graham’s blog

I’ve registered for Going Solo!

After hesitating the other day, I had a new order from a client and decided it was a sign to register. As I am obtaining an income from my freelancing, it seemed only normal to use some of it to cover the conference fees and to become an “earlier” registree.

Looking forward to going home

I’m glad that this evening will be a quiet night at home.

Yesterday was the Opera and the day before we ate out at a really nice restaurant.

After the starter (a Tuna Sashimi), we had a whole Zander (I had to look it up in Wikipedia as although it is hard to find here, it was fished from the lake). The waiter prepared it at the table and we all had some (We were a party of three) Eaten with three dainty sized vegetables portions and “pommes frites allumettes” it was delicious.

So this evening we will eat a lot more modestly, but after I will have the time to relax and enjoy an evening with my Valentine. She is the most amazing woman in the world and I love her passionately.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all wherever you are and with whoever you are with.

Love rules!

I was looking for a recent photo of the two us but as I am the photographer, they are hard to come by and I’m posting this away from home.

I started looking for photos of hearts and came across this very interesting photo through Google Image search.

As I don’t take without permission I read the blog that this illustration came from and it is a really nice blog in the inspirational vein.

I think it only fair to link back so here it is.

Effervescence over at Going Solo

As you know I’m a strong supporter of Going Far’s upcoming conférence, Going Solo in Lausanne. It will be happening just up the road from me in Geneva on the 16th of May. This is why there is a badge in the sidebar.

I learnt that registration was open the other day through Twitter and today through Facebook.

I also noticed that there is a special Earlier Bird price if you register this week and I wanted to draw your attention to it so you don’t miss the opportunity.

As for me, and as surprising as you might think, I’m hesitating. It’s certainly affordable and definitely worthy of my paid support but I’m not really a freelancer in the real meaning of the term. I work for the Geneva State at 90% spread over four days instead of five which doesn’t leave me a lot of useable time on my hands.

I am however launching my own business very shortly and definitely well before the conference day.

Why? Well it’s because I want to put the fun and excitement back into my professional activities and I regularly get frustrated in my main job as it is very conventional and far from social webbish. What excites me is the Social Web and the possibilities it opens for discovery and working together on media and projects. I have a lot of experience and I know how to use this to help and accompany others in setting up their web identities. It is a reality that decently priced quality hosting is available and that with open source software and some help from professional web developpers and graphists it is possible to establish your home on the web and sustain it either with a little help or with more substantial support packages. The hurdles are therefore financial, skill sets and disponibility. I can successfully address these issues and that is what I am going to do.

I am therefore launching for the experience and excitiement of doing something new and for opening up new horizons. At my age I don’t see myself freelancing myself to retirement and it wouldn’t be fair on my wife and children to jeopardize our current situation which is the fruit of our labours.

So to be brutally honest I’ve just reserved our holidays for September and have to put aside for the taxman and I’m finding it a little difficult justifying the expense for a conference that I’m sure will be useful, pertinent and fun but would only be of use to me. My wife and kids won’t get much from it directly.

I still have a few days to make up my decision though and there is a good chance that I’ll attend anyway. It’s only a fool that can’t change his mind.

It is going to be a fantastic conference from what I can see and we don’t have a lot of these in Switzerland. We are indeed lucky that Stephanie is organising it and this a pre-indication of how successful it will be.

Tuesday’s roundup

I was watching Climb to the Stars for news of Going Solo (An upcoming one day event in Lausanne) and noticed that Going Solo now has badges. So I added one.

This is particularly pertinent as my own business will be launching before the end of this week. Details will follow.

I can’t say, however, that I am going solo more like going duo… I hope the conference is within my means because I would really like to register. Looking at the list of speakers gets me even more interested and it’s only a half-hour away by train.

I’m feeling better today by the way. Just a residual stuffiness, cough and slightly runny nose.  

Yes I do want to make a difference!

One of my Twitter friends mentioned that he has signed up for Earth Hour 2008. I think that’s a great idea so I’ve signed up too. As it is in 60 day’s time it might not make it big here in Geneva but you never know…

Going Solo

Regular visitors will know that I have “borrowed” a lot of inspiration from Stephanie Booth over at Climb to the Stars. She is probably Switzerland’s first real blogger and the local blogging scene is largely due to her untiring efforts for many years now. Although she was teaching when I first met her in Lausanne during a Bloggy Friday event some time ago, she is now freelancing and a full time net personality.

Recently she established her own company and is launching her first event “Going Solo” here in Switzerland. In Lausanne to be precise, on May the 16th. The venue is yet to announced but if I were you, I would reserve the date so as to be sure to attend. Knowing Stephanie, I can assure you that you really don’t want to miss out. Her bilingualism is even more well managed than mine so you don’t have to worry about any language difficulties.

Unfortunately my French speaking visitors rarely leave a comment in French so I continue to blog in English with the occasional splurge in French. I have periods where I try, just check it out. It’s one of those chicken and egg things that I haven’t worked out yet. If I had a French speaking following however, I would surely install the WordPress plugins that Stephanie has created to facilitate blogs in two or more languages. As you know, or will discover, she has many talents and one of those is in web development.

In order to organize an event you need to have a company and her company is called Going Far. Once she gets the graphical identity for Going Solo I will of course be hosting a banner.

As usual she is as thought provoking as she is inspiring and as I now work at 90% I have some time on my hands. If I had a bit more (and I’m working on that too) I might do a bit of freelancing myself to fill up that time agreably rather than just do nothing but relaxing.

So summing up, Stephanie is inspiring, Graham is aspiring and we will all meet up at Going Solo in May. Right?

Christmas and new themes

We have started our Christmas decorating at home. We will get the tree this coming weekend but while waiting my wife wanted to spruce up the stairwell and add a few festive touches to the living room.

Somewhat related, I tested a few new themes this past weekend to this blog because when I updated my wordpress installation my widgets, which were managed by the theme (k2) and not WP itself, suddenly disappeared. This was ok as long as I didn’t want to modify anything but a little inconvenient otherwise

In the end however I ended up with the same theme and handed back the management of the widgets to WP. Other themes just didn’t cut it I’m afraid.

If you have any suggestions for an uber, three column, widget aware WP theme, leave me a comment.

Vacation at last!

C’est la rentrée mais également le moment de mes vacances. Je pars ce soir pour trois semaines de vacances et un séjour en Ecosse.

Most of my colleagues are back from their holidays and professional activities are on the rise. In French this is called “la rentrée”. Geneva is a lot quieter in July and August. Public transport is less frequented (and has fewer buses and trams in service) and the traffic is a whole lot more fluid.

It’s a good time to be around and thanks to the climate, days are longer and warmer and relaxed evenings on terraces and in parks are in vogue.

All this comes to an end this weekend and the new school year commences Monday morning.

This also coincides with the start of my vacation (yay!) and today is my last day at work for three weeks. In ten days we are off to Scotland where I hope to take many photos to show you on my return.

I had good intentions here on my blog a few weeks ago but they have calmed down as you might have noticed. It’s all about ups and downs and I’m not very good with blog filling posts.

I think when I get back from Scotland that I will have to enlarge my blog horizons otherwise I might be becoming extinct. It’s a classical chicken and egg thing isn’t it.

Happy Birthday Violet

Happy Birthday Violet. I hope you have a great day!

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Tags: birthday

The wedding

Here is a pic of Trevor and Violet just after their wedding on Saturday. It was a wonderful day and their hospitality was terrific. I had a great time and also learnt that Elizabeth, my ex-wife, also got married to someone she met before meeting me over thirty years ago so congratulations to Elizabeth and to Roy. In just a few days my family name has faded away which for the longtime happiness of all involved is a good thing.

Once again, congratulations to Trevor and Violet Roe and to Roy and Elizabeth Hammersley!

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Tags: marriage, wedding, family, england, derbyshire