The Bleak House - updated

Thanks to those that supplied bar decorations for the Bleak House in the back garden.

 

 

 

Liam's Baywatch Audition

Liam going through the Baywatch training. Taken in August 2009.

Audrey and her Grandmother. 2009.

Audrey and her grandmother taken earlier this year. [Audrey's the one on the left!]

CHAPTER 11

Work wise, things have taken a sudden turn for the worst.

After having invested a little more than 1M€ in 2007 the business has entered a turbulent time. We are now in what the French call "Plan de Sauvegarde" or, as it is known in the US, "Chapter 11".

The MD is still in charge of the day to day running of the business and although an Administrator has been appointed, his role is primarily to assist in drawing up the "Plan" as to how the company will be run in the future. One of his more important tasks will be extending the credit either from the banks or from the major suppliers.

For the first time in over a hundred years there have been redundancies throughouot the group; 15 in total. In my department, I've lost 4 members of staff with 8 remaining. The work has slowed down to such an extent that even with 4 less people there are days when there isn't much to do.

Being one of the directors of the group I obviously participate heavily in the restructuring of the 10 companies and in the creation of the Plan.

I have confidence in the MD and his sons. The immediate future will be difficult but I firmly believe that we will make it.

Put it this way; if I do my 22nd Cannes Film Festival in May we've made it! If not, well I don't want to think that for the moment...

Why BOXCLEVER?

When I came to France I had a reasonably good CV but found it frustratingly difficult to get a job in my field. There were two reasons for this. The first is that the French are, with little exception, incredibly patriotic. A doughnut without its hole would fare better than an expert in astrophysics if it had been baked in France by a Frenchman. The second is that I came to this country speaking very little french. Little wonder then that the job, or even a job was hard to obtain.

So, in my naivety I decided to create my own company in a land where the word 'entrepreneur' really doesn't exist. I wrote down about 50 single words on sheets of postits, of which BOX and CLEVER were two, put all the postits in a hat [well, really it was a saucepan, but you get the idea] and pulled out CLEVER and GLASS. I didn't like the sound of CleverGlass nor GlassClever so discarded this second word. At the third go I pulled out BOX. There you have it. BoxClever rolled off the tongue better than CleverBox.

UPDATE FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Taking the decision to move abroad was a simple one at the time. Early thirties, no kids, transferable job etc. Ten years on and things are obviously different. For starters I now have a six year old girl, Audrey, and a two year old son named Liam. Here they are :



In essence, Audrey and Liam are the reasons behind the creation of this blog. An opportunity, if you will, for those I left behind to catch up with the changes in my life since moving to France.

Back in 1997 I was pretty good at updating friends and family with the changes and developments in my new life. But, for whatever the reasons, the weekly calls become monthly and then quarterly and now they occur whenever I get the time.

So this blog will become my way of communicating with them using a medium they each have available to them when they have the time to use it.