USA, the final test.

Thanks to the French administration, I spent the 8 weeks before my trip to the USA worrying about whether I would get my passport on time or would be prevented from going on my first trip to this country I'm amazed by.
The relief came in the form of a phone call from my embassy 8 days before I left, confirming that my passport had arrived in Edinburgh minutes before!

And after many years of waiting on an opportunity to go the USA not as a tourist but with a native who could share her vision of the country, I was on my way to Sarasota, Florida. Middle-sized town (at least from the European point of view) on the West coast of the state, Sarasota is a nice and quiet place for wealthy retired Americans. Nice white beaches, turquoise water, 30 degrees centigrade in early October, this city is a dream!

But even though I really enjoyed this part of the holidays, I was a woman on a mission! See, I have this crazy idea that the USA is the country I want to live in after Scotland... a tad weird since I had never set foot on Sam's ground!
So I had 7 days to decide whether I really wanted to go live there.

First impression: American people are the nicest guys I've ever met, I have yet to figure out whether it is genuine or part of their culture. I know French people are not overly nice but are genuine, so having so many nice people around me, plain simple and easy-going persons, was a big and welcomed change, that is if it is genuine.

Then, the food! Being French, I do have high expectations, I'm not one to try and eat French food wherever I go and I'm not overly fan of the French cuisine anyway, but I'm used to a high standard of quality and large variety of food.
In that regard, the USA once again score big points! I avoided going to fast food because I dare believe this is a by-product of a modern society choosing money over time, but isn't the true American food.
I had pancakes, omelets, roasted potatoes for breakfast; all you can eat salad buffet or BBQ traditional meals with corn on the rod for lunch and fresh grilled fish for diner.
USA have it all, from the cheap fat hamburger to the refined cuisine, there is something for everyone, which is just as amazing as it is pleasurable.
So food... ok for me!

Culture... the European culture is very different from the US one, but at the same time, we all have been raised with the US one through TV series and movies. What really struck me as odd is that as soon as I had set foot on the US soil, I had this feeling of coming home compared to my life in the UK. To this day I still hate this Victorian style, all these sparkling clothes, their TV soaps and tons of little details like the lack of shutters... on the other hand, the US style is so familiar (I guess I have Extreme Makover: Home Edition to thank for that!), I love the US TV series, the clothes are definitely closer to my personal taste than the UK ones and yes, they do have shutters!
So even though I have now lived in the UK for almost 4 years, I felt more at home in the US than I will ever in the UK!

Knowledge... I like to talk politics, I have pretty strong opinions on a lot of topics and I went to the USA with the idea that US people were ignorant when it came to the outside world (meaning what's not US basically), this is the part I was disappointed the less in and at the same time, the more.
I must admit that during the course of this week, I've met curious people but I can't say I have met people who really impressed me with their knowledge of the World. But then again I was on vacation so I can't say I really got the chance to go into a debate with anyone on the war in Iraq as an example.
But on the other hand, all the people I've talked to were curious of where I was from and could more or less remember that their grand parents had landed on the Beaches of my region, Normandy.
So nope, not really impressed by the knowledge but this is something I can't do anything about, I just have to see whether I can live with that.

To talk about their president, I have met Republicans but I must admit I haven't met anyone who publicly said he liked Bush!

A few things that I remember most... their tea bags have strings; they do have apple sauce; it's cheaper to go to the restaurant than to cook; not all American people are fat but when they are, they really are; everything's cheaper than in the UK; they love Peanut Butter!

My conclusion of this week... I now know for sure that I want to go live there for a year or two, get to know them more and get to experience this crazy American life where everything's bigger than in Europe!

Click on the thumbs to go to the album

Eilean Donan Castle

Eilean Donan Castle, Lochalsh. This must be the most impressive castle I've seen so far, and I've seen my share over the years!

Although the latest version of the castle has yet to celebrate its 100th years, it seems to have stood there proudly for centuries.

Built on the wee Isle of Donan, the Castle of the Isle of Donan (English translation of its name) has never been as important as the Sitrling Castle or any other castle which witnessed the war between England and Scotland. But due to its unique location, at the meeting point of three Lochs (Loch Long, Loch Duich and Loch Alsh) and its most impressive architecture and bridge, it has become over the years the most visited castle in Scotland.

Many will recognize it from the movie Highlander, although the clan McLeod's castle is actually situated in Dunvengan on the Isle of Skye.

The Eilean Donan Castle is situated on the North West coast of Scotland and I strongly recommend you stop there on your way to the Isle of Skye, another stunning place in Scotland!
I was on a road trip from Ayrshire to the Isle of Skye and had planned on staying overnight on the Isle but when we saw the Eilean Donan Castle we just couldn't leave! We booked a room in a B&B in the wee village of Dornie on the coast and went straight back to the castle... and there are just a sample of the pictures we took.


Eilean Donan Castle, Lochalsh. Ce chateau doit être le plus impressionant qu'il m'ait été donné de voir à ce jour, et croyez-moi, j'en ai vu!

Bien que la plus récente version du chateau n'a pas 100 ans, le chateau donne l'impression d'avoir traversé fièrement les siècles depuis son rocher.

Construit sur l'ile de Donan, le 'Chateau de l'Ile de Donan' (traduction du nom gaelic) n'a pas l'intérêt historique que peut avoir celui de Stirling ou tout autre chateau ecossais ayant joué un rôle dans la bataille entre l'Angleterre et l'Ecosse.

Cependant, du fait de sa situation géographique, au point de rencontre de trois Loch (Loch Long, Loch Duich and Loch Alsh) et son impressionant pont, il est devenu au fil des années le chateau le plus visité d'Ecosse.

Certain se souviendront de l'avoir vu dans le film Highlander, bien que le chateau du clan McLeod soit situé sur l'Ile de Skye, celui-ci appartenant au clan McRae.
Le chateau Eilean Donan est situé sur la côte nord ouest du pays et je ne peux que vous recommander de vous y arrêter.

Personnellement je m'y suis arrêté en chemin vers l'Ile de Skye où je comptais passer la nuit mais devant la beauté du chateau et de ses environs, nous n'avons pas pu partir. Après avoir trouvé un B&B miteux, nous sommes retournés au chateau afin de prendre d'autres photos. Le lendemain nous n'avons pu resister a visiter l'intérieur.

Click on the thumbs to go to the album

French passports delay... a lit bit of France out of France!

Going to Florida (hopefully!) on vacation in just 7 weeks, I had to have my passport renewed. Any continental person not used to travelling outside of Europe won't have one of those (at least in the countries where an ID card is mandatory), so of course mine was expired by about 5 years!
Anyway... a day off and £23 later (train fee), here I am in Edinburgh looking for my Embassy!
11 Randolph Crescent, just off Princess Street, so far so good, it's right in the middle of the town.

But right then you know you're back in France!
I was feeling like I was back in my ol' university asking for a form or another... jeez I had forgotten just how slow the French administration is.

On top of that, I wasn't feeling too good going to 'France', I mean I left the country for a reason and just going to my embassy was like being back in my country... weird I know, but there you go!

Anyway... the French gouvernment has decided that we had to look stupid on the photos now! No smile, no fringe, a huge head... and if the distance between your headline and your chin is 1mm less than what it should be, your pics get refused!

But still, so far, so good... the person who dealt with my request was a really nice lady and you could see that she was willing to help me (she was Scottish, it might explain!). I've been asked weird questions but hey, you'd do anything to get a passport!

Even though I wasn't overly enjoying myself, it was still pretty ok, until I asked the question whose answer I dreaded... how long will it take to receive my passport? 6 weeks!
And bam, right there I was back in France facing its oh so slow way of dealing with everything!

So now it's fingers crossed, hopefully I will receive it on time to fly to Florida!

May I add that you can apply for a new passport or a replacement ONLINE in the UK... oh and yeah... they do have one of these options where you can get your passport urgently if need be, gotta love these guys!

A couple of tips to speed up the process (I'll let you know if they really work!):

- Pay for your passport (£42) on the day you make your request, otherwise you'll have to send the money at a later time and it will delay the shipment of the request to France where all French passports are made

- Do not hesitate to have your picture taken 2 or 3 times (happened to me), looks like your request could get very easily refused if the format isn't standard

- Specify to the person at the embassy that it's a urgent request and panic, it worked for me, she wrote urgent and the date I'm taking my plane on, on the form! ;-)

If you need more information of the French ambassy in Edinburgh or on passports:

- Official website of the Embassy

FR - La fin du ‘Quel jour sommes-nous’?

Mon frère a recemment parlé d’un concept très intéressant, qui veut que l’argent donne la liberté de ne pas faire ce qui va à l’encontre nos principes ou de notre choix de vie.

J’avoue en être encore assez loin mais la semaine dernière j’ai eu la surprise d’avoir une pensée qui m’a fait extrêmement plaisir, surement parce que c’était la première fois que je pouvais le dire.

Je parlais avec ma responsable des ressources humaines concernant une promotion que je viens d’avoir et une augmentation qui ne va pas tarder. On attendait une troisième personne et faisions ce que l’on appelle du ’small talk’, en gros on comblait le silence en parlant de la pluie et deu beau temps. A cours d’opinion sur le temps mitigé, elle finit par me dire… vivement mardi. A alors commencé un passage en revue de tout ce qui pouvait se passer mardi 31 juillet et totalement à court d’idées, je finis par lui demander, et elle de me répondre surprise… bah c’est jour de paie!

Et là j’ai réalisé deux choses… d’une le mois est encore passé bien trop vite et les targets sont pas atteintes, et de deux, pour la première fois de ma vie je me fiche de quel jour on est, cela n’a pas de conséquences financières pour moi.

Pour la première fois de ma vie j’ai réussi à équilibrer mes dépenses avec mes revenus et n’avoir en tête que mes objectifs professionnels a l’approche de la fin du mois, et non plus la question de savoir si je pourrais m’acheter à manger ou sortir voir les amis!

FR - On a perçé le mystère Franco-belge!

Travaillant avec plus de 20 nationalités différentes, on recherche souvent les points communs entre les cultures. L'un des points communs les plus discutés reste les préjugés que chaque pays peut avoir sur ses voisins plus ou moins proches.

Parlant hier avec des belges, on a réussi à percer ce mystère multi-séculaire, voire plus, du: Les français sont arrogants et les belges sont bêtes!
Qui n'a jamais entendu dire ou même cédé à la tentation de dire d'un belge qu'il était bête? Rassurez-vous, ils ne sont pas en reste en nous perçoivent comme arrogants!
Voilà, en fait l'explication est très simple et vient d'une incompréhension, qui en fait vient d'un mauvais usage de la langue française de la part des belges.
Un belge va exprimer la capacité par le verbe 'savoir' quand les français utiliseront le verbe 'pouvoir'.
Imaginez donc une conversation entre un belge et un français:

Le belge: Dis, tu saurais me donner l'heure?
Le français, ne bougeant pas d'un cheveux: oui je saurais...

De là le belge qui pense que le français ne veut pas lui donner l'heure, en conclu que le français est arrogant et se croit supérieur, et le français pense que le belge est bête de lui demander s'il sait lire l'heure!

L'un des préjugés les plus courants en France expliqué en deux minutes par deux belges et deux français autour d'une bière... c'est beau l'expatriation!

Prochain préjugé à expliquer... pourquoi les français pensent que les suisses sont lents? ;-)

UK Council Tax for newbies

Living in another country has its upsides, you get to rediscover a whole new way of living. But it's got its downsides as well, bills being one of them!
In the UK, on top of paying for the rent, you have to pay the council tax. I've heard many people not knowing exactly what it was or even people moving in a flat because the rent was rather cheap and then being in for a big surprise when receiving the first instalment of the council tax!
Better come prepared... here is a wee guide to the Council Tax for foreigners!

First off, the council tax includes water and sewerage services, so no extra bill to pay for your water consumption. Then you have to learn how it works.
There are 8 'bands', 'A' being the cheapest, 'H' the dearest. The price of the council tax depends on the value of the property, meaning if you have a two bedroom flat with a view on the sea you'll pay more than a one bedroom flat with view on the street, which makes sense.
The amount charged for Council Tax varies from county to county so I can't give exact figures. As an example here are the figures for my own county, North Ayrshire.
As said before, the Council Tax includes the water and sewerage services assessed and charged by Scottish Water. My 'current valuation banding' is 'D' which consists in a charge of £1152 per annum for the council tax part, add to this £171.72 for water charges and £194.13 for wastewater charge, thus a total of £1517.85 per annum.
You can either pay the whole amount once a year or get 10 instalments free of charge.
A band 'A' in my county means a total amount of £1,011.90 and a band 'H' of £3,035.70.

In the UK the fiscal year runs from April to April and the council tax is payable 10 months a year. This means that you have to pay 10 instalments from April to January and then you pay nothing in February and March.

If you share the accomodation, the council tax won't be multiplied but divided so each person will pay only a share of it. On the other hand, if you live on your own, you automatically get a 25% discount.

One last thing to know, just like any governmental charge, it will steadily increase!

What you need to remember when moving in the UK, is that the council tax is just as important as the rent so never signs a lease before checking the council tax band. As far as I know it is not the landlord's responsability to provide you with the band, so always check with the local authorities before agreeing to somehting you can't afford.
Last thing to look out for is whether the rent includes bills. You might find a bedroom in a share flat with a rent of £250 plus bills and go for it as it's pretty cheap considering. However, across the street there might be a bedroom with a rent of £320 all inclusive, and this would be a bargain. The electricity, gas, council tax and sometimes TV licence and others are included in the rent.

Finding a place to live in the UK is no nightmare and everything goes smoothly 9 times out of 10 even for foreigners, but it's always good to know what you'll be facing!

To find out more about the council tax in your county, here are a few links.

- Scottish Assessors: Information regarding the council tax in Scotland
- Valuation Office Agency: Counterpart for England and Wales
- DirectGov: Provides a list of all counties in the UK and the websites addresses.

Oban - Argyll and Bute

Howdy people!

It's time to get out of Largs and visit a bit around Scotland... the travelling season is back!
First on the list for this year was Oban, a wee town on the west coast of Scotland, right in the West Highlands.
In the great tradition of this country, there's nothing to do in Oban but plenty to see!

Well... there's a distillery so there might be something to do there after all.
If you ever stop in this port, do not hesitate to go and visit it, it's one of the smallest ones but it has this friendly ambiance to it and the guide will tell you everything there is to know about this single malt light whisky.
If you're tempted to go and visit the Sea life center a few miles out of Oban, please refrain from doing so if you expect something entertaining or even interesting... What they do for the sea life conservation is absolutely great and they ought to get money to keep doing what they do, problem is I'd be more enclined to actually make a donation than have to go through endless rooms full of fish tanks.

Although, to give them credit, you can actually feed some kind of sea bass or trout or whatever it was, which is pretty fun.
There have two seals which pretty much do nothing but sleep and eat, as for the otter(s?), well, this was a fun part as it's not very shy.

Needless to say I was less than impressed by this and unless you've never been to this kind of attraction or actually do like living fish, there's no a lot to do and see.

As for Oban itself, well, this is a charming little town, unfortunately packed with tourists, although as it's raining pretty much non stop up there, we had a pretty quiet day.
All in all, I wouldn't travel to Oban just for the sake of it, but taking the west coastal road up to the North of the country might be a very pleasant experience.

And if you ever go to Oban you have to stop by the shop called the Kitchen garne, they have the most amazing continental food I've ever seen in Scotland including some local beverages from Britanny.

However, please be aware of kamikaze sheeps on the road!

Here are a few pictures of the city.

'Quaterly' life crisis.

Hello people stopping by to visit this weblog.

My life is chaotic at the moment, to say the least. One minute I'm overly happy with my life as it is and the next I could cry over the pathetic turn it's taking...

I'm not one to dwell or look back, but when I look ahead I don't see what I wanted to see... basically I don't see anything, and I don't like at all!

My job is taking its toll on me, I wanted responsabilities, and I like every minute of it... supervising a team of soon to be 16 people, 8 different markets and 7 different nationalities is a blast... but at the same time I have to face so many pointless challenges that I quite don't see the point in continuing it, knowing it's going to get even worse in the near future...

I live in a great town, I have wonderful friends here and back in France, I have a dear friend which lightens up my days and systematically kicks my butt on a weekly basis on a squash court... but my life remains empty.

I might be trying to acheive something that can't be acheived at this point in my life and it's holding me back, preventing me from enjoying what I have by always looking for what I wish I had.

For many years now I've dreamed of going to the USA and eventually settling down in Canada. This, is my dream. For many reasons, including my fear of leaving everything behind, I can't resolve myself to go for it just now. But not going for it means I hate myself for being weak and not fully living my life.

I'm at a crossroad at the moment... I could well decide life's great and could just go ahead, but I would be lying to myself. I could go back the way I came, back to what is safe because devoid of surprises... going back to France. Or I could work as hard as I can to make my dream comes true.

But for all these options there's one thing that I would need... patience. People who know me will smile at this... patience isn't my strong suit. I've never been patient, I want everything right away and then some. Life just doesn't work like this.

So, I guess what I wanted to say is that I don't know what to do or where to go from there.

Everything's moving around me, everybody's getting married, having kids, settling down in a life they've chosen, and here I am, living my life the way I thought I wanted to live it but the sad thing is that I don't feel happy, not as happy as I should be anyway...

Guess I have some thinking to do and maybe my penguin and I will be flying to better skies sooner than later...

Anyway... forget what I said... what's really important right now is that the ending of season 3 of Grey's Anatomy is way too sad... guess that's the reason for my current mood! ;-)

Un impôt pour les expatriés?

Je prends enfin le temps de revenir sur un projet proposé par celui que je pensais être l'un des rares à pouvoir devenir président, M. Strauss-Khan, à savoir l'impôt sur les expatriés.

Je n'aime pas ce principe de devoir mettre une étiquette sur une personne et le fait que M. Sarkozy m'appelle une "étrangère en situation régulière" ne me plait pas plus que cela... mais au moins il ne s'agit que de mots vides sans conséquences (du moins si la France se réveille en mai prochain). Mais lorsque j'entends la proposition de M. Strauss-Khan, ça me renforce dans mon opinion que quitter mon pays était sans doute la meilleure chose à faire... mais peut-être pas pour longtemps!

En tant que française vivant à l'étranger, je ne bénéficie d'aucun des privilèges sociaux des français vivant sur le territoire, ce que je conçois tout à fait. Après tout j'ai fait le choix de partir vivre dans un autre pays, je dois assumer ce choix. Mais voilà, je l'assume mon choix, alors pourquoi penser à venir me chercher pour me demander de l'argent pour quelque chose qui ne va pas me bénéficier?

Je paie mes impôts au UK, ma couverture sociale et la TVA... je dépends du système UK pour toutes ces choses, la France ne me donne rien et je ne lui dois rien. Quand bien même je rentrerais dans cette tranche imposable dont parle Strauss-Khan, je ne devrais rien à la France! Est-ce que je gagne mon argent sur le dos de la France? Non, est-ce que j'ai un contrat français? Non. J'ai un contrat UK, je travaille pour une boite UK me mettant au service d'une société américaine qui elle-même m'embauche pour travailler pour une autre société américaine. De plus l'essentiel de mon travail tourne autour de 5 pays et je suis moi-même partiellement en charge du Luxembourg.

Dans ces conditions, comment comprendre qu'il me faille payer un impôt à mon pays d'origine?

Si vous cherchez de l'argent messieurs-dames de gauche, allez le chercher où il est, dans le gaspillage public français, dans ces administrations incompétentes auquelles vous semblez tant tenir, et laissez les français expatriés où ils sont, à l'étranger!

Si en échange de cet impôt vous me proposez de côtiser pour ma retraite en France, vous m'offrez une couverture sociale internationale et tout ces petits plus dont bénéficient les français vivant en France, alors là on reparlera de m'acquitter d'une quelconque dette à mon pays d'origine!

FR - Royal ou Sarko... oubliez, je veux Obama!

Le plus gros problème que j'ai avec ces élections, à part le fait de devoir rentrer en France pour m'acquiter de mon devoir de citoyenne, c'est que je ne sais honnêtement pas pour qui voter.

Trop de médiatisation autour de Mme. Royal et M. Sarkozy, pas assez autour des outsiders François Bayrou, Marie-George Buffet... J'avoue que M. Bayrou et moi-même partageons une (seule?) opinion... il faut arrêter de voter pour un parti mais pour des gens.

En fait, moi ce que j'aimerais vraiment, c'est voter aux USA! Déjà parce que la pression de se dire que mon vote compte serait levée comme on a pu le constater en 2000, et surtout parce que je sais pour qui je voterais... ou du moins j'hésiterais moins!

Je l'annonce donc... si je pouvais voter pour des élections qui vont vraiment compter pour les années à venir au niveau planétaire, je voterais Barak Obama!

Démocrate de 45 ans fraichement arrivé en politique (depuis 14 ans), qui ne cache pas avoir fumé de la marijuana au College tout en étant sorti d'Harvard diplômé de droit avec honneurs, qui ne renie pas ses racines mi-africaines (père africain, mère américaine) mais ne mise pas dessus. Barak déplace les foules, et plus important, Barak déplace les jeunes! Un des rares à avoir ouvertement dénoncé la guerre en Irak dès le début (quand c'était pas bien vu de le faire!).

Il veut ouvrir le dialogue avec l'Iran, retirer les troupes d'Iraq, les mettre en Afghanistan, parler sérieusement des problèmes environnementaux...

Honnêtement quand je vois les candidats états-uniens, je me dis qu'une fois de plus la France est en retard! On se bat pour savoir si une femme a vraiment une chance d'être élue Président quand ils ont un candidat femme (en tête dans les sondages) et un candidat métis. Je ne dis pas qu'un des deux sera élu, mais ça pose la question de savoir si la France n'évolue pas un peu trop lentement.

Le problème étant que je reste également persuadée que les français sont bien plus ouverts d'esprit que les américains et que les fans de Nascar/Rednecks vont sans doute tuer cet espoir dans l'oeuf en votant pour un 'mec qui en a'... sans compter que les morts votent apparemment, mais ne sont pas représentés dans les sondages... de même, les noirs sont représentés dans les sondages mais ne votent pas!

Et comme de toute façon je ne peux pas voter pour Barak Obama, je reste sur ma première conclusion... on est mal barrés!

UK oddities and singularities.

Throughout my 3 years in the UK (I lived in England for 18 months a few years ago), I've noticed many inconsequential differences between my own culture and the British one.

Please keep in mind I'm in no way judging those nor the French or UK culture. I was asked once by an American girl whether France and the UK were similar... obvisouly this person never studied the European History. But on a funny note, it seems the only similarity we truly have is that we both drink tea (but then again it's subject to discussion)!

To list but a few oddities I've come across:

- Tea bags: You'd think England is the country where to drink a cup of tea, a cuppa as they would say. Granted, it's part of the decorum, but if you want a good cup of tea, the UK is not the place to go in my opinion. They basically have two kinds of tea, Breakfast tea and Earl Grey! You'll have to go to wee retailers like Whittards where you'll find a few more varieties, but nothing like we find in any middle range supermarket in France or the dozens of varieties found in tea and coffee shops!

Another oddity is that they haven't discovered something I find rather useful, some very basic concept I thought always existed... the string! You'll need a teaspoon or a tea claw to extract your tea bag from your cup.

The reason for this might be they don't really take the tea bag out! If you like it light, my advice to you... always specify you want the tea bag on the side, not already in the cup or tea pot! They like it really strong and sweeten it with milk. All in all it's not bad and I came to like it like that too, but nothing is better than a light Orange-Cinnamon cuppa if you'll ask me!

- Products you won't find in the UK: Being French, I was used to certain products I was raised with. Nothing too fancy or too French, at least that's what I thought, until I came to the UK!

In here they don't have 'compote' nor do they have an English word for it! It's not marmelade, it's more like mashed fruits and it's really good! They don't have 'crème dessert', they have chocolate mousse. You'll find some in the continental shop Lidl but every single French person out there will share my misery when I tell you I couldn't find a single Danette pot here! You won't find a good slice of ham the way we know it in France, nor will you find any 'saucisson sec' or pâté (I'm talking about real pâté folks! ;-) )

- Products you'll find in the UK that you should find in France!

Everything isn't negative about the food, truth be told I don't really miss the French food in the UK but I surely miss the UK food in France! They have baked beans, real bacon (not the round tasteless slices we have!), real barbequeue sauce (not the Heinz sort we're so proud of!), Digestives (the best cookie ever!), scones and clotted cream (so posh, so good!), garlic bread...
But more importantly, we don't have cheddar in France! Yes, we do have tons of different and very good cheeses. Being from Normandy, I know about cheese, but I'm telling you, extra mature cheddar is to die for!

Now for the real oddities!

They have bags of crisps I could fit in after I had eaten the content, it's crazy! Their frozen chips departement is bigger than the vegetables one! If you go to a take away and ask for a burger, they'll just dip a piece of ugly meat in boiling oil and put it in a box! Their kebab meat always looks like they haven't removed the plastic wrapping!

I can't list all of the oddities I've discovered in one post, it would be a looong one... so stay tuned for more comparisons!

It was a close call!

Just some silliness to finish the week/start the weekend!

Lenovo and and the Formula 1 Williams Toyota team just signed a sponsorship agreement from 2007 on!

What's funny is that I'm a big fan of Formula 1 (Michael Schumacher, you're a living legend!) and former fan of Williams, back when Ralf Schumacher was driving for them. But at the same time I happen to indirectly work for the former laptop activity owner of Lenovo... so I'm a former fan of my work and F1 team! ;-)

Doesn't make much sense does it? Well, it does to me only I guess!

Anyway, thanks to Frank Williams' way of managing his team, I won't have to support a team with a sponsor which put a few friends out of job a few months ago... nope, doesn't make much more sense!

Well... forget it, I still think it's funny though!

Bottom line... Look out for Lewis Hamilton, I might not like Ron Denis either, but the boy has potential, that's for sure!

I did it!

Long time, no see I'd say! It indeed has been a while since I wrote the last message in English on the blog. Well, you see, there are two reasons!

The first one is that it's winter time! So no trip, no photos and basically rain pretty much everyday! So not a lot to say about Scotland at the moment, although it might change soon!

The second is that life has decided to speed up the pace a bit and I had a hard time catching up with it!

To list but a few changes at the moment, I got a promotion at work, I'll soon have a new flatmate, I've switched to Linux and I got new screen wipers for my car!

Ok, the last one is irrevelent but trust me, it's quite useful!

Regarding the first one, when I first arrived in Scotland, I promised myself not to remain an agent for the duration of my initial contract which was of 18 months... well, 17 months and 3 weeks later, I finally got promoted with a side order of payraise! ;-)

On a personal level, my Swiss German flatmate will soon be flying back home for good and a French guy will be moving in next week!

As for Linux, well, Vista was the final straw... I just couldn't resign myself to getting the new version of Windows... too many expectations, I would have been disappointed! So I switched to Linux, Ubuntu to be precise. The only reason I'm saying this, apart from the reason being I'm quite proud of my achievement, is that it will change the way I deal with my pics as the softwares I used to work on are solely Windows ones, so I need to somehow find new ones as well as a way to upload them since I used to upload them through Windows. But hey, if Windows can do it, Linux can do it better, I just have to dig a little to find what I'm looking for!
So back to the title... I did it, what you'll ask me!

Well, today symoblizes my 18 months in Scotland, which is what I had set my mind on! So I kept the promise I had made to myself, to my employer and to my family and friends! From today on, it's all bonus!

But I'm not done with Scotland yet and don't plan on leaving anytime soon, not with the promotion and the flatmate, a new period of my life is beginning, with more responsabilities and the same eagerness to live my life to the full!

So stay tuned... there should be more tips about Scotland, more pics and more stories to come fairly soon, afterall, it is my duty to show my new flatmate the beauty of this country!

Cheerio as they say around here!

FR - Rien à déclarer m'sieur l'agent!

Il semblerait que je vais avoir tendance à parler des élections présidentielles après tout!

J'aime assez ce côté "transparent" lancé (contre son gré?) par Mme Royale. Apres tout, si l'état français sait exactement ce qu'on gagne, pourquoi ne saurions-nous pas ce que "eux" gagnent? Ne pas le dire ne me dérange pas non plus, à vrai cela m'amuse plutôt... ce qui prouve une fois de plus qu'on élit une personne et non ses idées...

Bref, je ne suis pas là pour dénoncer, mais plutôt pour m'amuser d'un détail, le mot est juste, qui m'a frappé.

Suite à cette déclaration, d'autres candidats ont décidé de faire leur coming-out financier, et là, ça devient intéressant!

3 candidats paient l'impôt sur la fortune donc, Mme Royale, M. Sarkozy et M. Le Pen, et en bas de ce tableau sans grand intérêt, on trouve Mme Arlette Laguillet, qui possède, je cite un article du Monde de ce jour, "aucun bien immobilier, Clio achetée en 2000".

Ce qui m'amène à en conclure deux choses... elle s'est séparé de sa mobylette il semblerait, et la seconde est que moi aussi je pourrais me lancer dans une carrière de politicienne sans avenir (ni passé?).

FR - Les élections du petit Nicolas

Allez... on va respecter le saint secret des urnes, mais pas trop quand même!

Je suis d'aussi près que possible le débat qui se passe actuellement en France concernant les prochaines élections présidentielles.

Je me souviens que je vivais en Angleterre en 2002 et croyez-moi, j'ai bien eu honte de ma nation lors des résultats du 1er tour. Et les médias anglais ne nous ont pas épargnés!

Il semblerait déjà que la France ait compris l'inutilité et même le danger du vote sanction... comme quoi tout espoir n'est pas perdu pour nos esprits un peu étriqués!

Je n'inciterai pas à voter pour une personne ou pour une autre, déjà parce que je me pose toujours cette fameuse question et je pense que je me la poserai jusqu'à l'urne, et puis parce que finalement qu'est-ce que ça va changer...

Je suis aparti, préférant me retrancher derrière les idées d'une personne que d'un ensemble incohérent... la 5ème république est morte lorsque Le Pen s'est retrouvé au second tour!

Bref... pour qui voter en mai 2007?

Storm, I wasn't kidding!

When I was telling you there had been a storm in Scotland, I wasn't kidding!
I managed to get a few pictures of the portion of the road that fell down at the entrance of my town... I just hope nobody actually 'discovered' it the hard way!

Convention: Constellation 4 - Pegasus May 2005

They say everything comes to those who wait... or those who don't even know what to wait for!
To make a long story short but still giving you an insight of how full of suprises life can be, back in May 2005, I was unemployed... job seeker they call that because I had never worked before! ;-)
Anyway... I was depressed, I had nothing to do and not much to look forward to. I was working on a database project on Stargate SG-1 with a few people and was chatting with one of them on MSN like any other day. But that day, he asked me if he could invite someone to the chat... and that's how I met the president of Constellation Conventions.
What's even more surprising and quite amazing is that we were talking about the behind-the-scene of these conventions, which I had never heard of before, and I merely dreamed out loud, saying I would love to be a translator on a convention.
Two days and an interview later, I was a translator for the organization!
Life's great, ain't it?!

Two months later, I was in Paris for Constellation 4. There I met:

Stargate SG-1:

Tony Amendola (Bra'tac)

Douglas Arthur (Heru'ur)

Musetta Vander (Shan'auc)

I also met a few Star Trek actors but truth be told... I'm not a Trekker/Trekkie! ;-)

I had one of the most humiliating moments in my life at this convention!
I was translating the questions from the audience during a Star Trek panel. Denise Crosby was on stage. A French fan asked her a question and of course, being the translator, it was down to me to ask it in English.
Problem is, at the time, I had never seen a Star Trek episode! I mean I didn't even know (and still don't!) what or who a Vulcain is!
So the person in the audience asked the question in French and I had to make her repeat because there was a couple of words I couldn't get. I honestly thought it was a technical term I didn't know about.
So I made her repeat about 4 or 5 times before even Denise Crosby understood what I couldn't...
She stared at me like I was from another planet, and said: You don't know him??
I was like... huh, sorry, no is that a person?
Then about 150 persons started shouting, kinda shocked... which I can understand now since the 'technical word' I couldn't understand was actually the name of the actor portraying Mr Spock, Leonard Nimoy!

Then, another funny moment was during the signing session. Vaughn Armstrong was also attending the convention, Amiral Forrest on Star Trek Entreprise. Needless to say, I didn't have the slightest idea who the man was!
But he's such a lovely and sweet and funny person that we had a real great time having him and I really enjoyed talking to him.
So on the Sunday night, during the signing session, I came to him and told him as much. I also added that I really didn't know what he was doing but I liked him as a person. He gave me a bear hug and told me he had hardly ever heard that! ;-)
But on the next Tuesday, we went to the restaurant with the actors, just the staff and them. In the meantime, our president had made me watch an episode he was playing in.
So when I met him again I had what must be one of the stupidest reactions ever... I told him I found it weird to see him on TV when I had met him in the flesh!
I mean I had the opposite reaction when meeting the actors from Stargate, it was surreal to meet them in the flesh after having watched them so many times on TV. But with Vaughn Armstrong, it felt somehow weird to see him on TV!

One of my favourite moments during this convention was being a translator during the Stargate panel, chatting with Tony Amendola who is a lovely and interesting man and meeting the staff of Constellation. that was my very first convention and I was already working on it, which was just as scary as it was excellent!

Conventions are always fun. there's a lot of pressure for us and in the end we just have memories and tons to do for the next one, but it's a way to give back to the community and show the actors and the producers that we really appreciate what they're doing to entertain us. On our very small level, it's being part of this dream.

Geek and damn proud of it!

Some time ago, I started asking myself the essential question, the kind of question that every individual ask themselves at some point in their life. I think it’s sane to actually doubt oneself, not knowing who we really are until we face reality…
I came to the conclusion that, well, the answer to THE question is - Yes!

Well… it might help if I told you what THE question is! Am I a geek?

Yes, I do watch way too many TV series, yes I can quote all of them and yes I do it on a daily basis, yes I still have a couple of posters on my walls, yes I watch the behind-the-scene features of all the TV series I like, yes I do have a calendar whose sole purpose is to remind me when to watch which series…
Guilty as charged to all of the above statements, but you know what… I’m proud of that!
At least I’m some kind of an expert in the TV series field! ;-)
I’m the Scully of the 30 and 60mn format!

And being totally crazy and living life to the full, I got involved in a non-profit organization promoting TV series conventions in France. So yep, I met other geeks and yep I met quite a few actors!
I’ll shortly come up with a few funny anecdotes, trust me, when you have 150-200 fans in a room and 2 or 3 actors on stage, there are funny anecdotes!
I might have to start with an introduction to conventions though, every time I talk about it, people think it’s some kind of obscure cult where we worship some character, dressed like them… let me get this straight… it’s not!

A TV series conventions, like any other fan event, has for sole purpose to gather fans of a TV series or genre and actors of said series.
The main activities are a Q&A session, photo sessions, signing sessions… every organization comes up with ways to make a convention special, depending on the guests and the culture (you won’t have the same schedule in France as you would in the USA for instance, it just wouldn’t work).
Anyway… all in due time, I’ll get around to explaining further what a convention really is and how it works… I happen to work on them so I know quite well how it works! ;-)

New Year's Eve in Scotland!

There's this famous Scottish saying joking that there are the four seasons in one day...
It's quite common to have sudden changes in the conditions, but I've got to admit the weather over the New Year weekend has been quite surprising, and not the kind of surprise I like!

This shot was taken on Saturday, at around 4:30PM:



The sky had been quite cloudy all day long, some showers but all in all a nice winter day.

The 31st of December was another matter entirely though!

It had been raining all day long and very windy, but still, it was ok, that is, until we decided to go to the party!

We had decided against going to the Hogmanay in Edinburgh due to sporadic public transportations, and by the time we had made up our mind, the one in Glasgow was sold out. So we had planned a nice party at a friend's in Glasgow.

That was actually quite fortunate since both events got canceled due to a terrible storm that hit Scotland!

Here is what it was like to drive along the coast near where I live:

When we arrived in Glasgow, it got so windy that we couldn't do anything but go with the flow, running with the wind in our back. I never felt so out of control! A friend of mine finished her course in a parked car, her sleeping bag rolling like in some cheap Western!

When we got back to my town on the next day, we saw the damages done by the storm. A nearby house right on the beach got its fence blown away and was found some 30 meters down the beach. The waterfront was covered with half of the rocks of the beach. A small portion of the road fell down the beach, leaving a gaping hole on the main road, which is just as surprising as it is scary!

I must consider myself quite lucky, nothing big to deplore, I can't say the same about my neighbour's garden gnome though! ;-)

And we have yet to record a negative temperature in my part of Scotland... I'm telling you, this global warming thingy is messing up with Scotland!