This entry is being written from the garage in Nontron, where I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately. On Tuesday last week I brought the car here so they could have a look over her and get her booked in for some general maintenance – and now, here I am whilst it is being done. Poor Lola still has her intermittent problem where she can’t accelerate properly above certain speeds. We’re hopeful that it’s the fuel tank that needs cleaning so we’re getting it done in readiness for her, and our, next big trip.
We’ll be off to Paris in a couple weeks to collect Chuck and from there, we’re off to Lyon. It’s not off to a great start today: I was told last week to show up at 9, only to be told today that I’m booked in at 10. The car’s just gone in now so I’ll have another 2 hours at least to wait. Luckily, I preloaded half a dozen crosswords onto my laptop, have an iPod full of Bowie, and this entry to write so I should be sufficiently occupied. One other car-related titbit to share: this Saturday will mark 3 years exactly since I obtained my driving licence, which means I will be allowed to remove the “A of Shame” – the sticker that new drivers have to wear on their car upon passing. Can’t believe it’s been 3 years already…
We didn’t have a very eventful week until the weekend. Matt’s coming close to finishing the redesign of the Allez Francais property site and has been focusing on that. For me, my long drought of worklessness seems – hopefully – to be coming to an end. I have now officially got 3 new websites to build and potentially 2 redesigns as well. As well as the in-progress site for Nerissa, my counsellor friend, I was contacted recently by a local building cooperative called Total Renovations, and we’re now at the design stage on their site. The 3rd one is for a local equestrian organisation that Jenny is a member of. They’re called Cheval Nature Périgord Vert, or CNPV, and are based in St Jory down the road. In fact, it was their event we played at when Nan was over at the end of June. Anyway, they contacted me having seen and very much liked the site I did for Jenny and want something similar putting together, so that’s a pleasing new client to get.
For the redesigns, one is for a site I did 4 years ago that is in dire need of updating. I’m just trying to convince the client of that at the moment. The other is for my least favourite client. They have a manoir/gite not far from here and I did a site for them 2 years ago. The client herself is OK, but she constantly gets her daughter involved in the creative process. Working for 2 clients on the same project (especially when one erroneously believes she knows what she is talking about) is very frustrating, as I can attest. Last year they decided they wanted the site redoing, so it was and they were happy – until now, when they want it re-doing again – and this time, I’m supposed to use a design produced entirely by my client’s daughter. She currently thinks she’s going to do it all herself and just have us host it – and personally, I hope she succeeds as I’ve had enough of working with her to last me a lifetime.
There’s one other potential work-related development too. Our estate agent friend Nat forwarded me an email from her office on Thursday. Apparently, Leggetts are recruiting 2 full-time office staff to carry out some administrative duties, and the applicant has to be bilingual. I definitely don’t want anything full-time, especially seeing as the office is 45 mins away and the pay is terrible, but I rang anyway and asked about working 2 days per week. They didn’t seem opposed, so I sent my hastily dusted off CV and am waiting to hear back.
Ok, on to our weekend when we were joined by Nat and three new French friends for a BBQ. Jill didn’t come as she was back in the UK for her son Rupert’s 30th birthday. Of course, the moment the word BBQ was mentioned we were guaranteed poor weather on the day, and indeed it was bracing and cloudy. We didn’t even have aperitifs outside, so brisk was it. Our new friends are Thomas and his partner Isabelle and their young baby, and Max. They’re all friends of Nat & Jill. Thomas has done some occasional work for them around the house and garden. He is also a prolific smoker and grows his own, professionally, and in abundance. Max is the son of a hairdresser from Milhac who Nat & Jill used to be friendly with. Sadly, she died of cancer recently, leaving Max somewhat alone and fending for himself. He’s a very interesting character – very flamboyant and eccentric. I found it a challenge being a gay teenager in a small town in the UK, so I can only imagine what it’s been like for him out here in rural nowhere.
Isabelle wasn’t smoking too much but everyone else was partaking, and both Thomas and Max were matching me roll for roll, so at any time there were minimum 3 joints on the go. It was a marijuana marathon! For dinner, Matt made a potato salad, a green bean and goat’s cheese salad, sausages and chicken. He also made his new brownie recipe for dessert, and they came out even more spectacularly this time. We kicked off the evening with a round of margaritas to liven things up and by the end of the evening, we were all somewhat the worse for drink (and smoke), but it was a great fun time, and we’re pleased to have met new, young French friends. It was also an entirely French-speaking evening, something we’ve never done with Nat before, even though she is French herself. I think opportunities for her to speak her native tongue must be very thin on the ground indeed and I suspect she might even be more at ease with English these days.
In other news, August is the month for ordering wood ready for the winter and we’ve got our first order coming this afternoon. It always depresses me to be preparing for the cold months in the height of summer, but this year it is especially galling seeing as just a few degrees less and we’d have the fire going already. Here’s hoping for an indian summer before the cold really sets in.
The only other thing to report is that Matt ordered a new toy on Amazon for us that we’re currently getting to grips with. It is called an Xtreamer multi-console media player, or something like that. Essentially, it is a small grey box that plays digital movie files, but it also does quite a lot else besides. It plugs into our Wi-Fi network, can browse the internet, you can play games on it and (in theory) you can plug in an external hard-drive full of DVDs and play them directly. This last part is still causing us a few technical issues, but we’re making progress and are very impressed with it overall. This another step towards the ultimate goal of a giant network storage system to wirelessly host all our films, music and other digital data, funded largely by our ongoing DVD sales.
Coda: I’ve just got back home from the garage and the news wasn’t great. They did 200€ worth of maintenance but the main goal was cleaning the fuel tank and they couldn’t. Apparently, she’s so badly rusted underneath and all around the tank that if they took it off, they’d never get it on again. They’ve recommended a Toyota garage in Périgueux (and warned me repeatedly to get a quote to avoid being ripped off). We won’t have time now to sort this before Paris and Lyon, so we’ll just have to take it steady and trust that Lola will make it there and back OK.
Right, that’s all from me – time for a Port 80 sandwich. A la semaine prochaine.