As you will know if you’ve been following my exploits over the last few months, I have recently been forced into commuting to Maidenhead in the UK each week. Clearly this was not an ideal long-term arrangement.
This difficult situation was further compounded by the fact that I had not enjoyed my job for well over a year and recent changes in the organisation had made it very difficult for this to change.
So, against a background of job losses, cutbacks and belt-tightening, I found myself in the position where I was offered a “way out”. That this approach was open to me was entirely down to me being employed under a French contract. And thank goodness for that, as without it my “way out” may well have been through the back door with a bit of loose change in my pocket.
As it was, though, the security offered to me under French employment law thankfully put me in a much better position than others in the organisation.
Thus I have now left my job with RightNow Technologies, where I have worked for over 4 years, and find myself with a little time to relax and enjoy the summer with the family, before embarking on the search for a new job.
I am very happy with this arrangement. At last I can take control of my life and my future career, and hopefully take it into a new and exciting direction.
But for now I’m loving being a gentleman of (almost) leisure – and with the sun shining in a bright blue sky every day, who wouldn’t?
Don’t worry dear readers, I haven’t forgotten you, oh no! This week I have been a busy business bee out on a sales “kick-off” at the Longleat Center Parcs. I won’t bore you with the details, but basically this involved lots of presentations, a very tiring cylcle-based exercise and 2 evenings of food, drink and gambling (with pretend money!). Needless to say, I would have much rather been at home with Lisa and the kids than surrounded by sales guys, but it was okay. At least I discovered that Longleat Center parcs is not a place I would ever go for fun, as the entire place is set on a huge hill. And I mean huge! After spending 5 hours cycling round the park, including some of the steepest hills I have seen in ages, I have to say I never want to sit on a bike again! The kids would have hated it, as it was impossible to get anywhere without having to tackle some sort of nightmarish incline. Great exercise, but fun?…not at all.
Anyway, that was my week. Meanwhile, Lisa wasn’t having much fun either, as everything seemed to be going wrong at home.
First off, the washing line broke. The washing line that was full of nice clean washing. And of course it fell to the ground and blew around in the mud for a while, ensuring that everything needed rewashing! And how typical of it to happen the moment I am out of the house. The nail upon which the line was hooked had probably been secured in the wall for the last 50 years. Yet on this day it chose to ping out of the wall like a cork from a bottle, as if it had only been stuck there with blu-tack five minutes ago. Not a good start for Lisa.
Then, on Friday morning, the car wouldn’t start. My lovely little Renault Clio “Chippy” (no idea why it’s called that, but it is…) which has served us so well over the last year and has always started first time was as dead as Roland the rat [who?]. As our main car was parked at Nantes airport where I had left it for the week, this was, to say the least, rather inconvenient. Luckily we have some great friends who stepped in to save the day. Peter answered the cry for help and came round to pick the girls up and take them to college, while Nathalie picked up Joe, ensuring that everyone got to school on time. Pete then continued in his role of hero-of-the-day by coming back to fix the car. As it turned out, the problem was just a loose connection on the battery – thank goodness! We had visions of a big trip to the garage, followed by a big bill at the end of it, but luckily Pete saved the day and Lisa was mobile once more.
What made things more tricky was the stormy weather front that was sitting over western France, and in particular, our house. All week the house has been lashed by high winds and torrential rain, getting so bad that one day even the trampoline blew away! This is the trampoline that normally takes 3 of us to move it in order to cut the grass, but the wind clearly managed to get hold of it and Lisa found it upside-down on top of one of the pear trees, bent and broken. And today poor Rosie woke to find a puddle of water in her room – the rain has clearly found a way in through the roof and had been running down her wall (only plasterboard, so now rather soggy) and forming a large pool on her floor. Argh! We mopped up the water and, once the hurricane had died down outside, I went up on the ladder to see if I could identify the source of the leak. Sadly, I couldn’t spot any big holes that might lead to such a problem, so we just have to keep our fingers crossed for now that the worst of the rain is over for now.
So, on balance, not the greatest of weeks, but Lisa did paint the kitchen before I came home, and a rather splendid job she did too! Photos will follow!
Oh, and guess who’s out of oil once again…?
Most people have to work to earn money to pay for wine and pineau, and I am no exception. At the moment I am having to do all the work that was previously covered by myself and a colleague, so things are, you might say, rather busy. Hence why my postings here have been rather scant of late. My days have been full and my nights very short.
But anyway, today I find myself with a bit of time for a catch-up so I’ll be posting a few items to fill you in on what’s been happening over the last couple of weeks.
