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Yes, well, umm.
Jun. 28th, 2003 10:46 pmOK, first off, apologies for being completely absent for the last couple of days and not commenting on people's entries that probably contain massively exciting stuff. I haven't even had a chance to read them.
So, yeah, I've been spending time with Sam, who's in Paris right now, and generally having a manic last few days. As tends to happen when Sam's around. A word of warning to anyone who knows Sam and will be seeing him shortly... or even in the next few years. You know his hair? Like, the stuff that won him a certain award at the G&S annual dinner a few years back? Well, it's gone. Not quite so bad as when !Paul cuts his hair, but that's usually more of a relief in the first place. ;) But Nancy (his sister) simply chopped it off, apparently will you nill you, although there is footage on Sam's new digital camera of him looking perfectly content while the process is underway. Anyway, he didn't see fit to warn me, and I think I nearly had a heart attack. So I thought it only fair to warn everybody so that you can all quietly have your heart attacks in front of the compute screen, not in front of Sam.
In any case, I spent Thursday evening down in Gif-sur-Yvette, where Sam's friend Nic lives. It's in zone 5 and takes about twenty minutes to get to; very sweet little suburban town. Sam and I sang Tom Lehrer songs and stuff from Les Mis, as Nic has a very nice piano in his apartment. Then we stopped because Nic says the neighbors only have so much tolerance and ate dinner instead. We had roast chicken, which was nice. We then took a walk, and Sam and Nic had a stick fight on top of a leat gate (I think that's what it's called). When we got back, we sat there drinking wine, until Nic saw fit to inform me that unless I left literally that second, I was going to miss the last train, and it might be too late anyway. So I opted to stay there for the night and return in the morning.
The next day, Friday, was the last day of class, and we had a picnic in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Lots of fun. Cheese, wine, Spanish omelette, exchange of e-mail addresses, etc. Then Sam and I met back up with Nic, and the three of us headed up to Montmartre/Pigalle to meet up with Nic's friend Chloe, eat dinner, and go to a jazz club, in that order. Chloe was nice, dinner was fine, and the jazz club was a small, out-of-the-way (and nearly inaccessible) little room, where a jazz band was playing very modern stuff that at first sounded cacophonous but grew on you. Sadly, I was also very tired and kept falling asleep. It was dark in there.
At about 5 minutes to midnight I pointed out the time to Nic, who simply nodded. At about twenty past midnight, the band stopped playing, and Nic commented that he and Sam had missed the last train. So Nic stayed with Chloe and Sam stayed with me. This meant I got a chance to attack Sam's copy of Harry Potter. From the bit I've read so far, my verdict is: it's like reading exceedingly good fan-fiction. You can't quite believe things are going the way they are, but it's really cool all the same. And ah, the revelations! And ah, the amusing similarities to so many pieces of actual fan-fiction! :) I can also say that Rowling's writing has improved by about three hundred percent, not only since she started writing, but even since Goblet of Fire. Her word-choice has become so much more lyrical.
Anyway, we met up again with Nic and Chloe for lunch, which we ate in the Jardin des Tuileries at a nice little restaurant. Then we strolled around, including along the riverbank, and Chloe, who works for the Port Authority by contracting other people to do work, pointed out that some cars travelling on a barge down the river were the result of yesterday's work, and I got my vast number of pictures developed (I'll have to get a few reprinted, but c'est la vie), and we went and had some beer.
Then I went home and labelled pictures, and then I headed off to see Les Enfants de la Pluie, which I actually understood a good deal of. At least enough to basically follow the story; there were certainly large bits that I didn't catch most of, but my conception of the basic plot was fine. The visual story helped a lot too, of course, I'm sure.
Anyway, that's that, and I will post about Versailles as soon as I get the chance. Probably tomorrow, given that after that I won't be in Paris anyway.
So, yeah, I've been spending time with Sam, who's in Paris right now, and generally having a manic last few days. As tends to happen when Sam's around. A word of warning to anyone who knows Sam and will be seeing him shortly... or even in the next few years. You know his hair? Like, the stuff that won him a certain award at the G&S annual dinner a few years back? Well, it's gone. Not quite so bad as when !Paul cuts his hair, but that's usually more of a relief in the first place. ;) But Nancy (his sister) simply chopped it off, apparently will you nill you, although there is footage on Sam's new digital camera of him looking perfectly content while the process is underway. Anyway, he didn't see fit to warn me, and I think I nearly had a heart attack. So I thought it only fair to warn everybody so that you can all quietly have your heart attacks in front of the compute screen, not in front of Sam.
In any case, I spent Thursday evening down in Gif-sur-Yvette, where Sam's friend Nic lives. It's in zone 5 and takes about twenty minutes to get to; very sweet little suburban town. Sam and I sang Tom Lehrer songs and stuff from Les Mis, as Nic has a very nice piano in his apartment. Then we stopped because Nic says the neighbors only have so much tolerance and ate dinner instead. We had roast chicken, which was nice. We then took a walk, and Sam and Nic had a stick fight on top of a leat gate (I think that's what it's called). When we got back, we sat there drinking wine, until Nic saw fit to inform me that unless I left literally that second, I was going to miss the last train, and it might be too late anyway. So I opted to stay there for the night and return in the morning.
The next day, Friday, was the last day of class, and we had a picnic in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Lots of fun. Cheese, wine, Spanish omelette, exchange of e-mail addresses, etc. Then Sam and I met back up with Nic, and the three of us headed up to Montmartre/Pigalle to meet up with Nic's friend Chloe, eat dinner, and go to a jazz club, in that order. Chloe was nice, dinner was fine, and the jazz club was a small, out-of-the-way (and nearly inaccessible) little room, where a jazz band was playing very modern stuff that at first sounded cacophonous but grew on you. Sadly, I was also very tired and kept falling asleep. It was dark in there.
At about 5 minutes to midnight I pointed out the time to Nic, who simply nodded. At about twenty past midnight, the band stopped playing, and Nic commented that he and Sam had missed the last train. So Nic stayed with Chloe and Sam stayed with me. This meant I got a chance to attack Sam's copy of Harry Potter. From the bit I've read so far, my verdict is: it's like reading exceedingly good fan-fiction. You can't quite believe things are going the way they are, but it's really cool all the same. And ah, the revelations! And ah, the amusing similarities to so many pieces of actual fan-fiction! :) I can also say that Rowling's writing has improved by about three hundred percent, not only since she started writing, but even since Goblet of Fire. Her word-choice has become so much more lyrical.
Anyway, we met up again with Nic and Chloe for lunch, which we ate in the Jardin des Tuileries at a nice little restaurant. Then we strolled around, including along the riverbank, and Chloe, who works for the Port Authority by contracting other people to do work, pointed out that some cars travelling on a barge down the river were the result of yesterday's work, and I got my vast number of pictures developed (I'll have to get a few reprinted, but c'est la vie), and we went and had some beer.
Then I went home and labelled pictures, and then I headed off to see Les Enfants de la Pluie, which I actually understood a good deal of. At least enough to basically follow the story; there were certainly large bits that I didn't catch most of, but my conception of the basic plot was fine. The visual story helped a lot too, of course, I'm sure.
Anyway, that's that, and I will post about Versailles as soon as I get the chance. Probably tomorrow, given that after that I won't be in Paris anyway.
