Service with a snarl

Ah, what a cap to a difficult week. The business that brought me to Montpellier concluded late this afternoon with, ah, well, "less than success," shall we say. Grumble - we were starting to get the technical issues under control, but events intervened.

Shyam and I walked back to the hotel, changed, and toddled over to "L'Arlequin for supper. Our waiter wasn't exactly happy to see us, it seemed, and at the very end of the meal, as he hurriedly dropped dessert menus on the table, he knocked over my wine - into Shyam's lap. No apology was offered. This, I guess, passes for hospitality.

I managed to spend 7 days in southern France without spending a single daylight hour outside of the office. A business trip, indeed. I'll be happy to be back in dirty, cold, noisy Boston.

Pizza Day

Well, pizza night, but close enough. I ate at Don Camillo pizzeria; a large, fresh salad, 9 inch ("petite") pizza and a carafe of wine for Euros 26.20. Not even close to last night in value, but the food was nice, the ambience was quiet, and I enjoyed it.

I just realized that, of course, when I update my Google Map for Montpellier, new content shows up no matter when I made the link, so I'll stop sprinkling this page with redundant maps.

Eventually I'll start taking pictures, but I already feel like a real rube, and hauling out the camera at night (the only time I seem to have to myself on this trip) for flash photos just feels too much like taping a "Kick me!" sign to my butt.

It's incredibly annoying not to be able to get IBM network access working thru Orange; I have a lot to say on my internal IBM blog and no way to say it. I'm keeping notes in an emacs buffer; hopefully I'll get around to posting once I get back online.

Another long day

So the Blogger interface is IP-address-sensitive and presents the login page in French. Appropriate, of course, but nonetheless disturbing.

Shyam and I just got back from a loooong dinner at Restaurant Cerdan, a truly delightful little place near Place de la Comedie. 14 Euros brought me a delicious salad with chevre and toast, some very fresh, nicely prepared fish in with rice in a delicate sauce, a small carafe of red wine, chocolate mousse for dessert, and cognac. Outrageous!

Work today was long and frustrating. I lost my temper - never a productive thing to do, the momentary relief is followed by hours of regret. On the one hand, I really do understand our goal, and it kinda-sorta makes sense, but on the other, it just seems so idiotic (which means, in my self-centered world, "not the way I would do it"). I'm better at this than I was 20 years ago, but - DAMN!

I want Katy here with me so badly I can't stand it, but there's no way to know how long I'll be here, so I've told her not to try to get a plane ticket. It would suck to have her arrive just as I'm leaving. Sigh.

Ah, well, I get to sleep in tomorrow - we aren't starting work until 10AM. Imagine that!

(Hi, Krishna!)