Merry Christmas!

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I Did It!

Now that I have less work I took the time to go to « le Piton des Neiges ».



We left Cilaos on Thursday and got some rain as soon as we started walking. The hike to “le Piton des Neiges” can be done in two different ways: you can walk roughly 5 hours with an elevation of 1700 meters, you can walk roughly 3 hours with an elevation of 1100 meters, spend the night in some sort of cottage and start walking at 3 in the morning to walk the remaining 2 hours with an elevation of 600 meters. We chose the second option. You can only walk up during the hike and the few moments with no elevation are very short. You start the hike in a quiet forest and it is very pleasant but the steps made to avoid the path from becoming too slippery can quickly become tiring. I don't hike often, I need some time for my body to get warmed up and to be able to walk properly, things are easier when I am walking on a flat track or a track with a small elevation. In this case having to produce such an effort to walk along the steep track that lead to the pass on the way to “le Piton des Neiges” was very difficult for my legs. We couldn't really enjoy the landscape on our way up, the clouds that were quite low were blocking the view as well as bringing rain. I started reducing my speed as soon as I felt my heart beating too strongly, I did exactly the same thing as when I was riding a bike on “la Route du Volcan” I would go as slowly as possible to be sure to get to the end.



I didn't need to achieve anything, I just wanted to reach the goal of the day which was the cottage. I was slowly walking behind my hiking partners with small steps, I had my poncho on and my eyes were only looking at the ground to avoid loosing my motivation. My partners had a nice rhythm but there was no way for me to try and follow their rhythm or I wouldn't last very long. I stopped walking each time I felt like it but tried at the same time not to do it too often. We finally made it to the cottage after a 3 hour walk, we had walked for 8 km. It was still raining when we got there, we were soaked from the rain as well as the sweat but it was great. We changed clothed, got warm, ate a very good “rougail saucisse” and went to be straight away because we had to wake up at 2:30 AM.



I couldn't sleep and I have no idea why. I had two blankets to be warm, I even removed one during the night; I usually can sleep anywhere but this time I had plenty of time to count the sheep and sing songs to myself. Waking up at 2:30 AM was not difficult at all but starting walking in the dark and under the rain to get to “le Piton des Neiges” was. We started walking on a very rocky track with our headlamps to help us. Walking on rocks is usually a pain but it is even worse under the rain, sleepless and with headlamps. I was afraid to twist my ankle during the whole walk, the rocks were slippery and being tired really didn't help. Each time I go hiking and it gets tough I tell myself “I hate hiking but here I am so better reach the goal” and I indeed hate hiking but it is the price to pay to see amazing landscapes. An hour later I raised my head and saw that it was not raining anymore but more than that I could see the stars. The possibility of seeing the sun rise at the top without any clouds to block the view got me in a very good mood. We were halfway, I was very tired but I was almost there. 20 minutes later we were back inside the clouds and I was quite disappointed, the top was getting close and it would be a shame if it would be completely inside the clouds. 15 minutes before getting to the top we got rewarded, we were above the clouds and we would get our sunrise.



We got to the top 30 minutes before the sunrise. Waiting for the sun to rise in the wind and the cold is great when you are all sweaty but it sure was worth it. We had a sea of clouds in front of us where we could see “le Piton de la Fournaise”. Le sun rose behind the volcano, we were looking forward for it to bring some light but mostly warm us. It was happiness after torture, we enjoyed the sun's warmth a while before walking back down.
Here is something less for me to do in La Reunion: I was on top of the highest point in La Reunion and watched the sun rise and I can assure you I will not do that again anytime soon.

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Hell

Reunion Island is great but life is different when nothing is going right at work.



My work is fairly simple, I have to setup different types of machines and have them talk to each other. The reality is of course quite complex and you really see it when those nice machines decide not to do what they are supposed to. I came back to Reunion Island to increase the capacity and the features of the machines, to do so I need to upgrade the software they use. This type of operation usually occur at night when most customers are sleeping and are not using their phones. I often start working around 11 PM, end up in bed around 3 or 4 AM if I am lucky and much later if I am not.



Things usually go like this:
we get to the workplace
we check that everything is working well (this way if something is not working afterwards we know that it is our doing)
we do whatever needs to be done
we check that everything is still working well
if there is no issue we go home
if there is something wrong we try to find a solution
if we haven't found anything around 5 PM we undo whatever we did hoping the issue will disappear
if the issue is still there once we are back to the way things were before then we are screwed
Issues usually occur a few seconds after modifications have been done but they can sometime be sneaky.



One day a problem occurred 21 hours after our modifications. In this case I have the pleasure of spending my evening on the phone and in front of my laptop to try and bring everything back to normal.
A customer once complained but was unable to tell us when his issue started (knowing when an issue first occurred helps us compare with the modifications we did on that day). We tried to reproduce what was described by the customer but weren't successful, in this case this means for us that the customer doesn't know how to use his phone. The customer kept on complaining but we would still not be able to reproduce his problem. In the end the customer was right to insist, he was the only one with the problem and we would have never seen anything if not for him.
The thing I like best is getting emails after working during the night where I would find diagrams showing how everything was great before and how it was all bad since I changed some things. In some cases it becomes so bad that I can't even wait till the night to change everything back but mostly I am good for another night to erase the previous nights work.
The crown goes to the change that will create 3 or 4 different problems and give the impression of originating from different machines. With this one you get long nights in front of the laptop coupled with lengthy emails and phone calls to explain those who are supposed to help you what you did before trouble started.



It is great once things calm down. It was to a point where everybody was coming to us when there was an issue even if it was not related and we were starting to doubt everything we were doing. After 2 hard months things are back to normal and I have more energy to enjoy the beach.

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Pedal

I went for a bike ride a few days ago that I will never forget it.



We left at 7 in the morning to get to “la route du volcan”. Once on the road, we left the car halfway to our destination and started riding the bikes. The weather was nice, the top of “le piton des neiges” was not yet covered with clouds, I was wearing an extra jacket because it was cold. The bike ride started with an easy pace, I tried not to go too fast because I knew that we had quite a long way to go and I wanted to keep my strength. I found out that I started having difficulties as soon as the road tilt reached a certain level. I was riding my bike while being on the fourth speed of the bike in the middle plateau but I quickly found myself on the first speed in the largest plateau. I was not used to riding a bike for long distances, I tried to ride as slow as possible to not tire my legs too fast: I was going so slow at some point that I had a hard time going straight.



My legs were hurting so much in the hairpins that I had to stop at each curve to rest. I gave myself goals to reach during the ride to help me go forward. The few times I have been on a bike I was either riding in Paris or going down “le Maido” on a mountain bike. I felt a great deal of satisfaction when I reached “le pas de sable”, there were only a few hairpins left separating me from the place I like the most on this earth: “la plaine des sables”. We had a short boomerang session, it was everything I needed to relax after the suffering. Throwing boomerangs in “la plaine des sables” is the third thing I like to do most on this island after scuba diving and mountain bike hiking. I caught the boomerang twice, lets hope I will catch it even more next time. We concluded the bike ride to reach “le pas de bellecombe”, we were on a dirt road and had to breathe all the dust that each car passing us by was raising while we were avoiding potholes.



The way back was easier as there was more down than up but the climb up from “la plaine des sables” was tough. The ride to “le pas de bellecombe” had killed my legs and I didn’t have the energy to climb that kind of road without stopping to rest at each curve. I found out on the way back that I could actually ride without any problems when the tilt of the road was light but my strength went very fast when the tilt increased. When I was speeding down the road I couldn’t stop myself saying: I rode all that up! The clouds started to gather and a light drizzle started that was quite refreshing. Of course the drizzle turned into rain and I had to slow down to avoid getting out of the road. The change of the strength in the rain made me feel like I had stepped through an invisible door. I was feeling like I was close to the end of the ride and remembered that we had started with a slope, the ride had to end with a rise! I remembered the rise to be short but it just wouldn’t stop, I don’t remember how many times I had to stop to relax my legs. At some point I think I even stopped every 5 or 10 kicks.
I eventually reached our starting point, the whole ride was 32km long and had roughly 300 meters of positive elevation.

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My Sound Of The Day

Time to support someone I know and think is very talented: Thibaut Renard - Let's Have This. You can follow him here.



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My Sound Of The Day

Imagine you are watching the circus show PFFFFFFF from the company Akoreacro. The soundtrack of the show is mostly Eastern European jazz but all of a sudden two of the artists on stage do this.



I have seen this show last friday and i liked it so much that i would have seen it a second time this week if it wasn't sold out, i recommend it.


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Cop Watch

I rarely am in contact with law enforcement agents except customs agents when I travel but when it happens it is always memorable.



I was driving from work on my scooter last Wednesday near Cap La Houssaye when two police officers waved me to the side of the road. One of them approached when my scooter was stopped and said “what do you give me?”. It seems that in his mind it was mandatory for me to give him something, I was in a good mood so I said “I will give you the scooter’s papers” and I gave them to him. He asked while he was looking at the papers “do you have ID?” “No… ah yes I have a photocopy of my passport”, I handed the copy, he looked at it and said “what is your nationality?” I hate stupid questions so I answered “it is written on the paper”, he gave me the paper back once he was done. He was clearly not satisfied so he added “you know your paper doesn’t mean anything” “if you want you can follow me to my place where I will show you the real deal” “it doesn’t work that way you have to have your ID with you at any time” it was of course wrong but he was a cop and he knew everything better than anyone else. “I always carry a photocopy of my passport with me and you are the first to be bothered by this” “if you take it this way next time you will have to go to the police station and you will get the full monty”. I had no idea what full monty he was talking about but the law is pretty clear on the subject: in the event he could not determine my identity where the ID check was performed, he had to bring me back to the station and provide me with everything necessary to prove my identity. Entering my passport code in his database would do the trick in 2 seconds or allow me to contact someone who would confirm my identity (no need for him/her to bring my ID, the statement is enough). The code of criminal procedure is pretty clear, he could detain a maximum of 4 hours and then would have to release me; there is no mention of full monty in the code of criminal procedure.
He let me go saying that next time it would be different and me answering that I would not be walking around with my ID. This was a nice moment spent with a police officer: how to piss off people when one has nothing to do.

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My Sound Of The Day

Just good: Common - Blue Sky.



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Hot Damn

There is nothing like a good dive to set your mind straight.



I went scuba last Saturday in the morning at « la Passe de l’Ermitage », it is a great diving spot where you can often see turtles. My last dive was four months old so I was anxious to dive again as soon as I got back to Reunion Island but a lot of them have been cancelled because of the swell of the sea. Most nautical activities have been forbidden because of the sharks but scuba diving is still allowed, sharks don’t like the sound of the bubbles the divers release when they breathe. We were lucky to cross path with a mother whale and her little one before getting to the diving spot. Each person who had its camera was quickly in the water to try and get a nice shot of the whale. The whales couldn’t be easily approached, as they were getting closer to the front of the boat they dove underneath it and reappeared at the tail of the boat, it was quite impressive.



I felt right at home as soon as we started the dive. We passed 6 or 7 turtles, some would swim away and some would stick around; “la Passe de l’Ermitage” is famous for its turtles. It was great to be back underwater, I was not used to not having my digital camera with me. We wanted to end the dive by going near the coral reef to try and find the eagle rays, they like to stay where the waves crash on the coral. I could feel the current getting stronger as we got closer, we were in some sort of canyon that was protecting us in part but we moved too close as soon as we saw the rays and got caught in the current. And just like that the aquatic stroll became a fight for survival. We found ourselves where the coral forms a plateau, waves were forming and crashing just above us, there was at most 2 meters between the plateau and the surface. The current was very powerful, getting out of the water would mean being crushed by the waves, our only choice was to stay in the water and try to get out of the area. The current was taking us back and forth, we had to wait for the right moment to start moving to avoid getting tired. It is a good thing to grab the corals when the current is strong and move in the direction you are trying to reach. This allowed me to move away from the dangerous area but the current was so strong at some point that I got dragged backward totally unable to grab anything my poor fingers desperately trying to hold on to something. The diving instructor and I hold hands as the current grew even stronger, we could see in each other eyes how scared we were. He was always making sure that I was ok, oddly my breathing was as steady as during the beginning of the dive even though my heart was about to burst out of my chest. In the end we managed to get out the area with the strong currents and went back to the boat after the mandatory decompression stop. I think that we were stuck in that area for 3 or 4 minutes that lasted an eternity. I went back to the boat with a huge headache that I kept for the most part of the day. We all looked at each other once out of the water and started talking about what was going on in our minds as we were stuck in the currents. I was quite surprised and relieved at the same time to see that I didn’t panic, I will probably never forget this experience. The dive instructor told us that he had never been caught in such currents and added that if he could he would have given me diving level 2 without the exam. This is one hell of a way to start diving again in Reunion Island.

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My Sound Of The Day

Not much to say except that i like this one a great deal: Deadmau5 And Greta Svabo Bech - Raise Your Weapon.



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Much Ado About Nothing?

There is a shark scare in Reunion Island these days and it doesn’t look like it will stop.



People are scared in La Reunion, sharks have attacked for the fourth time this year. Shark attacks are not new to the island but it is the first time that they occur over such a short time period. Moreover they are localized in the hyper touristic area that is the western part on the island where no shark attack had been recorded for over 30 years. The victims are all surfers, it is well known that shark often mistake them for turtles when they are swimming to get to the surf spot. Foreigners are very often subject to those attacks and the locals usually don’t bother too much because they think that they shouldn’t have been in the water at the time they were attacked. This time though it was different because a local surfer who used to be a bodyboard champion was the victim. This last case explains why the island inhabitants and local authorities changed behaviour regarding sharks, in the past you could here sentences like “another stupid surfer who comes to the island and has no idea how things are around here” or “he should have gone to surf someplace else”. The last shark victim you the 3 surfer rules very well:
- no surfing at nightfall because it is the time sharks hunt
- no surfing after the rain because the water would be full of water the inhabitants have thrown away
- no surfing when the sea is strong because water will not be clear and sharks like it
The problem is that surfers tend to forget those common rules and what has to happens ends up happening.



The fourth shark attack had immediate results: swimming was forbidden on beaches with no lagoon. The anger of the restaurants owner and shop keepers was also immediate: “what about our profits?”. A three day compaign was organized to hunt 10 sharks (only non protected species) and only one was caught on the last day of the campaign. The mayor of Saint-Paul, city where the beach of Boucan Canot is located, was called a murderer by the angry surfers after the attack when she reminded everyone present that when she was a little girl the eldest would forbid the kids to go in the water because the sea was strong. The restaurants owner requested that sharks be hunted down on a regular basis and that the subaquatic park be removed because it was considered like food storage for sharks. They forgot to ask for the move of the DCP (a device that attracts fish) that is located in Saint-Paul’s bay and is generally installed far at sea. The surfers asked that antishark shields be installed forgetting that sharks are not the only living creatures in the sea and that those creatures may get caught up in the net and die of exhaustion. They want the city hence the island inhabitants to pay for their safety, a quick reminder: only surfer are attacked by sharks.



What can you do when you are elected and a few people are creating a panic? You have to try and reassure the people even though the origin of the problem is a lack of common sense. Closing the beaches is not solving anything and will anger tourists coming to the islands and the locals on holiday; lets not forget that shark don’t (yet?) attack swimmers. Hunting the sharks is not a solution, there will always be survivors and among them one of them may attack another surfer. Using antishark shields will create more problems. There are discussions to create a new flag to warn people at beach where a shark attack has occurred. Each group who is impacted by this situation is trying to defend his interest instead of trying to find a solution together. Only a serious study on shark behaviour in the region will provide real answers to this problem, everything else is just shouting in the wind.



Last Wednesday a man was attacked by a shark as he was on an outrigger canoe, he managed to strike the shark with his paddle but it managed to bite the canoe and through the guy in the water before going away. The attack occurred at 10:15 AM in Cap La Houssaye in the north of Boucan Canot. What is going on in La Reunion? Are sharks getting used to human flesh or human blood spilled before? Are the cities in the west of the island releasing more garbage in the sea? There are a lot of questions but answers to none, one sure doesn’t feel like getting in the water these days...

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My Sound Of The Day

After Brasil, here is a song from Cuba. They sample the song of a girl with a wonderful voice who died too soon: Los Aldeanos - Pasa El Borrador.



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Once There

When you travel to a country you have already been in, there are always things you expect and some you don’t.


Getting out of the airport was a real nightmare the last time I travelled to the country. We walked from the airport to the terminal and were greeted in front of it by a horde of shouting guys asking to see our passport and our vaccination book. No one would be permitted inside the terminal without having his papers checked. You just flew for 8 hours and the greeting you get is shouting guys, they didn’t wear official clothes so no one could no who was actually working for the airport that’s reassuring! I didn’t let the guy who had my passport out of my sight, it was so crazy that I lost him for a few seconds and when I saw him again he was inside the terminal. I walked toward him as quickly as I could with so many people around, I got my passport back after he checked that my company had filled the necessary papers.
This time, a bus took us from the plane to the terminal, no one was waiting to shout at us in front of the terminal and we could queue in front of the customs booth. There one guy dressed in white checked my vaccination book while the officer was looking at my passport.


I attended a security briefing on the next day, I was given rules I had to follow while I was in Congo. I was forbidden to walk alone in the street. I was forbidden to take a cab. I was forbidden to go outside the city centre. I was required to call a driver to pick me up each time I wanted to go somewhere. There would soon be a presidential election, I was forbidden to talk politics in public. And I was of course forbidden to talk to girls in the street. All those precautions were taken to avoid situations that could get worse. If I am taking pictures in the street someone might come to me and ask why I am taking pictures. A simple quarrel can quickly become something much worse because people are quite curious, 2 might quickly become 10 or more and in those cases one might not know what can happen. This kind of situation doesn’t happen all the time but it is normal that my company makes sure to avoid any risk.


There are some girls at the office that will serve tea and coffee to the employees. It is possible to buy some snacks from vendors allowed to enter the building. Some employees also have a business on the side, some sell clothes and others sell hair extensions that women like so much.
The topic of most discussions happening in the building is the result of the presidential election. It is a lot of fun to listen to everyone’s argument, voices become loud but there is no anger. It seems like each of them is really enjoying the debate and is never annoyed by the fact that the other do not agree. It is a real pleasure to listen to them and I will know in two months who was right.

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My Sound Of The Day

I always get some tunes when i am in a country, this is some good shit from UK: Wretch 32 - Traktor Feat L. The video is in the complete post.





Bonus Song: Wretch 32 - Unorthodox Feat Example. Everyone should learn the chorus and apply it everyday.





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My Sound Of The Day

I usually hate the music the Gallagher brothers do but there is an exception: Oasis - Falling Down.



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The Trip

It is always an adventure to take the plane, the airport is a place where you will live as many great moments as unpleasant ones and most of all you will meet a lot of different people.



I went to the terminal 2C of the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport to catch my flight to Kinshasa. This terminal is a special place for me because this is where you will take flights to go to Africa, so this place is a little part of Africa. You will see people argue as they would in the street, some other will ask you where you are travelling to and ask you to take something for them if you are travelling to the country they are interested in, businessmen running here and there...
In all the airports in the world, there will always be those who don’t want to queue whether they be in economic class, in business class or in first class. It is even funnier in the case of the business or first class because in those cases the queues are always extremely short but they are always too long for someone. An Air France employee was stationed at the entrance of the check-in zone for the business and first class travellers. She was checking that no one was in the wrong zone and was also recording the plane ticket numbers. She left for a few minutes to accompany a guy walking with crutches to the check-in booth. As I was the next in the line I waited for her to come back so she could record my ticket number. The wait was definitely too long for 2 guys who rushed passed me asking why I was waiting but not waiting for the answer. I was about to go grab them by the collar and bring them back to the line but I didn’t because I know I can be quite rough with stupid people.


This a behaviour I really don’t understand and don’t like at all, I think that people tend to enjoy too much the small privileges that their work or their way of life will provide and they will not be able to behave normally when the smallest inconvenience will occur. I am lucky enough to be a priority flyer and to never have to queue for check-in or boarding but I never complain when I have to wait. It seems that those guys are in a hurry to wait for the boarding in the lounge. I get to the airport as late as allowed to because waiting in the main room or in the lounge is the same for me and I’d rather wait at home.
I always travel economic class but was bumped to business. The guy to my left started complaining to the stewart as lunch was being served because the dish he wanted was no longer available (there was a choice of 4 main course). “I travel a lot and in the other air companies we are asked what we shall it in advance, this way everyone gets what he wants”. This doesn’t change the fact that each dish is available in limited number but it seems that it is more satisfying for him. It is probably because he always managed to get what he wanted before not thinking that maybe someone else didn’t get the dish he/she wanted. The stewart apologized a few times and said that it was only done in first class. “This is the only company in the world like this”. I was about to interrupt the argument but didn’t. If you get the choice between 4 different main courses and still find a way to complain there is not much that can be done for you. Do people become assholes when they spend too much time in planes and hotel rooms? Do I have to be worried?

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My Sound Of The Day

This is my favorite Moby sound: Moby - The Sky Is Broken.



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My Sound Of The Day

It is quite difficult to find good brasilian hip-hop outside of Brasil, here is one of its best ambassadors: Marcelo D2 - Desabafo Deixa Eu Dizer Feat Claudia.



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Liverpool

A few days ago I went to spend the day in Liverpool home of the Beatles and I was not disappointed.



Liverpool is only 3 hours from the Isle of Man with the ferry. I was quite shocked when I got into the ferry because it was packed. I don’t know why but I expected the boat to be almost empty, I guess most people use the ferry because it is the cheapest way to reach the mainland. As the boat was approaching its destination, the view on the nice little houses of New Brighton on the right of the boat was a great contrast with the view of the harbour of Liverpool on the right of the boat. The ferry docked next to the Crown Princess, I didn't expect to see a cruise ship in this part of the world. I quick look on the internet taught me that the ship was on its way to New-York and would be making some stops in Iceland and Greenland. 17 days on a cold sea that is what I call having fun, I thought cruise ships were only cruising hot sees. The visit began once I exited the ferry.




I did absolutely no research about the city before going there. I like to get somewhere and find my way, I may not see all the important places of the city but I will get a different experience of the city. I asked in the ferry if they had a map of the city but they did not. When we disembarked we found ourselves in front of huge ancient buildings, on the right there was a huge plaza with a brand new building: the Museum of Liverpool. I was where the docks used to be, many had been destroyed, some had been turned into bars, restaurants, shops or hotels. What once was a completely abandoned area had become quite alive, there were terraces everywhere and a shopping centre as large as a neighbourhood was located nearby. It is not the kind this is inside a huge bulding, this one only had 1 or 2 levels arranged along large pedestrian streets. I am not at all a fan of this kind of place, I find shopping as interesting as soccer or cars but I think this place would amaze any shopper. You could find all the international brands as well as the local ones that I do not know, the streets were packed with people. I made the effort to go into some stores to try and find some pants I might like (it is not simple) and which are my size (it is even less simple). It is not easy to find something to wear when you're tall and slim, it seems that in “prêt a porter” thin people are short and tall people are large. As I didn’t expect to find something I didn't linger and went out of the shopping area.




It was nice to be back in a city, the Isle of Man is like a village for me. I spent most of time walking in the streets. I came across a building called Grand Central, you could tell it was not your ordinary place just by looking at the front. I could see that the front doors were open I as came closer so I decided to go inside and discovered a really special place. There were a lot of small shops everywhere: clothes, vinyls, piercing, jewels… Everything that was sold there had absolutely nothing to do with what was sold in the shopping center, this reminded me that English people don’t like dressing like everybody else. The building architecture was in complete sync with what was sold inside.
I walked through the streets of the wealthy part of the city where houses have large windows and where there often is a plaque on the wall, I went through places where the walls hiding the vacant lots are covered with concert posters, I made a small detour through Chinatown, I went to see the cathedral with its particular architecture, I walked a lot...




Every time I stopped somewhere I took the opportunity to watch people. It amused me to make comparisons with the countries I have visited. The first thing I noticed is that people are quite large, I might even say as large as the average American. It is not as obvious on the Isle of Man. There were so many people with red hair, blue hair, purple hair, a tattoo or a piercing. I almost felt like it was a national brand for the youth. I say youth because I have seen very few people over 30 who had that look. It was Saturday and I saw a few groups of guys already drunk at 2 PM, I guess they ended the evening in the gutter. I laughed when I saw these groups of girls who were all dressed the same way except for one or two details. I thought it must be very profitable for the brands that they buy.
I of course took my time in Liverpool to eat what we French are bereft since 1997: A whopper. As soon as my stomach began to make some noise, I headed to one of the Burger King I had seen during my walk. Important information: Burger King is the best fast food chain in the world. I ate two whoppers for lunch and one in the late afternoon while waiting for the ferry to arrive. You can not imagine the happiness I felt when I bit into my whopper, the last time I had eaten one was in Malta last October. Here is good news for French lovers of Burger King, it seems that the company has decided to return to France in 2012. The information is not 100% confirmed but it feels very good, I can already see myself eating my whopper in Paris: priceless! Once in the ferry, I slept like a log with a well-filled belly.



After that nice day I ended up having a strong pain in my left leg. It is funny, I can walk for 5 hours in the mountains of La Reunion but not in the streets of Liverpool.

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My Sound Of The Day

Old school RnB the way it should be: Joe - Gone Away Feat Pharrell Williams.



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Manx Grand Prix

The Manx Grand Prix will soon be held on the Isle of Man, it will bring a little bit of action on this quiet island.



The Grand Prix is held during 2 weeks, the first week dedicated for practice and the second week is for all the races. As the Isle of Man has no speedway, the races take place on the main roads. Those are closed from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M. during the first week for practice sessions. If the drivers are lucky there will be no accident and it will not rain on any part of the track thus the practice will occur in its entirety. In most cases it will rain at one point and the practice will have to be cancelled. The roads are closed from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. during race week, the island inhabitants are used to moving around the island while avoiding the main roads used by the motorcycle race.

Click to enlarge


I have never been a fan of motorcycle race, I find formula one races much more interesting. I went to the practice because I had never seen racing bikes. To be fair I would say that I heard them much more than I saw them and my digital camera didn’t see much of them either. Most of the pictures I took had only the road as a subject. I had to enable the continuous shooting mode on the camera to be able to get pictures of the motorbikes but all the bikes were blurry (you can see that on the montage above). Lucky for me I passed one bike as I was walking back to my hotel, I can now say that I know what a racing bike looks like.



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My Sound Of The Day

I like those songs that could be used for a soundtrack: South Central - Demons.



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My Sound Of The Day

How to be very effective to get everyone on the dancefloor : SebastiAn - Embody. The video is in the complete post.




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The Sun Is Shining

It happens just look at the picture below.



I went to visit Castletown Saturday and I took the steam train to make the trip more memorable, it goes from Douglas to the south of the island. The train is well preserved, the coaches are all made of wood and you get the feeling that you are back in the golden age of railway. The train will give you the opportunity to admire the great landscapes of the island, the fields with their stone walls form a green puzzle. You will see rabbits jumping around here and there, they roam freely because they are not hunted on the island. I find it funny that the locals prefer buying some rabbit meat in the shop instead of enjoying the great taste of those who have grown up outdoors. I wouldn’t even ask the question if I were to live on the island, I would enjoy a rabbit stew quite often.



Castletown is a nice little town where there is absolutely nothing to do outside of visiting the castle and going to the pub. There is a small market where one can find local products but there was only one person selling when I got there a 2 P.M. There is only one place where you can have lunch at such a time: the pub. I found out that the Premier League football games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I had lunch in a loud football atmosphere surrounded by fans sometimes happy and sometimes angry by what there team was doing. I love football so much that I was in heaven, next time I will have lunch earlier.



I tried the electric train on Sunday, it goes to the north of the island and at the top of the Snaefell the highest point on the island. I got to ride on that old train completely made of wood and I could hear the wood working as the train was moving. The ride up to the Snaefell offered quite a view it was a real pleasure. Once at the top the view was even more amazing but I didn’t stay too long, the wind was strong and I was quite cold. It is possible to hike all the way to the top or only for a part of it, it is not very difficult; I would I have probably tried it if the weather was not changing all the time.
Next week-end I will go spend a day in Liverpool.



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Shop A Moron

I don’t know if you are aware but riots are taking place on a daily basis in the United Kingdom. The spark is quite similar to what started the riots in France: a young boy was shot dead by the police. There of course none of that on the Isle of Man, I am following this through the local media and what my colleagues are saying about it.



The riot become a looting party every evening and each morning the police is releasing a statement detailing how many people have been arrested during the night. As there are a lot of surveillance cameras the pictures of the looters are broadcasted on TV and are found on almost every newspaper. The population is quite angered with the situation mostly because the looters are young and sometime very young so a lot of people are asking what the parents are doing. I just heard that a mother recognized her daughter on one of the pictures and handed her to the police. This morning an 11 year old girl was charged with attempted criminal damage and has been remanded in custody. I ask myself 2 questions about this. When do you start thinking about bashing a shopwindow when you are in the street to protest about the death of someone? What do you feel when you are a parent and the police comes early in the morning to get your daughter because she destroyed a bus stop the night before?

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My Sound Of The Day

You can put this one on loop, it is a classic: Shalamar - A Night To Remember.



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One Evening At The Pub

One can not be in this part of the world and not go to the pub, it would be like not going to buy a baguette when in Paris or not buying food from a street vendor in Bangkok.



I went to the pub with my colleagues on Friday, they were celebrating the departure of one of them and we were around 15 people. As soon as we entered the pub, each one of us was asked to give 20£, it would be part of the pot used to pay for the drinks. The person in charge of that money would have to make sure that no one would run empty. As I am not regular alcohol drinker (I almost never drink) I wouldn’t be able to handle drinking beer during the evening because aside from being quickly drunk it would also mean for me to be in the restroom every 30 minutes. I chose my drink randomly and was lucky enough to choose cider, I would maybe go to the bathroom every 30 minutes but I would get drunk less quickly. I was given my pint of cider and the party started as soon as everyone had a drink.



I really had a good time, I took the opportunity to ask what I could do on the island. I told them I wanted to go scuba diving to see the basking sharks, they laughed and said that the water temperature would probably soften my desire. I asked if their were problems with inbreeding as they were living on an island, they explained that only 50% of the island population was born there so there was little chance for any of them to marry one of their cousin. They talked about the TT, it is THE race of the island and it started in 1907. I was told that it was a crazy race and it was quite common to have people die or be seriously injured. Still it is quite an event on the island and the inhabitants flock to the side of the streets when the races are on.



I had one litre of cider in the belly when we had diner, it was a delight to finally put some solid on top of all that liquid. The mood was great, I have to admit that it was sometime difficult for me to understand what was being said; I had to get used to the accents, I had to manage multiple discussions and there was a lot of noise. I expected to hear people make fun of my French accent but no one did. After diner, we went back to the bar so that each one of us would get another half litre of liquid. We were not allowed to leave until the pot was empty, this would prompt the pot keeper to ask for a second round of money to the remaining party. When it was decided to change location to go to a pub where there was karaoke I excused myself and went to bed. I had 1.5l of cider in my belly and my bed had been calling me for quite a while, I slept like a baby.

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Holidays Are Over

I am back to work after well deserved holydays and I am now in the Isle of Man. Yeah, I get to watch Channel4 again.



I got on the island after staying in transit in Manchester for 6 hours. I dropped my stuff once I got to the hotel and went for a walk to get some fresh air. The city looked like there was a curfew, there was almost no one outside. I only found closed doors when I went to buy a SIM card and some books; most of the shops close at 5:30 PM. I was walking in the street bewildered with a can of Cherry Coke in my hand (I love Cherry Coke) when 3 chicks came to me and asked if I could by some alcohol for them. They explained that at 16 they were allowed to drink but couldn’t purchase alcohol, I of course refused.



The Isle of Man probably will be a little similar to Jersey so I know how everyday life will be. I especially hope to see Basking Sharks, they are the largest sharks right after the Whale Sharks. This is usually the season to see them so I hope I will be lucky, I even am ready to go scuba diving in cold water to have that privilege.

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Hahn Superdry

How to put everything that is super in life inside a beer.




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My Sound Of The Day

Not much to say except this is everything I like: DJ Jazzy Jeff And Ayah - Notorious.



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Not Just For Gays!

They do know how to entertain in the US, here is the opening number of the Tony Awards 2011 that honors Broadway.



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A Dive In Boueni

One great thing about scuba diving is that no two dives are alike. Last week-end I had a good reminder that scuba diving can also be an extreme sport.



The scuba diving clubs that are based on “Petite Terre” or around Mamoudzou make most of their dives in “La Passe En S”, it is indeed a great place to dive but one needs a change of scenery from time to time. The north and the south of “Grande Terre” offer a great choice of dive spots which are really different from “La Passe En S”. We headed to Boueni on Friday evening to avoid driving for an hour on Saturday morning to the diving school and we spent the night at “Le Soleil Couchant” in bungalows. I really recommend this place as it is quite cheap and has a great restaurant, you can't go to this place without trying the “Cari Crabe” where you will have the challenge of eating a very large crab. Even if you can't eat all the crab you won't regret it.



On Saturday morning we went to the diving center and were on our way to the diving spot as soon as our gear was ready. The instructors didn't want to waste too much time because they wanted to avoid the tide. It took us almost an hour to get there, we were around 12 on the boat and to avoid confusion when it would be time to go in the water each team would dive at a different spot. We were the last 5 to go so we had plenty of time to get prepared. As soon as the boat driver found the right spot with not to much current we jumped in the water and as it was an open water dive we went underwater facing each other: that is when trouble started.



As I was going down I could feel the strength of the current increasing, the floor was around 5 meters deep and I had to grab it to be able to move in the direction of the instructor. In those case grabbing the floor allows you to go forward without getting tired from trying to palm against the current. The more I would want to go down, the more difficult it would get for me to do so. At the same time as I was fighting to move forward, my mask would fill itself with water in a mater of minutes. When you dive with a moustache the mask will not be able to stick properly to your skin in the area located just below your nose, thus it is common to have to empty the water in the mask two or three times during a dive. But in this case it was like my mask was filling with water as fast as I would empty it. Behind the coral reef, the current would throw us back on the reef, it would be very difficult to find balance and on top of that I had the impression my mask was filling even faster. In normal conditions I have no problems emptying my mask and putting it back so that water doesn't come back in too quickly. I was using one hand to try and steady myself but you need both of them to empty your mask properly or can use one hand if you are in good diving conditions, I tried to empty the water repeatedly with one hand but no success.



I was feeling panic starting to take over so I showed the instructor the sign for “I'm not feeling so good”. He took me to a place where I would be able to sit and was a little bit protected by the current. I then took my mask with both hands, emptied the water, put the mask back on, looked left, looked right, looked at the instructor, made the sign “I'm OK” and we went on with the dive. If I would not have been able to solve that water in the mask thing I am sure I would have asked to go back to the surface. The four of us each have used a lot of air during the beginning of the dive as it was quite an experience but as soon as the current strength lessened we managed to start breathing properly again and ended up staying underwater for almost 50 minutes (I usually dive for a minimum of 60 minutes). The instructor congratulated us because he expected the dive to be finished after only 30 minutes.
It was a tough dive but I believe we have learned a little bit about ourselves during those 50 minutes.

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My Sound Of The Day

I watched again the great movie High Fidelity not so long ago and i listened to this with pleasure: The Beta Band - Dry The Rain.



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Another Way To Visit Reunion Island

There are many ways to visit La Reunion. The simplest and fastest way is with a car, you can also fly and enjoy a unique viewpoint on the island. Hiking is the most popular way because you will get the viewpoint as well as access to the less known areas of the island. Last week I discovered another way to visit the island: geocaching.



Geocaching is simple. You have to buy a Tupperware, you will put inside a pen, a small notebook and a few objects. You will have to hide the Tupperware in a place where it can’t be found by everyone. You write down the GPS coordinates of the location and input them on geocaching.com (www.geocaching.com). You can add pictures of the location where the Tupperware is hidden as well as hints to help the search. Anyone can then try and find your cache, in this case one has to write its pseudo on the notebook, the date of the find and the objects that were added and removed.



You guessed it geocaching is a treasure hunt 2.0 that is worldwide. You will be able to look for and find caches everywhere on the planet. When you take one object from a cache you will have to replace it with something else to avoid empty caches. Some people like to follow the movement of the objects they have left in a cache, they can know who took their object thanks to the notebook and contact them through the website to know where the object has been dropped off. There is an automated system to follow an object, you just need to buy a travel bug that you will tie to an object, it will allow you to find out where your object is thanks to the serial number of the travel bug. Each person finding the bug and moving it will update the website and allow its owner to know how far the object has traveled. We found a 20 Yuan bank note last week coming from Montpellier. You can also explain on the travel bug where you want your object to go. The bank note we found had to go to China.



Geocaching is a really good idea to wander in places you don’t know. In some cases the cache is located in a place with easy access but in some other cases you have to deserve the cache and will have to walk through dirt tracks or walk for a while to reach the cache location. You will get the opportunity to discover places you wouldn’t have been otherwise. I had the chance to see another side of La Plaine Des Sables which is my favorite place in La Reunion. I will probably create the first cache in Mayotte.

La suite!

My Sound Of The Day

What do you say when you step on the dancefloor as the DJ plays one of your favorite songs: Snoop Dogg - That's That Shit Feat R. Kelly.



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Speaking French Is Easy

You just have to learn one word.



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My Sound Of The Day

I listened to this song last week as i was watching TV, it was the soundtrack of an ad: Flash And The Pan - Walking In The Rain. The video of the ad is in the complete post.




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When Your Laptop Goes Pfff

Two weeks ago my work laptop decided to crash. It was not the first time something like this happened to me and i am quite prepared to it but this time the laptop shutdown around midnight just before the start of my work.



I got to the office on Monday night around 11 PM, I switched on my laptop and went to check that there was no issue in the network. No night operation is allowed if there is an issue going on. When I came back in front of my PC, Windows had booted and the login window was waiting for me. The session opened after having typed my password, I started opening the files I would need to work then started connecting to the servers I would work on. All of a sudden the blue screen of death appeared and disappeared, it was almost like a flash before my eyes and the computer restarted. When you get a blue screen of death the computer just sits there and usually waits for you to switch it off. As the computer was restarting I told myself to use my Linux partition to copy the files I would need on a USB drive. It was a great idea because the I tried to boot Windows after copying the files but this time the blue screen of death appeared even before the login window. I tried to switch on the computer a few time during the night but in the end nothing was being displayed on the screen anymore not even the computer brand which is the first thing that is being displayed when you switch your laptop on.



My trips to Kiribati and Tahiti came straight to my mind: a HP laptop that works perfectly well the day before but powers on the next day without displaying anything on the screen is not new to me. One could think that it is a screen issue but it just means that the laptop motherboard is dead, the 2 times this has happened to me it was because those boards don't handle humidity very well.
There was 3 choices:
- Find all the HP reseller on the island to buy a new motherboard hoping it wouldn't die 2 days after being installed.
- Ask to have my laptop replaced. I would get a new one that I think is less suited for my work thanks to UPS.
- Remove the hard drive from the laptop, put it in an external case to make it an external hard drive and install on it all the software I need to keep on working whatever the computer I am working on.



After a short night because we stopped working at 5 AM, I went to the first computer store I found and bought an external case. My boss is now used to getting a mail where the subject is « Computer Dead » and where I write: Hi, my computer just died but I can still perform my assignment. We will have to setup a appointment for me to get a new laptop when I will get back to France. Regards.
For sure I can't work on my scuba diving pictures with Picasa anymore but who cares.

La suite!