Malarkey is Andy Clarke, a creative designer with a passion for accessibility and web standards. This is his personal website.

Quality time

We’re back from the south of France, two weeks without the phone, email or MSN. At home, my usual morning routine runs something like this,

  1. Make coffee and light my first cigarette
  2. Reply to any overnight emails
  3. Check FeedDemon for news feeds
  4. Have a shufty through stats and referrer logs
  5. Drive to the studio

In France it’s a little bit different; two weeks of,

  1. Getting up
  2. Drive to the nearest boulangerie (baker) for fresh bread and pain-aux-chocolats
  3. Stopping by the Cafe de la Poste in Olonzac for a quick coffee
  4. Spending the morning soaking up some culture and the afternoon (usually) by the pool soaking up some rays

All very good for the soul (if not the waistline).

Vacance avec le Kangoo

Whilst the weather was not quite as good as last year in Minervois, we were able to zip around in our rented Kangoo and visit some of the region’s interesting medieval sites including Aigne, a unique medieval village set out in a spiral format with narrow walkways, the fortress of Carcasonne’s La Cite, Minerve and the Roman center of Narbonne.

Bringing home that holiday spirit

Now that we are back in Wales I am determined to try to maintain a little bit of a holiday attitude, after all we live in area that itself attracts a good deal of holidaymakers. So here are one or two holiday ’snaps’…

MinerveMinerve

Window in AigneWindow in Aigne

Sculpter’s doorwaySculpter’s doorway

AigneAigne

Disused windmillDisused windmill

Have I missed anything important in webby land? ;)

Replies

  1. #1 On August 30, 2004 02:12 AM Luc said:

    Damned, i’m jealous. I have to wait until december to take my break :-(

    Have you missed anything important in webby land? Yeah: the launch of my new layout LOL

  2. #2 On August 30, 2004 02:14 AM Patrick H. Lauke said:

    pas de cigarettes dans ta routine matutine en france?

    good to hear you had a relaxing time. now back to the old grind…

  3. #3 On August 30, 2004 02:19 AM Ryan Brill said:

    Hey, glad to hear you had a good time.

    As far as what you missed, you may have seen this already, but Microsoft took a step in the right direction by cleaning up their code a bit: https://www.stopdesign.com/log/2004/08/25/microsoft-advances.html

    Not perfect yet, but much, much better than what they previously had.

  4. #4 On August 30, 2004 07:01 AM Tommy Olsson said:

    Welcome back! :)

    Oh, and nice pictures.

  5. #5 On August 30, 2004 11:42 AM Onno said:

    Being away from the net during a holiday is always a bit awkward at first, but after a few days it is amazing how well one still functions without it.

    And it also puts it back into perspective. Welcome back.

  6. #6 On August 30, 2004 12:31 PM Colly said:

    Welcome back Clarkey. I genuinely hope you can retain some of that holiday spirit, but be warned - mine disappeared about five hours into my first day back! Good job I like doing this web-building nonsense. Speaking of hols, hope you got a bike, because Budd, Rutter and I are coming to Wales to cycle up and down mountains with you soon. That’ll sort the waistline…

  7. #7 On August 30, 2004 07:14 PM Carlos Porto said:

    Welcome back! Lovely pictures, wish I was in europe…

  8. #8 On August 31, 2004 10:24 AM Andy Budd said:

    Hey Andy,

    Glad to hear you had a good, relaxing time. I’m on holiday in couple of weeks time and am really looking forward to it. However I doubt my holiday will be anywhere near as chilled as yours as I’m spending 2 weeks in China!