Lyon France

Our team had our quarterly meetings at the Wolseley France IT offices in Lyon. Lyon is a beautiful town. We worked Tuesday through Friday morning and then everyone traveled home. I took the train to Paris and met the family, but before I left I took the opportunity to see the sites I was most interested in.
There are several beautiful buildings in town, but the one that stands above the rest, literally and figuratively is the Basilica de Fourviere. It sits on the hill overlooking the city and is absolutely stunning. And just down the hill from it are two, side by side, Roman amphitheaters. The one on the left is the larger of the two. Lyon still has concerts and other performances in the larger of the two.
I had a few hours to kill after I checked out of the hotel and before my train left for Paris, so I decided to go to see the Basilica. Obviously, I had to take my suitcase. Getting up the hill to the church looked to be quite an effort so I decided to be smart and take the tram up the hill. So, in my halting and limited French, I found my way to the ticket booth and purchased a tram ticket and rode it to the top of the hill. But it was still about a mile to the Basilica, so I hauled my big suitcase over to it and thoroughly enjoyed the visit, but worked up a sweat getting there. On the way down I realized the ticket I purchased was for a bus that takes you from the tram right to the cathedral, and back to the tram. The tram ride was free. Whoops!

We Got Ruins!

I'll bet you don't have Roman ruins in your neighborhood. We do! Just down the street we have a park and in that park are some Roman ruins the royalty brought in from Africa back in 1826. The UK government is working on them now so soon we will have remodeled ruins. :-) There was also this bench with weird female statues ...

A Flea In His Ear????

My boss told me a story today about one of our company's employees that moved to the UK to work, and tried to do things the same way he did in the US. Needless to say, that did not work and they had to send him home because he couldn't adapt and work with the Europeans. My boss described the guy as "being sent home with a flea in his ear."
What a language!

Maybe They Got It Right???

When we were home (driving on the right side of the road) I noticed that the traffic lights were really, really slow to change from red to green. Here, a high percentage of the intersections are roundabouts. At a roundabout there are no traffic lights, you jump into it and jump out quickly - or die. But it gets you through the intersection really quickly. Hmmm...

Traffic Accident - January 2008

What a traffic jamb!
I was sitting at an intersection, minding my own business, waiting for the light to change when BAM! I was struck from behind. It turns out the gentleman in the car behind me was also sitting waiting for the light when a delivery truck hit him from behind, shoving him into my car. Amazingly, the driver of the truck immediately admitted he had fallen asleep at the wheel. And when the police arrived, he told them the same story. That would never happen in the US, no one would admit fault. No one was hurt, just vehicles to be repaired.
The most ironic aspect is that when the police arrived traffic was terrible, so they wanted to get us out of the road as soon as possible and directed us "take the first left, then another left, and pull into the parking lot." That turned out to be a Wolseley Build Centre.
In the pictures you can see the back of my car, the three cars lined up immediate after the accident (you can see the truck was pretty big), and the Wolseley Build Centre.

Christmas 2007

My generous company gives its ex-patriot employees (me) and their families one yearly trip home. We chose to go back to Raleigh at Christmas to stay with Christina, Derek and Lincoln for about two weeks. It was great. Every day but Sunday was 'shopping day'. We were lucky because many stores were having sales, plus just buying in the US saves at least 25%. We brought back four more suitcases than we left with, all big ones, and all packed to the seams.
This will always be "The Christmas of the Wall" to me, because as you will see in the picture, we decided to remove a wall - only to discover that from an engineering point of view, it is not a smart idea. So the wall stays, but since the sheet rock is already off, we have some options we are considering. You can't see it from this shot, but the other interior study wall is being remodeled as well. The shower is gone. So there are opportunities there as well.
The second shot is the family gathered in the living room, everyone looks happy. I think Christina's family is happy because we were there, the Allens are happy because they know they are getting American food for supper.
The third shot is the wrapping paper wasteland that we always create by the end of Christmas morning. Imagine how it would look if we weren't trying to clean up as we went?
And the last shot is Amanda with her gift pile - and a beautiful Christmas smile.

Wanna Peel A Tomato?

Brittany, Amanda, Rebecca and Christina each put on clothing to be giving to Mom for Christmas then wrapped themselves in wrapping paper. Hopefully, these pictures will come out in the right order. One at a time, Mom "peeled her tomatoes" to find out what her gifts were. Brittany is wearing a tan sweater, Amanda a dark sweater, Rebecca a gold blouse and forest green vest over it, and Christina a matching skirt and jacket. Mom loved it!