IF you ever needed a crystalised idea of the British attitude to drinking, here it is>>information aesthetics - bar countdown
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
The finished Mural
This a mural I did for a family that Buffys knows up in St Martin D'Uruage, it took me and Jenny, who lives with them, and who is my new best friend, two days to do, then the family added their own animals, fun, and very rewarding. I am very pleased with how it turned out.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Snow out the window of my office.
Now this is nice, I woke up late today becasue my stupid Windows PDA thinks it is in some other time zone and I cant get it to switch back. So I am running round the flat trying to get my stuff together and I finanlly make it out the door about 15 mins late, so I get to work after thew slowest ram journey abut half an hour late, and I am the first person there! what luck, the picture is the reason, and its friday, and the boss is out of the office today. perfect day to be late.
Snow on the way to work
It just looked foggy when I woke up this morning. but on closer inspection, (after I put on my glasses) it had been snowing all night! yay! it doesent have the same efect as it does in england, ie. everything grinds to a halt, people just took a bit longer to get to work, no problem. So there is about 6 inches in town, and about a foot upstairs in St MArtin D'Uriage, but the town is pretty good about clearing the mountain roads, but they do wait till the snow stops before they do it. apart from that its just fun!
Friday, October 21, 2005
BUFFY'S FIRST POST
Hello, this is my first entry. Ben has finally showed me how to do my own enteries! HOORAY BEN!! So now you can have my perspective about life here in France and in particular Grenoble. After a stressful two days of teaching I am happy to say that I am en vacances, on vacation for all you anglophones. This break will last until the first week in November. Thank goodness, I am beat! But seriously, I have been quite busy, tutoring, babysitting, working for the Potdevins and trying to see Ben when I can, but it is mostly on the weekends. Heading off to Dublin the 29th, going to be trying my hand at my fourth marathon, I am equally unprepared for this one as I have been for the rest, but I will give it a go none-the-less, it is in celebration of my friend Jenny's birthday, the big 3-0! Should be a fun girls-weekend on the island! Should have my official residence permit on Tuesday, hard to believe it this is my third one, I think the French might be catching up to my ILLUSION STUDENT status, I do not know how much longer I can keep this up! Please stay tuned for our continuinig adventures!
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Lac Acharde
nice lake in the hills about an hour fairly streneous walk from the ski resort . V popular with family sorts, many kids in baskets on backs etc. nice.
Dead cable cars...
where they all come to die.... you can see the rust so I hope this was pre-emptive of a mass failure, or just some precuationary measuer, I am becomeing so risk averse in my old age, I might have to counter it by gambling (kidding!) or some extreme sports... chess? nice rhythm to this photo.
Embrionic cable car
Just feel the tensile strenght! I was standing in front of this reel, about three feet away, its huge! obviously made by trefileurope, who I imagine have a VERY tight QA procedure. I can imagine the spotty student intern on the customer hotline "Yeah, well we're supposed to check every reel that goes out, but you know, everyone's human, and some guy brought a PSP in, it is totally cool!, OH, right... so let me write this down, how many? OK, and all dead, right, I'll let my supervisor know....yeah, now, sure"
Sunday, September 25, 2005
ice cave in the glacier!
as you would imagine, its pretty cool inside, and way blue. the cable are slowly melting troughs in the ice, very slowly, but then not much happens quickly in a glacier. Thanks Dad for a nice colourful counterpoint.
Glacier_ICE_cave
This is a pic I took of the Glacier up close and personal, every year they dig a tunnel, sloping upward, so it doesn't fill with water and drown tourists, although that would have its uses. So each year the cave moves, with the glacier, as you can see. I have helpfully annotated the photograph....nice.
mer du glace, a glacier
This is the Mer de Glace, the sea of ice, the largest Galcier in France, second largest in Europe. Amazing sight, and much more tangible than the Mont Blanc experiance. Is looks like a sea of rocks because it hasn't snowed for a few months, but there is a river of Ice moving at 90cm a month under there. eirriee!
Top of the world ma, and Buffy
We had this sign made, and I put my mum and Buffy next to it, we are standing in the sun, in my back yard, we never went up a mountain, I stole these pictures from the web, what do you think I'm stupid?
The context of a lunatic
And this is the camera NOT on full zoom. i mean the person looked small before, but this is just rediculous. and the lift closes a few hours from when this photo was taken, GET A MOVE ON!
a lunatic
this a person (too small to tell who, or what sex) walking around at the top of the Aguille du midi.
looking down
I think this is the best one I took that really captures the height, that's Chamonix in the valley below, a whole town! And the Aiguille du midi cable car station below me. with the combination of the staggering height and the thin air, it made us all very light headed. I saw some elderly people passed out in the corridors, unable to get enough air to breath, and small children running around and blacking out, it was horrible, and the guides just stood there with their oxygen tanks, laughing. There should definatley be a health warning somewhere... or something.
arriving at the Aiguille du midi cable car station
Taken through the old perspex of the cable car window, gives a nice impression, this is us coming into the station at the top of the Aguile du Midi, sillhouetted by the sun, I'm looking almost straight up here as well, man it was steep.
view from the aiguille du midi cable car
This is the terrifying view from the Cable car on the way up to the Aguille du Midi, the three quarters way up Mont Blanc, and the highest cable cr in the world. It is terrifying in so many ways, but I was saved from this but the all consuming BO of twenty people, who I was shareing the cabine with, thank goodness for the lack of Hygene!
the Mont Blanc cable car departure point
Buffy - Bonjour Chamonix, I have returned, this time, it was open, sorry John and Adele, but I did not do it on purpose.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
the ugliest dog in the world
take the worst kind of poodle, now take an old version, now shave it, now make it randy, and obsessed with its owners leg, now make its owner the spitting image of the dog, and you have what we saw in the place Vaucanson the other weekend. It was being dragged around by its owner and it would not stop humping her leg, bizzare, we had to drive around again for a (slightly) better shot...
Monday, August 22, 2005
My Salle jour
the living room, with my balcony, I nhave a new coffee table now, and Buffy keeps threatening to decorate the lamp in the corner. look at the floor, Charlie would appreciate it I am sure. Nothing like a polished hard wood floor.
View from my kitchen window
This is what I see when I am making my morning coffee, it constantly changes, the light is different every day and soare the neighbours, like the lady who cleans her windwos every morning, and the girl who iopens her shutters every morning, and has been on vacance for a while now... lazy french.
the marche for sunday vedgetable and so much more
just round the corner from my house, and I go there on Sundays it is busy, theres a butchers, a herb stand run by dodgy looking turkish guy, baker's a big van with CHeese, all sorts!
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Wierd flying saucer in the parc near work.
This is a college building in this park near my office, its odd, I was walking by here because the swimming pool that I normally go to at lunchtime is closed, and will be for the rest of the year, it was only iopen for 1 month! I could understand it if it was an outdoor pool, but its indoors!
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
My office
This is where I work, the blinds are to keep the searing heat out, we have more on the outside. We all have laptops, its on the edge of town, near a big shopping centre, nice. There is a pool 10 mins walk away, but I think it was only open for July, which is a shame, I'm going there in a moment to find out.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
My Mail box (boite de lettres)
I got a plaque on my mailbox a while ago, i felt more at home straight away.
Started my job.
Started my job a couple of weeks ago, its different working in france, subltly, but very much so. nice though, they are cool here, and the work/life balance is great. more later.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
adoring fan!
Tour de france virgin, Buffy Gorrilla, 28 of Grenoble said of the day, "there were bicicles".
the tail of the tour
this is the view from my window, not amazing, but good enough! we were sat over to the Left, in front of the river, we saw the bikes coming down the street, then they wizzed off, they go really very fast. duh.
The peloton!
I could not get the camera to take enough pics fast enough, a little forethought and i would have investigated burst mode, but I was tired, I was concerntrating on taking pics so I missed most of it, they did look cool though.
first bikes of the tour.
After two hours of waiting and promo vehicles going by this is the first sign of the actual tour. We were told the action would be startng at 9am, so we met up early, Buffys Freind Jenny was back from a trip to the states, and she came down for the morning. WSo we had breakfast of Croissants and Coffee, and got our spto on the apex of the corner, right in front of the advancing peloton, then we waited. and waited, then the promo vehicles started, some cool, some stupid, some throwing free stugff at us, hats and t-shirts were alright, but the jars of coffee hurt!
Then a merchandise van came through, and I caved and bought a Tee. then the actionstarted about two hours after we got our spot. and it was over in a flash, there are not that many insane people on the planet that do the Tour, so it didn;t take them long to file past, then a few support vehicles, then thats it! but it was exciting, and nice, and very Fun.
Then a merchandise van came through, and I caved and bought a Tee. then the actionstarted about two hours after we got our spot. and it was over in a flash, there are not that many insane people on the planet that do the Tour, so it didn;t take them long to file past, then a few support vehicles, then thats it! but it was exciting, and nice, and very Fun.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
The view from my window!
hi all, well I made it, finally cut the cord and left Engalnd, for a while at least, all is well, a hichupps, but nothing troubling at all. This, asa taster is the view from my window!
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Arrangements to uproot myself
So things are going a pace, still no word on the official leaving date from work, but I have to progress things anyway. stuff is being cancelled, money is moving across europe, the stuff you have to do if you are moving country!
so, i'll probably splurge a load of entries once i get move, but it may be a bit quiet till then.
so, i'll probably splurge a load of entries once i get move, but it may be a bit quiet till then.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Its official! I have a job in France
I recieved confirmation yesterday afternoon, I shall be in France in a month! This is big news! and a long time coming. So now the real nerves set in, and all the things that have only been ideas and posibilites are all concrete and oh so Real!!!
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Literatue: Authors: Patrick White.
Bens hot tip of the day: read as much Patrick white as you can.
A biography better written than I ever could, but my reaasons are as follows:
He bridges the gap between page and experiance more than anyone else I have ever read, even Proust. I can totally empathise with the way he makes his charachters feel, what does he say to me about my life? lots.
A biography better written than I ever could, but my reaasons are as follows:
He bridges the gap between page and experiance more than anyone else I have ever read, even Proust. I can totally empathise with the way he makes his charachters feel, what does he say to me about my life? lots.
Running
FInally figured out why ruinning has been so hard recenlty, I have been trying to do too much at once, trying to recapture the half marathon pace AND distance after over a month off from any serious excersies, stupid n retrospect, no wonder I picked up a few minor injuries and had a few bad runs. idiot!
So I went slow and long today, and it was much better, back on the wagon! Alos, in other trivial news just in!
: I got Buffys cheap ass MP3 player to work, I had to upgrade the BIOS of my PC to get the USB to recognise the device for more than the time it takes to upload a song. yay me!
: Under language>learnig a new one>French I finally burst through the translucent paper barrier between me and the glaringly obvious solutions department, problem: french radio sounds crap on AM. Answer: use the internet!
Sometimes I astound myself.
So I went slow and long today, and it was much better, back on the wagon! Alos, in other trivial news just in!
: I got Buffys cheap ass MP3 player to work, I had to upgrade the BIOS of my PC to get the USB to recognise the device for more than the time it takes to upload a song. yay me!
: Under language>learnig a new one>French I finally burst through the translucent paper barrier between me and the glaringly obvious solutions department, problem: french radio sounds crap on AM. Answer: use the internet!
Sometimes I astound myself.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Bloglines | My Feeds
Bloglines | My Feeds This is Bloglines, if you are reading this post, you should know what a Blog is, if you don't shame on you! and get with it!
Thursday, May 19, 2005
in the aquarium
Just so you remeber what we both look like, Buffy is the one on the right, woithout the beard, I am the freaky looking one with no visable chin, I was holding a camera!
Ben in moving to France shocker.
In the first significant move in living history Ben Pawson;s life has taken a turn for the exciting in recent weeks, he has decided to throw of the bounded life of and island existance and try life on the greater continent of Europe!
A source close to Ben Pawson was heard to say "Ben better get his ass to France soon or I will dump him like a bag of shrivelled carrots" The american female who wished to remain anonymous also expressed great shock that Ben was able to make such a move, and commended his efforts at relocation.
A source close to Ben Pawson was heard to say "Ben better get his ass to France soon or I will dump him like a bag of shrivelled carrots" The american female who wished to remain anonymous also expressed great shock that Ben was able to make such a move, and commended his efforts at relocation.
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