Despite our purchase of a super cool red-bordered Samsung HD tv, we haven't been watching the Giro on television. They only show it on Eurosport and we can't get that channel. In fact, we couldn't get it with our provider even if we wanted to pay extra for it (I read multiple forum posts on our Internet/TV provider and you definitely can't get Eurosport for some reason to do with licensing by the big media/provider companies... stupid monopolies! Many François will work on that??). However, we've been able to catch some of it on the Internet thanks to online streaming! Good old Internet...
Work is going not too badly. I'm still having some problems 'getting going' but things do seem to be progressing at least a little bit. It has also made me feel a little better (schadenfreude? not really because I guess the main thing is that it shows that it's hard) is that everyone seems to be having a hard time moving forward on this particular project. Interestingly, however, I'll be involved in another separate project that starts in July and I will be attending the project 'kickoff' in early July in Brussels.. not the most exciting place to go but it should be interesting. Tied in with that is that I have to come back to Canada for my thesis defence at some point. This has been dragging its heels forever it seems but hopefully some progress is finally being made. A lot of the details to do with it are driving me a little bit crazy but I can complain about them in more detail elsewhere. I just mention it here to complain a little more and to mention that I'm starting to get times filled up so that it will be harder and harder to find a good date to do the defence for everyone and obviously for me because it can't conflict with my work commitments in early July (for example) or... with our Ironman!
I found some good deals on plane tickets to Sweden the other day and when I checked yesterday the price had gone up by a little bit. I checked again today and they'd raise again a little bit so I took the plunge and purchased our tickets tonight for getting to Sweden in August! We'll be there for 2 weeks and have one week before the race and one week after the race. So, we fly out of Lyon on Sunday the 12th and fly back on the 26th. Exciting times! But I came to this by mentioning that this is ANOTHER complication for scheduling the defence. But, it had to be done as we registered for this race (by paying an exorbitant fee) several months ago and we've been training hard and sacrificing time on other things for quite a while as well (and will continue to do so) so there's no two ways about it! The absolute best would be to be able to do the defence in mid to late June but the chances of that happening are similar to the chances that Mike Weir will ever win another golf tournament!! HA!
More immediate exciting news. Next week I'll be presenting a paper for work that outlines the 'vision' for our project. It's just the 'vision' because we haven't come close to accomplishing that vision yet! But, I get to go to Marseille to do the presenting, the workshop where I'll be presenting takes place next Tuesday, and Monday is (as most days in May in France tend to be) a holiday. SO, Sandi and I will take the train to Marseille on Sunday and we'll come back Wednesday. It should be nice since it's finally fairly consistently warm here and even more so 'down south' so it will be like a real beach vacation! Of course I have to be at the conference all day Tuesday but Sunday and Monday should be fun (hoping for sunny weather).
Let's see... Since I'm on a roll and writing a lot I suppose I will continue, no matter how mundane the subject matter may reduce to. Last Thursday (a holiday, natch) we did our first outdoor swim in France at the Bois Français just outside of Grenoble. It's a bit like a Conservation Area like Guelph Lake or Elora Gorge and there are 4 lakes. One for swimming, one for fishing, one for canoing/kayaking/paddling of any kind, and one for waterskiing. They are quite small (especially the swimming one) but it's better than nothing. Anyways, we went and it was really quite nice because it wasn't THAT warm and it's still early in the season so there were hardly any people there and we threw on the wetsuits (with all park-goers staring intently) and did a few laps of the mini lake to get in around 2000m of lake swimming. We're hoping to go again tomorrow because out of the three sports that we're training for, swimming is definitely still my weakest and the hardest by far to get done around here and tomorrow is supposed to have nice weather so that is the plan! By the way, that is an actual picture of the BF from their website below..
Our new coffee machine is quite amazing. Now we have lattes for every breakfast and espressos when we get home. On the weekends we mainly drink coffee all day long. BUT there's an unfortunate problem (ugh). The machine works fine functionally (in that it makes amazing coffee) but it's supposed to tell us that it's out of coffee beans when it's out of coffee beans but it does not! So I called the guy where we bought it and we have a 2 year warranty but that doesn't mean they just give you a new one (of course not!). Instead, we have to take it to the SAV (service après vente) so they can fix it (free of charge, thankfully). However, we have to (1) get this giant thing there sans car; and (2) be without it for probably a full week. Ugh, it seems that whenever I buy something expensive it always has problems right away and then I get stressed about it and it's something else to worry about / deal with and it sucks. But, then I think about how we get to now "live an Italian lifestyle at home" (written word-for-word on the box for the machine) and I think 'I guess it's worth it'. By the way, this is our machine (although the one in this picture probably has the "replace beans in bean hopper" warning light working)... sigh...
Let's see... what else is new and exciting in the world? If Sandi and I had been alive in the 50s or 60s and come to live in France I think it would have been a lot cooler. There are of course many differences here compared to Canada but, for the most part, we can get any product or service that we're used to in Canada without any problems. It's even 10 times more so than it was when I lived in France just 13 years ago (wow -- I guess that's not "just" anymore.. 13 years??? insanity...). AND, all the products have English labels for the most part and it's just not nearly as different and I guess not as 'exotic' as one might think. The other thing is of course the Internet which I of course go on every day and I can read everything that's happening in Canada. I don't need to hear about big news in letters or wherever because I read the Globe&Mail online every morning. So I know that Harpo's still screwing us all over and wrecking everything (APU) and I know all about the Canadian that died on Everest, the kids striking in Quebec (thank god I finished at McGill 5 years ago now... wait.. THAT was 5 years ago? this is nuts...), the environmental destruction of Canada, and of course that LA will make it back to the stanley cup finals before Montreal. Of course there are some upsides in that it's much easier to stay in touch (eg. this blog) but maybe then it's not as meaningful. Due to the price coming down so much in communication I can call anyone in Canada for free. Back in the day it would have cost the Earth but therefore would have been a lot more special. Sometimes I call friends and they say "oh I better let you go because this must be costing you a lot".. I kind of want to say "oh don't worry it's worth it" but I tell them the truth and say "well, it's actually free..". Another upside is that we can watch House in French 5 days a week.
Here are some more pictures. First, here's me in our kitchen window drinking a Campari:
Next, here we are in our "ASPA Run" t-shirts that we got at the 10 k race we did a little while ago (this is -- of course -- AFTER the pictures that I posted last time of us actually RUNNING in the ASPA Run). Oh ya, this also gives a small glimpse of our living room.
And finally, here is a good old fashioned picture of some food that we made to show that we are still making some large amounts of tasty food at home. Burgers and fries with French beer (I'm pretty sure you can get 1664 at the Beer Store but it's much easier to get here so I guess that's kind of a neat thing...)
We'll try out best to take lots of pictures in Marseille and post them here. À la prochaine...
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