It’s 1pm on a Sunday and we’ve had a relatively busy morning. I thought I had finished all my chores when Will reminded me that it’s my turn to do a blog post, and it’s already overdue. We just got out the chainsaw for the first time this season and cut up a few weeks’ worth of wood. Before that, we had a quick trip to St Pardoux for a few bits and pieces and this is after three nights of socialising. But I’m getting ahead of myself so let me rewind.
Last weekend was another quiet one, the only notable events were band practice on Saturday and Sunday night when we had Bryan, Carol and their daughter Jenny over for dinner. Normally, Jenny is here with her two boys, aged 7 and 9 but it was her turn for a break so she was here on her own. The meal started with cured meats, then spiced carrot soup followed by roast pork with orange chipotle sauce, cheesy potatoes and green beans. I made chocolate mousse for dessert and it came out fine, unlike the last time when it was very soupy. It was a pleasant evening and always nice to spend time with Jenny.
The following day, we had a client come round for some IT help. She has both a mac and PC laptop and both were playing up a bit, mainly because she has two kids that use the computers for games, which leads to viruses and other nasties. We were able to fix both machines so she left a happy customer. Will just did a gite web site for her and we host their business site, so they’re now one of our best customers, even if we don’t make much from them.
On the subject of customers, we’ve had some bad news from Vortex, our primary source of income. We’ve had three outstanding invoices, dating back to July and no sign of payment. We got an email on Monday telling us that they’ve ceased trading, but still intend to pay us and would like a meeting. So we went in on Wed morning and the news, although bad, is not dire. In brief, they were trying to get bank loans to finance their expansion, but neither the English nor French banks were interested and with debts piling up, were forced to close shop. They are now trading under a new name, concentrating on home removals rather than freight so they will sell off their larger lorries to raise some capital. The owner told us that he is out £330k of his own money, which makes the €2.5k they owe us seem like a puny amount.
During the meeting they explained that they still need our help since they no longer plan to do much advertising and will rely on their web site to bring in business. They asked us to redo their current site using their new name and logo but otherwise, keeping it similar to the current site. They assured us that they plan to pay us when they can but they owe money to a lot of people so we’ll have to be patient. The silver lining is that they will now start using the system I built for them in September, so when they are back on their feet, there should be more work for us. The danger is that they don’t make it and we’ll be out even more money, but we don’t have much choice for the time being.
On a more positive note, things continue to be busy for me on the work front. We’re nearly done with the jewellery shop, save for a bit of translation work that Will is doing. They have an existing site in New Zealand (where they moved here from) and once we complete the new site, we will redo the existing one using the same system. That plus the money we’ll get for hosting the sites should turn out to be a nice sum. I’m also finishing up the auction site and should have that done this week. In the meantime, I heard from my friend Abby in the States and I’m doing a small piece of work for her. I also have a day’s work for Anna, our friend in England and I may be doing a systems upgrade for Alan, our friend and small business owner in London. Lastly, there has been some movement on Media Trust and I invoiced them for the work I’ve done to date.
We got a pleasant surprise from the Pole Emploi in that I got an extra month’s unemployment money last month. I got a letter that it’s going to end in mid-November, so this will definitely be the last of it. As long as some of the above work comes through (and we get paid for it), we should be alright for a few months.
We had band practice on Wed afternoon, this time in the room where we will be performing. We carted down Will’s big amp since we will probably use it on the day. We also had another practice here on Saturday and the songs are really starting to come together. I bought a tambourine and Barry has ordered a mic and mic stand, so we’ll look professional even if we don’t sound that good. On Thursday, I had a swim in the afternoon, then shopped and went to conversation group, which started again after the recent school break.
That evening we were invited around to William and Clare’s, our jewellery store clients who live near Jumilhac, about 30km from here. He is a kiwi and she is originally from England, but lived in this part of France for a number of years before moving to New Zealand where they met. They both have kids from previous marriages, although only one of them is here with them now. There was another English couple at dinner, a retired surgeon and his wife who were both pleasant enough, although probably a bit conservative for our taste. William worked in the restaurant business in the States for a few years, so is the cook of the house. We started with pumpkin soup, then moved on to sweet and sour pork for the main, and lemon cheesecake for dessert. It was a pleasant evening and we are looking forward to having them around for dinner, probably next month.
Friday was curry night, and we invited some French friends over to join us. Will went down to Milhac to collect the curry, but when we went to head home, Lola refused to start. Bryan came to the rescue and went down to get Will. When he returned, he headed over to Lucien who has jumper cables, to see if he would take him down to get the car at some point over the weekend. Lucien was horrified at the thought of leaving the car in the parking lot in Milhac, so they set off right away and got Lola back home where he advised us to put her in the garage. Both Lucien and Bryan are certain that she just needs a new battery, and since we’ve not replaced in four years, we will take their advice. I will order one on line which should arrive in a few days.
That evening, Bryan and Carol stopped by for a drink, but they left when the other guests arrived. They were Françoise and Philipe, plus Jenni and her friend Frank. Before the latter pair arrived, we were speculating as to whether Jenni’s friend was a boyfriend and she later confirmed that he was. This surprised both Will and I who independently reached the conclusion that he was one of us. Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell with people of other nationalities, so we’re chalking it up to that. Anyway, he is a very pleasant chap who spent a few months in London and speaks good English. We started with a few rounds of margaritas, then tucked into our curries. It’s still a bit spicy for Philippe but he seems to be able to tolerate it better with each time. The guests left sometime after two, and Will and I watched some telly before going to bed around 3. Actually, only I went to bed since Will’s curry didn’t agree with him and he had to get rid of it before coming to bed. Françoise ordered the same dish and we’ve yet to find out if it had the same effect on her.
We slept late on Saturday but got up, showered and dressed in time for band practice. We were both a bit hung over but managed to slog through it. We watched a film in the afternoon, and then mustered for our evening’s social activity, the Cider and Chestnut night in Milhac. It was just us and Carol since Bryan can’t drink and doesn’t speak French so declined to join us. He ended up taking us down and back since Lola wouldn’t start. We sat with a large group of French and English, including our new neighbours who are excellent dancers, we were surprised to learn. The evening was similar to last years, except with even fewer people.
The meal started at 8, although no food was served until 9 which isn’t too late for these type of events. The starter was a creamy vegetable soup, served with “rosé-pêche”, flavoured wine as an aperitif. The main was confit de poulet, served with roasted chestnuts, then cheese and apple tart for dessert. This was served with red wine that Will deemed undrinkable, as well as cider that may or may not have contained alcohol. They had the same DJ as last year and he played the same set list as far as we could tell. We sat next to some older French people who live just over the road from us in La Grange. I do enjoy these evenings and it saddens me that attendance seems to be dropping for nearly all of them.
That takes us up to today, where I will now be relaxing after finishing all of my chores. A+