Writing and lying about birthdays and toilet ducks

(I am writing this up to three weeks late as I have been on morning shifts most days, and so I have probably forgotten a lot of stuff)

20/07 - Due to commissioning work my shift today (and for the rest of the week) was cancelled, so I spent the day working on my report. It was a scorching day, and I had some awesome ice cream - that is all that happened, really. Oh, and I met James and Dan for a Mike Wong's dinner in the evening, which was (as always) delicious.

21/07 - I think that all I did today was work on my report - sitting in the office with closed blinds while it was a perfect 32º day outside. Eugh.

22/07 - I got into a bit of a working groove today (a rare occurrence) and ended up staying at CERN until 2330, then getting home at half 12. I assumed everyone had gone home, so I had a videochat with Clare and Kelly, to show them the incredible sunset over the mountains, but when I went back into the office (it was after 10 o'clock by this point) Ricardo popped his head in and remarked upon me being there so late. I am wondering what on earth he was still doing there?

23/07 - As I didn't really have any dinner last night I started today with breakfast at Servette, where I discovered a new, revolutionary foodstuff - the brioche croissant. It was enormous, and would have been perfect had it not been for the fact that I could not have it warmed up and smothered in butter. The day was unremarkable, but afterwards I went to La Pignata, a pizzeria on Planpalais, for a guy called Chris' leaving dinner. I don't really know the guy, but I was assured that it would be fine for me to attend. They had already squashed about 25 people onto a table for 18, so I had to get everyone to shuffle down a few inches before I was eventually squashed in between Dan Short and Jay, a new guy from Manchester (maybe). The actual man of the hour, Chris, was as far away from me as he could be, and left early (bit of an odd leaving dinner). There was another new guy with dreadlocks, whose name entirely slips my mind, with whom we had an extensive conversation about piercings (he has many, including the worst one - he recommended it for every bloke. I smiled and nodded) and I had the Pizza Tony, which was topped with an enormous pile of rocket, bresaola and parmesan, drizzled with truffle oil. Decadent and delicious.

We pretended that it was Sarah's birthday and so got free limoncello (it's always free, but I think we got refills by dint of our deception) then went to Café Bizarre for a few drinks. We were bought racks of tequilas by Sarah and Ailsa, and James and I followed these with Canard W.Cs, or toilet ducks - These involve a brandy glass with a load of tequila and blue curaçao in it (along with some other stuff I have now forgotten), into which is upended a bottle of Orangina. A straw is inserted into the (now submerged) neck of the bottle, so that as you drink you are removing Orangina which is replaced by the booze, so you end up with a bright green mixture in the bottle - it was CHF 20, but delicious. We found a hammock out in the garden and lay there chatting for a while - I shall miss James when I go, and I think the feeling's mutual. We remained in the hammock until forced to leave at about half two, whereupon we walked halfway home and hopped on a passing no. 7 bus - the very last bus, as it turned out.

24/07 - I spent today doing some packing with a mild hangover, and went to the supermarket and discovered something I wish I had realised 6 months ago - due to the fact that supermarkets are not open on Sunday, twice as much stuff is reduced in price due to an imminent sell by date. Consequently, I bought a massive slab of rump steak, some fillets, a duck breast and some merguez sausages, all of which were half price. I had a fillet steak lunch, and used the duck and merguez to make an improvised cassoulet thing - it turned out pretty well (although in retrospect I should have removed the skin), and James came round to help me eat it - we drank beers and watched Tron, which was very odd but pretty awesome too.

25/07 - A lazy Sunday, during which I finished my packing and started on a little cleaning, before going to see Inception in the evening with Dan, Zoe and Ailsa. It was a great film, pretty complex with layers upon layers of suspense. I think I need to see it again, as there were a few things I missed and some details I need to work out (I liked the idea of part of Leonardo DiCaprio's subconcious constantly attempting to betray him).

More shift days, and Lovebox!

(I am writing this up to two weeks late as I have been on morning shifts most days, and so I have probably forgotten a lot of stuff)

13/07 - This morning I turned off two alarms and went back to await the third - which never came! Suddenly it was 0550, and my bus was at 0555 - I got the number of my desk and rang the night shifter to tell him i'd be late. Comedy of errors on the way there - there were no trams but replacement buses instead, taking a different route so I missed the 56, then got on the 57 and forgot I had done so, so I had to get off at hôpital-la-tour and wait for the Y bus, which was also late. I got in at 0712, to find the night shifter was still there.

It was a successful shift, we took about 27 nb-1 of data today - a new record, I believe. I had an awesome merguez and goats' cheese sandwich for lunch, and then went and paid my housing deposit (in spite of only having 3 weeks left), sorted out my removals and also booked my last flight home. Back in Geneva I lay on the wooden bit outside on l'Ile for an hour or so, then bought shorts from diesel and then went to lie in my hammock in the park for a bit - I stayed until about 10 in the end as it was a nice evening, I got lots of smiles from passers-by as I lay there reading Treasure Island.

14/07 - I was especially knackered this morning, and starving by about 0930. I also had and unexpected shadow shifter today, I have nothing to teach him. Nothing whatsoever. This proved somewhat embarrassing. As the forecast said it would be 36º today I went to the park and stayed until sunset.

15/07 - Actually I have to apologise for my tardiness today - I couldn't sleep at all last night, partly due to the heat here. Eventually at about 1 am I got to sleep, having tried on the sofa, and having a shower and going to bed soaking wet, etc. I woke up and turned off my alarms then made the fatal mistake of sitting down, and all of a sudden it was 0645 and I panicked - I rang the desk, rushed in and got there at 0750 or so, oh look nothing went wrong.

Some lady came and told me off, but I have no idea who she was, and so I was slightly disrespectful to her, or at least felt no real shame or remorse. I had, once again, eaten my lunch by about 10am, and had another one at 12, then after my shift I went home and had a little sleep, before going to the park to write my report for a while, I think. Dinner was, umm, I have completely forgotten. Probably not that good.

16/07 - As I have a flight to catch later I worked from home this morning. I then went to Montbrillant park for a while, where I got incredibly hot and sweaty working in the sun. My plane was late, again - to avoid import duty I checked in a big bag of wine (6 bottles, wrapped in coats), which was waiting for me by the time I got though passport control - Kelly met me there and we got home for about 8. Felt a bit odd and 'het up' as kelly put it, and I think I was a bit snappy at Ed, but our BBQ went very well. We had delicious steak, sausages, sardines, pork steaks and some good wine too. Paul and Clare came round, which was great - I feel like I haven't seen Clare in a while. Oh, also I put the Buck's Fizz from Fi's wedding in the freezer and forgot about it - I found it on Sunday, exploded and frozen. Bugger.

17/07 - Well, what to say about Lovebox - We got there about 1, started on the beers/ciders (they had roaming guys with backpacks full of booze) and sat in the sun for a while. I had, of course, made a spreadsheet of people to see - I don't remember the order, but I think we managed to see Man Like Me, The Correspondents, Swaharama (exquisitely dressed Indian rock band), Empire Of The Sun (they had dancers dressed as swordfish), and went into the dark and heat of the NYC Downlow stage to see Tim Westwood. He was pretty good, playing mixes of loads of songs by the same artist - including Will Smith, starting with the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air theme. We also saw Wild Beasts, who were great but seemed better in the smaller venue of Rock City, and Yeasayer who were great too - wish we had been able to get closer.

18/07 - So today we had a leisurely breakfast at the Pavement Café, and headed back east. Today we saw the Destroyers (15 piece Balkan band), Vid Warren (a beatboxing harmonica & recorder player), a crazy Mexican lady and her band, a bit of Peaches (most notable for the giant naked pre-op transexual pushing her wheelchair) and some of Brass Roots, and then we had to rush over to Cut Copy - they were the real reason I wanted to come to Lovebox, and they were simply awesome. We caught a little of Hot Chip and then Chromeo, who were really good too. We ended with a spot of Grace Jones - we saw maybe 20 minutes of her, during which time she did about 5 costume changes. Incredible, terrifying lady.

19/07 - Oops… I met Ed in the morning, he had overslept by an hour (it was 0630) and then I left just before seven- this may well be the last time that I have to leave the house for Geneva for quite a while. Phew. Now, it was an interesting journey, I got the bus then the tube then the DLR, however as there was a 'suspect package' at Canning Town, my train was delayed and then terminated at Blackwall at 0745. Myself and four other business travellers (I was scruffy in flip flops, shorts and a plaid shirt with a canvas bag and a yellow duffel) squeezed into a cab and headed to the airport, where I was unable to use the automatic check in and so I had to go to a desk, but even after all this I still had time for a sandwich and a sit down. My plane was pretty empty, so I sat in the front row gazing at France as we passed for a while. I think I got in a bit early and headed home to write my report. I got a pizza in the evening and as I settled down to eat it I noticed that, as night had fallen, a few hundred bugs had come in and were clustering around my light - I then spent half an hour jumping about with an oven glove and a rolled up towel, swatting as many as I could. I felt a little silly, but I think I got them all, and I remain bite-free.

Shifts and hot days, and Frau & Nickie's wedding.

(I am writing this up to three weeks late as I have been on morning shifts most days, and so I have probably forgotten a lot of stuff)

06/07 - My shift was, as always, quite uneventful - it was tough being in the control room when it was brilliantly sunny outside. After my shift I went to Halle de Rive to buy some tasty chinese things and a beer, which I ate before falling asleep on the jetty out by the Jet d'Eau for an hour or so in the sun. Consequently I missed all the supermarkets, from which I was supposed to be getting sushi supplies for Dan and Sudan - Oops.

07/07 - I think I got about 4 hours of sleep, at the absolute maximum. My shift passed without incident, a very quiet one as usual. I headed to Bains Des Pâquis afterwards, where I walked straight into the bit reserved for women by accident. There were at least 50 topless ladies there who probably weren't best pleased by my presence. I went for a swim, had a beer and slept in the sun for a bit. I did this with my beer nestled in my elbow, and when I woke up I stretched and spilt the whole thing all over my side and my towel - pretty smooth. My towel still smells a little boozy, even now.

08/07 - I managed to have a bit of a doze in my shift today, from about 0730 to 0830, after which it proceeded much as usual. I went home and paid CHF 50 for my final month of internet with small change, which confused the lady in the office. I went for a wander down past L'Usine, where I found a dam, after which there was a bridge with a load of kids jumping off it - the current takes you downriver a bit, and there are various places to climb out and have a picnic or a beer - just down where the Rhône meets the Arve there is a cool bar with a couple of kegs and a little BBQ, so I had some drinks and watched the sun go down behind the cliffs on the far bank. After this I went to meet Dan and Sudan for dinner somewhere around Planpalais, so we went to an Eritrean/Ethiopian meal, which was amazingly tasty and also amazingly filling.

09/07 - I got up for a meeting which didn't happen, then packed my stuff and was off to the UK - there was an hour's delay on the way, which was rubbish but allowed me to finish Sherlock Holmes. Kelly and I met here friends Hamish, Emma and Anna at Donna Margherita pizzeria on Lavender hill - the pizza was awesome, but I was massively stuffed again - oops. I heartily recommend the pizza, but the starters are to be avoided.

10/07 - So today was Frau and Nickie's wedding day. Kelly, Ed and I went to Richmond where Rob Child was t pick us up - he got stuck in traffic for ages so we didn't get on the road for a while. It was really easy from Richmond onwards though, we had plenty of time to get ready and to have some drinks before the wedding. They had laid on a coach to the church, where we were ushed by Simon and Nikhil, the ushers. Frau looked remarkably composed, and Nickie looked amazing - it was quite a religious ceremony, which I did not expect. They had Jerusalem as one of the hymns, which was belted out with much enthusiasm. We then walked around the corner to the Underhills' house, where there was a marquee in garden, champagne and canapes and a perfect English countryside day. I managed to splash ketchup down my waistcoat and trousers, both of which were light blue. Dinner was good, we had stuffed chicken (some of which also went on my trousers - the waitress forbade me red wine as a result), pavlova, plenty of delicious wines, and excellent speeches by all - especially Owen (funny, risqué and breathless) and Frau (heartfelt, with good facts).

After the wedding breakfast concluded, the first dance was a barn dance - there was a compere in the middle of the dancefloor, directing us all about. I found the dancing exhausting, I did two dances then nearly died, so I had to take full advantage of the free bar. I had one more dance later, and there were DJs from 11-12ish, then coaches back to hotels. Mathers and Kam came back to our place, even though they were staying elsewhere, as they seemed convinced that that was were the party was. We had a couple of bottles of wine with us, and had a rowdy singalong in the garden without any complaints, probably because most of the guests were out with su. We went to bed at about half past two, after running out of drinks and songs.

11/07 - Kelly and I made it to breakfast at about 0945, where there was a full English buffet, exactly what I needed. I basically had two full plates of meat. We checked out a little late (they rang us at 1101 to inform us that we were late) and waited outside for Rob to pick us up. It was a lovely day and the journey back was quick, so we had a bit of a nap when we got back. Kelly had some work to do so I hung out with the others downstairs, then the two of us went down to Ukai for sushi, and got an ice cream and walked the long way home. When we got back we watched Black Book (good film, all in dutch, bit dark), then went to bed - as always, we didn't get much sleep as the plumbing was going bonkers and some neighbours seemed to be having a Sunday night party and it was too hot to close the window.

12/07 - I was up at 0615 and got the 0653 train, so I was in departures at 0734 for my 0815 flight - which was then delayed by 100 minutes. I used the time to buy some Pimms and a sandwich and some new sunglasses, then dozed on the flight and, as I got in pretty late, went home. I went to the shops and prepared some sandwiches for my shifts this week - I cooked ostrich and sausages and set fire to the hob a bit after a smokey episode. I think that's all I did, I just did washing and minced about the flat until it was time for bed. Oh, speaking of which, I seem to have broken the bed somehow - the bit of it which reclines, anyway. Hopefully they won't see this when I check out.

A brief account of a weekend in Paris with Pat & Reshmi

(I am writing this up to three weeks late as I have been on morning shifts most days, and so I have probably forgotten a lot of stuff)

30/06 - I can't say I am a big fan of these 0530 starts, but it does mean that I get a huge amount of daylight hours free afterwards - I met James and Dan at Bowling Meyrin as it was Dan's birthday (ish) and we played a quick three games, of which we won one each (I scored 149 in mine, including three strikes in a row, which I was quite proud of).

01/07 - After my shift today I went to the park and basked in the sun for an hour or two with a pizza - It was really nice and hot, I think I am beating Kelly in the tan race.

02/07 - I had a meeting at 1130 after which I got some work done and left at about four thirty to go and get a train to Paris. This occurred with no fuss, the journey was really beautiful - at one point the lady I was sitting next to told me that my wine smelt acrid, and probably had a "goût de vinaigre", which I felt was unfair considering it was wine I had just bought on a train. I thought it was fine, and complemented my burnt croque monsieur quite well. When I got to Paris I went to Pat and Reshmi's amazing top floor flat - it is in the Marais, in a)n awesome old building. They even have a little spare room, where Kelly and I stayed. It was stiflingly hot, so we left pretty soon to go and get some cold drinks. Kelly's plane was delayed, and she somehow ended up getting a cab all the way here with a couple of gay American dudes, who insisted on paying (which was lucky as she had no cash at all). We went out for a little dinner (I think I had steak tartare) at a place on P&R's road, then had some more drinks back in the flat.

03/07 - We had a bit of a lie in, in spite of the heat, and Pat and I went on a shopping trip to get stuff for lunch. Pat and I made fillet steak burgers, which we had in home-made brioche buns and also with slabs of home cooked foie gras - Reshmi made both of these, and they were delicious, athough the foie gras one was the richest thing I have eaten in a long while.

Pat had some work on his potential gold mining venture to do, so had a wander around the area with Reshmi, did some mild shopping then came back to get ready for dinner. We went to a place called L'Agrume, which was great. I had the assiette de charcuterie followed by the côte de veau, both of which were awesome. Kelly had the biggest oysters I have ever seen, and try as I might I was not able to bring myself to eat one - they just look a bit too gross. It was a nice little restaurant, and a great meal. After this we walked down to the Seine and watched the rollerbladers by Notre Dame. They were amazing, doing loads of cool stuff around a little slalom they had built, we watched for ages. Then it was time for tintos in a bar we passed (our lemonade had a superfluous firework in it) on our way to a fancy bar which was possibly called La Magnifique. We had some cocktails in there, which were delicious but unfortunately I have also forgotten which ones they were - it was pretty cool in there, until it started to fill up. We were moved once, as the lady claimed there was a reservation. We were quietly finishing our drinks in our new seats when she came up again, and essentially told us that we were not drinking enough and basically had not earned the right to be seated - the drinks, although delicious, were also pretty pricey, so we were a little hesitant to splash out on more. Also Kelly and I, unused as we were to the Parisian attitude to these things, were a little put out by being budged around, and got a bit annoyed at the place, so we left after finishing our drinks (veeery slowly). Also some greasy midget grabbed at Kelly as we passed, which didn't leave us with the best impression of the place. We walked back, as there was a dearth of cabs on the streets - it was a pretty warm night, and the walk was through some interesting bits of Paris. Kelly did turn me into a billboard for a 'gospel dream' concert, but I did not let that spoil the journey.

04/07 - Reshmi had an enormous hangover, and Pat had some work to do, so Kelly and I went out for a walk. We managed to misunderstand the system in a little deli, which led to the very stressful purchasing of some humous, and I grabbed a merguez kebab and a beer, which we ate and drank sitting down by the Seine. We explored Île St. Louis for a while, and bought some raspberry and rose Berthillon ice cream for Pat and Reshmi.

I took Kelly off to Châtelet Les Halles station on her way to the airport, and after saying goodbye (I hopped the barrier so I could come down to the platform, and then found I could not get out - I had to pretend to be part of a family to get out of the station). I found a Hare Krishna festival outside the station, and had a cheeky meal on my way home. Pat and I went for a drink in Place des Vosges, then met Reshmi in a café before dinner. They took me to one of their favourite bistros, a place called Chez Jalou. We were told we had to wait for half an hour or so, so when we got round the corner I rang them and asked for a table for three, and I was told 15 minutes - by the time we had got back I don't know if we saved any time, but I felt smug. The meal was great, I had baked goat's cheese (I think) for a starter, followed by an amazing pan-fried duck breast - It was a great restaurant, the waitresses were all friendly and helpful, and the wine was great. Pat and Reshmi have been good hosts, as much as work/hangovers have allowed, and I am looking forward to coming back here soon.

05/07 - In the morning Reshmi walked with me as far as the Metro station, as she was going to pick up another friend who was coming to stay (!). I slept most of the way to Geneva, then read Sherlock homes and went to CERN for a few hours, leaving with plenty of time to get to the supermarket and buy supplies for the next three days of shifts.

An entirely free Sunday, starting morning shifts, and ridiculous sandwiches

27/06 - Today we woke up with nothing whatsoever to do, which was a lovely feeling. We had taken some leftovers home from dinner last night, and with these we cooked up an amazing chorizo and potato frittata which we took to the park around 1 o'clock along with wine, panachées, cheese and leftover dips. We lay in the sun for a good couple of hours, then strolled down to the Festival de Foot at the hockey stadium - this is a free festival which is on for the duration of the world cup, with loads of bars and food stalls surrounding a big screen and a stage. We smuggled in a couple of cans of beer (it was CHF 7 for a can in there, so I think we were justified) and bumped into Alex, Jody, Aimee and a few others just in time for the second half. It was an awful match, England lost 4-1 and we were surrounded by German supporters, outnumbered by a ratio of about twenty to one. After this Kelly and I left the others to their commiseration (I am pretty glad that I early don't care about football) and ended up at La Barje, a bar in a stripy caravan on a little spit of land in the Rhône. We sat for a while, drinking wine with our feet in the water, then came back about 8 o'clock and cooked a sort of chicken katsu/schnitzel for dinner. Suddenly it was 2330 and, considering that we had to be up at 0445 for Kelly's flight in the morning, we decided to call it a night.

28/06 - Well that's it - Kelly has gone home from Geneva for the last time. I walked her to the bus stop then went back to bed, setting an alarm for 0730 which I completely ignored, awaking instead at 1130 - oops. I used more leftovers to cook an enormous nasi goreng which turned out to be all I ate all day. I had a meeting at 3 pm which I prepared for (somewhat insufficiently) on the tram, and I ended up leaving at about 1730 to try and make it to the supermarket to buy supplies for tomorrow's shift. The trams were all terminating at Balexert, about half way home, so I ended up walking for a few stops with Sara (the same one we bumped into on Friday) and going to the supermarket at Servette. On my way out I was approached by a man with a petition - it had the words 'horaires' and 'supermarché' on it, so I assumed someone was trying to extend the ridiculous opening hours here in Geneva. On closer inspection, however, the petition was against extending weekday opening hours to 2000 and Saturdays to 1900 - there may even have been something about opening on a Sunday. I took issue with the man when I read this, exclaiming "Quoi? Pourquoi non? La seule chose que je deteste ici à Genève est les horaires des magasins - on doit quitter le travail une heure tôt si on veut acheter quelque chose pour manger a la maison!" I am pretty sure that is some dodgy French there, but I think he got the point.

I got home and toyed with the idea of going out to lie in the sun before getting an early night, but instead I ended up clearing up the flat and chatting to Clare while I made my sad little packed lunch for tomorrow, setting three different alarms for 0530 and getting to bed about 6 hours before this time.

29/06 - I actually got up on time, contrary to Kelly's expectations/worries. I bumped into Clive waiting for the 0555 bus, and I have now been on shift for 5 hours. It seems to be going a lot quicker than last weeks evening shifts, possibly because I was not really awake for the first couple of hours. It is an incredible day, the sun was just rising over the hills and the lake when I came in on the bus, and it was already about 18º at dawn. I have since devoured two Milky Way filled croissants, and have managed to stave off eating my lunch until noon - I have a massive carton of iced coffee to see me through the afternoon.

Well, I had half the coffee and immediately felt sick. This was my busiest shift so far, during which I had to point various people at various graphs on my screen. My replacement turned up half an hour early, so I got to run away - I have since been sitting at home pottering about, trying not to fall asleep until a decent hour tonight.

I was really disappointed with my sandwiches today - I had two smoked salmon and philadelphia ones on 'toast mediterraneenne', or white bread with herby bits in it. Consequently I have made two exquisite sandwiches for tomorrow, as well as an adequate dinner for tonight - see below.

Not a good start - Rösti from a pack, came out looking like astronaut food (if astronaut food was made of sick)

Improving - four rump steaks from coop (half price!)

Steak in a baguette - Café de Paris butter on one side, a little truffle carpaccio on the other

With the addition of lettuce and a little mayonnaise

Sandwich two was less opulent, just as delicious - that is creamy goat's cheese on the underside, and red pepper pesto on the other - attempting to recreate Kelly's amazing dip from Saturday night.

My actual dinner - after a while the rösti turned into a pleasingly crisp fritter, and the steak was awesome.

Tomorrow I am going to try and make tuna mayonnaise exciting. I am as yet unsure how, but I have high hopes.

Ivan comes to Geneva, L'Usine & cooking for Zack & Masa

22/06 - I think today was quite unremarkable, as far as I remember. I was running a little behind schedule so I didn't have time for a proper lunch, meaning I had to grab a(nother) McDonalds at Servette in the 6 minutes I had to wait for my tram. I think that pretty much nothing happened on shift, more commissioning stuff and other things that don't affect my desk at all. Oh, also I realised that the disappointing Chicken Satay ready meal I had for dinner was tiny, and only contained '28% RDA' of energy - I feel that a dinner should probably contain at least a third of my energy for the day. The main thing that happened today is that Ivan (who I first met in Thailand somewhere round here, then had the time of my live with in California here and visited in Serbia here) sent me a message saying that he would be in my part of the world on Thursday, and would I like to meet up? On further investigation it turns out that he is in Munich, which is still a long way away, but I guess that by Californian standards it's pretty close.

23/06 - Pretty much the same as yesterday, to be honest. I came in a little early to pick up my new suitcase which had been delivered to CERN (it is incredibly red), and passed yet another uneventful 8 hours waiting for commissioning to finish. It did not do this in the time I was on shift.

24/06 - I headed for CERN at about 1030, picking up a steak sandwich for dinner on the way, as I had a lunch meeting in R1 at noon after which I found a little hill to lie down behind and have a bit of a sleep in the sunshine before my shift at 3. I also picked up some Thai pork pasta to supplement the rather weak looking steak sandwich (actually, the pasta looked awful and I ended up leaving it in the fridge at the end of my shift - it is now Monday, four days later, and I am going to go and check if it is still there). During my shift I got a call from Ivan, who I was supposedly meeting at the station after my shift, to tell me that his train had been delayed by 2 hours, extending what was already an 8 hour journey from Munich. I was a little worried he wouldn't make it at all, but in the end he managed to get the very last train to Geneva, changing trains 6 times en route. He got in at 0105 and I met him at the station, then we headed over to Les Brasseurs for a beer or two, then walked home and had a couple more while we caught up on the last 21 months of each others lives.

25/06 - We went to bed at around half 4, and I had to be up at half 10 as I had a couple of meetings - I ended up calling in to them while Ivan went for an adventure round the old town. We then headed into town when he got back, having a beer on our way to see Janus, the two-headed Tortoise. We borrowed some of the free city bikes and rode down to the lake to hire a boat (we bought four more beers too). Our boat trip was fun, it was a really beautiful day - there were lots of pedalos full of bikini-clad girls out on the lake as well. We parked up over by the fancy houses near the UN and had a swim in our pants - we took it in turns so that the boat didn't float off (which was, in retrospect, entirely unnecessary on such a still day), the water was cool and really clear, but after we got out we noticed a massive dead fish floating in the water. We rang up and extended our hire period as we wanted to adventure a bit more, and then rode around to the other side of the lake. There was a beach volleyball tournament going on which we watched for a few minutes before deciding it was rubbish and leaving. There was a lot of commotion coming from a group of guys on the pavement, and a lot of money was changing hands - we watched for a while, and it seemed to be a version of the pea in a matchbox trick. The guy running it was taking CHF 100 bets, and if you got it right then you doubled your money. As we were unlocking our bikes, Ivan said he wanted to take another look - we went back, and got caught up in it a bit. In fact, I was persuaded to bet - predictably enough, I lost my CHF 100, and stood back for a bit to think about what I had done. Watching from a greater distance, we saw who was in on it and who wasn't - the guy had 4-6 people working with him, a guy who was repeatedly walking up and betting then walking away, someone who was just there to encourage others to play, a couple of lookouts and some other guys who seemed in on it all. There was a bit of a scuffle when they got two Asian guys involved who were none too happy about losing their money, and had to be taken away by one of the co-conspirators to cool off (shortly after this the game disbanded). We returned our bikes and on our walk back down we encountered some police, and I thought I should tell them what had happened - I started to do so and they guessed what had happened before I had finished explaining, handing me a flyer with "Beware of pickpockets and gamblers" on it, along with a picture of the matchbox game. The policeman told me he could not do anything about it, but if we saw the guy then they could get my money back. To be honest, that is all I wanted anyway, so we walked with them until I spotted him. I pointed him out, and as we approached he wordlessly got CHF 100 out of his pocket and handed it over to me - phew. Ivan and I hastened away, relieved but a little nervous that some of his colleagues might choose to get that money back from us.

We went down to check out L'Usine, where we are planning to go tonight - it was pretty grimy and smelt strongly of spilt booze, which we took as a good sign. After some discussion we decided to go for a Mike Wong's dinner, as it is cheap and good Thai food - I originally met Ivan in Thailand, so it seem appropriate. While we were there I got a call from Kelly, telling me that she had been stuck in a tunnel for an hour and might not make her flight - this worried me a little, but she is always so early for flights that she even with this delay she was still at the gate over an hour before the flight left. Relieved, Ivan and I went home for a bit of a nap, then grabbed some beers and a couple of tintos and went to the airport to get her. Ivan and Kelly got on well immediately, and on our arrival in Geneva we headed over to a bar on some pontoons in the lake, just by Jardin Anglais - it wasn't as nice as we had hoped, and when Kelly sat down to wait for us to get drinks she was joined by an Albanian guy who didn't leave when we came over and sat down. He spoke no English, French, Spanish, German or Serbo-Croatian, so we were unable to communicate with him - he kept talking to us anyway, possibly in Italian, occasionally high-fiving us and laughing heartily. We tried to leave him after a while, but he came with Kelly and I to the back of the bar, and just kind of hung around. We basically had to run away in the end, which was a little odd. It was about 0030 by this point, so we started heading towards L'Usine, stopping off at another bar on an Island in the lake where we had some good wine and a plate of Viande Sechée, with tons of bread - before we knew it it was 0145, and we only just made it to L'Usine before 2 am, when the cover charge went up.

Inside it was as grimy as we had hoped - the upstairs bar had black walls and a glass roof, and sold pretty cheap wine. After a couple of rounds I noticed something - all beers and other cans were sold with a CHF 1 surcharge, refundable on return of the can. Hardly anyone was doing this though, with most people discarding their empties on the floor, so we took it upon ourselves to tidy up - within a couple of minutes we had got 11 empties, enough for 3 glasses of red wine and a lemonade, which makes three tintos. We repeated this twice more before we left, so we were able to get three rounds for free! The DJs were OK, the first guy (Daniel Haaksman) was a little boring but the guys who came on at 4 (Tête de Tigre) were really good, they were playing some amazing stuff and were really into it, bouncing all over the booth. We bumped into Portuguese Sara on the stairs, Kelly and her had a long chat and we went back in for a final dance before leaving at about half four, I would estimate. Oh, Kelly broke one of her rules this evening, walking home barefoot as her shoes were hurting. I think that is forgivable, however, in a city as clean as this.

26/06 - Oh dear. We all woke up at 1030 in order to get Ivan to his train at 1145 - we just made it, with about two minutes to spare. he is heading to Vienna today, a 12 hour journey with no certain bed at the end - there is a festival going on which means that all the hostels are fully booked. Starving and hungover, I dropped by Manor and guzzled three pizzettes and a coke on the way home. I started to feel awful when I got in, and had to go back to bed for a bit before I felt ready to face the world. Kelly and I eventually made it out of the house at about 4pm, heading first to Migros and then to Manor in search of ingredients for the dinner that we agreed to cook for Zack and Masa. This ended up costing us about CHF 100 - we decided on horseradish crusted trout (with enough horseradish this time), preceded by some dips Kelly had found recipes for, and followed by cherry trifle. We did a lot of the preparation at home, and got to Zack and Masa's at about half seven, but somehow still had loads to do and ended up eating at about 2130. Bing, Zack's Dad, was there too, and it was a really good dinner - everything worked really well, and it was a pleasure to cook in Masa's tidy, well-equipped big(ger) kitchen after getting used to my tiny one for the last few months. We had some good discussions and some good wine, and ended up staying until about 0030, in spite of the fact that Zack only flew back from Panama today - Masa and Finn went to bed a little before this. I think Masa was pretty pleased to have someone else cooking for them for a change, she was hovering around the kitchen a bit at the beginning, but relaxed and left us to it after a while.

Dad visits Geneva! (and a couple of other days)

16/06 - I awoke on time, but by the time I had done the washing, tidied up, put a wash on, left the house then come back in to change into more appropriate clothing (it was pissing down) and got to CERN it was 12 o'clock. I had an absolutely massive paella for lunch (it is Spain vs. Switzerland today, so I guess lunch was themed), then came back to the office to try and get some work done.

I was in here for a while, in fact I was still in the office when Switzerland scored against Spain - I heard the commotion from R1 when this happened. I arranged to meet James and Dan for a Mike Wong's dinner after work, and as I was the first there I ended up sitting in Café Rond Point for a while, where I had a couple of glasses of wine and read my Dawkins book. The tiny waitress there took an interest in it and we had a bit of a chat - it turns out she is Quebecois, as Dan very keenly spotted when he arrived. Dinner was good, as always, and I went home to begin the process of readying my flat for Dad. This didn't really involve much, as I mooched about doing some vague tidying, and ended up watching the first half of Yann Arthus-Bertrand's film HOME, during which I fell asleep.

17/06 - Hmm, well today I am not too sure what I got up to - I came to CERN and had a couple of meetings, had a chorizo pizza for lunch (to which I added two extra types of cheese) and then went to Balexert a bit early so that I could pick up some stuff for Dad's visit - I ended up spending about CHF 100 on fancy foods, and then had no time for my own dinner, so I ended up having a Happy Meal as it was quick and cheap - I did get a free leatherback turtle toy though, so I think it was worth it. At French there were once again only 5 people present, although I was the only one who was there last week, which makes me think most people have opted to not attend any more. I am on shift next week, so I will miss the very last class anyway. It was pissing down when I headed home, and the rubbish connections meant I didn't get home for about an hour - when I eventually got home I had to finish the cleanup operation which I failed to do yesterday.

18/06 - I went to bed at about 2, and awoke incredibly hungry as the Happy Meal had been far too small. I quickly guzzled some chocolate croissants, occasionally swearing in pain as I aggravated the holes in my cheek/gum which I made on Tuesday. I struggled into CERN and since my arrival I have been trying to compile some thoroughly recalcitrant code, which has definitely worked before (I know this for a fact as I wrote part of it) but now refuses to do so. I am going to persevere for another half hour or so, but at 6 o'clock I am fleeing home then to Zack's house to watch the England match before going to get Dad. I won't pretend I really care about the match, or indeed football in general, but I would like to hang out at Zack's with his multicultural friends. Well, they will probably be mostly Croatian, but it's still pretty exotic.

It ended up being pretty much all English people at Zack's - two couples, some awesome snacks and some wine. The match was rubbish, a really dull game, even the football fans among us agreed. I spent most of the time playing with Finn on the floor. I went to get Dad, running through the Fête de la Musique which was struggling on in spite of the pouring rain. I arrived at the airport about 10 minutes before he did, then we got the bus back to his hotel via the park, where we had a beer and watched a Peruvian band from above. At the Hotel Adriatica we stayed up for a beer at the bar, so that he could watch some highlights of the earlier match - although he is easily distracted, so we spent most of the time talking about comics. I left him to it at about half past one and went to bed, promising to meet him for breakfast.

19/06 - We got things off to a pretty late start - by the time I had got up and left, returned to change my clothes when it started to piss down and eventually made it to Dad's hotel it must have been about 12 o'clock. We went straight to CERN, where we remained for at least four hours. We had lunch in R1, during which Dad grilled me about various physics matters, quite a few of which I could not properly answer, which was a little embarrassing, I think I managed to blag my way through it though. We wandered around a bit and managed to get in to a tour party to watch the introductory film, which was made in 2004 and is therefore very out of date by now. In fact, it was awful. Really badly produced and dull, Dad fell asleep at least three times during it. We went over to the ATLAS control room, I showed him my desk, and we headed back towards town sometime after 4 o'clock, and after a discussion about piracy I downloaded Iron Man while we made dinner.

Dad at CERN

We had a selection of small treats for a starter, involving lots of cornichons, bruschetta things and some truffle carpaccio, which was amazing. The main course was horseradish crusted salmon with gnocchi & red pepper pesto, and a rocket and radish salad. I mucked up the salmon, choosing the weakest of my three versions of horseradish, so you could hardly taste it at all. Dad said it was great, but only had a pretty small portion. Well, I mean he didn't have seconds. After dinner we had been toying with the idea of going out and finding some of the Fête de la Musique to watch, but the rain had turned torrential so we watched Iron Man instead (which was actually really good, much better than I expected). I walked Dad back to his hotel at around midnight, pleasantly full of food, wine and beer.

Dad, eagerly waiting for his dinner

20/06 - I managed to make an earlier start today, and met Dad while he was still having breakfast. We started the day with a stroll through the old town, climbing the cathedral and stopping off for a beer and a bratwurst (well, I had an amazing empanada and some pan de queso). We wandered for ages with no aim in mind, eventually finding ourselves down by the Mont Blanc pier just before a boat left, so we got some tickets and treated ourselves to an hour long tour of the lake. The leaflet claimed that there was a bar aboard the boat, but this proved not to be so. The trip was somewhat enlightening, at various points on out trip we were given information by a recorded smarmy sounding man. I was getting hungry, but Dad suggested that we find somewhere to catch the end of the New Zealand - Italy match, so we stopped off in Brasserie du Molard for a couple of drinks. We were in there for an hour or so, then popped round the corner and arrived at L'Entrecôte ice minutes before it opened, so we were second in the queue. We had a good meal and some great wine and cheese. The cheese was so good, in fact, that Dad interrupted the neighbouring couple's desserts to give them some of the reblochon to try. We had a bit of a chat with them (or rather Dad did) then we went over to Zack & Masa's to watch the Brazil - Ivory Coast match, via my house to pick up a bottle of wine. They had some friends over from England, and Dad engaged in some odd conversation with their friend Jo (who was heavily pregnant) about chapped nipples etc., from a veterinary(ish) perspective. Sounded pretty odd to me though. We stayed until the end of the match, then Masa announced that dinner was nearly ready so we went back home - it was nearly midnight by this point, so we went our separate ways. I feel a bit bad about letting Dad pay for so much this weekend - in fact when we were getting the boat tickets I expected him to, which was a bit bad. I also think that Dad was a bit worried about me earlier when I went to get the wine - I ran across the road and heard him shout "there's no rush! Just relax!", as if I was a lot drunker than I really was.

Dad in the belltower, investigating

21/06 - I didn't sleep too well, but was up on time and met dad at just after half past 8. We got the bus to the station and then the train for a change (even though we were on a bus to the airport). We arrived in plenty of time, had a cup of tea in departures and I sent him on his way, CERN umbrella in hand. It was a rally good weekend, much easier and more relaxed than I had expected, and I am pretty sure Dad had a good time. Once I got back to the flat I had some leftover salmon for breakfast, then tried to muster energy to tidy up but ended up falling asleep for half an hour instead. On my way to CERN I stopped off at McDonalds to take advantage of an offer I saw in the paper earlier - as Switzerland are playing football today, hamburgers are only CHF 1 each! I had three, and a coke which cost more than all the burgers, and made it into the control room at 1459 - my shift started at 1500. I started in relatively high spirits, as I had been informed that my shift would only be until 2100, but I have recently found out that today they are going back to the regular shift schedule, and I will not finish until 11 0'clock. Bugger.

Frau's Stag do & a couple of days in London

11/06 - I was still feeling awful when I got up, so I stopped off at the pharmacy on my way in. I have fixed my suitcase so that it (kind-of) works now, with the aid of some hammock rope and a caribener. I had a couple of meetings then headed off to the airport at 3pm, arriving in Brighton by about half 6. I dropped my stuff off at our hostel, then proceeded to the restaurant, bumping into the others en route. There were probably 25 of us there, quite a few for the restaurant to handle - the meal was adequate, although I didn't eat too much of mine as I had an emergency pasty on the train. Also I felt very ill all day, so my ill-advised gorgonzola gnocchi did not sit too well. The next stop was the pub, somehow we all split up very quickly and I ended up in a Wetherspoon's with Pat and Rob, chatting about boats (they were chatting about boats, I have no knowledge in this field). We then went to Oceana, which was really huge and grim - seven interconnected bars in a massive windowless building. Simon and I did some tours of the place, occasionally stopping off for Jägerbombs and the like, leaving at around 3ish. On our way home I managed to lose my wallet (again), and after some optimistic searching Simon found it on the street outside Oceana, still with the money and cards within. My hero.

12/06 - I didn't feel as awful as I could have today, although I completely failed to finish a full English. We got a bus at 1pm to go go-karting. I did not do very well - second to last in fact, and that was probably only because Simon missed a heat. It was really well organised and really nice weather, in fact I was wandering about shirtless in the sun. We had 5 races each (18 heats in total) then a final, in which Mark came 3rd and Nikhil 2nd.

Team Frau!

Having masterfully dealt with a corner, my overalls fly open to give the crowd a treat.

We came back to town and met Birdie, who had just got in. We went and watched the England vs. USA match in the basement of Audio, a club on the seafront - I ditched the last 10 minutes of the 1st half and the 1st 10 of the second half, preferring to get more sun and relaxation instead. Once again we split up sharpish, wandering around the pubs and clubs of Brighton - Ed was going to get the last train back to London at 2338, but I persuaded him (it was not hard) to get the first train instead, at 0350. Even then, he went home a good while before the rest of us.

13/06 - I awoke not hungover, just very tired - I made it down to breakfast at ten, then managed to get the 1140 train back to London. Everyone else stayed and had a day at the beach, I think. At Clapham Junction I got on the 37 bus tofind that Kelly was upstairs - perfect timing. We both had a much needed nap (she had been in Somerset on a tandem with Georgie, riding round cider farms for the weekend), then got some BBQ stuff. We had Clare and Georgie round for dinner, and for once the whole house was in. It was a pretty nice relaxed Sunday summer's evening, after Birdie sorted out my disaster of a BBQ. We had a fair amount of wine, watched some episodes of The Pacific and then went to bed - the whole house had an early night, in fact.

14/06 - I had a good start to today - Kelly went off to Journal Club at around seven, while I stayed in bed. We had leftover BBQ for, well, brunch I suppose, then just hung out in the house - this is something we have not really been able to do here as of yet. I went and met Clare after work, and we walked back to her house (via getting a refund on my broken suitcase and buying some smartish shoes, finally). We met Kelly in a really nice pub on Roupell Street, possibly called the Albert, then Kelly and I got a cab to St. John where I had pig's head and radishes, then roast beef with carrot and aioli. Kelly had brown crabmeat on toast then turbot. It was a really good restaurant, very simple and delicious. We had intended to get an early night as I am on the 0815 flight tomorrow morning, but (as always on our last nights) I couldn't really sleep at all.

Pig's head and radish

Brown crabmeat on toast

Roast beef with carrot

Turbot

15/06 - Eugh - I was up at 6 after no sleep and somehow got distracted while brushing my teeth, which resulted in my jamming the head of the toothbrush down between my gum and my cheek. I did this pretty hard, and it ripped a whole in the flesh down there - well, three holes actually, which I do not expect to heal too quickly. The replacement suitcase I found in the basement is pretty awful (in that the wheels don't work, so it is just an inconvenient sack) and once I was on the plane they informed us that the flight was delayed by 40 minutes AND took 40 minutes extra due to the French air traffic controller's strike. I had lunch on my own at CERN and worked until pretty late, when I had a salad (well, there were no leaves, but it was definitely from the salad bar) for dinner, then went off to French. There were only four of us there this time, which is ridiculous. We just did a load of exercises, then I made it back in half an hour, unpacked, talked to Kelly for a while and ended up staying up until one or so - that's 18 hours or so, that'll do.

Oversleeping, boating, too hot & too ill

08/06 - I managed to get some little mundane jobs done this morning, and left the house in blazing sunshine at 10 o'clock - it is now 4pm and it is pissing down, I can hear thunder in the distance and I am wearing shorts. I worked until French class, and when I got there I hung out with Efe, Michal and Andrés, all of whom work at CERN, it turns out. Michal hates these classes, and has in fact done the three courses preceding this one, all with Monsieur Barrelet.

09/06 - I failed at today. I had a massive sleep attack, then cleaned up the flat (which was much needed), took in my dry cleaning and arranged a boat trip. At 7pm myself, James, Jody, Dan S and Alex got on a boat with a load of beers and cruised around the lake for an hour. It was really fun, we each had 12 allotted minutes as captain, and we made it pretty far up the lake. After this we went to a pizzeria nearby and had quite a bit of wine then adjourned to Dan H's to watch the original Transformers film with more wine. That film seems odder every time I watch it, for some reason - those of us who hadn't seen it before were throughly confused throughout.

10/06 - I felt pretty awful today. It was 31º in the shade, and my office was quite a bit more than this, I would venture. I had steak and blé for lunch (this is apparently wheat), then I had to go and lie down for a while as I felt really sick. I had a meeting with Veronique and headed to Balexert to try and find some shoes. I failed in this, calling Clare to try and find which shoes were least hideous. Our conclusion was that all men's shoes are awful. I decided to head home, as I did not have the energy for French class, despite seeing three fellow students today, both at CERN and Balexert. On my way home I popped into Manor and got some delicious chorizo focaccia and 12 beers, because they came with a free coolbag. When I got home I fell asleep for an hour, then packed hastily and was asleep by 12 - an early night.

A perfect weekend - bikes, boats and, umm, trams

05/06 - I had neglected to shut the blinds when we got in last night, and the sun was far too bright at 0535 when it rose. We ended up getting up at about nine, far too early considering when we got in. It was an incredibly hot and beautiful day, so we hurried out and got a free city bike from a place down the road. We cycled down to the lake and booked a boat for 5 o'clock at a place near the Jet, then headed up towards Geneve-plage. It looked nice, but packed in there, so we decided to keep going up the bank a bit in case we found another spot where we could have a sunbathe and a swim. We ended up going all the way up to Vésenaz, a really nice little place atop a hill, where all the residents seemed much more beautiful than average. We grabbed some food from a little Manor they had up there, and walked downhill until we found somewhere where we could be by the lake - it was the campsite at Pointe de la Bise, supposedly only for campers but noone seemed to mind.

Looking back towards La Baby-plage and the city

We rang up and changed our boat booking for 6 o'clock, figuring that we probably didn't want to rush our picnic. I got in the lake for a few seconds, about up to my thighs, but that was it because it was absolutely freezing - I had naïvely assumed that the warm weather would warm the lake, but this was not the case. Kelly managed to get fully submerged, but only for a couple of seconds. On our way back Kelly realised that she had lost the keys for her bike, so she had to go back down to the shore and search for them. Luckily some kids had found them and handed them in, however it took some time to figure this out as Kelly does not speak French. We headed back into town, eventually arriving at the boat place at 1830, an hour and a half after our original conservative estimate. We could only get the boat for half an hour as it was booked up, but it was really awesome - a little four-seater petrol engined boat, with just enough speed to make hitting little waves fun. We took a couple of beers aboard and made it as far as the other side of the lake, near the UN, before we had to return it. We also found what seemed to be a bridal bouquet floating in the water, which is now in a vase in my flat.

On the boat on Lac Leman - clearly overjoyed

We dropped the city bike off four hours late (a quick google showed me that we cucled about 16km today), and it only cost us CHF 8. We had intended to quickly get changed then go out, but we collapsed for a while and eventually managed to make it out of the door with a can of Prosecco we had got at Manor - all class. We ended up going to La Malombre for dinner, a restaurant about 200 metres from my front door. I had not been there before as it had seemed pricey, but in fact it was really good - we had some great smoked salmon roulade things, then scallops with asparagus and an entrecôte with morilles sauce, which was amazing. Two glasses of wine each and it came to a total of CHF 100 (£30 each)- which seemed fine considering that lunch had been a bargain picnic.

06/06 - We were up less early today, as I remembered to shut the blinds last night, but we were still out of the house at a reasonable time. It was another incredible day, blue skies and at least 28º. We did a little shopping for dinner at the market at Planpalais, which we ended up carrying about for the next seven hours. We got the tram down to Carouge, which was really beautiful. It is unlike the rest of Geneva, the buildings are much quainter and smaller and older. We had lunch at a pizzeria, accompanied by some average ice cold rosé, then I went to Gelatomania for dessert - one of my choices was a pineapple and basil sorbet, which turned out to be amazing, really refreshing.

Kelly has a massive salad at a pizzeria

After a wander through the (mostly rubbish) market, we got the tourist tram back, which was pleasant enough, and as we were feeling pretty sapped by the heat we went to the cinema to see Robin Hood. It was OK, not too taxing, but nothing incredible - Kelly was very annoyed by his accent, a wierd kind of Scottish Australian which changed thought the film. We went home and I cooked a chicken Panaeng which worked really well, accompanied by a bottle of Chasselas from on of the vineyards we visited the other week. After dinner we caught an episode of Jonathan Dimbleby's Africa, which was really interesting, and had some more wine as we knew that for once we didn't have to be up at 0500 for Kelly's flight.

This is a photo of Le Tram Touristique, not that lady in the middle

07/06 - Instead of the usual 0700 flight, Kelly was booked on the 1050, which meant we could leave together and I could take her to the airport on the way to CERN. It was probably the nicest Monday morning we've had in ages, as neither of us was in a desperate rush. Even so, we arrived a good 70 minutes before her flight, which was then delayed by 45 minutes anyway, so she had 2 hours in the airport - a compromise. Due to the timing I got a non-optimum bus which took ages and involved a walk at the end (during which James went by in another bus and waved) and I got in for about 1040. I did not manage to get much of my report done, mainly because I was not too sure where to start. I left at about 6, so that I could make it to the supermarket on my way home, intending to do a load of washing/washing up/general tidying when I got in. Instead I awoke to hear my phone ringing at 2255, having passed out on my bed, surrounded by shopping, three hours earlier.

Neuchâtel & Sarah's BBQ/Cocktail Party

02/06 - Today was an odd sort of a day - I started off with a cheeseburger en route to CERN, as I felt in no rush for some reason. I had to give a little presentation on a note which I had to summarise for the rest of the RHUL ATLAS group, which I had worried about unnecessarily - some people had not even read theirs when I got in, 40 minutes before the meeting. I then had a pretty standard day of work, but buggered off at 4 o'clock to get a bus into town, then got the 1714 train to Neuchâtel to visit Marie. We strolled around the town for a bit (Neuchâtel is gorgeous, a really beautiful little town on the bank of the lake) and went home to make pizza. Marie had a potato pizza, which she said she had in Italy and it was delicious, but I remain unconvinced. It was good to see her and have a proper chat, much better than our previous meeting for an hour on the 0815 flight from London a few weeks ago. I got the last train home at 2334, which I think may be the prostitute train, judging by the other passengers. I got in too late for public transport, but I had enough wine in me that I didn't mind the walk home. I was also listening to my iPod on full volume as I wandered down the tram tracks - I may have been dancing a little, but I can't be too sure.

03/06 - When I got in last night (at 0210) I entirely failed to set my alarm. Consequently I worked from home today, only leaving the house for a Mike Wong's on my way to French. We seem to be nearing the end of the course (5 sessions left after tonight) but not really leaning too much. I thought we would have some sort of assessment at the end, maybe a nice little certificate, but I got the impression tonight that this was not the case. On my way home I dropped by Sarah's birthday meal for a couple of Mexican beers, before heading home with James and Dan via 'loot street', where we picked up an oven that someone had thrown out - we figured it was worth trying to get it working, as all the other stuff that the residents of this flash building have thrown out in the past seems to be in working order, if a little shabby.

04/06 - For some reason I was up much earlier than expected, and was in by 0930. I had to read a paper and make some notes on it for a meeting at 1130, which was no problem at all. I had meetings until 1, had lunch and tried to go and hire some bikes for Kelly and I to take out this weekend - it turns out that there are no CERN bikes available at the moment, and there is a lengthy waiting list for them. This evening is Sarah's birthday BBQ/cocktail party in St. Genis - I am a little worried about how we will get home afterwards, as I have no idea how reliable the 'noctambus' night services are, and I am loathe to consider a CHF 60 taxi unless I absolutely have to.

I changed into my cocktail outfit and headed over to Carrefour to buy BBQ supplies - I bumped into Jody and went his place, only to discover that I was the first person there. The BBQ started, before long, and I had two sausages with some of Giulia's hot sauce - this was so hot that I managed about three bites before I had to stop, drink about a pint of Sprite and then a pint of milk to cool down my mouth. It was honestly the hottest hot sauce I have had in ages, at one pint there were at least four other similarly overconfident people standing around swigging milk. The buses seemed to be being delayed or cancelled a lot for some reason, but Ailsa helped me out massively and gave me a lift to the airport as she was on shift and had a CERN car. This took about 15 minutes as opposed to the half an hour the bus would have taken (although she got lost on the way back). I met Kelly and we had some tintos at a bar while we waited for the bus - I had also brought with me a litre of tinto which I had made back at the BBQ, which we drank on the bus - all class.

We got back to the party at about 1040, by which time all the food was gone, so we had some massive slices of cake and made some sketchy cocktails, staying until about 0130. We tried to get a cab as far as Vaudagne, but the operator was the same bitchy woman I mentioned here, so I ended up getting annoyed at her, saying "Fuck you!" down the phone before hanging up. Not my most sophisticated of moments. We decided to walk as far as CERN, and en route we were passed by a taxi heading into St. Genis. This same cab drove back in the other direction about 5 minutes later, so we flagged it down and got him to take us to the tram stop - his GPS was showing Jody's address, so I assume that the taxi lady had sent us a cab anyway, and when we were not there he had turned around, only to be hailed by his original passengers. We drove past the night bus at CERN, but I decided that I could not be bothered stopping and walking back only to change to the tram in 5 minutes anyway. The taxi cost CHF 20, and we hopped aboard the night tram from Vaudagne, which was there and waiting, right on time. We made it home by just after 3, so our epic night-time journey was in fact a little quicker and easier than my normal daily commute.

Also, on our way home I looked out of the window and saw a guy on a bike hanging onto the door of the tram, being pulled along at a pretty terrifying speed. It looked really cool, I was very impressed but also immediately knew I would never have the confidence required to do it myself - not confidence in myself, confidence that another tram would not suddenly be coming the other way.

Dot to Dot and Bank Holiday Weekend!

28/05 - I came in to get that bloody clock, but that was all I did at CERN today. I left things pretty late, getting the 3pm shuttle and managing to check in (I was too late to do this online, apparently) and make it through security with just enough time for a panachée at the gate. I managed to get all the way from my desk to my front door in 3h50m, a new record! Kelly came home a few minutes after me and we went over to her friends Emily and Sarah's for dinner. They have an awesome place in Kentish town, the dinner was good and there was quite a lot of wine. Quite a civilised evening really, Kelly Sarah and Emily did that wierd girl talking a few times, where all of a sudden they get very loud and high pitched, leaving myself and (Emily's) John to look at each other in bewilderment. We managed to get the tube home, along with crowds of tipsy revellers making their way to somewhere sweaty in Clapham.

29/05 - Ooh, hangover a bit. We had to get BBQ supplies, so we went to ASDA via Subway where I devoured a foot-long in a very short time, which served to soak up some of the remaining red wine. We had the BBQ in spite of the rubbish weather, and Clare really liked the cuckoo clock - it now has pride of place in her living room, and the cuckoo has been named Toblerone.

For some reason I wasn't entirely into the BBQ, in fact I got a bit grumpy and started cleaning around people, all very odd. I am not sure why I felt so against it. I had to have the same Geneva chat many many times, although this is to be expected really. Loads of people turned up, including guys from Uni, Kelly's old friends from home and a few others too. The last guests left at 11pm, and we went to bed soon after - I was exhausted and fell asleep immediately my head hit the pillow, probably best considering the grump I was in.

30/05 - Kelly, Birdie and I were up and set off to King's Cross at 10ish, heading up for Dot To Dot. Birdie and I got a Burger King breakfast which they totally messed up (wrong order, wrong details, wrong drinks). We went to meet Sam in Nottingham - he was working, so he gave us his keys and some VIP wristbands along with some tokens for free drinks. We had a pint (well, a Bloody Mary) by the canal and then met Dan at the station, before heading off to catch some gigs. Both Dan and Ed have buggered up their ankles in the last week, so (with the exception of some fine hop-dancing later in the evening) they were confined to standing pretty still for the whole day. I really enjoyed everyone I saw, starting off with White Hinterland and Small Black, who were especially great and were playing in a tiny little venue. We had a mexican dinner at Chiquitos, then saw Wild Beasts - probably the best of the day, they have amazing voices - and Beach House followed by Los Campesinos (things start getting hazy here). We then returned to Rock City via Stealth, where we caught an hour or so of an awesome silent disco. We saw some of Jakwob before Sam came and whisked us away for some drinks in Resuce Rooms (Kelly is telling me this, I have almost no recollection of this interlude). We returned for Zane Lowe and his 'shouty boy music', as Kelly described it - a really good set, featuring a good mix of heavy stuff from all genres. We had an awful kebab, branded as 'dog meat' by Ed, on the way back to Sam's I had bit of a panic as I thought I had lost my wallet, so Sam and I got a cab back into town for a bit of a search, but with no luck. We gave up and came home at about 4, only to find the wallet out in the yard where we had tried to eat the bad kebabs. Arse.

Birdie at the silent disco

31/05 - Kelly and I ended up sleeping on a tiny sofabed (the same one we have in our house, which I detest) with a tiny duvet, and were up and out of there sharpish as we had a train at 1038. We had first class seats on the way home, which I was very glad of. We went home via Sainsbury's and passed out for a little bit, then got up and cooked loads of leftover sausages for lunch/dinner, which we ate in front of the telly. We watched the first three episodes of The Pacific, and after this it was still only about 8pm. We all had an early night - all in all, it was a really nice bank holiday Monday.

01/06 - Hmm, these early mornings aren't getting any easier. I was up at 6 today, and ended up waiting 15 minutes at Clapham Junction for a train to Gatwick. When I got to CERN I was exhausted as usual, but as I have various deadlines looming I managed to work until 1830 when I did my French homework with a beer and had a (disappointing) courgette and tomato gratin & chips. French class was fine, although I found it tricky to concentrate after I realised that I had left my keys at CERN. I did some under-the-table texting to try and sort this out, but everyone had gone home so I left class half an hour early and went to go and get them. I eventually got home a little after midnight, meaning I had been up and out of the house for about 17 hours.