A Little Bit About Me!

A little bit about me!.....

Hi - my name is Nicole and I am the owner and creator of learn-french-today.com.

I am also the mother of 3 kids – Sam and Ellie (young teenagers) and Douglas aged 12.

I am/was a pediatric nurse, school nurse, health visitor, mum and wife and generally 'The Family Boss', or so I'm told!

So how come I've ended up with this website?

My journey started here.....

A Childhood Dream

At the age of 20 I left home and headed for the bright city lights of London and to train to be a nurse. It was a childhood dream come true. All those bright city lights and nurse-doctor parties were just heaven to an innocent convent girl.

As the years progressed I moved from ward to ward and from one nursing department to another and did various courses and certificates and continued to revel in it all.

Then an event happened that stopped me in my tracks - it was in the late 1980's and there was the appalling famine in Ethiopia. A good nursing friend of mine had just come back from Sudan after working in a refugee camp and her stories and experiences just compelled me to follow.

So after bombarding Save the Children Fund (UK) with my CV and lots of phone calls I finally got a work placement in early 1987 in an Ethiopian refugee camp in Sudan.

It was a huge privilege to have had that experience and an honor to work with people who were so dedicated.

Added to that I met my husband Bill. He was the refugee camp administrator and was this vision of a tall, handsome bearded man whom I thought looked like Jesus. Funny as I don't go for beards anymore! Yes he has shaved it off.

After 6 months in the camp, we both returned to England. I went into school nursing in London and then community health visiting and Bill went back into the Save the Children Headquarters.

However we both knew though that we would go overseas again and that day came pretty quickly.

A Family Is Born

By 1992 Bill and I were married and along with our first child Sam who was only 6 weeks old, we headed off to Togo in West Africa. Again working for Save The Children.

In Ghana we had 2 more children (Ellie and Douglas) and all the time I stayed at home to look after them.

Much as it was a privilege to have the opportunity to stay at home with the children, there were times when I hankered after something that would work my brain cells a bit more.

To counteract that, I did some distance learning courses in French, interior design and setting up a home based business.

Little did I know that the latter would be a starting point in an eventual new career.

From Africa To Asia

By 2000 we were ready for a change of continent and we didn't want to head back to Europe so Asia it was.

Sam was now 8 and so beginning to appreciate the ability to do other things than just be at home with mum. His social life took on a whole new meaning and he relished being in a 'big' school, going to kids parties and sports clubs - things that we were sort of deprived of in Mali.

I continued to think about going back to nursing but having been out of it for so long it would have meant a long refresher course back in the UK.

So instead I did some voluntary work and relief work in kindergartens but I still hankered after something else.

My first 'business venture' was exporting lacquer crafts back to England but that was harder than I thought and took up lots of time for very little money. It was fun and interesting but I lacked enough contacts (and experience) back in England to make it work properly.

My sister ended up buying a lot of the lacquer crafts with the idea that she would sell them at these fancy craft markets in her village. I don't think she ever did and it all still sits merrily in her garage ready to be dished out as yet another wedding present.

So I kept myself busy with other things including learning Vietnamese, improving my French (which was necessary with our kids in the French school system) and organizing kid get togethers, parties and learning to ride a motorbike which was the 'only' way to get around in Vietnam.

Mind you I never mastered the bike and ended up selling it – what a relief when I could just get back on my trusty but rusty old bicycle.

It was here in Hanoi that my new career was also born!

In Search of Something Else

It was 2003 that I also discovered the joys of the Internet. We only had dial up but it meant I could send emails and be in contact quickly with the outside world.

I realized that I really enjoyed surfing the net and began to do an internet search for a study course in photography or child psychology, two things that really interested me.

However as things in life often take a detour, I ended up looking at sites about building websites.

My research showed me that with a little effort and a huge amount of enthusiasm, it was very possible to turn any hobby, passion or skill into a viable online business. No experience necessary!

Now that got my attention as my experience of website building was a big fat ZERO.

So after stacks more research and to-ing and fro-ing and asking questions from those who had done it before, I decided to give it a go.

From Stay At Home Mum to Work At Home Mum

So that is it really. I am happy to say that as of today I have been a work at home mum (WAHM) for the past 5 years and I couldn't be happier.

My new career has worked brilliantly in that I can be at home when I need to be, I can work from anywhere in the world and at any time day or night and best of all I am doing something that I really enjoy and which gives me a huge amount of satisfaction.

Below is a video of me that I made for an SBI! Competition last year....and won a prize!

Both started out as hobbies and have ended up making me a decent income each and every month.

My brother and sister in law have also just set up a website on caravanning as that is what they are passionate about and as we have just moved to France, maybe I will start another website about our new life here.

It sort of gets a bit addictive!

So now you know a bit about me and my family. I think it is always nice to know who is behind a website as it can make it much more of a personal experience.

I too like to know who has visited my website and where they have come from which is why I love getting your messages.

All the best and thanks for reading.