Well, it has been 20 days since I have blogged. I am surprised. I have been busy, there have been lots of long hours at work. I finally got to travel again, going to the Hague in the Netherlands, and to London on business. Life in Sceaux continues at its beautiful and easy pace. I look forward to coming back to my apartment each evening, because I know that it will be quiet, peaceful, beautiful, and restful.
Since I last wrote, I have been nursing a running injury. Apparently the muscles in the upper thigh, above the quadriceps, are strenuously engaged when running hills. Had I known this, I would have not charged up the hills as if I was Teddy Roosevelt and the Roughriders. To further complicate things, I did a little sightseeing in Paris, and a pair of shoes I thought would be good for walking. But they seemed to force my feet to pronate, especially my left foot. This puts a great deal of strain on the interior tendon of the left knee. Thanks to the Internet of course, I could give you the scientific names of all these muscles and tendons that have been affected the last two weeks, but I will spare you. I finally got to run again today. Not quite 100%, in neither stamina nor strain, but it was a good run nonetheless.
I have two long-term goals for my running: to run from my apartment along the Coulee Verte, to the beginning of the Coulee Verte in Montparnasse; the second goal is to run from my apartment to the Hotel de Ville of Paris, which is considered the heart of Paris and is just beyond Notre Dame from me. I hope that by the time I leave for Christmas vacation I will have achieved one of those goals. Such a distance run would not be a routine workout, but it would be a Saturday run, where I have the time to make the run, return to the apartment, recuperate, and cleanup for the day.
I have used many means to travel throughout the world: automobile, horseback, ships, small boats of all sizes, even a rickshaw van. But it was not until I got to Europe that I traveled by train. I have now made three trips by train, and had the good fortune of traveling first class on all of them. I found traveling by train to be very comfortable, not that much cheaper than flying, and certainly takes longer and is less predictable than flying. If you plan your travels to accommodate the differences, I find traveling by train to be a very comfortable experience. On two of my trips, I got to experience high speed trains. They move at over 200 mph, run on new rails, and is generally quite smooth. It seems; however, that when the engineer decides to kick up to speed a little bit, you do feel more motion than you would feel on a plane. As Schlumberger has many offices, and centers in Europe, and her clients likewise have offices and centers in Europe, traveling by train to these locations is not only common, but often preferred by our management. One of the nice advantages of traveling by train is that you remain connected for the duration of your trip. Most trains have wireless freely available to the passengers, that even in the case when it is not available, you have your smartphone, which remains connected via its network throughout the traverse of your journey. The amazing thing today, is that I can be traveling at over 200 mph in a train, and orchestrate a conference call between myself, Paris, Houston, and Tokyo. Of course, we take such ideas and notions for granted anymore, but it is amazing nonetheless. I once conducted a conference call to the same locations while walking to the office. Of course, the disadvantages of traveling by train are the same as the advantages of traveling by train.
The Great Cheese Experiment continues. I sampled some new cheeses since I last wrote, but honestly, I am growing weary of cheeses. I think at the next writing in this blog I will give you my report. I am all cheesed out. :-)
Something interesting happened while I was touring Montmartre. I went into the area where the artists are displaying their works, and I found the artist who painted the pictures hanging above me now. The picture above me now is a watercolor of Sacré Coeur from the Montmartre Village perspective. It is a subtle watercolor, with pale greens, oranges, gray, and a hint of purple. Her colors are bolder now, and she now incorporates pen and ink, a combination I enjoy very much. I bought the picture above me in 1990, and she says she has been painting there since 1980. I think I'll make a trip back, and take a photograph from my cell phone with me, of the picture hanging above me, and perhaps buy two more of her works to add a splash of color to the living room walls. I will put that on my action list.
I will sign off for now, thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope you are enjoying the trip and my perspectives. Do not be afraid to leave me a note, I find them encouraging.
Au revoir,
Mark
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