Lux travel

Or, how I tried something new and it paid off.

Let's fill in the backstory. As you probably know, I got hired for my current job starting in April, until the end of August. At the time, whether they believed it or not, there were many positive words about how my contract would "probably" be renewed, the subcontractors I am working for just had to iron out the formalities of their contract, etc. etc. Fast-forward to the beginning of June. I have two months left on my contract, the subcontractors' contract runs out the end of July and hasn't yet been renewed, and the UK project I was hired to work on will probably not get off the ground until 2014. Plus I have gotten rid of the entire backlog of documents that, when I arrived, filled about 7 shelves (with more arriving every day), and there have been days where I've finished all my work by 11 am and literally played Candy Crush for the rest of the day. Which isn't as fun as it sounds.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that things were not looking rosy for a contract renewal. Now the last time this happened, it was a great shock to the system and I ended up depressed, on sick leave, and ultimately unemployed. This time, I was determined to be proactive and start lining up something else while I still had a day job. So I marched into my manager's office, asked him about my contract, got the response I was expecting ("I don't know, but things don't look good") and told him that, with the clock ticking and no offers on the table from their side, I had to start looking elsewhere.

Cards on the table, I started firing CVs off, deciding to be confident and just go for anything I saw that looked vaguely appropriate, unlike when I was depressed and kept telling myself "you can't apply for that, look, you're underqualified/overqualified/probably the right amount qualified, but they won't want you anyway because x, y, z". Almost straight away, my phone started ringing and recruiters started doing that horrible, horrible thing French people do of ringing you out of the blue and submitting you to a mini-interview over the phone. I had one complete disaster where there was a bad line, I couldn't hear a thing the woman said, had to ask her to repeat everything, and actually spent the whole phonecall thinking it was another job entirely that was ringing me. (By the way, I find it incredibly rude that, even after I sent an email to apologise and explain again that I just couldn't hear, this woman hasn't got back to me to at least say "sorry, we're not going forward with your candidature".) Several others went a lot better, but they told me to get back in touch closer to the end date of my contract.

The one that actually paid off, however, was what I would have thought of as the longest shot of all. For I think the first time in my life, I submitted a candidature spontanée - I even had to look the term up in the dictionary to find the English equivalent (they suggested "spontaneous" or "unsolicited" application, neither of which I think sounds all that great). That is, I found a company online that looked like they might regularly hire people a bit like me, and sent them my CV even though they weren't advertising any vacancies. I've been to the seminars before where they tell you to do this, but honestly, I'd never really believed it would work. Even when they called me, I half expected they would just say, "cool, we'll keep you on our books", but the next thing I knew, they were inviting me to Luxembourg for an interview.

So, after hastily wangling two days off work, booking (reimbursable, thankfully) last-minute train tickets, spending a weekend of debauchery in Toulouse then having two much-needed sleeps in my own bed, it was off early in the morning to take a train, metro, train, and two-bus journey, spanning three countries, to my interview. The bus, from Germany, arrived at the Luxembourg city train station as scheduled, two hours before my interview, and after changing into my interview clothes and touching up my makeup in the train station loos, I decided to head straight up to the vicinity of my interview location. Thankfully, since of course I took the wrong bus (it went to the right area, but by a different route that didn't go past the stop I needed). The bus driver told me to go round the corner to the main road and wait for a different bus back down the road, but when I got there and looked at the map, I decided that it was just one straight road, it didn't look far, and the next bus wasn't for 10 minutes, so I'd just walk.

This was a bit of an error in judgement. What looked not far on the map turned out to be, I later verified, a 2 mile walk (by the way, it annoys me no end that I can't figure out how to change from miles to kilometres on Apple Maps). 2 miles in the blazing c. 28°C, humid sunshine dressed in a wool suit (well, I took the jacket off of course) with a full knee-length slip underneath (cos otherwise that woollen waistband is itchy!) on one of those long, straight roads that just seems to go on and on without you ever getting any nearer to your unknown destination. Pulling a wheely suitcase. Altogether, it took 1 1/2 hours from my arrival at the train station to reaching my destination, so thank god I always leave myself a lot of time. I used the spare 20 minutes before heading inside to try to sit quietly and stop sweating. Always a good start.

After checking in to the front desk, I headed into my interview with a woman about my age who had not only been very friendly over the phone and by email (signing off, unusually, Bien cordialement instead of just Cordialement) but turned out to be gorgeous, and wearing a dress that was tight and low-cut even by general office standards, let alone French women's standards. (Yes, this was Luxembourg, but she and her company were French.) I swear I spent the start of the interview just staring at her thinking "please hire me and be my new best friend". (There was also a man and another woman there, who were not candidates to be my new best friend/girl crush.)

The interview started off on a bad/confusing note, when it emerged that they had decided I wasn't experienced enough for the position we had discussed on the telephone. The good news, however, was there was a more junior post, that they weren't interviewing anyone else for (yet). One of the bad things about living in France is it's really hard to get a job as a librarian, as my training, experience and inclinations would normally lead me to do. So I have to apply for jobs in records management, which in fairness, I am rather comically clueless about (despite actually working in a records management position right now, and having studied it a bit at uni).

Obviously, I'd tried to brush up before the interview, but things started off slightly dodgy when she asked if the term "classification code" meant anything to me. "Yeeeeeeees....", I replied, praying there wouldn't be any follow-up questions (in which case I would have gone for the obvious, but probably hopelessly undercooked reply of "a code for classifying stuff?"). Thankfully, probably sensing that I in fact didn't really know, she moved on. More horror to come, when she inquired about what I had studied relating to archives/records in my Masters degree. I just kept naming random concepts - "authority control!" "authenticity!" "records lifecycle!" "preservation!" "retention schedules!" - like a mad person who had swallowed a records management glossary until she finally interrupted me and said "so, those are things you covered in your course?" "Um, yep..." We did get back on to firmer ground when the other woman asked why I'd applied and I think I did a pretty good job of pointing out how the values espoused on their website matched my profile and how although I might not have a lot of experience in records/archives I've proven my adaptability and ability to learn quickly on the job, but it was still something of a surprise when, at the end of the interview Miss Franco-Luxembourgeoise said "okay, well take a few days to think it over, then if you want the job, let us know". A triumph for my personal skills over actual knowledge and experience, or a reflection of the fact that they weren't interviewing anyone else? Who can say?

They only told me AFTER I accepted the position (which only runs till the end of the year, boo, but it's a start) that it was subject to confirmation by the IO (international organisation, arguably not quite as important as the IIO), so it was a semi-nervous wait for a couple of weeks until the news came through that I officially got the job! So now I need to fit in the last month at my current job, a trip to Belgium for the Grand Prix (woohoo), a week and a half in England and Italy, and then move to somewhere in the vicinity of Luxembourg (still thinking that through) and start a new job, in the space of the next six weeks. Help!

As for the rest of my short time in Luxembourg, I just wandered around really. The weather was gorgeous (once I was out of the the wool suit), and it turns out Luxembourg is really pretty! I knew nothing about it, but it's set between a couple of plateaux and valleys, so there are amazing views everywhere (and some steep hiking up and down hills), and it is so so green. I swear, you're in the middle of the city and you'd think you were looking out on an alpine village. I think I read somewhere that there is 30% green space in the city, plus it is dotted with the picturesque remains of the old city walls and other fortifications.

The Luxembourg Philharmonic (right)

View of the city from Kirchberg. Yep, the old self-timer on a wall trick.

Fort Thungen with the Musée d'Art Moderne designed by I.M. Pei, he of the Louvre pyramids. (I suppose once you've hit on a winning theme, you may as well run with it, eh?)

The Adolphe bridge, whose central arch was the largest stone span in the world when it was built at the beginning of the 20th century

Tiny village nestled in the Swiss Alps? Nope, just the central valley between the city centre and Kirchberg (facing a completely different direction from the picture above, but just as green)

View of the Grund quarter from the Bock promontory

The Grund again

Looking from the Bock towards the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge

The gorgeous Luxemboug Cathedral, a new favourite of mine

Valley with the (little) skyscrapers of Kirchberg in the background

Panoramic video from the Bock promontory, featuring the music of Elvis Costello (as in they were playing a gig, not as in I dubbed some in)! PS, if it is just looping at double-speed, it's not meant to do that...

War memorial

A very Disney birthday

If you'd asked me a year ago, or basically at any time since my teen years, whether I would envisage myself spending a birthday, let alone my 30th, at Disneyland, the answer would definitely have been no. But when I saw Mary Kay's post on getting a special free ticket for your birthday, I thought I may as well sign up. And so it came to pass that, with parties set for the weekend before and after the big day, I livened up what would otherwise have been an ordinary Wednesday with a trip to Eurodisney with MK and her daughter Sara. I should point out that Sara is also a grown-up, just so you don't get a mental image of anything other than three adults setting off for a day of Disney fun.

Grown-ups we may be, but it was hard not to feel the magic of Disney as soon we arrived at the park. We popped into an information centre to plot out our route around the park and the shows we wanted to see, and MK mentioned that it was my birthday. Thinking nothing of it, I was busy studying the map when I noticed the attendant on the phone, saying, "What's that? Yes, she's here! Do you want to talk to her?" After a split second of confusion, I reached for the phone, saying "Is that Mickey?" It was Mickey, ringing to personally wish me a very happy birthday! I must admit, even my cynical heart was filled with delight, so I can only imagine how fun it must be for little birthday boys and girls. This also set off a bit of a running gag that Mickey and I had a "thing" going on, but of course a lady never tells...

I really didn't have many preconceptions of what I wanted to see and do, but luckily we had an experienced (and VERY enthusiastic) guide in Mary Kay. As well as going for her birthday this year, MK and her family visited 20 years ago when the park first opened, and she shared with us that it took some time for the Eurodisney staff to learn to provide service which was more sparkling than surly. We mostly let MK take the lead as we watched parades of the Disney characters, went on rides both gentle and heart-stopping, and watched a spectacular motor show which revealed the tricks behind cinematic car chases.

Highlights included the It's A Small World After All ride - it really is a lot like the Simpsons parody version (warning, do not watch this for more than 30 seconds to avoid insanity):



Probably the scariest ride was the tower of terror. As you've probably guessed, it's one of those rides where you go up a high tower and then drop down. However, this one was even scarier due 1) to the fact that we only had a not-very-secure-looking lapbelt holding us into our seats (it wasn't very tight either, leading to a disconcerting floating feeling when we shot up and down in rapid succession) and 2) the fact that the tower was enclosed, so that you couldn't see what was happening when you were falling. The "elevator doors" would open onto Twilight Zone scenes, and, at the very top, onto the outside world, but otherwise you were going up and down in total darkness. Scary stuff! The weirdest ride was probably the Aerosmith Rock and Rolla Coaster, a roller coaster which took place also in an enclosed space in near-darkness, accompanied for some reason by the strains of Love in an Elevator. You'd think if you were (for some strange reason) going for a rock star tie-in, you'd have a Red Hot Chilli Peppers theme, I mean come on now.



Finally, we capped the evening off by watching the fireworks/light show, which really was something special. Lights and video projections of Disney movie moments were projected on to Sleeping Beauty's castle in the centre of the park. It was freezing cold and sometimes difficult to see, especially when a grandmother and child literally elbowed (and plastic sworded) their way in front of Mary Kay, but definitely worth seeing.

On the phone with Mickey. Photo credit: Mary Kay (thought I should put this since she's always so scrupulous!)

Mary Kay and I try to climb the beanstalk. Photo credit: Sara

Sarah and me in front of Sleeping Beauty's (?) castle. Photo credit: Mary Kay

This photo possibly explains why Sarah got a much higher score at laser tag than I did. Photo credit: Mary Kay

Sarah and me in front of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Photo credit: Mary Kay

In case you can't tell, Sarah is "letting down her hair". Not so effective. I'm hovering about awkwardly after it emerged that there actually wasn't any space behind the tree to hide behind, as was my original posing plan. Photo credit: Mary Kay

It's cold in the Wild West. Photo credit: Mary Kay

Minnie telling me to keep my hands off her man

The exciting climax of the motor show

The lighting of the Christmas tree

Sleeping Beauty's castle during the light show

Ditto

The next day, Mary Kay hosted a blogger's brunch, where I got to meet a great group of ladies, most of them for the first time. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone got any photos, but it was a lovely (and delicious) spread, with good conversation (and great champagne!) Ella Coquine and I were left unsupervised at the end of the table, so naturally we got up to mischief when it came to knocking back the champagne (and even the red wine that I brought as a gift for Mary Kay, whoops). What was meant to be a sedate couple of hours turned into a marathon six hours of chatting, eating (never believe MK if she tells you a dish is a "failure", because her homemade strata was delicious, and I had seconds) and drinking before we finally got out of MK's hair (and straight to the neighbourhood bar). I ended up having to run through Austerlitz to make my train with a couple of minutes to spare, so much for my plan to go to the Raphael exhibition at the Louvre. No complaints though, it was a very fun day, just hope we didn't outstay our welcome! (And I owe you another bottle of wine MK!)

PS Throughout the day at Disney, and especially when we were partaking of a (horrid) vin chaud in what would have been relaxing surroundings if it hadn't been for all the tired and sugar-crazed children running about, we joked that a birthday at Disney was a perfect way to put paid to any tickings of the biological clock that are supposed to kick in at 30. This might not be quite the place for it, but I didn't feel I could write a post about such a child-centric place without saying that, even if I'm not one to revel in the company of children, yesterday's tragic school shooting of course breaks my heart. How anyone could do something so awful to any other human being, let alone innocent children, is absolutely incomprehensible, and my thoughts are with all the families affected by this senseless tragedy.

Norwegian wood

I've been meaning to upload these videos from Norway for some time, but they take a while to do and I kept forgetting. Unfortunately, many of the ones I wanted to upload just got error messages - not sure if they're too big or what. If anyone needed reminding, I'm almost comically awful at shooting videos, so they tend to be wild and jerky as usual. In my defence, it was quite hard taking vids out the window because quite often trees would shoot by and block the view, so some particularly abrupt jerks are caused by me trying to move the camera to a non tree-filled zone. They're all pretty short... If you missed it, you can see some amazing (thanks to the landscape, not my mad skillz) photos and an account of our trip to the Norwegian fjords here and here.

This post doesn't really have anything to do with Norwegian wood (there are some trees in the video though), I just realised I did like 6 posts about Norway without once making that reference. Oh Gwan, what are you like?

Oh, and I just published the post and I don't know why I forgot that Blogger like compresses the video or something, so the quality is not great. I think the first one is the blurriest, the others aren't too bad if you don't enlarge the window.

Amazing mountain/fjord views

This bit was really pretty

It's foggy in them thar mountains (or valleys, as the case may be)

Quite a sweet vid of Mum & Dad by a river outside our hotel. Apparently Mum was trying to get me to turn around so she could wave at the camera for quite some time, but I couldn't hear her. That river was loud! But there you go, she got her moment in the sun after all.

 Driving along the lake/fjord

View of the morning fog as we drove along the fjords. This one comes with a Led Zeppelin soundtrack just for Mary Kay! (With apologies for copyright infringement, it was just what we were listening to at the time.)

At the bottom of the Trollstigen mountain road. Unfortunately, the sun's so strong you can barely see the road itself, but the waterfall is quite pretty

Sunndalsøra or bust!

Not a lot to report, we spent all day driving from Oslo to Sunndalsøra (see below). It was a fair old way, but we managed to make it without any major hiccups, with all of us in one piece and a decent mood - result! It was actually a very scenic route, running alongside a big lake for part of the way, and rivers most of the way. The later part of the route is also quite mountainous. I know it's a horrible cliché that people use about nearly anywhere in the world, but it really does look quite a bit like New Zealand! However, we are now nearly as far north as the bottom of Iceland.

Here's some pics and videos I took en route.

They're just waiting to collect enough samples

View of Lillehammer, home of the 1994 Winter Olympics. You can just see (presumably) a ski run in the upper left. The red thing is the reflection of my iPad in the car window

I try to follow the golden rule of cinematography: make as many rapid, jerky movements as possible in order to convey a sense of speed and excitement

 Driving alongside the lake

 The view from our hotel carpark

Barcelona - Formula One testing

Today I fulfilled my raison d'etre in Barcelona - going to watch the F1 testing. I woke up early again, but stopped at a cafe for breakfast, so wasn't on my way all that early. I had to go to Barcelona Sants station and buy a return ticket on the local train network to Montmelo, near the Circuit de Catalunya where the testing (and F1 race) is held. Once I found the right ticket window, this was all very straightforward, and it was an easy half-hour train ride to the circuit. I had read online that there is a shuttle bus to the circuit for the race, but not for testing. The website said although the walk to the track was only half an hour, it was "difficult" and said it was best to catch a taxi. I was worried about getting lost, since I had no idea what direction the track was in, so decided to take that advice and quickly found other F1 fans to share a cab with. Problem was, there was apparently only 2 taxis in the whole town, and it took 45 minutes before we were able to catch one! One good thing though - a Spanish guy who was going to a hotel next to the track hopped in with us and offered to pay when we got there. Of course, everyone said "no, no" and tried to give him money (it was actually only 8 euros between 5 people anyway) but he said his company would be paying anyway, so sweet, free cab ride.

By the time I finally got to the track, it was about 11. I bought a ticket on the gate - 15 euros. To compare, on race day the tickets (not counting hospitality suites and things like that) range from 100 pounds for General Admission (no seat) to 400 pounds for the best grandstands. Most are in the 200-300 pound range. Of course, the atmosphere on race day is really great - and the teams are actually racing! - but in terms of getting a good look at the cars, this is pretty good value for money. I even got to see Schumacher overtake a slow car (I think the Marussia) and the Red Bull team doing practice pit stops.

I started off in the pit lane, before making my way to the North stands, where I stayed until about 2 pm, stupidly leaving just as the lunch break ended, and then walked all the way around clockwise (same way as the cars) until I ended up back at the pits. The circuit itself is 4.6 km - obviously it twists and turns a lot, so I don't know how much the perimeter is, but it definitely felt like I did a lot of walking! It took 3 hours (obviously with lots of stops to go in the different stands and watch the cars) before I made it back, and I went home shortly after that. After the debacle getting the taxi there, I had no faith in finding a taxi to go back, and decided to walk. Luckily (unlike what the information online said) it was an easy walk on a footpath along the highway, pretty much straight all the way, so although I was pretty tired it was otherwise fine.

It was a long day, but I enjoyed myself (and it was nice just sitting in the sunshine reading my book when there were few or no cars on track to watch). Just walking up to the track and hearing the noise of the engines for the first time was exciting! I also got to see Schumacher out on track - I'm not a fan, but he is obviously a legend and he wasn't racing when I went to the Italian GP, so it's nice to know I've seen him driving, even if only in testing.

One of my friends asked on Facebook who I'm picking to win this year. I impressed her with my legendary skills by telling her in 2009 that Jenson Button (my boyfriend) would win the championship before the season even started. Sadly, since then my track record's been bad - I picked Alonso to win the last two years, and although I think he definitely should have in 2010, he really had no chance last year. So I'm hoping that if I say Vettel will win this year, I'll be wrong again and one of the McLarens will take it!

Please note that you will probably think all the photos and videos herein are terrible quality and boring, so don't come complaining to me if you look at them! Times like this I wish I had a proper camera with a zoom lens that doesn't take a second to react after you press the button (a second in F1 is a very long time!) Cars go very fast and it can be very difficult snapping them at the right moment. I must say, though, it is definitely easier in testing, where you can move around the track and there aren't thousands of other people in the way.


Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber, in the pit lane (one time when they're going slowly enough to take a proper picture!)


I can't actually tell the Red Bulls and Toro Rossos apart. I know they're sister teams, but they should sort that out. Anyway, here's one of them with Jenson Button in the McLaren following behind


Me at the circuit, rocking the ear defenders




Schumacher in the Mercedes


McLaren and the Red Bull/Toro Rosso again


Jenson Button driving like the champion he is


Jenson in the McLaren again


The McLaren in the pit lane


Timo Glock in the Marussia (what was the Virgin last year). My favourite (slash only) story about Timo Glock, who is German and whose first name is pronounced Teemo, is that apparently when he was racing for Irishman Eddie Jordan's team, he went by the name "Tim O'Glock" ha ha


Paul di Resta in the Force India and Felipe Massa in the Ferrari - whose seat, wild rumour has it, di Resta is lining up in his sights


Paul di Resta heads out of the garage


Massa in the Ferrari (boo, you suck, enjoy your last year in the team!)


The Ferrari again. Quite a few cars were running with the weird fin/antenna thing sticking up, but Ferrari's was the most out-there of all. I wonder what it was? They had taken it off by the second session.

Videos - be warned, they are quite loud. Also, seriously, they're a bit better on my computer. The uploading process has not been kind.

Can't quite tell who this is - possibly Pastor Maldonado in the Williams followed by the McLaren?


Button in the McLaren, Di Resta in the Force India and Massa in the Ferrari


I think we have Jenson in the McLaren, followed by either the Red Bull or Toro Rosso, then the Williams, then the Force India, then the Ferrari and the other one out of the Bull or Toro bringing up the rear


McLaren and RB/TR, Force India, Ferrari


Mark Webber's Red Bull comes in to the pits for a practice pitstop. Red Bull are quite the masters at the ultra-speedy stop.


Two cars cross in opposite directions


Massa navigates a chicane.