Category Archives: Les Guis

Thursday 13th February 2014 – IT TOOK ME MOST OF THE BLASTED DAY …

… to fit one tread of the stairs.

But then again there are several good reasons for that.

Firstly, it’s one of the larger stair treads and is on an angle. Furthermore, access is difficult and the tongue needed to be cut off the first piece and then sanded down to give it a professional appearance. I’m not going for half-measures here. And not only that, it needed to be cut in 7 different ways, with the use of a floating T-square and other geometric instruments.

The result wasn’t perfect, but where it missed, it would be covered over by plasterboard so it didn’t make much difference.

Next I cut the second piece, and that was an excellent job but … hang on … the levels are out. And it’s from the same plank of wood. But the tongue is off-centre and so I must have cut the second piece upside-down.

And so I recut a second piece and made sure that it was the right way up before I shaped it. And then took it upstairs and … hang on … the levels are still out. Dammit dammit dammit! It’s the first piece that I’ve cut upside down after all of the work that went into it and the time that it took!

And so I recut a first piece and learning from the errors of the first attempt, this one ended up pretty near perfect and it’s ever so impressive, even if by now it was lunchtime.

After lunch I cut the third piece, which was another good measure, and then for the fourth and final piece I had an offcut from the bathroom that was the correct basic length before shaping.

And having done that, this was when I realised that despite the wood of the bathroom being exactly the same as the rest of the wood, the tongue was too long. That therefore had to be cut down and filed.

Once all of that had been done, the whole tread needed to be properly aligned, screwed to a batten to keep it all in position, lifted off, taken to the workbench for trimming with the circular saw.

It was at this point that the battery in the circular saw went flat.

Once the battery was recharged and the tread trimmed off, I could put it back in position and nail it down, finally removing the batten.

So now you can see why it took most of the day to do all of that.

With 40 minutes left, I measured up and cut the first piece for the upper stair on the reverse angle. That involved nine cuts with all kinds of geometric equipment and also a hand-drawn angle as I couldn’t fit the floating T-square into the gap. And to the surprise of not only Yours Truly but everyone else reading these pages, that ended up millimetre-perfect. And the correct way up too. I just had to trim a little off so that I could swing it round the corner and into position, but the plasterboard will cover that gap.

So what’s going to hold me up tomorrow then?

In other news – we had one of those days where we had everything – except the Plague of Locusts. Wind gusting up to 67km/h, torrential rain, hailstorms. You name it, we had it. It’s like Passendaele 1917 outside here right now – most unpleasant.

And tonight, just as I was about to start eating my tea, Trixie phoned for a chat. I ended up with cold pasta and aubergine casserole, but as I have said so often before … "and you’ll say it so often again" – ed … what’s a little inconvenience when it comes to your friends? I value my friends higher than my stomach. But it’s amazing how often it happens, isn’t it?

-2

Wednesday 12th February 2014 – NOW IF ONLY …

… every othee tiling job that I have to do would come out as well as this one, I would be as happy as Larry.

They set really nicely into the tiling cement yesterday and so this morning, first thing that I did was to grout the joints. And as you can see, it seems to have come out very well and I’m really pleased with this.

It looked even better at the end of the day when It had thoroughly dried and i brushed off all of the loose grouting and wiped it down with a damp cloth. As I said, I wish that all of my tiling would look like this when it’s finished.

So once that was out of the way I returned to the stairs. And now I have three treads all properly fitted and nailed in place. It took ages too as every length needs to be cut and shaped individually and some of these treads have 6 or 7 lengths in them, the ones that are going to be used as shelving. And a couple of lengths had to be cut lengthways too, one of them only 1.5 cms wide. but the circular saw saw to those. They needed filing and sanding down afterwards to make some nice smooth, straight edges.

I had to change a couple of rails too. I’m reshaping all of these to fit under the profile of the plasterboarding but with the chevrons, they are too deep and so foul the insulation. I’ve changed them for demi-chevrons.

So you see, I’ve not been idle at all today, even though I don’t have too much to show for it.

-1

Tuesday 11th February 2014 – I DIDN’T FIND …

… my tile cutter today, but I found something else instead.

Quite a few years ago I was at a car boot sale at Hexham with Dave Boustead (whatever happened to him?) and amongst the objects that I picked up was an ancient Rawlplug electric tile-cutter, for a couple of quid if I remember correctly.

And this morning, we had bright blue skies and not a cloud in sight and fully-charged batteries by 11:00 and so after I’d put the second coat of varnish on the wood that I’ve been fitting, I wheeled out the tile cutter.

It needed cleaning and a little oiling and so on but to my surprise once I’d loaded it up with water we were off. I did a few test cuts and then set about the tiles.

There are loads of design faults with this machine – I can think of a hundred ways to improve it – but it did the job as I asked it to do and, to be honest, it cut them better than I could have done. So no complaints from me.

By lunchtime, they were all cut and cemented to the window sill. All they need now is to be grouted and I really do wish that I had done the window in here like this now.

This afternoon, I started on the definitive version of the stairs to the attic. When I built them in 2009 I was constrained by time and also by the width (60cms) of the wood that I had at hand. None of this now though. High time I did them properly using real wood and with real rails.

This means, in effect, removing the rails, cutting them down so that they fit behind the plasterboard that I’ll be fitting, and then cutting up floorboarding to 67cms which, apart fom giving me three strips to a length of 2m, fits perfectly upon the new rails.

It’s taking me ages to do this as you might expect, but it looks much better than scrap chipboard and the like, and takes my weight so much better..It’s looking much better already and there’s only one tread fitted so far.

With a brief interruption for rain (i had to fecth in the washing) I was well away when knocking off time came round.

I’m clearly enjoying myself.

And while I’m on the subject, the Xantrex charge controller in the barn, the one that packed up last autumn, has now miraculously sprung into life.

-2

Monday 10th February 2014 – I WISH I KNEW …

… where my tile cutter is. I could have finished the window surround today.

As you can see, I’ve done three of the sides with the offcuts of tongue-and-grooving from the ceiling. That meant fitting battens to the walls and routing the anenometer cable underneath. And then each piece of tongue-and-groowing had to be cut and shaped individually, and that took a while – until lunchtime in fact.

After lunch I put the first coat of varnish on all of the wood that I’ve fitted so far, and then we started the “hunt the tile cutter”.

Last time I had it, it was in Brussels and as you might remember, we fled Brussels in such haste that stuff was packed any old how. I spent all afternoon until long after knocking-off time looking through the barn and the lean-to and I’ve no idea where it might be.

But apart from that, I was on the move again during the night but I can’t for the life of me remember where I was and who I was with. And today, to give you some idea of howdark and depressing it all was, we had 12mm of rain and by 16:30 it was sleeting.

So tomorrow I’ll put the second coat of varnish on the wood and then play round two of “hunt the tile cutter”. It has to be here somewhere.

-2

Sunday 9th February 2014 – WITH IT BEING SUNDAY …

… I don’t feel bad at all about staying in bed until 10:30, even if I was in bed long before 23:30 last night. Decent sleep and li=ong lie-ins is what Sunday is made for.

And what else?

Absolutely nothing. The only times that I’ve been outside the house were to fill two kettles of water and to take ths statistics. And that was that.

I’ve been tidying up some files on the various external drives that I have – trying to bring some order out of chaos. Nietzsche said “out of chaos comes order” but Neitzsche never knew me.

And that’s your lot. I’m off to bed again now for another early night – ready to resume the conflict for tomorrow; See you tomorrow night.

-2

Saturday 8th February 2014 – WITH IT BEING SATURDAY …

… that signifies “shopping”. But first I had to heave myself out of bed, and that wasn’t easy. I heard all of the alarms of course but as I was under no real pressure to leave my stinking pit, it was … errr … some time later that I finally surfaced. Mind you, I had been busy. There was a sale on at IKEA through the night and once I’d managed to explain to the salesman what “memory” was all about, I bought a 4GB I-pod for just €15 in the sale. I wish that I could do that in real life.

First job was to write the script for the next rock music show on “Radio Anglais”, and that didn’t take me too long as I was in a creative mood. And then I went round to Cécile’s. She had asked me to check the post (there wasn’t any) and to check the attic to see if there were any leaks given the miserable weather that we have been having this last three or four weeks (and there was nothing evident). I did however take advantage of Cécile’s washing machine again while I was there.

In St Eloy there was nothing exciting on sale except a hand-powered vegetable dicer. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages and sure enough, LIDL had them in the sale.

Back here, I hung up the washing in the verandah (no point at all in hanging it outside unless I want it to have another rinse) and then I came up here with a coffee and crashed out for a couple of hours. Going to sleep some time after 03:30 and trying to wake up at 07:30 is doing me no good at all.

And no footy tonight, nor tomorrow either. Everything is postponed given the state of the pitches around here. And it’s worse in the Creuse just dosn the road where the entire football programme for the weekend has been cancelled. This weather is beyond a joke.

-4

Friday 7th February 2014 – THE FIRST THING THAT I DID TODAY …

… was to rip off the tongue and grroving that I had put on the ceiling.

Well, actually, it wasn’t. First thing that I did do was to crawl out of my stinking pit, and at the unbelievable time of 09:20 too. I heard all of the alarms go off (it’s very hard not to) and I remember thinking that I’ll get up in a minute. And so almost two hours later …

Anyway, back to the plot. I ripped off all of the tongue-and-grooving that I did yesterday. It wasn’t going on correctly and I was certain that I could do better. And while I was having my breakfast I also had some inspiration.

So I had to recut every single piece and refit it, but I am glad that I did because the effect is so much better as you can see in the photo.

All that it needs now id to be varnished, the light to be fitted properly and for a couple of bits of beading to be added, but that will have to wait as there is still plenty to do before I reach that stage. In fact I’ve already mad a start in sheathing in the window. And it’s a good job that I don’t throw anything away, because I needed a few thin strips of wood to make a batten and here, hanging around in the house were the offcuts of the 10mm playwood sheeting that we used on the roof back in 2009.

Here’s a somewhat gloomy view of the reverse angle, showing the sloping part of the ceiling and one of the two shelves that I’ve fitted. There’s a bare wooden beam that’s exposed there at the back, and I’ll be repainting that in due course.

I solved the problem of cutting the tongue-and grooving down the length. The Ryobi Plus One circular saw on the softest setting saw to that, and without tears too

-1

Thursday 6th February 2014 – “OHH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING”

And it was, too. Just like a mid-March morning, with a lovely fresh wind, the kind of wind that makes you glad to be out and about in it – a feeling that I can’t describe but I’m sure that you know what I mean.

So today, what did I do? The answer is “not as much as I hoped”. I had to fit some battens and counter-battens on the ceiling at the head of the stairs so that the tongue-and-grooving will have a proper support. That meant that there were of course gaps between the battens and as I have said before, no money spent on insulation is ever wasted and seeing as how I had a few leftover slabs of 20mm polystyrene insulation, I cut them up and filled in all the gaps.

But then I had a surprise. Just as I was cutting the last piece, Liz turned up. She had been to Pionsat and it’s a couple of years since she was last inside the house and so she came to inspect the works, having heard all about the progress here this last couple of months. Anyway, we ended up having a chat and a coffee for an hour or so.

After lunch, I started to fit the tongue-and-grooving on the ceiling. That’s not as easy as it sounds as it’s in three dimensions and each length needs to be cut in two pieces – one of 850mm and the other of about 1185mm.

I say “about”, because it needs to be trimmed at one end to follow the profile of the plasterboarding, and once that’s done, then the other end needs to be cut exactly to size to fit over the top of the corresponding piece of 850mm. Not only that, one of the pieces needs to be holed to take the light fitting and this is where Brain of Britain realised that he hasn’t left enough free cable to put the light exactly where he wants it, and so we’ll have to compromise on that.

Ahhh well

The final lengths need to be cut down the lengths as well to fit the width of the ceiling and it was while I was setting this up that Cécile rang.
“If it’s not convenient right now, just tell me”
“Don’t worry – it’s never not convenient for my friends to call”
And so after chatting to Cécile for 10 minutes, I cut the wood incorrectly.

So I took another length of 850mm and cut that incorrectly too.

I’ve owned my Ryobi plus One jigsaw since August 2008 and it’s taken me until now to realise that the blade isn’t in the centre of the tool – it’s offset to the left by a couple of mm (the strangest design fault I have ever encountered). That means that when you cut down a length so far with the aid of a guide, and then put the jigsaw at the far end to come back to where you left off, you will be a couple of mm out.

This will explain a few of my more bizarre woodworking efforts, and why the door into this room looks such a mess. And it’s taken until now for me to find out why.

But I’ve had some bad nights just recently – trouble sleeping and the like and I reckoned that it was catxhing up with me, so I knocked off and came up here where I crashed out for a couple of hours.

And tonight it’s warm and windy – just like March. I’m all confused.

-4

Wednesday 5th February 2014 – IT TOOK ME LONGER …

… than I was expecting to finish off this wiring today. But the positive side of all of this is that it’s all done properly now. And much of it is now correctly sheathed and tacked into place, and hidden behind insulation. Under normal circumstances it won’t need doing again.

But I’m surprised that I did anything at all today. In the night I was being chased around by a bull and a herd of cows and I dashed into a house for safety. But Brain of Britain forgot to close the door, didn’t he, and the bull came in behind me, trapping me in the house. I don’t get on too well with big animals and this was definitely one of “those” moments. But I don’t recall having this type of dream before. What was that all about?

But back to current (well, we are discussing electricity) issues, we now have a four-gang light switch properly installed on the first floor landing. There are the two light switches for each of the flights of stairs, a third that will be for a light on the landing, and a fourth for the light in the cupboard at the back of the stairs.

But we did have an accident today. The 12-volt LED light on the flight of stairs up to the first floor keeps on falling out of the blub holder (these light bulbs are heavier than you might think) and today it finally smashed. But only the outer cover, the internal works are fine. And it’s much lighter now of course and the beam is much more spread out. Yes, after all of this, it still works.

In the middle of all of this, Cécile rang up for a chat and was on the phone for 45 minutes. It’s nice to chat to friends of course, but they always ring up when I’m in the middle of doing something, never when I’m sitting down with a coffee.

This afternoon I’ve padded out the stud wall at the head of the stairs up here with insulation and cut and shaped three pieces of plasterboard. I fitted the light switch for the light at the head of the stairs and I was in the process of filling the joins when I lost the light. Working long after my knocking-off time.

Tomorrow I’ll finish the filling and then I can start to fit the ceiling out here.

Isn’t that progress?

-2

Tuesday 4th February 2014 -I’VE BEEN WIRING TODAY

I’m at the stage in the plasterboarding where I need to move the light switch at the top of the stairs. And, when I peeled off the old insulation that I put on the end wall as a temporary measure, I had a look at the wiring that I had done back in October 2009.

It’s much better than the first load of wiring that I did, but even so, it’s a shameful mess with no kind of colour co-ordination at all and I’ve no idea which wires go where.

I was half-expecting something like this and so not only do I have proper red and black wire for the 12-volt circuits and blue and brown for the 230-volt circuits, I also have some orange wire and some violet wire for the shunt wires between the L1 and L2 terminals on 2-way light switches. So after about an hour’s worth of staring at it to try to make sense of the wiring that I did back in 2009, I simply ripped the light circuits out and started again.

The 230-volt light circuit hasn’t been replaced. These 12-volt LED lights do all that I have asked them to do, and plenty more besides. But now in the attic and in the stairwell down to the first floor I have proper wiring, properly colour-coded, properly connected together (these little spring-clip connectors are magnificent – they beat everything else that I have ever used), properly routed and properly sheathed.

And to my great surprise, it all worked straight away with no trouble-shooting required. Such are the benefits of colour-coded wiring.

I was hoping to finish down to the bottom of the stairwell before I knocked off but that wasn’t possible. There was still 40 minutes before knocking off and there was still plenty oflight, but not enough for working on electricity in confined space in the gathering gloom.

I’ll finish that tomorrow morning so if you don’t hear from me tomorrow I’ll be a shrivelled black blob hanging from the ceiling in the stairwell.

-1

Monday 3rd February 2014 – IT’S A GOOD JOB …

… we weren’t playing today because when the alarm woke me this morning, all I could hear was the howling wind outside. This morning was amazing, with another shed-load of wind and my clothes, the ones that I washed three weeks ago, they are finally dry.

And I also had the best night’s sleep for absolutely ages, especially as how I crashed out at 22:30 before I’d even put yesterday’s blog on line.

And the dream too. I was with a lady of my acquaintance and we were in Nantwich, going around all of the places that we knew in our adolescence and looking at how they had changed. The “Rifleman” pub, for example, all boarded up and overgrown with weeds and the like. But the little pub over the road, in a converted terraced house, that was still open and we went in there for a drink as my companion wanted to use “the facilities” and she had issues about using them without being a customer. I did explain that we could pay 5p in a public convenience and that would work out far better than buying a round in a pub but she was unmoved.

We noticed after that, that it was 18:00 and we had to be in Chester later that evening. It was a long walk of 20-odd miles (I did in fact walk it on several occasions through the night when my then-girlfriend Liz was at college there in the 1970s and I didn’t have a car) and I had to push my friend in a wheelchair. I therefore made a contingency plan by having her look at bed-and-breakfasts and guesthouses at Tarporley, at the halfway point, although I wasn’t convinced that we would be there by 21:00 either.

As I have said before … "and you’ll say again" – ed … if only my real life was half as exciting as my dreams.

So after breakfast, we had a little pause for an hour or so while I made up a charging cable. As you know, with the issues about Caliburn’s battery, I don’t actually have a way of charging up a van battery from the solar panels, which is probably the silliest thing imaginable seeing as how I have about 1500 watts-worth of solar panels all told. I therefore made up a lead of 6mm cable with a North American plug on one end and a pair of crocodile clips on the other. Once I’d made that, I put Caliburn’s old battery on charge and I’ll keep doing that every 15 days or so depending on the weather. If I can keep it reasonably well topped up, it’ll do for emergencies.

Once that was out of the way, I attacked the plasterboarding in the stairwell on the wall that is on the outside of my little room here. And by the time that I knocked off, that was all finished, even down to putting a couple more battens on the wall to support the plasterboard where there will be a join. We are indeed making progress.

But the weather was really gorgeous today too. Beautiful blue skies all day and a total of 145 amps of surplus solar energy in the water tank that took the temperature up to 56°C. The absence of winter is rather worrying.

-1

Sunday 2nd February 2014 – THE FOOTY RESTARTED TODAY

Well, it shouldn’t have done, but there are so many matches in arrears that Pionsat’s 1st XI hastily rearranged a postponed match against Lapeyrouse.

And hasty was the word too, so hasty in fact that Pionsat were short of five or six regular players and they had to pad the team with players from the 2nd XI who play 3 divisions lower down the pyramid.

Of course, Pionsat lost, and by 2-0 too, but then you can’t expect half-a-dozen players from Division 4 of the District league pyramid to compete against a team that last year was playing in the Elite pyramid.

The first goal was quite avoidable though and Pionsat’s defence should be pretty depressed with that. All the defenders drawn to the near post and then the ball driven across the goal to a couple of Lapeyrouse players standing unmarked at the far post.

The second goal from Lapeyrouse was a peach, though, and worth the price of the admission … "it’s free!" – ed. A free kick about 35 yards out played to an attacker standing about 15 yards from goal and he hits the ball on the volley. It’s one of those shots that could have gone anywhere – the stand, the school playground, the cemetery, the abandoned railway line, but this one chooses to go into the far top corner of the net despite a despairing dive from Michaël.

Pionsat had their moments too and they were desperately unlucky on a couple of occasions.

We had a moment where a confusion between the centre-half and the keeper saw the former back-head the ball over the outstretched arms of his keeper. The ball hit the cossbar and in a desperate tangle on the line, neither the Lapeyrouse keeper nor Frédéric could make contact with the ball and the Lapeyrouse n°14 hacks it away before Cedric can get to the ball.

In another moment of desperation in the Lapeyrouse defence, a really good corner from Pionsat is won in the air by one of the Pionsat forwards and the other Frédéric just can’t make a contact with the ball to force it into the net.

Nevertheless, with most of the Lapeyrouse defence paralysed, the defender covering the far post (the near post in this photo) manages to hack the ball off the line at the very last moment to avoid a certain goal.

Pionsat also had a clear penalty denied when Nico was blatantly pushed off balance as he went for a loose ball in the area, and there was another incident in the Lapeyrouse area that some referees might have punished with a penalty for Pionsat for holding.

But then again, to be honest, I don’t really remember either goalkeeper having a proper save to make. Pionsat’s attack looked well below par today.

But the weather was quite impressive this morning. We had clear skies for a few hours until early afternoon, not like winter at all today in fact. I think that when winter does finally come, it will come in spades.

-2

Saturday 1st February 2014 – CALIBURN STARTED …

… first turn of the key this morning. But then again, the temperature was much warmer and, after the glorious, magnificent day yesterday when I had 134.4 amps of surplus solar energy, it was overcast and pouring down with rain.

And I didn’t even stop for breakfast either but straight off to Montlucon just like young Janet going to the fair at Carterhaugh in Tam Lin – “as fast as go can me”

First stop was the Auchan where I hadn’t been for ages, and I bought the things that I couldn’t buy yesterday. but hasn’t the Auchan changed? Store enlarged and everything moved around, but fairly deserted. You can see where the new LeClerc has found its customers.

Second stop was Brico Depot where I spent a staggering €450. But then, I need about 85 m² of insulation to do all of the walls downstairs and when you see this space-blanket insulation on special offer – 23-layer thickness for just €3:80 per m², which is far, far less than half-price, well, you have to go for it.

I also bought the paint (and I’m still recovering from the shock of course) and the tongue-and-grooving for the ceiling out here, as well as a huge pile of staples for the percussion stapler seeing as how I’m running low.

And that, dear reader, was that. Not even 12:00 and I was well on my way home. So much so that it wasn’t until I arrived home that I realised that I hadn’t bought the big water filter kit that was on offer at just €59:00 and which I also desperately needed.

GRRRRRRRRR!

On the way back through the side streets of Montlucon I pass by the fire station and there’s always some exciting stuff going on there.

Today they were stretching the extended ladder and the young apprentice firemen … "firePERSONS" – ed … werepractising running up and down the ladder. I had a good look at them and then left them to it. Far too tiring for me, even just looking at it.

This afternoon we were having the annual village get-together at the village hall in Virlet. M Le Maire gave his little speech, and I spent most of the time chatting to Pete Marsh and his lady-friend and also Rob and Nicolette from up the road here.

I didn’t stay long because I don’t “do” social events, but I did stay long enough to receive my village Xmas prezzy (an LED pencil-torch) and also a copy of the photo that they took of me for the village year-book.

So now I’m home and I’m staying home. No footy tonight but the season restarts tomorrow with Pionsat’s 1st XI home to Lapeyrouse.

-6

Friday 31st January 2014 – I DIDN’T GET …

… what I wanted to buy today. But there was a reason for that.

We had the coldest night of the winter so far so this morning and with Caliburn under about a foot of frost, the battery finally gave out and he wouldn’t start. Regular readers of this rubbish will remember that the battery has been a little flaky for a while and I’ve been meaning to replace it but of course it’s one of those things that I’ve always been putting off and putting off.

Liz came round to rescue me but there wasn’t even enough in the battery to jump-start the van so we ended up going in Liz’s car and, of course, that’s not adapted to carry rolls of insulation and packs of tongue-and-grooving.

We had an exciting day out anyway and while Liz did not manage to resolve her problems, at least we now know why she has been having them and the people concerned have given her an undertaking that things will be put in motion to deal satisfactorily with the issues.

We shall see.

And even though Caliburn’s battery type is not listed in the catalogue of any of the chains of car accessory dealers, as I found out today, one of the employees at the Norauto near to the Auchan at Clermont Ferrand did take it upon himself to make detailed enquiries and as a result, supplied a battery that he promised would fit. I had the choice of an unnamed make, a Norauto make or a high-quality Varta battery and as you know with Caliburn he only ever receives the best, so much do I depend on him.

And so I daren’t tell you how much I paid for it because I’ve only just now recovered from the shock, but as I said, 100% reliavbility is the key to all of this, even if it does come at a hell of a price.

And much to my surprise (and probably yours too) it was actually the correct one. Fitting it was a nightmare though – trying to access the nuts to the battery retaining bar took me about half an hour, but anyway now it’s fitted and Caliburn is mobile once more.

I suppose that I’ll have to nip into Montlucon fora couple of hours tomorrow morning now. After all, I don’t want to be without anything the absence of which will hold up my work. It doen’t normally tale much to stop me.

-2

Thursday 30th January 2014 – ANYONE WHO HASN’T COME …

… here for a few months won’t recognise this house now, that’s for sure.

I had another late start but I made up for that by curtailing my lunch break so I didn’t miss too much time. And I also found the tiny music player that takes micro-SD cards so I had music while I work too.

I put my back into it too and by the time I finished I had fitted the shelves, fitted all of the plasterboard on the outer wall, and made a start on filling the joints. I wanted to have all of the joints filled by the end of the day but that didn’t happen unfortunately. Nevertheless I’m pleased with the progress that I made.

That wasn’t all of it either. When I finished working at 18:00 I went out and emptied Caliburn and I was still there at 18:20, with the daylight that was left. The days are definitely getting longer.

And why empty Caliburn?

Liz has a few things to do in clermont tomorrow and needs a little help. If we go in Caliburn we can go to the Brico Depot at Lempes and stock up on the insulation and buy the tongue-and-grooving that I need, as well as some light blue emulsion.

Yes, I’m cracking on.

-4

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality