If you saw our last entry, you’ll know we went away for the weekend. Will and I used to do an annual pilgrimage to Amsterdam, usually for one or the other’s birthday. The last time we were there was Feb ’08, until last weekend that is.
We had nearly run out of supplies and the one person out here who used to get us some is no longer able. The other reason for going was my need to do something spontaneous and folly. This has arisen due to some other news that I will elaborate on later. Anyway, we decided to go on Friday afternoon, reserved a hotel room, packed and set the alarm for 5am. We were on the road the next morning just after 6 and it was still dark and very foggy for the first hour. We took a slight deviation after entering Belgium meaning that we ended up going around Brussels and then Antwerp but we still arrived in ten hours, as expected. Parking in Amsterdam is difficult and expensive so we did Park & Ride, as advised on the web.
We left Lola in a garage not far outside the centre and got the tram to our hotel which took about 20 mins. We dropped off our stuff and started shopping. After a few hours, we had collected close to what we planned to, returned to the hotel and showered but not before enjoying a Febo feast. If you’re not familiar with it, the Febo is an Amsterdam institution, or at least it is for us. It’s an automat with freshly made burgers and croquettes, a dutch specialty of meat and/or cheese coated in bread crumbs and deep fried. Will and I were denied Febo on our last trip to the Netherlands back in Feb ’10 so we were both very happy to have satisfied our craving.
We went out later and had a few drinks in some of the gay bars. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money or drink a lot so we wandered around, grabbed a slice of pizza and visited a coffee shop or two. We made friends with the owner of one place a few years ago and she remembered us this time too. There are lots of discussions in the Dutch Parliament at present about changing the laws but so far, it remains just talk so she’s not too worried. We grabbed some fries and Will had a second helping of Febo on the way back to the hotel and we went to bed around 1.
After breakfast, we checked out, got the tram back to Lola and were on the road around 9:30. We had an uneventful return journey apart from hitting some traffic on the Paris inner ring road. Will asked me to drive through Paris on the way out but he did the return and handled himself very well in the urban traffic madness. We made great time on the return and were home around 7pm that evening. Apart from petrol, tolls and hotel, we didn’t spend a ton of money and on the plus side, we had a great time in one of our favourite cities. We view it as a concentrated version of the long weekends we used to spend there.
This act of impetuousness has a very good cause: I have just accepted a full-time job. Back in January, both Will and I posted our CVs on the Pole Emploi (government employment agency) web site. A day or so later, Will found a new posting for a full-time internet/mobile app developer position at an agency in St Pardoux, about 8km away from us. We were both amazed to find that kind of demand around here and even though I had no intention of accepting a full-time position, I figured I had to apply just to find out a bit about them.
We heard nothing for about a month when we got a call asking if I was available to meet them. It was the day before I left for Mpls so asked if we could meet when I was back. Sure enough, I got a call last Monday asking if I was available to come for an interview at their office in Nontron. Although I was a bit hungover at the time, I managed to arrange the interview over the phone by myself. I went there on Thursday with the intention of finding out whether they would use me as a freelancer. Since I wasn’t considering taking the position, I was far more worried about it being conducted in French than the interview itself.
So I met with the woman I spoke to on the phone who is the director of the firm, called BCDM and a young man, their project director, who would be my boss. I explained that I understood but didn’t speak French very well and would they please speak slowly. Thankfully, they both must speak pretty good English because they always understood when I used an English word now and again. I proposed doing freelance for them but she explained that they have a lot of work and need someone full time and of course, that freelancers cost more. I talked them through my CV and showed them some examples of my work. They were suitably impressed and offered me a six month contract to start. I said I needed to think about it and she agreed to call me on Monday.
After giving it a lot of thought over the weekend, I started coming around to the idea that a full time job wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It would mean not needing to cash in any retirement funds to stay here, nor having to move to Paris or London if things don’t pan out. The only question was whether they would be able to pay me enough to make it worth my while. I know pay in these parts pales in comparison to big city rates and that in France, most people don’t tend to make very much money. I spent the weekend doing research into how the compensation systems here work, such as the amount of social charges and income tax and how and when those are paid. I also spoke to Lucien, Nat and my cousin Michele to get their advice on what they thought I should make.
So she called on Monday and I said I’d like to talk some more and would it be alright if I brought along Will in case I needed an interpreter. She agreed so on Tuesday afternoon, the two of us met her and the other guy once again. I explained that unlike the last time, I was there to discuss a full-time job so I had some questions for them. Afterwards, we got down to talking salary and she explained that although she couldn’t pay me what I asked for to start, it would be reasonable to expect close to that after the initial six month period. Initially, I will take about 20% less which although not a ton, is certainly enough for us to live on.
The company itself was started in ’07 and there is currently one other employee who does other IT stuff like networks, servers and databases. It’s mainly an IT shop, doing web sites and mobile apps in addition to core IT for small businesses. The office is located in a saddle factory in Nontron that just so happens to be owned by the director’s husband. They have an office in LA and are opening one in NY so she was happy to have a native English speaker on her team. BCMD also do IT for a small sporting goods company in Paris and have done a number of web sites for local businesses around Nontron.
They are planning to open an office in Bordeaux later this year which my boss will likely go run, meaning that there’s an opportunity for me to move up when he does. Another positive is that after my first three weeks, I can work from home three days a week. It’s a 40 hour work week but when I expressed my surprise over that to Lucien, he explained that that’s what he used to work, if not more and that the 35 hour week was a thing of the past. Both he and Mauricette are over the moon that I’ve taken this job since it means keeping us around.
One last thing about the job. Getting one here means that I have fulfilled my side of the bargain that Will and I made before moving out. He had to get his drivers licence which he did back in Sept and I had to learn French. I feel that getting a job qualifies as proof of that, although it’s fair to say that Will is a much better driver than I am French speaker.
Lucien came by this morning with his tractor and plow to turn over the veggie plot for us. We took down part of the fence and a few fence posts so he could do the business. He’ll come back in a few days with a tiller and we’ll fertilise before he does. Then we just need to wait a few more weeks and we can start planting. We’ve got some other gardening chores to do this weekend, like pruning the roses, vines and bushes as well as chopping back a bunch of bamboo that keeps encroaching on the nearby trees.
Richard is in the UK so we’re heading over to Villebois to have dinner with Lee tonight. Apart from that, we have no other social plans. Will has been busy with the web business. We’ll be doing the site for the Indian curry take away people and we have another potential customer, some friends of friends who need a site for their gite. We’re also going ahead with the Sites for Homes people with the private hunting land for sale. Oh yeah, BCMD use freelancers to do front-end development, exactly what Will does so he’s got some potential business coming from my new employer as well. As usual, I’ve gone on too long so will bid you adieu.