quiet week. A few more complications for me, but I'm still confident all will be fine in time for our trip. And if it's not all fine, then I'll just go in less than fine shape.

There was an Ile de France walk this week. It was very conveniently in the Bois de Vincennes, (the wikipedia page) so I didn't have to do the whole walk back to the starting point. We started out at the statue at the Porte Dorée which was the main entrance to the Colonial Exhibition in 1931. The museum of Immigration is one of the remaining buildings. Until becoming the museum of Immigration earlier this year, it was a museum of the colonies. We used to go there with the kids. In addition to the North African exhibits that attracted us, there was the aquarium in the basement. I think the aquarium is still there.

From there we went off to the right, to the Lac de Daumesnil. We could see the fairgrounds of the Foire de Trône; the fair just got started on March 22. We saw the Buddhist temple and had a moment of thought for Tibet. We kept walking close to the edge of the woods, from the Lac de Daumesnil to the Lac de Gravelle, next to the race track. Wednesday is not a race day at Vincennes so we didn't see any trotters out exercising. I used to ride my bike over there when Emma was a toddler; we'd drop Claire off at school and go for a bike ride. She loved watching the horses. I miss that. It was relaxing and beautiful to see.

We went around the race course, past the police academy, towards the back of the horticulture school, along the edge of Mortemart (but we did not go down to the playing fields, so baseball and softball fields there are still well-kept secrets). At the new round-about at the intersection of the wood, and Nogent, we continued along the edge of the wood towards the Institute of Tropical Agronomy and that's where we split. The others continued towards the Lac des Minimes and I headed into Nogent to go home. I treated myself to a pizza and some ice cream.

For the first outing since the operation, it was long enough for me. Next week is a walk in Paris from the Butte-aux-Cailles to the Cité Universitaire. I don't know if I'll go, though.

Disappointing Day / Journée décevante

Yesterday, I spent the day at the out-patient clinic. It was supposed to be routine - remove the catheter and then stick around until I peed. Except I didn't, so they had to send me home with the catheter again. Next appointment -- in two weeks.

After that, I went to the chiropractor because the pain in my arm, caused by the pinched nerve in my neck, came back after the operation. I think that bugs me more than the catheter.

On top of that, Paul says we should not go to Australia in April! But that's a month from now and I'm assuming everything will be ok by then, and even if I'm not 100% in tip-top shape, I want to go now.

Enough complaining. It was a disappointing day, not a depressing one.

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v.f.
J'ai passé la journée de hier en chirurgie ambulatoire. C'était censé être de la routine - faire enlever la sonde et rester sur place jusqu'à ce je fasse pipi. Sauf que ça n'a pas marché comme prévu, et il a fallu me renvoyer avec une nouvelle sonde. Prochain rendez-vous -- dans deux semaines.

Ensuite, je me suis rendue chez le chiropracteur parce que la douleur dans le bras, causé par le nerf pincé dans le cou, est réapparue après l'intervention. Cela m'énerve encore plus que la sonde.

Par dessus cela, Paul veut abandonné le voyage en Australie en avril ! C'est dans un mois et je présume que tout ira bien d'ici là. Et même si je ne suis pas en forme à 100%, je ne veux pas repousser ce voyage.

Assez de plaintes. C'était une journée décevante, non déprimante.

Encore un mois jusqu'au vacances

Libres des contraintes du travail et des vacances scolaires, nous partons en Australie le mois prochain, le 17 avril. Nous avons payé l'accompte et il nous reste à donner nos passeports à l'agence pour les visas et il faudrait aller à la sous-préfecture pour faire faire des permis internationals. J'ai prèsque fini de lire The Fatal Shore et j'ai lu Bill Bryson. J'ai bien parcouru les guides. J'ai hâte de partir.

La semaine dernière, j'ai subi une dernière intervention chirugicale. Ca c'est bien passé, mais une intervention est toujours une intervention et je dois être patiente encore un peu avant de retrouver ma mobilité. D'ici un mois, ce sera parfait.

En rentrant de l'hôpital, j'ai vu une annonce pour un contrat de six mois à partir de mai. Cela me conviendrai, je crois. J'ai envoyé mon C.V. et en ce faisant, j'ai reconnu l'adresse email d'une copine. On verra si je suis prise. Ils souhaiteraient quelqu'un qui commencerai au début du mois, pas vers le 19.

J'ai raté la conférence STC France. C'est décevant, vu le travail pour la rendre un succès. Il parait que c'était un grand succès. C'est dur de rester "professionnelle" quand on ne travail pas et qu'on n'en a pas trop envie. Mais je continue. Je suis les listes et les "communautés" sur l'internet.

Demain, c'est le deuxième tour de l'élection municipale. On se retrouve avec la liste de J. P. Martin (qui s'est allié avec l'indépendent du premier tour), la liste de Marie-Anne Montchamp qui s'est alliée avec son ennémi, Debaeker, et en dernier, la liste socialiste. Je serais tenté de voter pour la liste socialiste pour les renforcer dans l'opposition. Martin a besoin d'une opposition forte pour le tenir.

S'il fait beau demain, peut-être j'irais voir les équipes qui préparent le début de la saison de baseball. Je ne m'occupe plus d'organiser le scorage cette année. On verra si on a besoin de moi. Ce serait bien d'être plus libre. Pour l'instant je ne pourrais pas le faire de toute façon.

Back to Work?

Just home from the hospital (operation successful) and saw a job offer on the STC France site. Since they are looking for someone for only six months, from May to November, I thought I should look into it. When I clicked the link to email my resumé, I noticed that I knew the addressee - in fact, when she was just starting out as a technical writer and was a bit in a panic about using FrameMaker, I met with her and helped her through the beginning of it. We have exchanged several emails since yesterday and it looks like I may very well be in the running for her job when she is off on maternity leave. Just when you least expect something, it just turns up.

Of course, if it doesn't pan out it's no great catastrophe either. Paul thinks that he might start his retirement with our trip to Australia. He has so much vacation and untaken RTT days (those are the days off one gets to create the illusion of a 35-hour week) that he must take before retirement, that he could stop working in April and not officially retire until late fall.

Also, I was thinking of getting back to the States for a visit sometime during the summer. I got an email from Erica suggesting a bunch of us Girls' High orchestra girls try to meet in August. I'd like to do that and go to Pittsburgh. If Paul were with me, we could then continue on a bit of vacation elsewhere. If I took this job, I wouldn't be able to do it.

While at the hospital, I read several Alexander McCall Smith novels -- mostly the ones from the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. They are very pleasant reading -- ideal for the hospital, actually, when you can't concentrate on heavy stuff. I'm also trying to finish The Fatal Shore, about Australia, but keep getting bogged down in it and not advancing.

Spring is around the corner.

Everything is in bloom - well, almost everything. The lilacs are not out, yet. But many of the trees are blooming. It's too soon. They say that the next week is going to be really cold. I hope this doesn't wreck the fruit trees and make fruit even more expensive. In any case, it's lovely to see all the spring colors already. At the end of the month, we go back to summer time, too. I always love that.

I've been working hard on the trip to Australia. It's going to be a full month from mid-April to mid-May. It'll be fall, there, but it shouldn't be too chilly, yet. Emma says they've has lots of rain this year. They needed it. We're getting very excited about the trip. Bill Bryson's Down Under is a good introduction - very funny, as most of his books are. Many years ago I read Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines and I think that was the book that made me want to visit some day, although the trip we have organized is not at all influenced by it. For one thing, we can't see much of Australia in a month, so we're not trying to.

The STC France conference is coming up really soon - in just two weeks. Normally, I'd be looking forward to it, but this year, I don't think I'll be able to attend. I've got an operation coming up this week and am not sure exactly how soon after that I'll be very active.

What else? I saw my friend, Oriane, yesterday. She came up to Paris from Lyon for one of her linguistic workshops. It was canceled, but since she had her ticket, she came up anyway to celebrate her birthday with friends. We walked from the Gare de Lyon to les Halles and stopped on our way at the Pompidou museum. There was an exhibit called "Les Inquiets" (The Anxious) - photographs and video by Palestinian and Lebanese artists. The videos were disturbing - one was about the reality and fiction of martyrdom - how the suicide bombers spend so much time setting up and doing several takes of their video message, as if the video were more important than the act. Gruesome.

Next to that exhibit there was another exhibit of Richard Rogers 48 years of Architecture, including, of course, the Pompidou Center, itself. That was much more interesting to me. There was a model that showed you how the area south of Shanghai, Pudong, was supposed to work, the different transportation systems, the distribution of space for residential, office, commercial, leisure, and cultural uses. There was another model of central London as he thought of it. Interesting.

That's about all. It was nice to see Dan leave a comment on the blog and it's always nice to get your e-mail when you want to react to an entry privately.