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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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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

Zero SIR is a Dream

Yesterday was Friday and I have totally forgotten that. I even asked Willie do French people say to each other “Bon Weekend” even on Thursday.

Stayed kind of quite late in the office and had a good chat with Aurore regarding on the project matters.  Man, I feel good when the number of SIR is approaching zero.  I am free!  I am free!

Saturday morning, always the same.  Actually planned to wake up early to do some shopping for my coming trip next weekend but I failed to do so.  I ended up doing shopping starting from 4 pm, which was definitely not enough as all the shops close at 7 pm.  But I managed to get my sport gear and some nice casual wears.  Got to say shopping without looking very much at the price tags made me feel good.  Just charge in.

And composed a letter for JP.  Most probably that will put an end to our relationship.  I don’t know what I am doing at all but I guess that is for our own good.  Right devoted myself in writing a short story.

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Diary From the Attic

Out with My Clients

Communicating with Willie gets more and more difficult.  I know he is a very cheerful person but I can feel that he was very frustrating today.  And me too!  I mean I have to explain the same thing several times and he still couldn’t get it.  He insisted in solving the problem himself (and the problem was so easily resolved).  I guess each person has his own pride and I just have to respect that.  I feel really sorry for him and still trying to figure out a solution.

Spent most of the day trying to help others and no one helped me at all.  But slowly I worked.  That is okay as I think I still have some extra time (I hope).

And unexpectedly, I had a dinner with Aurore, Nicolas and Larrent.  Kind of a very strange combination as Aurore and Larrent is rumored to be very closed to each other.  Nicolas was driving and man, driving in Paris and no joke.

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Diary From the Attic

An Unexpected Dinner Invitation

It was Monday morning and I was so glad that I was back to work.  At least there was someone I could talk to.  Miracle happened and I woke up at 6:30 am.  And I couldn’t go back to sleep.  Therefore I replied a few emails to my friends and sister and went to work at 8:30 am.  Anyway, I had a very important status report to write (to all the SocGen big bosses this time).  And I promised to give Nicholas and Willie a SIR to work with.  Spent the whole afternoon doing the BG transaction advice SIR and probably will spend the next two days doing the BG reversal advice.  It’s so boring, but that’s work.

Unexpectedly, Michel invited me to have a dinner with his wife.  Initially, we were talking about Chinese Food and I told him that I can never find a good Chinese restaurant in Paris.  And he told me that there were quite a few good ones near where he lived.

So I said, okay I would come with you if you don’t mind.  By the time we arrived at the train station near his place, his wife was already waiting in the car.  And they drove me to their place and had aperitif (whisky for me).  And we drove down to a Chinese restaurant.  That waiter didn’t speak Cantonese at all.  What a disappointment.  The food was good and we chatted quite a fair bit.  Michel was a good translator (as his wife, Mirela, doesn’t speak English at all).  We talked a bit about Romania as well (where they are from).  They planned to take me out one weekend.  How nice! (And they played Mylene Farmer in the car, just perfect)

One of the happiest night in Paris.

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Diary From the Attic

5 Hotel Staff Greeted Me Goodnight

Today was Friday and I felt like working on Saturday.  I was so tired and I promised myself to sleep early today.  I am so proud of my typing as I am now getting used to the French Keyboard and it is so pleasant so use.  My observation is that everything is mindset.  And as you are used to it, you will feel very comfortable with it.  Don’t you agree?

Everybody was so tired today.  But in general the mood was good.  I was especially in a jolly mood (not thinking about weekend helped).  I cracked a lot of happy moments today, don’t know why.

One of the topic from Nick was the difference with the French and English women.  And we talked a bit about the definition of romance.

Michel’s 5 SIR has been finished.  What a tough week with all the reversals.  But he was happy and I was happy.  As for Willie, he was really very hard to talk to but I tried to be very patience.  But I think I have failed badly.  Really feel guilty.  Got to do better next week.

Somehow, me and Michel found that the New Sophie (still don’t know her name) is kind of more pleasant and approachable as compare to Sophie.  And the new guy Laurant as well.  But according to Aurore the other night, the Function Team always like that.  When they first joined, they are fine and after a few months, well …

Went all the way to see my “relative” again in order to get the bank address.  Although I hate to go all the way to Saint Mande, I always feel good after seeing them. Somewhere, someone is proud of me as they have seen me “grow”.

First, a group of black guys walked into the train talking to me in French, I just smiled.  Second a musician walked in and sang “Let It Be”.  When I walked out of the station, I saw Sophie’s Boss.  Then I walked into the Hotel, 5 staff greeted me goodnight.  What a night!

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Diary From the Attic

Just Not My Day

Didn’t have a good sleep to start with, the day was not as good as it was supposed to by.  After all, it was Monday.  Sophie’s successor has finally arrived, not at all as attractive as Sophie.  Don’t think the New Sophie will be able to move the Technical Team to do whatever she wants.

Really fed up with Willie, he was so slow that I really couldn’t stand him.  And he just didn’t like to ask and pretended that he understood every single words I said.  I bet he didn’t.  And Michel was suffering with my Reversal Advice SIR.  He wanted a big SIR, I gave him one.  Now, he knows how tough life can be.  Ha!  But it is fun working with Michel.

Had a phone call with JP. Can’t believe that she doubts my faithfulness.  Set aside I doubt hers.

What a lousy day.

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Diary From the Attic

I’m an Idiot

Yesterday I felt like a superhuman, today I felt like an idiot.  Well, I think I still have a lot to learn in real working life.

Aurore and Noubi was not with me the whole day as they had a demo to do with the Spanish.  Sophie was sick so I was pretty freed of distraction.  Had a nice phone call with my girlfriend and the Florist drove me insane. I still couldn’t get hold of them.

Stayed late quite a fair bit with Mohamed and Wilfrid (French) and finally found that they run a wrong version of VTF, as I had suspected.