As Matt mentioned in his last post, the weather did indeed turn colder here and it has stayed that way. We’ve still yet to have a frost but it won’t be long now. For us, the combination of all-day fire and electric rad in our room is plenty to keep us warm. We do worry a bit about our week in the UK though as normally we would leave the heating on for the cats, but seeing as the boiler is kaput we’re going to have to leave on the electric rad, make lots of kitty nests on the sofa and hope it doesn’t get any colder. On the subject of Christmas, as of this week, I’ve finished all present buying and wrapping, so am feeling very virtuous and smug about that. It’s amazing what you can get done without the hassle of a full time job getting in the way…
Speaking of work, things are still quiet for us both. Matt is unlikely to hear from either of his potential projects until the New Year and neither of the 2 big projects I have on the horizon have gotten off the ground just yet. We did have a major development on Tuesday though. One of our (many) English competitors contacted us with a proposal. Her name is Colleen Sims and she provides more or less the same kind of services as us. Unlike a lot of the others out here, she actually does decent work: well-built sites that you can find on Google. Anyway, she is also a musician and her band has started to earn enough money from gigs for her to decide to get out of the web business – so she wanted someone to offload all her clients to. Luckily for us, it was us she chose to contact!
We have a meeting with her tomorrow afternoon to iron out the details but essentially, we would take over hosting and management of all her 30 or so existing clients and also 2 new projects she has lined up for early 2015. Port 80 Services has officially taken over its first competitor! More news on this next week.
As work’s been quiet, I have been giving my French citizenship application a lot of attention and am making progress, although it is slow going. It feels like every time I read the supporting notes, I come across some other tiny footnote which suddenly equates to an extra step (and cost). So far, I have obtained official copies of birth certs for me and for my parents, and their wedding cert too. These now have to go back to the UK for official government legalisation (a certificate called an Apostille). In the meantime, I’ve tracked down a “sworn translator” recognised by the French government who has translated them all for me. I’ve also registered to sit the “TCF” exam in January. This is the Test de Connaissance de la Langue Francaise, a 3 hour part-written and part-spoken exam. Exemptions were offered for certain qualifications but sadly not for my French A-Level, even though it is a more advanced qualification.
We had a day out in Nontron On Thursday, Matt to swim and to shop for food supplies, and me to get 2 passport photos and also 55€ of “timbres fiscaux” or fiscal stamps (which are essentially a form of tax collection, necessary for sending official docs to the state for processing). I also had to get a statement from the tax office confirming I’ve been paying my way like a good boy.
Once I’ve obtained my TCF certificate, all I am waiting on is a statement from the UK police force confirming I am not a criminal (which then needs translating, of course) and then I believe – hope – that that is everything. I will then go to the Préfecture in Périgueux to see what they make of it all. I am already dreading that moment and the many potential curveballs they’re likely to throw at me, but being at this point very much committed, there’s no going back now. The one thing I know for sure is that this is not going to be over any time soon.
Otherwise, we’ve also been quite social this week. Lucien and Mauricette called us earlier in the week to invite us over for dinner round theirs, which took place on Thursday. We expected an excessively copious meal and were not disappointed. I think in all there were 6 courses of varying sizes, including foie gras and patés, all homemade, roast pork, soup, cheese and a tart for dessert. All of this washed down with some excelled red wine and some of Lucien’s homemade punch (or “ponshe” with a French accent). To our great amusement, they’re getting themselves online this Christmas. Their son is gifting them a PC so to prepare for that, they’ve signed up with Orange for an internet connection and have received the wifi box and everything. We’re quite sure we’ll be over there on a semi-regular basis for the months to come as they discover all the pleasures and pitfalls of the web.
The following day we were slightly jaded but rallied to prepare for dinner #2 which we hosted. We invited William and Clare, our pewter jewellery clients and also Nat & Jill. Both couples are more conservative leaning then either of us, so we thought they’d get along ok and indeed they did. Matt made his famous curried butternut soup to start, followed by roast pork and veggies and then sweet potato pie for dessert. The pork was a tiny bit underdone as it was a huge hunk of meat, but we were fine the next day so assume/hope our guests were too.
After a lazy Saturday, we had another activity on Sunday: Josiane invited us over for coffee and cake in the afternoon. Her hamlet of Maumont is a 5 min drive away, or a 25 minute walk if you go through the woods. As it was pleasant enough out, we decided to stroll over. She made a delicious walnut cake, a local speciality, and we spent an enjoyable hour or so chatting before heading home to tend to the fire.
Right I think that’s all I have to say about that.