I know it’s been over a week but not much has happened so I hope to keep this nice and short. The weekend before last, we had just one social activity and that was dinner at Chez Fraçoise, the former owner of the equestrian centre who lives just down the road. In addition to her husband Phillipe, we were joined by a lady named Armell along with her husband and three kids. She started working at CWD, the saddle factory in Nontron about a month before I left. So we knew each other but hadn’t really talked much before. Her husband is German but both Will and I were surprised to learn this since his French was near perfect. For dinner, we had salad to start, followed by veal topped with cèpes and twice baked potatoes with a particular cheese from the north. Françoise buys all her meat locally so it was fun to eat meat that had been raised just down the road near Villars. She made Will a piece of chicken which was good but a struggle for him to cut with one hand. Dessert was a crumble served with a sweet wine and then eau de vie. We left with very fully bellies and enjoyed the evening.
On Monday, I got confirmation from the transport company that they would like us to go ahead and take over managing their sites and IT. Will has done a revised version of their main site and we’re going in next week to talk it through with them. I did some unpaid work for Abby last week on a site that she’s managed for a few years. It started falling over recently and I was able to help them stabilise it and last week, I spent some time trying to address the root cause of the problems. I didn’t get very far and when I talked to Abby on Friday, we decided it would be best to rebuild the site so I’m doing an estimate for her this week.
I had another Pole Emploi (job centre) course on Tuesday, this one for doing my CV par competence (by skill). I had already done this as part of my four day course so when I showed up with mine already done, I got to leave after 15 minutes. I swam on Monday and Wed of last week but for the second time this month, ended up with an ear infection. The last time was just before Gavin arrived and it was in both ears but didn’t last long. This time, it’s just my right ear but it’s been blocked since Thurs with no signs of letting up so I will see the doctor tomorrow if no change.
At the pool on Wed, I started talking to one of the regulars named Kevin. He’s English, in his late 60’s and although we’ve been swimming at the same time for many months, this was the first time we talked. He asked what I did for work and was excited to hear it was Internet related. He told me that he’s been working on a new online business and perhaps I’d be interested in finding more. He didn’t tell me much except that he invested $2000 seven months ago which has now grown to $20,000 and that he only works one day per week. My “sounds too good to be true” alarm bells were going off but I agreed to have a look and let him know what I thought.
The program is called Banner Brokers and indeed, my alarm bells weren’t false. It’s a classic Ponzi scheme where you get people to join and the money in your account doubles every month or so. It’s very difficult to get your money out although according to Kevin, he’s already taken out $1000. I wrote him an email saying that I thought it was a scam and he should run for the hills but unsurprisingly, he didn’t want to hear this. Perhaps we won’t end up being friends after all.
This past weekend, we were also a bit light on the social plans. We stayed in on Friday and went out to Brantome where we had dinner with Lisa and Dave on Saturday. They are moving to Ireland for Dave’s work next month which they’re not too happy about since the only just got settled here. It’s only for two years so they’re keeping the house here and will come back to visit every few months. They took us out to dinner at a place called the Courir Indienne, a bar restaurant that does French standards plus some American and Thai dishes thrown in for fun. I had a steak for my main and I thought it was excellent but last night, I had a bit of food poisoning so I wonder if the steak wasn’t the culprit. Will had a caesar salad with chicken and we all started with some “American” appetizer plates which comprised onion rings, fried mozzarella sticks and chicken wings. We went back to their place for coffee / a night cap before heading home.
Yesterday, we took it easy and Bryan and Carol came around in the afternoon for a coffee (them) / drink (us). They are both well although Bryan is cold all the time, probably as a result of his blood thinning medication. Like me, they took advantage of the warm weather last week to do some pruning and other chores around the garden. Most of last week, temps were in the low teens (50s) with bright sunny skies. It turned cold again on Thursday so we put the heat back on but it’s meant to warm up again now so I’m hoping that will be the last time. We’re nearly out of wood too so we may try to use some of the stuff that we bought in the autumn. In theory, it is still too wet but we’ve got loads of old crappy wood left by the previous owner so between the two, we should be alright.
Will had his last visit from the nurse this morning. She took out the last stitch and left him with a bandage that he’ll wear for another day or so. He’s got one more visit with the hand surgeon next month just to make sure he got everything and that should be it. We’re gearing up for his birthday later this week when we’ll have some friends over for a meal.