Dan Short's Birthday drinks, and Ed arrives.

09/04 - I completely forgot to mention the best thing that happened yesterday. Kelly phoned me to let me know that she had been roped into helping with our friend Elise's art show. She made me promise not to tell Clare about this, as she thought that Clare would definitely disapprove, and she wanted to prolong the surprise. While doing this she had to don a tie-dye swimming costume and a hairband, and after helping people choose a costume and song she danced at them to encourage them to dance back, all on film. I wish I could have been there, although I am not sure about enforced dancing. Clare later sent me a picture of Kelly in costume, with a subject which simply said "Ahem". I am in two minds about whether to include the picture here - I feel it would be more polite if I did not, or at least I would get in less trouble.

Anyway, this morning I had to part with CHF 480 (about £300) for my French course, which hurt a bit. Hopefully I can get £250 of this back, as I have some money for language courses in my training budget - I thought about using it for a Spanish course, but I'm not sure if I could justify this when I'm in Switzerland. I had a pretty good meeting this morning, I was able to explain a concept to everyone else and noone interrupted me or told me I was wrong for once. I had a questionable interpretation of nasi goreng for lunch, managed to smash a bowl of salad on the terrace, basked in the sun for a while and came back to try and wrap everything up and make a plan for the next few days' worth of tasks before 6pm today, as I am on night shifts next week and I don't expect that I'll be in the office much during normal working hours. I have also printed off some 'things to do in Geneva' lists, as Birdie will be here tonight until Tuesday and I have no idea what we'll do. I have three New York Times' articles - 36 hours in Geneva, Geneva with the kids and Frugal Geneva, out of which we should be able to find some good stuff to do. I have asked a few people what they would do apart from the normal sightseeing and fondue, and the general response has been "no idea, but if you find anything let me know." Not too encouraging.

So, after work and a few beers in honour of Dan Short's birthday a few of us headed to Mañana, a Mexican restaurant near Cornavin where I had an enormous platter of nachos, a beef burrito and 4 margaritas before going to get Ed from the Airport. We went straight from there to Le Roi Ubu, or King's Arms, for a few more drinks - Matt Fraser was there, and he gave us a load of good advice on what we should do while Ed's here. Dan had become incredibly drunk in the time it took me to go and get Ed, and just before closing time he ordered a couple of drinks and wandered off, so Ed and I cleared them up on Zoe's orders. We stayed until the bar closed at 2, then walked home and possibly had a few glasses of wine before bed.