Category Archives: Virlet

Wednesday 22nd June 2022 – WELCOME HOME

les guis virlet France Eric Hall photo June 2022This morning I went round to my house in Virlet. And I’m not going to say too much about it because it was so depressing.

You’ll be able to see what I mean by looking at this photograph. There was no way of getting even close to the house because of all the weeds and brambles.

The last time that I was there two years ago I was able to fight my way into the place with the aid of a heavy-duty brush-cutter but I’m in no fit condition to even attempt that these days.

And in any case I don’t have a brush-cutter. So that ruled that out. But it was such a disappointment.

And for a change, until I saw my house I was feeling fighting-fit. I’d eventually gone off to sleep despite all of the celestial artillery and wasn’t that a real racket? It was the loudest storm that I’ve lived through for quite a while.

As far as I knew I slept right the way through until about 06:45 and stayed in bed until 07:30. The morning cup of tea was rather later than usual.

After breakfast we set off. The house of a friend of Rosemary had been badly bashed about in a hailstorm and some temporary repairs had been effected. The insurance company needed to know that it was properly tarpaulined and as the owner is away right now, Rosemary was charged with the task of going and taking some photos.

It was after that that we went to inspect my pile.

Back here we had a coffee and I had another session with Miss Ukraine and her animal encyclopedia. Considering that she doesn’t speak English or French and I don’t speak Ukrainian (just a dozen or so words of Russian) we had an extremely dynamic chat that went on for ages and she guessed my favourite animal – turning straight away to the page with Polar Bears on it.

Yes, I seem to be flavour of the month right now and I’m not sure why. Rosemary seems to think that I’m the only person who ever listens to kids properly when they talk and that’s the nicest compliment someone has paid me for quite a while.

As I have said before … “and on many occasions too” – ed … I think that kids get a pretty raw deal out of life. No-one ever seems to take any time with them or have any interest in them and what they have to say.

After lunch Rosemary had to go for a doctor’s appointment so I stayed behind and listened to the dictaphone to see where I’d been during the night. We were camping, my brother and I. There was a river that was full of rocks. I made a kind of improvised ram out of an old railway carriage bogie and dropped it in the water on top of these rocks with the aim that the water would carry it down, clear some of these rocks and make the water run quicker. It jammed up under a bridge so I had to get there and free it off. That took quite a while. I set it off again and it hadn’t gone more than 20 yards when it became stuck in the bank of the river. This caused a big rock fall into the river and blocked the river. I thought that what I’d been doing so far hadn’t been a very great success. I had to make tea and we were camping. We had a couple of tents and there was a caravan oven there. There was a shop-bought pizza and I had to make another one. The first thing that I nearly did was to fall into the river. My brother came to see what was going on and gave me a few lectures about everything. Then I started to unwrap the shop-bought pizza ready to put in the oven. That could be cooking while I was making mine. But I didn’t have any ingredients to hand so I was debating with myself how I was going to make this pizza when I hadn’t any ingredients and no facilities like a table or anything to make the pizza on.

And later we’d been in a kind of museum or exhibition or something like that and were on our way out. I’d gone and picked up 2 packets of crisps but I couldn’t work out where to pay for them. I was halfway through walking out of the building before I realised that this wasn’t right so I went to put back these 2 packets of crisps and walked out down these steps. There were hundreds of coaches in this car park and thousands of people milling around. Eventually I worked my way round to where I thought our coach was parked but there was a coach there and they were shepherding a load of prisoners of war off it and marching them off. We were told to wait so we waited for a while but no-one came so in the end we set off towards our coach. This guy with a wooden leg came back and asked what we were doing. We replied that we were going to the coach. He told us we should have waited but we answered that we’d waited for long enough. He made us all sit down in the middle of the street and he asked “where’s this opium?”. We asked “what opium?” and he started playing silly games with us. He said that he was going to make us march all the way back again which we refused to do. We were sitting there in the middle of the road and he was becoming quite aggressive but we were having none of it. There was a party of girls sitting close by. One of them was one with whom I’d wandered around this museum. She shouted over to me that she had taken £1100 out of her bank account, given £310 to someone for something but couldn’t remember what this other £800 was for. Did I know? Could I remember? I remembered vaguely something but this wasn’t the time or place to mention it so I told her that I’d see her later. She replied “if there is a later” because this situation was slowly starting to escalate.

This afternoon I’ve had to help Mr Ukrainian dismantle the interior of his car. I the storm last night he had about 3 inches of water in it. We ended up taking out all of the seats and carpets and putting them somewhere to dry, and then using cloths to take out the water

Tea tonight was the leftover vegetable curry from last night and it was just as nice as yesterday.

So that was that. Rosemary and I were on our own for the evening so we didn’t stay out long. Right now I’m finishing my notes and then I’m off to bed. An early night and more pleasant dreams, I hope.

But who was the girl who I’d been with at that museum? I wish I knew. And I’m sure that you do too.

0

Thursday 13 August 2015 – FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE …

…I’m ready well in advance of time to go.

Well, I’m not. I have been looking for three days for the $200 that I drew out of my Canadian Bank before leaving last October, so I’m having to go without it. And now I know why I drew it all out too. My Canadian bank card expired back in May!

So I hope that my European cards work, otherwise I’m going to have a couple of problems.

Mind you, it was touch and go that I got here in time this morning. I’d been out in Eastern Europe in a city that straddled the border between the East and the West. I was in the east with a party of people (as it happened, people with whom I worked in Stoke on Trent) and we were in a coach or a train that wasn’t moving but the seats were comfortable. Anyway, who should turn up but Nerina, with her Afro haircut of the early 90s. She sat next to me and ended up sharing my bunk, and I could see all of the people looking around and quizzing each other as to who she was.

I asked her how she had made it over to here – did she come by rail through the East, because I was interested in the trains that she might have seen, but she had come to the railway station in the West and walked across the border, which disappointed me.

So first job was the washing up. And that was when I made a startling discovery – that I had brought some water up last night to do the washing-up, and then left it on the side and went to bed. I’m definitely getting old, aren’t I?

And then there was the beichstuhl that needed emptying, cleaning and refilling, such delightful jobs that I have.

I’ve also cleaned the waste bins and isn’t that a first?

Liz came for me and we went to the mairie to pick up a Certificat de Domicile but as I expected, it’s closed for the holidays. I must remember to ring up on Tuesday! I did meet Valentin there though, loading up the Commune’s little van. We had a good chat and it seems that he’s re-signed for Pionsat this year, and that’s good news! I’ve no idea why he went to play at Terjat.

piaggio APE brasserie de la gare montlucon allier franceLiz and I went for coffee in the brasserie opposite the station.And while we were there, this interesting Piaggio APE pulled up just opposite.

I had a brief chat with the owner but he didn’t say very much. But he didn’t mind me taking a few photos of it (it’s always polite to ask).

It brought back a few memories of the Piaggio APE50 that we discovered on waste land in Brussels and which now resides – or it did, the last time that I heard anything about it – in Stoke on Trent

SNCF single unit diesel passenger train franceHere’s my train – a little single-unit diesel. I’ve not been on one of these before. But it’s nice, clean and comfortable – a far cry from anything that you find on the rails in the UK.

And we set off bang on time too, which is another far cry from life on the rails in the UK. And one thing that I like about France – “we regret that the toilet on board the train isn’t functioning. If you need this service, please make yourself known to the guard who will arrange for a longer stop at one of the stations that we visit”.

Mind you – I was half-expecting that we would be offered the possibility to pull up on the main line at a suitable hedge.

I didn’t realise that there were two railway stations in Montlucon – but I do now!

The line to Riom is what can best be described as “bucolic” – what one writer once wrote as a “merry, mazy ramble” across the Auvergnat countryside. I’ve advanced about 25 kms but it’s taken me an hour and a half and about 90kms to do it.

diesel multiple unit riom puy de dome lyon franceAt Riom it’s pouring down – a real torrential downpour – and my train is bang on time. And then this is where I realise that it’s lunchtime and for once in my life I’m caught without a supply of food about my person.

By the time I reached Vichy it had stopped raining, but it had started again at Tarare.

place part dieu lyon franceFirst stop at Lyon was at the Subway for a very late lunch. And it was at here that we had the usual Subway dialogue-
Our Hero – could I have a 12-inch with nothing but crudités?
Serving Wench – do you want cheese with that?

trolley bus lyon franceThere are trolley buses in Lyon these days – I hadn’t noticed that before. It seems that all of this “obsolete” transport of the 1950s – trams, trolley buses – was not obsolete at all. In fact, it was a hundred years ahead of its time. And it seems to be doing its work here in Lyon too because the streets are much less crowded than any other European city that I’ve visited recently.

As for my hotel, it’s 5 or 10 minutes away from the station. It’s modern and clean and tidy, with all of the services to hand. I had a lovely vegetarian pizza (I always bring my own cheese) for tea. It seems that this idea of flying out of Lyon, at least to here, is paying off in spades.

And as good an idea as it might have been, it could be even better too, believe it or not, because there’s a cheap budget hotel – the Athena – with rooms at €58:00, actually built into the station block. A walk of about 50 yards.

I shall have to look closely into this, but not tonight because although it’s only about 22:00, I’m crashing out.

-1

Tuesday 10th February 2015 – IN WHICH OUR HERO MAKES GREAT STRIDES

The first lot of great strides took me up to Virlet and the mairie to be censored, seeing as how it’s census time again and I missed both visits of the census team. And it’s clear that the people at the mairie read this rubbish because the first question that I was asked was ” did I manage okay seeing as how I was snowed in for 10 days at home?” and the second topic of discussion was about the postie and an explanation as to why she couldn’t make it here. All totally unprompted.

Not only that, I was taken to see the new snow-clearing apparatus and I was asked for my advice about some technical aspects. Well, well, well. Whatever next?

Second lot of great strides were down to the bottom of the garden and the composting bin, where I empted out the beichstuhl and refilled it. Such delightful jobs that I have to do around here. Still, it’s all grist to the mill, and compost for the garden too.

Once those delights were sorted out, I attacked the bedroom and gave it a thorough cleaning – or, at least, the best cleaning that I can do seeing as how there are still four sheets of plasterboard in the middle of the floor. And as usual, running my big magnetic dish through the pile of sawdust and plaster dust and ordinary dust, I salvage about a hundredweight of screws and nails that have been dropped over the passage of time.

plasterboard stud wall bedroom les guis virlet puy de dome franceWith that out of the way, I can press on and fill all of the joins in the plasterboard. And how I wish that I have the time and the money (and the inclination) to rip off the wall everything that I did a few years ago in here and start again.

All of that work so far took until lunchtime and it really is quite impressive, even though I say it myself (apart from the rubbish plasterbaording of course). I could be quite happy living here.

Although it was still very cold today, we had another really bright alpine day. Not good enough for varnishing or painting, but good enough to sort out the circular saw and cut the first of the two end-pieces for the remaining unfinished wall of the wardrobe. To cut it, shape it and fit it, it took all afternoon firstly because it needed to be an exact fit – 1mm out and it’s no good at all, and secondly because trying to fit it on my own was almost impossible.

It had to be the upper piece that needed doing. That needs to be fitted first and difficult as it might be with nothing underneath it holding it in position, fitting it in second is impossible. In the end I had a crowbar wedged underneath it at the bottom and an endstop nailed to the beam above, and I was gently levering it into position between the uprights with a big wood chisel.

osb wall boarding wardrobe end les guis virlet puy de dome franceI had it in position and screwed in nicely after about an hour and a half, only to find out that it had slipped down the crowbar and was about 15mm out at the top. Taking it out was a barrel of laughs too, as was putting it back in again in the correct position but finally, at about 18:30 it was in exactly where it ought to be, and all screwed in position.

A wash in the beautiful warm water in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater (we had 104 amp-hours of surplus electrical energy today and we would have had more had I not used the circular saw) and up here for a nice warm fire and oven chips with peas, carrots and falafel balls.

What I’ll do tomorrow depends on the weather and the sun. We are promised a warm day and if that is indeed so, I’ll be painting the landing. Otherwise, I’ll be sanding down the filler.

But starting work on the wardrobe already. Isn’t this progress?

-1

Saturday 24th January 2015 – I HAD A NICE …

… morning out today.

I was up early this morning despite havig had a late night and having been on my travels again. I was driving up to Southern Scotland with Rosemary and had taken the road via Derby (the old A6) which had led to some kind of deviation around the Matlock area. We ended up at Carlisle in a motel but the room that we had been given also doubled as a rest room for the staff and I was continually being disturbed by staff members coming in for a smoke and so on. In the meantime there were a couple of boys with fishing nets and jam jars and wearing helmets, diving into pools of the most disgusting and dirty water, looking for what, I don’t have any idea.

By 09:00 I was at Cécile’s to show a couple of people around Cécile’s house and on the way back I called at the Intermarché and ended up having lengthy chats with various people, including Marianne.

I went round to the Mairie afterwards. It’s census time again and I’ve been away from the house for just one day, and guess which day it was that they called? I now have to declare myself at the Mairie but of courseit was closed this morning so I resolved to go back this afternoon.

No chance of that, though. We had the heaviest snow of the winter this afternoon and everywhere is a white-out. I’ll have to go there another time.

I spent this afternoon working on the text for the radio programme and that’s almost finished. An hour tomorrow and it will be done.

Apart from having a lengthy chat with Cecile this evening, that’s my lot today. It’s not been the weather for doing much else.

-2

Saturday 15th February 2014 – I SHOULD HAVE BEEN …

… at Marcillat tonight for the football. However, the ground is situated right on the crest of a scarp slope about 6 miles from here and the floodlights are clearly visible from the end of the lane, and when I reached the end of the lane, I could see nothing.

I drove as far as Virlet from where the ground is even more visible just across the valley, but there was no change – still total darkness – and so I turned round and came home.

Mind you, it doesn’t surprise me. We had torrential rain again today and it’s probably about 6 weeks since we last had a day of no rain at all. I’m up to my knees in mud around here and so I imagine that it’s just like this at the football ground at Marcillat.

Even more intriguing – when I went out to take the stats just before going to bed last night the temperature was an astonishing 13.5°C. Mid-February too! It was more like mid-April outside last night. This “winter” that we are having is totally crazy.

Today, I wasn’t in a hurry to leave my stinking pit, and after breakfast I made a start on what was left of the rdio programme that needs writing. However, I lost interest halfway through and ended up carrying on the sorting out of all the files on the various external hard drives hee, punctuated by a bried visit to the Intermarché at Pionsat for supplies for the weekend – I’m going to Montlucon on Tuesday so I’ll do a major shop there for the rest of the week.

But it was exciting through the night, I’ll tell you. It was my turn to be in a wheelchair and I was racing through the streets of Halifax (Yorkshire, not Nova Scotia) in the snow at speeds of up to 45mph through the traffic, allowing for the momentum of the downward slopes to carry me back up the steep hills. Excitement wasn’t in it! If I could maeket a game like that, you can forget your amusement parks!

-4

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!

sapeurs pompiers fire brigade montlucon allier franceOn 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.

annual village meeting virlet puy de dome franceThis 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

Thursday 23rd January 2014 – I FINALLY MANAGED …

… to pick up Cécile’s letter this morning, after all these weeks.

And so seeing as how I was going to have a morning out, I decided to make the most of it, especially as it was once again p155ing down.

First stop was the Mairie. I need a form to say that I’m still alive (and judging by the smell around here, you would be excused for wondering) and the best person to do that is the Mayor of the village. They have a nice big and official-looking stamp that gives a really impressive look to any kind of document.

Then off to Cécile’s. I need to put an accompanying letter with this form and so I typed one out last night and saved it onto a memory stick. Also, Cécile sent me an authorisation to collect her mail, and so both of these needed printing. I have three printers here – one stopped working when it fell off the desk, the second only prints in blue and only when it feels like it, and the third one, that I rescued from Marianne’s, that ran out of ink on me.

So round to Cécile’s and her printer and – guess what?

Quite right. Hers ran out of ink too but there’s an override button on it and so we ended up with documants in light grey ink.

Nevertheless, the authorisation was accepted at the Post Office and I collected the letter. And then off to Pionsat and the Post Office there. That’s a real Post Office and so I posted my letter and form, and also a packet for Malou. When I was stuck in Brussels with no ‘phone charger for the old Nokia, she very kindly sent me one. And she’s a big fan of Edith Piaf and Marianne had a German version of the film La Vie En Rose. Malou speaks German fluently, and so that’s now on its way to Luxembourg.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, that was the morning gone. And so I’ve spent all of the afternoon firstly, picking up the bits of wood from the construction project to use as firelighters, and then sweeping up the sawdust for the composting toilet. It’s impressive that I can actually do that.

Secondly, I started to load up the new shelves. The little cheap lightweight shelf unit that I put in the downstairs room as a temporary measure, that’s now completely empty. There’s a pile of stuff gone out of the barn onto the new shelves, and a pile of stuff out of the verandah has followed it. And, much to my surprise, the shelves aren’t even half-full. There’s tons of room for more stuff.

This evening, seeing as I was in a contemplative frame of mind, I watched The Wild Bunch. Peckinpah rather prolongs the violence unnecessarily, I reckon, but apart from that, it is one of the most magnificent films that has ever been made and the performances of William Holden and Ernest Borgnine have no parallel in anything that I have seen elsewhere. It’s a film that is in my Top 5 Films of All Time and quite rightly so.

So what’s the plan for tomorrow then?

When I dug out the flooring to put in a large battery box, I made the box the size to suit the Hawker batteries that I use. However, one or two of them are starting to creak a little and I can no longer obtain the replacements, and so I bought a while ago some massive 200 amp-hour batteries.

The battery box isn’t big enough to take them and so I’m going to be making a start on digging out some more flooring and enlarging the box.

And why 200 amp-hour batteries? Why not go for anything bigger? The answer to that is a simple question of logistics. I can just about manage to pick up a 200 amp-hour battery on my own. Anything bigger and it will be beyond the realms of possibility, and I have long-since given up the idea of doing anything that I’m not able to do on my own.

-5

Saturday 29th June 2013 – WELL I WAS WRONG …

… about my weather prediction today. In fact it started off grey, wet and miserable and simply got worse and worse.

And in something that must be a new world record, I was in Montlucon, a quick round of all of the shops and back home by 12:30, would you believe?

What has contributed to that a great deal is that theres a new Leclerc hypermarket opened just a little way down the road from Brico Depot.

It’s huge, clean and tidy, the parking is really easy, the aisles are nice and wide and, in common with most Leclerc hypermarkets, there are plenty of checkouts and they are always well-personned so there are none of these enormous queues that you find in the Auchan and the Carrefour.

For these reasons alone, the new Leclerc will get my vote for shopping for the forseeable future.

I didn’t in fact leave my notebook at Brico Depot. It was in my pocket all the time.

Nevertheless I went and redid my shopping there this morning and with no pressure from any outside influence I bought everything that I’m likely to need to finish off this bathroom properly.

I’ll restart in there on Monday and put my back into it.

I came back a different way that usual and I’m rather glad that I did.

1962 opel rekord domérat montlucon allier franceDespite everything that I’ve recently been saying about old cars on islands, you do still occasionally find them on the mainland too.

And here just down the road from LeClerc at Domérat I stumbled across probably the most exciting car that I’ve seen for quite some considerable time – Peugeot 230 pickups excepted of course.

And isn’t this a real beauty?

1962 opel rekord domérat montlucon allier franceShe’s a 1962 Opêl Rekord 1700 P2, in almost-mint condition, one owner from new and with just 67000 kms on the clock.

It’s for sale at just €7500 and I could easily be tempted by this, although Opel did make a pick-up version and a convertible, one of which would be even an more exciting find,

Even nicer though would be the Soviet Union’s copycat GAZ M21 III but I wouldn’t have a clue where even to start to look for one of those.

This afternoon I did a little (yes, just a little) tidying up here and then, despite the miserable weather, it was time to go out.

fete de st jacques virlet village walk puy de dome franceRegular readers of this rubbish will recall that at the weekend round about the Fête de St Jacques it’s the custom here in Virlet to go for a walk to beat the bounds of the commune and have a little party afterwards.

Despite the miserable weather, a hard-core of about a dozen or so of us set out, up tp our knees in soaking wet grass and sliding about on the mud.

It made me feel quite at home.

fete de st jacques virlet village walk puy de dome franceIt did brighten up slightly as we made our way around, and it became much easier to walk once we were on the metalled road.

Neverthless, it was still far too wet for our traditional feu de joie, but someone did bring a DVD, a copy of the Fernandel film En Avant La Musique – a tyical whimsical film of village life in Italy during the war, and we sat around and watched that instead.

All in all we had a good time. I wonder what tomorrow will bring me.

-3

Saturday 23rd June 2012 – PHEW! I’M EXHAUSTED!

And I’m not surprised either, for I’ve had a busy day today.

This morning I was busy tracing the antics of Séraphin Margane de Lavaltrie and his regiment, the Carignan-Salières along the banks of the St Lawrence River, as well as unravelling the tangled web weaved around Quebec by the enigmatic Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac.

Yes, this is all very exciting, doing these web pages. I’m certainly learning a lot – and that’s the whole point.

Anyway, in the afternoon I shot off to Commentry and did a pile of shopping, but didn’t buy any wire netting. The price of the stuff is exorbitant and I’m sure that I can do far better than that elsewhere with a bit of exertion.

In the meantime I’ll see what I can conjure up or otherwise invent.

I did however manage to fit in an uncomfortable hour in the swimming pool at Neris-les-Bains. Note to self- “don’t go swimming straight after eating a tub of LIDL sorbet”.

bonfire feu de joie fete de st jacques Virlet puy de dome franceAnd so in the evening a nice clean me went back out and off to the village for our traditional, annual walk to explore some of the lesser-known back lanes of Virlet.

I’d stuck a note on the board of the Anglo-French group and so instead of the usual 20 or so people we ended up being quite a crowd – many of whom I knew – and we all had a really nice, cheerful and friendly walk around.

People from all ages were here and that’s nice to see – I like the idea of the youngsters being involved.

strawberry moose bonfire feu de joie fete de st jacques Virlet puy de dome france. It’s not only the villagers who are drawn out by the likelihood of crowds and of an audience.

Whenever there’s a possibility of a photo opportunity with a new group of admiring fans, you can bet your life that Strawberry Moose won’t be far away.

And sure enough, he leapt out of his seat in Caliburn to mingle with the crowds and made the acquaintance of a few more admirers. His fame is certainly spreading and he had just as much fun as everyone else did tonight.

bonfire feu de joie fete de st jacques Virlet puy de dome franceBecause fun there was, and plenty of it too, and for all ages.

After the walk we all headed back to the field at the back of the church. Here, seeing as it’s the Fête de St Jacques we had a feu de joie, a barbecue and snacks, a film and dancing with music provided by my friend Rick the Trailer Guy on cello and his violinist friend.

All very convivial.

A good time was had by all although I didn’t stay too long. I didn’t stay as long as I might have though. For some reason I was absolutely exhausted, and so I was home by midnight.

It’ll take me a week to recover, I reckon.

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Tuesday 20th March 2012 – I WAS BUSY TODAY

First thing, after breakfast, was to check all of this paperwork that I’ve been doing, and then take a few pieces down to the mairie to sign or countersign.

Back here then, I then had to photocopy everything, or scan it for reference.

Bill rang me up too – he was having computer issues and needed help sorting that out and so I told him that when I had done my errands I would go round to help.

Off to Pionsat, and first stop was the bank, to pay an outstanding bill. And talking of bills, there was Bill in front of me. He managed to make the woman at the cash desk crash her computer and so we all had an agonising wait while she tried to fix it.

So having sorted that problem, it was off to the Post Office. They have a guaranteed 2-day delivery service, which is what I need, but of course none of the special envelopes that you need to do it. She can order one, but it won’t get here until the morning.

At my insistence, she rang the St Gervais office. They had one in and the parcel lorry was there and so St Gervais sent it down in the lorry.

The postal clerk put my papers into it, and handed it to the parcels driver to send it on its way. At least I hope that she did – it’s what she told me that she would do and she better had as well, for I am working to a strict time limit here.

Down to the boulangerie. There was no delivery this morning and so I needed to buy the bread.

But woe is me – the boulangerie closes for lunch between … errr … 13:00 and 15:00. This meant a trip to the Intermarché for some bread, so I picked up a loaf and wandered over to the till.

A woman with a full-to-overloaded trolley saw me coming and … quickly put her purchases onto the conveyor belt. Aren’t some people nice?

At Bill’s I managed to fix his computer for him and then we had a good chat for ages – all about old cars, buses and the like. It always helps to pass the time of day.

But it was cold today and so I lit the fire up here this evening. So much so that I lit the fire for the first time in 10 days. And taking advantage, I cooked baked potatoes and baked beans for tea.

Tomorrow I’ll do some gardening, I reckon. That is, unless the weather is really bad.

It’s clear skies and stars outside just now but this is the Auvergne and things can change in the blinking of an eye.

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Friday 24th February 2012 – WELL, THAT WAS EXCITING!

Two hours on my feet in front of about 25 people doing my presentation of the Trans-Labrador Highway. Loads of people whom I knew there too which was really nice.

And doing it all in French as well!

And It went down quite well too, much to my surprise.

The thing that I reckon is most important about living in new surroundings is to make an effort to integrate and to take an active role in community affairs. And so that’s my bit done for the next few years.

Anyway, it’s my birthday today so happy birthday to me of course. And in keeping with tradition I did my best not to do anything today. That’s what birthdays are all about of course.

But it didn’t quite work out like that as I had to redo the presentation (and it STILL didn’t work on anyone’s computer except mine and isn’t that a mystery?) and then I had a surprise visit from Terry to wish me a happy birthday, bring me a birthday cake (thanks, Liz) and a couple of birthday presents, to wit one cement mixer and a box of screwdriver bits.

It’s really nice when your friends understand instinctively your needs.

So that was today, really. But here’s a piece of surprising information – apart from about an hour earlier this morning, I’ve had no heat on in here today. And it’s well after 02:00 and the temperature is still over 15°C.

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Tuesday 7th February 2012 – I’M MORE AND MORE …

… impressed with this new little woodstove of mine.

Almost impressed, in fact, as I am with my galvanised steel dustbin.

Last night I cooked myself the rest of the oven chips, some baked beans and a veggie burger in the oven.

Tonight though, leaving the oven open, I cooked a saucepan of pasta, beans and lentils in a kind-of curry sauce. And it’s all working really well.

And I think that I’ve found the secret of heating the room even quicker.

A nail has fallen down the back of the fire and as a result I can’t close up the ash tray completely. It’s open about a quarter of an inch. and if I open the air intake just a fraction, it roars away like nobody’s business.

Another thing that helps is having turned the divan round so that it is across the room, it acts as a heat-stop and all of the heat is concentrated between me and the fire.

And while I’m sitting on the sofa, if I prop open the lid about 30° when the fire is roaring, the lid deflects all of the heat right into my upper body.

But this morning it was cold in here – all of 8.2°C in fact.

And that’s hardly surprising because last night outside, was -16.3°C, the coldest temperature that I have ever recorded here.

It was cruel downstairs. Even the orange juice was frozen solid.

I had to go to the mairie as well to check over the projector for this exhibition I’m doing on the Trans-Labrador Highway, and Caliburn had a little struggle to start – not that I’m surprised.

Back here I made a heat pad with that heated seat pad and some insulation, and throughout the afternoon it melted about 25 litres of water. I’m now seemingly melting more water than I’m using so that’s progress of a sort.

I’ve also made much more progress doing the ceiling in the bedroom, and the unexpectred good side of this is that in moving a lot of the stuff around, I’m finding loads of things that I have misplaced. Knives, saws, the large mitre clamps, and also the missing 650-watt circular saw for which I’ve been hunting for ages.

So tonight, with having a big fire in here, it’s quite warm and so I’m off to bed in a minute.

Tomorrow I need to use some of that excess water to make some polyfilla stuff to fill the cracks in the plasterboarding that I did the other day. 15 minutes will see me finish the ceiling as far as I can go and I can’t do any more until the joints in the wall are sealed and smoothed down.

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Saturday 25th June 2011 – It’s been all go here today

karl hagen chantier communaux lapeyrouse puy de dome franceYes, I crawled out of the heaving pit rather late this morning, at about 10:30 to be precise, and it was off to Karl and Lou’s for their chantier. The girls spent the day painting the front of the house while Jean, Francois and I were building a woodshed at the back of the house.

There was the obligatory pause for lunch of course and I took advantage of the moment to take a photograph of all the attendees

fete des nouveaux arrivants marcillat en combraille allier franceI couldn’t stick around for long though because at 14:30 I had to piddle off to Marcillat en Combraille for this meeting. And now I know why they wanted me – apparently they didn’t have a translator and so Yours Truly was stuck with the task.

But it was well-worth going for I met a Dutch guy there who sells and hires out trailers. I’d talked to him a while back about car transporter trailers but he doesn’t do them, and so I made it clear that I had one that I might hire out if he says the magic words.
“Stop messing about Eric. You’ll be well-paid”
“Ahhh. So you know the magic words then!”

One thing led to another and it turns out that he plays music in a folk group of sorts. I mentioned my previous existence when I played bass guitar in a rock group and he’s going to pass my details on to a friend of his who plays in a folk rock group.

annual village walk virlet puy de dome franceLater this evening we were all round at Virlet where we were going to have our annual evening walk, exploring the highways and, more importantly, the byways of the commune. Just for a change the weather was good this year and the walk was enjoyable even though it was done at the pace of a route march.

This here is the old road into the village, long-since replaced by a more modern route and that down there on the right in the photo is an old well for the village

feu de joie virlet village bonfire puy de dome france Afterwards we had the traditional village bonfire – the feu de joie at the back of the church. There was a picnic too – the village had done us proud in this respect – and there was dancing to music provided by …. our friend with the trailer.

With the backdrop of the firework display at Montaigut en Combraille, it really was a most enjoyable evening and Jean, Elizabeth, Clotilde and Rosemary all certainly enjoyed it.

What with one thing and another it really was a good, enjoyable day and I’m off to bed quite happy for a change.

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Friday 15th April 2011 – I’m going to bed in a minute.

Yes, I dunno what’s the matter with me just recently – I can’t seem to last the pace any more.

And it isn’t as if I’ve done anything particular either. This morning I spent a couple of hours writing up my notes on Newfoundland, and then spent a while photocopying some documents that I need, and making the odd telephone or two.

Then apart from that I’ve been tidying up. The front of the house has been weeded in some kind of fashion and then I put down some plastic sheeting and put some pallets on top, and there I have my dustbins – all 4 of them. I’ve also cleared a pile of stones from in front of the house too – the big ones to the rockpile and the smaller ones to the paths between the new raised beds, and it’s in place of the stones that I put the pallets and the garden furniture that was up on top on the old potager. I’ve also rearranged the herb beds and the trees that I’ve been keeping in buckets until I can clear the orchard.

This evening I was invited to the annual general meeting of the Virlet Cultural and Historical Society and it seems that I’ve been talked into doing a presentation of my trip to Labrador sometime at the end of the year.

Lieneke is back again too and so I went round for a chat. She’s taken me by surprise as I had put the Sankey trailer across the door of her barn not expecting her to be here until the beginning of May as usual. I’ll have to shift that tomorrow.

And that’s been my day. Hardly tiring, is it? So I don’t know what’s up with me right now.

And in other news, I have gherkins and cucumber rearing their ugly heads in the cloche, and potatoes in the early potato bed.

Things are slowly coming to life here.

I wish that I was.

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Thursday 2nd September 2010 – I had a little fun today …

abbaye de bellaigues virlet puy de dome france… with the Nikon. As you know, I’ve started to work on a little website about Virlet, and the major claim to fame of the village is the Dominican Abbey of Bellaigue.

You can see it from the end of my lane, way down in the valley below and so I took a pic of it. And considering that it’s about 6 km away it’s come out rather well.

The camera by the way is set to images of 4200×3000 or something like that, and the quality of the image is set to HIGH.

What I have done with it though is to reduce it to 800×533 and set the quality to 42% – what I always do for images that I’m posting to the web.

abbaye de belaigues virlet puy de dome franceThe next bit was the exciting part. What I have done is cropped out a section that is just 350 x 220 or thereabouts and blown it up to 800×533. I had to sharpen the image a little but I reckon that this has come out superbly.

Like I said, it’s 6 kilometres away from where I took the pic. Spending that money on that 105mm (3xzoom) lens has been well-spent if you ask me.

>Now despite what I said yesterday, I didn’t go to Clermont Ferrand today. I made it as far as the mairie but the secretary was involved with some complicated with someone and it took 40 minutes while I was there! So by the time I had my paperwork and had reached Clermont Ferrand, it would have been lunchtime and I would have been hanging around for a couple of hours.

But she had given me a list of doctors authorised to give medicals for truck and bus drivers, so I rang them to see about an appointment for me. The first one said “mid-October” – the second one said the same. And none of this surprised me. Long-term followers of my outpourings will remember all of this from before.

The next doctor I tried said “Friday 18:00”.
“Like tomorrow?” I asked with disbelief
“Yes, tomorrow” he confirmed.

So badger going to Clermont Ferrand this afternoon and trying to blag my way around getting my commercial licenses somehow. I can go on Monday with all of the paperwork properly complete. I worked hard to get my commercial licenses so I’m not going to surrender them lightly, that’s for sure.

So this afternoon I added a couple more buckets of mortar to the wall. And ended the day with a solar shower. Only 35.5°C so it was rather cool, but welcome nevertheless.

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