I woke up with aches all over my body. Always happens on the morning after a soccer game. I went to look for Laurent at 830am and he was having his breakfast. I had a chance to enter his luxurious room. Own bathroom, toilet, a kitchen shared with his neighbour. Wah, really much better than mine. More privacy. But he prefers sharing kitchen with 20 people because it would be easier to mix around. The kitchen is still alright. What I am really envious of is the fridge is shared between two people only! And of course the toilet. No more smelly toilet. He really loves jazz music because all his CDs were of that kind. While waiting for him to finish his breakfast, I saw there was a big wooden board with wheels attached to it. There were some markings and dimensions on it. I asked if he was making his own skateboard. He said something like that, but with a sail attached to it. Really adventurous, the French. Heard they like sky gliding too.
It took us 20 min to reach there and as usual the prefecture is always crowded. When the door opened, we didn’t take the ticket and went straight to the REGIE department. Laurent asked for me about the refund but before he could finish his sentence, the guy at the counter looked at me and said, “ah, monsieur Tan!’. He then asked for my passport and checked my name. After that he took out an envelope with my name on it. Inside was that precious 55 euros. This is the 2nd surprise to me at the prefecture. Initially I thought I might not get back my money given their low efficiency. But they actually remembered my case and prepared everything at the counter. The refund thing took only 5 min. Soon I was out of the prefecture and I would never come back again (I hope I don’t have to but I never know).
I felt quite embarrassed to ask Laurent to come with me because I didn’t know it would be that easy. But it really saved me a lot of time because he was driving and we were back at 920am. Then I spent the entire morning doing my 3rd progress report and by lunch I had almost finished everything. Then Mr. Giant came and told me that we would be going to the Forest of Broceliande this Saturday. He was trying to call the tourism there to organize a guided tour. I took his mobile number and said I would call him on Fri to confirm everything. It was a very late lunch because we had to wait for Nico’s friend to come.
At 2pm, I went out of IRISA to fetch a student from INSA to do my experiment. It wasn’t very troublesome since it was during office hour. On Monday I have a participant coming at 745pm. And I have to go and fetch him all the way from INSA. I wouldn’t be able to leave the office by 830pm I guess. Sian. But still getting this work done is worth it. Ravi asked me to go to his office and from there I took 4 people, with 2 coming next week. And I already have about 3 to 4 students from INSA willing to come down. I am hoping to finish the experiment with 10 participants by Tues, before Anatole returns. This will show my resourcefulness. But I guess I could only finish 8 to 9 by Monday. Still it would impress him I feel. But that means sacrificing my time and energy. Today I passed 3 experiments in a row and I really dozed off during one of them. And I had to keep going to Ravi’s project team to escort the people to my office. But I got to see Marie, the sharp nose girl in her team.
It took us 20 min to reach there and as usual the prefecture is always crowded. When the door opened, we didn’t take the ticket and went straight to the REGIE department. Laurent asked for me about the refund but before he could finish his sentence, the guy at the counter looked at me and said, “ah, monsieur Tan!’. He then asked for my passport and checked my name. After that he took out an envelope with my name on it. Inside was that precious 55 euros. This is the 2nd surprise to me at the prefecture. Initially I thought I might not get back my money given their low efficiency. But they actually remembered my case and prepared everything at the counter. The refund thing took only 5 min. Soon I was out of the prefecture and I would never come back again (I hope I don’t have to but I never know).
I felt quite embarrassed to ask Laurent to come with me because I didn’t know it would be that easy. But it really saved me a lot of time because he was driving and we were back at 920am. Then I spent the entire morning doing my 3rd progress report and by lunch I had almost finished everything. Then Mr. Giant came and told me that we would be going to the Forest of Broceliande this Saturday. He was trying to call the tourism there to organize a guided tour. I took his mobile number and said I would call him on Fri to confirm everything. It was a very late lunch because we had to wait for Nico’s friend to come.
At 2pm, I went out of IRISA to fetch a student from INSA to do my experiment. It wasn’t very troublesome since it was during office hour. On Monday I have a participant coming at 745pm. And I have to go and fetch him all the way from INSA. I wouldn’t be able to leave the office by 830pm I guess. Sian. But still getting this work done is worth it. Ravi asked me to go to his office and from there I took 4 people, with 2 coming next week. And I already have about 3 to 4 students from INSA willing to come down. I am hoping to finish the experiment with 10 participants by Tues, before Anatole returns. This will show my resourcefulness. But I guess I could only finish 8 to 9 by Monday. Still it would impress him I feel. But that means sacrificing my time and energy. Today I passed 3 experiments in a row and I really dozed off during one of them. And I had to keep going to Ravi’s project team to escort the people to my office. But I got to see Marie, the sharp nose girl in her team.
At the end of the day, hui and I were discussing the possibilities of the Loire Valley trip, esp. the accommodations. I waited after 6pm and asked Laurent to call for me the hostels again. This time I am really really very paiseh. Because he helped me this morning, then in the evening printed posters to advertise my experiment and on top of that, he was rushing some sort of report. Really owe him a big one. In the end there were no beds for the hostels and hui and I decided on a 2 star hotel. That was when I made a mistake. The hotel was relatively cheap and after I had booked online, it then said that I had to pay 9 euros more for taxes. I was looking out for any extra charges or handling fees but couldn’t find any. At the moment I submitted the VISA details, it then stated that I have to pay that tax. I guess the tax is written somewhere on the website but just that I was rushing and didn’t read properly. Only had myself to blame. But I guess I would go ahead with the booking even if I knew of the tax. Just that I didn’t like to be shocked and informed later. Throughout the planning, hui said he is anything, leave the decision to me. I know he is trying to make things easier for me but I want to tell him it isn’t. Cos I am not an expert or have lots of experiences in this. I would prefer he share the burden of planning. I don’t think he would blame me if I made any blunders in the planning. But it would make me blame myself more because I did everything myself and am solely responsible for any mistakes. I guess this little meet up at the Loire Valley would clear all our misunderstandings. Also I can get my ideas across to him directly about our final tour. I don’t want it to be my one-man show.
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