Long time, no write...

Hello all.

Well it has been a while since I have last posted. I guess that tells you a little about how life has been the last few weeks.

My work day starts between 7:30 and 8:00am and doesn't stop until 6pm or even later so ten hour days à la Iraq - albeit without the heat, dust and the unfriendlies!

Added to the hectic work pace, I have my 9th (of 12) MBA unit to do so I stop my day job in the early evening and then head home and start the night shift for another hour or two, well except for last night when I was so dog-tired I just sat back and enjoyed the top value show CSI-Miami and a glass of Chianti I'd brought back. (CSI Las Vegas and Miami are hugely popular both in France and Switzerland as well as Australia by the way. I guess folks appreciate intelligent TV for a change instead of the endless reality shows that seem to be all the rage these days and cheap for studios to make - no 'stars' to pay - just nobodies who don't even get actors equity rate as it is a 'contest').

The Easter Break was very welcome and I had a very pleasant four days away in northern Italy which is a three to four hour drive south east from here. Lakes, mountains, beautiful Italian villages with cobblestone streets and the local town hall and Piazza. Nothing to do except soak up the sunshine, not think about work and enjoy some of that 'La Dolce Vita'! If I had a spare half a mill' I woulda bought a villa here in a shot it is so nice. A lovely place to retire to and only 35kms from a major city (Milan).

Spring is here after the bareness and grey of winter, and life is positively bursting forth everywhere. Birds are singing, the trees are sprouting new leaves and flowers are blooming in a riot of renewal as the French local councils plant Daisies, Tulips and Pansies on median strips, traffic circles - everywhere. Just being outside makes you feel like walking, creating, painting. I enjoyed winter and going to the mountains for skiiing, but it is also nice to have that wonderful warmth seep all the way back into your bones.

It is a perfect day in France here today. 26 degrees Celcius and people just out having lunch, a cup of coffee at the local cafe' and there is the odd market gardener in his gardening clobber tilling the soil ready for planting now the frosts have gone.