As Will said in his last entry, we’re having a very mild winter so far. In late November, it went below freezing for a few days, but not again since then. It’s a bit colder this week, with highs in the single digits, but still staying just above 0C at night. February is normally the coldest month so this could all change but for now, we’ve gotten off lightly. I realise this is a bit cruel for those of you reading this from the States, but it’s one of the few remarkable things of note.
Work has picked up a bit. We received an email over the weekend from someone with a property website. His current developer started to do a rebuild, but doesn’t really have the time to complete the site. I spoke to the prospective client today and it sounds like he will transfer the site to us to finish the changes and then host it. I’m nearly finished with the second site for the Kiwi pewter jewellery and also, some changes on the auction site. It’s been a bit slower for Will, so he is spending time on a brochure that we will eventually hand out to locals in the hopes of finding a bit more French business.
Apart from work, we’ve been practising for our upcoming gig in the middle of February. We’ve got the set list worked out so it’s just a question of getting all the songs down to our satisfaction. For our last gig, we borrowed some kit from Guillaume, but we anticipate doing more gigs, so have invested in our own equipment. So far, this is an mic amplifier and soon, a new mic.
Socially, it was a fairly quiet week. The only event of note was dinner at our place on Saturday night. In attendance were Bryan & Carol, Nat & Jill and Lee. We hadn’t seen the local couples since before Xmas and Lee since the end of August. Richard went back to the UK so we missed him. We started with homemade paté, made by Jenni’s mom which was part of our annual gift pack as a thank-you for the use of our land. The starter was carrot soup and for the main, pork chops served with roasted sweet potatoes, apples, fennel and onions. This was served with a sauce made from home-made apple cider (also from Jenni). Dessert was carrot cake cookies and banana bread that Jill made. The meal itself wasn’t bad, but also not great so not sure if I’ll do it again.
The Mazeroux neighbours left around midnight and the ladies stayed for another hour or so. That left Will, Lee and I to carry on drinking and playing Wii until around 5am when we crashed. Lee had a paint delivery at 10:30 in Nontron, and another in Thiviers at 12:30 so he kindly got in supplies for breakfast, which we had between his deliveries. He and Richard are off to Portugal for all of February, so it was good to see him since we probably won’t again for another few weeks.
And that about sums up last week. Until next time…