March 2005 - A soiree with the Gardners, then a cable splice in the workshop

It turned out that I was a very lucky little chicken in Paris. About 4 weeks before I left Paris Bradley came over for a week to visit me. On the weekend we were heading into Paris with the intention of locating Ange on arrival. We were about 10 minutes from her house when she rang us. She was sitting in a nearby restaurant with her mum and dad - what a treat. She'd said that they were coming to Paris, but I didn't know when.

So my time in Paris was hardly lonely and forlorn - I had stacks of fun, and familiar faces to play with. Brad and I quickly changed trains that morning and within 15 minutes we had gatecrashed the Gardners' party!

And quite a party it turned out to be... We made a very big day of it.

After and extensive array of food, wine and banter, we headed down Rue d'Rivoli for a look-see at all the French goodies. This next photo was taken especially for my aunty Genna. Her and I are big fans of La Creuset cook ware. In Australia the available range is quite limited; but it's not in Paris! Here I am inspecting the wares in the La Creuset shop.

After another little pit stop at a French bar, the five of us started heading towards Notre Dame in search of some dinner. On the way there we found this groovy moped with a roll cage.

We were all standing around checking it out and Bradley did us a few stunt-rider impersonations. Little did we realise that the lady hanging round nearby (she's wearing the orange scarf in the picture above) was actually the owner. She was waiting patiently for us to finish poking fun at here bike so she could go home. Woops...

Here's Ange in front of one of the buildings in the centre of Paris. The architecture here really is incredible. I'm sure it's impossible to come to Paris without being in awe of their architectural heritage.

And here's Bradley pointing out that the horse is a stallion.

When we got to Notre Dame we asked a passer by to take a picture of us. Unfortunately, I don't think this guy had a lucrative career as a photographer ahead of him...

After Notre Dame we found ourselves a very tasty Moroccan dinner and then called it a night. Much fun and wine was had by all - especially Graham and Bradley who I think should be restricted in future to supervised outings only! They were like kids in a lolly shop all afternoon...

A couple of days later there was a beautiful sun rise while I was getting ready for work. I took this picture from my apartment window.

The last part of my course was basically electrical and computer geek stuff. Being an electrician, Bradley was keen to see my cable splicing skills, so was instructed to record the occasion. But first, here's me with some boxes full of wires and computer geek bits that were the bane of my life for about 2 weeks.

And here's the part Bradley has been keenly awaiting - my electrical cable splicing skills! The cable splices we have to do go about 5km under high temperature corrosive fluid, so they've got to be sealed in these metal capsules.