Right now is the start of the last holiday weekend in May. In France, May has 4-5 public holidays, two secular and two religious. There former are May 1st (Labour Day) and May 8th (Armistice Day); the latter are Assumption Thursday and Pentecost Monday and their dates vary according to when Easter falls that year. This year, the first two fell on Tuesday so people “fait le pont”, literally “make the bridge” and take the Monday off. At my company, we did the bridge last Friday making it a 4-day weekend. Apparently, many companies no longer give off Assumption Monday but mine still does. So it’ll be a total of 5 paid holidays for me this month – not bad for Month 3 of the new job.
We had planned to go to Bordeaux with Lee and Richard last Thursday night but Lee was not feeling well so the trip was called off. The weather wasn’t great either last week; it was grey and rainy most of the time and cold enough to warrant putting the central heating back on. These things coupled with the fact that Will hasn’t had much work put him in a very bleak mood, and quite understandably so. By Saturday, he was going a bit stir-crazy and needed to see people so I called Pete and Sally who were happy to join us for dinner that evening. We made our new cordon bleu dish: pork-loin stuffed with sage, parma ham and parmesean, served with cauliflower cheese. We had a small cheese course and then patisserie from Milhac that was exquisite as ever.
On the work front, things are starting to pick up for Will, which is a bonus. After a 6-week hiatus, he’s now got 4 or 5 sites on the go with a few potentials too. He’s started taking pictures for a gite website and will do some more photos next week. On Monday, he got a client that wants a custom site for her posh gite. Also, our neighbour Jenni who owns the equestrian centre stopped by the other night. She’s been thinking about getting a site for a while so that looks promising. Also, a former client got in touch today and she needs some changes made to her site immediately with the potential for further enhancements to follow.
For me, I am nearly, almost, just about finished with http://horsepooling.com. I was hoping to have it all done today but the last bits will have to wait for Tuesday morning. The client has been requesting loads of changes and enhancements but thankfully, those have all but dried up since we went live. The site is being used mostly by friends of the client but they seem to be able to use it and they’ve actually found a few functional bugs. I’ll start on another carpooling site next week so that should be relatively simple after this last one. Both sites are built using Drupal, a content management system and development framework that I’ve had to learn since starting at BCMD. I like it for the most part but it’s got its share of quirks that can be annoying until you figure them out.
Also on the work front, I heard from Alan, my client in London and he has another round of changes planned for his site. It will mean working nights and weekends but I can’t really turn down the cash so will happily accept. He’s meant to be sending a document with the changes but as usual, he’s taking his time on it.
The only other thing to mention is the garden, which is now coming along nicely after last week’s rain. Lucien dropped off some tomato plants that he wasn’t using so we’ve put those in too. We’ve got beans coming up as well as loads of shallots and onions. I’ve seen a few corn shoots but not very many so it’s looking like yet another corn-free year. I remembered to plant nice and early but April was so cold and wet that it didn’t help in the end. Most of the courgette and squash have taken although it’s been hot and dry the last few days so some weren’t looking too healthy early today. We’ve got well water but they really just need more rain. Annoyingly, the forecast is for cloud but no rain for the next few days.
I will close with our biggest news of the week which is that Will’s parents are coming to visit tomorrow until Tuesday. It was their anniversary last week so we’re going out celebrate tomorrow night. We’re excited to be trying a new restaurant that we’ve heard good things about. No other plans apart from relaxing and catching up which will be a treat.
Happy long weekend, wherever you are.