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Sun, 08 Aug 2004 «Vacances: Genève»
Well, Geneva was great fun. There seem to be large portions of the days that I can't account for, although I did sleep in quite late most mornings. Meegan and Julio's apartment is right across from the train station, so we took a train from the airport. It was very convenient, and a fairly central location in the city.
My first day was Tuesday, Meegan came home early from work with sandwiches for lunch. She had planned a boating trip on the lake and invited her co-workers from the UN. So we went shopping for a picnic dinner at a nice grocery store called Manor. As the evening's event neared, the clouds rolled in and threatened rain. We decided to go ahead with the dinner, but the boats ended up being out of the question due to the weather. So, we just had a picnic next to the lake, with Meegan, me, Shane, Masaki, and a couple and their little-one Charles. Everyone was quite nice, and I only felt a few drops of rain the whole night.
On Wednesday I went in to Meegan's office for lunch. I ended up pretty much eating with the people from the night before, so good company again. It was nice to see where Meegan works, now I have a mental picture. After that I pretty much just wrote up my Paris vacation on the computer, sorted through my piles of email, unsuccessfully tried to get arrange a tour of the CERN particle accelerator, and generally bummed around their apartment. That evening we all went up into the old town to meet some friends: Tormod, Frederic, Alice, Emily, Ine, Paula, Shane, and Ben. Again, nice people, and at a bar that I was at on my last visit here. Alice, upon hearing of my attempt to visit CERN, got her boyfriend who works there, Johnny, a give us a tour the next day.
Thursday Julio stayed home from work, so all three of us drove out to CERN. Johnny is a cool and off-beat character, and he showed us all sorts of interesting stuff there. We were walking through server rooms, control rooms, etc. It was great, reminded me a lot of SRI International. Too bad I didn't really remind to Johnny that I was a software engineer, he seemed not to have remembered this so we didn't really get into any conversations along though lines. After CERN I went back to Manor, which turns out to be a 5 story department store, to do all of my present shopping. After Meegan got back from work we drove out to a house they're housesitting for, animal feeding and the like. It is a gorgeous place in a neighboring village, complete with pool. Then I treated them to a nice dinner at a really good Thai restaurant. Mmmmmmm, green curry, yum!
On Friday I took a walk along the north side of the lake. Because of the festival, the shore is covered with food vendors, tents, amusement rides, and carnival-like things. It was a nice day for pictures, but my camera's battery finally quit. Meegan came back from work at lunch, so we went to eat at Manor, funnily enough, as there is a cafe on the top floor. We did some birthday shopping for Tormod, who was having a party that evening. Then we went out to the house, took an extended swim, and headed back to the apartment for dinner. Tormod's party was a blast, too many new names to recall though. I seem to have spent the majority of the evening talking with Shane and Paula. Shane is a funny American, a State Department employee who currently works in Meegan's office. Paula is a friendly Finnish friend of Ine, newly arrived in Geneva. Anyway, lots of booze, laughter, and international conversation.
Meegan and I went on a road trip around the lake on Saturday. We first went to Montreaux, a nice, rich, little town on the opposite end of the lake. We stopped at Chateau Chillon, an old castle on the lake front. It was built in the 13th century and is in excellent condition. It was really like stepping into a time machine, quite interesting. We kept driving around the lake, and eventually passed into France on the south side. We stopped in Yvoire, a beautiful old village on the lake. It is a walled city, and has tremendous charm. We continuted the drive around the lake, and eventually returned to a very congested Geneva. Tonight was the fireworks, so every person in a 100 mile radius was in town for a look. It took us at least an hour to find a parking spot, which eventually we just invented on a sidewalk. Poor Meegan got very stressed out about this, I can't blame her. We met up with Tormod, his cousin Wibeka, and friend Frederic for some really good pizza downtown, and then walked to the lake front for some fireworks. What we did see were very good, but they were obviously having technical problems. Meegan has since informed me that fires were breaking out on the barges they were launching from. Nice.
And this morning I got up very damn early (06:45 COT) to catch my flight home. It went fairly uneventfully, and I arrived in Raleigh at 6:15 EDT. That's a 18 hour trip there, dang it!! But the part in between the two trips was worth it: I met some nice people, spent some quality time with my favourite sister, saw where she lives and works, let go of my troubles here, and had a fantastic time.
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Well, here I am, sitting in Meegan and Julio's apartment in Geneva. I'm halfway through my trip, and enjoying myself immensely. Things started out a bit shakey though, just in trying to escape Raleigh's airport.
Due to some messup with the landing lights at Newark airport, my flight to Newark was delayed. So much, in fac, that they required me to reschedule my flight to Geneva because I was sure to miss it. The only option they gave me was the same flight the following day, which I took. This was very unfortunate though, as I would miss the opening parade to the Geneva Festival on Saturday night, as well as the TGV to Paris on Sunday. Meegan suggested that I attempt to exchange the flight to Geneva for Paris, and just arrive a day early. That's kookie, but it might just work.
So that's what I did, landing at Charles de Galle with no where to stay. Very fortunately, the hotel Meegan had booked for the following evening had a room available, so I hopped on the RER train and got myself into downtown Paris, near the Pompidou centre. Of course, I really had no idea where I was, which was very intimidating. I proceeded to walk ten blocks in the wrong direction along the Rue de Rivoli, but I did eventually find the place, L'Hotel Andrea Rivoli, at about 4pm. I checked in, went out for a stroll, grabbed a quick bite, and then basically spelt until Meegan arrived at noon the next day.
It was great to see her, it is a bit freaky being alone in a foreign city, even if you have been there before. We were both hungry, so we went to this place near Rue Saint-Germain called the American Cafe, which has american diner style decorations. It was a good meal, and then we went to the Musee de Arts et Metiers, a museum of the history of the arts and sciences of industry and trade. It was sort of interesting, although there wasn't a very good flow to the place. But it was cool to see all of the old technology that people developed so long ago, early clocks, scales, craftsman's tools, etc.
It was quite hot in Paris, so we stopped for drinks quite often. After the musem we stopped at a nearby cafe, and about two thousand roller-bladers rolled up on the street nearby. There were police escorts, and apparently they do this weekly. It was really neat, and much more orderly than San Francisco's Critical Mass bike ride. After that we grabbed a crepe from a roadside vendor and had a rather rushed metro experience attmempting to get to the Eiffel tower to meet the Flat Tire Bike tour group.
They used to be called Mike's Bike tours, but I undestand they're still the same, very American and very fun. We went on the night tour, which was a fantastic four hours. It is not tiring at all and you get to see so much of the city. Although it is "guided" there wasn't much announcing being done, only when we would stop and get off our bikes would our guide launch into some spiel, and that wasn't too frequently. It ended up with 45 minutes on a Bateau Mouche trip on the Seine, which was beautiful at night.
Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel and then walked to a nice restaraunt on the Ile de Cite for brunch. Meegan had been there before and I can see why, very nice wheat crepes. We walked around the Ile a little, looking at all the expensive shoppes, and then went over to Saint Chappelle, a gorgeous little church next to the French Supreme Court. Louis the 4th or 5th built it in 1200 something, and the stained glass is extraordinary.
After that we went to Place des Vosges, which is a nice old apartment complex that the royal family used to use, and Victor Hugo inhabated even later. We were just trying to kill the time until we headed to the airport, so we just hung out watching people and trying to stay cool in the fountain. The EasyJet flight to Geneva was uneventful, and we arrived at the apartment at about 9 or 10.
More on Geneva as the story develops...
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Well, I've had this sitting around for a while and I realized I could just post it for whoever's use. I'm pretty sure this is not an original idea anymore, but when I wrote it back in 2002 I don't think too many people were doing it.
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Sun, 25 Jul 2004 «Urushiol Oil»I bought a lawn mower a couple of weeks ago, after realizing that the stuff that pretends to be my lawn grows just enough to warrant a beheading every month or so. It is hot, so I'm wearing shorts, and I feel like something bit that back of my legs. A mosquito no doubt. A few days later the bites develop into much bigger welts, but don't particularly itch much. I figure I'm just having some sort of weird allergic reaction, I hadn't been bitten in NC yet. No worries.
Last weekend something posseses me to go and do some weeding in the backyard. I've got these vines that are crawling all over the place, up trees, powerlines, my garden shed. rip Take that! I go at them with shears, lopers, you name it. On Tuesday I go out again and chop it all up to go in garbage bin for collection, and rip a few more down while I'm at it.
On wednesday Corinne makes a joke about my face being red, I figure I'm just blushing. I wake up thursday and my right eye is a bit swollen, enough that I notice it immediately. shit I do my homework on Poison Ivy and its cousins. Maybe I should call the doctor? Nah, I'll wait. I stop by the drug store and pick up Zanfel, a product I read about online. After scrub my face with it I feel no better, although my face feels cleaner. No go, still red, thankfully not really itching though.
On friday I'm more red and more swollen, so I go see the doctor who gives me Prednisone, a corticosteroid. One of the side effects can be insomnia, which I get. Friday night I finally fell asleep around 5am. Sheesh. Anyway, the swelling in my face has mostly gone away, but all the other contact rashes are itching from time to time, like now goddamnit. My arms and legs all have little rashes. I think I must have spread the oil all over my face while wiping sweat from my face. It spread it around, but also spread it out, diluting the effects. Oh well, by the time I head to Geneva this weekend I should be mostly good to go. Hopefully not itching that much.
Otherwise, not too much is going on. I bought a patio table for the back deck. I would have bought the chairs at the same time, but they wouldn't all fit in my car. I'll probably pick them up tomorrow after work. It'll be nice to have a place to sit out there. Next up: dining table and chairs!
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Just got back from my trip to Vermont today. Well, not really, I'm writing this much later, but in the past tense. Yeah, its cheating, but it helps fill out the months better.
So, like I was saying, got back from Vermont this evening. I flew up to Philly on Friday where Mom and Dad picked me up. I drove to Connecticut that night, and we stayed in a Sheraton or something overnight. Saturday morning was Jonathan (my cousin) and Lisa's wedding. It was very nice, in a beautifully restored old house that was turned into a community center. Their little boy Christopher was very cute, dressed in a little tuxedo and being rolled around in his Radio Flyer.
After a few hours at the wedding we headed out and off to Vermont. I drove part of the way and Dad drove the rest. They've done a lot with the place, new deck with a screen porch, vinyl siding, metal roof. The ponds were quite full and the spring peepers were singing in the early evening. The weather was very nice, pleasantly cooler and less humid than Raleigh. Overall it was a nice, quiet, and uneventful vacation. I helped Dad a little with cutting down some trees that across the old logging road.
I flew out of Burlington today, so we headed over a few hours early. I hadn't ever realized that Burlington was directly on Lake Champlain. It is a really great town. It seems very progressive and full of hippies and environmentally minded people, reminded me a lot of Oregon from the little I saw of either. The flight was delayed because of some weather. I fly through Philly, and on the second leg I could see all sorts of fireworks displays, through the light clouds and dusk, all those miles below. It was amazing how many towns were having celebrations, and I could even make out what I think were small backyard firecrackers. I'm just not sure why they were doing it tonight, yesterday was the 4th.
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Music I Like
My Collection
My Wishlist
| Recluse - Emotional Void [DEEP] |
| Whirlpool vs Octagen - Alaska [TRR] |
| Mono - Maya Bay |
| Draft 2 Design - Emotion Over Reason [ASOT] |
| Luminary - My World (Pesh Remix) [LOST] |
| Perry O Neil - Wave Force [EE] |
| Scott Bond vs Solar Stone - Red Line Highway [ENGLAND] |
| Dogzilla - Your Eyes [MAELT] |
| Loken - Monday P.M. [DTF-PR] |
| DJ Shog - Live for music (Sandler remix) [WL008] |
| Safri Duo - Rise (Airbase Damage Remix) |
| Fairychild - Lilavo Dvijenie [SYN] |
| Evangelist - Angelica (Astuni & Le Saux Remix) [SYN] |
| Adam White - Ballerina [DAREY] |
| Madoka - Afterburner (Max Graham Remix) [REAL] |
| Art Of Trance - Mongoose [PLAT] |
| Apollonia - Andromeda Heights (Tania Mann Remix) [ASOT] |
| Sandler - Theme Song |
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