On the bus

The first couple of times I walked out of work, and almost straight onto a bus. I don't know how I did that. The #9 is about 40 minutes apart. Today I missed it by 5 minutes. Last Sunday, we ran up to it carrying Ollie as the doors closed. Nothing sucks more than knowing for sure that's it's going to be a long wait, and there's nothing you can do. Everyone keeps saying we must buy a car, and my fantasies of going car free have been smashed.

A trap for young players: when the #9 gets to Antibes, it loops and leaves again. So if you're like me, you wait for about a good 15mins to go 1k before realising that they're now taking you 10mins walk away in the wrong direction.

The 100 is fun. Yesterday I was wondering how brave the driver was to go down the local shopping street. Turns out another driver was bravely coming the other way. It took about 10mins to fold mirrors in, back away a bit, then inch past. I honestly didn't think there was any way he could make it, but of course they did. I think our driver gave a Merc 4WD a decent nudge on the way. Noone parks within the lines here. I can see why they complain so much about the calls during tennis. A pumping truck wisely waited for the 100 to get past on the roundabout.

If you miss the golden #9 going home, you need to walk another 10 mins to wait for the #1 or express #100.  There are displays at the stops stating exactly when the bus will come. Yesterday, the 100 was due in 15 mins, but the #1 arrived. I ran across the street for it with 2 others. One guy with his hand on my bag, I think pretending to drag me, soccer style, definitely not suspicious. Meanwhile, another #100 turns up. So we all run back over the road for that (buses go all over the place). The queue looks huge, and the bus half full, so I give up and run back again in time to board the #1. After sitting on it for over an hour, I vow never to catch the #1 again.

On the way home, I stop at the Orange store to get instructions on how to use our mobile internet recharge. He tells me it's not possible to do it from a fixed land line, even though someone did this for us last time. You need to pull the SIM card from the key, and put it in our phone to do the recharge, he says. Once home, I see that the instructions specificaly say not to do it. After doing it anyway, I can now say that this does not work. For the record the number to call is 0800224224, and it took 30 secs. I hope they're not paying him to work there. After waiting for him to waste more of my time, it took 2 hours total to get home. Last week, I had a bike, and getting home is less than 40mins door to door. A car takes from 20, but mostly 40 mins to get home, and is just dead set dreary.

<-- most of the way is pretty good, with occasional hair raising tight busy streets

a little bit of the way by bike is a real mini holiday -->

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Tasting notes for today
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Cheese
Saint Nectaire production fermiere AOP. Fromage au lait cru
- sorry not sure what the names of some of these cheeses are. We just buy whatever. This one has so much mould on the outside, it dries your tongue. It's like a brie, with a stronger flavour. Thumbs up.

Saint Nectaire. Fromage au lait pasteurise
- weak but nice flavour. Like brie. Thumbs up.

Fourme d'ambert A.O.P.
- blue cheese with so much mould, it means business. Serious furry mould does not translate into strong flavour though. Thumbs up, 8 / 10. The search for a truly hard biting blue continues.

Beer
8.6 special blonde Bavaria - made in Holland, 7.9% alcohol. 4euro odd for a 6 pack.
- this is lethal. If it was in Australia for this price, I would be an alcoholic. The flavour is awesome, but it's more like a meal than a drink, so not sure if it would wear well.

Guiness (last week) - brewed in Dublin. About 7 euro for a six pack.
- mate, who could ask for anything more? Irish beer is heaven.

Cheese count: 347 varieties to go.
Beer count: 2 down, unknown to go.
Wine note: had 250ml for lunch. It cost 85c at the cafeteria at work. It's true, they do have wine for lunch all the time! Felt super sleepy in the lab afterwards.