V for Vendetta

saw it last night, and it was really good. it reminds one of how easy it is for the government to make people believe what they want and how important it is to question things in general. and yes, i've heard and read the whole thing about how it basically conveys the idea that terrorrism is a good thing in certain cases, but i don't really see how it differs from so many other films where you see governments ordering various people to be killed because they are a threat to 'the country'. the idea being that it is a movie, and as a movie, it is worth watching.

date guy 3

out of all the people i've met on the net, i met a Dane. yep. and after playing the message game on the phone for a week, we finally managed to make contact. talking on the phone with him was a lot of fun (reminded me of talking with my best friend - same accent and same topics), so we met up the next day. and it was fun. but as time went on, it seemed that everything he said had to be fun, and nothing was ever serious. he certainly didn't seem to understand why i wouldn't jump on the occasion of joining the Nordic Club, like Scandinavians had to stick together.

we were at Starbucks (not my choice), and he asked if i wanted another drink. it was after 8pm and i hadn't eaten much all day (work!), so i was more hungry than thirsty, and, seen as we seemed to otherwise get along, i said so. this seemed to surprise him. he made a face, then said he was going to grab himself another coffee. i wasn't expecting him to take me out, or anything. i mean, having a sandwich would have done fine, and i'd have paid for it, but either way, he didn't really seem to care.

i think i much prefer my nice Canadian from the other day, who, among other things, seems a bit more in touch with real life. i definitely think there's more potential in him. time will tell...

my weekend

a bit wild, my weekend was. well, maybe wild is the wrong word. very full.

met up with a friend for lunch. she'd said she had other things to do later, but by the time we met, she'd decided she wasn't going to do what she'd planned, so that we spent about 4 hours together in the end. we got lots of sun, too, as the weekend was dishing out long lost sun hours, so that by the time i got back home, i was quite tired. then i went back into town, again, and had dinner with a couple of friends i hadn't seen in a while (she's working for the ICRC in Guinea, so it's not like she's around a lot). we were all pretty exhausted, though, so we left at 9.30, and i was back home at about 10pm. i thought of watching tv, but i was too tired, went to bed, and only woke up twelve hours later!

and that was the big day, as i had a date with another guy i'd met online. we met in front of the botanical garden, which i'd never been to, and we walked around it for hours, then along the lake, and ended up in a coffee shop. until then, we'd basically gone through a long round of 20-questions, but once we were sitting down across from each other, we got onto a totally 'neutral' topic (work), and we started chatting away, so that i got much more out of that half an hour than i did out of the whole stroll. so, a positive experience. we'll see how things go next time we meet.

i had to leave, incidentally, cos i wanted to apply for a job, and it was one of those things you do online where you first have to input all types of info, which takes forever. and it did. mind you, i wasn't helped by the fact another friend, who'd just come back from a week's holiday in LA, came by for an impromptu dinner. we had fun, though.

i finally went to bed at close to midnight, and was none too happy when i woke up Monday morning...

minor catastrophes

so, back from a long Easter weekend to find that several things had happened.

1. my computer screen refused to work. had to take it to the shop for repairs. will be back in 3 weeks. luckily, my old laptop still had some life in it!

2. what i thought to be just a small amount of water leaking in my garage turns out to be much more. well, there's water leaking along the external walls of the building too, and it could potentially be quite serious, although hopefully, not at all anything to do with me but with the building itself, and thus, not for me to pay for. i'm really hoping.

3. the super-resistant i-can-carry-huge-amounts-of-weight-forever revolving shelf in my 10-year-garanteed Ikea kitchen has collapsed, leaving me to a) figure out how to get it out (it's attached, among other things, to the counter), b) find out whether i can get it replaced in Switzerland although i bought it in France, and c) actually get a new one and install it.

luckily, the weather is currently amazing, so i did a spot of sunbathing on my huge balcony, which, let's face it, relaxes me more than anything else right now.

11 things i did this weekend

i spent all weekend with my best friend S. and her partner, who'd come down for a weekend visit after many years of aborted attempts. we:

- got a little sunburnt
- went to the pub
- toured the Saturday-morning open-air market
- walked along the Leman lake
- visited a cathedral
- visited the excavation under the cathedral (gets a mention cos it was on a different day)
- walked a lot
- went to my favourite cafe
- ate a lot of good food
- reminisced
- drank surprising little

The Adventures of the Archaeologist

the Archaeologist came back from a much needed break to find chaos on site. her Supervisor had come up with a 'brilliant' idea just before she left, which was supposedly being implemented 'soon'. as noone had told her anything within two days of coming back, however, the Archaeologist had - naively - assumed this idea was currently off the maps, when she found out through a fellow Digger that it wasn't. she then went to ask someone about it, only to find out the new plan was going through, but it was ignoring her working hours. the Supervisor then went and changed it all to a more viable plan. the following day, the Site Director called the Archaeologist into her caravan, to check she'd seen the new timetable - she hadn't, and she certainly hadn't expected to be loosing working hours over it - and say it would start the following Monday. so when, the next day, one of the Supervisors asked her what she'd been told about the plan, she told him what she knew, which apparently was news to the Supervisor. after a brief survey of all concerned, it turned out everyone had conflicting information. the Diggers then turned to the Supervisors, who by then were apparently sick of the Site Director and refused to talk to her. just great. when the lowly Diggers pointed out it'd be nice to know what was going on, and this was really their doing, so could they please find out, they said that the Diggers would have to talk to the Site Director themselves - totally unprofessional. this angered one of the Diggers who slammed a caravan door saying she'd quit if she didn't get more info. so the Archaeologist was left with the task of finding out. she went to the Site Director, who said - again - that it was all go as of Monday, that she'd told everyone and how could people be confused about it.

so there we go. much ado about nothing, you could say, but three slightly pissed off Diggers, whose working hours - and thus, pay - have gone down, two Supervisors who basically wish the Site Director to die, and a lot of otherwise bewildered people all round...

a week in Japan

amazingly, i managed to pretty much see everyone i wanted to see, do everything i wanted to do (including going to a hotspring), and buy everything i wanted to buy. i also ate tons of Japanese food and spent loads of money on transportation, but didn't spend quite enough time doing karaoke (the first night i was exhausted from not having slept two nights in a row, the second one everyone wanted to go home early). all in all, i had a great time. i can't believe i packed in so many things in that short week...