I’m relieved to report that the dam has broken at last and I have work again. This hasn’t come from any of the existing websites I’ve got going on, all of which are still in various states of limbo. No, we’ve had a run of new clients contacting us, which is always a good thing.
I’ve been working on a site for a cousin of Matt’s in the States called Marnie. She’s a « naturopathist » – an alternate healer sort of thing, and runs a small team out in Olympia, Washington. Their current site is a bit plain and dated so she’s asked us to liven it up. I sent her the design to review and she gave it the green light, so that’s now keeping me busy.
We also got contacted by an artist down in Sarlat who wanted an online shop. However, a mere two days days, she wrote again to say she was divorcing her husband and selling her house, so needed to put things on hold for a bit! Must have been one hell of a weekend… So, that one’s unlikely to ever materialise.
And then there’s Gerald, who plans to start up his own consultancy firm and of course, would like Port 80 to do his website. This one’s going to be a a biy of a slow burner though as he still hast settled on a name or logo for the company.
And finally, we were recently contacted by the Musée de la Truffe (Truffle Museum) in a nearby town called Sorges, which is famed, appropriately enough, for its truffles. The association running the place want a shop to sell their wares online, and they also want a « members’ only » information centre. So all told it would be quite a big project. We met them on Friday and need to submit our quote this week. We’re one of several companies they’ve contacted, so it’s not certain yet, but I think we’ll likely undercut most of the competition, so the odds are good.
Matt’s still busy too, but not overly so like the previous week. He’s got a couple projects on the go for a particularly chaotic client in the UK, as well as the ongoing Aussie one.
Mum and Dad left for the UK on Thursday last week to baby-sit Elvie while her parents take a much-needed holiday together – their first since the wee monkey was born. I’m sure the folks will have loved spending some good quality time with her. They get back tomorrow afternoon.
The other big news is the return of Bryan and Carol. They are out here until October as usual, but have to go back to the UK for a chunk of it over summer to help out with the grand kids. Their daughter’s ex-husband is unfortunately very unwell with cancer so it’s a bit fraught. They’re both very well otherwise and joined us for an aperitif on Tuesday. They also brought us some much needed reserves of Hellman’s mayonnaise and a cheeky bottle of Kahlua for which we’re very grateful.
On to the weekend, which consisted of dinner here with Benoit, Virginie and Eva. B&V arrived first, armed with a bottle of Absolut Lime – a true delight if you ever manage to track some down – that we tucked into with gusto. Eva arrived a bit later on, in time for the meal.
This was an asian-themed meal of spring rolls to start, with a peanut-flavoured dip. This was followed by roast, marinated pork in an orange-teriyaki sauce, topped with orange slices, with a side of egg-fried rice. He’d planned a strawberry crumble for dessert, but the strawberries were so good that we just had them fresh with ice cream. Afterwards, the cards came out and we ended up having a late one. Even later once the guests left in fact as we moved on to a few rounds of Nintendo Wii before bed.
The weather had been grim all week but finally on Sunday, the sun returned. It’s still with us now, but it’s brought a nasty wind along with it, so neither us or our plants are out enjoying it. Hopefully it sorts itself out soon. We had our band practise as normal and, despite hangovers, we did a mostly good job. We trimmed the weakest two songs from our setlist and will concentrate on the rest – we’ve only got 5 more rehearsals till the gig now!
And that’s about all from me. Au revoir.