"Anticipation has a habit you set you up for disappointment in evening entertainment but tonight there'll be some love"

Hey honeys, I'm home!

A recap is in order, I feel.
On Wednesday last week I was honoured to be invited round to CunningLinguist's place for a meal & a smoke. I had a wonderful time. I was also delighted to meet his very lovely wife, LongLostSister?, who is the first person I've ever met who shares my pride in having the ability to spot songs by hearing just the first note. We actually put our powers to the test against each other. I triumphed on 80's pop but had to bow down to her awesome knowledge of classic rock. Even without that, it was a great evening. I also very much enjoyed the rather scrummy chocolate cake that LongLostSister? prepared for us. It may have looked like asphalt but it tasted like heaven! We slowly got stoned while we chatted the night away. I was very sad that the evening went far too quickly.I hope it speaks volumes about the sort of person I am, that of all my English & American colleagues nobody else has built the sort of bond with any of the French guys that I am so very happy to have done.
I left about half past midnight & undertook the short walk back to my hotel.
As it was March 1st, I selected "The scientist" as the first song to soundtrack my saunter through the night. I had a lovely time, happily stoned & simultaneously reveling in the sweet memories that Coldplay's loveliest song bring to the fore & soaking up my surroundings in the beautiful city that I would be leaving some 36 hours later.
As I walked through the lobby of the hotel one of the staff, a very nice French lady, called out to me with a smile; "Hey! Get to bed & go to sleep!". I returned the smile with a salute & a "Yes ma'am". That little exchange just served to underline what a wonderful evening I'd had.

Due to logistic issues, Thursday became my last day at work. It was nice to say goodbye to all the guys on the plant, even if it was in utterly crap French; "Err...Demain, Je suis... err.. retour a Anglerterre (complete with the international hand signal for flying!)... errr... et non.... (another flying sign) ..err..non plus Francais...err...bon chance & au revoir". Judging by the warm handshakes & pleasant wishes I received it would seem that I managed to get the point across.

Then, of course, it was time for the big night out. I was delighted with the turn out. Including myself there were 11 of us. We started off by having a meal in my favourite restaurant, the Indian where I've become a friend of the proprietor & his sons. They said it was a very sad day because I was leaving. When I left they insisted on saying goodbye in proper French style, it was the first time that I'd taken part in the whole kissing both cheeks thing & I felt very pleased that I'd made such a favourable impression on these guys. I also felt like I'd really intergrated in with the Lyonnais, which was bon!
Here's the gang from the Indian:
Left side, foreground to background: FunnyYankeeRobotGuy, AnotherForestFool, Merciless, NewFemme.
Right side; BatleyBruiser, Some dodgy bloke who looks awful in all these pictures because he's put soooo much weight on due to eating out & drinking beer almost every night for 3 and a half months, UpTheFoxes, ShutYourMouse & Boss.





My Indian cuisine buddys.












After many a beer & a scrummy feed we mosied down Le Rue de Saint Jean a few yards till we descended en masse upon the St. James' pub. Here we were joined by CunningLinguist & NorfolkChad.
As you would expect the beer (& then the vodka & cranberries) flowed freely & a great laugh was had by all.
















It was 10 by the time we hit the pub, so it came as no surprise when some people started drifting off. Merciless & Boss were the first to slip away, the rest stayed past midnight. By half 12 though we were down to 5. Myself & AnotherForestFool (who has gone out to Lyon to replace me) & the 3 French folk. The 5 of us stayed until chucking out time at 2 am.
Then we couldn't get a taxi to take 5 of us so we walked. NewFemme lives very close to the old internet place I used to use when I first arrived. Then with much joking & general tomfoolery the remaining 4 guys wandered back to the hotel, where ShutYourMouse was put in a taxi for his journey out to the suburbs, after some hugs & a fond farewell. CunningLinguist & AnotherForestFool came up to my room where we had a quick spliff. Then I said my goodbyes to CunningLinguist who went back to his nearby flat. And that was that.
By crikey, I felt like shite on Friday morning, I tell thee.

After a delayed flight, I finally arrived home at 3pm.
Since then I've just been getting my head round the fact that I'm not going back to France after the weekend. Nor am I going to work. I've booked a week off so I can get my head round the horrible prospect of going back to the mindnumbing dullness of my day to day routine back in the lab. I am absolutely dreading it.
I've also sorted my broadband out, so I'm gonna be properly back in Blogland now (not to mention getting hold of lots & lots of new tunes).

A little while ago I told you that I had done something that I had always wanted to do but had never gotten round to doing. I also offered readers the opportunity to guess what this thing was. Only the lovely devoted Spins offered a guess (which was wrong, though she did later get it right in an e-mail), so time to reveal all: With this picture of the top of my left arm.

What do you think?
I'm well happy with it.










Right, I'm off do get a cushion for this chair so I can comfortably sit here for hours while I catch up on the blogs that I have had to neglect.
See you at yours in a bit, ok?