The good the bad and the ugly

Friday saturday and sunday, one weekend, three very different days!!!

Friday- not too bad

Earlier in the week I had been asked if I would do a presentation of the work I have been doing for the last... few weeks/ months. I really don't want to do it and was putting off organising it for as long as possible to make sure I was as ready as possible. Friday however was really as late as I could leave it so with the help of three other colleagues I organised and sent invitations to my first meeting. I was so nervous. I made Nathalie and Alian both read it all through before I sent it. I probably looked a bit sill getting so flustered just sending the requests, but it was nice to be able to joke about it with the others. So now there is no going back. I have booked the room, sent the invites and everything. It is all happening on Tuesday 17th Jan, at 15:30 (that's 14:30 English time)- major eeek.
Friday evening we all waved goodbye to Maria. By now she will be safely back in Germany :( very sad.

Saturday- Just not my day!!!

Well the day started of early... every early... quarter to four in the morning to be exact, with the fire alarm going off. I was surprised how quiet it was actually, sounding not that much different to an alarm clock. So I struggled into my dressing gown slipped on some shoes and opened my door. OK I was wrong, it was loud. I suddenly appreciated just how much noise fire doors actually keep out. However the noise in the corridor was nothing compared to the sound in the stair well. The circular stairwells in the foyer are quite echoy- have you ever heard an echoing fire alarm? I opened the door and promptly shut it again, and considered whether it was strictly necessary to go in. Of course it was so I stuffed my fingers in my ears and ran down.
Now you would expect that with a large housing block you would have the alarm linked to the fire brigade, we would be evacuated outside, the firemen would check everything was OK and we could go back. But no for our early wake up we weren't even awarded the excitement of having the firemen come (and not a word about men in uniforms!!). Nope we all just huddled in the lobby until the night man came and said that he couldn't find a fire so it was OK to go back. I'm very much hoping he had some advanced system that told him where the alarm had been triggered and he had gone and checked it all out and stuff. If not I don't rate our chances in a real fire.
However off we all went back to bed.
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz........ WEEEEWAAAAWEEEEWAAAAAWEEEWAAAAA. Yup at about 10am the blasted thing went off again. So off we went again, many of us still in PJs and dressing gowns. This time we were joined by Jane, who as it turned out had slept right through the first alarm. On the all clear we headed back to beds and breakfast while Jane went and had a rant to the guys in charge about being left to burn in her bed- like I said, I don't rate our chances in the event of a real fire!
Now however once back in my bed, I was too awake to fall back to sleep and too tired to get up and do anything much. So I lazed around reading and watching DVDs etc for a good part of the day. I finally managed to get up and do some laundry, dump laundry and go off to Monoprix to pick up a few groceries. However it appears that my 'lucky streak' had not quite worn off as while bending to pick up a basket my rucksack very carefully knocked a bottle of the display behind me, a nice 10 euro bottle of Champaign, a nice 10 euro bottle of champagne that smashed with an impressive crash and fizz as the bubbles all escaped and the champagne sloshed up the back of my jeans! Oh poo!!!
Well I stood around for a bit to see what I should do, but no one was paying me much attention, so stinking like a posh drunk I went off and did my shopping. However my honest nature (and my fear that prehaps in france they will clap you in irons for beaking champaign bottles) caught up with me by the time I reached the checkout and before leaving I went and asked if they wanted me to pay for it. Thankfully they didn't so I scarpered quick! What a day!!! Was very ready for bed when the time came.

Sunday- reasuringly normal.

The rest of my weekend was thankfully much more normal. Sunday present no unusual events- church, lunch, choir, phone convo with mum, run through my presentation (clocked 40 mins- 4 times longer than I was asked for!!!!! Oh well better keep working) and finally bed with a book.