Tag: france

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Diary From the Attic

There Won’t be Any Life Form Beyond Earth

Something really goes wrong with Mohamed and he is offending everybody in the office.  Just this morning, Michel was trying to talk to Mohamed (in a very angry way I suppose) asking him why he never talked to any body.  And asked if he had done any wrong.  Finally he said that he couldn’t work in this office anymore. I really didn’t know what to say but tried to keep quiet.

Wherever I go, I seem to be able to bring joy to people around me.  Today, Aurore was laughing in tears.  But me?  I believe in joy depletion.  On the surface, I may seem very joyful but deep inside, well …

SIR progress was going so well and I am so happy.

Tonight, I went to Michel’s place for dinner.  His brother (John) and sister-in-law (Diane) was there and one of his friend (Ariane) was there too.  John is a painter and he was showing us all the photos of his great work.  Got to say that guy is artistic and we went on and on about inspiration.  They have a dog as well.  One day I may convert into a dog lover.  But one thing about dogs is, it can be very frustrating as their intelligent level is very limited.

And Ariane, that guy is unbelievable.  He is actually a PHD holder and he is now working as a geologist.  And during his university life, he was studying Martian Volcano through satellite images.  Wow!  And he believes that their will not be any life form beyond Earth.  He said that we will not be able to find any life as our perception on life.  Interesting thought.

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Diary From the Attic

Saving Willie

Today, I have finished five SIRs.  Hooray!  Some of the reversal ones are just for a laugh.  Mohamed has been very quiet and unfriendly these few days.  People say that he is afraid of losing his jobs because of all the new people coming in.  I mean, he has known so much that he will not be replaced anyway.  Poor guy.

In the meanwhile, I get really closed to Michel, Mr. VP and Willie.  Felt very good today as I have sent one long message trying to protect Willie from being bullied by Noubi.  Aurore agreed with me and that is the most important thing.

Got the U2 album tonight.  What a long waiting.

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Diary From the Attic

From 4 to 4

Slept at 4 am and got up at 4 pm.  What a life!  I think I am getting very obsessed with my new short story.  I planned to go WH Smiths today but never managed to get up.  What a waste.

Had a big dinner at TGI Friday’s.  Nothing else.  Out.