Not the kind of French proposal a girl wishes for on Valentine's Day

For reasons too complicated and indulgent to explain in detail, I almost booked a last minute trip to Chicago for this weekend. The mission: to save a case of wine that otherwise faces an uncertain fate. Alas, someone else will take the responsibility and I will sanely stay here in London.......although, it got me thinking. Flight prices are pretty cheap from one cold location (London) to other cold locations (i.e. Chicago) this time of year. Maybe I won't have to have February be a gaping hole on my travel-once-a-month plan!

For lack of wanting to actually let people understand my twisted logic, suffice to say that this thought process resulted in me booking a ticket for my best friend Brea to come and visit me next weekend from Boston! She arrives on Thursday morning and leaves on Monday afternoon, which coincides beautifully with my California Wine Tasting night on 23rd February and with the fact that I don't have a current project at work, so I have some flexibility on my whereabouts next Thursday/Friday. This means I can work from home to be here when she arrives and I won't have to travel the 2 hours each way to/from Slough. That alone is quite an achievement in my life lately.

In other Christie news, I'm helping out on a proposal for some work with a French company. It is unlikely I will actually get staffed on the engagement, but the cool part is that I've been reading the RFI and other correspondence today in French. I've had English translations provided as well, but they aren't very good quality, so it's convenient to have them to read first, but then to actually look at the French for clarification. How fun! I have renewed interest in my goal of improving my French next year. I have to say, technology is much more interesting in French!