Category Archives: radio anglais

Tuesday 19th April 2011 – I’ve been in the garden again this afternoon.

This time though it’s the heavy engineering stuff.

You may remember that between the greenhouse and the mega-cloche was a patch of land covered by a tarpaulin – where I was going to erect the aluminium greenhouse. But following a donation by Simon of the old windows from his workshop, I changed my plans.

I promised the aluminium greenhouse to Liz and Terry and I was planning to build a balloon-framed structure that I could fit the windows into.

digging base for greenhouse les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnyway, to cut a long story short, this afternoon I cleaned up all of the rubbish that had accumulated there, removed the bits of aluminium greenhouse, rolled up the tarp and set to digging out a square trench.

With the land sloping downhill quite steeply there, I’ve had to dig out so that the square trench is more-or-less level, and I’m setting a row of breeze blocks into the soil there – the purpose of those being to make some kind of horizontal level and keep the wooden frame of the greenhouse out of the damp soil.

Once I’ve finished the breeze blocks I can make a start on building the framework for the greenhouse. The back wall will be covered in the cheap tongue and grooving that is on sale at Brico Depot – I’ve tons of that. The roof will be plastic corrugated sheeting like the verandah, although I’ll invent a system of roof openings to allow the air to circulate, and I’ll build a door for the uphill side. Everything else will be Simon’s windows.

This morning though Liz and I were in the recording studio at Radio Tartasse doing our programmes for the month of May. And Henri, the old guy who helps out there, had a chat with me about the Tacot – the old narrow-gauge railway that used to run from the lime kilns at Marcillat to the steelworks at Commentry. He showed me on the map the traces of the old line, and said that next month he would bring me all of the paperwork that he has on it, including a book on the subject.

Won’t that be exciting?

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Tuesday 29th March 2011 – I’ve spent all day on the road.

We started off at Radio Tartasse to record their programmes for April. It was the usual disorganised performance there but we managed well enough.

Radio Arverne wanted us at 13:00 this afternoon and so it wasn’t worth going home. We went to Chateuneuf-les-Bains for a coffee instead. That was much more interesting.

At Radio Tartasse, which is much more organised we did 5 programmes in less than an hour, and then went off to the Carrefour at Riom for a butty, a coffee and a nosy around the shops where I bought some 100%vegan margarine for my garlic bread for tea.

Back here, I sorted out some screws and some of the seeds for the garden but my heart’s not in it right now. I’ve not recovered fully from the effects of digging all of these raised beds. It’s taking it out of me getting ready for planting. So with that in mind I knocked off at 17:30 and came up here for a rest.

I’ll have a lie-in tomorrow to see if I’ll feel any better, and then I’ll go out a-planting. I need to get the garlic and the shallots in place pretty quickly. And I’m away at the weekend too.

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Tuesday 22nd February 2011 – Poor Caliburn

Caliburn is not very well at the moment and is currently at the menders awaiting spare parts. And so Liz and I are still here and Terry is still there.

We started the morning by a quick breakfast and a quick search for stuff that we needed to take back to Brussels, and then we had to shoot off to Marcillat to record Radio Programme Number 1. But Caliburn was coughing and smoking a little too much and was not in the best of health so it was more of a leisurely drive.

After that, it was round to my place and to unload him of all the things that he had brought down from Brussels. While we were there, Radio Arverne asked us to come a little earlier to record the programmes for them – this meant dropping everything and shooting off to Gerzat. But Caliburn was a little worse by this time. Stopping for fuel for the return journey at the Carrefour just outside Riom and it was clear that we would be struggling to make anywhere, never mind Brussels, so it was off to the mender’s on the outskirts of Riom.

What is happening is that there’s a valve in the emissions circuit that controls the air intake and exhaust, and it has stuck closed. There’s insufficient air reaching the combustion chambers and so Caliburn is running far too rich and that is the reason for the unburnt fuel and sooty smoke. A new valve has been ordered and hopefully will arrive tomorrow. At the same time, Caliburn can have his (overdue) service and hopefully he’ll be feeling much better and normal service will resume.

ford ka sauret besserve puy de dome franceMeantime, we have a hired Ford Ka to bring us back to here (it was cheaper than a taxi and of course there is no public transport around here since the railway line closed down 2 years ago) and that will give us a chance to do those things that we were going to do.

I was planning to go back to my house and find some papers that I need but it seems that I have .. errr … left the keys to my house on Caliburn’s keyring which is of course with Caliburn at the menders.

D’ohhhh!

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Tuesday 18th January 2011 – We were recording again today

This time it was for the programmes for Radio Tartasse – the next lot of four-weekly programmes to take them up to the end of February. Luckily I don’t have too far to travel because it’s an early start in the morning, like … errrr … 10:00.

This time we were allowed to do the programmes how we wanted to do them, and it went much better. Liz and I have a very good rapport and much of our stuff is done as ad-libs and you can’t do that if you are having to concentrate on pages of script. And they have also agreed to let us have copies of the recorded programmes so that I can stick them on our blog when I have the time and I’m not so tired. But that will come – you can be assured of that.

And so back here, and carrying on with my ceiling. and that’s what I did for most of the rest of the day such as it was. And I’m making good progress too. It won’t be all that long before it’s done. BUt it went dark at about 17:00 – at least too dark to work on the ceiling, and so I had an hour or so outside doing a little more clearing up. And slowly but surely it’s looking a little (but only a little) more respectable out here. But the weather has turned. It clouded right over and it’s gone cold. I even have had the heating on a little earlier this evening. But not that that worries me. Now that the weeds and brambles are dying down I’m uncovering a few of the old chevrons that we ripped off the barn roof and threw down to the floor. It’s all more firewood for the stove.

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Monday 17th January 2011 – It was Monday today …

… believe it or not, and this afternoon we went to the recording studio to record our radio programmes for the month of February. And no offer of transport from our sponsors either. It seems that whatever budget that was available was only for 12 months and that has now expired.

Anyway, with a view to not taking this lying down, I have taken some positive action. I’ve created a blog for the radio programmes that we do and the intention is that I will stream the radio programmes on there for the benefit of those who can’t receive them or who forgot to listen to them. And in addition to that I will be offering advertising space, at a very democratic €30 per annum for those who run a business or have a service to offer, or €3 per 15 words per month for small ads and the like, people buying and selling articles and so on. And with the money that we raise, we can pay our own travelling expenses to the studio.

So I need help in spreading the word about the radio blog, and I also need customers to buy the advertising space. If you can do your bit to spread the word it would be a great help.

This morning I was up early (just for a change) and with the new insulation that I bought on Saturday I was able to have a profitable couple of hours doing the bedroom ceiling. And it’s advancing pretty well in there. I’m quite happy with that. This evening though we were in St Eloy for the Anglo-French group and we were so carried away with the discussions that instead of finishing at 21:00 as is our wont, it was almost 22:00 when someone noticed the time.

Tomorrow we are recording again – at Radio Tartasse. I need to encourage them to let me have the radio programmes from their end so that we can put them up on the blog too.

I hope it all works!

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Friday 24th December 2010 – MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

And hasn’t the year passed quickly? It hardly seems like a moment since I rushed over the finishing of the stairs up to my attic and then locked myself in.

heavy snowfall les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo this morning was another late start, due in the main by my being confused about the time. And the darkness of the room was due to the skylights being covered in snow. 24 hours late, yes indeed, but it got here in the end.

And once I was up and about I did a little more in my bedroom with putting up some more framework.

But I didn’t stick at it long and after lunch and a wash and shave it was picking my way gingerly through the snow and ice to Terry and Liz’s for Christmas Eve, which was very nice of them. Liz cooked a gorgeous Indian meal and then we had a listen to our radio programme.

And even though it’s me who says it, we sounded really good on the broadcast – exactly how I wanted it to be – all nice and informal and happy and partying.

At 22:30 I came home and it took me over 45 minutes – the roads were dreadful. But I was armed with a Christmas cake and a prezzy – it’s really nice having friends like Terry and Liz.

But if you are reading this before Christmas Day evening, you might want to listen to our radio programme as it’s being streamed at 23:00 Europe, 22:00 UK and 17:00 EST – go to
http://www.radioarverne.com
and click on the link “Arverne en Ligne”

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Wednesday 22nd December 2010 – WHAT A SHAMBLES!

This recording session at Radio Tartasse was nothing but a shambles – it really was.

I can understand why it is that performers and other thespians and the like throw tantrums and have hysterics if they have studio staff like this to deal with.

Despite having told them on several occasions how the programme ought to be run they did it completely differently. They had us read out THE WHOLE of “Buying and Selling Property” in one swell foop with the idea that they would edit it into segments. 40-odd minutes of typed text!

Now it might seem logical to do that but there are several major disadvantages.

  1. you can’t physically read 40 minutes of documentation out loud without wanting to stop for breath, to clear your throat, to gather your wits (such as they are) and so on and so forth.
  2. after the first 15 minutes you become bored, your attention starts to wander, you miss your cues and the reading deteriorates rapidly
  3. Liz and I keep up a constant patter of repartee and ad-lib our way through much of our chats. And if I dare to say it, we do it very well. But after 15 minutes or so we are tired and confused and we don’t have the same spark or interaction and it spoils the show
  4. when it comes to ending our programme we finish off with a little impromptu chat. But they just want to cut it dead and it won’t work like that
  5. most importantly – if they want our topics “en bloc” and to cut them into segments themselves, how will we know when the topic is finished? How will we know when to prepare fresh stuff? I don’t intend to sit around on Sunday mornings writing stuff that won’t ever be used – I’ve enough to do. So suppose I decide not to do anything for a week or two and then find out that they’ve used up all the material?

No, it won’t work like that and I told them so, and I didn’t mince my words either.

It’s nothing but totally shambolic. The woman that does the technical stuff is a sham, and the old guy that does the organising – he’s a load of … errrr … rubbish.

So off to Montlucon to order my windows only to find that I’d forgotten the to bring the paper with the dimensions. And Terry, who had measured up “in case you forget” had also forgotten the measurements too. But I did buy the last 30 Brussels sprouts in the whole of France (a Christmas without sprouts is unthinkable) and in Brico Depot I had a most astonishing find – a beautiful faded-oak effect parquet flooring on special offer of about €8:00 per square metre. It’s gorgeous and just the thing for my bedroom, so I now have 18 metres of that downstairs and I wish that I had bought some more.

But an astonishing thing happened here while I was away. all day we had nothing but overcast gloomy foggy clouds that followed us around. Back in Pionsat this evening when we returned there was a clearish sky. But the statistics here – 100 amp-hours of solar energy, temperatures of 13 degrees, 12 degrees in my attic – told me that here while we had been away we had been bathed in glorious sunshine for much of the afternoon. And that is just so surprising.

But tomorrow, snow is forecast so we shall see.

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Tuesday 21st December 2010 – IT WAS A BUSY DAY TODAY.

It started after the usual fire-cleaning and breakfast by chopping another huge pile of wood ready for the next bout of winter – due on Thursday, so we are told. Now there’s four bucketsfull outside together with a huge pile heaped up against the wall in here – good plan it was to tile the wall behind the fireplace.

Then it was checking over the documents for the radio recording this afternoon – a total of 31 pages! That is a record by anyone’s standard. And it’s a good job I bought that new printer a couple of months ago so I could print it all out. Bye-bye another rain forest.

Next stop was down to see Liz as our chauffeur has abandoned us and we worked out a few more things, and then down to Gerzat. We recorded 4 programmes of the traditional type that will see us through to the 25th of January (back in the studio on the 18th) and then we did the Christmas Special.

1 hour we were allowed, and on the Sunday rehearsal we did the play in 58 minutes (add another Carol to make up the time) but today we had to crop a huge chunk out as we overran by miles. No idea how that happened.

The Christmas Special is going out on Christmas Eve at 19:00 and being repeated a couple of times. You can hear it on Radio Arverne (89.8mhz) but if you can’t get the reception then I have the programme saved to disk and I’ll be uploading it to the internet once the broadcast has passed and you can hear us on the internet.

Tomorrow we are recording for Radio Tartasse – the first radio station to want to syndicate us. Then it’s off to Montlucon with Terry and Liz to do our last-minute shopping before the weather closes in again.

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Friday 19th November 2010 – BACK TO WORK TODAY :-(

I managed to struggle round to Liz’s for 13:30 via a quick stop at Nathalie’s to pick up her meeting schedule that we are obliged to broadcast. And then Liz and I drove down to Gerzat and recorded our next series of radio programmes.

This new guy doing the recording is much more efficient – no more searching for pencils, 10 minute chat breaks, all that kind of thing. Everything is ready when we arrive, we are allowed a few minutes to compose ourselves (which is better than a few minutes decomposing ourselves I suppose) and then we are off.

“We’ll start at 14:40 and break at 14:47” he says
And that’s what we do. And then the next one –
“We’ll start at 14:50 and break at 14:57”
And we do that.

And that’s how it continues until the series of recordings are over. A military precision, you might say.
And then after the programmes are recorded, no panic-stricken 15 minutes of frantic listening and so on.
“Is it OK?” we ask
“Yes” he replies, with an air of bewilderment as if “why shouldn’t it be OK?”

And then the bombshell

“How would you like to do a Christmas Special?”
“Errr …. such as?”
“Well, an hour or so of your programme to be broadcast on Christmas Day?”

Move over, Morecambe and Wise, what?

So we spent the rest of the day, Liz and I, planning our show. We’re aiming for maybe 10 Christmas Carols, a little bit of the nativity, a Christmas Story, a couple of poems and then a pile of the usual mayhem.

But how about that for fame? They obviously like us on the airwaves in the Puy de Dome.

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Tuesday 21st September 2010 – I’ve been really busy today ….

… and I couldn’t really afford to spend the time as I have so much to do.

This morning we had to go to this radio station in Marcillat en Combraille to discuss the arrangements for the programme they want us to do. And what we discussed was almost exactly the same and no different from the last time we were there. Mind you, the guy we talked to was as interested in the Ligne Economique as I am and he told me that he has ridden on it to Durdat Larequille. And seeing as the line closed in 1932 and he has ridden on it, then he probably has a good excuse for forgetting things.

He was minded by a woman who may well have been his wife, and while she was much more purposeful about things and helped to keep her husband on track, she had hearing issues. So as you might expect, this meeting was a bundle of laughs. But nevertheless we did fit in a good chat about solar panels, the Anglo-French group and Terry’s little business.

Then it was off to the Mairie to give them copies of the photos from Saturday.They are “internet” quality so if they want them at proper press quality (350dpi and all that) they can tell me which ones.

Then off to Marianne’s where I stayed for ages talking about Pionsat-Patrimoine, the Anglo-French group, the newspaper, the Foreign library and all that kind of thing. Things are moving around here, although you wouldn’t believe it.

The next people to have the pleasure of my company were the people at the bank. I warned them that I would be going to Canada shortly and so not to be surprised at my “extraordinary expenditure” and not to cancel my bank card – not like 2002.  I suppose I ought to do that for a couple of other cards too.

I also bumped into Damien from the football club while I was in Pionsat.

Rob and Nicolette were out so I couldn’t give them their photographs (they were out later too) and so after lunch I wrote a few important letters (it’s great having a printer that works!) and carried on with my researches. And I might just be onto something. A company called Tiger Rentals might let me have a Toyota Yaris for just about $1500 CAN – about €1100. It’s said that this figure includes the collision damage waiver and all taxes, allows unlimited mileage and permits travel to the USA and the rest of Canada. Now this sounds too good to be true so I’ve sent them a mail for confirmation.

Watch this space.

Of course I need to pay for the accommodation on top but a Yaris does just about 50mpg whereas a motorhome will do just about 18 to the gallon if you are very lucky before you even think about the extra rental charges and whatever charges you might have to pay for camping.

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Tuesday 27th July 2010 – Terry had other things to do today …

… so he didn’t come down today. Mind you he did ring me at 08:00 to tell me not to wake up, which was kind of him.

So I had a relaxed morning doing not very much. I checked on Lieneke’s house to make sure things were okay and that was that. I was going to do some washing but the weather wasn’t stable enough for that. I need to do some soon as I’m running out of clothes.

This afternoon we went to record our monthly programmes and this was full of hitches. The guy who takes us had his floosie with him and so engrossed were they in talking that he missed our exit on the Motorway and we had to drive miles out of our way to get to the studio. And then they had a technician in repairing the computer so we had to wait an hour or so.

And then the computer still wasn’t working so we had to record our programmes on the analogue tape machine.

And then the tape jammed

And then we ran out of tape.

So all in all it took hours.

And that is really that. I’m thoroughly exhausted and I’m going to have another early night. I’ve not even managed to make myself any food.

But summer has returned. The solar shower reached 35 degrees and if I had made it home earlier than 18:15 I would have had a shower. And the automatic water heater started up again. Only 20 minutes but it pushed the water temp up by 4 degrees.

Tomorrow I may even have a shower if the weather keeps up.

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Tuesday 29th June 2010 – No photo tonight, folks.

I haven’t really done anything to warrant one.

This morning with Terry having gone to mow a meadow, I profited by doing a big load of washing (this little tabletop washing machine that I bought in a brocante is proving its worth), watering all of the plants and doing some desultory tidying in the verandah.

This afternoon was in the Sauna or Black Hole of Calcutta otherwise known as Radio Arverne in Gerzat where we melted away while recording our programmes. And not just that – we had to record a trailer in French and I also had to translate part of the website into English. All for free, of course. No chance of turning our new-found popularity (we are being described, apparently, as “our favourite Anglophones”) into any of the Folding Stuff.

In other news, I see that an art exhibition in the Tate Gallery is hitting the headlines. This exhibition concerns a couple of means of transport being stripped of useful parts and lain on their sides for people to walk around and stare at. Now those of you that have been to visit me around here and other places in which I have lived will know that in my garden and my field I have several other means of transport stripped of useful parts and lying on their sides for people to walk around. And they have been called many different things by many different people, but “works of art” was never one of them.

And as my unmade bed on a bad day can match the best that Tracy Eminem can turn out, I’m getting rather fed up of my clearly well-developed artistic talents going unnoticed or being subjected to ridicule.

But seriously, I remember Whistler suing the art critic John Ruskin for saying that one of Whistler’s latest works was “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face”. But if you look at these aeroplanes on their sides, or look at Tracy Eminen’s unmade bed, or look at anything that Richard Serra has ever churned out, then who is kidding whom? If anyone living in the Combrailles feels the urge to visit a gallery of Modern Art then they are quite welcome to come for a visit here.

And if they do, then perhaps they can explain to me the difference between what is on display and described as Modern Art in some of these high-ranking tourist traps, and all of the rubbish and junk that I have lying around here?

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Tuesday 25th May 2010 – What amazing weather.

Indeed.

This morning was bright and sunny – it was really beautiful and we were heading for another warmest day of the year. The drive down to Gerzat to record our radio programme was hot and sweaty just like an August day and the temperature down there was 31 degrees.

When we left there it had risen to 32 degrees but by the time we hit the motorway to come back there were these huge and onimous grey clouds streaming in from the west at a rapid rate of knots

All of a sudden the temperature plummeted. From 32 degrees it dropped to just 14 degrees in a matter of minutes and as we climbed up into the Combrailles it started to rain intermittently.

After I rescued Caliburn from St Gervais d’Auvergne I drove back here and the skies started to clear.

steam on road rainstorm hanging cloud font nanaud pionsat puy de dome franceBut suddenly it would cloud over again, we’d have the most tremendous rainstorm and then the clouds would depart leaving us in bright sunshine.

The temperature would rise back into the low 30s almost immediately and the heat would cause all of the roads and the vegetation to steam – just like in this pic near the top of the Font Nanaud on the road between St Gervais d’Auvergne and Pionsat.

Despite what it looks like, it isn’t a hanging cloud.

Back here at home though (just 10 kms from the Font) things had clearly been much more dramatic. 17mm of rainfall had fallen and my water butts were full again.

It cleared up in late afternoon but for the last hour or so it’s been raining heavily, and aren’t my plants grateful for that?

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

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Wednesday 28th April 2010 – Today was busy.

This morning first thing I had to go round to Michael’s. He’d just come back from the UK and bought me 10 kilos of oats. And as he was off again this afternoon I needed to rescue them (and pay him) before he went.

Back home I had time to plant some of the seeds that Clare had given me before leaping aboard Caliburn, my trusty steed, and heading off to St Gervais d’Auvergne to meet Liz and go on to Gerzat to record our radio programme. And of course to meet this photographer guy who wanted not just to photograph us but to interview us too. It seems that in the Combrailles we are becoming major news and our publicity is reaching its height. Yes, we are going to be the feature article in … errrr …. a free advert-type newspaper in the Combrailles with a circulation of about 350.

Not quite Le Monde or Paris Match I know, but we remain confident that one day we will be there. I’m eagerly awaiting the day that we will be asked to open our first brocante or be the guests of honour at a concours de belote.

Back at St Gervais d’Auvergne Liz and I went for a coffee or two and discussed our plans for next week. We are going to hit the Chambre de Metiers et de l’Artisanat in Chamailles and get all our business affairs in order. Neither of us has received our formal inscription of our business registrations despite having had an acknowledgement almost a year ago. High time we did something about it.

Back here I planted all of my early potatoes. And I think I’m going to run out of room for the lates and so I’ll have to invent something about that. And I should have gone to football training this evening but today was the hottest day of the year and it’s still 25 degrees up here even with all of the windows open. That’s not a temperature for someone of my age and my level of fitness to be running around. But the weather is supposed to break tomorrow or Friday morning, with rain (the first since April 9th) and a major drop in temperature. If that holds, then training at the Friday night session is a distinct possibility.

Now where have I put my footy boots????

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Tuesday 30th March 2010 – Think of a well-known expression …

 … involving booze-ups and breweries.

bent coat hanger used as microphone stand support radio arverne gerzat puy de dome franceWe were in the studio this afternoon recording our radio programmes for the month of April and I must admit that I am impressed by the hi-tec equipment available here. Have a close look at the bracing support on this microphone stand. It’s terrific.

As you know, last Sunday evening Liz and I prepared our programmes for today so I sent to everyone concerned a notice telling them that I wanted their submissions by 28th March at the latest.

So having had our discussion and made our plans then of course on the 29th March we had a mail from the SMADC (Societe Mixte pour l’Animation et Developpement des Combrailles), one of these local QUANGOs, telling us about stuff we must absolutely advertise without fail!

So imagine my pleasure in writing back in saying that “these meetings are for the week 2/6 April and we recorded the programme for this week back in February so you are too late!” Some of these events also concerned communes to whom we had written requesting information and who couldn’t be bothered to reply and that got my goat too. So this afternoon I buttonholed the author of this famous mail to
1) remind him of our deadlines
2) tell him that if the communes of St Gervais and Manzat want their events published then they need to reply to MY e-mails first.
As you know, my normal method of impressing the importance of something into someone’s consciousness is to beat it into their skull in morse code with a pickaxe handle and I can see me adopting that method here if things don’t improve.

This evening it was the CREFAD meeting at St Gervais about these “cheques-service” so Liz and I turned up at the venue to encounter
1) Bill, who had been attracted to the venue by our publicity
2) a totally darkened and locked room.
The lady at the library opposite tried the door and confirmed that it was locked so we had a wander around the town to see where else it might be.

Answer = nowhere at all, but the door of the Mairie was open so we went in, and there was the Mayor. He looked at the agenda and comfirmed that the meeting room had indeed been booked by CREFAD for the evening.
“Ahhh – you must have gone to the wrong room” he insisted, and very kindly led us across the road.

But no – we had indeed gone to the correct room and yes, it was indeed locked and in darkness. That even surprised him. We even tracked down a leaflet advertising the meeting and he confirmed that we did indeed have the date, time and venue perfectly correct.

And to think that we had even advertised this meeting on our radio programme!

Anyway I’ve just written a stinking e-mail to CREFAD about this. I included the phrase “since our involvement in this radio programme and having sampled a few of the examples of the organisation of these kinds of Organisation I’m beginning to wonder if this ‘lack of seriousness’ is engrained in the region”. If they want us to advertise their meetings then they have to persuade us that they are serious. We don’t want our own credibility undermined by these sort of happenings.

And I can write mails like this now. I’m a Prima Donna … “you mean a pre-Madonna” – ed …   now so I can throw teddy out of the pram. I don’t know how they expect us to run a radio show if the kind of organisation that we have encountered today is typical of what we are likely to receive.

Honestly, you thought OUSA was bad, didn’t you?

And in other news, I have the fire on in here. It’s freezing outside.

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