I ran out of bubble wrap. The last 50 meter roll at the wholesale store was 13 Euros + 20% tax. I had to buy the same roll at our hardware store, 35 Euros. I also ran out of tape, bought 3 more rolls. And the stationary store never called me that my labels are in so I can print and affix the Amazon catalog number.
The good news is, the really great news is that reviews are coming in, I got another one today. I am up to 28 reviews now, geesh was that hard to get. I really deeply appreciate all of you who left a review, it's so important.
I have all the 1L AOC to finish tomorrow then all of the 2L, and then if I ever get the labels I have to stick the Amazon Catalog label on each product, then make a Amazon Label for each case, and then one for the pallet.
We have an air force base that is below us a bit, maybe a mile or two away. This is not an ordinary air base with a lot of air traffic, this is the air force base that has the Officers Academy in it, in fact they do a cadet exchange with the US Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Every year the General invites us to his house for dinner and a reception for all the foreign exchange cadets. It's really nice. The Americans are the biggest group usually 6 of them, then there are cadets from Canada, Japan, Brazil, and a few others I can't remember. When the new cadets, including the incoming class of French Cadets, arrive the General has a special luncheon for them and their families, and food and wine producers haul our wares over and set up a welcome reception as coming from the city. It is me with olive oil, vineyards with wine, a special bakery that makes traditional Provence bread, and a lady who produces canned (glass bottles actually) of fish soup, some jellies & jams, and appetizer spreads and the lady from the soap factory. We are not there to sell anything, we just bring our products and give free tastings or free bars of local traditional soap, as in Welcome to Salon de Provence we are here from the city to greet you. Then the cadets & the General and a few officers go across the courtyard to their luncheon. I always always take care of the chef! He gets a bottle of olive oil. Since I became friendly with the chef he now brings us all bottles of ice water and coffee when we first arrive. After the cadets leave to go eat, then the dining room staff sets up our table outside under the shade trees and we also serve ourselves to the same nice luncheon buffet the new cadets are having. It's really cool because the vineyards always bring their open (and replacements) bottles to the shall we call it the villagers lunch table, and we drink great wine. The chocolatier brings us chocolate candies. We all know each other and it is a pretty fun casual time. I have to go to that on Wednesday, so that is going to interrupt our packing operation by a day as when I come home from that reception and lunch I usually just want to take a nap.
We have a new General, I have not met him yet but the last General really liked my husband and I, he would come to our farm and buy olive oil to take back to Paris with him and also he would buy our oil for his mother. He was so cool, he was the personal pilot of Jacques Chirac when he was President. Wherever Chirac flew our General was his pilot, I don't think he was a General then. He was also the youngest General they ever had in France, he was proud of that. He likes our olive oil so much that he ordered little mini bottles, the same little bottles you get booze in on an airplane, I make a gift pack of a mini oil & a mini fig vinegar, put it in a crispy cello bag with our logo sticker and a ribbon. For important guests who stay over night at the General's house, each guest gets one of these mini oil & vinegar and I imagine he adds in our local soap and probably wine for a VIP gift.
Last Christmas they threw a big Christmas party for the whole base, and they decided to set up a market, there must have been 30 vendors and we all were given a table and they had a portable zoo, and of course Santa Clause arrived by helicopter (the kids loved that) seeing as we were on an air force base. It was a great party for the air force base personnel. However nobody bought from any of the vendors, I mean nothing. So on that end it was a bust, but you don't know how things will work until you try them. So my husband and I were at this base Christmas Party for like 5 hours, with nobody interested in talking olive oil, so we spent practically the entire time talking with the General. I actually felt kind of sorry for him, he is very personable, but people tend to be intimidated by him and just speak to him quickly and leave. So he was there for 5 hours too and ended up basically talking to us most of the time. He told a really interesting story.
It was the war in Bosnia, the break up of Yugoslavia. The General (I believe he must have been a Colonel at this time) was in charge of the air force base in one of those countries. He had to authorize all landing of incoming planes. His orders were, ONLY military planes. So in comes a plane from Southwest airlines, he said it was well known that the CIA always flew Southwest airlines. He gave permission for the plane to land (it was Southwest airlines after all) but told them he would come on board. So he boards the plane and there is Dick Cheny! He tells Cheney that only military planes can land and their plane number was a commercial plane so he does not have permission to exit the plane. Cheny asks hm to come back in 15 minutes so the General leaves and comes back later in 15 minutes. Cheny holds up a piece of paper saying this is now a military flight, here is the flight number or military number or whatever it was, so the Colonel left him off the plane. Isn't that a funny story? Cheny says, "Give me 15 minutes," 15 minutes later Southwest airlines airplane became a US Military plane, ha-ha.
I am sorry to see our old General go, he will serve 2 years in Paris basically doing program development work and then he is done. Our air force base is home the the French Air Acrobatic team, they practice every day about 11:30 or noon. We get an air show practically every day. It also holds the Court for military Justice, not just for the air force, but for the whole military, this is where they have the trials so we have lawyers and judges. It is a real nice air force base, I like to say, we don't have air traffic we have air entertainment. Other than the air acrobatic team there is hardly much air traffic at all. It's nice. And a couple of the air traffic controllers for the base are part of our olive picking crew, so how cool is that?
