For the last twelve years I have been writing online about our life in France – I was blogging before there were blogs, since 1996, through websites I made.
A lot of my stuff is still on one of my first websites at Nizas.com - I wrote most days and got a newsletter out every week to a mailing list that had over thirty thousand readers.
I do this because I love sharing our love of France with people and found that I can help sometimes with advice gained from our own experiences living in France.
But last year, 2010, was bad year for me – not for our business which is our Guest house at Villa Roquette , this is full of guests and doing well – but with a series of setbacks due to people I trusted, and once respected, abusing this trust.
I don’t expect life to be always sunny and bright with bluebirds twittering around me and sparkling wine flowing freely (or Guinness perhaps) – but I got so much abuse heaped on me at once that I began to doubt myself – this led to a complete block on anything creative and all I could do was mix concrete and work on mind-numbing, exhausting building projects.
I tried repeatedly to start blogging or write my newsletter, but all I could do was look at a blank screen – occasionally I would start a moan about the crooks who were persecuting me, but that is not interesting for anyone else to read.
My advice to myself was to “move on” ignore them and “get on with it” – but - easier said than done.
But now a ray of sunshine has broken through - one of the perpetrators of my misery has had their knuckles rapped by the French legal process by attempting a malicious action, they have been told this is an “action vindicatif” and told to pay me damages – another is now being investigated by the UK financial Ombudsman for forging my signature .
This still leaves the crooks who bankrupted the Paris rentals business by “skimming” , a cheating accountant who invented invoices but never did a stroke of work and an Internet company who have not paid me a cent on my old websites for six years – but two out of five is hopeful and perhaps now I can get on.
If I can read this online, then it means I have hit the “publish” button for the first time in six months and that can only be a good thing 
Just reading through your pages & can’t resist the urge to congratulate you for getting going again. My daughter is coming to grips also with a bad 2010ans. She gave up a perfectly sound job to move to the UK with dreams of making a life there. 12mths after her ordeal & costly move there, she had no alternative but to pack it all in & return home. I just hope her tormentors (like yours )will receive their “come uppance” & be penalized in someway. She has completely lost her nerve, has been in hospital twice since her return home. Can’t believe she could save so much money only to loose it all in 12mths & says she feels she has been “shat on” & has lost her self esteem. It needs some spark to ignite our drive again when things like that happen. Not many understand & just tell you to get over it & go on. But like you say when you have been “burnt” its hard to trust again to make the next move.
So, good on you!! I enjoy reading all the things about the South of France. What you & your wife have achieved over the years is amazing & you can enjoy a bit of “schadenfraude” when these pirates are penalized. I like that idea of Karma.
Keep up the writing!! amicalement, Rosemary
Hello Rosemary,
I am so sorry to hear about the misery your daughter has suffered – it is hard to come to terms with a series of “knocks” from people you should be able to trust, the compensation is, that because you have suffered at their hands and realise this, that you are a better person than they are and that they can only have a negative life.
It is hard to recover, it takes time, there is no “magic” solution and i despair when people with no imagination simply tell you to “get over it” it is like telling someone with a broken arm to “get over it ” – it has to take time and can’t be hurried – but a broken arm will heal if you rest it, don’t try to use it before you are ready, and listen to others who have more experience of your suffering. So wil the misery and felings of s-despair, these can be overcome if you can allow them to rest and focus on using other talents and interests
Whether Karma is real or an imaginary concept – never the less use this concept to move on and feel sorry for the fools who steal your soul, they are only jealous because they have nothing themselves.
If you can, bring your daughter here to stay with us for a while – I can talk the hind leg off a donkey and perhaps may be able to kindle a “spark”.
In an earlier blog post I was feeling overwhelmed a bit and got inspiration from the old movie “Swing Time” – maybe worth looking at
http://www.twiku.com/pick-yourself-up/