Packing

Je me suis reveillee en sursaut en pensant "Ah! Faut que je fasse le menage de la cour! vite!' J'ai remplis 5-6 gros sacs noirs de dechets et de bouteilles. Sal et Dan m'ont beaucoup aide a ranger, nettoyer, j'ai completement vide ma chambre et je leur ai laisse toute sortes d'affaires de douche et de la bouffe. je suis allee fermer mon compte de banque, et quand j'ai realise que Seb avait ma carte memoire de camera j'ai pense "Shoots.... more farewells... i thought I was done crying!!!"
So I want to Magdelene Bridge one last time to get my memory card and say bye to a few people. Annnd then some more farewells at Silver Bridge to give back the not-waterproof canopy. Vero and Andrew picked me up around 3pm and the last people I said bye to were Sal and Dan. Man I'm going to miss them! They were like brothers and sisters to me (sometimes even parents...). Well, I'll go to to Australia sometime, for their wedding!

Saturday night was relaxing, we had dinner with Eric and Alex and talked all night and I spent my last night at my sister's house.

i heart Brighton

Last weekend, gotta love the nice sunny weather!
Let's spend some time with family. We went to Li and Stu's house in Brighton and spent the whole afternoon downtown, to check out the sea and a few pubs. I had the best lasagna in the world back at their place and then we left to go out again, and I must say I had an amazing night! We did a lot of walking, we even stopped by the beach so I could dip my feet in the ocean. The weather was perfect, the sky was starry and Stu was funny. We didn't come home too late because tomorrow is the flight to Canadia...

DA BBQ IN DA BACKYARD

Wow.
I got up to start cleaning in my room, started packing, bought some last-minute food for the BBQ and left. For the last time, I went punting on the River Cam, with Lizzie, Amy, Nick on a stick and Olivia. The weather was PERFECT! It was one of my best days in my whole life! We had picnic on the punt, and right from the start, I jumped the Mathematical Bridge. it wasn't too hard, there's a lot of wooden railing and the others were careful not too punt away too fast. What I didn't know is that the hiring manager, Tony, was watching from Silver Bridge. Woops!

On s'est rendus jusqu'au bout de la riviere et en passant sous Magdalene bridge, evidemment, pour la derniere fois, je me suis fais vider 3-4 verres d'eau glacee sur la tete. Je me suis levee brusquement, et Nick yavait qu'a me donner une petite pousse pour que je tombe en bas du bateau. C'etait frette! M'semble que j'suis dans la riviere souvent ces temps-ci! On a punte presque 2 heures. En revenant, j'ai saute Trinity Bridge. It's the tradition! I had to! And I did a good job as well! je suis pas mal fiere de moi, y faut beaucoup de force pour grimper le pont. C'est comme de l'escalade. Ya au moins trois tours sur la riviere, dont Kate et Nic, qui se sont arretes pour regarder et applaudir. Yay!

After that last punting trip (*sigh*) I was hanging around the steps at Silver Bridge, I just couldn't leave. I don't WANT to go home! And there Tony walked out of the office and I knew what was left for me to do. I got a cup of ice cold water and emptied it down his back. And now I can go home. i surprised maria and Sal sticking papers all over the walls that said "Blame Canada" with polar bears, mooses, beavers and Prime ministers. Canadian flags everywhere and a banner that sayd "Goodby Julie we'll miss you" and "Bon voyage". Awww! I started setting up the canopy with Ondrej and Dan, and when it suddenly started to rain, we relaised the canopy wasn't waterproof at all. So Dan had to drive quickly to buy two giant blue tarps that we managed to hang up with rope, the way my dad would set up a tent after forgetting the poles. it wasn't superb, but it was dry.
People started showing up, at 7:30, Nickie, Pete the manager, and so on, and I put my short white dress on over jeans. Lovely. The first ones helped out getting the food outside, emptying the water that was accumulating on the blue tarps, setting up the radio and speakers just out the window of the main floor housemate. His room was turned into the music room. Then Pete tried to push the tarp up, thinking the water would fall to the side in the backyard. It fell all over the speakers, in and out the window, and all over me. At least a bucketfull. Ice cold. Wouah! He sincerely felt bad. I gave away pictures, Becks got me a present (see pictures). People started writing all over my touting board that Sal managed to find in my suitcase. Then there was brazilian Phil and Dan taking care of the BBQ, Phil brought shrimps and chicken wings and fish and it smelled sooo good!

J'ai mange comme une porche, tout le monde mangeait et buvait et tout d'un coup, Sal, son amie Jenna et son chum Russell sont arrives avec deux DJ. Ah ben j'en revenais pas les 2 gars se sont installes en 10 minutes pis yont parti la musique full blast dans la cour, jusqu'a 1h du matin. Par ce temps la, le monde manquait de biere et de bouffe, yont commence a fouiller dans la cuisine... et tout d'un coup la police arrive. Plainte de bruit. C'est pas surprenant, on avait de la musique super forte dans un petit cartier avec une cinquantaine de petites maisons toutes collees. En general c'etait une super belle soiree, yen a 3-4 qui m'ont fait verser une larme. Tom, Nick, Becks, Marcello, Sal, Amy... yen a plus que ca meme, c'est du monde qui vont vraiment vraiment me manquer. On est restes dans la cuisine jusqu'a 4h du matin, et c'etait un enorme degat dans la cour. Dernier soir a Cambridge, derniere nuit dans ma maison crasseuse...

Even with the rain and the police and the loud DJs, it was a MEMORABLE party.

LAST DAY AT WORK

It's the final countdoooown! Tananaaaaa-naaaaa! Tanana-ta-ta!
I don't want to go to work. It's too cold to get thrown in...
I went to work from 9:30 to 2:00 and got sent home because there was absolutely NO business and most of the people who really wanted to throw me in the river left before me. SO, I was dry when I left. Went shopping for a top, didn't buy anything, and for some tape to put up the 2nd half of the canopy. I went back to Magdelene Bridge to say hi to Heather and got thrown off the bridge. Yes, off the bridge! Seb and Oli stole my backpack and cellphone and dragged me all the way up the bridge, and I was screaming and kicking because I actually didn't want to go in. Well, it was cold.
Apres m'etre lavee, frottee, desinfectee (la riviere est sale) j'ai prepare de la "dip mexicaine" et une grosse salade au macaroni. Amy et Lizzie sont venues chez mois se preparer pour la soiree, je me suis deguisee en Genie avec mon bikini top England/Canada, Amy etait un Gnome et Lizzie etait une ... um... Gorgeous Girl? Ouin. Pickerel + B-Bar + Fez, tout le monde buvait, tout le monde souriait pis tous les garcons avaient des droles de chapeaux. On a danse toute la soiree a Fez Club, et meme si c'etait un peu vide, on a danse jusqu'a ce que ca ferme. Come on. It's my last night out in Cambridge! AND It's someone's birthday! On a fini au Trailer of Life pour des bons burgers graisseux. Yum!

2 more days of work...

Still rainy, but I still did 5 tours. Why do people want to go punting in the rain? What’s wrong with them? I worked 11-7 and all day long, we were pretending it was each other’s birthdays to get some tip. It worked for those I said Happy Birthday to. But it never seemed to work for me… In the afternoon, I wished Julien a happy birthday, on the river, and then on the same our Sam wished ME a happy birthday! So my group got confused and I said: “Um… yes mine was yesterday and Julien’s is next week. But tomorrow’s my last day and I'm leaving so… um… yeah I told him early.”
J’ai fais de la bicyclette dans la pluie pour revenir à la maison, avec Nick, et on avait tous les deux des gros parapluies de Scudamore’s. C’est pas super efficace amis y pleuvait tellement que j’aurais été trempée de la tête au pieds. (J’étais juste trempée à moitié.) J’ai magasiné pour le BBQ avec Sal et Dan, dans leur nouvelle voiture, et j’ai pogné des paquets de 24 pains hamburg à 1,75 £. Pas pire, hein ? Après ma grosse épicerie, j’ai soupé tard et Amy est passée chez moi pour jaser et planifier le jeudi soir et le vendredi.
Jeudi soir: Chris’ birthday, boys dress up in funny hats, blazers, shorts and ties, girls dress up as something that starts with G. Vendredi: day off to go bridge jumping and have some picnic on a punt, with her and Nick + my BBQ. Good way to finish my crazy English Summer of 2006.Dan said a prayer for me to have a good day on Friday... "Dear God. Please let it be sunny for Little Julie's goodbye party."

Six jours avant le Canada...

J’ai encore développé des photos ce matin, encore des close-up à 2 personnes, et j’ai super hâte de les donner au monde. Inviter le monde à mon BBQ, prendre leurs emails, leur imprimer des photos.... ça me prépare à partir. J’ai travaillé 10 à 7 à la température était pas pire. J’espère qu’elle sera comme ça vendredi !
After work, I found Sal and Dan in the kitchen, and we started planning the BBQ some more. Ondrej brought a Scuds tent to the house, and just as I was saying thanks & bye, Sal’s friend said he might actually bring… a DJ! Wouldn’t that be awesome? I can’t wait! Planning parties is so much fun, maybe I should be a wedding planner later on…

I can play pool! But just when no one’s watching.

Once again, I was woken up by the rain, and got up to go to work anyways… On the way there, I stopped at Snappy Snaps to develop a dozen pictures in a few minutes, mostly of friends and me to give away at the BBQ, and a few for the wall of fame-shame, in the Magdelene Bridge hut. There are already a lot of funny pictures (unfortunately all covered in dirty comments) and I added six. After 50 minutes of work I was sent home, because “it’s gonna piss down rain”. WELL, the weather was perfectly fine for most of the day!
J’ai fini par aller faire un petit peu de magasinage, j’ai essayé de metre d’autres photos sur Picasaweb à CB2 (sans succès, y font exprès pour nous empêcher « d’uploader » trop, de nos ordis à l’internet.) Je fini tranquillement la bouffe que j’ai dans l’armoire... de la soupe en canne, tsé. Et je me suis vite rendue à WT’s avec Amy, Nick et Carl. À WT’s, on joue aux billards. J’ai joué pour la première fois et j’ai réussi à rentrer 3 boules dans les trous. Woot, woot! Après un boute, Lizzie nous a rejoint avec un chandail à manches longues... et je lui ai ouvert ma garde-robe avant qu’on sorte à Fez Club !

Lovely Sunday with Kat and Roy

J’ai volé les deux BBQ de la cour des voisins, et j’ai du travail à faire. Sont tous les deux crottés comme el’diable, plein de feuilles mortes et de rouille. J’ai magasiné pour un cadre pour la peinture que j’ai fais. 14x16, c’est un gros cadre quand tu te promènes en bicyclette! J’ai rencontré Andrew, Vero et les parents au restorant The Loch Fyne, un resto de poissons et fruits de mer. J’leur ai donné mon cadeau, on a bien mangé et guess what....We went punting!
Surprise, surprise... we can’t help it! We can’t stay away from the river. So we went on a self-hire and I gave Andrew’s parents a silly tour. I had some pizza at home and went to Spanish Phil’s backyard party. About 30 people showed up, and it was tight. I can’t imagine how tight it’ll be in MY crappy backyard… I talked with Pete the manager and he said I could borrow a Scuds canopy for the backyard (yes!!!). Cycled back home with my two favourite polish sisters, Dominica and Kasia.

1 jour a Londres

We got up late, and instead of sightseeing like I did 2 years ago with the family, we went shopping! And I bought a short white dress to wear with jeans, and Sal bought the black one. We walked around, I saw a few things from outside (Thames, Big Ben, London Eye, Westminster Abbey). We then took the train to a dodgy area where all pubs were packed, at 4pm, because of the Arsenals game (football…). We sat outside the pub for 2 hours, talking with Joe’s friends and meeting new people. All the boys were wearing the Arsenals T-shirt. I thought it was funny that the main sponsor of the team (Fly Emerates?) is written a LOT bigger than the team itself, on the T-shirt.
On a pris pas mal de temps à retourner chez Joe pour prendre nos sacs, et se rendre à King’s Cross Station. On a fini par prendre le train à 9h50 et arriver à la maison à 11h00. Le Jaffa Net Cafe ferme à 11h, d’habitude. Mais ils l’ont fermé vers minuit, juste pour Sal pis moi. On s’est assise on a relaxé un peu, regardé nos photos, bu du thé et pris un shisha. Ça relaxe, pis ça sent bon. Je peux dire que j’ai passé une belle journée à Londres, pis que j’y retournerai dans quelques années.

1 night in London

Vendredi 18
Packing for London tonight! Juste assez de suff pour un soir chez Joe, l’amie de Sal. J’ai seulement travaillé 2heures, j’ai fais qu’un seul tour, et Pete m’a renvoyé à la maison, disant qu’il allait pleuvoir à boire debout. En effet, moins d’une heure après, alors que je me promenais dans un magasin d’art, il a commencé à pleuvoir soudainement super fort. When it’s pouring rain, I can’t help but thinking about everyone working on the river... and laugh.
It’s a really good thing I got more than half the day off, because I realised I had a lot of stuff to do before London. Laundry, shopping, stealing a hat from the Scudamore’s office on Jesus Lane, painting a sign for the BBQ, in the kitchen, etc. Me and Sal had some beer and crisps on the train to King’s Cross Station, and we took the Jubilee Line to Joe’s neighbourhood. People complain about it a lot but I still think the London Underground is an amazing achievement… Check out the funny song on the net: London Underground. After getting ready at Joe’s place, we left for the city-centre and found a bar we liked in Soho, around 11pm. Can’t remember the name of the pub… Anyways we had a wonderful time, took a lot of pictures, went to bed at 4.

Nachooooooooooo Libre!

Silver Bridge again, still new people every day. I did two tours out of four in the rain, and I only got 8 pounds tip… Mostly on the sunny tours. Weird. I should do like Jonti and complain, “I’m SO wet! It’s pissing down rain! I’m soaked!” and he gets tip! Andrew called to know if I wanted to see Nacho Libre at the movie theatre with him, and Pete the manager was kind enough to let me go around 5:30. You bet I’ll go!! I love Jack Black, he’s a genius. So Nacho Libre is about these little orphans and how Ignacio (jack black) wants to go wrestling to win money for the orphanage. I wasn’t expecting much, so turns out I laughed the whole time. And the highlight of the movie, of course is when Ignacio sings a song he wrote for Sister Incarnacion.
Après le film, j’ai raidis mes cheveux chez irish Kate the great, et on s’est rendus à B-Bar. TOUT l’monde était là ! Et pas mal tout le monde était d’accord pour qu’on aille n’importe ou sauf Life (chaque jeudi c’est bbar et life). Les filles prenaient des photos, et pour la première fois, j’ai pris une photos avec la band, pis avec le beau pianiste. Juste avant qu’y ferment B-bar, j’suis allée jouer un peu de piano, dans ma bulle, pis en 2 minutes j’avais une dizaine de personnes autour de moi en train de chanter du Disney. (geeks!) I didn’t touch a piano in 3 months ½! Feels good… Tout le monde est allé à Fez Club après, mais ça valait définitivement pas 6 pounds pour du TECHNO...

J’ai travaillé à Silver Bridge encore... All my favorites (or almost) work at the other end…. I miss you guys! Everytime I do a U-turn at Magdelene Bridge and I see them all on the brid, I feel like stopping there. Why do I love them so much? And THEN they throw a glass of water all over me as I come out from under the bridge… J’ai fini autour de 5h, je retourne de plus en plus souvent à la maison à des heures raisonnables ! Yay ! J’ai pas de bouffe dans maison…. Faut que j’trouve le temps de faire l’épicerie… J’ai passé la journée à donner des petits papiers au monde pour qui viennent à mon BBQ, pis ya va avoir pas mal de monde. Yé ben mieux pas pleuvoir parce que Julie sera pas contente !

Poor Dan...

5 tours at Silver Bridge today, I still enjoy pushing a lot but my left shoulder hurts, and my arms are getting bigger since May. I don’t fit in my long-sleeved shirts anymore! I have so many punting freak problems all over... Pis j’ai de la corne au boute des doigts. I had a talk with Pete the manager who worked for Scud’s for 9 years and he believes I’ll come back... Honestly, I’ve been telling everyone that it’s a ONE summer thing… and that I want to see Canada and the rest of Europe and South America… And then he tells me “Everybody does more than one season, you’ll be back!” Will I?
On a eu un petit peu de pluie aujourd’hui. Quand j’suis revenue à la maison, Sal était déprimée. Elle est allée voir un concert avec Dan, à Londres, et vers la fin du concert, un twit dans la foule a décidé que Dan était trop grand à son goût et lui a donné un méchant coup de poing dans face. Y s’est retrouvé à l’hôpital, une coupure d’un pouce de long sur la lèvre, quelques points de suture. Y ont jamais trouvé le gars. Some people juste don’t think... Alors le nouveau nickname à Dan the Man, c’est Dan the freak. (Y a la face toute enflée)Me and Sal are going to London next Saturday! Woot, woot! Got a little to do list for London. I wasn’t too tired tonight so I did some more painting: A white bikini top. English flag on the right, maple leaf on the left. It’s hot!

13 days left...

Une longue journée à Magdelene Bridge cette semaine ! (4 autres journées à Silver Bridge ? Pourtant, c’est ici qu’ils ont la plupart des pushers comme moi... Alors je serai la seule pusher à Silver S) C’était pas mal occupé et j’ai fais tours. Whew !
J’pense que j’avais TEASE ME d’écris dans l’front, à matin, parce qu’on a détaché et poussé mon bateau au moins 4-5 fois pendant que je l’installais. Heureusement que la riviere est petite, pour que je puisse me repousser contre l’autre rive. Un des bons mobilers, Max, est maintenant avec Scudamore’s. He turned to the dark side!
I started inviting everyone to my goodbye party (BBQ and inauguration of the backyard). It’ll be awesome! Gotta find a BBQ, though… Only 13 days left? I really feel like I was doing the countdown for England last week! Time is going by too fast and I can’t stop it! Tonight I met up with Kasia and Bettu @ the Regal weatherspoon, then Ta Bouche and finally Fez Club for some techno. Ew.

Do you know the way to Granchester?

Get up late, do the laundry, no rush… I cycled to Magdelene Bridge for a little hello to Becks and Kate cuz I don’t see them anymore! I added all the songs from “NOW that’s what I call music 64” to the laptop and realised I don’t know half the songs. I definitely bought it for the 10-12 songs out of 43 that I do know, and that I heard a lot on the radio. I did a little bit of Painting? I almost finished the painting for Andrew’s parents.
J’ai soupé chez Amie avec Rosie et Nic et après un super repas supposément dernière minute, on est allés à .... you can guess... Sunday night.... Granchester! Eh ouais, on est parties de la station vers 9h15 pour rattraper l’autre punt parti vers 8h45. On a fait super vite, étant sur un petit self-hire. On oublie combien c’est léger et rapide à force de faire des visites à 12 personnes contre le vent ! On avait pas de guitare, mais on avait des brownies, du fromage pis de la beer ! Ma caméra est encore brisée, alors c’est les girlz qui prennent des photos.

Singin' in the rain... again.

J'ai commencé une liste de chansons qui me rappellent l'Angleterre, pour les télécharger et les brûler sur un CD. Mais Andrew a vite vu que les chansons de ma liste sont TOUTES sur "Now that's what I call music". C'est comme le CD avec tous les hit de l'été 2006.
Now THAT'S what I call music! 2006

I woke up to the pouring rain on my window and thought "That's it, I'm not going to work...". But I was at work from 10 to 6 and pushed 2 tours out of 4 in the rain! Even on a cold WINDY Saturday, it's still busy because it's the weekend. Hen parties making their chauffeur punt shirtless, Pirate parties going on treasure hunts... I made 10 pounds on my first tour cuz I ended up soaked and they all had umbrellas and blankets. I like rain in a funny kind of way. The tourists have a lot of pity. Thankfully, I found that Tall Tom's guitar was still in the hut, so whenever I ahd a little break, I hid from the rain with a few guys and we played sand among the damp, stinky blankets and cushions. Boring Saturday night, I was sent home at 5:00 and I've been on the compy at the jaffa net cafe for over 3hours. Better check the mobile for text messages and see who's in shape to go out!

Wingeing of a punter

Wingeing = Whining, Complaining. Bon. I've been punting for three months now and I have freak problems from head to toe. Let's start at the bottom. Silly sandal tan on my permanently dirty feet. Cracking left ankle. Sore right knee. Weird rash on my left thigh, from rubbing the pole over and over on my wet pants... Trousers! Very light back problems, noisy shoulders and neck (*crrrack* Was that me??) ... Both my thumbs have freak bumps on them. Dry hands, 2 fingers on my left hand act really strange in the morning... and finally my left wrist is sore once in a while. AND I gained weight. Ok, I'm done wingeing!

Ce matin j'ai dis adieu à l'italienne nommée Francesca. Toute la semaine elle tentait de tout rentrer dans sa valise. En fin de compte elle a laissé quelques affaires derrière. Je peux même pas m'imaginer comment je vais faire... Surtout si jamais on me donne une rame signée par tout l'monde! J'étais pusher à alors j'ai fais 5 tours, dont 2 dans la pluie. J'ai fais pas mal de tip (15 pounds?) Mon dernier tour de la journée à 5h55 (j'devais partir à 6h00, grmblgrmbl...) c'était 4 français qui, en découvrant que je parlais français, ont exigé que je le fasse en français. Ben c'est plus compliqué que ça en a l'air! À ce point-ci de l'été je fais le répète toujours mot pour mot, d'un tour à l'autre. Ça fait que j'dois faire une traduction instantanée ET m'exprimer comme du monde pour plaire aux français. Ben les môsusses m'ont même pas donné de tip pour mon beau travail! I 'ate uh-ze French-uh! J'ai fini par partir à 7h25. Pas de sorties ce soir, j'me suis écrasée devant la télé à Sal & Dan et j'ai commencé Dirty Dancing (1987).

"Will I see you around?" - "I'm always around."

Aujourd'hui c'est les funérailles de Grand-Maman Aline, et ma famille chante la messe. flashback 1996-2000. J'espère que la cérémonie s'est bien déroulée, G-Maman a elle même choisi les chansons, dont "Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin" et "L'essentiel", toutes les 2 de Ginette Reno.
J'ai travaillé à Magdalene Bridge 10-1. ... 10 à 1?? I only did one tour today and I was sent home, at 1pm, just like last Thursday. It was cold and windy. It's nice to have a short day once in a while, but I need hours! That ONE tour of the day was exhausting. The two little american girls sitting at the back(near me) made me race the whole way back (their brothers and their dad were in a self-hire, beside us). Just have a try, and push 10 people, including 8 americans, against the wind! They didn't even tip... But the japanese couple at the front did!
Alors les trois pushers partis tôt, Jake, Amie et moi, on a dépaqueté nos punts, on s'est arrêté chez moi et on est allé voir.... SUPERMAN RETURNS! C'est aussi cheesy que possible mais c'est fidèle aux Marvel Comics, alors on peut pas les blâmer d'avoir une histoire quétaine. Ça fait années 90, c'est supposé. Le gars qui joue le rôle de Superman est quand même pas mal cute!
I managed to get 5 people in my sketchy, dodgy house, before going out. Nick, his sister, Amie, Jake and Irish Kate and we had snacks and drinks before going to B-Bar and Life. I'm getting tired of Life, it's always the same and the music isn't really the best. For my last Thursday out, I want to go to Fez or Soul Tree. And my last Friday, I'll do a big BBQ in my backyard! With lanterns and a lot of food.

Fitzwilliam Museum

Pas de stress aujourd'hui, j'ai pris mon temps chez Véro j'ai passé du temps à l'ordinateur. De retour à Cambridge, je suis partie et revenue de la maison 4 fois en bicyclette. 1- pour aller manger le buffet all-you-can-eat à Pizza Hut, 2- pour aller dire allô à Becks et Kate (M. Bridge) que j'ai pas vues depuis un bout et brûler tout le gras je venais juste de manger, 3- pour visiter le Fitzwilliam Museum, 4- pour aller m'acheter du squash!
Ma ToDo-List raccourci tranquillement pas vite. J'ai realisé en mettant les pieds dans le Fitzwilliam Museum que je l'ai déjà vu quand on est venus, 2 ans passés!! J'ai reconnu l'entrée et les grand escaliers. Y a des sarcophages, des artefacts égyptiens et grecs, des peintures médiévales et de la Rennaissance, de l'art japonnais, anglais, français et italien... Mongol.
Studying 2 years in visual arts made a really big difference, I actually recognize the styles without seeing the names, Pisarro, Sisley, Picasso, Cézanne, Monet, Manet (I touched a Monet again... tee-hee-hee! I did, 2 yrs ago)
Well, 19 dodos before I go back to Canada! ... I ran out of maple syrup.

"Me Juliiie" - Ali G

In exactly 20 days I'll be on my way home. GAH!
It's sad to say, but most of the people who left Scudamore's are forgotten quickly because the staff changes so much. It'll probably be the same when I leave... Do I deserve a goodbye party and a paddle signed by everyone after 4 months of work?
J'avais trop mal à gorge pour faire 5 tours aujourd'hui alors j'ai accepté d'être tout-chauffeur. J'ai quand même fini par faire 3 tours! Ow... J'ai presque perdu ma voix. Dans l'après-midi, irish Kate a passé le test pour être chauffeur, (elle est caissière depuis des mois). C'était pas mal drôle de la voir aller, elle a rentré dans le mur. Plus tard, alors qu'elle se pratiquait avec des amis, mes touristes ont accepté que je la "bump", c'était pas mal drôle. Le dernier tour était un tour privé avec un petit couple romantique, c'est plus léger et plus rapide.
I was picked up by Vero and Andrew at my place at 6pm, and I had a nice dinner, watching the Ali G movie. And I saw the Me Julie! video with Shaggy. It's crap, really! I'm still "MeJulie", at work. I FINALLY called my Mom and talked almost for an hour. (Last time we talked was July 3rd... oops!)

Back to high school parties

It supposedly rained all night (thank god we were bacl from our midnight punting). I slept too well to notice. This morning at Silver Bridge, we had to bail the water out of all our punts. I'm good at that! I've done it on the sailboat back home! According to the roster this week, I am touting 4 days and pushing one. But I want to be a pusher, end of story. Annabelle let me change it, and turns out I was very useful and did 5 tours! barely any tip...

J'ai un mal de gorge depuis dimanche et le feu de camp a pas aidé trop trop. J'ai découvert à phramacie qu'ils ont pas mal les mêmes affaires qu'au Canada, des Strepsils, des Meloids, des Halls, et autres. En plus, j'espère que c'est pas des allergies, mais j'me réveille toujours avec le nez bloqué le matin. Ça m'empêche pas d'aller au party à Nic! Pas Nick en béquille. L'autre. Cheveux-blonds-yeux-bleux-grand-sourire-Nic.
Y partage un super appartement avec un seul autre gars, pour pas cher, et c'est super grand. J'pense que c'est une affaire british, mais des jeunes entre 18 et 25 ans, au Canada, j'vois pas ça danser sur des vieilles chansons dans le salon... Ou faire des mix dans l'genre "milkshake au chocolat et vodka". Ou chanter des cheer sur un balcon tassé jusqu'à en perdre la voix. Actually... It does kinda remind me MY high school parties... Ben j'aurai tout vu, sont ben plus flyés! Ya des filles qui suggéraient d'aller à Fez Club, pis tout le monde appuyait l'idée. J'aurais pu jurer que personne irait! L'appartement est ben trop hot, pis on avait ben trop de fun. J'suis partie tôt avec Nick, Betty et Amie.

I heart Granchester

Dimanche... Belle journée off pour relaxer et réfléchir. J’me suis levée tard, et Sal & Dan et moi on a préparé notre bouffe pour aller faire un picnic à Granchester. Ben du fromage et des crackers, des fruits, des tomates et du chocolat. Et bien sûr, du vin ! À midi, j’arrive à la station de punts appelée Yard (direction Granchester river). J’rentre au bureau et le patron me dit que je peux pas prendre un punt gratuit le dimanche, avant 4pm, parce que c’est trop occupé. Bollocks... J’suis donc allée faire l’épicerie avec Sal, j’ai fais un peu de lavage.

We left Yard at 6 :00 with even more food! I was frustrated of not taking a free punt at 12:00, but the weather turned out to be better at 6:00. So I had a wonderful time stuffing my face with cheese, sitting on the Granchester Meadows, listening to some Bob Marley and some Australian music. As soon as we got back at Yard, around 8:30, I hopped in another punt with Tom, Nick, Annabelle, Olivia, Ondrej, Lizzie and others, to go to… Granchester!!! Yes, I love it so much I went twice in the same afternoon. On the way there, I jumped my first bridge, with Tom. We built a big fire and spent 3 hours there, playing guitar and chatting. Best part of the night: playing truth or dare! I jumped in the river in my bathing suit, Tom went streaking in the night and ran to the other fire (Sid & friends, 200m away), Ondrej burned his underwear (and later on he kept asking where they were). Good memories. If only my camera wasn’t broken...

(a painting of the Granchester Meadows I found on the web)

Lettre à Grand-Maman

Extremely busy Saturday, but it’s the last out of 5, therefore, I’m knackered again. I managed to survive my 6 tours and got a lot of tip. (about 16£, woot woot) After a hard day’s work, there’s nothing better than an evening in Annabelle’s backyard, socializing with friends, talking about something else than punting.

Annabelle est une des caissieres super gentile qui vit dans les banlieues de Cambridge: Trumpington. Un petit coin tranquille qui me rappelle Orleans (juste un peu plus tassé). J’ai eu l’appel de Véro qui m’a laissé savoir que Grand-Maman est décédée hier soir. J’aimerais mettre la lettre que j’ai eu le temps de lui écrire sur mon blog, comme Véro l’a fait pour Grand-Papa il y a presque un an et demi passé.

***

Grand-maman,

J'éspère que tu es prête et que tu n'as pas peur.
Je tiens vraiment à te remercier d'être qui tu es.

Merci pour tous les bons souvenirs, tous les Noëls passés avec toi.
Merci pour les bons repas et les surprises.
Les leçons d'aquarelle et ma premiere visite au Marché By.
Ya très longtemps tu m'as gardée, tu m'as bercée.
Tu m'as lu des livres et t'as même changé ma couche.

J'en suis reconnaissante.
Tu es tellement serviable et tellement forte, tu vas me manquer.
Grand-papa Raymoutte doit te manquer aussi, mais pas de soucis, tu le verras bientôt.

Je regrette de pas avoir passé plus de temps avec toi, cette année, comme je me l'étais promis.

Je m'ennuie de toi, et j'aimerais être avec toi cette semaine.
Je pensais vraiment être revenue d'Angleterre à temps.
Je suis loin physiquement, mais j'suis près de toi dans ton coeur.
Je vais t'en chanter des chansons de Ginette Renaud.

Je vais te peindre des fleurs et des oiseaux.

Ça va me faire penser a toi.
Merci pour tout, vole en paix.

Je t'aime!

Ta Julie qui dessine

***

After struggling to get out of bed, I put some long pants on, expecting another cold day. Big mistake. By 12:00, it was very hot and sticky. So I heard August was going to be as hot as July, but I would have loved a little break, ya know... one good week of cold? I did 5 tours and was sent home around 7pm. I had time to cook a real dinner at home and then Sal and I met Dan’s rugby team at The Eagle, a very Cambridgian pub.

p.s. - Vero found amazing pics of Cambridge and the river, most of them taken at night, with a very long exposure : http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/cambridge-gallery.htm

Half a day off... say wha?

On est tellement habitués à crever depuis un mois que la journée était GLACIALE (12-15 degrés ?). Yavait tellement de vent en plus, pas un touriste en vue. J’ai fais un tour et j’ai pu quitter à 1h! J’ai donc pas vraiment fais d’argent aujourd’hui. Zut. Mais c’est pas si grave, papa pis maman me disent de pas m’inquiéter alors je m’inquiète pas. Parlant de parents, j’ai toujours pas reçu d’appel du Canada avec LA mauvaise nouvelle. Alors Grand-Maman tient bon, elle a beaucoup de support de ses enfants. J’aimerais bien être à la maison en cette période difficile dans la vie de maman.

I started a painting of a Spanish landscape for Andrew’s parents, and it doesn’t look to good for now, but I’ll work on it some more and figure it out. Then I shared some wine with Virginie a French punter and her friend Anne-So and then we left for B-bar together. Great evening @ B-bar and Life, with a lot of Scudamore’s people. I can’t help but counting the days and thinking “MAN I’m gonna miss everyone… ”

Lucky Number SLEVIN

Great day at work! It was cold and really windy, so it wasn’t busy at all. I only pushed 2 tours and I was still paid 7£/hour for being a pusher. I was sent home early, but it’s still cool to make money so easily. I had to tout between my tours and write someone else’s name on the ticket.
J’ai mangé du chinois avec Sal et Dan, pis on a regardé «Lucky Number SLEVIN». C’était pas mal cool, j’étais dans l’mood pour ben de l’action et un peu d’humour, et c’était pas mal ça. Je raffole pas de Josh Hartnett et Bruce Willis. Mais la fin a un vraiment bon twist. C’est le genre de film où les premieres 30 minutes sont vraiment mélangeantes et les dernieres 30 minutes sont bourrées de flashbacks qui expliquent tout : Ahhh, la j'comprends!

First time I ski in the middle of summer

Today: SnowZone in Milton Keynes AND Wine Tasting at the Bun Shop. I took two weeks to gather 14 people to come to the Wine Tasting. Sarah, our lovely cashier at Magdalene Bridge, found 10 people to go to the ski dome in two hours, yesterday. So we met up at 10:00 at the bridge and left at 10:30 after buying some comedy ski wear (funny hats) at Oxfam across the street. I actually had my Roots red & white scarf, and my Winter Challenge 2006 hat. Never thought I’d actually use them! I bought granny gloves at Oxfam, they turned out to be useless.
25£ pour 2 heures. The SnowZone is like a huge dome (see picture). Ah que ça faisait du bien un peu d’air froid! Feels like winter! Faisait environ -5 degrés Celsius, la pente était pas super grande et la neige était pas super belle. C’est à peu près 2 minutes de remonte pente pour 10 secondes de descente. Viktor m’a impressionée avec sa planche à neige! Il a fait des sauts et la “rail” et il a donné des conseils à Nic, qui a jamais fait de ski ou de planche à neige. (pas mal drôle) J’ai piqué une méchante débarque que personne a vu. Je pense que ma caméra a un petit mécanisme de brisé... l’objectif veut plus rentrer et la caméra me laissera pas prendre de photos tant que l’objectif est pas rentré.
Thighs and fingers frozen, we finished at 3pm and took a group picture before leaving. I was back at the bridge at around 5:30 and I went home to get ready for the Wine Tasting, with Sal and Dan. Met up with some people around 7:30, most of them Vero & Andrew’s friends. Most of my river friends were late, obviously, and 3 of them just didn’t show up. The evening was great, the wine man was boring but the food was good. The wines were also very different from last time. Personally, I thought it wasn’t enough food, but nobody else did. We finished the night at WT’s, where we played pool until 2.

Started at M Bridge and was sent to S Steps at 3pm because they needed more pushers. (See? I made the right decision to be pusher!) I saw the manager’s little baby. He’s so cuuute! 6 months! He already wants a 2nd one. It rained a bit this afternoon but I was lucky none of my 4 tours were caught in the rain.
I was making good tip in the morning, 6£ and 5£, and then it stopped. (school groups… grrr! They never tip!) I try to include the word «tip» in my tour, ya know: “A student left an umbrella at the TIP of the steeple of King’s College Chapel” or “Do you need a TIP or two on punting?” or even “The self-hires TIP a lot but the super ferries are quite stable.” Maybe their sub conscience… You never know, it could work! The best one is still “The Anchor is where we all go for a beer after a hard day’s work and the chauffeur that made the biggest amount of tip buys the first round. It’s also entertaining to sit here around Mill Pond…” and I just go on with the tour, hoping they’ll get the clue.

Je remarque de plus en plus combien les pietons sont dangereux, en plus mes freins marchent pas dans la pluie, alors j’pense que je vais me pogner une clochette, meme si j’suis juste ici un autre 4 semaines... My god.... dans 4 semaines exactement, le lundi 28 aout, j’serai en avion pour revenir au Canada ! Ahhh ! Gotta work on my ToDo list ! Demain j’ai off et ca va me couter cher ! Je vais skier a SnowZone avec du monde de Scudamore’s, en avant-midi, et ensuite la plupart d’entre eux viennent au Wine Tasting, pour lequel je suis maintenant rendue a 29 personnes. Weee!

Don't trust the weather forecast

So the British weather is absolutely unpredictable. The sky was blue with white clouds this morning, but the weather forecast said we would have lots and lots of rain. I called Sal & Dan to let them know we wouldn't go punting to Granchester, and I spent the day chillin', updating my blog, cleaning my emaild accounts. Turns out it didn't rain at all.
Saw my first Ali G video, Sunday, and I finally understand why everybody calls me “MeJuuuley” at work. Borat is even better. We ate the Salsa dip at their place and later I burned all my pictures and videos of England on a CD that I will treasure forever. I might play a slideshow on my laptop if I do a goodbye party in my backyard the last week I'll be in England.
Je suis arrivee a Cambridge super tard mais juste a temps pour aller en bicyclette avec un ami jusqu'a Granchester, ou yavait deja 3 groupes en train chanter autour du feu et manger des saucisses. On est retournes en punt, a la fin de la soiree, les bicyclettes dans le bateau.

Sat.er.day.

5th. day. out of 5. Always the hard one. Still pushing at Silver Street, I did another 6 tours. Vers la fin de la journee, mon poignet recommencait a faire mal (uh-oh) Apres le travail j'ai ete ramassee par Andrew, et pour la premiere fois depuis 3-4 semaines.... J'ai passé du temps relaxe avec Vero et Andrew, j'me suis ecrasée sur un sofa comfortable, j'ai regardé des niaiseries à télé (Team America: World Police), j'ai mangé du chinois take-away et j'ai dormi sur un matelas gonflable extra comfortable. Ahhh... La température semble etre mauvaise demain. Ben de la pluie toute la journee. Va peut-etre falloir que j'annule mon picnic a Granchester, avec Sal, Dan, Véro, Andrew.

Happy B-day Sal!

Pour la premiere fois j'etais pusher a Silver Street, ou j'aurais jamais cru qu'on aurait besoin de ca. Contre toute attente, j'ai fais 6 visites et j'etais crevee a la fin de la journee. Je rencontre encore du nouveau monde, j'me melange entre les 7 Ben et les 15 Tom. Arrivee a la maison j'ai fais de la salsa dip maison a l'avance pour mon picnic a Granchester que je vais faire avec Vero-Andrew, dimanche.
I then called my favourite B-day girl, Sal, who was already getting tanked at the Regal Weatherspoon (massive pub/restaurant that used to be a movie theater). Being me, I obviously forgot my ID so she had to come out to save me. "it's my birthday. Let her in. She's my friend." I had a great time there with her friends but I went to bed early. Happy 30th B-day Sal!

Flashback of May 2006

L'organisation du wine Tasting s'en vient ben. J'etais pusher encore, alors j'profite de mon temps entre mes tours pour aller "touter" mes amis pis les convaincre de venir. Aussitot que j'ai atteint le nombre de 7-8 personnes, tous les autres voulaient embarquer (gang de moutons...) . Je suis maintenant rendue a 14 de mon bord, 13 du bord d'Andrew. 27!
Today was a big flashback of the month of May because it was RAINING! Finally. I did my first 3 tours between scattered showers, but then I ran out of luck and did the 4th one in the rain. By 4pm, everybody was unpacking boats in the rain or hiding under the bridge in comfy blankets and cushions. It started getting interesting so I got my camera out. Jonti showed up with friends on a self hire, soaked after a swim, Seb jumped off the bridge twice, dressed in a small lifejacket and his underwear, and Michelle got pushed in. These things don't happen at Silver Street.
Tonight I'm playing dressup with Sal. I have her silver jewellery and her black tube top, my black pants and my silver belt. Black & silver looks sophisticated. And I did my own make up. B-bar and fez tonight, hanging out mostly with my two favourites, Tom "babyface" and Nick "the cripple" (he's in crutches since he jumped the bridge on monday... and he'll be jumping it again as soon as he can walk in a few weeks). After witnessing the most dangerous double-bike-ride ever at 1am, I had a FRESH night's sleep. At laaaaast!

Would you like a shisha?

First day of work out of 5! I'm a pusher all week... let's see if I'll survive the physical challenge. I did 4 tours today, and it's still very hot. So a little update on my life: I'm getting people together to go to the Wine Tasting I'm planning, next Tuesday. I'm already at 12 people from Scuds and 13 from Andrew's job. NICE! I can't wait to be there and drink and eat and be merry. 6 wines, 6 dishes, and all my friends.
Also, the Jaffa Net Cafe right in front of my house is kewl. The man that owns the place gives me free internet hours and drinks and lollypops. He even offered me a shisha! "I must take care of you, my children have gone, I take care of you. Life is short. Want another free apple J2O?" I have about 15 free hours left in my account, there! Nice...
À part ça tout va bien, je travaille fort et je suis en forme. J'pense qu'à cause de ça (attention es garçons immatures) ça affecte mon cycle menstruel. J'étais 3 semaines en retard et ça m'a duré 2 jours seulement! Awsomeness. Si seulement c'était comme ça à l'année longue... J'attends toujours des nouvelles de Grand-Maman, prochaine fois que j'serai chez Vero et Andrew je vais appeler au Canada. I mean... I didn't talk to my Mom since July 3rd!

Je t'aime Grand-Maman.

J'ai enfin pris le temps en cette journée libre d'aller m'asseoir a CB2 et lire mes courriels. Ca fait du bien de parler a la famille un peu, sur MSN. J'ai des nouvelles de Grand-Maman Aline qui est mourrante. Un e-mail de Maman qui date de samedi. J'éspere que ca se passe bien, Grand-Maman est entourée de ses enfants et de ses petits enfants. Je voudrais etre la, j'aurais pensé etre revenue a temps. Je voudrais bien un vol d'avion rapide gratuit, aujourd'hui.
Mon coeur est avec vous, je suis avec toi Grand-Maman. xoxox

I met up with good friends, Becks, Marcello, Tom and Nick, and we went punting on the Granchester river. Nick managed to take my mind off my Grandmother by breaking his left knee. We quickly brought him to the hospital. *** For the full story, e-mail me *** I spent some more time at the jaffa internet cafe and went to Nicole's Goodbye Party at TaBouche. She's our nicest cashier/boathand/supervisor. We all signed a Scuds paddle that she might not be able to bring back to South Africa. We'll miss you Nicole!

A fire, sausages and a guitar... that's all I need.

5th day’s work is always a bugger. I wasn’t a pusher, so I did 3 tours and touted a bit. I didn’t get thrown in yesterday or today. I kinda wish I did. I’m still hot from morning to night. Every day. I miss the Canadian winter! According to Becks it’ll cool down soon and then it’ll start raining again, just like my three first weeks here, in May.
Après le travail, plein de monde disait qu’on allait punter jusqu’à Granchester pour faire un BBQ dans le parc, pour la fête de Ondrej (André). Alors j’ai apporté d’autre sangria! On était 2 punts énormes et on s’est rendus vers 10h30, on a bu, mangé et joué de la guitare. Yayyy ! C’est l’fun, ça me rappelle le Lac Lyster et le camp Larouge et Leader Action. J’ai fais la paix avec le superviseur de Magdelene Bridge, Horse, qui est normalement bête et plate, qui dit jamais svp ou merci. Je lui ai dis que je vais l'ecouter, même si yé gentil de temps en temps. Y m’a souri pour la première fois. *ting!* Tabouère c’est exigeant! Retour à la station vers 2hAM.

A little fall of rain can't stop a family picnic

First one in! I haven’t felt comfortably cool in about 10 days… I’ve been taking cold showers everyday this week. The sky was gray this morning so everybody was crossing their fingers for some rain, but the sun just came out to take the piss out of us. I made some delish salsa dip for Nic’s B-day picnic on Laundress Green, the park right by the punting station. Just as he got there, it started pouring rain! Oops! So a few girls and me and whoever happened to be in the kitchen, we ate all the salsa dip, because I thought he’d give up. Turns out he didn’t.
Arrivée @ 9h00, partie à 4h30. Nice. Je suis allée le rejoindre et j’ai rencontré toute sa famille et ses amis. Ma famille me manque là... Moi aussi j’veux un picnic avec Maman! I want my Mommy! La température était pas pire, alors on a sorti trois self-hire punts et on s’est promenés d’un bout à l’autre de la rivière Cam. La pluie nous a rattrapés pendant un bout. Pas grave! Ça fait changement! J’voulais vraiment pousser Nic à l’eau (even if I must go down as well) parce que c’est la tradition. Mais je risque de me faire lancer à l’eau 100 fois ! Je suis sortie à «The Slug and Lettuce » (ayoye) et Soul Tree avec la même gang, après avoir eu un peu de sangria maison avec Tom.

Pietons, tassez-vous du chemin!

Le réveil était dur. Je suis royalement tannee des pietons qui regardent pas des deux bords de la rue avant de traverser. Les cyclistes ont autant priorite que les voitures, sauf que les voitures vont pas avoir mal si elles frappent les pietons. Ils sont dangereux ! Je peux dire serieusement que je dois m’arreter brusquement au moins une fois par jour pour eviter d’envoyer un pieton a l’hopital. Et mon unique frein, le frein arriere, est pas fort fort.
A Magdelene bridge j’étais encore pusher. 5 tours, et il fait encore extrêmement chaud. Là je sais pas ce qui se passe avec la rotation mais on était seulement 3 personnes qui faisait des tours, Becks, Julien et moi. Les 10 autres faisaient QUE « touter ». Ben excuse moi ben là, mais j’ai besoin d’au moins 15 minutes entre chaque visite !
Aujourd’hui j’ai vu des enfants bruyants, mais surtout des adultes bruyants. Elementary school teachers, celebrating on the river, playing pirates. Hilarious ! Some kids got in a triple-punts water fight and I got stuck in the middle. We had a booking with about 20 punts in front of St John’s and I was sent home around 7pm. Great! Had a cold shower as usual, a hot meal, and then I found the laptop was suddenly working again and I quickly saved everything on my USB-key! Early sleep, I work at 9 tomorrow morning.

Mula, mula, mula, mula! Everything's good and everybody's your friend!

Silver street, j’ai touté pas mal! ... Peut-être que j’serai pas sur le salaire minimum aujourd’hui ! Mais je pense encore qu’etre « pusher » c’est ma meilleure solution pour faire plus d’argent. Après une longue longue journée on est tous allés à B Bar et Life (again, I know) pour trois anniversaires à la fois, mais avant j’ai eu de la sangria-maison, avec irish Kate. C’est la première fois que j’invite quelqu’un chez moi (en général, ma maison fait dur... SAUF pour la cour arrière qui vient enfin d’être clairée de sa montagne de mauvaises herbes en décomposition. Maintenant reste plus qu’à se débarasser des poubelles pleines à craquer depuis 4 semaines.) La soirée a passé super vite et après Life tout le monde est allé manger un burger. Avant de rentrer à la maison, j’ai arrêté au « skate park » en face de chez moi à regarder Ben et Nic (le b-day boy de dimanche) faire des jump en bicyclette.

Hottest day in 45 years, 7 tours

Strawberries in my cereals… yum! Why didn't I do it before? According to the radio and newspaper, today was the hottest in the last 45 years. And guess what, today was my busiest day in 45 days. It was my first try as a pusher (push a tour, take 15 min off, push, take 15 min) and I was KNACKERED! 35 degrees Celsius and a lot of humidity. This week is just like Perù! I pushed 6 tours in 7 hours, four of them back to back, and I didn’t always get my 15 min breaks. I was so hot that I jumped off Magdelene Bridge with Becks, and Rory got it on video with my camera. I'll figure out a way to put it on the web, I'm taking more and more videos.
L’eau est sale et dégueulasse mais c’est quand meme rafraîchissant. Je suis revenue travailler vers 21h00 pour un booking, une trentaine de super ferries étaient sur la rivière, dans le noir, pour une grosse conférence. C’était un vrai chaos vers 23h00 quand tout le monde revenait. Yavait un océan de punts a Mill Pond !! J’ai fais un peu de tip, dont 5 dollars US que j’ai perdu tout de suite après. I was knackered.

Word of the day: "knackered"
A knacker is a person in the trade of rendering animals that are unfit for human consumption, such as work horses that have died in harness or are too tired to work any more. This leads to the slang expression "knackered" meaning very tired.
'Knackered' also means tired, exhausted or broken in British slang, and is still commonly used in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Chillin' in the park / POTC II review

Monday
I walked home from Claire’s, only to go back the same way to Michelle’s place, to get my bike. I did half the groceries and most of the laundry, and then I went tanning in the sun in my tube top to lose my farmer tan again. I was relaxing in the shade, drawing, and I started thinking about my summer of 2006, as always. Thinking about all the friends I made on the river, about what I’ve done and what I have left on my ToDo list. It will be harder to leave everybody from England in August than it was to leave Canada, knowing that I’ll probably never see them again. After some more vedging in my room, checking if the laptop works once in a while (bollocks!), I went for some late pizza and some beer on Parker’s Piece with Sal, Dan, his little brother and a French girl called Fanie. Which is funny in England. Because they say "fanny" when talking about the female genitalia.

Tuesday
Pas de stress aujourd’hui, j’aurais dormi jusqu’à midi, mais y fait beaucoup trop chaud et j’ai pas d’air climatisé. Alors je me suis réveillée en sueur vers 8h30. J’ai fais l’autre moitié de l’épicerie, j’ai passé à la job pour prendre mes heures, j’ai fais du ménage et j’ai écris une liste de tounes qui vont me rappeler l’Angleterre. Bare with me, les chansons sont pas toutes géniales. Après avoir fais une sieste juste parce que j’avais rien d’autre à faire, j’suis allée manger au resto avec Véro et Andrew à The Vine, près du centre d’achat.
Finally, after a week and a half of waiting, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest! And as I expected, the sequel was far from being as good as the first movie. I could write a whole chapter about the things I would never have even dreamed of putting in the movie. But very briefly: a lot of action, but not as well planned as the 1st movie, more stupid jokes than smart jokes (the 1st movie was brilliant!), too much of Keira Knightly. Johnny Depp was still amazing but a good actor doesn’t change a bad story into a good one. I was also weirded out by the last 15 minutes and I’m not sure if I want to see the third movie…

I'm now a pusher

The job is really getting repetitive and the weather is just not cool… really HOT! Je commence à avoir des bobos partout là, le punting c’est vraiment pas un movement naturel pis le monde se fait mal au dos... J’ai mal après 5 jours pis en 2 jours ça se rétabli. Aujourd’hui c’est le 5e jour. Ow. Je travaille fort fort fort pour avoir un peu d’argent quand je reviens, aussi ben en profiter, les livres valent tellement plus que les dollars canadiens ! Si je peux revenir avec 500 pounds c’est déjà pas pire, ça me donne environ 1000 piasses ! Et en étant pusher au lieu de "tout chauffeur", je vais faire plus d’argent.
I asked someone that worked here for years, how many times a year they clean the blankets and cushions... and she said never. Then I saw a little girl playing with a cushion and stuffing her face in the blankets… I felt like screaming Noooooo!
I feel bad that I haven’t been doing much for SAFA, my student association back at Ottawa U. But I have been SO busy here and I never have access to the internet. So the best I can do is to draw the cartoons of all our faces, for the Arts website and CD-ROM, and to send it to them. The laptop doesn’t start, since a few days ago, so they’ll get the drawings like… 2 weeks late. Hopefully, they haven’t sent the Arts CD-ROM to the 1st years yet. At the end of my really boring work day, after 2 tours, I went to meet up with Vero & Andrew and their friends from work, and we punted on the Granchester River and had pizza at Claire & Adrian’s place. We even tried bridge jumping! Wookie is very good at it, I was just hanging from the bridge for 30 seconds…. I’m getting tired of the job, but I still enjoy punting very much. Isn’t it funny that the first thing we like to do, on days off, is more punting?

Du fromage et des baguettes! Super!

Silver street today, in at 10, out at 8, very long and hot and busy Saturday. I did 5 tours but got very few tips, as always. I gave a bilingual tour because of ONE French girl, but I don’t get paid double for the whole translation. It’s a lot of work, mate! I also gave a tour to an almost-blind old lady. I ate about… 3 lunches? I’m not making much money so I will ask to be a pusher only, to be paid 7£ per hour. It’ll really make a difference, I suck at touting. Depuis mon makeover ma bicyclette est chez Michelle… man, j’ai de la misère à m’imaginer comment je faisais pour toujours marcher au travail, le premier mois ! Je m’ennuie de mon becyk! La foire et le Marché français sont encore au parc, avec leurs fromages, leurs saucisses et leurs baguettes. Andrew m’a dit que ça s’appelle Pop in the Park. En marchant j’ai croisé les parents et la petite soeur de Michelle, pis honnêtement, j’avais vraiment le goût d’aller dans le Twister alors j’ai laissé la petite Melissa me traîner jusque là. C’tait super le fun.

First fall in the river

So the beauty of starting at 11am: You sleep late, you come so late that all the punts are already packed and ready, you don’t have to tout on the empty streets… BUT you finish late at night. The weather was nice, chilly in the shadows, warm in the sun. I keep saying how proud I am that I never fell in the river by accident… Well, there’s a first for everything! I was on my first tour of the day, when suddenly my hands slid down the pole, just as I was leaning back with all my weight to go faster. Bloody sun screen! Last thing I saw was the blue sky, before going in.
On croirait qu’après avoir tombé à l’eau le tip serait énorme, non? 1,50 pounds !! …j’te jure, j’ai presque crié à haute voix "That’s it???".
C’était super occupé en plus et j’ai bien manoeuvré le bateau. Après avoir fini mon 2e tour vers 6:00pm, j’esperais pouvoir peut-être partir tôt, avant d’en faire un 3e. J’avais malheureusement une autre visite à faire à 7:20pm... et ensuite une AUTRE visite è 8 :45! ARG! J’suis donc partie vers 9h45 du soir. En marchant à la maison j’ai découvert que Parker’s Piece, le grand parc sur ma rue, était transformé en Marché Français. Y seront là pour 3 jours, et ya des rides ! Je me suis acheté un wrap de Fagitos, en face de ma maison, pour la première fois... tellement épicé! Pis y faisait déjà assez chaud de même!

Extreme Makeover

Steps @ 9AM! I did 3 tours and it was a HOT today. I saw Phil on the river, turns out he woke up a few minutes after we abandoned him in the punt last night. After a short day (I left at around 6pm) I had a quick pizza at home and sprinted to Michelle’s house with salsa dip and nachos. After playing around with their compy, meeting the parents, the bro and the little sister, Michelle found a nice black and sparkly top and some jewellery for me and did my make up before we went to B-Bar and Life. After a night of fun, I came home very, very late but… I have a late shift tomorrow! Yay!

First time in Granchester

How many times have you done 11 hours of work in a day? Probably not very often. Well, I’ve been doing that more and more recently. Today I started at 10am and finished at 9pm. After work I met up with a bunch of people at the yard and we got on a big punt with blankets and cushions and punted all the way to Granchester! I finally did it! On the way we crossed a choir of 5-6 people singing "Stand by me" in harmony. Beautiful.

Clare's Bridge. This is the River Cam not the Granchester river. And it's obviously not nighttime.

By the time we arrived in Granchester, the only light we had to guide us was the bright full moon. After building a bonfire in the field and burning a lot of "dead wood" *, we punted back to the yard. Between the crashing in the branches, the wee-ing out of the punt (boys…) and the singing with mobile phones, Phil and me somehow managed to fall asleep. He was snoring like a big baby, so we left him comfortable in his blankets and abandoned him in the punt after unpacking it, at 2AM. Sweet dreams!
"Punters in the niiiight, exchanging glasses, lala lalalaaaa…"

* The lone mobiler with us that night, Alex, managed to convince all of us to break and burn the Scuds paddle.

I love mondays!

J’ai passé l’avant-midi à l’ordinateur chez Vero et Andrew, j’les niaise en disant que l’internet c’est la seule raison pour laquelle je vais les visiter chaque semaine! Je suis retournée à Cambridge pour faire des commissions, vérifier mes heures de travail et me faire pogner par la pluie en becyk. So j’ai passé une partie de l’après-midi chez Nic, à jaser, se montrer des photos et secher un peu. Il a lui aussi dessiné un portrait de Jack Sparrow, dans les dernières deux semaines. What a coincidence! Still stuck in the rain, I cycled home and put some make up on to go to the Wine Tasting #2! Turned out we were only Sal, Dan and me, instead of 8 peeps. And the total at the Bun Shop was 7 people instead of 13. More food and wine for us! Hurray! Paul, the wine man, said that if I could gather 15 people, he could do another wine tasting in August. I’ll definitely try!! He was as funny as the last time and the food was delish. I didn’t even have lunch, and I was still very full at the end of the night. We walked home a happy trio, around midnight.
Tuesday: nothing to report, really.... Laundry, groceries, iTunes list getting long... Todo list getting short.

BREAK!

Came back from Beck's party to work @ 11, too many chauffeurs, not enough tourists, and a loooot of wind. Therefore, after being sent home, I went to see Vero & Andrew in Haver-hole for a BBQ at Alex and Eric’s house. Best food ever, nice garden, annoying little neighbours, hilarious old man (Eric’s father). We talked for hours and he had so many funny stories to tell about Africa and lions and elephants!

Un autre weekend...

Enfin une journée à Silver Street. Une petite pluie constante a fait peur aux touristes. C’est lors de ces journées plates qu’on se donne plus la peine de se forcer, c’est impossible de faire de l'argent. On a jasé, jonglé, pratiqué notre français-anglais-espagnol... Yen a une, Alice, qui parle super bien le francais ET l'espagnol parce qu'elle pratique depuis des années. Les autres anglais devraient faire la meme chose. J’ai fais des tattoos avec mon marker permanent mourrant, et j’ai apporté mon portrait de Jack Sparrow pour la gang de filles. Yétaient pas mal impressionnées. Andrea might watch the first movie of Pirates with me (she’s never seen it… I know... ridiculous…) and I’m planning on going to the movies next Tuesday for PotC 2 "Dead Man's Chest". Even if I show up alone, in a costume, like the biggest geek in the world, I’ll do it!

Satuday I got up early to go jogging. Yes, me, jogging. Back in Canada I told myself I would jog every single day during my summer in England. I jogged once! Then I worked from 10 to 9 at Magdelene Bridge. That's one long work day... Only three tours, but a lot of touting! I still meet new people, either olda ones from previous years or beginners. I untied and pushed away a punt before realising the guy in the punt was a newbie I've never seen before. AND it was his first day! Hah! "Oops, I thought you were somebody else. I'm Julz, would you like a paddle before you drift away to Jesus Greens?" After work I stuffed my face with a big pizza in 5 minutes, and I biked all the way to the party at Becks' house, the coolest australian girl. Turned out we were about 7-8 people, I had a very good time and slept there. Thanks Becks!

Return of the pirates

Thursday at Magdelene Bridge again, rainy, sticky again. I brought my pen and did about 12 tattoos (check the pictures I got some cool ones for the boys). A lot of the mobilers got together and went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest at the movie theatre. I was SO jealous! And they came back with the soundtrack in their heads, talking like pirates, ready to go punting with water balloons to attack people on the river… I thought I was such a loser last year when I drew Jack Sparrow’s tattoo on my arm, but 3-4 of the guys asked to be branded today! I can’t wait to go see it, now… they’re talking about it too much. I am rarely satisfied with a sequel and they're giving me high hopes! Après avoir fais 2 visites je suis retournée à la maison me changer et j’ai soupé à Weatherspoon avec Kate-O. C’est cheap et c’est bon. I put a skirt on again, thank you very much, B-Bar, Life, de retour 2AM devant une porte barrée. Oops... I went around the house and got in through the kitchen window.

Back to work!!!

Back on the job at Magdelene Bridge, in a wet and sticky weather. According to everyone, I didn’t miss anything. Maybe a heat wave, too many chauffeurs, not enough tourists. In 10 days, not only was my tout board almost destroyed, but more than a dozen new chauffeurs got hired. Too many names to remember! It started raining real bad around 2 pm so we sat under the bridge for a little while, wrapped in blankets. A few Chinese tourists on self-hires came back from the pouring rain, soaked, without their pole. We should’ve made them go back and get it! Poor Natalie was on her first tour, on her first day. (“I quit!”) She also looked like she fell off her punt. The weather got better at the end of the day, and by the time I left (8pm) I had done 3 tours. Je suis allée voir la 2e joute de la semi-finale, avec Sal, Dan et Danielle, à Regal Weatherspoon. C’est gigantesque ! Supposément le plus grand pub/resto, à l’origine c’était un cinéma. C’est super beau et grand et la bouffe est cheap en plus. France vs Portugal, la game était intense, et ce sont les français qui ont gagné. J’ai hâte à la finale!! (France vs Italie). J’ai fais un tour au Granta Pub avec Danielle (la cousine de Sal). C’est super cute au bord de la rivière, j’étais jamais allée avant.

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig!

Je suis arrivee a Cambridge vers 9hAM. J’ai prêté ma chambre à la cousine de Sal pour 2 soirs. Ma chambre était en ordre ce matin, et toutes mes choses étaient là. J’ai fais du lavage, j’ai vérifié mes heures de travail à Silver Street après avoir dit un petit allô à Tom, Becks et autres... et après avoir réalis que 10 jours c’était assez pour que ma « tout board » soit en mille miettes! J’ai passé l’après-midi à l’ordi à CB2. A big thunder storm started when I was in the internet cafe... I sooo hope Tom was caught... uh WASN’T caught in the pouring rain! I had some lasagne with Sal and Dan and the cousin Danielle, and then we watched the Italy vs Germany football game and… Italy is going to the finals! I didn’t really watch football at the beginning of the world cup, but I’m slowly liking it more and more, and I’m excited about the last game. If only Canada was in...

MENORCA, Spain - Part III

Saturday – 1st of July

HAPPY CANADA DAY ! We relaxed once more, and drove to Fornells for a very, very cheap Menu del dia (Menu of the day). Starter, main course and dessert for 7,50 EUROS at El Pescador. It was sweltering hot outside so we quickly went back to Puerto de Addaya for a swim. On est allés souper à El Castillo encore une fois, pour aller voir la joute de football : England vs Portugal. Faisait encore chaud, spécialement dans le resto. Il restait 10 minutes de la joute quand on a pu s’asseoir comfortablement à l’ombre, dehors. England lost because of unfair penalties at the very end. C’était donc leur dernière joute, à la coupe mondiale 2006. Louis a réussi à se pogner 3 paires de lunettes de soleil de l’Angleterre et j’ai demandé une casquette gratuite... yen ont plus besoin de toute façon! On a commencé le ménage aujourd’hui pour pouvoir aller en bateau en matinée demain.

Sunday – 2^nd of July

Tout le monde debout très tôt, on était au quai à 9h00. Pas pire, hein? Plus de ski nautique, plus de tube et quelques baignades. Yavait absolument pas de vent, alors c’était plus facile de skier cette fois-ci. We went to the same shallow sand bank that we did last Sunday, about 40m from the shore. And then we saw… the Von Trap family! The whole family was walking through the field, in a queue. Do, a deer, a female deer, Re, a drop of golden suuun! And they stopped near the boat on a rocky beach where a lone man was tanning naked by his kayak. First thing they did, they took their clothes off. On était déjà de retour à 1h pour la dernière baignade, pour nettoyer et preparer nos baggages. On s’est bourrés de pizza, on a jasé, on a bu ce qui restait et j’ai fini par faire une sieste tellement j’étais épuisée. On a tristement quitté l’appartement et la superbe villa à 7h, pour arriver à l’aéroport une heure trop tôt, passer la première barrière à 8h40 et embarquer dans l’avion à 10h40. J’ai pas fais l’eurreur de demander du jus, cette fois, j’ai pris un rum & coke. C’est gratuit! On est arrivée chez les parents d’Andrew à 2h du matin après une longue ride d’une heure. Merci Andrew!

Monday – 3rd of July

To my surprise, we didn’t wake up Andrew’s parents when we came in at 2am. I had a good night sleep and an amazing brunch @ 10am. I relaxed a bit, showed them some of our footage of the waterskiing and tubing, and I visited the neighbour who is a an artist. According to him, my Jack Sparrow portrait supposedly has a lot of depth. …kewl! It also has a lot of Depp. Calembour! After a good shower and a nice chat, we finally left the beautiful house to drop off Jo & Louis at the airport. I’ll see them again in… 2 months! Crazy… They will do a wine & cheese back in Ottawa, very soon, to show all their pictures of Italy, Austria, Tcheque Republic and Menorca. Parlant de vin, je voulais aller au Wine tasting #2, (1^er lundi du mois...) mais ce n’etait pas ce soir, après tout. C’est la semaine prochaine. Alors au lieu de «rusher» à Cambridge pour ça, a 7h, j’ai relaxé chez Véro & Andrew et j’ai couché là.

MENORCA, Spain - Part II

Tuesday - 27^th of June

Journée encore plus relaxe à jouer au Nintendo DS, à dessiner un magnifique portrait de Jack Sparrow (mm-hmm Johnny Depp...) et à se baigner. J’ai fais une petite promenade en voiture avec Andrew pour acheter plus de pain et de vin (amen). I should really learn to drive standard... it could come in useful, if there’s an emergency, or if I rent a car in Europe. After lunch Andrew offered me 35£ if I ate all the cold cut meat leftovers and all the chocolate spread that was left (3/4 of a big pot). Time went by, the rules slowly changed, I hesitated way too much. Then it turned into a 8 hotdog + chocolate spread challenge, and we gave up. I would have done it really! After dinner, when the lights were out in the pool (11pm) I went skinny dipping with Jo, and had a good night sleep with the balcony door open for fresh air (bad idea…). I woke up with mosquitoe bites everywhere.

Wednesday – 28^th of June

Time is going by really fast. I’m half way through my Menorca ToDo list, and today was very productive. We visited Monte Torro, where the highest point of the mountain is a tall stuaue of Jesus Christ. Then we went to the old capital of Ciutadella (the new capital is Mahon). The drive up the mountain was painful for the old noisy, dodgy car, and the building at the top looked like an old castle. Nice! According to Vero & Andrew it’s so much more touristy and renovated than it used to be. We drove down to Ciutadella and went in the old market to have lunch: I had a chicken salad y un poco de “chiperones” (tiny squids).

Apres avoir acheté quelques petits souvenirs (encen, ceinture) on est retournés vers Addaya. Le char a lâché à mi-chemin, sur une grande route de campagne. Smegging car! Faisait pas si chaud que ça pis on a pas attendu longtemps avant que la gentille madame vienne nous fournir une voiture plus grande et de meilleure qualité. On est revenus à temps pour un petit rum & coke, une petite baignade, pis ensuite on est repartis à Fornell’s, où se trouve «Ca Na Marga’s », un restaurant avec des T-Bone steak géant pis de la super pizza. Le ox t-bone à Louis était énorme! Mais tout était tellllement bon. On a recommencé à se lancer des défis jamais accomplis et on a pris des tonnes de photos.

Thursday – 29^th of June

On s’est levés TARD, et pourtant on avait de la bouffe prête pour la plage San Tomas en quelques minutes! (Ça nous aurait prit pas mal plus de temps avec la maman d’Andrew :P) On est tellement efficaces. « Vamos a la playa! » Les vagues allaient jusqu’à 1 mètre et demi, c’était super le fun et parfois même dangereux! Yavait pas mal de nudité à cette plage là aussi. Y en a qui sont élevés comme ça, tsé, des seins, des fesses, ya rien là! It was very sunny, sandy and salty. After a swim or two in the sea you get itchy, and you get sand up your bathing suit, but you still go back for more waves! My sisters and me, we got tired of worrying about our bikini tops, so we took ‘em off! (I was careful to keep the water up to my neck). We came back around 5pm, I finished my book 24 Veto Power and started 24 Hell Gate. I finished my Jack Sparrow portrait (lovely) and then Vero made “patatas braves”, big juicy prawns in garlic butter, and more sangria. I have a lot of fun with the Andrew and Louis, fooling around about spanish sausages and inside jokes, we get along so well! We all have the maturity of 10 yr old kids.

Friday – 30^th of June

A bit of chillin’ in the morning and then we got ready for a trip on the boat, with water skis AND a tube. We left at 12:30, which means it was the hottest time of day. I don’t remember ever tubing in waves like that, or behind a boat that fast! That was intense! And my eyes were red because of all the salt water splashing in my eyes. We also tried water skiing, Jo, Louis and me, and we filmed most of it. Good memories for mum and dad! We did a bit of snorkelling by the beach we visited on the first day. A lot of tiny fishies but no colourful corals. J’ai mis plus de crème solaire que jamais cette semaine, le soleil est tellement fort. On a encore pris tout plein de vraiment belles photos, avec la bonne caméra d’Andrew. Ce soir là on a mangé des fruits de mer avec du riz, et on a but une tonne de sangria qu’Andrew a concocté lui-même. Delish!

MENORCA, Spain - Part I

I just spent one of the best weeks of my life (best weeks being Lac Lyster, Florida 1998, England 2004, Arts 101 week 2006) Here goes!

Friday ~ 23rd of June
After a short 3-days-of-work-week, I left the Cam to meet up with Jo-Louis in Haverhill. They have gorgeous pictures of their trip around Germany, Austria and Italy. They were ready to leave for a nice 10 days on the Mediterranean Sea with Vero, Andrew and me. Delayed flight from Gatwick to Mahon (Menorca), but at least we all were in the same row thanks to a lovely flight attendant. We landed in Menorca around 9:30 and rented a "car" for our journey to the villa of Puerto de Addaya. Andrew's parents are very welcoming and had a dinner ready so we had food @ the airport, the plane AND the appartment. We talked on the balcony until 2 am... So many stories to be told! I can't wait to see the scenery of all the small white and terracota villas and the marina in daylight, tomorrow.

Saturday ~ 24rd of June
More british vocabulary: bechers (pronouced beekers) are small round plastic glasses. And baguettes are now called french sticks. Le reveil etait trop tot pour moi, surtout apres avoir dormi sur un matelas gonflable. Puerto de Addaya est magnifique, avec une piscine au centre pour une trentaine d'appartements ou vivent surtout des couple anglais riches et retraites. On a sorti le beau bateau des Peps: a Chapparal SSI 210... le "Peps Paraiso", 45 miles/h, joli et comfortable. On a descendu l'ancre a Pregonda Beach (nudes everywhere!) ainsi qu'une petite greve de roches ou j'ai sorti le snorkel. On avait Mike & Jackie comme guides, sur leur bateau.
Pregonda Beach: Just as we were having our lunch with Cava (menorcan champagne), a naked woman on an inflatable mattress swam almost all the way to our boat, until Roy couldn't hold it any longer: "Would you like a cheese sandwich!? ... She must be spanish." And she replied "I'm english actually!" Anyways. I never saw so many nudes, some of them upclose, in a week. Listening to spanish music on a fancy boat, slowly tanning (yes mom, I put sunscreen on) and reading a book... Man, I'm retiring in Menorca when I'm 50... nah, 40! We had a swim, a good dinner, a few drinks and a good night.

Sunday ~ 25th of June
More boating today! We stayed almost as long as yesterday but stayed in the shade a bit more. BIG difference! I put my CD on and saw Roy dance on the "Cuban Pete" song (The Mask). Thank god we got some footage of that on video. At Es Grau beach, today, we also saw many nudes including a Spanish man with a really big... umbrella. We stayed at a beautiful shallow sand bank for a while, chatting with two couples from Puerto de Addaya (neighbours).
On est revenus a temps pour aller voir la joute de football d'England vs Ecuador sur un gros ecran au "El Castillo". Le restaurant supporte l'Angleterre all the way, car le gerant est anglais, tout comme la majorite des gens de Addaya. J'ai enfin eu des fish & chips, on etait assis avec les voisins encore, et un gars d'Ecuador est arrive, saoul, pis y s'est endormi assis devant Bernie. Cave. On a gagne 1 a 0, les parents d'Andrew sont partis pour l'Angleterre, on a fete pas trop tard a l'appart. "Vindalooooo! Vindalooooo! Vindaloo, vindaloo, naa naaaa!"

Monday ~ 26th of June
Chillin'. Premiere journee vraiment relaxe, on a fait une epicerie bonne pour 2 jours a Mahon. On a lu, on s'est baignes dans la piscine et tout le monde sauf moi a commence a s'amuser avec les 2 nintendo DS d'Andrew, a faire des mind games, des sudokus et Bubble Bobble. The mediterranean meals schedule is slowly changing to Breakfast @ 10am, Lunch @ 2:30pm, Dinner at 8 or 8:30pm... and snacking all afternoon. I played cards with Jo and we talked a lot. I'm reading a book called "24 Declassified : Veto Power", inspired by the TV series of 24 that I was obsessed with until the really rubbish season 5. The story isn't too bad, but the writing... yish. I bought a postcard to send to Scudamore's, they will get it in 2 weeks, therefore, after I got back. Zut!

Pictures will be up soon, I'm switching from Flicker to Google.

PUERTO DE ADDAYA

Well well well...
Just spent 2 days (Sat. and Sun.) of relaxing and tanning on the Mediterranean Sea... C'est tellement beau c'est pas possible... Mercredi j'etais a Magdelene Bridge et c'etait une belle journee avec ben du tip, et jeudi c'etait a Silver Street avec ben du monde le fun. J'suis partie pour Haverhill, vendredi matin tres tot pour pouvoir bruler un CD et imprimer des photos pour le site web de SAFA (www.artsuottawa.ca). J'vais travailler la dessus cette semaine pendant que je bronze un peu au soleil. Je fais tres attention mais j'brule quand meme un peu. At least I'm losing my stupid farmer tan (punting uniform, ya know...). We just had fish and chips at the "Castillo" another spanish restaurant in Menorca, close to the Addaya port. The food is good, the game was amazing (1-0 against Ecuador) and the villa is soooo nice. I have good pictures of the scenery, the people and the nude beaches for you!!! (soon).
Now I still have some partying to do tonight! Un beau dimanche soir en Espagne... it couldn't be better, unless I was sitting on Johnny Depp's lap.

SCOOOORE!

Busy Tuesday at STEPS (Silver Street) I touted a bit, I did 3 tours, we had goot weather. Then I cam back to do a booking at 7:00 and I thought I would be just in time for the Football game shot on a big screen in Parker's Piece, the huge Park right by my house. Well the group decided to show up 45 minutes late!!! Sooo I gave them a ludicrous speed tour, and then I went to watch the 2nd half of the game at the park with Tom. The crowds are crazy!!
Je realise de plus en plus combien le coupe mondiale (FOOTBALL WORLD CUP) est pas mal plus importante que je le croyais. Ca vient seulement une fois par 4 ans (what are the odds that I'm here for the summer of 2006?) et les partisans portent fierement leurs drapeaux. Juste comme j'allais filmer la foule avec ma camera digitale, pour prendre un petit video, mon cellulaire a sonne, a tombe dans mon verre de coke (yavait seuelment un fond.) Mais j'ai reussi a pogner un video de la foule en train de crirer comme des fous pour le 2e but, pis le replay sur l'ecran. MONGOL! Ensuite j'suis allee danser a SOUL TREE

May Weeeeek

So I heard this was a crazy weekend for Scud's, all the students want to celebrate on the river in the middle of the night! Our punts look like $h!t in the morning... (garbage, dirt, broken glass, alcohol and puke...) Well anyways I wasn't working today, I shopped a bit (tshirts, navy shorts, humongous sunglasses... I'm still trying to figure out how I'll fit everything in my luggage, in August, without having to pay 200$ extra...) After doing a booking at 4pm and eating a nice dinner at home I went to Michelle's bday @ Henry's (right be the Magdelene Bridge station) we saw some of the fireworks from the Trinity Ball and then I danced a little while at Ballare. Gotta get up early tomorrow!

Leprechauns, Legos and Losers

This weekend was grrrreat! Saturday morning I left early to go to Vero & Andrew's, and my left wrist was really causing me a lot of pain. We drove to Brighton, where Lisa (Andrew's sis) and Stuart (her husband) were hosting an L-Party for her birthday. Hanging out in the sun all afternoon just chatting and drinking was just like heaven. I got Lisa a bottle of champagne and V & A gave her a handbag, a 512MB memory card and other stuff. Then everyone arrived, there was a Lumberjack and a tennis player whose name starts with an L, I was a loser (a football fan, cheering for Team Canada, which doesn't exist), there were characters like Lara Croft or the Lego Man, Lea (Big Brother) and a Leprechaun. We had tons of food, music and alcohol, we danced on the high deck, we had a BBQ, I met wonderful people and I ended up eating some more and chatting with Stu about everything and nothing, until the sun was rising. Check out the pictures!
We slept at their place and we left this morning. My wrist is perfectly fine! We stopped at Andrew's parents' place on the way back, to mow the lawn and water the plants. SUCH a nice garden! But so much trouble.... and I spent the afternoon on the comp, and watching Shaun of the Dead and Dr Who. I got Vero & Andrew a bottle of wine, and made sure it was one that they likes from the Wine Testing of 2 weeks ago.
Funky week coming up: MAY WEEK. Students celebrate the end of the exams and go punting day and night. Today was Suicide Sunday on the river, thank god I wasn't there. And this week we'll be almost open 24/7. If only I could be trained as cashier (which I'll probably be) I could make more money!

5 dodos avant Menorca... CAN'T WAIT!