I just walked from Madeleine to Opera, because, having been away so long, I have forgotten the metro stops for anything, and I thought the big, empty McDo where I can use the wifi was near Madeleine. It isn't, it is near Opera, and between the two, it is wall to wall tourists. I've got out of the habit of tourist-dodging in Nicosia, where there aren't so many.

It's the second time I've been out today, I went to my Waou gym at Bercy this morning, goodness, there are some strange people there, some are anorexic and there are some who are definitely over-exercising, as well as some who I can't see why they are there, since pedalling very slowly on the exercise bike for hours while they read the newspaper does nothing. They would be better off pedalling briskly for 10 minutes, then going to the cafe to read the newspaper.

What do I do at the gym? Well, I start off with twenty minutes on the walking machine, then I do twenty minutes on the exercise bike (the fat-burning program!), then I finish off with some weight machines. And then I go into the hammam to get warm, if it is winter, but I am not bothering to do that at the moment. I haven't bothered to swim yet, either, although there is a 14 x 4.5 meter pool there, quite sizeable for Paris.

Today was my third time since rejoining, I managed twice last week, so hope to make it a total of eight times before I go back to Nicosia. It costs a fair whack, 995€ for a year, but it is worth it, if I can keep fit to some extent. I really let go of that side of things in Nicosia, what with all the Dwarf trauma, and now it is time to try and make it up again.

I didn't feel that great over the weekend, I think I was still so tired last week and trying to do a lot and get ahead with tidying the apartment and doing everything I have to, that I overdid things greatly. I am trying not to fall into that trap this week. Although I had a terrible night, and there was a lot of disturbance, including comings and going next door, which rather worried me, as the couple there must be well into their eighties and they seem very frail, although always very charming and cheerful. They get brought their meals by the woman upstairs from me, who is very nice, and I think in fact she may be their daughter. She is older than me, I am fairly sure, although you can never be too careful with the French, sometimes they look fifty and they are actually thirty-five.

Sylvain has sent us a lot of documents about the new French project, although I don't believe it's been signed yet. It seems to be me, Gil, the lead architect/project manager, one guy from South Africa who will be a part-time XAI expert, also Kent for the technical stuff part-time, and Aurelien full-time in September only, to do training. It is ridiculous that Aurelien has become a "trainer", I think it's just because no-one wants him anywhere else, it's certainly not because he has any qualifications or talent for the job. Apart from that, there will be two new people, someone called Casey, who has a Chinese surname, and I have an impression is American. But I don't know if it's a man or a woman, most likely a man, given the relative numbers of men and women applying for IT jobs in Paris. Also someone called Derek, whom I think is Australian/Pom, and it's funny, but I seem to know his name from somewhere. I haven't met either of these two, they have just started with the company and have been sent for training to the US. Amazing really, that they get training and get to go to the US for it (I notice they are not entrusting Aurelien with this sort of training!). When I started, I got a brief induction course about the company and practical things, then I got taken to meet my boss, who was like "you know Natural? you have two arms and two legs? here's our 5000 outstanding problems!". Then three months later, it was, "I'm being sent out on a project, so now you're in charge of this group, Al". People have it soft nowadays, getting training up front!

I'm in two minds as to whether to read Sylvain's documentation, I probably will read some of it, but not the lot. I notice he's sent it to Singapore as well, and they certainly don't read French.

Program for the rest of the week is more cleaning up, more stitching (have nearly finished Papillon Trousse) and then going to Ostend for the weekend. I am thinking of restarting the Merry Cox Shaker Spool Holder on Antique White Belfast with real linen thread, as I don't like the specified linen or the DMC linen thread. I have a ton of Belfast and I have reels of the thread that we used for Hedebo at Skals, so I think that will make a nicer job than what SANQ says.