The morning was spent on coding technique 2 which I had left off from yesterday. I have by now abandoned technique 1. At around 1030am, I felt that I should be able to complete a substantiate part of it by Friday. I went to find Nicolas as I needed to trouble him to call the repairman for me. Although I am quite at ease with the colleagues by now, still I felt paiseh to open my mouth for the favour. Even back in Singapore, I always felt embarrassed to ask people for help. I always prefer to do things by myself. The line as expected was busy and he said he would try again later. I felt really bad because I am leaving a problem to him. I asked both him and Jean-Marie whether they are playing soccer this Thurs and both said no. For Jean-Marie it was too late (guess he had to go back and take care of his baby). Nicolas said he is rushing to finish his PhD paper. He also mentioned that he would be too busy to have lunch later. Wah!!! Make me doubly guilty.
Again when it was lunchtime, I had to wait for the rest of the guys to finish off their last bit of work. So I went to Jaroslav and played his wooden Kendo sword. Pascal mentioned that it is not exactly a Kendo sword as it is too hard. A real Kendo sword is lighter and is made of bamboo not wood. I was an idiot at first because I didn’t notice it was a wooden sword and tried to pull it out of its scabbard. Moron! Jaro was dumb founded when he saw what I was doing. He thought I was going to break his sword. After making a fool of myself, I asked him about Loire Valley as I was having a headache planning for a tour to this place. Loire Valley stretched from Orleans to Tours, across 2 regions of France right at her heart. I could only spare a max. of 3 days in the valley and didn’t know which city or town should I go to so that I can tour the most number of castles. He said he had never been there before but according to his friend, he can cover 2 castles in a day. Later he tried to find the map for that region from the net and said it isn’t very far from Rennes, just 200km. Again he was thinking about going there by car which is impossible for me. Mathieu joined in the discussion and he too had never been there before. But he said Sebastien had. He then gave me 2 euros for the food ticket I gave him yesterday as he had ran out of his. I declined of course.
Soon the rest of the guys were ready and on the way to the restaurant, I asked Sebastien if he had been to the Loire Valley and asked him for some advice. He said, “Yes!!! I have been there! When I was a boy!” Wah lao, useless. He said he had no memories already but personally he prefers the castle in Disneyland Paris. He recommended me to go there instead. Kao, joker. After lunch we had a cup of coffee at the cafeteria and I asked the other Nicolas if he could give me a lift to the soccer place. Vincent will not be playing as he is away on conference in South Africa and hence I can’t take his car. Tomorrow night we are really short of players and it will be at 10pm. Going to wake up late again on Friday. But just as well because Friday I had to service my lamp. The news I got from the repairman (thanks to Nicolas) was that I had to go the office and get a new bulb and change it myself. I asked Nicolas that meant no one will come and repair for me and he said don’t worry it is very easy. Yah I know, but this wasn’t what I expected. Anyway, what has to be done, has to be done. Then they asked if I am going to Paris and I said probably no because no news from my friend yet. Jaro said that it is too short to spend just a weekend in Paris but I told him I wanted to meet a Singaporean. I am dying to speak Singlish and he asked me to speak Singlish with him, just pretend that he is a Singaporean. I told him I can’t, not that I don’t want. Then Mathieu said he learnt from another SG friend who is no longer here, a Chinese game called “5 10” (the drinking hand guessing game) and can even say 5 and 10 in Cantonese. Then they requested me to say some Singlish and I found that I can’t do it perfectly! My leh, lor, lah sounded very fake and they didn’t see anything unique about that. I actually was trying to show off Singlish and promoting it. But I guess I failed.
Read hui’s blog and he mentioned that I am becoming a SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) and soon girls will be after me. Hahaha. Outdated liao lah. Now is NRBHNRBA (Nan Ren Bu Huai Nu Ren Bu Ai) times (man no bad woman no like). After 4pm, I was again surfing the net to find out more info about the Loire Valley, which is really disturbing because of its inaccessibility. Then, Mathieu came in with a report and asked me to help him vet the grammar. Apparently, he and some other colleagues had submitted a paper some time back, and the feedback they got from the reviewers wasn’t very nice. So they had a rebuttal document and wanted me to help them correct the English. After half an hour, I made some minor amendments to the paper. I guess this is the least I can repay them for their helps to me from day one till now. I would definitely need more of their help in future. The rest of the day was spent on Loire Valley and finally I had narrowed down the scope to this:
1. arrive in Tours (base)
2. Castle Chenonceaux which is the most beautiful one in Loire Valley and perhaps in Europe.
3. Castle Azay Le Rideau. Smaller one by the river but also very famous.
4. Castle Villandry which has an extravagant garden
All these 3 castles are within 30min of train or coach from Tours. And Tours itself is worth visiting of course where there is a palace or something in which Jean of Arc met the Daulphin (literally in French meant Dolphin which means the heir to the throne).
5. Then from Tours we have to shift base to Blois, a town in the middle of the valley
6. Castle Chambord, largest castle in the valley. It is a castle built not for defence but for royal hunting. And the interior is very unique with a twin spiral staircase designed by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Again when it was lunchtime, I had to wait for the rest of the guys to finish off their last bit of work. So I went to Jaroslav and played his wooden Kendo sword. Pascal mentioned that it is not exactly a Kendo sword as it is too hard. A real Kendo sword is lighter and is made of bamboo not wood. I was an idiot at first because I didn’t notice it was a wooden sword and tried to pull it out of its scabbard. Moron! Jaro was dumb founded when he saw what I was doing. He thought I was going to break his sword. After making a fool of myself, I asked him about Loire Valley as I was having a headache planning for a tour to this place. Loire Valley stretched from Orleans to Tours, across 2 regions of France right at her heart. I could only spare a max. of 3 days in the valley and didn’t know which city or town should I go to so that I can tour the most number of castles. He said he had never been there before but according to his friend, he can cover 2 castles in a day. Later he tried to find the map for that region from the net and said it isn’t very far from Rennes, just 200km. Again he was thinking about going there by car which is impossible for me. Mathieu joined in the discussion and he too had never been there before. But he said Sebastien had. He then gave me 2 euros for the food ticket I gave him yesterday as he had ran out of his. I declined of course.
Soon the rest of the guys were ready and on the way to the restaurant, I asked Sebastien if he had been to the Loire Valley and asked him for some advice. He said, “Yes!!! I have been there! When I was a boy!” Wah lao, useless. He said he had no memories already but personally he prefers the castle in Disneyland Paris. He recommended me to go there instead. Kao, joker. After lunch we had a cup of coffee at the cafeteria and I asked the other Nicolas if he could give me a lift to the soccer place. Vincent will not be playing as he is away on conference in South Africa and hence I can’t take his car. Tomorrow night we are really short of players and it will be at 10pm. Going to wake up late again on Friday. But just as well because Friday I had to service my lamp. The news I got from the repairman (thanks to Nicolas) was that I had to go the office and get a new bulb and change it myself. I asked Nicolas that meant no one will come and repair for me and he said don’t worry it is very easy. Yah I know, but this wasn’t what I expected. Anyway, what has to be done, has to be done. Then they asked if I am going to Paris and I said probably no because no news from my friend yet. Jaro said that it is too short to spend just a weekend in Paris but I told him I wanted to meet a Singaporean. I am dying to speak Singlish and he asked me to speak Singlish with him, just pretend that he is a Singaporean. I told him I can’t, not that I don’t want. Then Mathieu said he learnt from another SG friend who is no longer here, a Chinese game called “5 10” (the drinking hand guessing game) and can even say 5 and 10 in Cantonese. Then they requested me to say some Singlish and I found that I can’t do it perfectly! My leh, lor, lah sounded very fake and they didn’t see anything unique about that. I actually was trying to show off Singlish and promoting it. But I guess I failed.
Read hui’s blog and he mentioned that I am becoming a SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) and soon girls will be after me. Hahaha. Outdated liao lah. Now is NRBHNRBA (Nan Ren Bu Huai Nu Ren Bu Ai) times (man no bad woman no like). After 4pm, I was again surfing the net to find out more info about the Loire Valley, which is really disturbing because of its inaccessibility. Then, Mathieu came in with a report and asked me to help him vet the grammar. Apparently, he and some other colleagues had submitted a paper some time back, and the feedback they got from the reviewers wasn’t very nice. So they had a rebuttal document and wanted me to help them correct the English. After half an hour, I made some minor amendments to the paper. I guess this is the least I can repay them for their helps to me from day one till now. I would definitely need more of their help in future. The rest of the day was spent on Loire Valley and finally I had narrowed down the scope to this:
1. arrive in Tours (base)
2. Castle Chenonceaux which is the most beautiful one in Loire Valley and perhaps in Europe.
3. Castle Azay Le Rideau. Smaller one by the river but also very famous.
4. Castle Villandry which has an extravagant garden
All these 3 castles are within 30min of train or coach from Tours. And Tours itself is worth visiting of course where there is a palace or something in which Jean of Arc met the Daulphin (literally in French meant Dolphin which means the heir to the throne).
5. Then from Tours we have to shift base to Blois, a town in the middle of the valley
6. Castle Chambord, largest castle in the valley. It is a castle built not for defence but for royal hunting. And the interior is very unique with a twin spiral staircase designed by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Too bad we wouldn’t have time to visit Orleans, where there should be some sites related to Jean of Arc again. I just find this type of medieval stuff too appealing to resist.
At the end of the day, we decided that it is necessary to cut short the stay in other places or simply drop one of them to accommodate the Loire Valley trip. I would have to plan later. And for this weekend, a trip to Paris would not be likely and I have decided to go to Nantes, which is at the mouth of the river leading into Loire Valley. Hopefully I can get more info from there.
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