I am hoping that there will be no problems with the work permit for Cyprus, and that I can finish testing before I go - the first is in the hands of the lawyers, and I have provided them and HR with references to the statutes of Cyprus regarding the employment of 3rd party nationals who are European residents! Before this finishes, I probably will be able to get a job as a Cyprus immigration lawyer myself.

Regarding the database, Kent is still sitting here three days later, saying "muppets, muppets...", but he has fixed a few things, and has managed to work out a lot of what is wrong. Although we still don't have a working database here, and I am testing in the Far East, mornings only, as it's the only time the connection is fast enough.

And we are all going to club together and buy Sylvain an anger management course for Christmas, he has really surpassed himself this week, he has yelled at everyone, including me. He did this over the phone yesterday, which was terrible, and I think he is doing this at Madame LA now, as she is yelling into her phone. I just burst into tears, fortunately all the clients were out at lunch. That's the trouble with all this daily travel and the whole stress thing here, we are all at the end of our tether, and there's only so much you can do to keep everything together.

At least the Rabbit did come good today - yesterday he was with Sylvain while he was yelling at me, and this morning he took me out for coffee and asked me to make allowances for Sylvain's stress levels that are causing him to behave inappropriately and say things he doesn't mean. I have no idea whether he is sincere, but at least he is making some effort for the sake of the project to keep things going.

I have not been stitching, what with all of this, but I have been making lists of stuff to take to Nicosia, and I have also ordered this:

It's from Blue Ribbon Designs, "With All Your Heart", a kit that costs $28 USD, with all proceeeds going to a breast cancer foundation. After my recent little scare, I'm only too glad to support this cause, plus of course I adore the kit! It comes from Elegant Stitch.

On the subject of the Rugby World Cup, it is almost impossible to find a newspaper this week without the All Blacks on the front page. The worst headline was "Y'haka Les Battre" on top of a picture of them doing the haka. It means, "We only need to beat them", and "Y'haka" is substituted for the French "Il y a qu'a", for which "ya-ka" is the colloquial pronounciation.

Also haka lessons are the in thing, they have them at the Musee Branly, which is the ethnological museum here, and they quite often feature in the newspapers as well. When they had the multicultural street parade in St Denis for the opening of the World Cup, all the different groups participating did a haka, and it is slightly surreal seeing this being done by ladies in Breton bonnets.