Yet another useless blog

J'ai un petit quart d'heure à tuer alors... étant donné que j'ai semé les 4 lecteurs réguliers de mon blog grace à ce silence d'un mois, il est temps de s'y remettre un peu plus sérieusement.

Not that I have anything against LJ at all, but this blog might be moving to another domain soon (the classy "davout.org").

So much has happened in the last month or so, I haven't the slightest idea where to start or what to include. There was the infamous warsaw fiasco: another ridiculously stupid passport incident (who takes his passport out dancing the eve of a trip?) leading to the miss of a flight and a brave -foolhardy?- hitchhiking attempt.

Paris-Warsaw became Paris-Metz-Paris (with a record 24 hour wait at the metz station) and so I ended up celebrating the New Year "à domicile". Which, in all fairness, was absolutely worth the 2 day hike.

An excellent combination of friends family liquor music location and even a testosterone-charged (semi) street brawl made for a brilliant night.

January was mainly CS (www.couchsurfing.org) oriented - the paris community are such a vibrant lot. It's funny to think that only 2 months ago I was aching to get as far away as possible from France and now I feel like I'm leaving behind many true friends or potential friends.

I'm almost done with my 15-minute limit - for a computing student I have a ridiculous typing speed.

Currently in CAR (Central African Republic) I will definitely have things to blog about in the next few weeks.

March will be the month I go to Kiev... Brrrr I'm such a lucky bastard.


I will not insult your intelligence by claiming I'm back on the blogging world so

see you in a few days or a few months

Friends and strangers, I salute you!


So much for my regular updates promises. I feel like every time I connect to LJ, I find myself attempting to explain my silences... Enough with the apologies.
Tomorrow I leave for Warsaw and the soon to be legendary HC/CS New Years meeting- I'm not sure I'm the correct physical shape to be able to withstand what will be one of the longest and wildest parties of my life, but I am more than willing to bravely give it a shot. Sometimes, despite the obvious dangers, you have to step (drink) up.
Warsaw, here I come! To see so many of my traveler friends again is an enthralling prospect- one of my only regrets is that my dear brother will miss it, since - tantalizingly- his plane lands a couple of days too late. Oh well, other opportunities will arise and some would say that he has had more than his fair share of excitement during his cuba days...


The post-warsaw plans remain pretty muddled at the moment- dreams of skiing in the carpates with Florin have faded since he decided, in an uncharacteristic moment of lucidity and reason, to come back to Paris in time for his exams.
My intention was still to take 2 weeks off and roam around eastern europe - either going to practice my russian in the Ukraine, or discovering Romania, or following some crazy traveler at Warsaw. The possibilities were nearly endless.
BUT - in a Florin moment of my own - I'm now seriously considering simply coming back to Paris after Poland. After a sluggish start to the academic year, and at the worst possible moment, my university has decided to turn up the heat and send us a heap of projects to complete. If you add to that fact that my mother is leaving for Africa on the 7th, and that my brother is now back in town, well Paris seems to be a reasonable and not too depressing choice. After all, as they say in France, "ça n'est que partie remise"! If I really get a move on in my computing projects I can take off when I feel like it in january/february, without worrying about university.

I just have to get organized - I'm fiercely determined to make the most of this year but let's not forget that I'm still a student... and that I'm lucky enough to be involved in something that actually interests me for a change ;)

So I guess for the moment the probable calendar is:

28/12-02/01 Warsaw
03/01: hitchhike back to Paris
january: mostly university and parisian activities, but maybe a weeklong trip somewhere in europe
february: republic of central africa for up to a month - boy, I've missed Africa
post february - we'll see! somewhere exotic hopefully


Big program today. I have to clean the flat up and finish organizing the hooka party tonight (for the moment, 25 people are in, and we have approximately 0 hookas- thank god alcohol exists). Plus I need some warm clothes if I want to survive coming back from Warsaw. And a haircut would be nice. So... enough time blogging. See you soon for some warsaw anecdotes!

Jeff

P.S I'm officially a destroyer of laptops. My HP didn't react well to falling off the bed. Fuck technology, I'm off to Poland and simpler pleasures.

Do not miss Mitch Hedberg, a stand up comedy genius (thanks emma).


P.S I'm starting to do some HTML and stuff for my degree, so hopefully this blog will get less ugly at some point.

Writing a interesting blog requires a certain literary talent- or a lifestyle exciting enough to compensate for the lack of it. So I've pragmatically decided to stop aiming for "interesting". If I can keep it updated, it'll be good enough.

The ECSP gala last night wasn't as glamorous as the term "gala" inferred. True, the kids were fancy dressed and the location was very classy but underneath the suits and the dresses were the same jerks you would find in your typical business school party- filthy individuals after money, power, and (short term) as much sex and alcohol as their bodies can possibly withstand. How some of these assholes actually get laid says a lot about the destructive powers of alcohol - and the lack of self esteem of some of these prada power bitches.

It was like a day out in the zoo. You make fun of the animals, or take pity of them and after a few hours the whole deal gets somewhat old.


Hmmm... O.K, I guess sleeping only 4 hours has rendered me a touch negative - it wasn't that bad, I'm sure a lot of people there were actually decent human beings. And who am I to judge them? Suits, sex and money? I can understand that fuels a lot of passion.

Anyway, I had my trusted ally Marie Laure with me, and we set the dance floor on fire! (3 glasses of champagne was enough for me to forget about the fact I had no idea what I was doing). Ah, Rotterdam memories... Of course that came at the price of losing about 60% of my hearing but what are you going to do.


Now for the weekend. Lyon is out (no time - no money), and I'm really knocked out and have a lot of thing to do so the CS "soirée loosers" is probably out too. All the remaining excitement will be in tomorrows chess game at Orsay (let's go wild).

O.K, time to work a tad. Ubuntu, here I come!

I'm a bloody disgrace of a blogger.

I've postponed writing about Lisbon, and now I also have to write about one of the most amazing week ends in my life in Rotterdam. When will I learn to stick to a routine?

I guess I'm just swamped at the moment, but in a good way. The last few months have been full of excitement and new experiences; and so many projects lie ahead.

Friday I'll be making fun of Frances future business elite at a gala in one of the top business schools (ECSP) - I'll take a few pictures, if only to advertise how charismatic I am in a suit.

Saturday (fingers crossed) I'll be on my way to Lyon for the "festival des lumières" and a touch of partying with the Lyon HC gang.

Sunday I'll be back in Paris to get my bottom spanked with the rest of the Orsay Chess club; we're playing the Echiquier Latin in a classic David v.s Goliath encounter - except David will have 5 hours sleep and a hangover.

Monday Meeting up with the old Orsay physics colegues

Tuesday Movies - "the last show"

Wednesday - Piano concert with my grandmother- terrifying! She seems to be intent on showing off my non existent piano skills to her good friend the world class pianist Jay Gottlieb - for some incomprehensible reason she thinks I'm a musical genius (based on a few tunes I butchered on her piano almost 15 years ago). I don't know what would be more crushing; the polite but slightly amused/concerned look on Jays face or the tears building up in my grandmas eyes when she realizes that she slightly overestimated my artistic talents.

As a reassuring appendix to this small program I should add that of course, during the mornings and afternoons preceding all these events, I shall be spending a number of hours studying my computing, in the relentless, disciplined fashion that has made my name at the Orsay University. I'm becoming quite the Ubuntu nerd and I love it.

The european chess rapid, in 2 weekends, is a rather remote possibility now. I'm not sure I can afford it financially, and HHing to Warsaw and back would leave me knackered for weeks.

So, I guess the next travel expedition will be the polish meeting for New years eve... basically all my HC friends are going to attend, it can only be LEGENDARY.

OK, have to go and sort out a lot of administrative crap, and also work on a computing project, busy busy day today.

See you soon amigos!

I'm back in Paris for a while... and have a bunch of things to do, most importantly finally kicking off my online computing degree. I've just finished installing Ubuntu, but it seems that getting internet to work on it will take a while... I'll probably be depressed and suicidal at 4 a.m, but right now I'm just happy - the fact that I'm a promising young computing student instead of a talentless, aimless, hopeless physics student is slowly sinking in. Wild success - creative and financial - lies ahead.

Russian is taking a lot of time too, and when I look at my clavinova I can't help but remember how much I would love to become a semi-decent piano player. And of course there is still my chess website project. If you add my renewed addiction to traveling+socializing, you can understand why my timetable is getting pretty swamped.

Ah, I'll just dive in and see what happens. Interesting and enriching experiences are bound to come my way.

The world is crazy, people. But I'm having more fun than ever.

Hello all, I have 15 minutes for an update.
I'm happy to announce I'm alive and well in France, and not just anywhere in France, in Lyon - a beautiful city, "only" 500 km away from Paris, and home of several good friends. I'll be back in Paris tomorrow after the first decent nights sleep in a while.

In the end, my ambitious HHing plan (going through Spain to visit my grandparents) was aborted due to time shortage. I absolutely had to be in Paris this weekend (for a chess match of monumental proportions), and if possible in a refreshed physical state. From what I gathered from experienced hikers, Lisboa-Paris (1800km) by HHing was not the way to go; hmm... I'll practice my español some other time.

I booked a plane from Porto to Marseille instead (50 euros), and after my arrival at midnight proceeded to look for a good spot to (finally) HH. It was reassuring to know that in case of any problem, I could call mélanie, a sweet young lady that I helped out with her impressive luggage at the airport.
A delicious kebab at the "Vieux Port" and I was off.

After 25 minutes of walking (probably in the wrong direction) a car stopped by.
Long stories short (no credit left), the guy was appalled to hear my plan, took out a bunch of 20 euros notes out of his pocket and "forced" me to accept 60 euros for the train to Lyon.
I'm not sure about the "ethicality" of my decision, but at 3:30 in the morning, facing another long night of dreadful amateurish hiking I was pretty easy to convince.
The train actually cost 30 euros, so I now have a 30 euro budget for beer and food in Lyon ;)

Long live the mediterranean generosity! (and shame on me for taking advantage of it)

Last time I was offered a 13 euro bus, now a 60 euro train ride... I think I'll just "hike" to Warsaw by plane in a month...

Ciao, see you on a week end update!

Jeff, an absolute disgrace of a HHker

Hm... 2 weeks without a single update is nothing to be proud of. And when you consider how unprodutive I've been in the other areas of my daily existence, I really have no excuse.
But new material is most certainly on its way, for after my chess week in Lyon, I was lucky enough to get out of the coutry once more - heading for Lisboa to surprise my girl, on a 2 day journalist business.
Of course I have nearly no time at this precise moment (a japanese restaurant beckons in ten minutes) but if I get back alive from HHing to Paris, a new post will arrive for sure.
So many things to say... but the last 3 or 4 days have been truly awesome.
See you all in one week - I hope ;)

Hi all! It's 21h49 here in Lyon and I have more or less an hour before they kick me out of the Internet Café. Which is far from enough to write the post I want!
CRAZY times yesterday - as usual when I decide to hitch. How should I read this? Is God telling me that HH is not the way to go for me? Or are all these elaborate trials supposed to make me mutate into a HH super-warrior?

Well, at least it never gets boring...

So, what happened this time?

I arrived at Porte d'Italie (south of paris) at around 12:00 (not a brilliant idea in itself, but hey I'm a lazy guy. The HH spot everyone advertises on internet was pretty easy to find, so at that point everything was going smoothly. Hitching is all about location, and for once I knew I was in the right place.

Of course, leaving Paris is a complicated first step, so I was fully prepared to wait for several hours. And wait I did. The weather was borderline depressing, I was cold, hungry and tired, and 2 hours later I was wondering why I didn't just choose the easy solution and pay 30 euros for a train ticket.

But just as I was sitting down to prepare a morale-boosting extra meaty sandwich, a miracle happened- or so I thought.

A truck had stopped 2 feet away from me and the driver was ushering me in. My lucky day! I threw my bag inside, and the trip began.

The guys name was Jean-Claude, a very warm hitcher-loving trucker. We were immediately on a first-name basis and he was making me comfortable.
I had gone in the back ("for insurance problems") and taking my coat off.
Everything was perfect. For the first 10 minutes.

Suddenly, strange things starting to happen in the truck. At first, I wasn't that sure, but then it became worryingly obvious....

- "Sleep if you want to, no problem. Sleep, sleep... I'll take care of everything. Take off your stuff, you'll be too hot... Make yourself comfortable..."

- "Er... so you're going to Lyon???"

- "No, but don't worry, I'll get you out of Paris... if you want, you can sleep...."

The actual conversation was normal - but the fact that he had his hand behind his back and was trying to touch my legs while I was "sleeping" wasn't extremely reassuring ;)

I couldn't believe this was actually happening - so I started to get very explicit about where we were going, the fact that I was late etc - as well as pushing myself as far away as possible from him.

- "What? you can't sleep? Maybe you should try turning over... yes, turn over, come near me..." (FUCK)

At this point, I noticed that the guy was starting to take fishy small roads, and ignored the big LYON sign a couple of times... this wasn't funny anymore. I sent katya a message given her the little info I had, and in a Chuck Norris reflex calmly took my knife out of my bag and put it safely into my pocket. A strange feeling overcame me - it wasn't really fear, a mixture of tense anticipation and adrenalin.

Luckily for me (or for him), Jean-Claude actually didn't turn out to be a serial rapist. He was just a lonely trucker, astounded by the power of my raw sexuality.
When he realized that I wasn't the biggest fan of random sex with balding 40-year old men, he stopped at a station.

He did make a last attempt though, explaining that if I wanted to continue HH, I could go at the end of the station, but if I wanted to sleep 20 minutes, we would be perfectly ok with it, since he had to sleep to and would come in the back with me.
I politely refused, shook his hand, and continued my trip.

Problem was, he dropped me at a useless station - no-one was going anywhere near bloody Lyon. And cars had nowhere to stop outside. I spent 2 hours thumbing before the police told me it was illegal, then another 2 asking people directly in the station.

At 7pm I had made no progress - and was still only 40kms away from Paris, contemplating the utter humiliation of having to hitch back.

Then suddenly, everything accelerated; a helpful driver brought me to another station (10km away) and it was AMAZING. In the first 20 minutes, I saw more cars going to Lyon than in the past 8 hours.
Even the worst HHer in the world would have gotten a ride easily; and indeed he did.

Fast car, silent driver, perfect trip; I was in Lyon before midnight.

The Vieux Lyon hostel was great - sophie didn't lie to me, the view there is incredible. And I had the whole room to myself for 15 euros...

HH is like a marathon. You have to be prepared to suffer - a lot. But when you get there, what a feeling.....


Anyway, didn't sleep a lot but managed to play two decent chess games today; 1 victory and 1 draw.
Tomorrow will be tougher.


IT's 10h30 and I'm still not sure where I'm sleeping, so I probably should be making sure I won't end up in a park instead of surfing the internet....

See you all, friends


A happy and still pretty much heterosexual Jeff

OK, so much for my 5:30 A.M departure. The whole idea was utterly science-fictional.
After 5 successive alarms (a Jeff classic) I finally managed to get out of bed at 9.
Now I have to check my itinerary, note down important numbers and addresses, buy some food, and I'll be off.
Lyon... closer than Kiev - but feels like Beijing at the moment...
But how can I take the train when Katya is a Moscow-Kiev night trip regular?
Friends, I depart. I have no host at Lyon, little money and even less energy but the post-september 2006 Jeff is not interested in puny details of the sort.
Banzai!

Thank you Marseille University for giving me this wonderful correspondance class possibility!
I can finally live a few months like the nomad I'm destined (hopefully) to become.
I'm not exactly sure how this year is going to be organized (or even the next month) but I have a chess tourism calendar more or less figured out; you see, I have decided to return to Kiev, hunt down Yuri the Shevchenko park hustler, and beat him at his own little game.
A risky enterprise of course, but we all need objectives in life.





It starts off in Lyon (1th-5th november). A big international tournament, bloody exhausting (2 games a day). But I'll go without that much pressure since I just want to have fun in my games and have time to visit some friends and see Lyon a bit. I'll probably be sacrificing/dropping a fair share of pieces during my stay.

End of november, barring any unexpected turn of events, I'll be off to Rome for 5 or 6 days and another big tournament - it'll be a nice change from all the Montigny-le-Bretonneux and Bures-sur-Yvette (boring french towns) type of tournaments I competed in so far.

Mid december, I'll have my shot at becoming European Rapid Chess Champion in Warsaw (yes, I'm slowly moving east back to Ukraine).
The odds for me winning the title are around 100000-1, but who knows I might grab a prize for my rating category; though I expect an 8 year old chinese or russian kid will ruin that dream for me.

Uh oh I just saw typing my name in google images brings to light my infamous finger-giving punk picture.... I hope I don't have too many internet-savvy family members...


Time for my daily (as of today) russian hour.


Paka!

Bored to death last night, and not feeling up for the grueling blitz chess tournament at the Chess XV club, I decided to succumb to my gambling instincts and followed a friend of mine to the legendary ACF- a luxurious poker club right on the Champs Elysées (is there a better place to go broke?).
After observing the tables for a while, I sat down to the right of my buddy (an ultra-aggressive maniac I shall call Lionel for the rest of the article).
Lionel had just won a big pot and offered me a 30 euros loan (the minimum buy in) so I could have a first taste of live action.
Jumping ahead a little, I did not work these 30 euros up to any kind of impressive amount; in fact, they landed right back into Lionels pocket at the end of the session.
But it was an exhilarating experience- I say that in a very detached way, as I was happy to find out that I am by no means a compulsive gambler.


Poker-wise, I feel I played the cards decently. During the 4 hours I spent at the table, I didn't have a huge run of cards - a very long succession of J-7s and 5-3s offsuit.

I didn't have the stack to make any kind of play at the pot (who would be afraid of 30 euros when the stacks went up to 300 or 400 euros?), and the standard raise, 6 times the big blind, amounted to 12 euros...

So I started off trying to get a feel for the table and hoping to double up before the blinds ate me alive.
I was folding everything (including an A-J which would have given me the straight against top two pair).

Well, luckily for me, my first (very) decent hand - two gorgeous red aces - allowed me to triple up to around 50 euros.

From that moment on, I won a few pots, with some nervous moments and comical rookie mistakes; I announced a pair of Jacks when I actually had two pair J-3; I slowplayed my full house on a board of A-2-2, turning over my A-2 suited at the end just to discover with horror that I was actually "slowplaying" a meagre A-4 ;)


DAMN! The livejournal auto draft is far from perfect, I just lost 70 percent of my brilliant post.... depressing.

Anyway, I made some correct reads and astute laydowns, picked up the occasional desperate 15 euro all-in bet and fluctuated around the 100 euros check-mark for a couple of hours.

To make long stories short, I ended up getting broke with J-10 of clubs against Lionels pocket Aces on a Kc 9c 4d flop.

I correctly put him on a big pair and made the questionable decision to put all my money in then and there. I think I would probably do it again if I were in the same situation; first of all 12 cards would double me up (the 9 clubs and three queens) giving me nearly a 50 % of winning the pot- the last metro was 20 minutes later - and finally, in the wort case scenario, my stack would make a good friend happy.

So as you probably guessed, the poker gods decided that I would lose that coin flip - and that was that.

Overall I was reasonably satisfied with my play - shy weak-tight play for sure, with much room for improvement, but thankfully devoid of any purely brain dead moments.

The table didn't overawe me. Generally, I felt that I was pitted against very feeble players (although I'm noone to judge of course). Not that I have anything against people with comical/suicidal poker skills, but some of the plays were simply indecent.
Calling sizable allins from tight players with K-3, or bottom pair, bluffing 10 euros into a 80 euros pot, going all in with any pair in any situation etc etc I didn't understand if they didn't care at all for the money, were punishing themselves for something, or genuinely thought they were making the right moves.

A lot could be said of the table manners and style of some of the players seated with me.

Unfortunately I have to put an abrupt end to this post as I have to meet in a friend - you have to thank LJ's flawed auto-draft for that.

Hopefully I'll post a part 2 tonight or tomorrow.

A lot of enjoyable things lie ahead for me in my time table - most notably cleaning the nuclear war zone that is my apartment for two polish HC guests. I have no idea where I will find the energy.

La revedere,

Jeff

I'm not sure I have the discipline for regular updates... on the other hand nothing very fascinating is happening at the moment in my life- which means that the following post follows suit with the rest; a "personal life" bit, i.e utterly uninteresting for 99% of you out there.
I spent a week half ill/ half depressed in Paris and now I have to get back on track for a *very* busy month and a half.
Lots of people to see (I actually underestimated the extent of my social life here- seems I do have a few friends), russian to learn, administrative BS, computing classes of course, my chess website project etc. etc. Add some cultural activities such as movies reading, plus playing for the Orsay Chess Club, means not that much free time.
Today was a decent day - I actually went through most of the 'todo' list on my notebook (which usually never happens) and went book-searching in St-michel.
Found the book I loved in Kiev, "Nightwork" by Irwin Shaw, bought Rousseaus "Les Confessions in spanish (my only excuse is that the book was 4 euros - I never had the courage to read it in french so there's no reason I'll ever open that one), plus a Bukowski compilation of short stories.
A very inspiring man, Bukowski - his booze and sex lifestyle is... something to think about. I think we could all do with one Bukowski day a week- just enough to keep everyone happy and satisfied without plunging our society into Heineken-fueled chaos.

Ahhh life isn't half bad. Here I am typing away with the window open on my balcony and a great parisian view while my roommate is slaving away in the kitchen. Great things lie ahead for me this year.

Shit have to go and clean the table - life does have its ups and downs.

I had a bunch of things to add, was feeling mighty inspired, but reality has caught up with me.

I'll be back - Jeff the blogger woke up today and decided that he was going to stick to a writing routine, however much pain it meant inflicting on the casual reader.

So see you in 2 or 3 days for my first consistent post since coming back (politicians promise) and with - who knows?- a couple of photos to liven up the blog a tad.

Yet another reason for me to come back to Ukraine:
here
I only hope I get my invitation in time.

Busy with important stuff here in Paris... looking for interesting news on www.digg.com, browsing youtube for daily show videos, downloading the last (shame on me) Prison Break, fighting for a 400 dollars first prize in a Pokerroom tournament and of course updating my blog for the first time since I left beautiful Kiev.
Yes, I am a bit of a multitasking expert, my jealous friends.
Having a hard time with my brothers crappy keyboard though...
Anyway... I was a bit ill the last few days, a very frustrating situation; so many things to do and so little energy to do them.
(GOD do these players know poker? 1 reraise 2 calls on the flop no one had anything).
Strange being back 'home'. Am still feeling a bit off and uncreative, so will probably stop typing abruptly soon.
But you can all relax, I will be posting regularly as soon as I get back to my usual dynamic self...
HH from Zahony to Budapest turned out to be a bit of an adventure, more on that later. I realize this is not a particularly exciting addition to my blog, but cut me some slack I only slept a couple of hours last night. Got used to sleeping late in Ukraine and got stuck on my computer, "multitasking" again. Plus I was already knackered from iceskating with my sister yesterday. Hmmm I'm getting really too boring so I'll do us all a favor and come back later for some more decent updates...

Who says chess isn't a sport?

O.K, I'm waiting for Katya to come home and tell me where I can find the bloody pics on her computer...

I'm leaving for Chop tonight. What a strange feeling- in a few days I'll be back in Paris. Tomorrow evening I'll cross the Hungarian border, hitch-hike to Budapest (may the Gods have pity on the brave fool that I am), and sleep either in some parc or- a less adventurous but more enjoyable prospect- at Georges place, after a good pizza.

Time is a very relative concept- this month has felt so long and full of new experiences, and yet flown by so quickly.

It's difficult to put into words how alive and bursting with energy I am today. After 3 years of suffering and regression, trapped in the prison of the Orsay Physics Department, Kiev has become the symbol of my rebirth.

I may spend a little time with my family in France, investing myself frantically in all the important projects and little things I have sacrificed over the years- but I will be back once I've sorted out money issues and put together enough to be able to survive here jobless.

Maybe just after the Warsaw New year meeting (I want to launch my chess web portal before christmas, and a very cheap and interesting film making workshop takes place in december in Paris, plus I also might want to spend a couple of weeks in Romania and maybe a few other spots on the way)- but not much later than that.

And this time, I'll speak (some) russian! You have my word...




P.S I officially became 25% ukrainian yesterday during the match. Wearing the flag, standing up for the anthem, and watching the team completely crush Scotland... UUUKRAINA ....... DAVAI.......SHEEEEEEEEVA! Great game, great evening (who would have thought a football match could be so romantic?).

Hilarious to see 5000 scotsmen in kilts lost in the Kiev metro after the game. I bet half of them slept in some parc last night...

Just back from a thoroughly enjoyable week-end in Odessa (a nice calm break from the hustle and bustle of Kiev). Have 20 minutes to try to write a decent post, and have the feeling I won't.
I'm not a journalist, I'm an artist! Time pressure is not for me.

I'll be back tonight with a few symbolic photos from the Black Sea.

Ah, one important thing I learned in Odessa: if you think that paying for a toilet in the main train station means you'll get a door to close when you want to take a s..., think again!
We're here to bond during our most intimate animal moments, brothers and sisters!

O.K, to make this post worthwhile, let me share a wonderful piece of wisdom from an anonymous professional traveler friend:

"The best way to pull a bird in a foreign country is karaoke- hands down. You make it immediately obvious that you're a drunk foreigner, willing to have fun, and with *very* low standards."

I hope my memory and my english have allowed me to phrase it properly. If the great man himself wants to edit the quote, or proudly attach his name to it, he can feel free to contact me.

40 kopecks left for internet, off soon... it seems to have stopped raining so I might be off to Shevchenko (or Shortchange park as the spelling corrector indicates) park for a bit of ego-shattering chess...

p.s While on the subject of chess, congratulations on your champions reaction Kramnik. I hope you can punish Topalov and his mentor for their utterly disgraceful and cowardly behaviour. Be brutal! Crush him!
(What, you didn't know that Vladimir was a big fan of my blog?)

12 kopecks....

What can I say?

Watching katya (lucysd) hitchhike is like watching Maradona with a football.
She has it all: energy, class, and the blessings of HH gods. Her sense of direction - faultless. Her conversational skills in a car - second to none. Her smile - pure delight.

Paired with one of the most unsuccessful hitchers of the XXIst century (famous for his record-breaking 12h on a 140 km Paris-Le Havre trip, and for abandoning a Paris-Berlin HH expedition 20 km away... from Paris), she proved to the world that sometimes a team is not "only as strong at it's weakest link".
2 cars, 10 minutes wait, and 6 hours was all it took to gobble up the 500km of Kiev-Odessa.

As planned, I was useless, sleeping for most of the trip (waking up only for coffee breaks and saying goodbye). I love HH!

Now for Odessa... and the long-overdue first dip into the Black Sea.



P.S As a tribute to my hippie-loving girl, and an amusing scientific experiment, I have decided to refrain from cutting any of my hair in the next few months, however ugly I may become. Will the universal laws of gravitation finally have a visible effect on japanese hair? Not to worry my friends, the answer to this crucial question is near.


P.P.S Ouch! I may have to put some extra effort in to rising the standards of my shitty blog. My dear younger brother Renaud has ridiculed my first posting attempts here , and now my pride dictates that I strike back vigorously.

After a very lazy day yesterday (only driven out of the flat by hunger at 8 p.m), time to be more productive.

My pathetic russian needs serious improvement - I've been here for nearly 3 weeks and can barely count to five. If I'm serious about living here, I should really try to quit behaving like a tourist and get my promotion to being a proud french immigrant. Although I have one tiny question about russian: if its spelt "o", why the hell do you pronounce it "a"????

I also want to make some progress on latourfolle.net; my project for changing the face of the french internet chess scene (others devote their time to fighting aids or helping the poor; my line is the french internet chess scene).

That's already a lot of work for one day, so I'd better get going.

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A small Post Scriptum on my Ukraine activities;

- this weekend I'm off to Odessa with my girl. The plan is night hitch-hiking on friday, and the deal is- once in the car, she talks to the driver to keep him awake, and I sleep, because I'm "useless".
Katya obviously doesn't rate my conversational russian.

We'll catch a train on the way back, so she can be fresh for her work on monday morning. I don't have to be fresh for anything; I love holidays.

- next friday, I'll be wearing a blue and yellow flag and off to the Ukraine-Scotland Euro 2008 qualifications match - I'm a bit angry at the way they rip off the true fans though, 3 dollars a ticket! Disgraceful!

My first football game since the infamous half-time peeing contest game in Yaounde 2000. I've heard Shevchenko is useless in international fixtures, but I'm still looking forward to being so close to the ukranian half-god.


Unfortunately, I'll be leaving Kiev just a few days before the Champions League match
Dinamo-Lyon, but there'll be other opportunities. Even a France match coming up.


I love this country!