My new colleagues are great and it seems there's a reason to party every week at Michael Page. The job itself is brand new to me, I have to learn many things. I need to get some training on their internal application, it is the basis of their business. I have already had a short overview of it with Eve, I should have an intensive training in Paris next week.

They don't work with computers but with small clients (called Wyse) in which you plug the screen, mouse, keyboard and network, then you open a Windows session on a server located in Paris. Not working with a computer is very frustrating for me, I can't control anything, no access to a Control Panel, no personal configuration possible, no way to read a CD or USB memory stick, it's kind of difficult to get used to that... The other thing that I will have to get used to is the huge open office and being so close to my colleagues, we don't have much space for ourselves and no privacy.

Today (well yesterday) is my first day under contract with Michael Page, but I was told not to come, my first day is starting with a holiday, in Canton Zurich only :)

So I took the opportunity to visit Nicole in Villars. I went to the ice-rink and had a drink while waiting that she comes out of work. We had dinner together and she showed me her appartement and we chatted for hours about India and Hong Kong. She also showed me some movies she made while she was studying at the movie school in Danemark. It was great and I really liked spending time with her. I got back home very late.

Just about arrived from Paris at noon on Tuesday, I went to IKEA in order to meet my cousin Rachel and my aunt Mary-Claude who had come in the region for the day to shop for the future baby (mainly), who is due in July, and for some decoration... IKEA... my favourite place to shop for decoration and probably the favourite deco shop of the whole family...

On Wednesday, I received a email copy of my new contract - it felt good - a few things to discuss and ... starting work the next Tuesday already.

Today I had lunch with Gael & Shashi, they are getting married in July and invited me to discuss the pictures of their wedding. It will be a new photo experience for me, they are going to marry in the nature not in a church so the work is always harder for a photographer outside. I am looking forward to do that wedding and as they invited me to the dinner, I might also stay after "work" if I am not too tired. It is the first time that I get an invitation for a wedding that I'm going to take the pictures of, I felt good and touched also.

Usually I used to spend Easter time with my family, but this time they all had taken holiday so after the excellent impression I had on my 3rd interview for Michael Page, I decided to treat me with a trip to Paris. I sent an sms to Bernard on Wednesday to check if he was in Paris this weekend. He answered yes and his sofa bed was free. So I went to the train station on Wednesday evening to get my tickets for Paris. When I said I wanted a ticket to Paris for Easter weekend (only 1.5 days before Easter weekend start, Friday before Easter is a holiday in Switzerland) the man at the counter looked at me with wide eyes and seemed to think I was kidding... To go Thursday evening and Friday all day, no seat in 2nd class, only 1 seat left in first class on Friday afternoon; I asked how much was the price difference (CHF 41.-) and accepted this. To come back Monday all day no seat whatsoever, 2nd & 1st class. I had to come back on Tuesday morning (2nd class).

The TGV was late from Lausanne and I arrived in Paris 30 minutes late of course. In Switzerland the trains are almost never late but TGV are almost never on time, at least those to and from Lausanne or Geneva, I was delayed so many times. Bernard had just arrived to pick me up. He lives very near the Gare de Lyon, this is great, only 10 minutes walk and you can put down the suitcase and start chatting and planning what we were going to do.

Friday evening we went to a close-by Romanian restaurant then to the movie. Saturday we did some shopping, Bernard had to pick up a suit that he had ordered then to a home & decoration place. We had bought theatre tickets to see a comedy show. It was fun, that evening I cooked dinner and we went out for a drink. Sunday, we went down to the Louvre, walked by, the Seine, walked along, saw the little book booths, the Maritime museum, visited the museum shop, the Trocadero place, walked down to the Eiffel Tower and under and further. And walked, and walked, and walked... We went to Monparnasse and walked in the area and had a crèpe dinner there. That walking day was great, so tiring that I let myself fall on the couch when we returned. On Monday we walked on the Promenade Plantée, a very long garden following an old railway. At some point of the walk, we sneaked between the bars of the fence and walked on the railway itself, Bernard took pictures of me lying across the rails as if I had been bound and left there... Fun... :) At the end of the afternoon, we went to La Mie de Pain, a place where Bernard volunteers to serve food and welcome homeless people. I helped there that evening with him and some other volunteers. It was an interesting experience.

I know I don't have any excuses for not writing in here the last few weeks, but do you really find job hunting any fun? Do you really think this is interesting? I don't think so, so I did not bother...

Well, I applied for a lot of jobs but most applications came back saying they chose someone else. The thing is that the kind of job I was looking for is not the kind that's advertised in the newspapers or on internet, even my counselor from the unemployment office said that I would most probably find my new job by word of mouth or be found by a head hunter...

And it happened... I was found. Everything went very quickly. I was called by a recruitment consultant of Michael Page International (MP) who found my CV on monster.ch. He told me he wanted to interview me ASAP as he might have a position to offer me. Wednesday, March 28th, I had an interview with this consultant and a manager of MP, after about 40 minutes they said something like "you're ok for us, you're seeing the general director for Switzerland in 2 hours". So I came back 2 hours later and had second interview (that was more of a discussion than an interview). After 2 hours, he said something like "I have a good feeling with you, you are suitable for the position", then he showed me the offices and the open space (which I think is not something you do before the person is hired). He asked me to come a few days later in Zurich to meet the IT Director Europe. My only concern at that time is that I was made very clear that I would have to move to Zurich. Even though Zurich is still in Switzerland, it is very seldom that someone from the French part of Switzerland moves to the German part, the language barrier is big as we learn High German at school but they speak Swiss German dialects there. Anyway, I went to Zurich and after the interview with the IT Director, he asked the Office Manager to show me around the 2 offices and I met the staff already. I was almost feeling like one of the team already. It was nice. On Thursday, April 6th, I got the news in the evening, I was offered the job. Yahooooo!