Hello all. Time for another update on Frog Blog! We’ve both been v busy boys of late but I am pleased to say it is all paying off – literally in fact. I have recently been paid for the last Sites for Homes website, then by a Port 80 Services customer as I’ll explain in a bit, and also just this afternoon by the Indian Takeaway service, whose website is now finished. And for Matt, his first pay-day as a salaried man is due any day now too. But I am getting ahead of myself. To pick up the thread:
Our dinner with Ridgit and Lee was good fun. Ridgit are veggies, so we did one of our fave Mexican dishes, Tamale Pie, served with some homemade salsa. We had a good catch up, and they left us at somewhere past 12, thoroughly inebriated in Rich’s case (Bridgit was designated driver), leaving Lee and us dealing with the remaining wine and vodka. We didn’t go too nuts though and were all functional the next day, for a change. We spent the rest of the weekend pottering in the garden and doing some work on the still-not-quite-finished foie gras website and a few other bits and pieces. We got a load of seeds (cucumber, courgette, melon, peppers and er, ‘other’ kinds as well) planted in plastic cups, and also sorted out the pump in the well which we thought was broken. In fact, it just needed lowering as we are desperately in need of rain out here and levels are low.
On to the week: it was officially Matt’s last week of doing 5 days in the office although unfortunately, his boss has promised the impossible to a client so he’s under pressure to get his current project done by next Friday. It may therefore make more sense for him to go in every day next week as well – unfortunate as Dave, Andrew Little and Gary Brown, our first visitors of 2012, arrive on Wednesday for their brief trip. Work is still going ok for Matt for the most part, but occasionally frustrating – just like any job really. I am sure he’ll fill you in more on his next post.
For me, the last 2 weeks have mainly been the Indian takeaway website and some foie gras shop stuff. The former is now done and is now live! Indian Cuisine – Taste of the Raj. The client was chuffed to bits with it – and we are €440 richer out of it, so all is well. I also got myself into a bit of a nightmare with Port 80 Services this week. Our first ever customer called me back recently with a new issue: she was paying France Telecom €16 a month line rental, and then €40 a month to her ISP and she wanted to see if there was a cheaper option. I found that Orange (our ISP too) could give her a faster connection, free calls to the UK, and save her over €20 a month. On Tuesday, I reported all this to her and she expressed interest, but asked to put it on hold until she got back from a planned trip to the UK at the end of April.
Despite communicating this to Orange, we seem to have gotten our wires crossed because she called me the next morning at 9am in a panic as she was without internet. Orange apparently got a bit ahead of themselves and pushed the order through immediately. I of course felt terrible for causing her outage and tried unsuccessfully to get her hooked back with her original provider. In the end I had to tell her that she’d be without internet until Friday of this week when her new box would be delivered. Fortunately, she was extremely understanding – and I offered to come and do the installation for her which she was most pleased about. That evening, Lee came over again for dinner – although this time, he was accompanied by his fella Richard who is finally back from a full month’s stint working in London. He had bought us some more paint to do another exterior wall so they dropped it off and we then served up a quick meal of carbonara, with dessert courtesy of the boys. We were fairly restrained as it was a school night, and the boys left us around 10:30.
Right, I think I am chronologically ready to explain the blog title now. Most of my web projects are currently on hold for one reason or another so I have been occupying myself on garden projects; the main one being trimming the hedges. Sharon has a brand-new hedge-trimmer she lent us recently so I gave it its first test drive this week. It’s a heavy bit of kit and after about half an hour up a ladder holding it up, I was left with sore arms and a bad back – and I did a terrible job to boot. I soon started to get a technique down and made some progress over the week. Unfortunately though, I was hampered by the fact that the trimmer is really temperamental and often refused to start, so I had to do what I could when it was working – well, as much as my abused back could take anyway. I’m pleased to say that as of this morning, it’s all finally done (see photos) but Lucien had to lend us his trimmer so we could finish the job as Sharon’s gave up the ghost. Matt meanwhile mowed the lawn, so it’s all looking a lot neater out there.
So, back to the ISP nightmare, this all got sorted out on Friday and our first customer, Suzanne, remains deeply impressed with our service, which is a relief. The Livebox was supposed to arrive by Friday, so I drove Matt to work that day so I could have the car. Against all expectations, her box was actually delivered when it was supposed to be, so at around 11 am, I drove off to collect it, which was not as straightforward as hoped, but worked out ok in the end. Armed with the box, and being guided by our twisted and evil sat-nav, I went on to Suzanne’s place. She and her husband are really lovely people and had lunch all laid out when I arrived which was very sweet. We ate, then I set up her Orange Livebox without any issues. She also had a few other IT issues so I didnt leave there till a little after 2, but she made it worth my while – she paid me €70, much more than I was going to ask for. I am glad that it worked out well as I did feel bad causing her a week-long internet blackout. We had a lovely end to our day too: our neighbour Carol, who’s on her own while Bryan is back in the UK, invited us over for homemade curry and onion bhajis she’d made the day before. We had a fantastic time and the meal was superb – but we all had somewhat sore heads the next day after the wine. This made the next morning’s activities even more daunting (last of the hedge trimming for me and lawn-mowing for Matt) but we managed it all and then met the curry people this afternoon to get that finished and pick up the cheque. We also left with a bag full of samosas they’d made for us – bonus!
So, in a confused and roundabout kind of well of recounting it, that is what happened this week. Au revoir.