06.25.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:36 pm by tesstess
I got a job, I Got a job, I got THE job!
Incredibly how fast things can happen when they at last start to…
All this time I didn’t turn to the contracting companies because I was waiting for Amadeus to take me directly. And they said they would, if only they were hiring, if only they knew how much people they needed, if only they knew where to send my cv. It has been a long time, almost six months. But finally I got a no from them. They didn’t want me. Ok, I told all my friends and prepared myself to send out my cv to the contracting companies. But there was one other opportunity, which was to go in product definition in Amadeus. I was accepted to come for interviews, but when they took over two weeks for just getting me a time for those interviews (in fact there had been a misscommunication in who was supposed to do that… not the first misscommunication I had to deal with, rather the fourth or fifth) I decided to send out the cv anyways.
Less than two weeks ago I started to send out the cv and the contracting companies responded directly. I got lots of interviews. The whole last week I went to Sophia seveal times and even for an interview in Monaco, which felt really far if I’d have to go there each day.
In the end of last week there was a fight between GFI and Astek. I was so close to sign for GFI, I really liked the way I felt welcome there, but in the end I decided to go for Astek. I signed on the thursday, same day as our concert, and allready on the friday I had an interview for Astek with Amadeus. It was for a position as developer in java, which is exactly what I wanted all the time, but couldn’t get earlier since they were not hiring people just until two weeks ago in this department.
Amadeus called back Astek 40 minutes later and said “Yes, we want her, she can start in two weeks”. That’s what I call a good midsommarafton!
Today is the first day of my new life, I’m getting payed! I’m not outside of the society anymore!
The first thing I will buy is a nice bike. It takes about 25 minutes in the forest to go from here to Amadeus. Perfect.
A happy Tess!
Posted in 101 Jazzmatiens at 12:39 pm by tesstess
In France, there is no such thing as “Midsommar”, as we have in Sweden. But instead they have Fête de la Musique, this year the day before midsommar, where music is played everywhere in all cities.
I played with my group “101 Jazzmatiens” in Garberjaire, the very small city center of Sophia Antipolis.
We played seven songs, starting the “Lullaby of Birdland” and ending with “Night in Tunisia”. All in all we were very happy with how it went, and the audience were perfect. Of course we made some misstakes here and there, but that’s ok, especially since this was our first gig ever.
The group have existed several years, but the group members have come and went. When I joined the group in september last year it was only Julie (piano) and Cedric (drums) left from the original group. Katerina (song), Enrico (bass), Martin (djembe and drums) and me on violin are all new. And for most of us newcomers it was also the first year of playing jazz.
I’m so happy to have the opportunity to learn how to play jazz. The many years of playing swedish folkmusic have given me a good ground to start from, having a good ear, and all swing dancing have given me all the jazz standards in my head. It was just a matter of getting it out in my fingers. I can ensure you that improvisation is quite tricky but finally it’s begining to be easier, and I even have managed to learn to play in higher positions and to use vibrato.
It’s not allways going my way, and sometimes my face shows how much concentration I’m putting in.
All children were dancing in front of the stage and after the last song they came to me to ask my name and to tell me I played well. So sweet!
06.05.07
Posted in Garden, Visitors, Beach at 4:18 pm by tesstess
Karin was with me here for five days and we did lots of fun together. And for you who don’t know her you’ll have to take a look at her homepage www.nejlika.se. You should also know that Karin = Loriel, who has written a comment on almost all my blog posts!
We began by visiting Nice and ate lunch at a nice Créperie (which can now be found on my restaurants page, I will tell you more about that one in another post). After eating we walked down to the sea and on the way we found a zoo with sooo cute rabbits. Sorry I didn’t take a picture on them. After seeing them I was totally obsessed with rabits and couldn’t think about something else than how to be able to have one at home for the next few hours. Poor Karin.
Karin was of course happy to see the sea and to go down in the water. Unfortunately there were jelly fish, so it was not possible to swim really.
When we came home Karin investigated the garden and documented some of the fruits we have. Upper left: Nefle (Mispel), upper right: Valnöt, lower left: figue (fikon), lower right: mullbär. Ok, now half the names are in french and half in swedish… don’t remember/know the translations.
The next day we went to a red beach in Les Esterelles and here even I managed to go in swiming, only saw one jelly fish this day. And on the way back we got some nice pictures of the bubbel house, or barbapapa house as I call it:
In the evening we went climbing with Anthony and some other guys. I managed to forget the rope so since there were only two ropes for six people me and Karin decided to stay at the stream instead.
I kept my clothes on but Karin went down into the icy cold water.
I’m impressed by her. I spent the time playing around with her camera. I more and more want such a big digital system camera. One day when I’m earning lots of money I will buy one.
From the stream we had a good view of the climbers and after a while at the small beach we climbed up to where they were.
Two different flowers. The one to the left is innocent and kind, but the one to the right you should be really carefull with. If you touch the flower, you will not notice anything strange, but two days later the place will burn, and it becomes big and nasty burn marks. Anthony has a scar on his leg from last summer.
The next day it was supposed to rain so we took a walk in a forest nearby, named “La bois d’Opio”, meaning the forest of Opio. For me it was more a biology lesson than a walk, it’s so fun to be with Karin, I allways learn a lot about all the animals and plants around me which I wouldn’t even had noticed without her.
Trip to the Paradis
Anthony had recommended the stream/smal river La Seigne, so we looked it up on the map and went there. It’s just close St Vallier de Thiey, which in turn is close to Grasse.
The small road should lead us next to the water and our plan was to park the car, walk a little bit along the river side and then take a swim, if not too cold. But we didn’t see the river from the car. We parked and followed a path down the vally to where we thought the water must be, but it was completely dry, and had not been filled with water for a long long time. Strange.
There was a water leading system, so we figured out that they must have taken the water from the stream. We followed the signs up on the other side and then along the mountain side, in fact the path were really flat since it was following the water system. The whole place smelled of Timjan and the birds sang beautifully for us.
A lilja, a snake a view and a lizzard (for my dad), found on the way.
It took a loong time, and we were close to turning around and head back when we heard something that sounded like water. Since we had gone straight for so long we were now high up compared to the bottom of the valley which were going down all the time. Luckily we found a path down and began walking towards the water.
Halfway down we found this place. A big roof in the mountain and in the innermost part there were built small walls dividing the place into small room. It was easily to imagine a big fire with people from the stone age.
Three hours after leaving the car we found ourselves in the paradis. This place was worth all effort of getting there. We were stunned! I never saw a nicer place and we were all alone in it.
Karin took a short swim before eating. It was cold, but not too cold and the sun warmed well.
We had brought bread, cheese and apples, and it was a feast.
And then it was my turn to try to get into the water. It took some time, but ooo, it was fantastic when finally in!
Better than Liseberg!
Karin was most brave and went in under the waterfall.
Who needs to buy an expensive bubbel bath? Wiiii!
After some hours we noticed dark clouds coming up. These two pictures are taken at the same time, in different directions of the valley.
Time to go. Or, rather, run. The way back took us only one and a half hour instead of three and we were totally exhausted. But we didn’t get the rain on us. As soon as we came to the car the rain started and just a quarter it had completely drowned the world.
End of hollidays
The last day it was supposed to rain all day, but luckily the weather forcast was wrong and we had sun half of the day. We went to the beach, played beach-badminton and Karin took pictures of the jelly fish.
All in all we had a really good time together and we’re hoping to see Karin back here soon again.
06.04.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:07 pm by tesstess
Hej hej där hemma,
idag har jag städat järnet. Skönt nu när det börjar bli klart. Jobbigast var fläkten ovanför spisen som droppat konsentrerat fett i flera månader, har inte sett nåt smutsigare och den täpte igen diskmaskinen… men det fixade jag sen.
Jag har jag just klippt klart gräsmattan, och gissa vad jag hittade på vägen, det första mogna hallonet! Det var gott. Och under mullbärsträdet åt jag lite mullbär när jag körde förbi.
Nu sitter jag och övar in fiolsolon inför konserten den 21 juni, fête de la musique, de spelar överallt i hela frankrike den dan. Och så äter jag popcorn.
Jag ska försöka blogga också ikväll, har så många härliga bilder från Karins besök!
Hoppas ni har det bra!
