Hope on that Facebook thread to see the dates for the fortnight in Monte Carlo… 
Oh, okay, okay, I know we have some Facebook-resistant users here…
We’ll be in San Giacomo from May 13th to the 27th (which means that those who are interested in cars and engines and stuff can pop along to the Monaco Grand Prix, while I sneak off and try to hit a tennis ball with a tennis racquet…;-)).
Typically there should be good weather after the beginning of May - so we should be able to swim as well as play tennis.
Having said that I always hope for a bit of rain - but just for part of the Grand Prix race. It always makes the race a lot more interesting!!
Justin
Justin
…where we plan to solve the age-old question of whether French or Italian wines are the best
… and which wines lubricate the mind and propel us at he fastest speed to fluency in Welsh
Justin
Also worth noting in here - I’m going to post the ‘How to get your place’ details on Facebook at about 10 am Monday morning - and there is going to be a slight time-sensitive element to the process…
I can’t wait for Monday morning. Exciting times!
Fingers crossed!
Is that 10 am Monday morning Welsh, Italian or French time??
Justin
Yes. About…
And so we’re up and running and accepting bids:
Summary - email me at admin@saysomethingin.com with what you feel is a fair price for the week. These are closed, one-off bids - we don’t want people getting into open auction and ending up making rash decisions.
We have 5 places. The highest 5 bids will get the places - in the event of equal bids, we’ll consider the one that arrived first to have priority (so if you’ve got a fairly clear idea of what you think is a fair price, it’s worth getting that in sooner rather than later). [In fact, we’ve already had our first bid].
When We’ll Announce The Winners
Our northern bootcamps usually sell out in about 30 minutes. This is a different approach, though, and pretty much unchartered waters for us. So - we’ll be willing to leave the bidding process open for a maximum of 2 weeks - not least because we know that Facebook can take their sweet time showing our posts to people!
Having said that, once we have enough bids for us to feel that we’re offering a good price to our hosts, we’ll be happy to close up - so we’ll promise to keep the process open until next Monday at the earliest, but reserve the right to close the process and announce the 5 winners at any point from then on.
The More Details Please Bit
If you’re one of the 5 successful bidders, what you’ll get is:
2 weeks full-board accommodation in the glorious San Giacomo, just over the Italian border from Monte Carlo. Private ensuite bedroom, infinity pool, general loveliness.
2 weeks of intensive personal Welsh tuition designed to take you from scratch to conversational competency by the end of the two weeks.
Generally speaking, mornings will be personal study time following a programme designed for you by me, and fine-tuned as the 2 weeks go by. I’ll be popping in and out while you work so that I can tell exactly how you’re doing, and I’ll be immediately available for therapy and biscuits if you feel the urge to throw yourself out of a window at any point.
Afternoons and evenings will be a combination of forced production (don’t worry, it won’t hurt physically!), leisure time (think beaches, bars, and maybe some Formula 1 or tennis time) and short but intense listening work.
What Isn’t Included In The Price
Travel to and from San Giacomo - we’ll give you full details to make sure you don’t get lost, but it’s up to you to arrange your travel!
Any purchases outside of the accommodation - food or drink on trips to the beach or Monte Carlo, court costs for tennis, costs for trotting off to watch the Grand Prix (yes, we’ll be willing to be flexible with your work on those days!) and so on.
Amdani!
And we’ve got 5 bids, so it’s looking extremely likely this is now going ahead - although it’s still well worth anyone interested putting a bid in, because a couple of them are a touch on the low-ish side…
I was trying to work out what
could reasonably mean (more because this seems like a ludicrous opportunity than because I have the spare cash to do this, which I don’t), and it surprised me just how much was involved here.
I guess the minimum to consider for that would be £50/night. So that’s £700.
I don’t know - minimum £20/day? Another £280.
Even if it’s only a 1/2 hour a day, that’s another £210.
So even allowing for Aran’s personality flaw of always vastly underpricing everything about SSiW, and ignoring the costs of the afternoon/evening activities etc, that looks like £1200 (shy £10, for anyone counting at home). I guess we’re not going to find out the size of the bids involved, and that’s good from a privacy point of view, but a shame because I’m really interested to see what different people think this amount of Welsh is worth to them - I rather suspect a lot of people would value it considerably above my low-ball estimates!
I guess this is something of a “market testing” exercise.
It will be fascinating to see how it works out.
I hope the Nant Gwrtheyrn idea pans out as well.
It’s a week, or a fortnight?
Erm, yes, it’s a fortnight, don’t know why I put week 
Interesting piece of intelligent maths from Kev - obviously, I can’t start talking about what people are bidding, but I suppose it’s fair to say that a) he’s right that there are people who would value it considerably higher, and b) that a bid at Kev’s pricing would currently win a place on this first Monte Carlo trip
Well, that’s reassuring, although not surprising.
I hope that doesn’t imply that people are putting in disparaging bids, and just the people haven’t bid yet. :s
I’d love to see this be a success!
Given that a 4 day beginner residential course at nant gwrtheyrn is around £400, Kev’s estimate of £1200 for 14 days is looking pretty good. Especially if you like sunshine…