News - 2011

2011
December 2011	To Paris for the New Year with friends and neighbours. Another year over with a mixture of strong memories and feelings - good and not so good. Two more deaths - my aunt and an ex-colleague :-( To the Touraine for family and Christmas. Daily swimming in water at 10-11C and exercise to compensate for good food & wine. New garden shed blown flat by strong winds. Added a further testimonial from EUROCONTROL in Brussels. Visit to managers and colleagues as well as friends in Brussels - un excellent séjour ! Long weekend in London for November accounts and Christmas shopping.
November 2011	Contract administration and yet another CV and Lettre de Motivation for a colleague. Helping a friend from London and continuing swimming (even at 14C), planning, job searching, visiting Chateau de Saché (Honoré de Balzac worked and played there) and the drive to Paris. Supplier chasing and diving in cold water to fix swimming pool leak; seeking more contracts. Sales follow up and award of a contract for Paul Myers in Brussels for about a year. Calls for quotes for insurance. Networking at my club and in the city; invited by an old friend to Broken Glass (Arthur Miller) at the Vaudeville Theatre - sad story but excellent acting. London for October accounts, sales calls and meeting in Tunbridge Wells.
October 2011	Paris for more contracts search, research and networking. Updated the CV of Duncan Williamson. Interview for an interesting pharmaceutical Web / Wiki role, more research; house and garden; contract and financial issues clarified - even a better contract for UK gas and electricity! Hired yet another car (a Hybrid Toyota Auris this time) to visit aging and alas unwell Aunt in Portsmouth as well as Trevor Forbes-Simmons who was over from Australia. Continued contract research, planning kitchen repairs and some time out with friends. Networking meetings in the City and Mayfair followed by month-end accounts. Shovelling shingle and spraying weed-killer to start the month and a return to London.
September 2011	Added a detailed description of his recent SharePoint Foundation 2010 experience SEH SharePoint Foundation 2010 Experience.doc to the Stephen Helms page. Paris again for the 4 PC backups and contract hunting - another possible in Belgium. More work in the Touraine before that though: preparation for the Cabane du jardin to store the tractor, gardening and maintenance equipment. Three swims in the Solent - perhaps the last this year but great to see friends. Back to Chelsea to see the person who introduced my partner, 15 years ago. Hired a Qashqai for the weekend - grey instead of the red one of July. On diesel alone 19p/mile but with the rental included 65p/mile for the 230 miles. Piano concert at the club: Mozart, Schumann and Liszt. Of these three, Mozart still top for me. Contract hunting. Finally installed HMRC’s PAYE tools - seems to work OK.
August 2011	Back to Paris and then London for admin and accounts. Interesting possible project contracts received and being pursued in the Netherlands and Belgium. Suicidal Sparrows flying into conservatory glass needing a drink and a rest... Contrôle Technique (MOT Test equivalent) for the 206 and to the Touraine for a working holiday on the property, guests from Belgium, neighbours and family. To Paris once more where research, CV and web site updates were on the agenda.
July 2011	London to formalize the administration and Annual Return as well as the personal tax return, a busy social round and to Portsmouth for my Aunt’s 90th birthday party. Qashqai to Ibis - modern life! Paris for Champagne & duck - the passage of another personal year. To the Touraine for a speedy visit to trim the orchard, clean the pool, terrace, house & car and deal with suppliers. Amazingly, the adjacent wheat harvest is already over! End of month accounts, VAT and end of project administration. See Brussels. Apartment clean up, move out and to Paris - tired but relaxed in the sun near Place Monge with partner, and a drink.
June 2011	Project extended to complete individual SharePoint coaching, Help pages & additional system pages; Project Review meetings with Unit Head; farewells, thanks & a kind gift. Unit Section Meetings; individual & Administrator SharePoint coaching followed by a weekend In Koksijde, De Panne and Veurne. More hospital visits and to Paris for the weekend; documented the batch listings work; Manager out of hospital & to Lille :-) Presented five education / training sessions. Non-CHL project work (batch listings) for the Project Manager - appreciated and apparently helpful. Help documentation nearly done, training materials produced. Long Weekends in Belgium & France so back to the Touraine for grass cutting, pool cleaning and the family. Demo training video produced over a weekend. Project Manager to hospital so visits / support needed. Colleagues are a caring group who have known him a long time.
May 2011	London for a quick check on things, filing, PC cleanup and gardening. Back to Brussels and to friends and colleagues. Planning and start of Help documentation. Added Paul Myers’ details and CV - a fellow consultant with a Brussels-based client. Friday confirmation of a new Brussels project - further development of a Wiki and training in its use - start on the following Monday! Fortunately had a week’s holiday planned so could relax with swimming, gardening and organizing some additional works to the property. Two more deaths in the family so a speedy return via Paris to the Touraine for a funeral - not a good time. Busy week with final touches to the project, weekend in Brussels and the final days of project completion. Client happy with the results which is what counts. CHL administration and a hired Ford Galaxy (free upgrade to a large vehicle - for me) to Portsmouth, the Witterings and even a swim in the sea. With good friends of more than 40 years standing! London for Champagne & dinner at the Club’s TGIF evening with a great friend.
April 2011	Much reviewing, cleaning & checking and dinner with erstwhile colleague in Zaventem. Proposal for more Wiki work & training followed by Easter in the Touraine: more grass cutting and pool-cleaning as well as relaxing with the family. Weekend in Belgium with partner and Basque ex-neighbour: terribly multi-cultural. Strange loss of bookmarks but not links to them: re- created bookmarks and links worked, surprisingly. Weekend in Paris with a drive to Evry in fine weather. Project extended to deal with changes. Complete restructure of Call for Tender into work packages for a limited remit. Not the best thing to do in Word with a 300+ page document - but possible!
March 2011	Short trip to Amsterdam in good weather - met up with an Australian colleague from our work in Korea and his Japanese partner. Updated Steve Pheasant’s details and CV. Tiresome trip to Paris - a delayed train. A busy weekend transporting a sister from Montparnasse to Gare de Lyon, shopping, accounts, the Danny Boon film ‘Rien a Déclarer’ and la brocante at the Charlety stadium. Continued work on the ITT while the death toll mounts in northern Japan and prepared to move apartment in Brussels with the existing landlord. Partner to Brussels and to Tremelo for lunch with old friends and new Chihuahua, private art exhibition in Linden and dinner with newer great friends in Woluwe St Lambert. Followed by a relatively quiet week’s work and stunned by the earthquake / tsunami tragedy in Japan and an imminent war in Libya. Returned to the Touraine for the funeral - 200+ family & friends - a moving occasion. Fed his sheep before their adoption by a grandson. Alas the loss of my partner’s father on March 1st at 89 the ‘Papy’ of the Léger family. Il nous manquera!
February 2011	Friday off for the long-ish train ride to the Touraine - alas late but saw the family, cleaned the house and pool. Spring already south of the Loire. More cleaning & translating of ‘Franglais’ and learned more of politics both inside and out of the Belgian ‘government’. Paris for the weekend for a slightly early Thai Valentine dinner, updating a few PCs and backups. Dinner with ex-landladies and current landlord in Brussels - sympa. Some serious reviewing starts so anticipating some significant changes. Yet more glossary additions. Continued work on the ITT - fun and games with Word 2007. Parameters for Headers & Footers - easy to miss one! Managed to remember 15th Anniversary with my Paris partner - 12 roses to her office.
January 2011	Added Nick Bradbury’s latest CV to the web site. Excellent evening with an erstwhile Flemish colleague and return to Paris for the weekend. Added 52 IT processes to the ITT and many glossary terms: document ballooned to 280 pages. London for the annual Audit and year end. Brussels for the weekend with my partner from Paris and local friends. A visit to Leuven and a Lebanese lunch Paris for a short weekend and back to work, checking CHL London and affairs in the Touraine. Stocking up on supplies (food etc.), meetings and planning ahead. Collecting, inserting and reviewing detailed content, modifying / rewriting ‘Franglais to Anglais’ and creating a glossary of technical terms for the business managers who will read the ITT before the ‘techies’. Return to Brussels to continue the project - an Invitation To Tender (ITT) for a significant Java system development project.