Only three days of work after today before my holiday! I can hardly wait....

We are exceptionally busy this week, doing configuration, that is, to say, me, Casey and the new trainee, Rachida. Another one of what David calls my "daughter figures". I heard today that they are trying to get someone to help with configuration while I am away, and wonder of wonders, it is actually a man, this is very unusual for this project. I have also just overheard Casey telling Rachida that she is very lucky to get to sit by me and have me explain to her what to do in detail! It is Casey's last day with us today, she has to go back to her other project tomorrow.

Poor Suzette is not having fun, she has to work with Madame LA on designs, you can guess who is actually doing them. Madame LA is not talking to me at all, not sure why, but do not care. Also do not have the client on my back, only Tom, who enquires every five minutes how we are going. Actually we are ahead of schedule, so he is pretty happy... I'm surprised we are ahead, and I am surprised that I am doing so well, with two young girls asking me questions every three seconds. Normally I would find this quite trying, but I seem to be answering politely and to their satisfaction, as everyone on my side of the partition looks happy. This must be the combined effect of a huge amount of medication, plus the upcoming holidays.

To add to the general effect of well-being, the metro and the bus are empty this week, as a lot of people have gone on holiday already. In France everyone goes on holiday at the same time, so Paris empties out and there are traffic jams in the South of France instead. Also a lot of shops close, the bakery and the other sandwich shop near this office are closed, also the newsagent - they will be closed for at least three weeks, maybe a month. In fact there are also fewer trains and buses, but the general emptiness is quite welcome to me - I can spread out a bit and do more of the Sampler Lady (LHN) that is my train project this week. She is going well, a fun stitch, it seems all these LHN / CCB ones are ideal when you have not much time or energy.

Over the weekend, I worked out that I do not have to buy the incredibly expensive thread kit for QOTN Bluebird Box, I have all except five of the colours in my stash! Now just to figure out where to get those in France, I am fairly sure I cannot just go to AVAS and buy them there, but it's difficult now that so many stores have closed here. I guess I'll have to look around during the holidays....

I have started to feel much better, after taking my 80 euros worth of medication religiously for over a week, and also sleeping with my elbows clingfilmed with ointment - amazing not to wake in the middle of the night with itchy, painful elbows! The pills I am taking run out on Sunday, so I hope there will be no relapse after that. But I only have to get through five days of work after that, so I am hopeful that I can do that.

Today we are starting on configuration - this time, real configuration in the system, as opposed to going through everything with the client and writing it down on spreadsheets, as per my abortive exercise of three weeks ago, where they asked so many questions about each table that it would have taken a year to go through it. I don't know why they ask the same things over and over again - what is this field for? why is it like this? why doesn't the product have a field like this? etc etc. Some of them I've heard five times about the same screen, and I have already explained five times what it is. I got worried about this, thought maybe they didn't understand my French, and consulted Madame LA, who said that, in that case, they couldn't understand hers - she had exactly the same experience of explaining the same thing over to them five times!

Now I am doing it, with Casey helping, and a new trainee will be here next week to help us as well. Tom is micromanaging us, and has so far asked me a million questions today. However this is not too bad, as we do not have our clients breathing down our necks, and it is also something that is really quite interesting, and I am actually rather good at.

We plan to have lunch at the Moroccan restaurant across the street, we are all in love with their tajines. The service can be very slow - I guess this is authentically Moroccan as well, similar to other Mediterranean countries, including Cyprus - but the food is brilliant, and the tajines are served in cute little tajine dishes. I have seen electric tajine dishes in the shops, I am really tempted to get one for home.

I'm still making the lists of things for the holidays, there is so much to do. The most important thing of course is to decide what projects to take to Austria with me! I have now put the first stitches - three alphabet letters - into the Sampler Lady, so maybe that will be finished by then.

Another strenuous week - the only good news so far is that I have finished the Daisy Sampler (no picture until the weekend) and that Suzette is back at work.

I spent Monday at our own office and would have spent Tuesday there as well, but for a text message at 9pm on Monday telling me to come to the client's office on Tuesday. No meeting or anything, they just want us under their thumb, so that they can be convinced we are working! So I am here until I go on holiday at the end of next week. Yesterday was hideous, I hadn't slept because I didn't know if there was a meeting or not, and every time I went outside it poured with rain i.e. when I came to work, lunchtime, and on the way home. Today, thank goodness, is fine, and we plan to go to the Thai buffet for lunch.

I am actually counting the days until the holiday now, and making lists of things I need to do or buy or get ready beforehand etc. It is keeping me sane in this ever-changing project - we have another new timetable and also another new young girl starting at the beginning of next week, and of course I have to be mother. David is already referring to Casey as my "daughter figure"! So now I get another one.

Apart from this I have been consoling myself by ordering some autumn clothes from the new Ulla Popken catalog that arrived yesterday. As I haven't had new winter clothes for two years, having spent two winters in Cyprus (I must say that aloud a few times, just to hear Madame LA groan with envy), I really need to overhaul the winter wardrobe. I've started with some long-sleeved tops, a jumper and a suede jacket.

Well, better go and get on with it, the last lot of changes to the report.... I can hardly wait to gohome, I am going to try and get out of here at a reasonable time and go home to start the Sampler Lady (LHN), which is the next piece on the list.

I just got an email from the Ombudsman in Cyprus, to say that my application for a work permit had not been properly processed at all, basically the department concerned had not done the right thing to start with and then of course they did nothing at all. Apparently because I am a long-term resident of France, it should have all been processed quite quickly!

And this was one of the things I kept on saying to the useless lawyers i.e. I'm a permanent resident of France, isn't the procedure different? No, they kept on saying. I've just said to our resources director not to pay them if they are still asking us for money.

Obviously I'm quite happy about this, but it would have been even nicer if they had done the right thing in the first place and not put me through two years of waiting for a non-existent work permit.

It was funny when the letter came this morning about this, I was already thinking about Cyprus, because I was reading Christine Bishop's article about Lefkara in Inspirations, which finally arrived today. I had hoped there would be a project as well, but no... I think it would have been a good idea to put in a project, to encourage people to take it up. She does refer to the book by Androula Hadji-whatsit, but without telling people where to get it (I think the easiest way is probably to order via internet from the Moufflon bookshop in Nicosia).

Anyway, I'm supposed to be updating the PA report again, still, I am getting thoroughly sick of that document. And it's pouring with rain again, what a life! Anyway I am escaping at 5pm, I have to go to Monoprix and the pharmacy. Then home to finish the Daisy sampler, I am very close indeed.

I've actually been having quite a decent weekend for once, not too fraught, and I think it is because I know that I'm going to our own office tomorrow, rather than the client's... that, and I guess the medication the doctor gave me for the angine is kicking in.

Yesterday, I went out in the morning, after sleeping in until about 10, I made it to the LNS, just as it opened at 11am and bought some threads, some linen, and the Red Velvet Alphabet by Blue Ribbon Designs. This is one I wouldn't have bought from the internet, but seeing the leaflet really made me want to do it. The LNS has Gloriana silks as well, so I got the Rosewood that the pattern calls for, but I will use Permin Chelle as the linen, since that is what I have on hand and it looks good with the threads.

I also went to Brentanos and to Hippo for lunch - I have a new favourite dish, Brochette Provencale, which is alternating chicken pieces with veal sausage and merguez - very good with bearnaise sauce and salad. Then home for a siesta, I slept for another three hours, would you believe? But I felt good after that, I did heaps of my CCN Daisy Sampler last night and have nearly finished it. I intend to do more this afternoon...... and I've nearly caught up with housework etc as well, the place is not so untidy as usual.

Apparently the weather is going to pack up again as of tomorrow, I hope not to the extent that it has in the UK, I can't believe the floods there. There is very hot weather in Central and Eastern Europe, and it is only three weeks until I go to Zurich (two nights) and Oberlech (seven nights). I am hoping it will be really refreshing at Oberlech and I will be able to go for a few walks in the Alpine air.

Well, off to wander around town for a bit, buy some bread, etc.... no siesta this afternoon, I shall stay awake and hopefully sleeep well tonight.

This weather is stupid........... today was really hot, and I had to go first to our own office, then to the client's office, they are on opposite sides of Paris, so this took nearly two hours to get between the two. The transport at the client's office is not great, as you have to catch a bus from the station. Sylvain says it is a ten minute walk, but then he is well over 6 feet, and very skinny. Those of us who are only 5'6" and somewhat rounded find it much longer, even when we are in excellent health.

I actually had lunch with Sylvain and Tom, who is our PD, at our own office, today it was salmon with a mango sauce, very nice. It's the best cantine I've ever found, I think, far better than our old one and than the client's cantine. Our one even has proper green salad, and there is always a fresh fruit dish for dessert, usually a nice plate of different fruits, with a little cup of sauce, chocolate or creme anglaise, whatever.

Apparently Sylvain is not very happy with Madame LA, he was not impressed with her performance during the review meeting he attended. I didn't dob her in, and say Suzette and I felt much the same, it is enough that he has noticed it. But it sure won't improve her temper, she does seem to have been even more morose than usual today, so he must have spoken to her. She is cross with me, because I wasn't there yesterday, but there's not really anything I could do about that.

Oh I wish I could work with men again, there was none of this trouble then. Or maybe it was because I was always with the over-50 team before, and we are all calmer, whether male or female.............

And no stitching for the past day or so... and none tonight, as I got home at 9pm, starving...

Today I feel quite a bit better - despite the weirdness of sleeping wrapped in clingfilm! Of course it unclings during the course of the night, but I think it is doing some good. My elbows are still very unsightly, but quite a bit less itchy.

I got up late, and finished the work I had to do, then talked to Madame LA and the project director. Then the EDF meter reader came, and I got a chance to look at her brand-new Itron, I haven't seen such a cool one before. Trust me to be interested in meter-reading equipment, I think she was surprised, I bet not many of her customers know anything about Itrons.

I've just got back from the parapharmacie, WH Smith and Monoprix, and it is so hot outside now.... note to Kathryn re the weather: my mother lives in Hawkes Bay and she keeps me up to date with the horrors of weather around NZ. She blames it on French nuclear testing, which of course no-one here does!

Tomorrow I am going to our own office, at least in the morning - there is an outside chance we will have to visit the client again, but it wouldn't be until 4pm, which would probably mean staying there until 8 or 9 pm. So I am not going to go to our office early, in any case, more like 10am. At the rate we are going, this project will kill us all. I have never worked with a client who was so keen to get their money's worth, they even said to Suzette once that, because it was a daily rate project, it didn't matter to them how long we worked in a day. Someone needs to tell them how a work day is calculated. And the thing is that, if they were nicer about things, they might get better results. I've worked with some really tough clients, but never one who was so all round unpleasant as this one.

Never mind, only two weeks or so until vacation - my sister is always going on about how much vacation we have here, but then I think we need it...

Well, I did escape from the endless round of meetings today, but only to go to the doctor and find out that I have an angine - in French, this is a throat infection, not what it sounds like in English (a severe heart disease), thank goodness. Still uncomfortable enough, however, I have blocked ears, nose and throat, it comes and goes. But the really annoying thing is that my psoriasis is a lot worse, bits of it have been quite painful over the past week or so. Of course it is aggravated by stress and overheating. The latter has occurred because we have alternately searing heat and gray, rainy days, and everyone turns the heating on on those days, because, if it is raining, it must be cold.

So great news! I get to sleep with bits of clingfilm wrapped around the parts where the psoriasis is severe, to contain the ointment that will do its job at night. All I can say is that I hope it is not too hot at nights, and it's probably a good thing I am not married. Very alluring, clingfilm. Actually I just had the terrible thought that to some people it might be. Gruesome.

So I have just come back from the pharmacy, with a large bag containing 80 euros worth of medicine, and now I am going to go and buy a large roll of clingfilm at the supermarket. I wouldn't be surprised if I had to buy Ben and Jerry's Cookies and Cream as well.

Naturally I still have work to do, I am redrawing all the diagrams for the report, as directed by the lovely client, who has been dictating the text to us. I was talking to David about this last night, he is more appalled each time I tell him what goes on.

Anyway, better go, the supermarket awaits...

Who knows why? Another one of life's little mysteries, along with, why was the man behind me in the RER on Tuesday barking like a dog? Literally, woof, woof, woof, with facial expressions as well. You really have to wonder about some people. Actually the suburb in the east of Paris where we are working has some very, very strange people, and they all seem to catch the same bus and train as me.

We have been here every day this week, and it has been torture, as I have had to leave the house at 7am, and don't get back until 9pm - the bit in between includes at least seven hours of people raving on without drawing breath about anything that happens to come into their heads. Consequently, or at least I assume it is a consequence, I have a headache and seem to be getting a sore throat as well. The extreme fatigue goes without saying. We got through about a quarter of the review that was planned this week, and took twice as many hours to do it as planned, so goodness knows when we will be finished. The only thing I can tell you is that it will not be Wednesday as planned. I've got no idea why these people spend such a long time making plans, as they never stick to them.

Moan, moan, I will stop... on the bright side it is Friday and I am going home at 5pm, via Monoprix to get food and drink and tidy up. I still have my "Emma" DVD to watch, but no new ones, although, to be honest, I may just go to sleep. Tomorrow is 14th July, the French National Day, so there will be very few shops open, plus half the busses will be stopped anyway because of the parade, so I don't think I will go anywhere.

I have nearly got to the heel of my train sock, barking madmen notwithstanding.... I get some very strange looks from people, actually, a lady with a set of sock needles is not a common sight in the Paris metro or RER.

Very silly, I still can't put titles on my posts, I wonder why? Blogger Help no help, as usual!

Today was incredibly exhausting, we were supposed to have two meetings, 9am to 11am, and 3pm to 5pm - we went from 9:20 to 1pm, then from 3pm to 7:10pm. I got home after 9pm. Plus we covered half the agenda, so that means the whole thing is taking four times as long as was planned. Goodness knows when we will finish. I am going to have the mother of all headaches if I have to listen to them talking all week. I myself do not seem to be allowed to say anything much.

Casey started today, I picked her up from the train station and showed her the bus to catch. She is actually supposed to be there to help me, but all I could do today was to throw her the report and say to start reading.... at least when we get back on to the spreadsheet, she will be able to make a good contribution. She is a very sweet little girl - tiny, five nothing and weighs about 40 kilos, so petite, she makes the rest of us look like oxen.

Tomorrow is another 6am wake-up, and must leave the house before 7am, to avoid the rush. Coming home late tonight was not pleasant, the bus I catch is a suburban one, and let us say the clientele are not what I am used to. There are suburbs and suburbs!

Well, I will see if I can put another few stitches into my Daisy sampler - also managed to do eight rows of sock knitting on the train today!

The start of the Daisy Sampler, I am using the recommended threads, but the linen is Permin "Forget Me Not Blue", rather than Lakeside Linens "Patina" - which there is no chance of finding in Paris, and it would take at least two weeks to get from anywhere else.

I am here in the office, with Suzette and our PD, Tom, we are all looking a bit pale - Tom has spent three days in bed this week, and I spent all yesterday in bed as well. I left the client site early on Tuesday afternoon, and it took me nearly three hours to get home. 15 mins of that was sitting in a cafe eating a sandwich, but even so, it was terrible - 30 minutes wait for a bus to start with, then everything just went very, very slowly indeed. It was also pouring with rain, so I got soaked.

Yesterday was a complete write-off, I could not get up at all, I made various excursions to the kitchen and bathroom, but that was it, I did not go outside at all. Today I also slept late, and did not get here until after 11 am. I've just done my performance appraisal, which is a horrible long document, that is couched in American HR language that it virtually unintelligible to the normal European employee. Now I really need to go over the report and incorporate some of the client's comments, these are mostly unintelligible also, but for entirely different reasons. I have to go back there at 9am tomorrow to work with them on it, and basically every day next week for as long as it takes. You can imagine what I think of this. Madame LA has to come too, at least she can't wriggle out of this one...

Suzette says she has fevers and pains, she is off for a check-up a bit later, this is different from what Tom and I had. I hope she is OK, she has family coming to stay next week and is supposed to be going away the week after.

Last night I did manage to do a little stitching - during the day I was far too feeble to do so - I am about halfway through a little HIH freebie that I was sent with an SBB order, "Spring Basket", it's flowers of course, and I am using some leftovers from HIH kits to do it. It's such a pain when one is too sick even to stitch!

It is so wet - yesterday morning, it rained so much that I would not have been surprised to see Noah's Ark sailing along. There must have been floods somewhere. Today it was raining when I woke up and has not stopped since. At least I have been leaving the house at 7am, so the train is not too crowded, it is ghastly when it rains and the train is crowded.


I did not have to have any meetings with the client yesterday, I was allowed to work undisturbed while Madame LA went through some things with them. (So I did not have to resort to knitting in the bathroom to keep calm!) Nor did I stay too late, I was home by 7:15 - all the same it makes it a 12 hour day, and at this stage of the year, when everyone is very tired and simply longing to go on holidays, this is rather difficult.

This morning I had a short meeting, it was fairly amicable, although they managed to convey the opinion that I was completely useless, of course! Sometimes I wish upon them that they were assigned what we call the "Dream Team" - this is a group of colleagues who together would be the most appalling project team in the world. Some of these people are nice, but inept, some are quite bright at some things, but not at what they fancy being, like lead architect or project director, others are just a total pain to have around. None of them speak French, I don't think, so they will not be coming here, it's only a vague wish of mine that they could.

Last night I got nice mail, so I was happy then - the two recent Drawn Thread alphabet charts, plus the latest SANQ and some R&R linen for the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers one that says "Friends are the flowers in the garden of life"..... I think I will give that to David for his 60th birthday. This R&R linen is Alabaster, and I like this one, it doesn't look like a cleaning rag, as did the last piece of R&R that I bought!

I also read the latest Gift of Stitching magazine, actually I was a bit disappointed with it, after the last few. I didn't care much for the large design from the Leighton painting, it's not something I would ever do. Thought the teacup thing was the best.

Now I am waiting for Madame and our senior PD to get out of the weekly meeting, which has been going on 2.5 hours, I hope there is nothing horrible going on. Actually I want to go home this afternoon and sleep, I really am tired.

So far at least it is sunny - but I believe it is going to rain cats and dogs later, I can already see a bit of grey in the distance. Weather forecast for this week is terrible also, rain every day, I think.

But I finished Thread Gathering last night! Of course I got out the camera this morning, so that I could take a picture while the light was good, and no battery!!! Pity, because it looks so nice - it was a really good kit to do. All I had to supply was the linen and the DMC metallic thread (which I think is hideous to use, never again, I'm sticking to Kreinik). And I have a whole skein of the Hickory Sticks thread left, because two were supplied, and I used the first one to its very end, but did not need the second. Isn't that great? I think of some kits where there has been only just enough thread, or I've had to go out and buy more.

Yesterday I went out in the morning - I slept late after the scented candle, rose and Venice - and went to Le Bon Marche to pick up a few DMC colours I needed. Also of course it was the sales, but there were no handbags that called out to me, alas! Next was a trip to try and find the Zara Home store that Suzette saw near Opera, but I couldn't find it, and there is an ordinary Zara near Opera, but they didn't know where it was! She can't have been imagining it, so I'll have to ask her if she remembers the location more exactly. I really want another bathmat like the one I got in Nicosia.

I'm going to go out in a while and go to the English bookshop and buy water, I have completely run out of Badoit.... then I have to do a bit of work. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, because I have not made a lot of progress in the past few days, thanks to our dear client. Kathryn, you're right, it's hard to deal with that sort of thing when it is a client. I've never had this before - we have had some difficult clients, but never one who is so entirely irrational and so adversarial the whole time. I just hate the way she treats us like peons, too - she actually told Suzette that, as it was a daily rate project (as opposed to hourly), she expected us to be there all night if she wanted it. Normally on a daily rate project, we do not stick to eight hours, we'll do nine or ten if need be, but this attitude that it will be 24 if she says is just gruesome. Anyway our PD will have to sort it out! He is right, it is a risk to the project.

We all get stressed, of course - I'm very good at getting stressed myself! But better to deal with it with scented candles than screaming, in my opinion. Anyway, lets hope it gets sorted out this week.... I am going to carry my sock knitting around all week, in case I need to retire to the bathroom with it to escape from any further scenes!