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.
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