It’s been mostly the former with a bit of the latter thrown in for balance. The job is going well but I’m still working hard most days. I’ve been working on the same site since I started, nearly six weeks ago. It’s gone by very quickly and it’s been largely enjoyable, as far as work goes. I’ve started working from home a couple days a week and I managed to be productive for the first time while doing so today. The site is now at the stage of making small improvements meaning I start the day with a long to-do list and end up with most things ticked off by the end of it. It’s a good feeling and as Will can attest, I really enjoy making lists.
There are two contractors working in our office at the moment. It’s not a very big room to begin with and over the weekend, they moved our desk of four to add a small table in the corner. This is the second week for the first contractor and I’m most amused by his work habits. He gets in at 9am sharp and works continuously until 1pm when he takes an hour for lunch, then returns and works through till 5pm when he leaves. While working, he never leaves his desk for coffee or a bathroom break even though he’s been told he’s allowed.
Apart from the contractors, my other coworker at BCMD is Pierre who does IT for the saddle company. The acronym he uses to describe his role is ERP, one I’d not heard of previously. I’m pretty sure it refers to enterprise resource planning and the other day, he used the term to describe his function to some newbies and they all understood so it must be fairly common. He is a typical Frenchman in that he drinks many coffees throughout the day and smokes. Also, he is a typical programmer who speaks to his computer, mostly cursing at it. Back in the good old days at <kpe>, I was known to do the same although I’ve been a bit more reticent so far at the new place. Oh yeah, I should mention that Pierre is under 30 and good looking; a welcome diversion while working.
It’s been mostly quiet on the work front for Will. He’s made a few changes to the curry website and they’re very happy customers so that’s a good feeling. The fois gras shop is live and Will has spent time getting the SSL certificate (allows secure shopping) which is a first for both of us. He’s also walking the client through setting herself up with PayPal but she managed to mess it up the first time. Barring any further difficulties, they should be able to take credit card orders very soon. She also asked him to print up brochures to hand out at the market and that took him about a day to print out 200. He’ll get paid for the work but it’s seems tedious to me. Apart from that, he’s got a few Sites for Homes sites in the offing but they’re all waiting for better gardens/weather so that might not be for a few more weeks.
Enough about work, let’s talk play. Picking up where Will left off, it was Easter weekend and there was an annual fete down in the village. There is a fun fair from Sat – Mon, a big meal on Saturday night and on Sunday, fireworks followed by a band. Carol went to the dinner on Sat and had a great time except that they didn’t start serving until 10pm and finished around 2am. They played patriotic music and everyone danced, mostly fuelled by the copious booze that always flows at these affairs. We’re sorry we missed it and will try to go next year.
On the other hand, we did make it to the Sunday event. Bryan was still back in the UK so we collected Carol around 8:30 and headed down, only to realise that the fireworks didn’t start until 10pm and the band came on after, not before. It was a bit brisk but we had plenty of fuel to keep us warm. They had the usual “buvette” offering wine, beer and the typical selection of spirits (whiskey, cognac, pastis) so we had a few of those as well as a screwdriver from the flask we brought. So by the time the fireworks came on, we were ready and they were fairly impressive considering the size of the event. It was a blues band and we stayed for their first set which was really enjoyable. You’d think there wouldn’t be much talent being out in the sticks but it turns out, with so little else to do, lots of people become really good musicians. It was a six person band with two guitarists and both were pretty talented so a pleasure to watch. We came back around midnight and had a nightcap with Carol before walking her home.
Not much happened during the week until Friday night when we had take-away curry from our web customers. We encouraged Carol to give it a try to so she joined us that evening and she was impressed. Will is truly thrilled that he is no longer denied an occasional curry, one of the things he missed most from the UK. We get an extra set of mains that we freeze and enjoy during the weeks between deliveries.
Saturday night, we had a French evening with Morgan, his sister Clarice and his friend Marion. He works at the dechetterie in Mareuil and we met him through Sharon when we lived there. The last time we saw him was July of last year with his then girlfriend Maude so it had been awhile. He asked about my job and when I started describing it, he was most impressed that I was speaking French. He wanted to know if I’d had lessons and later, drunkenly expressed his pleasure about my speaking. I still don’t understand some of what’s being said but it was pleasing that he noticed the improvement.
We’d met Clarice once before and really enjoyed her company as well. Without being asked, she brought an apple crumble and I’m still enjoying it a few days later. She speaks excellent English and also Greek, having lived there for a year. She’s very entertaining so it was a pleasure to see her again. The Spring festival is in Brantome at the end of the month when Iain Clarke will be here so we plan to go with her since she lives close by in Bordeilles. Morgan also texted to see if he could bring his new girlfriend around this weekend to meet us so we may see him again soon too. It would be nice to become better friends with them both so we’ll see how it goes.
There’s not much to say about the weather except that it’s been shit. I don’t mind the rain since we really need it but I can do without the cold and damp. We’ve run out of all wood besides chestnut and that doesn’t burn on it’s own. Carol donated some of their excess and I actually bought a bit at the supermarket but we go through it so quickly. So instead, we’ve had the central heating on which I’m happy to say, works quite nicely. It’s also fairly expensive to run but not too bad now that it’s +12C instead of -12. We’re growing a number of seedlings and some are ready to go in the ground except that we’ve been close to freezing a few nights so it’s a bit risky.
C’est tout pour ce soir.