A fresh start, but first, a pretty great ending

Last weekend was my last weekend in France. Well, to be more specific, my last weekend officially living in France. I wasn't actually here, I took off on Friday morning (up at 4:30AM, thank you very much) with my colleagues for our yearly "Company committee" trip. There isn't such a thing as a company committee in other countries, basically it's made up of members of the company who devote some of their time to organising fun events for us, like lunches and occasional pancake sessions, and once a year they take us on a mini-break somewhere fun. No meetings involved, no corporate crap, and mostly no managers (although they are invited!). So there you have it. My last days with my colleagues were spent visiting Budapest and partying for 2 days. You can't beat that for making memories, specially when you've been blessed with colleagues who are also lovely friends. Ready for a selection of random pics without explanations?

I only have a couple of things to say about Budapest: it's H.O.T. as in, 41 degrees, melt-in-the-sun, scorching hot. I've never been this uncomfortable in the heat, even in Rio and Martinique. It's also pretty fasionable (avoid the Oktogon shopping centre and you'll be fine. That one is definitely stuck in the ugly sixties) and has some very trendy bars and restaurants. And the beer is good. I'm not usually a huge beer drinker, but I've discovered that when it's 40 degrees out, a nice beer with lemon really hits the spot. Also a hotel room with air conditioning. Or a dip in the local pool and thermal baths, as long as there aren't any locals getting frisky... I don't think I want to go into that on this here blog though.

Sidenote: we're moving in 2 days and we've run out of boxes. Again. It turns out we've got lots more junk than I thought. We have managed to sell all the furniture we wanted to sell though, so that's one good thing. We're getting there. Slowly. We just spent our last night out in Paris, had crêpes followed by a lovely dessert in a tea room, a walk around notre dame, and one last ride home on the RER C. Oh how I will not miss you! It hasn't quite hit home yet that we're really leaving the country, or that I've left my job for good, but what I know for sure is that I'll miss the people I met here a lot more than the places I discovered. And the good thing is that people can move. To Yorkshire.