Pressure

Some people are like sponges. They can soak up the work / pressure, take it all in, and then deal with it. These people make good managers. 

Some people are like hard dry chipboard. They don’t soak up pressure very well they end up just spraying it all over the place. A deep puddle becomes a shallow pond ⇰ which in turn becomes a kids swimming pool ⇰ eventually an infilled lake. These people end up throwing tantrums and loosing their cool over pointless insignificancies associated with heightened stress levels and anxiety all caused by the inability to juggle more than one thing at a time.

Relax and enjoy the few moments you live, for it is surely not worth all the hassle and stress.

View of Paris

Notre Dame

The Wanderer

Wandering around semi aimlessly in Paris is quite special. I have just been going where my feet lead me. Sometimes I have a few destinations I have planned to see. How I get there or between these destinations is usually a mystery not mapped out until it happens. Despite sounding random, there is possibly a lot of logic involved in my unplanned route walking, the parameters of what these are may be slightly complicated and I certainly shan’t bother to try and work them out, because its too much fun just to go where I feel like going.

I have not seen all, by any means, but have covered some fair yards so far. I do not cycle, for fear of missing too much, and also I don’t have a bike. Even when walking it is easy to pass shops and places with out fully taking in every little detail. I don’t know whether I am bothered by detail, but I definitely struggle to compute at a fast enough pace to keep up with my amble. 

I will not go to any of the major tourist attractions on my wanderings, in order to be able to happily accompany foreign guests when they make it to this wonderful city, and indeed if thats what they so wish to do when they arrive. I shall visit some museums if the spring showers arrive, but the outlook is good so far, so they may have to wait. Its definitely warming up now and I feel the sun starting to lift up my spirits after a long and cold winter. 

View of Paris

View from Printemps

Left Unsaid

What’s more interesting, what is said, or what is left unsaid? Not a game but a puzzle. Intrigue fascinates, but when it is said it is no longer interesting, it is past, it is history. It remains for a while but can be lost. It can be eternally remembered but it may often be the place, time or moment that is remembered for more than its worth. I think it depends on the individual. The more communication the better we understand each other, but if we lie down and don’t mention a thing, instead just think, is that not more powerful than the words we may utter mixed in partial meaning or falsity, confusion comes more often in writing and words than it comes from our body language and ideas forming in our heads. Left unsaid, they can go un-missed and actions forgotten leave gaps in the results we wish to achieve, but actions speak greater than words.

Presence transcends emotional communication.

Thoughts can, if left unsaid, power the emotive actions required to fill the silence of a moment.

Perspective, from all angles, a complete image, painted as one whole, can come to life in front of ones very own eyes.

View of Paris

Montmatre Street

Tooth pain clueless

So they pulled four of my wisdom teeth out of my jaw on Tuesday. The pain was bearable before with pills, afterwards it was really painful. What I couldn’t understand was a little sign next to my bed which categorized pain. The worst pain ‘excruciating’ was 5 and the least pain, slight pain was 1. Part of the sign read that if you were in pain you should call the nurse and tell her what level of pain you were feeling. The medicine’s and I guess the solution was then provided accordingly. However a few things bother me about this. Firstly you’re self diagnosing yourself, what happens if you cheat because you want the strong drugs because they make you feel good, and you are not feeling any real pain. Or the other possibility where you could be in pain and misdiagnose yourself and not get enough medicine. This second point, on how do know which pain category you are in. For me this was not an easy question. Maybe for you its obvious when you’re in excruciating pain, extreme pain, terrible pain, mild pain, just slight pain. The first thing I think about is how can I know the difference between mild and slight pain if I don’t know what the worst pain is, excruciating pain. I believe therefore I have to know the limits to know the middle ground. 

I guess pain is felt differently. For some people their awareness is much greater than others, and pain is a hugely important part of their lives, at least the pain management, avoidance or mitigation. For others and in some bizarre cases, pain is neither a worry or even felt. I guess every one feels emotional pain in some way, or maybe there is an example / outlier which freakily also this strange pain is not prevalent in.

I should like to understand everyones pain on a threshold scale, base units, so I have a universal constant base line to reflect too, but I know this would be hard even anti-humanitarian. People differences genetically and mentally are what keep us interested in life, and pain usually bad has a major part to play.

View of Paris

Jardins du Luxembourg

View of Paris

Jardins des Tuileries

New years eve

I didn't plan this, to have such a great time, in fact most New Years Eve parties I have been to are pretty pathetic and boring. I was pleasantly surprised this year, not to have a good time, but to be invited to start with. I guess it was always going to be expected that moving to a new place I would know no one, however all you need to know is one person, and I had only met this person once before for a few hours. I guess now I understand how a little gesture can have such a profound meaning. I didn't make any new friends during the evening, I spoke to many people and had a really good time, I think they all did too and I certainly didn't do myself any harm. Bring on 2011. Maybe there will be another party or I'll have the chance to meet them again soon.

Feelings

Can we appreciate feelings with out ever experiencing the reason behind these emotions.

Are there transferable feelings or situations that we can use when trying to understand another’s problems? Do these corresponding emotional, so-called similarities act to aid us in our ability to understand a dilemma, thrown from out of now where?

View of Paris

Under the trees

Electronic books

The problem with trying to reinvent the book is that it has been in existence for a very long time in its current form and style. There are doubtless many reasons why this has been the case. Whether we want to believe it or not, the reason I am confident the electronic version won’t replace the book is for me it seems like there is a place and tiny piece of the book now engrained in our very beings in our lives and we are continually reminded of it through history. Perhaps I can go as far to say that there is a piece of books now encoded in our data and living with in our bodies. I’d say it is a similar type of relationship book-human as keeping a pet. How would we feel if we replaced our pet dogs with a robot dog, just because it made life easier?

Pets have become important to humans, to both species that we now have created strong ties to certain animals, we have altered our    biology maybe accidentally but not insignificantly to feel connections and make relationships with pets. Whether this has happened or not with books I can not say, but it feels like it may be similar in many ways. For this reason no matter how good the replacement electronic versions, unless the replacements are exactly the same (defying reason for change) or they can in some way replicate the same relationships, then we will feel like we are loosing some important connection. Not succeeding is not a failure, the fact they fail will be a victory for books.  To reach this conclusion the experiment was necessary, the inevitable outcome would not be possible any other way.  Personally I will be happy, for as much as I am excited about modern technology, I am keen to keep traditions that add value and meaning to our lives, and nice paper books are the best.

View of Paris

Paris Street

Three weeks and its getting cold

This is the 4th week since I arrived. 

Monday morning, I open the door and stepped into a freezer, or that's what it felt like, as autumn suddenly froze my skin, flesh and bones. I arrived here with only a suitcase of clothes, it was sunny and warm, so I didn't prepare for the cold. Today a colleague told me to buy some jumpers, he also said I should wash the one I have been wearing for over a week. I know he makes sense, however I am hoping I can last out (not I might add the whole winter) till Friday. This could be an exciting day not only will I receive some warm clothes, but a whole kitchen set. My kitchen is currently very empty except for a few sauce pans, coffee cups and saucers, the later of which are acting as substitutes for plates. Cutlery is for picnics and I have 6 pieces.

I have started to explore and familiarise myself with parts of Paris. I've started living my French lifestyle, and will be telling you about how I get on in these forthcoming blogs.

View of Paris

Place des Vosges