We’ve returned from our second summer trip, and it’s time to catch up with the week notes of the three last weeks.

Week 32 was a working week, and a busy one. This week I

• Scheduled a range of payments and the monthly salaries for during my absence
• Had the car repaired, as the clutch system malfunctioned, with a sticky clutch pedal.
• Had the weekly client meetings, though in small settings with many people away for their summer holidays
• Wrote and budgeted a project proposal in response to a tender, and submitted it in a procurement portal.
• Wrote another submission for a tender, and submitted it in a procurement portal. Both took quite a lot of time, even if it was relatively straight forward content wise. Jumping through the various admin hoops of procurement portals requires attention to detail. Miss something and the proposal isn’t even looked at, just dismissed.
• Worked on the data legislation overview I keep for a client
• Went for a lunch with Y.
• Wrote a memo on the European frameworks relevant to the Dutch national geo-information infrastructure, for a client to continue work on while I’m away.
• Experimented with packing our car differently with our camping gear, so that the tent can be loaded last / unloaded first. Found a way that is easier by realising that the reasons for my previous way of packing no longer applied (the cooler not needing to be connected, and having combined 2 crates into 1)
• Drove to Rouen on Saturday for a two week trip to a camp ground near Le Mans. Along the way it seemed the clutch repair wasn’t done well, as increasingly it became difficult to get the gear stick into the right gear and have the clutch engage.
• Had our car towed from our hotel to a nearby repairshop on Sunday morning, and spent the rest of the day exploring Rouen and enjoying a meal along the Seine river.

Week 33 and Week 34 we spent in France.
Week 33 started with waiting for news about our car, and changing hotels each night as we couldn’t stay in our first hotel. As the repair shop didn’t quickly assess the issue, we got fed up with waiting, arranged a rental car and with our luggage drove to the camp ground that was our destination, 2 hours from Rouen near Le Mans. There we enjoyed being outside, reading books, and sipping coffee. We didn’t do much of anything, while Y had fun playing with other children on the camp ground. Friday I took the rental car back to Rouen and picked up our own car again. It felt like the repair had worked, as the clutch and gear system felt way more solid than after the original clutch system repair. Saturday was a rainy day which we spent exploring Le Mans. It’s an old city with 3rd century Gallo-Roman walls still in place.

Week 34 was as nicely uneventful as the previous days on the camp ground, and other than being outside and reading we didn’t do much. Friday we packed up our gear and drove to Ghent in Belgium. Right before Ghent the clutch system played up again and shifting gears didn’t always work. Saturday therefore, rather than exploring Ghent, we drove on home where we arrived by lunch time. We packed away all our gear, did loads of laundry, and are now all set for tomorrow when Y’s school is set to restart. And I’ll be calling our car dealer to give them an ear full about their work, and planning a next round of repairs. E and I have been doing some web searches to see if maybe we want to get a different car and say our goodbyes to our 18yr old vintage Volvo.

While I had my mobile blogging gear with me, I didn’t feel like writing these past weeks. I mostly read, and annotated things.