Wednesday 12 November 2008

Sure has been a while...


Sure has been a while since I took the time to post to the flip side - lack of time, busy with lots of stuff you know how it is - c'est la vie. Well I don't know about you but I've been busy. Was working from Feb through to beginning of August for a Kitesurf Store as their web manager, a bit of an insult really as they were paying me the minimum french wage for 20yrs of design experience but hey I guess that's the flip side of life in the South of France!! Salaries aint nothin' like the UK...

A big learning curve, French every day, being present to the extremely poor working practices of a small family run business, that's made a loss for the past 3 years. Amusing to see how firmly rooted human beings can become in their day to day actions even though it is costing them dearly - much to say my fixed term contract was terminated after only 5 months due to the owner trying to rip me off over a kite purchase - but that's another long story...

Turns out that I am now understanding very quickly how the French Prud'homme system functions (employment tribunal) as I'm taking my ex employer to the Prud'homme due to them illegally terminating my contract. Much to say it will probably cost them in terms of shop turnover somewhere in the region of 60,000 Euros - pretty ridiculous and very short sighted considering the shop has been making a year on year loss of somewhere in the region of 20%. The trials and tribulations of livin' in the south.

Still on the flip side I discovered SUP Surfing which is well and truly worth investigating, Foilboarding with a kite which is like walking on water or low level flying - lots of good stuff combined with the crap.

Plus my latest discovery - an Adamas 2080 what a joy to play and sing along with. I thought for 20 years that my Pilgrim guitar was a really special instrument, it sure accompanied me in a lot of countries and bars but it was never as easy to play as the Ovation. If you have the inclination don't miss out on opportunity to put your hands on one.

Catch you soon and I promise not to leave it so long...