Carl Alban

How on earth did he end up in France selling wheelchair accessible holidays to disabled people?

This is the man who comes up with all the bright ideas from scratch! What can I say about him.....he has brains and brawn, and manages to see everything in such clarity that it is scary. I am one of these people that looks at a blank piece of paper and that is exactly waht I see - not much vision me, yet Carl sees a design, a colour, an idea, a sketch and off he goes! He can then sell that to who ever he wants to. He does everything for a reason, not like me, again, where I just want to slob out and watch crap on the TV, he watches a program to learn something. He is constantly learning, so much so it gives me a headache let alone him!
We do work well together - he will argue that I think!! I come up with what I think are great ideas, lets do this or that I enthuse, he then shoots it down in flames, telling me why practically it is not a good idea to paint the stairs when there are three families staying and how are we going to stop the children from chasing the cat up the stairs (just for example - you understand!!)

The website has been entirely his concept - yes I have input, I tend to write things, he just comes up with ideas and designs and tells me to fill the page. His photography is awesome and I really think that it makes our website - so here I should add a huge THANK YOU to him for spending so much time on it. The website is hugely important, as it enables people to really see what we do and don't have - only yesterday did he come to me and say that the video recorder is fully charged, and how he wants to make a video for the website - sort of like an estate agents viewing - so that is on the ever growing list of things to do - Watch this space for the video - starring you guessed it ME!!

Language - languages are not Carls strong point - and who can blame him - French is extremely difficult - the grammar and conjugasion is a complete nightmare. I speak French but not well, Max is completely bilingual so much so you wouldn't know he was English, so Carl relies on Max and myself, saying that he manages to talk fishing to people, he can order a beer or a coffee, get himself fed for example so all the important things are covered! He manages and nods, etc in the right place and gets by - why not is all I would say to that!

Jacqui 19.09.07

Taking up a hobby can sometimes save ones brain from the inevitable meltdown you feel is just around the corner.

Fishing: In 2001 I started coarse fishing again for the first time in 18 years. I can not figure out how I managed to relax during that time but just one chance remark by Max changed everything. "Can we go fishing Dad?" was all he said, and it dawned on me...go fishing, just what I need.....
I remembered how when you go fishing, you kind of switch off from the world and think only of what you are doing there and then.

Personal computers: I don't know why I spend so long staring at a monitor, but I do....

Motorbikes: What can I say? GS1400 What an awsome machine. More grunt than a box full of pigs

Photography: since moving to France I have started doing something I think I always wanted to. Taking pictures for me is always about the challenge of capturing the moment and it is this challenge that I enjoy.
Digital photography and personal computers go together like peas in a pod and hours on end can be spent playing around with pictures both for the internet and to print. Being a novice photographer has meant often using Photoshop to salvage one acceptable image from an otherwise 'naff' set of photos. This can mean the 'challenge' often carries on long after the photos are taken.