Well, I’ve gone and ballsed up Matt’s effort to get us back to Monday blogging. It was entirely accidental: I just clean forgot on Monday and then yesterday evening we were busy. Anyway, without further ado, here’s the news from Mazeroux this week.
First off, after a long bout of endless grey and rain, it’s turned a lot sunnier out here, but with the trade-off that it’s also colder. We’ve got a few sub-zero nights this week, but the cats are at least prepared to go out in the day as long as the sun’s out. We can only hope the Smoo manages to lose his impressive bulk soon.
We’re both busy at work. We’ve finally gotten Dad’s new site live, and so far it seems to be working fine. It’s essentially a brand new website so we’ll need to keep a close eye on it for a while until we’re certain it’s glitch-free. Matt’s got lots of bits to do for clients of Abby in the States and I’m fresh back from a meeting with our french metalwork clients at which I got all the content needed so hopefully I will be putting that live in a few days. We also went and met with some clients on Friday last week. We originally met them last year when Jan was over. They own a beautiful 10 acre garden on the edge of the River Dronne, just outside Brantome.
Their current website is a total train wreck, which we politely pointed out to them when we were there. We met them again later in the year to discuss the site but the project ended up stalling as they weren’t sure if they wanted to remain open. Luckily for us they’ve decided they do indeed, and I’ve now got all I need from them to see it through to completion. I’ve a good idea how I want it to look and am looking forward to getting it going.
Friday was also curry night but as we had Musique en Herbe, we arranged to have the meal the following night, around Manu and Mathilde’s. Our rehearsal on Friday was actually not terrible for once. I think Alain really took to heart our comments about time-wasting and disorgansiation and this time around, we got more songs done. We still have a long way to go though, and lots to prepare for! We’re now signed up for a gig in St Pardoux for the Fete de la Musique on the 18th of June, followed by the gig with the dance school on 25 June. Luckily, these will be the same set-list. We’re also going to play at our friend Ghislaine’s new restaurant on the 21st of June (the actual date of the Fete de la Musique), but that will be a select few songs from the previous gigs too. Then Matt and I will separately be playing at Jenny’s on the 11th of June. We still dont know yet if that will be just us or if we’ll get some guys from MeH to play with us. We’ve not even begun to think about the songs for that so will have to get moving soon.
We went back to MeH the following afternoon to rehearse just one song, for the gig with the dancers. We’re doing an instrumental version of The Show Must Go On, by Queen. A violinist is playing the melody instead of vocals and I’ve got to learn Brian May’s guitar part, which is quite a challenge. So far, it is sounding very far from ready.
So that evening was chez M&M and we were joined by Gael and Corrine. Philippe wasn’t around as he’s taken advantage of the French half term to go off to Martinique for a holiday. This is where our friend Benoit is currently working so he’ll be paying him a visit while he’s there. We had a great time with everyone, as usual. Also as usual, we left on the late side.
As for this week, we’ve already had a social activity: we met a French couple from down the road who run the holiday village (the wooden chalets you drive past to get to the bakery). He’s called Stephan and is originally from Alsace. He moved to Bordeaux years ago and since meeting his partner, Francoise, he moved to the Dordogne. She is very much a local and was even born at her father’s campsite!
They both dabble in web design (she is a graphic designer by trade) so we have that in common. She never wanted to take over the business as she wanted to pursue an artistic career, but fate intervened and she took it over when her dad died. Since then she’s been applying her creativity to decorating the chalets, all of which are themed differently.
We’ve been saying for ages we should have them over so last night, we finally did. We invited them over for an aperitif that ended up lasting a good couple hours. I’m pleased to report they’re both very lovely people and we’ll be seeing them again soon. Right, that’s all I have to say I think. I’ve a bit more work to finish up and then I’ve got me some tricky guitar solos to try and master! Au revoir.