Quit your day job. Go on. I dare you.

Life admin needed

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Ever had that feeling that your life is coming apart a little bit and you need to get back on top of things? You car’s dirty, rusty & in need of a being a bit fixed. All your clothes are piled up in the corner waiting to be washed. You haven’t opened your mail for a month and there’s no food in the house. After a prolonged period of BBQ’s, drinking and parties to mark the end of the winter I’ve been doing a bit of life admin over the past few days.

Yesterday was the day to go and find a lawyer. I’m not in trouble or anything - I just needed to get a document notarised for a a German thing that’s going on. But as it happens I have been wondering how to find a French lawyer for a while now. I need to set up a French limited company this summer and I’m also planning to buy some property. The chap I met yesterday in Sallanches tells me he is known as ‘The EnglishNotary’ here in the Chamonix valley. Not because he is English, but he speaks it perfectly and has over 200 Ros Bif clients on his books, so hurrah. He’s the man.

Next the van. I took my skis and winter equipment out of it for the first time since December, cleaned out the inside, washed it, oiled it and generally sorted the thing out a bit. I’ll take it in for a little service in good time, but just for now a bit of air in the tires and a wash is all it needs for the weekend when I’m going off camping in Italy for a few days with my girlfriend. Just through the Mont Blanc tunnel & down to the coast, it’s only 3 hours or so away. I might even get the chance to do a dive two.

Now if I can just get on top of the work I’m doing, get my washing done and stop getting ridiculously drunk all the time…..

Posted in Travel, holidays, life's a bit like that sometimes | Comments Off

10th Chamonix Freeride Day

Monday, May 5th, 2008

I bought a new video camera recently and havebeen making films for a few days. Incognito as you can tell from the picture of me at the Marmotton Bar yesterday afternoon. You int sin me.

Click on the picture to see the film on youTube

Posted in life's a bit like that sometimes | 2 Comments »

A new addition to the office

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Tia the cat has come to live with me in the office for a couple of months. Her family are moving back to England and she’s not allowed to join them until her rabies shots have been confirmed & she gets her pet passport.

She’s a bit scared at the moment. Mostly hiding under the bed if I’m moving about the office, venturing out only when I’m sitting down and busy. She’s been looking out of the window a lot, eying up the birds in the garden. I’m pretty sure she’s considering her options for going out on a stalking/murdering spree as soon as she gets let out. Which won’t be for a week or so until she knows what side her bread’s buttered on & I think there’s a chance she’d come back. If I loose this cat, I’m going be in trouble. Her twin brother got lost in thefamily’s last house move & if Tia doesn’t find her way home the kids will start to believe that every time you move house you loose a member of your family.

Posted in life's a bit like that sometimes | 1 Comment »

An unusual conversation

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

I was waiting to meet up with some friends at the cafe on the mountain yesterday and suddenly found myself having a very unusual conversation. It started because I was wearing a shemagh (an arab style scarf) and a guy sitting across from me asked if I was wearing it because I was palestinian. ‘No’, I said, ‘just because it’s cold up here’.

shemagh

It turns out he was from the Lebanon. In the conversation which followed I learned a lot about Israel, Gaza and the problems in the region. Obviously the whole issue has been a part news all my life, but aside from what I hear on the radio I know very little about it.

I’ve been listening more closely lately because my current cilents are Israelis. I’ve been working with these guys for a few months, we do business in English but I can tell there’s a cultural gulf between us. I assumed that although their second language was English, that their first must be Jewish (or Hebrew or Israeli or whatever it’s called). But it didn’t sound like that. When I hear them speaking on the phone to other people, it sounds like arabic and the screenshots they send me to illustrate bugs in my games look like windows is right to left, with arabic looking script. Not wanting to risk saying anything inappropriate to my clients I’ve been wondering about this. My new friend informs me that 30% of the population of Israel are arabs. People who were caught inside the territory when it was partitioned and never became refugees. Second class citizens in his opinion whose human rights are limited compared to Jewish Israelis. Whose passports carry less weight and who are represented by only 2 members of parliament in Israel. I think it’s Israeli arabs I’m working with.

Not the usual kind of conversation one has on the mountain, and all the more interesting for that. I’d like to find out more. I’d like to go and visit Israel. And Gaza. And Lebanon I think.

Posted in life's a bit like that sometimes, politics | 2 Comments »

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Life admin needed

10th Chamonix Freeride Day

A new addition to the office

An unusual conversation

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