Hot days, frisbee & bowling

26/04 - Due to the new check-in regulations imposed after the Volcano erupted, I had to be up at 0520 in order to get to my flight on time. There were no queues at any point, so my early rising was all for nothing. When I got onto the plane, who should I encounter but Marie, who I met in Thailand in January of 2008 - I had not seen her in a little over two years, so we made a chap move seats so we could have a chat. It was nice, I thought it might be awkward but it was great to see her again. I made it into CERN just in time for lunch with Matt and Sara, on the most beautiful day so far - the sun is genuinely hot, and consequently I am now knackered and sticky.

I did not achieve much for the rest of the day, to be honest. My concentration span was almost nil, and so I decided the best thing to do was to get a pizza and have a nap - this plan of mine was nearly scuppered when Ricardo came in to have a discussion of our progress just after 6pm, meaning I only made it to the pizza place on my road 10 minutes before it closed. Phew.

27/04 - Today was much more productive - all sorts of good things with graphs happened. I spent a lovely lunch hour in the sun, had dinner in the sun too before doing my French homework in Restaurant 1 - forgetting, of course, that I had missed a lesson and so actually this work was for last Thursday's class. My French class was pretty good, I was able to do the right homework in the few minutes before the lesson, and we had a little comprehension test at the end in which I got full marks. I do, however, feel I may be punching a little below my weight here. The class, while it does remind me of a few useful things, is really easy.

When I got in, at 2245, I received a text saying that James and Dan had just finished making Sushi, and would I like to come over for some. I agreed, expecting them to have saved me a piece or two, but I was greeted by an enormous platter of treats. I devoured these gratefully and hung around for half an hour or so before going home and collapsing into bed where I spent some time researching ways to boost your wireless signal (such a geek) and reading Dawkins' The Greatest Show On Earth, which I am enjoying immensely.

28/04 - Today is James' birthday, and is also even nicer than yesterday. Consequently it is rather hard to stay in the office, so I am writing this sitting in the sun - the weather page says it is 25º, but I assume that that is the temperature in the shade - it is incredibly warm out here. The plan for evening goes thusly:

1730 Inaugural Ultimate Frisbee session, followed by beers.

1900 Head to the bowling alley which also does Pizza au metre.

later On the way home, stop by Brasseurs or anywhere else we can purchase a massive 5l tower of beer.

Well, we nearly achieved our goals. The frisbee happened and was exhausting - it got hotter as the day progressed, and so I managed about 40 minutes of running about in the sun before I became far too hot and had to go for a beer and a sit down. A few of us set off for bowling at around 7, in fact we ended up with 13 people for dinner, which was pizza "au metre a-gogo". The pizza itself was pretty good, although the salad and dessert were pretty unnecessary. We dragged our bloated selves down to the bowling alley, where we split into three lanes. I can't say I bowled very well, scoring an 83 and a 117 over two games, but the spread of ability was so wide (some scored in the 50s, there was one person who got 137 - well done Katy), but it was really fun - Jody had to run off half way through to go and do a night shift, and just before he left he finished the first game with three strikes in a row, kissed his girlfriend, downed a beer and ran off into the night. Quite an exit. Also, we learnt that they also do bowling a-gogo on Tuesday and Sunday nights for CHF20, which sounds pretty awesome. Also it is walking distance from where my French class takes place, so I may start coming along afterwards. Well, if I can find anyone who'll meet me there at 10pm on a Tuesday (we did not get the tower of beer, as we were all stuffed and knackered).

29/04 - Once again, a boring weekday. Nothing to report really, it was incredibly warm in the sun again, I did some poking around in some code I don't understand (which has suddenly stopped working), Dan and I had a coffee break at the top of an 8-storey staircase in the sun, and I spent about CHF 130 on stuff in the supermarket, including 4 bottles of wine from the surrounding areas. French class was fine, getting a little harder now which is good, I feel like I am learning.

30/04 - Today I have been given loads of work with not enough time to do it. I have, I will freely admit, been taking it easy for quite a while, but in the last few hours I have been tasked with presenting a talk on May 19th, getting a draft of a note done my May 15th, and presenting a few slides to Ricardo outlining where I am with everything on Monday. The problem with this is that Kelly is arriving this evening and staying until Tuesday morning, as it is Bank Holiday in the UK. Consequently I had not planned to come in on Monday, but it would appear that I must. I am now working on these slides until 2020, when I must flee to get the bus to the airport to pick up Kelly. Obviously writing this is not helping me to finish the slides, but a change is as good as a rest.