I thought there probably ought to be an entry today, to mark the official 2-year anniversary since we moved to France. However, there isn’t much to report, and much less to celebrate, so this is will be a brief and not terribly cheerful entry. Since the last post, precious little has happened worthy of note. Matt has been back into his online poker big time, so that is keeping him occupied. For me, I have been finishing off a website for a carpenter in the UK who is without doubt my favourite client so far – he responds to emails promptly, is enthusiastic but open to suggestions and advice, he insisted on paying me half-way through the build to keep up to date… A pleasure to work with. Unfortunately, his site is all but done now, so I have been left with not much else on. The owners of the foie gras shop we submitted a proposal to have fallen ominously silent so I have already mentally written that one off. Keen as they were, they clearly aren’t up for spending that kind of money on a website. Matt still has a couple potentials on the horizon, but at this stage, we still don’t know what exactly they may entail and more importantly, when they might start.
So, yes, we are still here 2 years later, but very much living hand-to-mouth and getting more and more concerned at how soon the last of our money will be gone. After that… well, we are hoping it won’t come to ‘after that’ for now. But it’s fast approaching.
We did have one social activity since the last entry: it was Sharon’s birthday and so we were all invited over to Mike and Jean’s in Brantôme for a meal to celebrate the event. It was a good evening – Jean is a great cook – and, given the massive divergence of opinions held by all those present, the conversation was typically lively. I was ‘Des’ for the evening (designated driver) so was ready to leave some time before we finally did, at around 11:45. I would have been in better spirits but just before we left, I received some bad news from back home. On Thursday night, someone broke into my Dad’s workshop and destroyed all of his machinery.
It was clearly the act of a fellow tradesman with a grudge given that none of his tools, or any of the furniture stored there were stolen: it was a deliberate effort to put him out of business. It’s obviously a horrible thing to experience for them: not just the worry of how you’ll get back on your feet again, but also the knowledge that someone close by clearly hates you enough to stoop to an ugly crime. We have our ideas about who the culprit is – the pool of suspects isn’t exactly huge – but we just don’t know if there will be enough evidence to prove it. I sincerely hope so though: the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about. Horrible stuff.
Well, I shall try not to end on a low at least. It’s been a cloudless day and just under 20 degrees so I am in a t-shirt and the front door is open. That’s not bad for the last day of October, so we have that to be thankful for. We also plan on having Lee, Richard, Nat and Jill over for a meal this weekend (assuming all are free) which will no doubt be a giggle. Ok, c’est tout. Here’s hoping we survive out here long enough to be celebrating our 3rd year of Frog Blogging!