Determin[D]eD

Entre mondialisation et regionalisme...

2009-12-05T13:11:00.004Z

Le monde ne fait qu'un... c'est bien connu, on nous le repete depuis des annees maintenant et j'avais meme fini par le croire, vivant dans un autre pays entoure de nationalites exotiques.

Libre circulation des personnes et des marchandises... libre de ramener mes biscuits preferes (ahhh... les Mikado!) dans mes valises, libre de ne pas les declarer a la douane et libre de les partager avec mes amis de la mondialisation...

Mais alors bizarrement, la libre circulation des marchandises s'arrete aux Mikado!
J'ai une faiblesse dans la vie (depuis l'arret de la cigarette), c'est la musique francaise... je l'avoue, j'aime ma culture et j'aime ma langue.
J'aime la sincerite des paroles francophones et la profondeur de certains textes (...), donc j'ecoute francais, j'achete francais... ou pas!

A l'ere de la mondialisation je trouve ca abherant de ne pas pouvoir acheter des produits immateriels au-dela des frontieres de l'hexagone (pas essaye dans les DOM TOM ceci dit!).

Petits exemples de frustration du samedi matin:

On est samedi, il pleut (etonnant en Ecosse!), rien envie de faire... hop, je fais le tour des nouveautes et des classiques.
Tiens... j'ecoutais le premier album de Rike cette semaine et pour la enieme fois je m'enervais du fait que quand j'ai passe mon album en MP3 avant de venir vivre a l'etranger, la derniere chanson (A mes Sinse) a eu un probleme.
Moi, honnete (si si!), je me dis... allez, j'avais achete l'album mais c'est pas grave, je vais racheter cette chanson en version digital pour completer un des meilleurs premiers albums que j'ai ecoute.
Que nenni! iTunes ne propose pas le premier album, la Fnac ne le propose pas en telechargement et je me suis fait jeter d'Amazon pour des restrictions geographiques... les gars, ce sont des produits immateriels, on s'en tamponne des restrictions geographiques!

Bref... je m'ennerve pas, je me dis que je reprendrais l'album la prochaine fois que je repasse en France!

Deuxieme exemple... hier dans l'avion qui me ramenait d'Angleterre en Ecosse, j'ai ecoute le podcast du Fou du roi (Stephane Bern sur France Inter). L'emission du 30 novembre proposait une programmation musicale des plus interessantes... Ben l'Oncle Soul est venu chanter le titre Soul Man, de la bonne soul a la francaise, a ecouter et acheter!
Ah bah oui tiens... sauf que non! Le lien propose mene sur iTunes... je ne critiquerai pas iTunes dans ce billet, j'ai deja fait part de mon mecontentement (peut-on dire dire haine vicerale?) pour ~~cette dictature~~ ce logiciel. La je trouve l'album 6 titres a 4.95 euros... oh joie, je m'empresse de l'ajouter a mon panier et je me delecte deja de pouvoir decouvrir plus avant cet artiste... mais non, car je n'habite pas notre Douce France et iTunes ne me laissera pas outre passer la limite geographique pas palpable (la meme qui nous a sauve de Tchernobyl ceci dit... elle a du bon!)... et bam il me redirige vers le magasin UK et Leona Lewis ou Susan Boyle...

Bref... au moins j'ai reussi a racheter la derniere chanson de l'album Debout les yeux ouverts de Sinsemilia, Tout le bonheur du monde, qui elle aussi avait souffert lors de son passage en MP3 (depuis j'ai egalement change de lecteur de CD!)
En passant j'ai egalement trouve l'album La chance de Anis (de 2005) a £5.99 sur iTunes, comme quoi les frontieres ca s'ouvre des fois!

P.S. Les accents non plus ne traversent pas les frontieres! ;-)

Capture d'ecran sur iPhone

2009-09-05T00:27:00.001+01:00

Parce que c'est utile, parce que c'est cool et parce que je viens de l'apprendre... La capture d'ecran sur iPhone!
Pour ce faire, il vous faut:
- un iPhone
- un index
- un autre index

Il existe des variantes de cette technique ou un pouce est utilise... Notez qu'il n'existe pas de variante au niveau de l'iPhone, ainsi n'essayez pas avec votre ecran de PC au risque de passer pour un gros nul!

Donc, je disais, pour faire une capture d'ecran, on reste appuye sur le bouton 'power' situe sur le dessus de l'appareil, et simultanement, en meme temps et pas apres, on appuie sur 'home', on peut meme dire 'maison' mais ca veut rien dire... Bref l'unique bouton sur le devant de l'appareil, rond avec une forme carre (pas facile a comprendre hein!)

Et voila... On obtient une capture d'ecran automatiquement sauvegardee dans l'album.

Meme que pour prouver ce que j'avance... Voila la capture de ce que j'avance!

-- Post From My iPhone

iPhone rox, iTunes sux!

2009-08-10T18:41:00.005+01:00

I finally joined the rank of those who have succumbed to the temptation of this society of consumption and sold my soul to Apple…
Ok, enough with the drama, I’ve bought an iPhone!

I’m not new to these wee crazy things and have already flushed a photo 20GO a few years back (yes… I managed to drop it in the toilets, guess what… it’s not waterproof!), and successfully managed to own up to this day a video 30GO iPod and a 8GO iPod Touch (for sale!).

When I visited my brother who had already sold his soul a few months ago, I was very impressed but didn’t really need one (not that I do now, mind you, I’m just weaker!).
Now that I’m travelling to London every week, I must admit that these long nights on my own in the hotel room are quite boring without the Internet (damn credit crunch, the company won’t pay for the Internet!)… Which was enough of a reason for me to run to the store and buy one!

I’ve had it for 2 days now so can’t really say much about it, except that it’s all I loved about the iPod Touch and then some more, a lot more!

However, I hate iTunes, always have, always will!

I found this neat freeware that at least allows you to download your music from your iPhone onto your PC (this is taking intellectual property defence way too far, all I want to do is download my legally obtained music onto my computer to listen to it at work, not impoverish the World’s culture for cryin’ out loud!).

Anyway, check this out, it does what it could say on the tin, no installation required!

SharePod: http://www.getsharepod.com/

However, this doesn’t help for ringtones!

See, the main difference between an iPod Touch and an iPhone is the phone feature, I know, took me a while too to figure this out.

2 days after having bought the iPhone, I decided to look into the ringtones (nobody have my number just yet… not even me, so no rush!).

I found this overly cool and straightforward way of creating your own ringtones from your own legally obtained music in iTunes.

This is just the greatest thing ever, so easy to do!

So, I now have my favourite part of the Jeff Buckley rendition of Hallelujah, how cool!
Well… not so cool since I can’t get it on my iPhone!

See, the iPhone is a pretty damn good device for people on the go, except that iTunes is like the most retarded piece of software ever created!

It won’t let you do anything if you try to use to sync with a computer (guess what Apple? People on the go tend to have more than 1 computer since… well yeah, since they move!). Scratch that, it will let you erase your music!
I’ve just managed to lose my music up to the letter L… of course I won’t fly back home until Thursday night so I’m stuck with my music from L to Z… I even lost Lilly Allen… won’t even be able to play F**k You!

Anyway… Now I’ve lost half of my music and still don’t have my ringtone on my iPhone… but since even I don’t know my phone number I guess it doesn’t matter so much!

Welcome to the geeky side of the force!

Cinnabon... 6 years later!

2009-07-09T17:42:00.001+01:00

Ever since I discovered these amazing Cinnabon Rolls back when I was living in Southampton, on the South coast of England, I have been desperate to have them again!

When I moved to Scotland, I was very hopeful they would have a franchise and eventually ended up writing to the company through their website.As it turned out, they didn't have one in Scotland... it took me a while to recover but eventually I started feeling better...

And then I got offered this assignment in London for a few months... and honestly, after the obvious things going through your mind like what's the job description? What will be paid for and do you think I'll be able to see the Queen, I thought of finally being able to eat a Cinnabon!

I arrived on Monday morning and left it to the Wednesday to go on my Cinnabon hunt which led me to Picadilly Circus.They now have these Chocolate Cinnabon that I had never tried before...

so I took one of those and a normal one (minis... I'm on a diet! ;-) ) and went back to the hotel.Except that, of course, I got lost (managed to find Buckingham Palace AND Downing Street but not my hotel!) and it took me quite a while to get there!

In the end, by the time I was back in my hotel room, it was cold. Any reasonable person would have waited until the following day, brought it at work and would have micro waved it... but I'm not reasonable!

I stopped for a moment and thought... what would MacGyver do? And then I spotted the two objects that would allow me to finally have a Cinnabon 6 years later... a hair dryer and a tea spoon!!

Blow drying the frosting on a Cinnabon might appear weird to most of you, but to all Cinnabon connoisseurs out there, I know you understand the despair I was in and why I had to do it!And you know what... it worked very well and this new Chocolate version is very tasty! I had the normal one this morning for breakfast and it happens that I need to go back to Picadilly Circus tonight to go see a movie... I see another very sweet breakfast in the very near future!

Elections USA: Pourquoi essayer de nous influencer quand on ne peut meme pas voter?!

2008-10-06T10:29:00.003+01:00

L'Europe votera Barack Obama!
Youpi... sauf que l'Europe ne votera pas, parce que l'Europe n'est pas americaine (oui, je sais ça en soulage plus d'un!).
Depuis plusieurs semaines, à vrai dire depuis la grande tournée europeenne de Obama, l'Europe ne jure plus que par lui, on le voit limite president du monde, ce qui fait tourner la tête aux journalistes et par consequent peut avoir de serieuses consequences en cas de défaite!
On me dira que Obama a déjà gagné, que McCain est trop vieux, trop proche de Bush et trop fier de la guerre en Irak... oui mais voilà... les americains ont (re)voté pour Bush en 2004... et pourtant il presentait les meme characteristiques, bon d'accord la vieillesse etait remplacée par la stupidité et Bush était en fait son pere, Bush Sr.

Mon probléme est que, bien que je me declarerais bien citoyenne des USA juste pour voter Obama, il ne faut pas oublier que l'Europe n'a qu'une influence limitée sur les votes. Pis encore, on pourrait donner des votes a McCain! N'oubliez pas que l'amerique profonde est plus peuplée que les côtes, et que les intellectuels ont un QI superieur mais moins de poid dans les urnes.
Donc si les intellectuels (par là j'entends toute personne qui sait placer l'Europe sur une carte) sont influencés par notre opinion, les rednecks qui mangent encore des Liberty Fries y voient un manque de patriostime de la part de Obama qui cède aux sirenes de l'ouverture d'esprit, une faute passible de la peine du triple double whooper (on te fait manger des hamburgers jusqu'a ce que tu t'ecroules!).

Et le journalisme francais sur ce point est plus que lamentable... si la crise economique ne nous a pas, prions pour que Obama soit president parce que McCain va nous detester!
Simple exemple, croyez-vous vraiment qu'un journaliste serait aussi agressif envers Segolène Royal que ce qu'ils sont envers Sarah Palin?
Sans compter qu'ils demontent systematiquement les argumentaires des republicains en y opposant ceux des democrates, il est où votre travail de journaliste la-dedans?!

Palin accuse Obama de 'copiner' avec un terroriste... l’argument donné par les democrates est qu'Obama n'a aucune sympathie pour les idees de ce Bill Ayers, qu'ils se sont connu au travers d'une fondation. Ca c'est ce qu'on lit dans les journaux americains, avec les guillemets et les sources... dans le Figaro, rien de tout ca, le journaliste cite cela comme si c'était le fruit d'une longue enquete pour rétablir la verité.

Je suis 100% derriere Obama mais si les journalistes francais font de la desinformation, comment peut-on se faire une idee juste de la campagne americaine, et surtout comment reagira McCain si les americains l'elisent?

Accent... grave

2008-09-29T13:50:00.002+01:00

Brève du Figaro:

Distribution gratuite de gilets fluos

[...]

Cette opération de distribution est menée par les assurances MMA et Zérotracas.com, un site internet dédié à la prévention des risques routiers.

Vous avez essayé de taper l'adresse donnée dans l'article... ah bah oui, avec l'accent ça fonctionne pas... combien d'internautes peu au fait de cette limite ne pourront aller se renseigner?

Le Figaro ou comment donner une information sans informer!

Pics of New Lanark, Lanarkshire

2008-09-28T19:41:00.004+01:00

After the horrendous summer we had up here in Scotland, it was with great relief that we saw the sun hanging around for a few hours yesterday! UgzY just took the time to charge the batteries of the camera and was on his way to New Lanark, south of Glasgow.
This wee village is so full of history, both sad and hopeful that it was almost overwhelming.
Cottonmills were the only source of revenue and all families living in this village were working in poor conditions in the late 18th century.
That is, until Robert Owen, which sort of reminds me of Oscar Schindler, took over the cottonmills in the early 19th century. This philantropist decided to improve the working conditions of the families living in New Lanark and working for him. A school was created and all children received an eduction, be it full time or after work. Hygiene was a priority and doctors, called 'bug hunters' made sure clothes and beddings were washed. Even more impressive for this period in History, free health care was offered to workers and their families.
While the village doesn't look like a place you would want to live, considering it all happened over a century ago, it was a major social breakthrough that is very much worth visiting for anyone interested in History and/or Economics.
You will find more about this place on Wikipedia or the Offical Website of the site.

Before you see the pics, here is something to think about...
'There shall be no human slavery, servitude, or inequality of condition, except for the natural inequality of age and experience, which will for ever preserve order and harmony in society' - R. Owen

UgzY is back on the road!

2008-09-28T19:19:00.003+01:00

UgzY was desperate to get back on his feet and start travelling again, problem was that the good ol' UgzYmobile was letting our penguin down more often than not.
We couldn't take it anymore, so off we went and found a new ride!
This almost (not even close but still! ;-) ) brand new Ford Ka means that UgzY will be hitting the road pretty soon and will bring more photos of this wee and yet great country!

UgzY's pics are back!

2008-09-14T13:21:00.004+01:00

For some reason, UgzY's pics never made their way back on this new blog!
This is now done and hopefully new ones will arrive soon as the new soon-to-be UgzY mobile takes the wee penguin to undiscovered places (by penguins that is!).

Urban Legend: French food get exported everywhere in the world

2008-09-08T20:37:00.003+01:00

This is the biggest lie ever!
Being French and all, I ought to love French food and try to eat it wherever I go.
Guess what... wrong!
I love French food, true, but I'm very open to all kind of food and love haggis as much as I love 'mousson de canard' (not sure actually!).
Anyway... my point is, after having lived abroad for over 3 years, I sort of miss some of the stuff I was raised with, I'm not talking about snails or frogs guys, let's face it, French food is not all about these tasty for pretty weird delicatessen (don't get me wrong, I love 'em!).
So, I am currently trying to find these products I miss, but to no avail!
There are about a billion websites selling French products but all are dedicated to fancy food! I don't want to buy foie gras for cryin' out loud, I want French dry sausage Justin Bridou, I want French apple sauce Andros, I want Pepito, Mikado and other Prince sandwich cookies(all French biscuits)!
So far, no luck at all, I can't find a single website that exports all the good ol' French products.
You can find the most refined cheese but no fromage a raclette or reblochon.
No chance with Creme de Marron or Cruly, Peppi's...

I want my French junk food!!!

No USA in 2008...

2008-09-07T11:48:00.003+01:00

I know I said I would be moving to the USA in 2008 but even I quite didn't believe it!
I haven't dropped the idea of going and live there one day, but it's not meant to be at this moment in my life.
Mainly because it's so hard to get these working papers!
But also because I need to work on my career so that I can go there and get a good job and get to enjoy the American dream not starting from the bottom (as in waiting in a country bar in redneck city).

Lastly, well... let's say that there's one big obstacle to me going there, which will fortunately get kicked out of the White House in a couple of months, and will hopefully not be replaced by a man who means well but cannot personify change while being 72 and quite obviously admiring Bush.

So I'll take a rain check on this dream but in the meantime I'll spend a few days in NYC next year, to get to see another part of this huge country and see where exactly Ugzy wants to land when the time is right.

UgzY has been AWOL!

2008-09-07T11:38:00.002+01:00

Hi all... if any is left!

I just realised I hadn't posted anything in close to 6 months!
Real Life has been quite hectic as usual and I sort of lost the desire to write.
I went through some tough times this year and actually resigned and packed my stuff to go back to France!

Well... technically I did resign but I never made it to the packing part! I realised it would have been a knee-jerk reaction and that I wasn't done with the company I work for nor with this beautiful and real wet country.

So I 'unresigned' and I'm happier than ever!
Meaning I will start posting again, more will be in French though, need to keep in touch with my friends that I don't want to leave behind anymore.

See, when you leave outside your country, I think there's a point in your experience when you start thinking about what the heck you think you're doing!
This happened to me a few months ago, I failed to see the point of carrying on the adventure when I had a life in France, but you know what... lately I've discovered that I only had vacation in France, my life was in Scotland!

So I see lots more vacation in France in my future but I'll stay in Scotland for the time being!

First thing I need to do now... buy a better car because Ugzy hasn't been on a trip in a looong time because the Ugzymobile had a mind of her own, which is very frustrating!

Stay tuned for more adventure!

By the way, that's a French word!

2008-02-09T10:49:00.000Z

I've been hanging out a lot with an American girl friend since I arrived in Scotland.
She doesn't mind so much my obvious arrogance, garlic smell and overall annoying joie de vivre. But even her patience has its limits and there's one thing I know unerves her, so I keep on doing it! ;-)

English, be it the traditional language you would find in Webster, or the one you hear on the street, is full of French words, and I just love pointing out that they are stealing our language and would try to insert as many French words in a conversation (oups... this one is a French word as well!) as I could, ending it with a... By the way, that's a French word!

I'm quite sure Native English wouldn't even realise it, just like the French wouldn't realise just how many English words we have in our oh so exceptionnal language. *rolls eyes*

I shall make my duty to report on this blog any word I come across!

I won't be listing all the obivous ones like rendez-vous and deja-vu, we all know these are French and English speakers use them as such, just like façade or even cuisine... all these are a bit cliché! ;-)

I will stick to the less obvious ones, at least from what I can see and hear.

I was pretty suprised to hear this friend was walking her dog on the promenade and that she has the dog on a leash as she doesn't want her German shepperd to wander off near the boulevard .

However I will make a difference between the words that have their origin in the French language (such as lounge) and the ones that have the exact same spelling in both languages.
The reason for this is that once the spelling has been modified, it seems to me that it stops being a French word and starts having a life of its own.

We all might get amazed at just how much modern French influences English speakers in their everyday life.

USA, here I come... hopefully!

2008-01-06T11:06:00.000Z

Howdy folks!

2008 is the year I move to the USA, or so I've decided!
Over the course of a year and a half, I have packed (might not be the word!) this blog with tips on where to go and what to see in Scotland, including information if you want to relocate to this part of the UK.
It is now time I take it a step further, meaning on the other side of the pond!

It should take me ages but in the end I hope I'll find a decent job in the USA without having to marry a guy to get the green card, or just buy it (the green card that, not the guy!).
I'll keep a concise (hopefully!) diairy of my journey from the wee town of Largs to the Big Apple and hopefully by January next year, I'll be writting from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!

So please, if you have any tip (websites, personal experiences, books, offices...) that could help me, feel free to drop a note!

Pics of Ayr, Ayrshire

2008-01-05T19:04:00.000Z

Ayr, Ayrshire. Capital city of the Ayrshire county, Ayr is a wee city by the sea, as many others in Scotland.
Ayr is a very quiet and peaceful city with a very typical town center and a nice sand beach. That's one very nice city and one of the few ones I could leave Largs for!

Ayr, Ayrshire.Capitale du conté du Aryshire, Ayr est une fois de plus une petite ville côtière... à croire qu'il n'y a que ça en Ecosse!
Dans mon coin de l'Ecosse en tout cas, c'est à peu près tout ce qu'il y a en effet... ça et des iles!
Ayr est une ville très agréable au centre ville typique du pays. Une plage de sable à perte de vue. Encore une ville au charme indéniable et certainement l'une des rares villes pour lesquelles je pourrais quitter Largs!

Pics of Ardrossan, Ayrshire

2008-01-05T18:58:00.000Z

Ardrossan is a wee town by the sea in Ayrshire (South west of Scotland).
With a direct link to the Isle of Arran by ferry, Ardrossan is somehow touristic, and has this amazing beach with this sumptuous view on the Mountain Goat Fell, one of the numerous treasures of the Isle of Arran.

Ardrossan, Ayrshire. Une autre de ces villes côtières de l'ouest de l'Ecosse.
Rien de bien particulier, si ce n'est un ferry qui relie le 'continent' à l'ile d'Arran, certainement l'ile la plus touristique des Lowlands.
De la plage d'Ardrossan on a une vue absolument magnifique de l'ile... bref une petite ville où il fait bon y passer un peu de temps.

New Year's resolutions.

2008-01-04T22:10:00.000Z

Failing to see the point in Christmas (that is, as the non catholic I am), I find this period pretty depressiong. However, there is something magic about the New Year's Eve... almost as if you could bury in the past whatever you did and start afresh.

And of course, among other traditions, we have to come up with resolutions that we will drop after 2 days... or will we?
Most of the people I know have taken the resolution of not taking any resolution, which is funny but at the same time, I think it's passing on a great opportunity, stop thinking about changing and start doing it.

So last year I decided that my 2007 project would be myself. I have a very bad self confidence issue, I don't like the way I look and even though I'm out-going, I always fear what people will think of me. So in 2007, my resolution was to work on this, and because I love taking on new projects, it really worked.
12 months later I've changed my wardrobe, bought more make-up than I ever did, started playing squash twice a week and a month ago I even joined a fitness club!
I have changed so much that I wear skirts!

So yes, resolutions do work!

But now it's time for a new resolution/project, and because I quit smoking 5 weeks ago, I can't take this one, it would be too easy...
So two resolutinos for 2008:

- Stop giving a damn about things I can't change!

I don't like my nose, so what? Ain't gonna change anyway so stop giving a damn!
I hate the time it takes to put a new process in place at work, tons of stuff infuriate me at work but there's nothing I can do anything about, so I need to stop caring!

However, this also means that what I don't like and can change, I have to do the best I can to make it better!

- I will celebrate New Year's Eve 2008 in the USA!

This year is my year, it's high time I move on, Scotland is a great country, I love my work and my teams, but in 12 months I need to be in a different country, with a new job (I wouldn't mind the same company though!).

These are my two projects, as well as keep on working on my 2007 project which is an ongoing project!

UgzY has a new home!

2008-01-04T20:54:00.000Z

I've decided to go public... sort of anyway!
Being a geek, I've always prefered to be in charge of every detail of my blog, choosing an open source application and hosting it and all... but nothing really suited my needs for a bilingual blog whose main purpose is hosting pictures.

After many versions, I've realized that nothing will ever be perfect and that the multiple plugins I had were more of a waste of my time than a real solution.

Being a big fan of the Google concept and already using half of what's available, including the online photo storage and offline tool Picasa, I've decided to go for the easy solution for once... hope this will help me keep this blog up-to-date!

So UgzY is back with a new home... I've lost the comments, not everything is back yet and I'm missing like 400 pics but it will be as good as it can be before long!

So, for those of you who don't know what this blog is all about... I'm a French girl who decided to leave for Scotland back in August 2005 and I'm merely trying to share my journey and whenever possible, tips on where to go if you want to visit or move to Scotland.

FR: Stirling - 2ème essai réussi!

2008-01-04T19:44:00.000Z

Pour ceux qui avaient suivi mes mesaventures il y a un an et demi à Stirling, j'avais reussi a prendre un panorama du chateau et a crasher ma voiture dans la même journée!
Ne m'avouant pas vaincue pour si peu, c'est avec ma seconde voiture que j'y suis retournée!
Cette voiture, au programme visite du chateau ET retour en voiture... c'était pas gagné d'avance mais j'ai réussi!
Ceci dit je n'ai toujours pas été voir le William Wallace Monument mais cette fois par faute de temps, le chateau de Stirling prend quelques heures a visiter.

USA, the final test.

2007-12-15T13:48:00.001Z

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

2007-08-15T14:14:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-08-15T13:39:00.000+01:00

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’?

2007-07-27T13:00:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-06-23T13:24:00.000+01:00

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

2007-06-10T13:26:00.000+01:00

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

2007-06-03T13:17:00.000+01:00

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.

2007-05-20T13:31:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-03-11T12:32:00.000Z

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!

2007-02-16T13:38:00.000Z

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.

2007-02-16T13:33:00.000Z

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!

2007-02-03T13:19:00.000Z

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!

2007-02-02T14:06:00.000Z

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!

2007-01-17T14:08:00.000Z

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

2007-01-14T14:09:00.000Z

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?

J'ai une vision un peu particulière de la question, ou plutôt d'une partie de la question, celle qui porte sur Nicolas Sarkozy! Je suis une "étrangère en situation régulière" puisque Mr. Sarkozy aime mettre des étiquettes. J'ai pourtant un travail; croyez-moi, je paie des taxes, et je suis entièrement intégrée au système UK. Je n'ai rencontré absolument aucun problème pour louer un appartement, obtenir une carte de paiement, je suis même inscrite sur les listes électorales en tant qu'étrangère pour pouvoir voter aux élections européennes.

Je ne prétends pas suivre tout le débat ni même connaitre toutes les statistiques qui permettraient de vraiment comprendre le discours du candidat de l'UMP, mais moi ce que je vois c'est d'un côté une France ancrée dans le passé qui devra bien comprendre que la politique sociale qu'elle applique ne pourra pas continuer (voir la montée du débat sur l'automédication qui ici est appliquée depuis de nombreuses années) , et d'un autre côté un beau pays où il fait bon vivre et pas seulement pour son cidre et son camembert (veuillez excuser mes origines normandes!).

Bref... comment concilier tout cela... être française de souche sur 10000 générations (j'exagère peut-être un peu!), ne pas avoir de religion donc ne pas subir de pression de ce côté, avoir une bonne tête bien blanche, un nom bien franchouillard... pour résumer je peux montrer patte blanche en France et pourrait ainsi devenir comme bon nombre de français surprotectrice de mes acquis (marrant d'ailleurs comme acquerir implique une action d'obtention, il ne me semblait pas m'être vraiment battue pour naitre dans une famille sans problème française!). Et pourtant j'ai choisi un autre chemin, chemin qui fait encore peur à bon nombre de concitoyens, celui de l'expatriation (temporaire?).

J'ai decidé de ne pas baser mon opinion sur Mr. Sarkozy sur les nombreuses railleries sur ses positions et de manière générale, l'homme dans son ensemble (c'est normal, c'est la drogue). J'ai donc lu une biographie du bonhomme (Les Sarkozy Une famille française - Pascale Nivelle et Elise Karlin, éditions Calmann-Lévy). Ce qui en ressort n'est pas brilliant. Sans juger sa famille (on ne la choisit pas), Nicolas Sarkozy apparait comme un homme rongé par l'ambition, ce qui peut être une bonne chose, et décidé à ne plus être humilié... mauvais choix de carrière là!

Il semblerait que le petit Nicolas est né du mauvais côté de la bourgeoisie mais a été élevé dans les beaux quartiers où il n'a pas forcément trouvé sa place. D'accord mais pourquoi faire payer la France pour ces frustrations d'enfant? Et de ses discours, de son attitude, ressort toute cette volonté d'écraser les autres pour montrer qu'il est quelqu'un... pas brilliant comme base pour faire un président.

Et pourtant Mr Sarkozy a tous les attraits pour représenter la France d'aujourd'hui et de demain... fils d'immigré, famille recomposée, tout cela sent bon la France de ces dernières années, la France moderne à laquelle je souscris. Et pourtant il en faudrait bien plus pour que je vote pour lui. Quand il verra le problème actuel pour ce qu'il est, un problème social et non racial, on partagera peut-être plus d'opinions.

En attendant qu'il range son karcher et je reste expatriée!

Storm, I wasn't kidding!

2007-01-06T12:56:00.000Z

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

2007-01-04T20:20:00.000Z

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

Douglas Arthur

Musetta Vander

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!

2007-01-03T20:18:00.000Z

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!

2007-01-01T13:02:00.000Z

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!

Fic: My Buddy Bud

2006-12-27T20:17:00.000Z

Title: My Buddy Bud

Author: UgzY

Status: Complete

Category: Humour, POV

Pairing: None

Words: 1,447

Spoilers: None.

Rating: K+

Content Warning: None

Summary: Never stands between a man and his Bud.

Disclaimer: Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Author’s notes: This is the result of a sleep deprived mind living on too much beer!

As always, a huge thank you to Su Freund, my Beta Reader

I was pissed off, well maybe not as pissed off as… ok, I was pissed off!
I mean, how had he dared?
Challenging me, questioning my choice, deciding I was wrong without even trying to see my reasoning.
That’s it, next time he’ll be his own, no more backing-up, no more Please Jack I need your help…
I mean come on, I’m General Jack O’Neill… maybe not the smarter pencil in the pot, but I’m still a pencil!
I might still have some frozen cells from my little vacation in the freezer back in Antarctica, but I could recognize one good thing when I saw one… and Budweiser was one of them!
It’s always the same, I don’t even know why I bother anymore, but I still do!

Every time we have an alpha male evening, with poker, snacks and beer, Jerry calls me and whine about him not having the time to go and get the beer… so the nice guy I am goes grocery shopping… and of course, I pay, I choose… so Bud it is!
And every single time it ends up the same, fighting over the brand of beer I brought!
I mean come on… wanna chose your booze? Then buy it!

Budweiser is piss, or so they keep telling me… strong as a coke, tasty as tap water…
I’ll admit it’s just some find of brewed water, but that’s good water! What’s the point in drinking something that will turn your guts upside down just by the taste of it… drink Whisky if you want something strong… beer is… a refreshing beverage… for men… or at least grown-ups!
I have this funny – not! Picture in my mind of Carter kicking my ass over this macho comment!
Anyway… so beer is supposed to be refreshing, and a Bud is just as refreshing as the next one, so what’s the problem with my choice!
I mean I’m not stubborn or anything, I did try some other brands, hell, even foreign brands, but every time I go back to the comfort and familiarity of the red and white label.

I tried Heineken once… it’s not too bad, though a little too bitter for my liking. See… I didn’t say anything bad about it, and I heard it’s a Dutch beer, in Europe!
Daniel would be proud of me on this one… well except if I told him how I know about this country… but jeez… it’s legal to smoke pot over there!

Anyway, it’s not that I don’t enjoy the taste of it, but well… actually I don’t, it’s as simple as this!
I mean, it’s definitely too bitter!
So I labelled this one as non suitable for O’Neill and went for another one… Guinness… now, now that’s a family tradition!
See, us Irish guys have this little thing called pride, and we tend to like everything coming from our roots.
But I guess my roots are just too far away from me to really appreciate this tradition!
For cryin’ out loud, if I want to eat, then I take something I can actually chew, not some kind of smoothly soup!
Yes, I do drink it from time to time… stubborn is another Irish streak!
But I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re just thirsty, it’s not refreshing at all!
So that’s one more off the list of possible choices for a alpha male evening… what’s the point in buying snacks anyway if you have a all-in-one beer… you’ll just end up chocking to death and desperately looking for something refreshing… enter Budweiser!

After my little trip to hell and back in this lovely sandy country whose name will remained untold… anyway, so I was transported back to Germany for a while, a looong while.

After they stopped feeding me with soup, nutritive powders, then some kind of baby food and then finally stopped feeding me altogether, I could enjoy a cold one!
So I went out one day with some friends of misfortune and headed for the nearest pub, partly because of our eagerness to quench our thirst, and partly because we were still recuperating. Anyway, once more Daniel would be proud of me, with my better ‘Engleutch’ accent, I went to a waitress and asked: Ein bier, bitte!
Ok ok, I’ll admit it sounds pretty lame, but hey… I had my beer so it wasn’t too bad I guess! That was a Pills Premium, that I do remember! Though I don’t really remember the taste of it, it might have been a light one but did you know that a beer in Germany is like asking a regular coke in here… they give you a gallon of the stuff!
So with all the innocence of the youth you order 4 of them before you actually get the chance to see one and before you know it you’re back in the infirmary and you wish you never left it!
So you see… my short lived experience with the German beer is not on top of my favourite memories of my time over there. No, scratch that, it might have been one of my best ones actually!

Oky… so… no Dutch, Irish or German beer is better than my ol’ friend Bud!
There is this little drugstore down town selling all those exotic products from all over the place, even if basically it’s just a way to make a lot of money out of non travelling people who want to open their mind to different cultures… but that’s kinda too long so it says exotic products!
Anyway, I found a pack of Kronenberg beer. Not one to stay in the dark, I tried to learn about it. I found out it’s a French beer brewed on top of a hill called Cronenbourg, but some smart ass decided that spelling it with a K would be fashionable… and some English speaking smart ass thought we wouldn’t be able to pronounce it so they changed the name to Kronenberg. Ok, enough already with the History lesson!
That was good beer, kinda reminded me of my Bud, albeit bitterer and stronger. But then I heard in France they do make fun of this beer, or so it seems!
It seems to be a cheap beer for parties… youth nowadays…

And it’s not like French people would know about beer anyway! They have wine, not beer!
Not that I am a fan of wine, mind you, but their wine is supposed to be one of the best in whole world, the Asgard might even have heard of it by now!
If that’s not arrogant?! Just because what… they used to drink wine when we were still… well… when we were still in Europe actually!
I’d have to ask Carter about that one, she likes wine and tend to drool before a bottle of Merlot or Chablis! Oh and while I’m at it I should ask Daniel if we really were still in Europe when they started drinking wine!
Well, I guess my point is, ok, I guess I didn’t have a point except that I still prefer to savour a cool Bud when I’m thirsty, or not!
Now, now there is one country whose beer are worth talking of… Belgium!
Actually I did learn quite a lot about the country from reading the beer labels… and they say alcohol isn’t good for you!

They’ve got hundreds of beer, light ones, strong ones, lagers, ales… name it, they have!
I’ve tried only a few of them but every time that was a new experience!
Take a Leffe for instance, the regular one is not so good, the draught one is okay, but well… definitely not to die for. But take a Leffe Triple, now that’s good booze! Strong but refreshing, the Leffe Brune has this light taste of apple definitely appealing. As for the Leffe Radieuse, a subtile taste of fruits, strong beer but not overly, all in all a good beer with snacks.
But you see, that’s not a beer you want to drink when you’re thirsty, that’s a beer you’ll savour slowly, taking little sips at a time and letting the flavour explode on your tongue… how’s that as poetic crap?
But I’m babbling here! Hey, now I have this picture of Daniel getting bored of my incessant rambling, how highly unthinkable!
Back to the matter at hand… I do love my fresh Budweiser drunk straight from the bottle in my backyard on a sunny afternoon, how’s that as a cliché?!
So yep, next time, Jerry’s bringing the booze, but I’ll make sure he’ll buy Bud, who pay doesn’t always choose after all, being a General has its perks!

The End.

Fic: Mantra

2006-12-27T20:15:00.000Z

Title: Mantra

Author: UgzY

Status: Complete

Category:

Pairing: Sam/Jack

Words: 4216

Spoilers: None.

Rating: T

Content Warning: Language

Summary: After he’s injured on a mission, Jack tries to deal with the consequences.

Author’s notes: This was the first English fic I ever wrote. Please, note that I’m not a native English speaker, and despite the wonderful work done by my Beta reader, you might (and will!) find some spelling mistakes.

A *big* thanks to my ever patient beta reader, Su Freund, any mistake is solely mine!

It’s over.

It’s funny, really, how life can sometimes be ironic. It’s taking away from me what it gave me 8 years ago, a reason to believe in it, a reason to live to see another day.

And here I am, just as I was 8 years ago but this time there will be no pain-in-the-mikta sniffling archaeologist to keep me sane, to prevent me from drowning, and so here I am… drowning.

Well, excuse me; you must be confused, right? Okay, bottom line… I’m a cripple, a good for nothing, a royal pain in the ass for The Powers That Be!

Ok… bottom line is not that helpful. Let me explain myself.

It was on a sunny boring day, a simple recon mission on some damn planet, full of trees. What a surprise!

I was setting a perimeter with my buddy T, Carter was taking some soil samples or whatever it was she was doing and Jonas… well… the kid decided it was vital to touch some button on a device hidden in ruins. And there I was… running for my team’s life, a rain of rocks threatening to bury us alive. I heard the Kawoosh of the gate in the background. Somehow Teal’c managed to get to the DHD and dial home. All I had to do was get to Sam crouched on the floor and get her back through the gate.

And all in a sudden my damn knee gave out. I mean what are the odds of this happening after so many years of fieldwork with the same bad knee.

All I could do was slump heavily to the floor and pray that Jonas or T could get to Sam before she got more injured.

I don’t remember clearly anything after that; it’s all kind of blurry. I felt someone lifting me from the floor, T I guess, and going back through the gate, the distant noises of the medics, being dropped on a gurney and someone telling me everything would be okay. If only I could remember who told me this BS, I would have his ass kicked by now!

Anyway, I woke up the day after that only to be told that Sam was indeed injured, and it was all my fault. Well, they did not say it in so many words but I got the meaning behind the “there was nothing you could have done with your knee”. Yeah, well anyway… , she’s injured and I’m her CO. That’s my fault!

They tell me she’s got mild concussion, broken ribs and will be off duty for a few weeks.

I don’t dare ask about my knee. The pain radiating through my leg is enough to let me know it’s bad.

After many tests with weird names, and many days of physical therapy and 3 operations later, I’ve been told this morning that it was my last mission… and what a mission!

I guess 30 years in the field has taken its toll on me. And so here I am, a cripple with no other purpose in life than to be able to walk again without a cane - yippee!

General Hammond was the first one to get down to the infirmary and tell me how sorry he was but that my career in the Air Force wasn’t over, that I could take a desk job, be a consultant, some goddamn white collar with my ass in a leather chair… told you it’s over!

Then a line formed itself, growing as minutes passed, formed by my teammates, colleagues from other teams and basically all the SGC members.

You’ll be fine, everything’s gonna be okay, you’re the toughest man I’ve ever known, you’ll get through this… The only comment I think was honest was from Ferreti when he asked me if he could get my team!

Not gonna happen buddy… they’re still mine - for another week that is!

So basically after dropping the bombshell and somehow ripping my heart from my chest, this nameless doctor sent me home… to start the healing process she said!

Let me tell you this… I dearly miss that Napoleonic Power Monger named Janet! She had feelings at least!

As, of course, I’m a limping cripple, Sam gave me a lift home. So here I am, slumped on the sofa, my right leg on a pillow, waiting for my former team mate to leave me alone to die in peace!

But noooo… you’d think she would have understood my desire to be left alone so that I could grieve, or at least get drunk, but as if she read my mind, she decided to hang around for a while, doing some pep talk. Well it was basically a one sided conversation but apparently she didn’t mind!

So here she was, telling me how sorry she was I was injured trying to save her ass, how she should never have left Jonas’ side and prevented him from doing his “Daniel”… I had to smile at this one; that was so true!

But still, I was the one who let the team down! I was the reason why Sam was out of it for another couple of weeks. Christ she almost died because of me!

At last she left, after having me promise her I would be okay, I would call her if I needed anything, and she really meant anything. Anyway she would be back tomorrow morning to take me to the physician.

Well… so, back to the beginning… it’s over!

I retired - again I may add!

What do I have left in this life of mine? I screwed everything up!

I had my chance at a family. I was happy most of the time back then… and that stupid loaded gun… my son’s death… then the divorce…

Funny how I’m able to bury all this crap deep down when everything is, well, not fine but okay in my life, and when something’s wrong, it takes a bitter revenge and comes back to haunt me.

And what do I have to do apart from listening to those voices… you killed your son, what happened is all your fault… murderer…

I don’t want to hear them. I try to shut them up, turn the TV on, channel surf for a while, but they just get louder and louder… you can’t ignore us, you can’t ignore yourself Jack… your life is over, don’t you see it… look around, you’re alone, no wife, no kid, no friends… all alone!

Enough… I need something stronger than the soda Sam got me earlier on. I limp to the mantle and pour down some whiskey in a glass, and taking the bottle with me as I slump back on the sofa. Somehow I think I will need every little comfort I can get tonight!

I shut my eyes and take a sip. The alcohol burns the back of my throat but it’s such a pleasure to feel warm, even if it’s artificial and lasts merely a few seconds. So I do it again, welcoming the burning feeling, again and again.

Soon I’m out of whiskey. Too bad it was an old Irish whiskey!

And now I have to get up again to grab some beers from the fridge. Did you ever try to get to the fridge while not that sober… scratch that, you’re drunk! So drunk, limping and well… that’s it but let me tell you it’s enough to take all the energy you have left!

Finally I limp there, take as many beers as I can because of this damned cane and try to get back to the sofa. Well… let’s face our options here… a few beers drunk on the sofa or a lot of them drunk slumped on the cold and hard floor of my kitchen… well, the latter is better!

So here I am, as drunk as I can get, with a lot of painkillers in my blood… I read somewhere it’s not such a good idea to drink while on pills prescription… well, I concur, it’s not!

Anyway, now I’m surrounded by empty bottles of beer, oh my! How drunk can I get before I pass out? I guess we’ll know soon enough!

At least that’s what I thought, but no, the voices won’t let me rest… the dull ache in my head is increasing at the speed of light, which is really fast believe me!

And now I’m thinking again… shit! Beer is not strong enough to burn my throat and to take my thoughts away… but definitely enough to make me need the toilets pretty soon!

I consider just passing out in my kitchen and to hell with the consequences but then remember Sam is coming in the morning. She can’t find me like this. I’m a cripple but still a man… or am I?

Well… time to pee I guess. Let’s do it as simple as possible. Just crawl to the toilet! I can manage that; I’m not that drunk… well okay I am!

But still… I’ve got my dignity - or not!

Oh shit, O’Neill, stop dwelling, and just get your sorry ass to the can!

And there I get, well I’m relieved, because I managed to do that without passing out and well… you know… emptying one’s bladder is somewhat… relieving!

And once again I’m considering my options. Down the hall is my bedroom, one night’s sleep would be nice, but in the kitchen remain a couple of beers warming up. Tough choice!

But both ways I somehow think the voices won’t shut up that easily so at least I could decide to act wisely for once!

So I crawl to my bedroom and with all my remaining strength lift myself up onto the bed, groaning as my head hits the pillow a little too hard for my own good.

I try to sleep, really I do, I even count Jaffa , and believe me, I could count them for hours! But still I’m awake and the voices are still there, torturing me, reminding me of what my life could have been if I wasn’t such a looser… you’re alone O’Neill, you’ve got nothing left… no more job, no more pride, no more friends…

- No!

I start to yell, even if it must sound like a whisper: I’ve got friends, they’re my family, they won’t let me down… come on old man, you let them down, how will they be able to forgive you?

We’re a team, they won’t leave me, I try to argue, but somehow I start to think the voices are telling the truth. We’re a team except that I’m not part of the team anymore and they don’t have any reason to be nice to me, to show any respect, to listen to what I have to say.

Of course, you were their boss; they had to listen to you, to respect you. You’re no one now, come on, if they hang around with you it will be because they pity you!

I don’t need pity!

Look at you; even you pity yourself!

Well… I’ve got a point… well, not me, but my… hum… well, you get it!

I pity myself. I just hate myself. I’m useless; as useless as I was 8 years ago, except that now I really have got nothing left, not even strength enough to get my ass to my cabin and live the life of a recluse fishing non existent fish in that pond of mine.

Ok well… let face it… I’m dead. As harsh as it sounds it’s so true it hurts.

As I drift into sleep I keep repeating as a mantra… I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead…

And suddenly I’m in heaven!

Well that’s where I must be. Two glowing blue orbs staring at me, gold strings framing them and all around it’s blurry. Isn’t it some picture of Heaven?

Ouch… well… maybe it’s Hell actually!

Ok, so now the room is spinning, my head is trying to come off my shoulders and well my stomach… hum… not such a good idea right now to talk about it. It’s mid-way in my throat and not going to settle down!

And here I am, vomiting all over my shirt, sweat dripping on my forehead and vision even blurrier.

And I hear voices. Actually, it’s just a voice, one damned upset voice at that!

I don’t get all the words but between two heaves I hear drunk, stupid, painkillers. Somehow I know the voice is both talking to me and about me.

And as the heaves subside, I crack my eyes open again and clearly recognize the face of my former 2IC. Yep, definitely angry!

And then I feel something cold on my forehead. Oh that’s great, it was so hot in here!

And I hear footsteps fading away for a minute and then coming back towards me. Sam is wiping my face with a wet cloth. She talks to me, but right now I just can’t make any sense of what I’m told to do.

Apparently she wants me to rise. Does she know I just threw up and right now I could do just that all over again? Well… she must know since she cleaned my face!

So I humour her and raise one arm and then the other one. And suddenly I’m sitting up, barely remaining upright, but it’s a start!

I feel myself standing up, trying to put my weight on my good knee but failing miserably, and I try to slump, but two strong hands around my waist help me regain my balance.

And I’m now in the bathroom. Well that or she somehow managed to move the tub in the bedroom!

Hey… she strips me down to my boxers… and I’m not even fully conscious of it! What a shame!

Argh… cold… nope hot… ah better… note to self: fix the mixer tap!

And here I stay, slumped in the tub, my right leg resting on the edge so that it’s not dampened.

I hear her curse. Hey, what a big mouth she’s got! But okay, she’s got a point; she’s cleaning my mess!

So, what happened? That’s a good question, isn’t it? Okay… hum… I was resting on the sofa: depression, voices, whiskey, empty bottle, beers, bladder, voices. Hell… ouch… that’s not so nice to remember sometimes.

And here I am again, throwing up in the tub!

I shouldn’t make that a habit, that’s not so nice! And Sam is back in a second, lifting my head so that I don’t drown in my own mess… I’m a poet now!

And she curses again. Watch your vocabulary lady!

And now I’m definitely soaked through but it somehow eases the damn headache I’ve got, a little!

Okay, what does she want now? She wants me to rise again. Ok… let’s try it… hey, not that bad!

Back to bed it seems. I can manage that as well! Not stinking, she changed the sheets… note to self: buy her some flowers for being nice to me, scratch that, buy her the damn flower shop for cleaning up my mess!

She leans over me, her mouth just a few centimetres away from my ear… what is she doing?

Ouch… not a good idea Major… stop yelling!!

Okay, I got it; I’m a stupid son of a bitch. She was scared out of her mind when she found me, I should not dare do that again… okay, I got the general meaning of it, now let me sleep… pleeeaaase!

Now she’s gone and I’m alone again… with the voices… shit, could you leave me alone for a while, and take that damn jackhammer with you!

Oh shit, that hurts!

And, did they finally agree to leave my head? They’re fading, as well as my vision though… anyway I don’t need to see to sleep, do I? So I guess I’m falling asleep.

My son is facing me, there’s blood all over his face, his brown eyes are staring at me, his mouth is moving but I don’t hear any noise… and suddenly he starts screaming. I can see he screams because my wife put her hands over her ears but I don’t hear anything… and now he walks towards me, raises his hand, covered with his own blood and in his other hand is my gun… god what has he done? Why Charlie, why? And now I hear what he’s saying… all your fault daddy, it was all your fault.

No Charlie, God noooo…

Oh god why, why?

Now I’m restless on the bed, my knee’s hurting like Hell. I’m sweating a damn lot and apparently I yelled the last words of my nightmare because Sam rushes into my bedroom with eyes full of what… despair, sadness, compassion, pity?

No, no pity, I can’t stand pity…

- Go away

I start to tell her,

- Go away I don’t need your pity.

I try to turn my back to her but my knee just hurts too much and I hiss in pain. Her hand is pressed on my chest to settle me down on my back and now she’s whispering… what? I don’t hear her; my own breathing covering her words. I try to calm down and finally I hear her…

- …not alone, not pity, friends, family, love…

I don’t really hear all of what she’s saying and actually it doesn’t make much sense either, but it’s soothing words and I get back to sleep.

Charlie is facing me and he is smiling. He’s got my gun in his hand, he raises the gun to his temple, and his little fingers are on the trigger.

I start running towards him, begging him to put the gun down but he won’t listen. He just smiles at me with all the innocence of his age and he’s got this damn loaded gun in his hand… and I run. I’m almost there. I can almost sense the barrel of the gun on my fingertips but my knee gives out and I slump to the floor as my lifeless son slumps beside me…

God Charlie no, Charlie!!

Now where am I? Everything hurts: my head, my knee, my left side… somehow I am still in my bedroom. The wallpaper is the same, but the scenery is definitely different. I’m facing what? A carpet… must be on the floor I guess. And then I see her feet. Hey nice feet Carter!

What… rise again? Is that a habit of yours to have me stand up?

And I’m back on the bed and a few seconds after that I’ve got a wet cloth gently applied on my forehead. Oh that’s nice!

And she sits beside me, taking my hand… hum Carter? Not that I mind but I could still throw up any minute here!

I try to pull free of her hands but she won’t let go of me. Fine by me, I really enjoy the closeness!

And then she starts speaking. It must be the coolness on the cloth, or the few hours sleep I managed to get, but I can distinctly hear all of what she says.

My life is not over. She’s so sorry for what’s happening to me she wants to make it up to me, not because she pities me, but because she loves me - always has and always will…

Hey, that’s nice Carter, wish I could say the same… not that I feel differently, far from it. I’m so much in love with you that I wish I could die right now for having let you down on that mission. It’s just that I don’t trust my voice. Hey, I don’t trust my body or even my mind right now. My mind screams at me to answer something but my stomach is conspiring with my mouth to do a replay of their little sketch of this morning… you know the not so funny one with all the heaves… well you got it!

Anyway, now her hand is on my cheek and all I can do is stare back at her, trying to let her know how I feel without actually speaking. Somehow I think she got the message as she smiles that $1 million smile she keeps for truly happy moments… and this is definitely one for me!

And she’s gone again… oh no no no…! God please, it wasn’t a dream, please don’t tell me it was all a dream?

As I start to panic she’s back, beside me on the bed, lifting my head, putting some pills in my mouth and placing a straw to my lips. Swallow some medicine… well not too much in the mood to do so but I could do anything for her!

Hey, I managed the swallowing part… I just have to hold them down now!

Okay, so far so good… just stay still for a while and everything should be okay.

After a while she’s still here, her thumb caressing the back of my hand. Aren’t I the one who is supposed to do that? I swear I read it in the How to Seduce a Woman 101 book!

So even if it takes all my strength, I lift my hand, taking hers in mine, my thumb now doing the caressing thing. I don’t have any more strength but my pride is back. Hello you!

Ok so now try something a little harder, O’Neill… talk! Well, the talking part is not that hard, it’s what I’m about to say, which is a lot harder!

Anyway, if I don’t want to wake up in Hell anymore I’ve got some talking to do!

- Sam,

My voice is a croak but she hears me nonetheless as she turns her head towards me.

- Sam… I…

Well… how to say it? Hum… ok O’Neill, why don’t you try and tell her with the simplest words ever!

- Sam… I love you too.

Okay done, now wait for the other shoe to fall!

Hey, I like this shoe. She’s kissing my cheek now. Sweet!

But, hey, don’t let the enemy disturb you; you were in the middle of something!

Hey, and whom are you referring to as an enemy? You’re talking about the woman I love, and who’s in love with me - if it’s not all a dream.

Oh come on Irishman. Stop talking to yourself when you’ve got a gorgeous woman to talk to!

- I can’t say how sorry I am I let you down… God I wish I could have saved you all the pain… I wish it was me instead of you back there.

And she laughs… hum… not quite what I was expecting…

- You idiot, it was you! Look at you; you’re the one injured. God, Sir, I’m the sorry one here; I’ll be okay in a few days!

Yeah well… actually it makes sense, and I have to say I’m a bit relieved. Now it sinks in… she’s not that injured, she will be fine and she loves me… does she?

- What you said… it’s true?

- What, the you-son-of-a-bitch-how-dare-you part?

- Well, I kinda figured out that part was true. No I mean… after that…

- Of course, Jack O’Neill, I love you. I’ve waited so many years for something like this to happen so that we could be together at last!

- You mean you wished I got my knee messed up?

- Oh God no, of course not. That’s a worst way to end your career and maybe start something, but at least there are no regulations standing between the two of us from now on.

- Oh… got it. Hey, put that way, it doesn’t sound that depressing!

- And it’s not! Look at you. You’re in perfect health apart from that knee. It’ll heal in no time and you’ll be kicking well… not Goa’uld asses but at least recruits’ asses.

- Kicking recruits’ asses. Hum… not that bad all in all.

- You betcha!

- And well… ok I got the kicking part but what about the starting part?

- You’re slow when you have a hangover Jack!

- And a damned strong one! So…

- A start as in the two of us going out, dating…

- Oh that! Well… let’s take a moment to think about it!

And now she slaps me! Hey… Love and hate really are close I guess!

- You know what Carter?

- What Colonel?

- Hum… okay, I’ll do it again… you know what Sam?

- What Jack?

- Better! Anyway… if I didn’t just throw up a couple of times since I woke up this morning, I would really like to kiss you right now!

- And I really would like to have you kissing me but if you dare try with that stinking mouth of yours right now, I’ll do some pretty bad damage to that nice face of yours.

- Fair enough I guess… lie down?

And here she is, laying beside me, holding my hand, her head resting lightly on my shoulder…

And as I drift into sleep I keep repeating as a mantra… I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive…

Fic: The Silent Witness of this Endless War

2006-12-27T20:12:00.000Z

Title: The Silent Witness of this Endless War

Author: UgzY

Status: Complete

Category: POV, thoughts, ficlet

Pairing: None

Words: 534

Spoilers: none really, having seen the whole series and the movie will help though.

Rating: K+

Content Warning: None

Summary: Reflection upon one’s past

Author’s notes: As always, thanks to my Beta-Reader, Su Freund. Please let me know if you reached the end of this story and thought… Oh, now I get it! That would be brilliant! ;-)

I have no free will. I have been told what to do for as long as I can remember.

They just place me wherever they think I will serve them best.

I have been the witness of many horrific events I would like to forget about. Innocent people have suffered because of me. Many have lost their lives.

I have been the instrument of terror.

I used to be innocent, even naïve, believing in the goodness of my people.

But my own people deserted me, and those who came after them weren’t as peaceful. Then my orders were crystal clear, I just had to obey to whatever they wanted me to do, without questioning any order, like the good soldier they wanted me to be.

And then it started. All the killing, the abducting, the endless suffering of these people. I was just a toy at their disposal. There was just nothing I could do to prevent all this misery. I mean, I had my orders, it is not like I could have run away. Now, that is something *I* would like to see.

But no, I just stood there, helpless.

And finally it stopped. I could not really tell you who won this war, but in the end it was just me, standing up proudly in the battlefield.

And for a while I had to stay there, no one here to tell me what to do. I was just waiting for some orders.

Finally they came. My new bosses were nothing like the previous ones. All of a sudden, I was taken care of.

Granted, I still was not able to think or act by myself, but it was very different this time around.

This time, destruction was not their purpose. The sporadic shameful duties I had to perform were nothing in the grand scheme of things. Soon, I found myself being used to fight my former bosses. I could only agree with these persons. My bosses were pure evil, and whoever decided to fight them could only be seen as good people.

They were still throwing at me a tremendous amount of information, making my head spin.

As I processed the data sent my way, I always ended up exploding in what they always found a magnificent way. I would let out everything my inner core was made of, before finally being able to pull myself together and comply with their order.

But even if they would look at me with sparkles in their eyes, I was merely a mean to achieve what they had set their mind on. They would walk pass me, without acknowledging what I had to do to please them.

After a while, they would take me for granted, as reliable as could be expected. True, they would work with me at time, making me achieve the unthinkable. But most of the time I was still my ever-predictable self and they wouldn’t accept any less anyway.

But I felt good. I had finally a true purpose in this strange life, eventually fighting the right battles.

So yes, my condition had not improved much. But I wasn’t bitter about it. I mean, what could you expect… from a Stargate?

The End.

Fanfiction… what is that?!

2006-12-27T20:09:00.000Z

Here is a quick introduction to this category since I can see a few confused looks thrown my way!

Fanfiction… what the heck is that?

To put it simply, a fanfiction (or fanfic) is a story written by an anonymous author, not making any money out of it, based on actual characters. the beauty of it is that the only limit is one’s imagination, but at the same time, the rules are so strict it’s a great exercice.

The main purpose is to have one’s favourite characters doing and saying what one wants, making up stories that could never been seen on TV, or just fooling around with them.

Authors and readers gather in friendly communities throughout the Internet, called fandoms. Mine is Stargate SG-1 mainly, Stargate Atlantis from time to time.

Is that some kind of sect? No, it’s not! ;-)

We just talk about the show, about the stories we write and read, about plots and provide and ask information regarding the fandom we are writing for, mainly medical, military and scientific information for Stargate.

My English got so much better as a result of all those hours spent reading all these fantastic stories and conversing with all these amazing people writing them. So I decided to give back a little of what I have taken over the last two years or so.

On this blog you’ll find the few stories I’ve written so far, and maybe those I’ll write in a near future! You’ll also find plenty of links if like me, you can’t get enough of these fics.

Although I’m a French native speaker, and as I’ve never actually watched the show in French, I only write in English. and for this I have my Beta-reader to thank (a Beta-Reader is a person volunteering to correct a text, to provide ideas and push you enough so that you actually finish a story! ;-) ), Su Freund, a lovely person, dear friend and last but not least a wonderful author!

Scotland's National Anthem

2006-12-23T20:02:00.000Z

Here comes the second Historish course about Scotland!

Now that you know where the flag comes from, it's time to learn a bit more about the national anthem!

First thing to know, there isn't any Scottish national anthem per se! Being part of the United Kingdom and vastly ruled by it (even though Scotland has a parliament, making it a union in itself), the national anthem should be God Save the Queen.

But as you might have heard, Scots and English don't get along that well! ;-)

Therefore, it was decided at some point in recent history, that they should have a second anthem, mainly for sport events.

There are two songs disputing the title of Scottish anthem, Flower of Scotland and Scotland the Brave. Let's face it, the main difference is that the first one has been adopted by the Rubgy supporters and the second one by the Football supporters!

Listen to Flower of Scotland:

Listen to Scotland the Brave:

Scotland the Brave is said to be the most famous one of the two, although I must admit I've hardly ever heard it in Scotland.

So let's talk about Flower of Scotland, which is a better song in my opinion.

It was written in 1966 by a band called the Corries and refers to the battle of Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

Its lyrics are openly against the English, but what's really interesting is that it's all about the past and clearly says in its third verse:

Those days are past now
And in the past
they must remain

Before adding:

But we can still rise now
And be the nation again!
That stood against him
Proud Edward's army
And sent him homeward

Honestly, hearing dozens of Scots in kilts singing this song on top of their lungs gives goosebumps!

I like my own national Anthem, La Marseillaise, mainly for what it represents, the French revolution and the beginning of the end of the Monarchy in France, but I have to admit Flower of Scotland is just as beautiful, and just as hard to sing!

Here are the lyrics (poor you... those are the lyrics in Scottish, a wee bit different from the English version as you'll see!)

O Flouer o Scotland,
Whan will we see
Your like again,
That focht an dee'd for,
Yer wee bit Hill an Glen,
An stuid agin him,
Prood Edward's Airmy,
An sent him hamewart,
Tae 'hink again.

The Hills is bare nou,
An Autumn leafs
Lies thick an still,
Ower land that is lost nou,
That they sae dearly held,
That stuid agin him,
Prood Edward's Airmy,
An sent him hamewart,
Tae 'hink again.

Thir days is past nou,
An in the past
They maun remain,
But we can aye rise nou,
An be the nation again,
That stuid agin him,
Prood Edward's Airmy,
An sent him hamewart,
Tae 'hink again.

O Flouer o Scotland,
Whan will we see
Your like again,
That focht an dee'd for,
Your wee bit Hill an Glen,
An stuid agin him,
Prood Edward's Airmy,
An sent him hamewart,
Tae 'hink again.

So there you go, hope I shed some light on this subject, as always, this is a Historish course, you'll find plenty of more accurate and more complete explanations of this, but at least you'll have heard of it! ;-)

Origins of the Scottish flag.

2006-12-18T20:00:00.000Z

I’m certainly not an historian, nor do I really know my own country’s History (I had to wait until I came to Scotland to actually learn about the Auld Alliance between the two countries!), but over the months I’ve learned a bit about the local History and the symbols up here. the main difference I found between France and Scotland is that only a tourist will wear a T-Shirt saying ‘I love Paris’ or having the Eiffel Tower on it, meanwhile it’s fairly common to see Scottish people wearing their flag on any kind of garment!

So for those of you interested in this country, you ought to know a bit about what you’d be facing!

Let’s start this ‘Histor-ish’ course with the origins of the national Flag!

It is said that this flag actually dates from the 9th century, making it the penultimate flag still in use throughout the world and the oldest national flag.

To make a long story short (told you, it’s an historish course!), King Angus was leading the Pics and Scots armies against the Angles back in the 9th century. They were largely outnumbered with the promise of a bitter defeat. Then they decided to give God a shot and prayed one night.

Good ol’ St Andrews, always ready to help appeared to Angus (the king, not MacGyver!) and assured him they would be victorious.

And then guess what… exactly, they won! But what’s really interesting is how they manage to win! All of a sudden in the blue sky appeared a white saltire (a diagonal cross). It is said that St Andrews died a martyr on a white saltire.

Of course the Pics and the Scots were galvanized by such a symbol, but the Angles were scared out of their mind and so destabilized that they were defeated (nowadays we would just simply say it’s two planes crossing… which would have been even more amazing at the time!)

Anyway… so King Angus decided this symbol, a white saltire over a blue background, would be used as the flag!

Truth be told at that time there was no Scotland per se, so of course no national flag! The current version became the official one in 1540.

And this, was the first Historish course about Scotland!

It’s raining cats and dogs up here!

2006-12-17T20:05:00.000Z

The society we live in likes to have an opinion about anything and everything, especially about what we don’t know! I’m not condemning it (just yet! ;-) ), it’s a fact.

And when these opinions are merely backed up by rumours, black and white pics in the local newspapers or simple popular beliefs, then they can turn into prejudices and be harmful.

Hopefully the prejudices I’ll try to fight here don’t hold any levity and might only be harmful for tourism… so let’s go fight this unfairness and increase the tourism in Scotland! ;-)

I’ll start this new category by what most be the most common prejudice about Scotland:

‘It’s raining all the time in Scotland!’

Before I start, I want to point out that some prejudices turn out to be pretty close to reality hence not being prejudices at all!

So… is it real cold, wet and rainy in Scotland?

Scots like to say: “there are two seasons in Scotland, the wet one, and the wetter one!” … and my, are they right! ;-)

It’s not so much that it’s raining quite often as the weather is unpredictable. It could very well be all sunny and warm and the next minute dark clouds appear and it starts raining.

Another popular saying jokes that the 4 seasons can be found on every single day, which isn’t far from reality.

We have a cool springs, warm-ish summer with plenty of very beautiful days to barbecue. Autumn is supposed to be a very nice season, and it was last year. I can honestly say that today is the best day we had since the leaves started to fall three months ago!

Winters can be harsh in the Highlands, in my part of the country, is quite wet, so we have a humid cold which can be upsetting. There is snow in every part of the country but in the Lowlands it won’t last for long.

All in all in 2006 I’ve experienced almost 30 degrees (34 were recorded in Glasgow this summer) in Northern Scotland, and roughly -3 last winter. It’s nothing incredible and being from the upper part of France, it’s not a big shock to me.

Although I must admit the storm that ragged up here for the last 4 weeks in a row really got on my nerves!

So bad weather in Scotland… not really a prejudice but it’s nothing too bad either and if it wasn’t for this rain, this country wouldn’t be so beautiful anyway!

A day like few others in Bonnie Scotland.

2006-12-16T13:12:00.000Z

I thought it would be nice to show you what a nice day looks like up here… because something tells me Scotland suffers from a prejudice… it’s raining all the time!

Well, let me tell you… it’s almost true! That’s the reason why this country is so green. Still, we have a lot of very nice and sunny days throughout the year.

These shots were taken from my balcony late June.

And to prove there’s no trick, and I really have this amazing view right from my flat, here is a shot taken from my kitchen… now you tell me you don’t like this country! (this shot was taken last September)

This Islands you can see in the background are Bute on the first and the third picture. On the second one we can see the Isle of Great Cumbrae in the foreground and Arran in the background.

Getting a car to/in Scotland

2006-12-13T20:27:00.000Z

I’ve just realized that there are lots of pictures on this blog and that people might want to come and visit Scotland, but I have yet to give useful information to people wanting to move to Scotland… so I’ll start compiling data based on what I’ve experienced and heard throughout my time in Scotland.

Let’s start with something quite important in this country… the car!

Scotland is a wee country, granted, but to actually drive from one city to the other, it takes some time as there are many towns throughout the country, and the roads are not as well maintained as they would need to be.

I live 9 miles (approx. 14km) from where I work, and the road is longing the sea. When the weather is bad, it’s quite dangerous because of the waves crashing on cars and flooding pretty much everything!

So a good car is important. the fact that public transportations are expensive, rarely on time and not really comfortable doesn’t help either!

There are two options available to foreigners moving to Scotland. they can either bring their own car over (either through France or the Netherlands), or they can buy one here.

- Bringing the car over:

Problem is, if you don’t come from the UK, you most certainly have a left hand drive car. There aren’t tolls in Scotland so the problem doesn’t lay here (although it might be a hassle to get in and out of car parks). The problem will be with the insurance. The insurance company you have in the country you currently live in might not want to insure you in the UK, or the cost might not be worth it.

Getting an insurance in the UK for a left hand drive car will be hard and expensive as well. I’m not saying it can’t be done, I know lots of people who are doing it, but it’s not the easiest way from my point of view.

- Purchasing a car in Scotland:

The second hand market in Scotland happens to be very attractive. It could cost you less than £1000 for a good car, average mileage. As an example, I bought a Fiat Brava, 74,000 miles ( approx. 120,000 km) 1998 model for £900. It was a nice car… until I crashed it!

Then the fact you’re a foreigner doesn’t really have an incidence on the insurance. As far as I can tell, insurances work pretty much the same as on the continent.

What you need to know:

- Unlike in France, we still pay the yearly Road Tax. On the upside, all roads are free up here. the Road Tax costs around £125 a year and presents itself as a sticker on the windshield. You go to the post office to get it and can either pay the whole amount for a year or half of it for 6 months. there are no reductions for the whole amount though (it’s still Scotland, a penny’s a penny!)

- Once a year you need to get the M.O.T. done. It costs around £50 and is mandatory.

Gas prices fluctuate quite a lot both ways. Unleaded (Sans Plomb 95/98 in France) costs between 82p and £1 depending on the oil price. One interesting thing is that diesel costs actually more than gas, which is the other way around in France.

All in all, depending on what your salary is, a car is quite the companion you need in Scotland! You can always visit Scotland using the trains, coaches… but to actually visit it at your pace and discover the remote places, you’ll need a car!

Renting a car:

You need to be over 25 to rent a car. You’ll be asked for the driver’s driving license and the driver’s credit card. You can’t pay by cash and can’t pay with someone else’s credit card, at least not in most places.

Prices for renting are quite reasonable and renting a car for a 4-5 days shouldn’t cost more than £70, depending on the model of course.

All in all, whether you come to visit or live in Scotland, you will have to consider getting a car to make your life easier and way more enjoyable (there is about one supermarket for 2 or 3 towns!).

More information:

- Confused. com : Car insurance comparison website

- Auto Trader UK: New and Used cars throughout the UK

- Directgov UK: Information regarding the Road Tax
Hope this helps, if you have any question, feel free to use the contact form!

Avalon 2006 - In Conversation With Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping

2006-12-09T14:51:00.000Z

Late November, I was one of the 580 lucky persons who managed to get a ticket for the event of the century (at the very least!)... Richard Dean Anderson's first convention ever!

A strict policy prevented us from sharing our pics of the event. Fortunately for all RDA and Amanda Tapping's fans, both actors have kindly agreed to drop this rule, allowing us to finally show others what it is like to meet them in the flesh!

A lengthly report should follow shortly, but I'm pretty sure you'll be more interested in the pics than in my babbling!

Speaking of which... I'll shut up so you can enjoy the show!

All pictures are not to be displayed on the Internet without my consent, please contact me before doing so.

Click on the thumbs to go to the album

Seal Boat Trip on the Isle of Skye

2006-09-10T20:50:00.000+01:00

Seal Boat Trip, Isle of Skye. Having been to the McLeod Castle on the Isle of Skye twice already, there wasn't a lot left to see. But the one thing I hadn't done yet was the Seal boat trip... now it's done!
For £6, you get to see Seals up close! These animals are just amazing. They do pretty much nothing all day long except catching sun and swimming when in fact they're... doing just that! ;-)
Let's not forget that if these ones didn't seem in any danger (ya gotta love Scotland for their respect of Nature), Seals are slaughtered as I write these words... we shouldn't let this happen... who cares if some brainless bimbo wears fur, it's just criminal!

FR - UgzY et sa photo à £320!

2006-08-08T19:40:00.000+01:00

Ce simple panorama du chateau de Stirling, dans le Stirlingshire, a coûté la modique somme de £320, à savoir environ 490 euros!

Ca fait cher de la photo… surtout quand on la prend à côté de sa voiture et qu’on rentre en train!

Ce chateau est donc situé dans la ville de Stirling, connue pour être la ville qui départage les Lowlands et les Highlands… mais honnêtement le cours d’histoire-géographie, c’est pour plus tard!
Donc balade à Stirling le samedi 22 juillet 2006 accompagné de deux amis.
Quelques ‘oh’ et pas mal de ‘ah’ admiratifs devant la beauté des monuments… me vient alors l’idée brilliantissime (si si!) d’aller voir d’aussi près que possible le William Wallace Monument!
Etant à un carrefour, je me dirige vers ma droite afin de prendre le pont situé dans la direction du château!
Sauf que bien sûr pour se faire, je grille une ligne blanche, je passe sous le nez d’un bus et je m’encastre la voiture qui venait en face!
Resultat le monument, on l’a jamais vu de plus près, on est rentrés à pieds et j’ai perdu ma belle voiture dans l’histoire!
Les £320 sont la différence entre le prix d’achat de la voiture et ce que l’assurance a remboursé… bah ça fait cher la photo!

FR - UgzY se présente!

2006-07-30T19:54:00.000+01:00

UgzY vous propose de suivre ses aventures dans le monde sec, et plus précisément en Ecosse.

UgzY… 4 lettres, un nom à la con, et pourtant, tant de souvenirs à venir!

UgzY est un pingouinot, à l’instar de celui de Chevalier Laspales, mais qui, lui, a mis sa casquette en traversant la jungle… du coup, bah oui, il n’est pas mort! Pourquoi ce nom si facile à imprononcer dans toutes les langues me demanderez-vous?
Eh bien bonne question, si vous en avez d’autres des comme ça, ma boite aux lettres vous est toujours fermée!

Hugzy, icône pour notre petit pingouinot UgzY est un objet de culte pour deux personnes, à savoir Joey et Emma. Pour les deux du fond qui suivent… vous aurez bien évidemment reconnu la peluche de Joey Tribbiani de Friends et la fille du couple Rachel et Ross Ewing (je sais qu’ils ne sont pas mariés et que de toute façon Ross s’appelle Geller, les deux du fond vous suivez pas longtemps… je faisais une référence fort subtile aux histoires impossibles de Dallas!), Emma. (oui, je sais, après avoir lu tout ce qui était entre parathèses on ne voit pas trop ce que vient faire le nom de Emma comme ça, et puis on se dit que déjà lire une fois la phrase ça a demandé des efforts, donc on va pas recommencer juste pour savoir d’où vient cette Emma… allez, je suis gentille… Emma est donc la fille de Rachel et Ross!).

Bref… une passion tout aussi incomprise qu’incomprehensible pour les pingouins a entrainé de tumultueuses aventures aux quatre coins du cercle! Ne vous attendez pas à ce que UgzY vous parle de choses insipides, UgzY est un pingouinot vivant avec les conflits de son temps… le poisson sera-t-il en abondance l’hiver prochain, les manchots finiront-ils par avoir du chocolat, ou encore l’inquiétude inter-banquise de la fonte des glaces qui menace à tout instant de faire fondre le terrain de jeu de ses petits camarades.

Et c’est pour faire quelque chose de ses pas de doigts, que UgzY a décidé de mettre de la crème solaire et d’affronter le monde sec! Vous découvrirez donc sur ce blog les aventures de UgzY dans le monde sec où seules les précieuses rasades d’alcool lui permettent de ne pas se déshydrater.

Et pour les deux du fond qui, contents d’avoir compris quelque chose de ce texte aussi tordu qu’inutile, se sont paisiblement rendormis avec l’image de cette femme dénudée qui sort de la salle de bain avec la couette coincée dans la porte, je résume avant de me casser la figure!

UgzY est donc la mascotte de votre hôtesse, à savoir moi comme dans ‘me, myself and I’, également appelée UgzY… je sais, il faut suivre! Bref… UgzY ne sera donc que la représentation visuelle de UgzY et les aventures de UgzY ne seront en fait des les récits romancés de la vie de UgzY… voilà, c’est plus clair quand on explique!

Sur ce, UgzY retourne mettre des glaçons dans son verre avec ses pas de doigts!

UgzY.

PS: un esquimau pour celui qui me dit combien de fois j’ai répeté UgzY dans ce texte!