May/070
The sun can out at last. No skiing. That just seemed like a good idea at the time when it was dumping. But climbing's on, though - even if the rock's still a bit wet. Servoz was the choice, and there were a few of us. Mountaingirl, Ms Lightfoot, a much improving Martin. Even the boy Kayson.
But the best guy was the old geezer with the back brace bouldering around us. He must have been 70 years old I think
May/070
Apocalypse Now
This is what I woke up to in Chamonix this morning. Snowing. Not just snowing either, but dumping. It's June in a couple of days for goodness sake and I've still got a sun-burnt back from climbing last week. Apparently this is going to carry on for a couple of days and clear on Wednesday. I think I might even get the skis out and go touring.
I always thought that this global warming/climate change thing was a bit over-hyped. Just a bit of tree hugging bullshit like saving the whales. But no. It seems I was wrong. We are obviously in the middle of an apocalypse of weather and we're all going to die.
May/070
Births, Marriages and Deaths
It's easy to over-focus on your own problems sometimes, but life has a way of carrying on regardless.
Births
My friend Bryony who lives in the Jura here in France had her third baby last night. Lydie, a baby girl is a new sister for her boys Elliot and Evan. A little girl to complete the set is something Bry dearly wanted, and words can't express how happy I am for her and the whole family.
Marriages
My sister Caroline's boyfriend Christoph proposed to her yesterday. They've been together for many years, a sometimes difficult long-distance relationship between Germany and the UK. Caroline is quitting her London job this summer and moving over to Sarbrucken to be with her fiancee.
Deaths
And unfortunately the good news above is balanced by the death of my best friend's Dad. A brilliant doctor and father, he died after of cancer after being ill for a year. My friend Ryan and I are travelling to Suffolk for the funeral this week.
May/070
Saturday afternoon
So it's Saturday afternoon and I'm just doofing around in the office. The weather's closed in a bit and it's cool and cloudy, so there's no pressure to be out doing something active. I'm quite enjoying listening to Radio 4 and cleaning up the office. The garden's growing at a frightening triffid-like rate so I've had to attack it with thestrimmer again & it's looking good. We had our first BBQ last week and I'm looking forward to some more of those.
I'd have quite liked to have nipped down to the bricolage in Sallanches today to buy some paint & DIY stuff - there's some work I've been planning to do to the place for a while. Trouble is I'm a bit skint at the moment. It's been a pretty stressful week trying to sort that out, and by the end of next week things should be back on an even keel. In the meantime though, I can only buy food - so other projects will have to wait.
It's not very nice being skint, but in a way it's good for a person from time to time. Sometimes you can get a bit used to spending and loose track of the value of things. To have a week or so where you're scraping the money together to put a few litres of petrol into your car and buy some pasta is good for the soul now & again. Bit bloody boring though.
May/070
Building karma – Part 1 The random Polish guy
Sat at the bar at 'Le Relax' last night a young, very dishevelled bloke with a dog sat down next to me and ordered a beer. He asked me a few questions about how long it might take to trek to Italy from here. He spoke in English, but I could hear in his voice, he'd be more comfortable speaking German. So I started talking German, and have been doing so for nearly a whole day. I nearly forgot I speak German :)
So this guy. A Polish geezer called Swarbeck, who's been living in Germany for years, is travelling on foot round this part of Europe. He's got a dog, a rucksack and um.... that's about it. He sleeps rough in the mountains (saving plenty of money on hotels) and has been in the valley for a couple of days. Then arrived Martin at the bar, cos the football was on, see?
When he asked if we knew anywhere he could sleep where it was OK to build a fire, I nudged Martin to let him stay up at the farm. He did, metWardo and stayed the night. Had a great time by all accounts. Today he came over to Gaylands with us for another short climbing session and a bit of lunch. Introduced him to a whole new sport so we did, and he loved it. Martin dropped him and his pooch off as far up the top of the mountain towards Italy as the roads go, and the geezer wandered off as happy as a clam.
I think we all gained karma points on this one. I love travelling, and I love meeting random cool people who accept me and hang out for a while, so it's good to give something back.
May/071
Worries. No worries.
The dogs are back with their owners and I'm back in the office today. This past week I've been stressing about a lot of stuff. Too much time on my own maybe. Basically I've got loads of money owing from all kinds of places - clients, the tax man, even some deposit money from my bling flat in the Houches. Try as I might, though - I can't get my hands on any of it, and I've got people to pay. Mortgage, new car - all that. It's a pain in the arse sometimes having a problem with authority and not being able to hold down a proper job.
So today I took a few hours off and went climbing in Servoz with Martin. One of the best sport climbing crags in the world and because it's off-season we had the place nearly to ourselves. It was hot and sweaty and frankly just really nice to only have our own personal safety to worry about for a few hours. I think we'll go again tomorrow.
Anyhoo - Martin's put his pics up on flickr. Check it.
May/070
Surely that can’t have happened – reprised
Well over a month ago now I wrote a post about how happy I was that the Inland Revenue in the UK were going to give me some of my overpaid tax back. I rang them up and they said, yep, no problem we'll put your check in the post (or words to that effect). They didn't. I rang them up a couple of weeks ago to see if the check had been sent. It hadn't.
Since that time of course, I've included that cash in my day to day finances. It's what has allowed me to replace the golf with my new bus and like a fool I've overstretched myself on all fronts waiting for a check from the tax-man. Duh. Of course you shouldn't do stuff like that, but when the opportunity comes along you have to make borderline decisions at times.
So I rang them again today and still no check. There's some problem with outstanding tax returns that might or might not have to get sorted before they can give me my own money back. Fine. But had they mentioned this a month ago I could have fixed the problem then, have my money now and now be stressing about the end of the month being on it's way with no cash in the banks.
Damn it.
May/070
Adlink Success – A New Advertising Style From Google Adsense
There is a new advertising style from Google Adsense that is available in your Adsense panel, it is called “Google Ad Links.”
This new ad system presents a list of 4 or 5 vertical links(you can pick either 4 or 5 and Google will supply the actually links) to your site visitors, when the visitors click on one of the targeted contextual words it displays a results page from Google listing ten Adwords advertiser’s ads for this related topic.
Here is what Google says Adlinks are: “What are Ad Links by Google?
Ad Links are a new form of text advertising that we're offering to our AdSense publishers. Using the same contextual targeting algorithm that targets Google ads to your content pages, Ad Links units display a list of topics that are relevant to your page. Each topic, when clicked, brings the user to a page of related advertisements.
The result is advertisements that are closely targeted to the interests of your users. By selecting the topics through interaction with the ad unit, users are presented with useful information in the form of related advertisements. Their direct involvement with the evolution of the ad unit guarantees an interest in the ads that are presented.”
Positive Aspects of Adlinks:
They allow you to blend this in with sections of your links which will get more visitors to click on them, inevitably increase your Adsense revenue.
The Adlinks ads display 10 ad results when clicked without cluttering you page.
Google’s rules allow you to place three Adsense code block on a website. If you are doing this near say a 500 word article it can distract the visitor from viewing the article. With Adlinks you can still display 1 block of normal Adsense code and the Adlinks block and it keeps your page relatively nice looking while still giving you revenue potential.
Negative Aspects of Adlinks:
Adlinks requires your visitors to make two clicks. One on the original Adlinks block and one when they view the Adlink results. As any marketer knows the more actions you need a visitor to take the less the response rate.
Where are the best places to display Adlinks ads?
The best place to display them are within your navigation menu. Try to make them blend in as best as possible.
Another great place to put them is at the end of an article suggesting an interested reader view these resources. When doing this the reader is very targeted since they red your whole article and if they are likely leaving your website, why not let them leave through Adlinks and make some money?
Are Adlink ads as effective as the normal ad blocks?
Well some have seen positive results while other have not. Personally I am going to test it some more to see what kind of results and make my decision then.
May/070
A temporary room with a view
I've settled into the chalet up the hill. It's very calm and quiet and the dogs are very well behaved. Even Otti the pupster recognises that I'm the boss and what I say goes. I took them for a walk up to the Heidi village in the rain yesterday which wasbeautiful . With full waterproofs on I only got wet boots and a few hours on top of the oil burner sorted that out. Only problem was on the way backOtti disappeared . I waited around for her, and Bubba waited with me. At least I could still see Bubba. When I finally decided to walk back up the hill a bit to see what the score was,Bubba didn't come. When I got back neither dog was there and I walked back to the chalet with a heavy heart imagining the phone call to Corin I'd have to make telling him I'd lost his puppy.
Of course both dogs were sitting in front of the oil burner getting warm and dry by the time I got back.
This morning I've set up a temporary office for myself to use until Tuesday when the owners are back. It's a basic desk made of trestles and chipboard nicked from the work going on, but look at the view. Stunning.
May/070
Dog sitting in the mountains
I'm going to live in Vaudagne today. It's a little village right up on the side of a mountain beyond Les Houches where my friends Corin and Claire live. They have a proper bling chalet (at least it will be when it's finished). By bling I mean big I guess. Sky TV, about 4 big bedrooms, a stream that tinkles throught the garden and a view of a field with little baby lambs gambolling in it. It's the real deal. They also have two dogs. Otti is a 3 month old husky puppy. Very young and a bit shy, and her older, floppier eared brother Bubba. They're nice dogs, very and happy, but Corin & Claire are going back to England today for a wedding and they need looking after.
I could do with a few days somewhere different. Chamonix is very quiet at the moment. And rainy. Sarah's away working and I've been snowed under with work myself. Not that you'd notice from the state of my bank accounts. Clients eh? They put on all kinds of time pressure and then when it comes time to pay....
Anyway, enough of whinging. I'm off to have a very happy few days solitude in the hills with a couple of nice dogs for company, a constant fire (there's snow up on them there hills again at the moment and it's a bit cold in the Alps) and some long rambling walks. I've got some waterproofs and warm clothes. Got my laptop too - there's broadband at the chalet. Might do a bit of shopping, get some fois gras in.