Author: Wilfrid

Categories
From the Attic My Favorite

My Paris Collection – Appendix : Death Marriage

For Love shall bath herself in the pool of misery. The Devil shall show its face. No pyramid shall stand in this red storm from the north. Or the sand storm in the desert. Let the pyramids be sunk into the heart of the dryness. There will be no angel and no chorus in the sky. The sun burns so fiercely. And no creature, with heart and blood, shall live in its darkness. Watch out for the army of Devil.

If Love shall purify herself with her grand sacrifice. With the mouths of the monsters open wide. Ready to swallow the dreams of the universe. The music will continue. As Love jumps into the heat of the volcano. Or shall Love be embraced by the raging ocean? With the lonely lighthouse as the only witness?

Ding, ding, ding. The bell of hell rings. If Love shall crucify herself, what can the angels tell? Fire of the burning hell. The marriage of Love to Death. And Death will turn Love, into bone and dust. Rape, as it seems. Taste the virgin blood of Love. And God shall sleep, as He always does. Indifferent to the act of the evil. Indifferent to the cry of Love. Love survived the curse of the Pandora Box, why can’t she survive this time?

As the Devil feasts on Love. Consuming the dreams of the universe. The Devil laughs so ugly. Hell stinks so bad. As they dissipate the last energy of God’s angel, as they raise those innocent eyeballs up in the air. And they turn Love into a horrid skull. Dancing round the fire they dance and dance. Screaming those curses they linger in the sky. Not a chance. Not a chance.

And this shall engrave on the tombstone of Love.

Categories
Concert From the Attic

No Doubt Concert

No Doubt Concert Tonight.

At 1730, I left the office quietly.  Rushing back to my hotel and got changed.  Stepped out of my hotel at 1740 and reached La Cigale just after six.  Funny thing was I didn’t see a lot of people outside La Cigale.  And there was a notice (French) outside saying L’Olympic something something.  I was kind of panic, don’t even know where the hell is L’Olympic.

Lucky, I saw three girls (and a guy) who spoke English.  I introduced myself and one of them (actually all the girls) spoke French.  And they found out that L’Olympic was somewhere near Opera.  Bon!

The pretty one was called Liz.  Not a slim type but with a very pretty face and a very American accent.  Her boyfriend (it seems) was called Jason.  Another two girls, one was called Rebeca and the other was called N something.  They were impressed that I came from Oxford and worked in Andersen Consulting.  Hey, no big deal.  Please.

Sadly, I missed them when the concert started.  That’s life.

At first I stood kind of quite far away from the band. (The concert hall was small anyway.)  I was so worried that I would not be able to see them as the guys in front of me seemed to be quite tall.  Just when the show started, everybody was pushing forward.  I grabbed the chance and dashed myself forward as well.  No, it was not tough to get in front.  What so tough was to remain there.  Everyone was pushing and jumping (real jumping) and every round, there would be a group of persons fell onto the ground.  I was so worried that I would fall down and being stepped onto.  After two and a half song, I gave up and retrieved all the way back.  People were really jumping mad.

No Doubt was just great.  Although some of the songs in the middle of the show was kind of unfamiliar to me but hey, I enjoyed it.  (Got to say I was very hungry, thirsty and tired in that order).  The lead singer seemed very girlie and there were a lot of flowers on the stage.  I just loved her.

So I came back, feeling very week and ordered room service. It was worth it.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

So I Pissed Off the Whole World

Today I ended up making everybody angry.  Firstly, Sophie has arranged a “get together” dinner for me but sad to say, I have forgotten that “No Doubt” concert is tomorrow as well.  I can tell that she is very angry.  She told me that she hoped the concert is worth it.  Damn me.  Damn her.

And Lionel said that my status report is too rough on him.  I just said that in the future, the Function Team better make up their own mind on what to fix.  That is it.

And Aurore is not happy the way I address the issue regard on knowledge transfer.  Well, I wanted more support and they never give it to me.  I have to do it, you know.

Still waiting desperately for JP’s letter.  Just an answer, yes or no.  As simple as that.  My mind really hurts and I cannot focus at all.

Guess what?  I have forgotten my Mum’s birthday on the 16th.  It was yesterday.  I think I have really hurt her.  I am sure my Dad and Sister suffer because of my forgetfulness.

Oh god, what has happened to me?  At least I become in good term with Mohamed again, which is good.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Paris is Charming at Night

Woke up late this afternoon, as expected Grace had left a phone message for me.  Went out to a café shop and as usual, ordered a cup of tea and a piece of cake.  The waitress was so nice to me and she gave me another little piece of cake.  How nice!  Just outside CNIT, a girl sold me one drawing that according to her, it is drawn by someone from the art school.  Actually I was heading for the FNAC and I just remember that I didn’t go there at all.

Grace called me out and I reach her hotel at 7:30.  One of them was watching a show so I waited in Grace’s room.  Her room was a mess.  Real mess.

And four of us dined in an Indian restaurant (nice romantic restaurant) and Grace and I ended up walking to the Louvre.  Paris is so charming at night.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

A Politic of Suspicion

Yesterday was Friday and I had a good heart to heart chat with Mohamed.  What interested me was why he has to keep a distance to me.  I think that guy is too suspicious of what is around him.  I agreed with him that Nicolas and Aurore is just getting too close and gossip too much.  I agreed with him that Claudi is a very hard person to work when he get stressed.  I guess Michel was racist to him.  That guy needs help but I just don’t know how to help him.

And I ended up eating Arabic food for supper.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Sophie, What Have I Won Again?

Today Sophie said to me that I have won.  Win what, I asked.  Lionel has finally agreed with my Spot Advice.  The stressful thing is I am not 100% full confident about this.  But it is indeed a challenge.

I knew the BNP team was trying to get me but I was just not interested in picking up the phone.  But why? I don’t know.

And I still haven’t got JP’s letter yet. And why?

Categories
Uncategorized

Shame on Me

Shame on me!  Shame on me!

I have completely lost my self-control today.  Apparently, today we were supposed to kick off the Spot Advice SIR but both Mohamed and Claude were busy doing something I don’t know.  But I was very angry.  So I taught Willie everything in one day.  Report Writer, Stored Procedures and so on.  And I return to my evil self towards the end of the day and made Mohamed very very angry.  For that I deeply regret.

Why do I always mess up every relationship?  Why can’t I have a long term friendship.  I thought I start afresh every time I change environment.  But that is not happening.  Am I born to be a loner?  But why?  Why?

Watched a show called ‘Crucible’.  Very dark movie.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Greeting My Boss With Whips, Chains, and Machine Gun

I found it so hard to get up this morning.  Lucky I still managed to call up Doug in his hotel and informed him Sophie’s contact number and the address.  Phew!  Really wanted to take a decent breakfast (after living in a lower life standard for such a long weekend) but I did not have the time.  In fact I was 15 minutes late.

The joke today was the SIR 505 that William and Sophie has been arguing for so long (at least 4 months) and William finally admitted that this is a bug.  So I spent two days in designing this new spot advice and in the end, after telling the Function Team that they need to test it thoroughly, i.e. all cases, they freaked out and placed the SIR to the lowest priority.

Anyway, managed to get Claude and Mohamed to involve this Spot SIR.  Should be fun, I hope.

Doug came in SocGen for a meeting and it was kind of a different mood throughout the whole SocGen Team. T hey all know that my boss was coming in and everybody was a bit tensed up.  They thought Doug would discuss about the invoices.  We joked that Sophie has got the whips and chains ready with Aurore carrying a machine gun.  But no, he talked about cemetery and how was La Defense being named.  Bizarre!  At the end of the meeting,  I showed him the coffee room and while having a coffee, he told me that if his boss knows about the real situation, his boss would definitely cancel the contract.  He is a peaceful guy I suppose and he wants a good relationship.

The Aerosmith album which was due to be out today, not today. Damn!

And I went out and had dinner with the BNP team.  How boring.  Really boring.  Cheap food and what a waste of my precious time.

Categories
From the Attic Memorable Events

A French Family Outing Invite

The most wonderful weekend in Paris I ever have.  Me and Michel took half a day off and he drove us (plus his sister-in-law) with his convertible.  Man, that was the first time I ever sat into a real convertible.  We opened the top and let the sunlight shone onto us.  That felt good.

Then we had coffee and waited for Ioen (his brother) to come and had lunch with Merala.  Then we set off with Ioen’s car.  It was a bit clamped but hey, I had a great time.

Their dog, Lila, was just wonderful.  I have thoroughly converted to be a dog lover.

Center Park was something like a resort with indoor sport hall and castles.  Trees and nature, that was what I wanted.  The moment we arrived, Michel and I rented two bikes.  One for me and another one for Merala.  We then unpacked and had some aperitif and headed off for some swimming.

There was a swimming pool with artificial wave.  Tanzan shouted on the mike and the wave started.  Kind of funny.  And the best of all was the “waterfall” and it was totally fun.

Dinner was always grilled steak, pork, salad and fries.  Kind of sick at the end but I didn’t mind.  They played a bit of bridge with me besides learning the French.  We all didn’t last very long and went to sleep after midnight.

Next day was intensive (Saturday).  11 am we had squash.  12 pm we had bowling.  Then we did some cycling and had a good lunch (omelet and bread and salad).  After lunch, I couldn’t help but to fall asleep.  Probably because of the wine.  Got up two hours later and headed to the water again.  7 pm we had badminton.  I don’t really like badminton therefore I played the piano instead.  Merala hurt her knees. How sad.

Dinner again and some card games.

As for Sunday, we had bowling in the morning and Merala couldn’t come and Dana stayed with her.  I took some picture before lunch and Ioen was a very nice guy.  He was very patience with my picture taking, not like Michel.  I taught them how to play “Black Maria” after lunch and they all hooked onto it.  After that, we had ping pong and badminton again.

And we left Center Park at midnight.  Arrived at Michel’s place at 2am.  Slept at 2:30am.  Got up at 7:30am the next morning.  Kind of harsh and he dropped me off at the railway station.  After that he took his wife to the hospital.

At the evening, I called up Grace and arranged a time and place to meet.  But the restaurant was closed down.  And they didn’t wait for me.  I then located the Hotel (the receptionist was an English and she directed me through the phone.  Her name is Jill and is from Manchester.  I ordered a drink and had a chat with her.  Apparently, she just arrived at Paris and has no friend.  Damn, I should have grabbed the chance.)

Had an informal meeting with Doug and went to TGI Friday’s with Alvin at 11:30 pm.  What else?  Slept at 2 am.

Categories
From the Attic I See I Write

Of Nuclear Transfer and Transgene Technologies

Been a very tiring day (last night’s party) and didn’t really work for the whole day.  Meeting here and meeting there.  Politics and gossips and so on.  Enhancement and bug talk.  You name it.  Lunch time rushed down to “New Men” and collected my pair of trousers.   Japanese for dinner.  What else?  Brought a pair of sport shoes and I am ready to go for my holiday.  One more thing, finally had my haircut appointment.  Still no news from JP.  Probably she has forgotten me.  Wanted to dial in Lotus Notes but the server in Paris does not respond.

Check this out.  The Nuclear Transfer Technology.

The technique involves several steps.  First, the donor cells are grown under special conditions in culture.  In this way the number of cells can be increased by several orders of magnitude.  It is also possible to make genetic modifications and to select just those cells in which the desired modification has occurred and multiply these up.  These cells are then fused with an unfertilized egg from which the introduced nucleus can lead to the formation of an embryo.  The embryos are then transplanted into sheep and lambs are born naturally.

  1. Cells of donor embryo are separated
  2. Chromosomes are removed from the unfertilized egg
  3. Donor cell is place next to oocyte and fused it with an electric current
  4. Embryo develops as though a newly fertilized egg

Check this out as well.  The Transgene Technology

Transgenic technology is the introduction of a gene(s) from one species into the DNA of another.  In the current methods for production of transgenic animals, the gene of interest is introduced into a fertilised egg and becomes integrated into the host DNA.  The gene is linked to a piece of DNA, called the promoter, which makes it active only in certain parts of the transgenic animal.  In PPL Therapeutics’ case, genes encoding human proteins are expressed so that the protein is produced in the animal’s milk.  Because the protein is produced only in the milk, the animal is normal and healthy.