Monday, 5 May 2003 Metropole Paris 8.18/19 - Monday, 28 April - 5 May</a> <!-- the below lines check to see if 'print' has been called. Then it inserts the correct link into the right of the navbar. Notice the second line of 'echo $_SERVER' code - and notice the '?media=print' after it. When you are in 'screen' version, this is the link that will be displayed - and this is where the 'print' call is sent to this page. If it is already 'print', no '?media=print' is inserted into the URL, telling the php to compile a 'normal page' -->
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<h2 class="c2">First Whole Country</h2><img src="club818a.jpg" alt="photo: group, lauren, grace, colin, george, dinny" align="middle" height="210" width="320" />
<p class="c3">From left, the 'Group Photo of the Week' with
Lauren,<br />
Grace, Colin, George and Dinny.</p>
<h3 class="c4">Named 'City of the Week'</h3>
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<p class="noindent"><b>Paris:- Thursday, 1. May 2003:-</b> This must be a
less that complete weather forecast 'report' because of it
being international soldiers, sailors and worker's day - a
day when everybody gets a free day off and nobody gets a
newspaper - although to be accurate, it was yesterday the
newspaper people had off. They'll be working today to get
out tomorrow's editions.</p> <div style="width:300px;height:250px;float:right;clear:right;margin:1em 0 1em 1em;">
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<p>This leaves us with only the TV-weather news for
comfort. Nobody knows why TV-news people don't get workers'
day off. It must be because the tradition started before TV
was invented, like in the time of Karl Marx.</p>
<p>Anyhow. The TV-news lady was different from the regular
TV-news guy tonight, but the TV-weather lady was the same
one of the three usual ones. She said tomorrow will be
cloudy in the morning and confused in the afternoon, with a
sun like a greasy fried-egg sitting on top of burnt-toast
clouds.</p>
<p>Actually she didn't say this exactly. Her TV-weather
animation showed it, with a very confused afternoon. Low
tomorrow estimated to be 12 and high in the afternoon to be
about 18 degrees.</p>
<p>The animation showed Saturday - on a long weekend? - to
be sunny. Maybe darn sunny, and no doubt<img src="club818d.jpg" alt="photo: two cafes" align="left" height="175" width="235" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> about it. High
supposed to be 19 degrees. Did I mention the 70 kph wind
from the southwest for Friday? Consider it
mentioned.</p><i>Extremes of café, from thimbles to
soup-bowls.</i>
<p>Sunday, ah, Sunday is predicted to be as sunny as
Saturday, but with the beginning of a threat coming from
the west where they usually come from. Get out there early
because the high is supposed to be 24. If the threat from
the west stays out west long enough, Sunday will be a nice,
almost summer-like day. On a long weekend? In May? In
Europe?</p>
<b>And Now, Today's Club 'Report'</b>
<p class="noindent">As you already know today is May Day in Paris and
because it is a club meeting day, it will be the first May
Day parade I've missed not seeing or marching in since
1995. Do not worry about it. I think I was getting in a
rut.</p>
<p>This is the annual day in Paris - and in France - when
everybody gets bunches of lily of the valley -
<i>convallaria majalis</i> - from somewhere, and tries to
sell bunches of it to everybody else. On the way to finding
all the shops closed this morning, I was accosted by more
sellers than buyers, although some buyers looked like they
might switch.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, here, there, elsewhere - on the way to the
club - many residents and visitors were seen milling
aimlessly around on account of everything being closed.
Those not fortunate enough to belong to unions, did not
know they were supposed to be at République, in
order to march arm in arm to the Place de la Nation.</p>
<p>However, on the métro ride to Châtelet I
suspect that many fellow passengers are intending exactly
this, but I do not stay on the train to where they will
switch lines, so it is only wishful thinking. They might
have been going to Gare du Nord to watch the trains.</p>
<p>The Rue de Rivoli is not animated with its shops closed,
but in the streets behind it drivers are taking advantage
in the general lull to take shortcuts wrongways on one-way
streets. Admittedly this is rare so I do not bother walking
backwards.</p>
<p>The Quai du Louvre's café terraces are packed.
The citizens are on furlough, and enjoying the seldom
sunshine and not enjoying so much the frequent showers.</p>
<p>At La Corona I am told there are a lot of people in the
'grande salle.' There are, but they are not Metropole
readers. I capture two tables and squeeze in. Five minutes
later, at 15:00 exactly, two new members show up and
squeeze in too.</p>
<p>The club secretary is saved! Nothing to read and two
brand-new members already.</p>
<p>These are Grace and Colin Lim. They have arrived in
Paris this very morning after a 13-hour direct Quantas
flight from Singapore.</p>
<p>Well, hey! Here it is 15:05, here are two new members,
and they have brought a 'City of the Week' which happens to
be a whole country. So it is this meeting's first 'first'
too.</p>
<p>Colin does a calculation and says it is dinnertime in
Singapore, so, in principle, the couple are not jetlagged,
yet. As<img src="club818b.jpg" alt="photo: concocting citron presse" align="right" height="180" width="230" vspace="2" hspace="5" /> a responsible
club secretary I tell them their 'rights' concerning being
jetlagged - nothing they say crazy will be reported even if
it is written down.</p><i>George stirs sugar in his citron-
pressé very slowly for a long time.</i>
<p>The Lims got into their hotel okay after getting into
town from Roissy this morning. They already knew everything
would be closed, except this club and the May Day parades.
It is also their first time in Europe, first time in Paris,
first time in the 1st arrondissement, and so on.</p>
<p>Another reason they are not jetlagged - they say - the
Quantas jet was too full in the cheap seats so they got
comfortable bis-class seats.</p>
<p>The club secretary takes advantage of the new members by
grilling them about their hometown. Grace, in her turn,
wants to know about last week's 'Group Photo of the Week.'
She is not the first to ask about this either. It is a long
story, so I'll skip it.</p>
<p>I look at the mirror, behind my head, where the deed was
done. It's a good thing the Lims have come today - because
menu items are written on the mirror in white paint. Last
week's 'group' photo of the club's secretary wouldn't be
possible this week.</p>
<p>At this point, Dinny Moyer arrives with George Mozingo,
who is from San Francisco. Dinny says she was in Amsterdam
for three days, but I haven't seen her for months - or six
weeks.</p>
<p>There is a terrific racket on account of all the
civilians around. Grace has ordered a soup-bowl of
café and Colin has just a little, plain one. George
claims I told him how to make a citron-pressé so he
orders one of these. Dinny gets a Perrier. Amsterdam must
have been rough.</p>
<p>While George is stirring the sugar very slowly into the
citron-pressé, he asks about the food in Singapore.
"It is any good?"</p>
<p>"Yes," Colin says, confirming the rumor that it is the
best in the world. I have not heard the rumor and he
explains why it is the best in the world. In Singapore,
everything is borrowed from everywhere, and mixed together
in tasty new ways.</p>
<p>He says even street food is good, at a fifth of the
price of good restaurants. For one of thse, he recommends
'The Blue Ginger.' He says it has Peranakan-style cooking,
which is Malay for 'born locally' food. I hope I am reading
my note about this right. Colin spells all of these words
for me, suspecting correctly I am a poor copyist, or
deaf.</p><br /><i>Continued on <a href="/2003/818/818clb27.html?page=2" target="_self">page 2...</a></i></td>
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