UK-France: Coffee against beers

Two neighbor countries but two very different way of life. Our first topic will be life at work in the UK and in France, which could be summarize by:

Coffee against Beers.

In France, we use to have a coffee break at least 3 times a day with colleagues, and these breaks are almost mandatory if you want to be included in a team. The first one will be upon arrival around 9 to 10pm in the morning, just the time to check your emails and then, here you go, the first coffee break of the day. The second one will be after lunch, this one is almost sacred, supposed to help your digestion. The third one will at 4pm, this is our tea time)). The french working day are much longer than in UK starting later, but also finishing much later well after 7 or 8pm. Somehow, one could consider that French working day is however much less efficient than UK working day, as the same task will take longer time.

In UK, the way of life at work is quite different, and this is an english "quite". Another subtle and diplomatic way to say that they are really different. If their day tends to start earlier, it will end-up much earlier too. This is rare to see a lot of people still in the office after 6pm, because they are all in the pub, and believe me, this is not cliche, I worked in 3 different places, and it was like that in each of them, the level of friendship in the team being the driver in term of pub visit frequency. So, i was saying that after 6 they are all drinking together, chatting and chilling out after a not so long day at work, but a much more intense day. It is quite common to eat lunch in front of your computer, having a sandwich while answering emails, or having a meeting or a teleconference. So finally, in a shorter day, you tend to do much more.

Not necessary to specify which way of life at work I do prefer.

I have enjoyed UK way of working so much that now I am not too happy now with the 3 coffee breaks and long lunch break that force you to stay in office up to 8pm, and having no private life in the evening. Not to forget that in France, it is very uncommon to socialize and become REAL friend with your colleagues. Work and personal life remain separated worlds, which make having new friends quite a challenge when you are new somewhere in France....

But this could be another topic....In summary, only one common point, we both love gossiping, French around the coffee, Brits around a beer, but well, i imagine this is simply human nature, isn't it?

Patrick Swayze...

A small thought today, when watching Dirty dancing on TV tonight...

Patrick Swayze..

He was such a great dancer and good actor...I think about this beautiful man, so alive, his amazing body, his way to move like an animal, free and wild at the same time...

But I also can see in a glimpse what pancreas cancer has done to him, I see the thin ghostly man in the end...

I guess that this kind of ghost is living inside all of us, and that life is so fragile that we have to enjoy it whenever we can, as much as we can before the end...

One minute of silence

I am listening to one minute of silence...

One minute of silence for those who are not here anymore...

Lost Humanity

No comment, will understand who can...

but i do think a lot of people have lost it at the moment here in France...

How to avoid or not avoid a little Chinese girl?

A brand new game was invented in China and is now part of the top 10 best-played games ever. This Chinese game is the following: at the start of the game you have to target a small and absolutely cute little Chinese girl around 2 years old who just leave her mom’s hand and start wandering around…

The mom is absolutely focused on something else, not at all having her 2 years old daughter in mind, just thinking on much more important things in life than her cute little daughter… New dress? New beauty products? Or simply fresh food? Who knows and who cares? The result will soon be the same.

So, as I said you have to target the small Chinese girl, you’re driving a nice grey van with your lovely friend aside you, you’re accelerating and finally hit and run over the small baby girl. Then, your grey van stop when the front tires has run over the body, you hesitate a little bit and accelerate again to run over the baby girl with the back tires this time, and finally you disappear from the picture. Stopping is forbidden. The game continues only if you go on your way without any look backward.

Then, second round of the game, the next target is to walk around without looking at her, still moving, still alive, trying to move, probably crying in pain. You have 7 minutes and you have to be at least 17 persons to pass by without a look, without helping, avoiding carefully the place where the small girl is slowly dying.

Game over if you look at her (it) and stop. And you’re the winner if you have managed these two tasks before the dearly attentionate mother is looking back again to try to find her kid!

When I saw this movie on TV few weeks ago, to be honest I thought it was a kind of a sick joke, something quite sordid, too sordid to be true. I was so shocked that I could not even cry, I felt like vomiting. I felt also ashamed to be human, to be part of this humanity that can let things like that happening in a supposedly modern world, a world supposedly enlighten with progress.

First of all, the mother not paying attention and coming back to scene after the incident almost after 10 minutes. Would you let your 2 years old baby girl without surveillance for so long in a busy public market place? Well, sorry, but, no way!

Secondly, this bloody guy driving his bloody car, stopping a first time after running over the baby with the front tyre, deciding to drive away and therefore running over the baby a second time.

And the last straw that broke the camel back, the 17 persons who walked across the dying baby without moving a single finger during 7 long minutes…

Where are we heading? What can explain such indifference? The best excuse I have found about this event is that apparently in China few time before an old lady fell in the street and got her leg broken, she was helped by a young man who have brought her to the hospital. And apparently this poor kind guy have had to pay a 1000 euros fine because he was the last person in contact with the old lady and therefore responsible for what have happened to her.

Therefore it seems that in capitalist china a baby girl life is worth 1000 euros. And that no one will help a dying baby because they MAY have to pay a fine if the baby is disabled after the accident, even if they’re not responsible for the accident. Since when saving a life is nothing in balance of 1000 euros? Since when are we evaluating money when a single gesture would have help the baby?

The conclusion goes to the driver who said that he would prefer the baby to be dead so like that he would have to pay less money than if she was surviving and disabled for life. Apparently, there is a god somewhere, probably asleep, because the driver prayers have been fulfilled. The baby girl died few days after the accident.

The dark side...

Each of us got a dark side... Small or big piece... Consciously or unconsciously... Expressed or unexpressed...

May be what can also alter or change things is the type of lightful prism sitting by our side. To me, this one prism has the power to give us a different light, a different relief, and in fine a different turn to our life... I have seen so many people changing so much when being in a new couple... Some changed quickly, some other changed in a slow manner... Is our better half having the power to drive us in a specific direction, depending on the way they see you? If it was the case, we have to find someone who see us for who we really are, but also for who we really want to become in the future....