Night & Day

A recently stumbled upon new to me quote I like very much:


“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living, I want to know what you ache for. It doesn’t interest me how old you are, I want to know if you are willing to risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine. It doesn’t interest me where you live or how rich you are, I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and be sweet to the ones you love. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and truly like the company you keep in the empty moments of your life.” -Jon Blais


Despite spending the evening of Jan 1, 2014 scrambling for alternate flights home, we started the first day of the new year on a Ferris wheel.  Why not right?

New Year's Eve brought multiple grand fireworks displays over the Mediterranean.  And New Year's day surprised us with the number of shops that opened.  We expected a ghost town but were not going to complain about being able to buy morning pastries from our favourite boulangerie. 

 

Facades of Nice, Fr

After a 2 year absence (felt like 6),

we arrived in Nice, an old favourite, on Boxing Day. 

Both of us experienced such relief to be back in a place where

we stood a chance of understanding and being understood.



Picture Time -- France

Return from France

We didn't deliberately plan our return to the south of France during the G20. Add to it the torrential rains in the region requiring evacuation of small coastal towns in France and Italy, it made for an interesting challenge.

Paris wasn't spared of rain either despite it being much further north. This trip marked my 10th to France and 1st time I left without an intense longing to return to Paris. Both the city and I have changed.

I find myself much preferring the slower pace of life in Nice and environs. We cruised the Seine a few times, visited favourite restaurants and haunts and was glad when the time came for our connection south.

Due to the request of our original apartment owner to find an alternate logging so he could secure a long term rental, we opted to give Nice Pebbles another try. We used them about 5 yrs ago when they were brand new and didn't have the best experience.

I'm happy to report they have come a long way and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking to visit the french riveria. They aren't the cheapest game in town but with them, you don't have to worry about a thing.

It is back to work today and I have a hopping schedule. Jumping right back into the fire.

New Way to Work?

Back to work for me today. France was as great as we remembered. We chose to stay at the different location (Old Town) in Nice this time as the apartment in the area we usually stay in (Port) was unavailable.

As neat as it was being amongst all the old buildings (I guess technically they are all really old) it was much noisier than we were used to. After a couple of days, the novelty wears off and the music and young people singing started to get on our nerves.

Despite that, we were really happy to be back and away from work for a small while.

I'm reminded of the concept of enough whenever I go to France. Store keepers for example will sell all they have made that morning (I'm specifically thinking of the lady who I go to for fresh pasta, stew etc) and call it a day.

It is an adventure wondering what we are going to eat each day as there are no hours posted at our favourite butcher. Coming from North America we are used to "service at convenient hours" and lots of choice.

We have concluded shop keepers do close whenever they feel like it and do not feel obligated to tell anyone. Gives us an excuse to try another restaurant for lunch or dinner.

I am working on applying some of this thinking to my business as I know how much business I need to do each week to sustain my life well. Before I left for vacation, I already knew I was there for this week.

So the question is, do I stick to my guns and not add anymore appointments or do I try and do as much as I can? We'll see if I'm strong enough this week to resist.