A late but momentous post today, my 100th. We met with Vortex a week ago Monday and it went well. Since then we’ve taken control of their sites and Will sold them on a complete redesign. It’s not yet live since we’re waiting on a bit more text but it should be in the next few days. Then we’ll move on to the second site and give it the same treatment including French translation. So far, things seem to be going well with them and hopefully, they’ll want some IT work from me after we finish the websites. Apart from that, Will met with the local handyman who does want a site and once we get the photos and text from him, that will go ahead. Ditto for the next site for Amy, a client from last year.
On to the social events. Not much happened last week until Friday when we had curry night over at Nat and Jill’s. It was meant to involve some French neighbours but none of them were interested so it was all English. Richard was meant to join us, but he was not well so stayed home leaving just Bryan and Carol, Nancy, our hosts and us. We had a good night as usual and ate way too much curry. They mentioned that they’d just replenished their wood supply from their usual supplier in Quinsac, about 15k from them. Both Bryan and Carol and we were nearly out of wood since most of the stuff we bought together last year was too wet. So we were happily surprised to hear there was still wood available this time of year.
Nat called the man the next morning after calling her guy and he agreed to deliver the wood during the week. Around 4:30 that day he rang Will and said he could deliver now. So within an hour, we had two steres (m3) of aged chestnut dropped in the middle of the driveway. We wheelbarrowed it out to the hanger and cut up a bunch today that we’re using as I write this. The only downside to the immediate delivery was that we had invited Françoise and Phillipe to dinner and at 6pm, I had yet to start cooking. I made an easy meal of pasta, garlic bread and salad so we weren’t too late eating after all.
After dinner, we all piled in the car and went to see a band called the Poors in a village called Nanthiat, about 10 minutes the other side of Thiviers. They are a Doors cover band and they did a most excellent job. The singer has a very similar voice to Jim Morrison and if you closed your eyes, you could only tell it wasn’t him by the French accent, as in “Break on tru to ze ozzer side”. The rest of the band were all very good although not quite in the same league as the originals but they sounded great just the same. The venue was a small bar called “Le Pet’t Bar” fittingly enough and there were 60 people or so in attendance. We had a few beers and stayed till the end, around 12:30 before coming back here for a digestif.
We decided a round of margaritas would be fitting and we started with those. Phillipe likes vodka on the rocks and he drinks it like it’s water. Françoise didn’t have much more after that but both Will and I kept at it until the guests left around 4 or so. I think we stayed up for another hour before collapsing. I was happy to find out the Phillipe is a huge Clash fan like myself and he introduced me to a live compilation album that I have since downloaded. They also introduced us to some new French music so I’m looking forward to some new music for the collection.
We had a visit from our neighbour Jenni on Sunday night to discuss a potential business network that a friend of hers is starting. The topic was the annual fete at the centre equestre fete where the same band usually plays. This year they decided to try something different and they’re asking other people to play, including Will and I. Perhaps because I was hungover, I enthusiastically agreed that we would play, despite the fact that I haven’t picked up the guitar for years. Will is recuperating from his operation and isn’t a fan of playing in public but he seems up for it too. I’ve made up a list of possibilities and will even dust off the old axe this weekend and assess my abilities.
Apart from that, we had a surprise visit from our young French friend Morgan who is on holiday this week. He is mainly well and on the lookout for a new lady. We have considered introducing him to Jenni but not sure it would be a good match. Our plan is to have them both to dinner along with another couple so it doesn’t seem like a date. She is very hard to pin down so we’ll just have to wait until she’s free.
We’ve had no news about our potential new boiler. The man came by last week to say that we didn’t earn quite enough and took some bank statements that he thought would help. It’s been over a week and we’ve had no news so it’s not looking likely. If nothing else, we’ve learned about a new system and we can look into other options to get one. At the very least, we will be insulating the loft this summer since we’re told it makes an enormous difference.
Lastly, this blog is now served from out own hosting account. I’ve now migrated all of our and our clients’ websites onto our own server. It means more work and responsibility for me, but at least I only have myself to blame when things go wrong.