And indeed it has been unseasonably warm and pleasant here this last week. We’ve had lots of sunny days and it even hit a high of 12 on Friday. Here’s hoping it keeps this up for a couple weeks longer and I might even have some sun on my birthday – a rare treat!
The mild weather has meant there’s been lots of outdoors time for the cats, who always seem amusingly grateful to us when the sun’s out, as if we were responsible for the nice weather. They turned 5 years old a week ago today! Matt too has had some outdoor time: with Lucien’s help he’s been trimming branches from some of our trees out back that have been encroaching on the telephone lines, and then burning all the branches on our compost heap.
A bit of sad news: my step-grandfather (on my dad’s side) died at the weekend. He’d been ill for some time so it wasn’t a shock. We werent close: I hadn’t seen him in many years. Indeed, he and my grandmother weren’t very close to my dad, or his brother Barry either. My dad, who went out to see them both at the end of last year, had a trip out booked anyway, this time with Barry. Unfortunately, Ken didn’t make it long enough to see them, but at least they were there for their mother.
I shan’t do a day-by-day of the week as there’s not enough variation to make it worthwhile. Things are still quiet for Matt for now, but he’s keeping busy enough tinkering with our new site. For me it was another busy week, but I’m more relaxed now as I feel I’ve made good progress and am keeping on top of it. In between projects, I’ve been working on the French version of our new site, and the text is now being proofread by our friend Mathilde, bless her. I’m not sure if she realised what she was getting herself in to when she offered so we will be sure to get her something by way of thanks. In other web-related news, we’ve officially said goodbye to Collen’s website now. Anyone who tries to visit it ends up at ours, with a wee message explaining why. This should cause a nice little bump in visitors, so who knows what new work it may bring.
As a wee aside, I’m writing this using my laptop keyboard, something I’ve been unable to do for several months as various keys have been broken. It must be a loose connection somewhere because the problem has been intermittent for a long time, only the last time they cut out, it seemed permanent. Until about a week ago that is, and all of a sudden it’s like having a new machine! It’s certainly improved my productivity no-end too not having to go back and add in ‘T’s and ‘Ys’ manually all the time.
Knowing I’ve got a bit of money coming my way from the sale of Dave’s house in Olney, I’ve had a mental list in mind of things I’d like to get. The most important is a new acoustic guitar, but a new laptop was also on there. I’m sure this is only a temporary reprieve, but as long as it lasts, I shall keep my money and my current laptop. The other item is a digital camera to replace my one that died last year. I was browsing online the other day and after reading lots of reviews, settled on the one I wanted. Then I remembered I still had my Christmas Amazon vouchers, and as luck would have it, the camera cost exactly that amount, so that’s another one off the list!
Friday was curry night and we were joined by Sophie & Dom, Manu & Mathilde and Philippe. The dishes have been very variable of late as far as spiciness but this time seemed about right. Everyone stayed till about 1am before heading off to rest. M&M and Philippe had a full day of activity lined up in the morning: they’d ordered 2 pigs between them and were going to prepare the various sections to make all sorts of things. Such an oh-so-very-French weekend activity!
There was more French socialising on Saturday night when we were invited over to Josiane and Cammi’s for dinner. Their daughter Laeti was over too and they’d also invited along Annie and her husband Jean-Marie. She is the school teacher from Nontron who has booked us for or next gig. Seems this is now a bit up in the air as since the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, all foreign school trips have apparently been forbidden until further notice. She said they’ll likely still do the concert to raise the money, even if they can’t actually go anywhere till next year, but we’ve no date so far. We had a lovely time at the Luisetti’s and 2am crept up far too quickly as it always seems to.
I have to mention here at this point the dreaded “éoliennes” or wind turbines. It seems this saga is far from dead. Last we heard, from Philippe, was that there was enough doubt amongst the council to make them insist on carrying out a 1 year study on the potential effects. Well, Cammi had a slightly different take, which is that the majority of the council, including the mayor, are very much in favour, and this one year study hasn’t been insisted on, it is part of the standard process. It’s in fact been scheduled since 2012. There’s also a planned test of the site in a couple years, with construction due in 2018. It all sounded very official and something of a done deal. Jenny and several others are getting a campaign going to fight it, but I worry that will prove futile. We shall see…
Right, I think that’s all the main highlights for you. Tomorrow we’re off to Lalinde, a town down in the South West of the Dordogne and one that has special significance for me as it was the closest big town to us when we first lived out here. My French wedding planner client works with a caterer who wants a website, so we’ve been in contact. Word of mouth is a very powerful thing, it must be said. Typical of many French out here though, the client has insisted on a face to face meeting to get to know us. He seems like a nice guy, and I’m really looking forward to having a nose around town too. More news on that soon. Au revoir.