Cécile breezed in as forecast on Thursday in the middle of the night (or really, early morning, to be precise) and spent the day recovering – it’s always like that after a long drive through the night. But since then, it’s been something of a non-stop cycle of work which even included (would you believe?) a Sunday?

Basically, I’ve decided that in the interests of moving on the work that needs to be done, I ought to work on whatever needs doing at Cécile’s in the morning and then work on mine in the afternoon. At the same time, Cécile came to the conclusion that I’m working in some kind of glorious disorder and that much could be gained if more space was made available at my house, either by arranging things more comfortably and tidily or by disposing of things that are in the way and are not likely to be used.

Consequently, this is what we have been doing. And apart from accomplishing more stuff round at my place, a whole van-load or two of surplus material has been moved from my house round to Céciles, with the aim of cleaning it up and selling it on eBay or Leboncoin. Not only will that make more space, it will make some money too, which is always useful. In the meantime of course, the list of jobs that needs doing at Cécile’s is diminishing quite rapidly too. Obviously a win-win situation all round.

But it’s not been quite as straightforward as that as I’ve been struck down (yet again) by bronchitis – me who is hardly ever ill, of course. It’s really depressing, this last few months where it’s been one thing after another.

And it’s not likely to continue either, because I’ve had some really bad news about a friend back in Brussels and once we’ve finished recording our radio programmes, I’m heading north. And I’ve no idea for how long either.

+2

-2

… about the weather (we didn’t have any snow, just for a change) but I was absolutely right about the interruption. I finished the battening on the one wall and stapled the insulation to it, and was just about to start the counter-battening, thinking that I could have done with a few more afternoons like this, when the phone rang.

It was Marianne, my friend from Brussels. She was quite upset as she’s had some bad news about some health issues and so wanted to talk. And this talk went on for well over two hours and of course I lost all of the light.

I’m not really complaining about being interrupted because it’s nice to have friends and it’s nice to chat, but it’s just so frustrating when I had 10 days to do the bathroom and I’ve really accomplished nothing. What’s even worse from that point of view is that I need to go to Brussels for a while very soon and that’s going to be another slice of the year gone with nothing accomplished, no matter how nice it is to see and meet up with old friends.

Apart from that, I’ve finished the writing for the music programme and I’ve also been doing some tidying up (not too much – you’ve no need to worry) because Cécile will be travelling home through the night and she’s going to come via here. I don’t want to frighten her off.

So tomorrow I’ll be back at Ice Station Zebra and I’ll have no idea when I’ll be finishing this blasted bathroom.

+3

-2

day of rest yesterday, it was time to restart work. And what’s more, I managed a good day’s worth too, complete with early start.

So after breakfast I cracked on with the radio programme for the forthcoming month and pounded out a couple of thousand words – that’s the kind of thing that keeps me out of mischief.

 After lunch it was back into the bathroom again. You can see the progress that I’m making with studding the existing walls. There will be some of that space-blanket insulation stapled onto those and then another layer of studding over the top followed by the plasterboard. And by way of a change, the plasterboard will be tiled.

And quite right too, seeing as it is the bathroom.

Before knocking off I did some tidying up in the barn and also sorted out another bag of wood to bring up here. You can’t have too much of that.

I went round to Marianne’s later and showed her how to light the fire in her new woodstove. It’s the same as mine except that it’s narower, but higher. Still the same over on top which I’m sure she’ll find useful.

Tomorrow, it’s Tuesday and so we’ll be round at Bill’s again looking for more paperwork. But I wonder what the weather will be like. All through this winter we’ve had glorious nights with not a cloud in the sky, promising a pile of sunshine and so on, only for the days to be miserable and overcast. We did manage something of a sunny afternoon today (the first time in a year I reckon) and the skies are glorious right now. That means a snowstorm heee tomorrow – just you wait and see.

+1

-5

Yes, I’m not having much luck with doing this bathroom, much to my dismay.

I had a nice early start to on my radio notes, with the intention of making a good start on the wall this afternoon, but it was not to be. Halfway through the morning session, the phone rang and it was Pascal. Apparently Marianne has run out of heating oil and can’t get any until Monday. could I let her have some wood for her new woodstove? And while I’m at it, could I do another load of moving for him this afternoon?

So that was the end of that. I had to sort out a pile of wood for Marianne, and then go with Pascal to Bill’s to pick up the furniture that he’s bought. That wasn’t as easy as it might have been either as Bill’s house is at the bottom of a steep bank and in the snow and ice it was rather difficult. Still, we loaded up some of the stuff that Pascal had bought – not all of it as it went dark quickly and I didn’t want to be caught out in the snowstorm that was blowing.

But while we were loading up, Bill’s neightbour (also a Pascal) drove by in his 4×4. “However did you get here?” he enquired. And so I explained that we had come over the top and down the bank.
“You know that you won’t get back up again” he insisted. 
“No problems” I replied. “If we get stuck I’ll come back and get you to tow me up the hill”

Anyway, I made it up the bank with no effort at all, and so did Pascal, who’s only been driving for a year. It just goes to show.

This evening I watched The Eagle Has Landed. Even though it’s nothing like as good as the book (which isn’t surprising, as the book is magnificent) it’s still an excellent film – thoroughly enjoyable.

Many people though don’t realise that there were two follow-up films to it.The first was by Schultz, the creator of the “Peanuts” cartoon strips. His film featured Snoopy returning to his airbase after another scintillating combat with the Red Baron. That film was called “The Beagle Has Landed”. The second one features of course the famous Strawberry Moose landing in Montreal on his way to visit his herd in Canada. That is of course called “The Evil Has Landed”.

+2

-5

… this afternoon.

Cécile needed to have a file of papers in Clermont Ferrand today and as usual one of the documents wasn’t received. The closing date was today and so the form needed to be at her house yesterday but despite my driving through a blizzard and a couple of snowdrifts, no documentt. And that was really the deadline for it to be received at Cécile’s in order for it to be posted on.

However a phone call from the village postie this afternoon changed everything. The document had arrived and there was still 90 minutes left before the office in Clermont Ferrand closed.

Mind you, it wasn’t easy leaving here. I’d gone down this morning to leave the bread money and found that my neighbour in trying to go somewhere had slid off the track (we’d had anothr shed-load of snow in the night) and gone into a ditch. He’s a miserable old so-and-so and we’ve had a couple of run-ins in the past but you can’t leave anyone stranded like that so I spent a merry hour or two helping him dig out his van. Whether or not it changes his behaviour patterns and makes him more agreeable, well, only time will tell, but we do need more solidarity around here.

Anyway, despite the miserable weather conditions I made it to Clermont Ferrand with 10 minutes to spare and so that’s now a weight of Cécile’s mind at least. It also meant that I could do a monthly shop at the Auchan on my way home.

Apart from that, the floor in the shower room is completely finished, there’s a false floor on top (the false floor out of Caliburn as it happens) to protect it from stains and dirt, and I’ve started on the battening on the wall. With no shopping tomorrow, I’ll have an afternoon on there tomorrow and hopefully we might see real progress. You never know.

+1

-2

… with this bathroom floor. You can see where I reached when I ran out of wood at the end of the afternoon today.

Well, not exactly ran out of wood. There’s another 25m² but of course it is all at Cécile’s and I forgot to pick it up on Monday night when I was round there. I’ll have to nip round tomorrow some time and pick up the rest.

Having paid a decent amount of money for layer two, it looks much better than the previous layer, as it ought to, but it’s still not right and I’m pretty much disappointed with it. But at least it’s better than what was there before. and it won’t look too bad when it’s all done.

THis morning though I was late getting up and what with one thing and another it wasn’t until 11:30 that I started work on the computer. I managed to complete the first part of the radio programmes but then Terry came round for a chat and so that was that for a while;

After working on the floor I spent some time making the missing shelf for my unit and then rounding up a pile of firewood. Yes, the days are starting to draw out which is very positive. Summer will soon be here.

+3

-2

Yes, it always happens round about now. A certain person’s herd starts to assemble in the field just below here. No wonder that His Nibs was so keen to return to Pooh Corner when Cécile went off to visit her mum.

You’ll also notice the weather. In fact, today was a strange day. We started off with sunshine and then gusts of wind were continually pushing the clouds around and we were having all kinds of things. Then, about 14:30, we had a dramatic storm for about 30 seconds followed by an hour of the heaviest snow that I’ve seen in ages.

I had to rescue Caliburn and park him at the top of the hill because I had a furniture removal to do this evening for Pascal and I wanted to be sure that I could move. Driving to St Eloy was certainly interesting.

At Bills this morning we unearthed a few more treasures and another pile of paperwork that was needed. In view of the cold state of the house we also lit a raging fire – there was no shortage of materials to burn. Tons of stuff that wasn’t for keeping. If ever such an unfortunate tragedy were to happen to me, it will be just the same here at Pooh Corner.

This afternoon I finally managed to make a start on the shower room floor. As you can see in the pic, the first layer is down. As you know, it’s not even at all because of the rubbish quality of the flooring that I used. Teach me to buy cheap stuff. It’s going to have a second layer all over the top of it and right through into the bedroom which is just as well because I love wood and the idea of having wooden floors all the way through the house is very appealing.

I’ve actually started to lay the second layer but I didn’t take a photo of where I reached because it was far too dark. You’ll have to content yourself with the pic of the first layer, all swept out and cleaned. You must admit that it does look nicer than what was there before – all filthy dirt-impregnated boarding.

In other news, I seem to have a sulking cat. Raoul was trying to grab my dinner this evening so after a couple of “no’s” that had no reaction at all, I put hil outside. And after I finished eating and went to call him back in, he sat on the stairs with his back to me, ignoring me. But he eventually gave in and now he’s nestled uo against me on the sofa, snoring away. I completely forgot all about this side of a cat’s behaviour.

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-3

… at Pooh Corner for the next week or two. Cécile has gone off to see her mother who lives on an island somewhere in the Bay of Biscay and the connecting boats run once every Preston Guild. Whenever she can make it back, I’ll be going back round to Ice Station Zebra.

My intention today was to put in a good day’s work on the house here, such as lay another layer on the bathroom floor but having to be up at 04:00 is no use to me. I’m not as young as I was and in any case I’m a night owl, not an early bird like some people I can name.

Back here before 06:00, third thing I did was to crash out on the sofa. Second thing I did was to light the fire but the first thing was to find the cat biscuits as I had a picket line awaiting me. And he spent the morning asleep on the sofa next to me – he’s really settled in here.

with not having done very much today I’m heading for an early night and hopefully I can make a decent start tomorrow. There’s tons of stuff that I need to be doing.

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-1

We had yet another heavy snowfall yesterday morning. The fields all around are quite white but luckily it didn’t stick to the roads. Nevertheless, it’s a sign that we aren’t yet over the worst of the weather.

Apart from that, on Tuesday we went round to Bill’s and finally managed to find the keys to the Berlingo after much ado about a great deal. Of course, the battery was totally flat and so that’s now on a very slow and leisurely charge and we’ll see about that in the coming week.

I’ve also been spending some time dismantling stables and reinforcing doors. There’s a little undercurrent running along the brow of the Font Nanaud right now that needs to be nipped in the bud, and as anyone will tell you, prevention is much better than any kind of cure. It’s definitely a case of trying to bolt the door before the horse manages to make good its escape.

And with no football last night, we might be lucky and have something later on this afternoon.But if the weather doesn’t improve, that’s not likely to happen, and we’ll be back to our fixture pile-up. All of this makes a total mockery of a winter break in football. There’s just been one match since the season restarted at the end of the month, matches were postponed due to snow in October, and yet we could have played almost every weekend during the break.

+3

-2

… there was a strange silence from the chairman of the Chatelguyon football club when I asked him if the football match yesterday was to be played. I hadn’t travelled much further south than Manzat before the sun made its first appearance and although it would be totally misleading to suggest that the football ground at Chatelguyon was bathed in sunlight, the conditions down there were a vast improvement on conditions here at La Batisse.

For the first 20 minutes Pionsat were played off the park and being just 1-0 down was not really a fair reflection of the play. François in goal made a few vital interceptions to keep the club in touching distance. However, once Pionsat had come to terms with the match and the conditions (they haven’t played since mid-November) the pendulum swung the other way and the final score of 1-1 was a travesty. Pionsat hit the post, they had a goal disallowed for a foul – in their favour, would you believe – and two shots that were lobbed over the keeper ended up on the roof of the net.

I was actually sent out to the football with a packed lunch, which must surely be a first and hopefully not a last.

Today I’ve fitted an exterior light, dismantled the ironwork of an old stables and repaired the stop light in Cécile’s car while she emptied out Caliburn and cleaned his interior. Tomorrow, we are off again to Bill’s to help Marianne and Pascal with the cleaning up there. So if I don’t come on line tomorrow, it will be that I’ve been buried under a pile of possessions.

+3

-2

… I’m still alive and kicking (as a few people may well discover in due course). What is happening is that my life has, for the moment, gone off in a new direction and, at least temporarily, I’m no longer living at Pooh Corner.

When one is sharing someone else’s living space, it also involves sharing someone else’s daily routine and that is a daily routine that is totally different to that which I am used to. Consequently, things in my life that I have previously taken for granted are now not so easy to accomplish.

Added to that, we’re in the grip of a severe spell of winter just now and travelling the 12 or so kilometres back to Pooh Corner to carry on the good work, fight the good fight and to use the internet – well, that’s not so simple either just now.

Apart from that, things are ticking along. Liz and I are still recording the radio programmes, I’m still writing them and researching them (when I can manage to have internet access of course) and there are also loads of new things. Previously, I’ve visited the far-flung corners of the Puy-de-Dôme thanks to the Pionsat football club. I’m now visiting corners of the département that are even further-flung, but thanks to Leboncoin, the French equivalent of Craigslist or Kijiji. Not only that, I was the other day an interested spectator at a French criminal trial (who says that I don’t live an interesting and varied life?) until the Judge decided that the contents of the evidence were not fit for impartial ears and ordered the court to be cleared.

Clearing Bill’s house is another activity that is occupying some of my time. We have an interested client for his little Berlingo, but we’ve no idea where the keys might be, and I promise you that rifling the house of someone for a missing object is not as easy as you might be led to believe if you are an avid follower of these American crime thrillers.    

So tomorrow if the weather improves and we can move about, there’s football at Chatelguyon as the season restarts.

And then I’ll be on my own for a week or so, which means that I’ll be able to go home and resume normal service for a while. Hopefully I’ll do the second level of bathroom floor and make a start on plasterboarding the walls. You never know.

In the meantime, enjoy yourselves and I’ll be back in touch.

+2

-3

… into civilisat … errr … Pionsat.

Yesterday afternon it warmed up slightly and so taking a wild gamble we set off through the lanes for the shops at Pionsat. What was difficult about it is that some trees had fallen down under the weight of the snow blocking the lane, and we had to drive a couple of miles down the old railway track to reach the lane at the far end. Anyway, now we have some more food here which is just as well.

Today it was back down the old railway line and into Marcillat for recording the radio programmes and some more food – stock up at every opportunity of course in this weather. Being snowed in at this altitrude is no joke. I also dropped off Caliburn’s spare wheels and snow tyres at the tyre place there, and that meant nipping out again this evening to have them fitted.

Back in a driving snowstorm (the clear weather didn’t last long) behind someone driving at 7 kph (I measured it). Seriously, although the conditions are bad up here, if you can’t trust yourself and your machinery in this weather then you shouldn’t be out and about in it.

But now the temperature has fallen through the floor and it doesn’t look as if I’ll be moving for a bit.

+2

-3

After a relaxing weekend doing not very much at all, Monday was when I started back to work. Cécile helped me reorganise my attic a little, for which I was very grateful, and then I started work on the floor of the shower room.

That’s all completed now, at least as far as the first layer of flooring goes, and I’ve even managed to put a piece down outside the shower room to see how it looks on the floor. And what is so disappointing is that the extra packet that I had to buy, after I had managed (and didn’t that take a while?) to mate up with the previous lot, has gone in perfectly and it looks really impressive. It almost made me wish to tear up what I had already done and start again.

After the Groupe Anglo-Français, I went round to Cécile’s, and that’s where the fun begins. She lives almost at the top of the Font Nanaud, the hill here that is the highest point around, at 2300 feet down a long, isolated lane. And that was when the snow began to fall quite heavily (the flurries on Sunday and Monday were nothing) and we are now snowed in.

Not that I’m bothered because not only is Cécile a charming host, she is a vegan and also quite a film buff with an enormous collection of DVDs, such that puts mine to shame. And so here in the relative warmth we’ve spent some time watching films.

We’ve also been out for a few walks too. Yesterday it was rather difficult as you can tell because there was quite a heavy snow falling for most of the day. Nevertheless, best foot forward and all that and we had a good ramble out into the wilderness and then into the forest where we took a startled deer rather by surprise.

I have to say though that I wasn’t sorry to make it back into the warm and dry. It was rather grim out there as I’m sure that you can imagine by looking at the photograph. Still, cutting wood with a saw is an excellent way to keep warm in the kind of temperatures that we were experiencing.

Today it finally managed to stop snowing and in fact in the afternoon some strange golden thing amde some kind of appearance in the sky.

That prompted us to go for a walk in the other direction where there is an old fish pond or millpond or something. And that really looked very pleasant in the snow. What a glorious afternoon.

That prompted me to have a go digging Caliburn out of a snowdrift and we eventually made it down to the end of the lane without too many difficulties, but after a great deal of effort.

We’ll have to see what tomorrow might bring. If it can hold off snowing for a day or two we might even be properly mobile again. You never know.

+2

-5

Yes, this last week or so has seen a few changes, some positive, and some, rather like Bill’s news, quite negative.

There has been a great deal of organisation to do with Bill. Mainly because what with one thing and another it was not possible for his daughter to fly here until yesterday. She speaks hardly any French and so Marianne, who had undertaken to do some of the back office work, has ended up driving her around and acting as translator. In fact, Marianne needs a medal for everything that she has done for Bill.

Anyway I’ve been handling communications, helped by Liz and Rosemary, and I think that between us all we have managed to organise everything.

It has not been easy though, and it highlights a major problem that is going to happen more and more as time goes on. Many people have come to France, and indeed to other places in Europe, to retire. Thay have left behind their old haunts, their families and friends, and they are totally isolated here. Add to that the fact that they aren’t aware of the laws, habits and customs of the country, and then the fact that French authorities, from the local mayor upwards, have no idea of what a British Birth Certificate or Marriage certificate looks like, and you can see the kind of problems that might arise as soon as someone is taken seriously ill.

It really was lucky that Marianne, being quite interested in Bill as a friend, having lived in the UK for over 20 years as a schoolteacher in a British Comprehensive is the kind of person who is not easily brushed aside by authority, was on hand to take charge of events. But tomorrow at 14:00 is going to be a very sad occasion indeed.

Other events include the fact that I seem to be living something of a nomadic existence just recently and there is something going on that has diverted my focus away from my goals. Benefits in one side of course create disadvantages on another and I have to find a happy medium somewhere where I can put everything into balance.

Not only that, but there is a new addition to the family. On Tuesday night when the temperature plummeted to well below zero, we arrived back here to find a very cold and soggy moggy outside the door. A handful of Munchies cheered him up but next day when we went out to fetch wood, there he was again and followed up all the way down to the forest, hanged around while we cut wood, and then followed us back. Of course Cécile took pity on him and gave him, against my better judgement, a huge plate of Munchies. So, as you might expect, when we came downstairs this morning, guess who was yowling outside the front door?

He’s acquired a name too. Cécile tried all kinds of combinations of vowels and syllables, and it seems that his ears pricked up when she tried “Raoul”. Consequently, next time I’m downstairs with a camera in the daylight I shall take a photograph of Raoul the cat. I wonder how long it will be before he will be sleeping on the sofa up here by the fire?

+1

-2

… and quite right too, after my marathon journey yesterday.

On Thursday eveningI didn’t mention the howling wind and driving rain that we were having at Newhaven. And it really was “driving” too. Out in the Channel it became even worse. All the vehicles were strapped down and the doors out to the decks were locked. Even in the lounge at the back, the spray was lashing past the windows as the ship crashed through the waves. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a storm like that out at sea.

This is where I had a few hours’ sleep. Somewhere in between Rouen and Evreux. This photo was taken at about 11:30 am and, believe me, it was nothing like this at 07:30 when I stopped. At that time of morning you couldn’t see a thing because there was about 6 inches of snow all over the place.

The wind and rain that we had had in the Channel had turned to snowstorms and blizzards by the time we docked, and forward progress was somewhat delayed by nervous drivers who really shouldn’t be out there in this kind of weather if they don’t like the conditions. I was glad that I had bought some decent tyres, especially when that moron came down this sliproad of the Highway near Rouen and drove straight into the traffic without stopping to give way – in that kind of weather.

No, by 07:30 I was fed up with the conditions and being rather tired, I felt that I could concentrate better on the road and with the conditions if I had a little rest for a while. However, as you can see, the weather took care of itself.

From here it was a relatively straightforward drive back home, stopping at a supermarket in Orleans for some food-shopping, and in Montlucon for some diesel and some Seitan slices for my Christmas dinner (something else I forgot to buy in the UK) and I was back at Ice Station Zebra for 19:00. 2 weeks without heat and my attic was freezing, but a good fire soon sorted that out.

Today, I didn’t really do nothing. I wrote the additional notes for the next instalment of radio  programmes and made a start on the Christmas Special. Then I was sidetracked by the footy on the TV (all the local footy is cancelled due to the weather) and finished off the day with boiled rice, tinned veg and tinned chickpea curry, all cooked in my oven. It tasted a million times better than boiled in a saucepan and I’ll do this again. I’m really glad that I bought this little stove.

+1

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