This morning started off with a trip back to the Dunkirk office and as we walked through the door we were met by about ten locals standing next to the coffee machine, I have seen that before when I have entered the building and normally smile and say good morning, so they know I am English and they know that there is no chance I will be involved in their chatting. However today I am with my French colleague and his natural reaction when he sees anyone and it is before, well anytime really, is to rush toward them with hand outstretched. I, of course, follow. The next few minutes are spent in vigorous hand shaking until both my colleague and I had shook every single hand.
Upon getting to the office we work in I did think I could have been here a good five minutes earlier if we hadn’t done a stack of hand wrestling but I thought it was actually nice that people took the time to stop and greet each other before they start work. It does lead to a nicer atmosphere. The bit I don’t get is when they see each other five minutes later in a meeting and it all starts again. But as i was saying it is a nice way to be and I can see why the French see us as cold. When we only speak to co workers when we want something they are bound to think that way.
Today was the last day in the office this week as tomorrow will be the trek back to Blighty day via Brussels. I also found out today there has been a change of plan for next week, not too bad really, I was due to fly into Brussels and then drive to Luxembourg but now it is Dunkirk again so it is still Brussels Airport at least.
On our last night we decided to go for a walk around the town before my French colleague called into a local eating hostelry for some food. After almost a full week of rain tonight was a pleasant evening even with a bit of sunshine.
In the last blog I said I would give an update on the car, well firstly I have not got a picture as I forgot to take one and to be honest as I didn’t leave work until almost 7.00 p.m. and we decided to head off out at 7.30 we didn’t so it was just put out of my mind, however I will still take a look at the car, firstly it is a Peugot 208 and size wise it is no different from any other small car like the POLO or GOLF that I have had in the past. The inside facilities look like a general cheap car with plastic dash and door panels that don’t look anything special. This model has a nice radio dash with a television style centre console showing the on board computer that works out you facts and figures from your journey. The screen is touch screen and comes into its own when you are tuning the radio. There is the usual search function and that goes through the band waves, but there is also a menu option that shows all the radio stations available and you can chose the one you want and that saves time when your driving. Also another feature I am seeing in some cars and love it is the input for a usb stick which allows you to keep you music on the stick and then plugged into the USB socket and hey presto on the console pops up your music. Normally I have seen that in the more expensive cars like the Peugot 508 etc but now it seems to be coming to the smaller cars, which I think is good.
The ride of the car is what you would expect from a small diesel, comfortable but not elegant. The engine of course is quiet as most family car diesels are. Overall I’m happy with the car I was given and would be happy to have it again.
Finally on the book front, the latest figures are as follows. Free downloads gone to
US & India (still don’t know why they have lumped them together) -
|
48
|
UK
|
20
|
Germany
|
8
|
France
|
2
|
Spain
|
1
|
Italy
|
1
|
Japan
|
2
|
Canada
|
1
|
Brazil
|
0
|
Really happy with a total of 84 downloads since Tuesday when it went free
All for now
Night All
No comments:
Post a Comment