Again, apologies for the lack of pictures but the good news (in case I didn’t already mention) is that Olympus have replaced my camera under warranty with the improved new model. And replaced my underwater housing so that this replacement fits. The former has arrived, the latter is somewhere in the postal system. Top marks [...]

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And I regret not bringing a camera with me on this trip. “Yeah, seen it all before”, I thought. I have seen it all before. But that doesn’t stop Chamonix, particularly after snowfall, being one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. I’m sat in the hotel right now looking out over one of [...]

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Midnight Express is, from what I gather, a superb motion picture. Some may argue John Hurt‘s finest hour since a half-ton of animatronic nastiness exploded from his chest and squirted blood and viscera over Sigourney Weaver et al. However, I talk of the burger bar in Chamonix. Oh. My. InsertDeityOfChoice. You know when you have [...]

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In honesty, just a post so people know I’m still here! Not a lot has happened outside of the working environment since my last post (over a week – sorry) and there’s yet to be any snow in Chamonix. It did try yesterday, but we only managed some sleety rain for a few hours before [...]

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It’s been a few days since the last post as I’ve barely stopped working since I arrived back in Chamonix. Maya drove me to Geneva Airport on Monday morning. From there, I was picked up by Peter who I worked with last year. Along with my new boss, two new handymen and a couple more [...]

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My last morning in Chamonix was… eventful. Actually, one of the busiest working mornings I’ve had in a while. I was late into the office as I had to hand back the apartment to the people we’d rented it from. They were expecting Sophie, who handles the contracts, but had to deal with me instead. [...]

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Yup, had my last dinner in the Chamonix flat – El Paso Enchiladas. And darn good they were, too. The trick is, when you fold them, “stick” them shut with extra-hot salsa and a scattering of grated cheese before you pop them back in the oven. Yum.  Accompanied by my last bottle of out-of-date Newcastle [...]

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And it is. The third public holiday in as many weeks and only four days after the last one! This one’s for Pentecost (la Pentecôte), and technically it was yesterday – the Sunday. I guess as it’s a religious holiday, the date is always on a Sunday so the day off is the following day. [...]

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Well, we hit the weekend again and once more we were forecast good weather for most of it. This time, I decided to make some plans and had originally hoped to visit Turin, or even go further afield to Berne, Zurich and Liechtenstein. However, most of my European friends were busy so I decided instead [...]

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Not for me, but for France. After last week’s Labour day, we have “Victoire”, the French version of our V-E Day. The major difference being that the French have a day off whereas we just get some newspaper headlines about how few of the soldiers who fought for us in WWII are still alive. I [...]

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