This is "Colchiques Dans Les Prés" ("Crocus in the Meadows", I think, in English). There is a famous poem by Guillaume Apollinaire about colchiques.... but these colchiques are from Calendula Creations, and I could not resist ordering them when I saw the photo. I think they should be waiting for me in Paris when I get back on Saturday, it makes up a little for the millionth rearrangement of my life in the past week. Plus the extraordinary frustration that we are experiencing with work at present - we are getting releases that simply don't work, and Leo is running around saying, how can they have tested these, for Gods sake? Fortunately he is not saying this to the people in Singapore, otherwise things would come to a standstill.

Just to add to it all, the accountant wrote to me and said I owed the taxman 4000€ by next Friday. Great, it is a bit more than I expected, but I do have the money. I also wrote to the bank in Australia, to say I wanted to close my account, as that will save me quite a lot of money each year. If I want to do an occasional payment in Australia, it is cheaper to transfer directly from my French account than to write an Australian cheque. The bank charges in Australia are ridiculous.

To compensate for all this horror, apart from ordering les colchiques and some Turkish Red WDW that I need, I am also being slightly prima donna-ish regarding seats on the plane. I've made Lucie in Paris ask the airline to change my seat to one on the other side of the plane, because that's emptier. I did feel a bit mean asking for this, but then I am paying a lot for these flights, and I am entitled to have the seat I want if it is free.

My sister has also delivered me another missive saying that I should do what she does and just leave on time for her Pilates class or whatever, because she has to have a life, or else tell them that they can't change travel arrangements every five minutes, because she has to have a life, etc, etc, etc..... she doesn't get it. I've had the same thing from Lucie, who tells me that she could do my job (subtext - it is unfair that I get paid four times what she does). Great, I say, well maybe you could go to Belfast Sunday lunchtime and come back Friday, and while you are there, look after 200 production problems and redesign their reporting subsystem. Or maybe you could sit in Nicosia for a month at a time. Oh no, I couldn't leave my family for a week! So really these people can't do my job, it's as simple as that, just on practical terms, never mind whether they also know anything about architecture of utility systems.

Last night I did more of that pesky flower band on QOTN, and it is looking quite good, I am sure I can finish it this week. I have tonight and tomorrow night, then Friday I will need to pack. Saturday I can do about an hour to two hours in the plane, depending upon movie, weather, state of terror and whether I read something interesting instead.

So I will just have Saturday evening and Sunday before I start at the new client, I think Sunday will be the big sleep. Have to do something about Paris clothes, get food for the week, etc etc. Gil told me they were in desperate need of me, he sees me as a lead architect type, I think he is trying to flatter me.