a' la Financial crisis

Today all the office staff were asked to meet at 10 in the canteen, where the boss she told us that the company had to let go of 6 collegues in the danish office.
And that the management would ask the rest of us to take a monthly day off, and a paycut to follow. To try to prevent having to lay off any more of us.

So a slightly sad day, apart from it being busy as usual. But if this is the worst it gets then i guess we will have been in luck - we'll have to wait and see.

--
When I came home I found this in my mailbox, from a local estate agent.

I have looked at it many times, and I still cant tell...

Im beat

Been with my two sisters at my mothers place all day today.
We'we been building a fence around her front garden, to keep her daxhound Tjavs in.
It took us 8 hours, thats 24 hours in total - we're such pathetic handymen we are.

But the ground was very difficult to get into, stones everywhere and then at two places I digged into some plastic drainpipes, and at some places there were concrete a foot down. One hole were straight and easy, soil, sand and clay 5 feet to the right it was soil followed by clay and peach sized stones and mud.

But we finished at last and the result is not to shabby. - Or mabye it is and we just couldnt see it because the sun went down.

Anyway - I'll have a beer and go to bed early.

Davids new snail

Cute little story

Nemesis

And the videos..

Here is the speeded up version of our drive in Orleans.

And also a quickie of the drive to Loudun which is the nicest one so far.

Loudun - Day 8

Finished up and left at around midday and headed for Tours to take the TGV to Roissy airport. It was fun to drive at 302 km pr hour watching the landscape wisk by. At the airport we just waited and waited for our plane, and apart from one of the collegues who got stopped in security carrying a soft cheese, his surprised response "But it's for my mother!" didnt seem to render the officers in a more agreeable mood.
Got home at around 1 last night and its pretty good. My mother and syster had payed a visit and left fresh flowers, milk and bread for me.
And Cat was happy to see me, he has almost slept on top of me all night.

Loudun - Day 7

We finished early today, and left the office at 15:30 to try and find the winyard that made the wine we had yesterday. It was pretty cool to see the cellars and fields, and obviously we bought a few bottles to take home. Afterwards we went to the hotel and I even had time for taking a short run which was really nice, unfortunately there is no denying that my condition is not benefitting from the restaurant food and lack of running that I put myself through these days.
So I felt like a light dinner and chose the salad with slices of smoked duck and a poched egg. I didnt notice the part that said foire gras. So the diet part of the meal was kind of spoiled.

Loudun - Day 6

Work all day, not many big problems here, made a driving video.
Ate dinner at the hotel, and got a 36eur wine for the price of a 26eur, not bad.
and tonight there were finally wifi connection at the hotel...
Oh and my bedroom doesnt smell like sewr!

Loudun - Day 5

We got up early as usual and after the same charming service as we have gown used to, we went to the factory, where we just went on our business as planned, no big surprises during the day, execpt perhaps that the test of the PXE boot went without a hitch, which means that the server I built from home that saturday 14 days ago, is actually set up as it should be - Yay..

We left early at around 3 and felt almost like we had cut class or something. but we went to Chinon and dropped our bags off at the hotel, and then headed for the nearest bar, where we sat outside in the sun enjoying all the parading cars, motorcycles and girls passing by.

After a beers time we went sightseeing in the town, and saw a bunch of charming houses, streets and the castle. allthough that part were cut short because we were there to late in the day. Did get a few nice pictures though.
we finished with another beer at a brasserie, before we went to the botel and had half an hours siesta before dinner.



We were disturbed by our collegues who has gone to Spain to teach the ERP system, they complain that the line is way to slow, so we had to see if we could help out, not easy though, because this hotel has the worst wifi ever. did manage to stop the DFS syncronisation, and will attempt to find the problem for them tomorrow if I can.
Dinner was ok, not brilliant, but ok. Not its 10:30 and im going to get some sleep, Im just beat.

Loudun - Day 4

The landlady at our hotel is not a morning person. Bonjour madame gets a grunt as a reply, perhaps she is amgry we did not eat at the restaurant last night.

We worked all day at the factory, it's a little sad to see the way the factory is still marked by the faded memories of earlier 'greater' days. I am pretty sure that is a big part of the reason for the negativity that we feel around here, the partly empty building, the empty cardholders for the timeregistration clocks that have not been used in more than 10 years, but still are here. As well as all the old equipment that should have been scrapped, for instance telephones that look like they come from russia in the 70'ies.

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I have met a french female named Mimi, we have petted, and she have bitten me when my dinner arrived and I mistakenly ignored her.
We went to the same restaurant as yesterday, and the cat seemed to remember me. Its called the red house and if you come this way you chould visit. it is run by a dear old lady all by herself - yesterday we were the only guests, but today there were 6 other guests besides us so she were wery busy, but still smiling and freindly, not like the madam in our hotel.

Oh and tonight when I came into my room it smelled like sh*t, I think it comes from the drains in the bathroom.

We are doing pretty good time, if we are lucky we can finish early tomorrow and perhaps find time to look at the city of Chinon, I would like to take some pictures in daylight, of the places we have walked at night, there is also the castle to see.

Loudun - Day 3

Fun day. we worked a lot, for the first part of the day I we were mostly busy taking care of people else where in the organisation, Sweeden being a pain, as well as some collegues in denmark. after lunch a couple of finance collegues from Orleans came to install a finance application on one of the nw PC's.

Tonight we were trying to find a supermarket to get some shampoo, as I had forgotten mine, we walked along some of the narrow streets, and every place was closed, then at one point we seemed to have gotten out of the general shop area, my collegues wanted to turn around, but I just wanted to look around the next corner, and there was an oooold street with wonderfull buildings, one of which looked like an old inn. we thought that at least we could et a beer before we found a place to eat. but as it happend it was quite a charming restaurant.
One older woman and her cat. we were the only guests that evening, litteraly. and we had the best meal ever, at the lowest price. a really lovley place. from the 14th century, the ghost of jean d'arc was said to haunt the place ;-)
I had the duck and it was terrific It was such a great place - except for the mucic, jazzy mideveal 12 tone stuff.. But other than that higly highly recomendable.

Loudun - Day 2

The first day at Loudun was ok, we said hello, had a look around and made some plans. This place is a lot different than Orleans, we have come to the rough farm country, where people are more hard.
The factory used to be much bigger, and there are a lot of empty office and factory space, as well as old signs, neglected installations, offices and such. I dont think it provides the best kind of energy to the people working here. - But still right now I have a better feeling about the job at hand than I had only 24 hours ago.
And we live nice at this river.

Loudun - day 1

We borowed a car and a GPS then headed for Loudun. First stop were a small castle called Chambord that the manager in Orleans told os me had to visit.

When we got to Tours one of my collegurs visited his brother whom he haden't seen in 10 years - and we two others went for a bite to eat at a bistro, while enjoying the almost spring-like weather.
I bought some specialities for my cat-sitter from a store that has this website.

Then we drove to the Loudon facetory and said hello to the people there, worked for an hour or so before we drove to the hotel.

After a beer enjoyed in front of a bar next to the river Vienne, in the last rays of the sunlight (yes it's ok to be a little jaloux) We stolled back to the hotel and got dinner before getting ready to go to bed, to blog and so on.

NOTICE: The internet at the hotel was so lousy that I haven't been able to write here for a while, so you will get all the days in a big pile!

Orleans - Day 5

It was raining most of the day, but even so it was a pretty nice one. We got to fix a lot of 'nice to haves', and had time to show and tell about some of the new possibilities.
The people here have been happy and positive about our stay, and its such a nice feeling to leave with for once.
We didnt leave that early but earlier than we are used to, and we got a little shopping done, I bought a couple of bicycling jersys for a boy whom I happen to know is getting a mbx next weekend, I think he will forgive me for not attending his birthday now.
We went to a seafood restaurant tonight, and had a very nice meal with the manager here. So now we are ready for the next site in Loudun, ill add the driving video in a little while, just because its fun to see the difference between the countries.

Orleans - Day 4

The day started early by collecting a present in the recepton that i had asked them to wrap for me last evening. Just a baseball cap with the hotel logo from the gift shop, as a present for one of my collegues who had birthday today.
After breakfast we went to the office and helped out the users with their new logons and showed them the way around the file locations on the new server, how the new mailsystem works and other similar stuff.
We let the manager know about the bírthday of our collegue and in the afternoon he had arranged for Champange and petitfours for all the emploies as well as a small present to celibrate him.
After that we just hung around, solving small tasks, flirting eith the girls and asking if there were ANYTHING that we could help with, but no they were happy, and even tried to invent tasks that we could do, just to please us...
Tonight we had a wonderfull meal in the restaurant (the one with the stupid waiter from yesterday) - I had tatare of salmon for a starter - highly recommendable. cown of lamb on a pancake of some sort and a selection of cheeses as dessert. off cause a couple of the locally produced red wine to accompany.

Compared to the experience we have had in Denmark, Poland and Spain this is strangely surreal and I dont particurlarly want to be pessimistic, but I cant help but feel that it is calm before the storm at the next french site.
Hopefully I am wrong and we are just getting more experienced.

Tomorow we will work for a few hours, then spend the afternoon shopping and sightseeing in Orleans, and in the evening the boss will take us to a seafood restaurant for fruits de mere.

Orleans - Day 3

Today was not bad, we feel almost finished with as much as we can for tomorrow.
It rained all day, and we did not leave early - as in the afternoon, but early enough for me to get a little run before it became to dark.
We went to the restaurant at 8 and there were only one guest besides us.
It took about one hour before we got the starters - poached eggs on a green frisée salad.. after that another ½ hour before the main dish and about the same for dessert. The food was good though and perhaps I was just a little to impatient.

And the even though we were only us in the restaurant the waiter managed to mix up our orders - I have desided that he is an arrogant french 'asole'. The last two times we ate there, he gave us french menues, even though we asked if he happend to have them in english or german. But today my collegue spoke to the one other guest that were there before us, and he told us that they did have english menues, and got one for us. - as I said 'Asole' waiter!

Orleans - day 2

I am pissed off! - and slightly pissed, as well.

After more than 10 hous of working on a saturday (and that is on "Job salery", no overpaym no diets, no compensation, no nothing)! - We get to the hotel have a beer, and go to the hotel's restaurant. The only restaurant within walking distance, only to have them refuse us because all is booked..

So all I have had is two handfulls of chips and 3 pints of beer for my 'supper' - Im in a Baad mood. I know that compared to people elsewhere in the world its not a big thing; me not having supper once in a while, and in a way I feel that I should be ashamed, But none the less I also feel that I have been cheated, Eff the arrogant french waiter who blew us off, and eff the hotel for not telling us that we had to book a table even when we are guests. And I could probably find a couple more to hate. Grrrrr - Try me....

The day started well though, we slept in and didn't leave for the job until 8:30. We mosied on intil 8 in the evening or so only interrupted by a short lunch (a light lunch for me, because I were not that hungry, and planned to eat a 3 course meat at dinner...)and we feel that the worst is behind us on this site.

Tomorrow we will roll over a few pc's, see if we can fix the Juniper traffic shaping thingy, and then perhaps have the afternoon off for once.

Orleans - Day 1

We arrived at the hotel a little late last evening, there were a car accident on the periferique around Paris, so the drive took a little longer than planned, but we had a very skilled driver, which I found interesting considering her very pointy and higheeled shoes.

Today started crappy like always. the server back home acted up, and there were a couple of other issues in other places than here, which forced us to work on something completly different than we had planned.

On the plus side things look pretty good so far, we all have good, or at least not a bad feeling about the job at hand so far.

We have been put up at a hotel in a golf resort, food is nice and the rooms are good or the other way around.

Last night when we checked in, the pretty and wery gernerously built receptionesse gave us our keys along with a bottle of wine each! - The wine may be crap, I havent tasted it yet, but it does make you feel a little more welcome somehow.


Here is a picture of me actually working - or at least talking to one of the girls at the office here.

My hero

He'll give you a good woopin allright!