You will be able to check out the latest gossip and shop openings with our roving reporter, Tammy Canette and her doggies, Crois and Sette as they totter proudly from shop to shop along one of the most glamourous high streets in the world, the Rue d'Antibes. Tammy and her dogs will also be covering (not literally we hope) every inch of Cannes, the most ritzy city in Europe, including the world famous Palais des Festivals, home to renowned Film Festival. It should make for addicitive reading.
I thought I had better say that this blog is written with passion and from the heart BUT without any knowledge of the laws of France, journalism or in fact anything legal. I just want to say I love the French (food, ski resorts, beaches, wine etc,) I love my girlfriend Lucy who is a woman, I love my cousin Tracey who lives in China and my best friend, who is a black Nigerian (not sure that they even make white ones.) My best friend before that was gay and is now sadly no longer around and my new best friend, Karen Hockney, is a journalist which proves I have absolutely no discriminations whatsoever against anyone.
Another great three hour meeting of two magnificent minds, with probably our most golden nugget being the decision to not only help the hip becoming hipper and the busy become busier but now we are going to make sure all our GAY friends (Mark, Dave, Chris) have somewhere to go OUT too, after all, what is the point of 'coming out' if you're stuck at home bored. Great for them and great for the new site because it gives us a bigger target market and them something to look forward to. We tried Googling (that's a search term and not an obscene act btw) French Riviera and the word gay and all we found was Pierre the carefree and lively lavender farmer up the back end of Provence. We are so fired up about this project, now and every day things just seem to be evolving into what can only be a surefire success.
To create a punchy, sassy, in your face social networking/dating/magazine website appealing across the board to ex-pats and French alike but with one fundamental difference...it will be the antithesis of everything that has gone before on the Cote d’Azur.
3rd November: Wayne wrote to Olga at Cityline Dating:
Had a couple of new friends round last night, Iain and Karen, just thought it would be nice to have a bit of a relax (see picture) and maybe throw a few ideas around. Iain is far left and closest to the camera, the one with the deaf aid and the silvery grey hair. Lucy and Karen were making the tea when I took this photo, while Iain was working out which one he fancied. After the golden girls decided to go for an early game of bingo with the chap on Iain's left (blown out again mate) I run my idea about dating and lifestyle by them and they loved it. Karen Hockney is a successful Fleet Street journalist and Iain already runs a couple of internet businesses and I loved their London style of thinking and was buoyed up by their enthusiasm. The idea is really raw at the moment but hopefully it can evolve and sort itself out into a workable business where we can all make some money. If not, then I might go to the bingo next week with Cyril and his mates, at least there are five possible revenue streams to follow, none of them look that healthy after all and I guess someone has got to win that full house. Clickety Click!
Found this in the Guardian:
I have chatted through the site with plenty of people and they all love it! The singles are bored and need people and places, and the couples want more to do and would love to meet other couples (DO NOT EVEN GO THERE!) and there were even a few 'halves' of couples that got just a little too excited about the dating site. I am now thinking social networking and dating coupled with an informative site about things to do, where to eat, restaurant reviews, a la Michael Winner, AA Gill and car reviews of the Jeremy kind. This place has so much to offer but you try finding it, Duffy, Coldplay and a group of the most fantastic artists played at the Q awards ceremony in Monaco a couple of weeks ago and no one even knew about it until the week after. The organisers would have loved to have had a gaggle of star spotters hanging around outside with the paps and who knows, some of the well connected could have even tried to get tickets, had they known it was happening. 
Met up with a lady friend in Carrefour for an expresso and a croissant (petit dejeuner en France) this morning. I was going to opt for a healthy 'very berry' smoothie, a tall skinny double shot latte and a bowl of granola with Greek yogurt but she was too busy to come to my favourite Pret in Piccadilly because she had a date that evening and in any event I had to pick the kids up from school!
Been going back and forth with the lovely people at AI and it seems they have no interest in any ideas or suggestions, be they from Mark Zuckerberg, the irrepressible Candy boys or more importantly (and astonishingly) even me. These guys are in the Dark Ages and have no desire to turn the lights on. Their idea of clubbing is what Freddie boy Flintstone did to his old lady when his pterodactyl burger hit the stone dining table five minutes late. AngloINFO are nice people, really, really, really nice people in fact, who have created a great local service site, where you can find out everything from how to tax your 4 wheel drive school buggy through to where the nearest local Monday market is, just in case you need to replace your yellow and blue provencal plastic tablecloth, but if you're looking for anything outside their very organised box then forget it. In the words of the great Duncan Bannatyne: 'I MOST DEFINITELY AM OUT.'
Looking at a product called AngloINFO which is the main forum/site here on the French Riviera to gather information, swap ideas and chat. It is great and everyone here uses it, partly because of its great functionality and partly because there is just nowhere else to go. There is a huge population of English speaking folk between Monaco and St Tropez and they are a great target market. I have called up AI and they work on a franchise basis with head office running about 1/3 of around 30 sites. Most of their sites are in France but they also have franchises as far afield as Singapore and Sao Paulo. I am toying with the idea of looking at their franchise for the French Alps, they seem keen but to be honest it all just seems a bit too much of a tired and sleepy product for me.
'There has been speculation of a second dot-com bubble to succeed the first that occurred roughly between 1995 and 2001. Some refer to it as Bubble 2.0, as many companies involved are in the Web 2.0 sphere, like Skype, Facebook and Google. Various suggestions have been proposed as to why there may or may not be a second dot-com bubble.
I searched the internet for a photo of a bored person and this is the best I can find; I know I am not Chinese and what hair I have left is certainly not black but there is no denying that this fella looks bored and I for sure am bored too. I want to work and I NEED to earn some money, I miss lots about London people but I certainly do not want go back so I need something to do desperately. Business has been kind to me and divorce not so kind but hey, I am happy at least and now just figure I need to work out something to do. I keep getting bollocked for being on Facebook and the net so maybe if I can think of a decent internet business idea then at least I will be able to keep in touch with all my 789 great 'friends' without too much trouble. I need these people in my life, I have no idea how I lost touch with them all in the first place but boy, am I glad they are back. So internet it is, could start a search engine but that seems maybe a tad ambitious even for me. Porn site? No, not well hung enough. A something-to-sell kind of site maybe? Something for the Brits here that can't speak French (which is most of them btw). Chinese restaurant perhaps? I like the food and Lucy is a great cook but restaurants are just too much like hard work plus all the customers will be asking for instructions on how to use chopsticks and the business will have gone down the Yangtze River before you can say egg fried rice. Stupid idea and I don't know what made me think of that to be honest!