Category Archives: Marcillat-en-Combraille

Friday 21st September 2012 – 19:32 …

… it was when I knocked off this evening – on POETS Day too, would you believe?

collapsed lean-to pointing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut at least I have all of the stones in place in the wall and all of the joints have been filled in.

Dodging the heavy rain showers of course, but I wasn’t going to let a little water bother me too much.

There was a half-bucket of mortar left over too, and nowhere to stick it (no suggestions, please), I put that on the inside upstairs.

And such is the state of play today.

I would like to say that the wall is finished but of course it isn’t. And I’m not very happy with it at all.

I had the predicted avalanche of stones that wiped out a lot of today’s work and a good part of yesterday’s too but I’ve managed to replace it all.

What I’m going to have to do is to leave it for a week or two for the stones to settle and the mortar to cure. Then to go over it again to see if there are any loose stones or cracks in the mortar and seal them in again.

At least, it’s in far better condition now that it ever was before.

And do you notice the addition to the guttering? The 87° angle and the guttering offcut that takes the water well away from under the eaves and stops 10 litres of rain water going down the back of your overalls 30 seconds after the rain starts?

This morning though I went to Marcillat-en-Combraille to record the Radio Anglais rock music programme for Radio Tartasse but there was no-one there.

I tried ringing them at home but no answer so after waiting half an hour I came home. Maybe they forgot – or else maybe I mixed up the dates. That wouldn’t surprise me.

So I came back and worked on the website for a couple of hours.

And this evening? Nothing at all. I deserve a rest and I’ll be going to bed in a tick.  

-4

Saturday 8th September 2012 – WHEN WAS THE LAST …

… time I saw an SD1 Rover?

sd1 rover 3500 ohio usa october octobre 2010I can in fact vaguely remember – early October 2010 in Ohio, USA as it happens. Here’s the photo to prove it and I’m still recovering from the shock.

In the UK is must be years ago when I borrowed one that a mate was halfway through dismantling, so that I could go to Kings Lynn to drops some stuff off on a girl that I was seeing at the time and the exhaust fell off halfway out.

And so this morning in Montlucon I was completely stunned to see one drive past me as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. And seeing a second one drive past me an hour or two later was even more astonishing. I’ve no idea what was going on there and I bet that I won’t ever see something like that again.

And I nearly didn’t make it to Montlucon either.

The effects of the last few days have been telling on me, because despite the early night I slept right through the alarms this morning. It was only the farmer bringing the cows back (I’m glad I did that wall when I did) that woke me up.

I had a good wander round and bought nothing much out of the ordinary – maybe a pair of these shell trousers that I wear. Auchan had them on sale at €9:99 so I reckoned that I would buy a pair and see what they are like.

I’m fast running out of clothes because I left a huge pile in my lock-up in Canada to pick up when I go back – which should have been this weekend but it isn’t and that’s why I’m running out.

I had a good hour in the pool at Neris-les-Bains as well and finally managed to see the remains of the Roman Baths – how long have I been going there and I haven’t seen them before?

In the blistering heat the baths was crowded as you might expect. And someone was having a load of fun!

A couple were standing about 5 yards apart and hurling an object about between them – the object being a girl of about 3 or 4. And every time she hit the water she was squealing with delight.

I was squealing too, but for a different reason. All of the pool was open and the water was absolutely freezing. Almost as cold as that pool in Québec back in May.

Tonight the football season gets under way and with no game at Pionsat I went to Marcillat en Combraille to watch AS Marcillat’s 1st XI.

One division higher than FC Pionsat St Hilaire in theory (but they play in the Allier leagues, not the Puy de Dome leagues) but you wouldn’t think so. The match was awful and so was AS Marcillat – they only lost 5-2 but they were lucky to get the two and St Prix should have had a dozen.

I’m off to two matches tomorrow – at Chateaugay for the 2nd XI at 13:00 and then down the road to Clermont la Glacière at 15:00 for the 1st XI.

Two teams that I haven’t seen before.

-1

Monday 27th August 2012 – AFTER THE EXCITEMENT …

… of Sunday, today was just a routine radio day.

Despite a late night I was up early and I printed out all of the paperwork for the recordings and sorted out some music too for Radio Arverne.

While I was at it, which I am occasionally, Rosemary rang up too to see if I would be heading out to Montlucon in the near future. She needs to pick up a few things.

As it happens, I need a few things too – well, more than a few things actually but many of them are unfortunately not available in shops – and so I’ve tentatively pencilled that in for Wednesday morning.

Liz ad I met up for our Radio Anglais recording sessions in Marcillet-en Combraille and Gerzat and much to our surprise they all went according to plan.

I am however very miffed by the fact that I didn’t need to have done all of that work last week. It turns out that about 4 or 5 weeks ago I’d done a pile of stuff on traffic convictions and penalty points on a French driving licence and I’d completely forgotten about it.

We didn’t need any of the stuff that I spent all that time doing this last few days.

Still, it won’t go to waste – it means that I can spend a few weeks, if not months, writing this year’s Christmas Special without being under any last-minute pressure.

What didn’t go to plan though were the roads and the traffic. The place was crawling with grockles blocking the roads and rubbernecking everything. I hate this time of the year.

Anyway, now I’m home and as I’m pretty much shattered I’m off to bed for an early night.

See you tomorrow.

-2

Friday 24th August 2012 – WELL, FOLKS …

collapsed lean to repairing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome france… here it is. The wall’s all finished!

I was rather optimistic about my “couple of hours” – in fact it was more like 3.5 hours before it was all done.

But the hardest part of it was of course the clearing up afterwards that took the time – I don’t do clearing up as you know.

Anyway, there you are – all done and dusted. The tools have been put away and the araa has been cleared of rubbish the best that I can do.

As for the bits of old cement and so on that I dug out of the wall, they are on a tarpaulin at the side of the house. Soon I’ll be doing some concreting and I’ll be needing hardcore.

As for the weather behaving itself, the moment that I finished putting the last trowel of mortar into the wall, it started to rain. Bang on cue, you might say.

Anyway, seeing as it was 18:10 when I finished, I called it a day and boiled up some water for a shave and a good wash.

Following that, I crashed out, to such an extent that I didn’t make tea. I’d probably be asleep even now if Radio Tartasse hadn’t rung up – apparently the music files for the radio programme are corrupted so can she copy them again?

That’s where I was this morning, in Marcillat-en-Combraille, recording the Radio Anglais rock music programmes for Radio Tatasse. That was fairly straightforward after last month’s debacle.

So tomorrow is shopping at Commentry and maybe even the swimming baths at Neris-les-Bains. A good soak and a good relax should do me the world of good, I reckon, after all of my exertions.

Sunday is the pellerinage at La Cellette and the pot d’acceuil at St Maigner with Marianne, followed by the Virlet brocante and then Liz and Terry’s for rehearsals for the rest of the Radio Anglais programmes, and that’s the weekend done.

And do you like my Sunday?

That, would you believe, is a day of rest.

-6

Thursday 26th July 2012 – PHWOARRR! WHAT A SCORCHER!

12:30 am and still 30°C up here in my attic. I shan’t be sleeping much tonight.

In fact it was so warm up here this morning that I breakfasted yet again with the fan working. And I needed it too.

And then off to pick up Liz for our Radio Anglais sessions for Radio Tartasse in Marcillat en Combraille, and we melted there too.

Back home later, I was on the computer again in the attic and in the heat, and apparently the weather is going to break tomorrow afternoon. So cue some washing.

That I did while I was lunching – lovely hot water at 62°C in the home-made 12 volt immersion heater – that should get everything clean, and I’m glad that it’s all done. I’ll just have to remember to take it in when the weather threatens.

Now that I have a big load of sand and a pile of stones, no reason why I shouldn’t be attacking the wall. But first, I forgot about the load of stones in the house and so I spent half an hour pulling a pile of suitable stuff from out of there.

I’ve also found another load of stuff that was buried in there – including the missing box of 4×40 screws. And how long have I been looking for those?

lean to repairig stone wall window frame les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut eventually I was back up the ladder and back on the wall and after a couple of hours or so outside, the wall is now built up (at the outside, at least) to the level of the window sill.

Furthermore, the outside is almost filled up to the framework of the window on the right-hand side. Tomorrow will, with a bit of luck and if the weather holds out, see me finishing off that part of the wall if I can put in a good shift.

But then, I’m not so sure. I’ve promised someone that I would do something tomorrow, and I’ve no idea what it was now. So apologies in advance if I’ve forgotten anything.

And maybe I’ll receive a reminding phone call, in which case I’ll be doing something different.

-3

Friday 20th July 2012 – WHAT A SHAMBLES!

And, just for a change, I’m not talking about anything to do with the Open University Students Association.

At 10:00 I needed to be at Radio Tartasse in Marcillat-en-Combraille to record the rock music programme and thanks to a 07:30 start this morning I had everything ready and so I was there on time.

15 minutes it takes to record the programmes – I set up all the music at home and copy them onto a memory stick – but it was blasted flaming well 11:50 before I managed to leave.

It seems that someone has been messing around with the computer there and there’s a file running in a kind of algorithm that is stopping the sound card working correctly.

They had the manager and two technicians trying to fix it and in the end Yours Truly was so fed up that he imposed himself in the office and managed to free off the sound card by disabling the background program via the Task Manager so that we could make a start.

Then, they managed to lose the program that we had recorded and so after they gave up, I searched all of the hard drives for it and it wasn’t there at all, so we went to re-record it, with much GRRRRRRing.

And then the program wouldn’t open as “an instance of this program is already running” – seems that the Manager had entered a file name but had forgotten to save it and had then minimised the window.

No wonder it took so flaming long.

At lunchtime I took Bill to Montaigut-en-Combraille – he had bought a new bed and needed it transporting home and that was not as straightforward as it might have been either, for reasons that I shan’t go into.

But to cut a long story short, it was 15:00 when I finally stopped for lunch and I was dismayed.

lean to repairing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo having been driven up the wall all this morning it was only natural that I was back on the scaffolding this afternoon.

If you compare this photo with one of the ones from earlier this week you can see how much progress I’ve been making.

But the real proof of progress is the fact that you’ll notice the new-looking breeze block in the wall by the bottom-right of the photo – when I started to repair the lean-to, that breeze block was the first stone that I had to lay.

Everything from and including that breeze block is what I’ve had to put it.

Anyway, after a few hours on that, it was 18:50 when I finished a load of cement and so I called it a day on the wall.

That gave me 10 minutes to sow a row of endives ready for the winter. You can see how organised I’m becoming these days, can’t you?

So back up here to warm up and dry off because today we were back in winter – cold and wet.

Summer has been and gone, and that was your lot.

-1

Monday 11th June 2012 – IT’S ASTONISHING.

Today, the weather was so much better. Only 14mm of rain.

So once again I awoke to the sound of a torrential downpour but no staying in bed today. We had to be a-radioing at 10:00 and I had a lot to do before I could set out.

But it wasn’t as if it mattered any. The woman who does the engineering for Radio Tartasse at Marcillat-en-Combraille forgot that we were coming and so we had something of a wait until she arrived.

The best-made plans of mice and men, and all that.

But eventually we managed to record our 6 weeks of programmes. Luckily I did 2 rock programmes before I went away and so they are up-to-date too.

Back at Liz’s, I was very kindly permitted to have a shower and to wash some clothes. This depressing, miserable weather has meant that I have had no hot water for a week and more, and so I’m really grateful for the good friends that I have.

No need to worry about quantity, as I have said before. It’s the quality that counts.

Down in Gerzat at Radio Arverne this afternoon we did another 6 weeks-worth of programmes and so that’s everything recorded until the end of July.

On the way back, we stopped off at the Carrefour in Riom to buy some of these ethylotests. The law in France from July 1st is that every car should have a breathalyser fitted for the use of the driver and the supermarkets are selling them for peanuts. I bought a kit of 2 for €2:00 and you can’t say fairer than that.

I also had another bit of good luck there.

Last year I bought a neat 25-litre 12-volt coolbox for Caliburn for €27:95 or something like that and it’s useful for when I’m out shopping and when I’m on my travels – I need a place to store the cold food in the hot van.

I drove all around Canada just now wishing that I had had one in the car there too, and here they are in the Carrefour again – this time for €24:90.

So I’ve bought another one and I’ll pack it in the suitcase and fill it with clothes or something next time that I go over and then I can leave it in my storage unit over there in Montreal to keep the cool food and drink in.

It’s MoT time for Caliburn too and so we called in at the testing centre on the way back. Caliburn of course passed with flying colours and so we are all happy

At the Anglo-French group it was nice to see Clotilde back from Annemasse.

Yes, I’ve been rushed off my feet today and not had a moment to myself. That’s why I’m blogging early – I’m off to bed in a minute for an early night.

-1

Saturday 21st April 2012 – I’ve been slowly …

… organising myself today. And I mean “slowly” as well. But who knows? I might even manage to do it too.

First piece of good news came in the post. If you remember, I bought myself a really good mobile phone in Canada in September. But when I came to use it in February, it wouidn’t power up, no matter what I did to it. Anyway, to cut a long story short … “hooray” – ed … I noticed last Saturday that one of the guys at the football had exactly the same phone. So I accordingly took mine down on Sunday and we tried his battery in my phone – and it worked fine.

So thinking “battery”, I ordered a new charger off the internet. Anyway, the charger arrived this morning so I plugged it into the phone and sure enough, it powered itself up.

Putting some credit on the UK phone that Percy Penguim gave me in December – the one with the UK SIM card in it – that’s not proving to be so easy. I can top it up from overseas using a credit card, sure enough, but when it comes to “please enter the numbers of your postcode” it all goes off the rails. “You have made a mistake” says the recorded message. But ohhh no I haven’t. Well, Perhaps I have. But it’s not the mistake that they are thinking of – the mistake I made was using a SIM card from O2 – a poxy introspective xenophobic British company that totally fails to consider the possibility that someone with a foreign postcode might want to use its service.

No wonder Britain has come off the rails, when it can’t cope with “overseas”.

But astonishing news on the travel front. I had planned to go to the airport from Montlucon, meaning a change at Bourges, another at Vierzon, then trying to cross Paris on the Metro and then taking another train from another station in Paris. And how I hate that journey too. But for just €20 more, I can take a train from Riom to Lyon, and then the TGV direct from Lyon to the airport. No struggling across Paris, no lugging heavy suitcases about up and down stairs, no fighting with Paris commuters. And the TGV is soooooo much more comfortable as well. Even better – my return flight lands at 06:12 in the morning and there’s a return train journey following exactly the same route, at 08:52. That gives me time to find my baggage, find the station, have a coffee and breakfast and I’ll be home by 14:00 all nicely relaxed.

At my destination in Montreal though, there was a slight hitch. The hotel that I’ve been using has been under repair and refurbishment for years and so prices have been ridiculously low. And it’s also in the part of the city where I need to be, for all kinds of good reasons too. But when I went to book it just now, it’s clear that the extensive renovations are now finished as the prices have gone through the roof.

Anyway, there’s one of these chain hotels not too far from the airport, and they have a special offer on right now. Furthermore, three of my most favourite shops are only just round the corner, within walking distance in fact if I fancy walking. So that’s that sorted out too.

At the football, there are no matches at Pionsat this weekend and so I saw Marcillat play Ygrande. A totally astonishing 3-3 draw – astonishing because Ygrande scored one of their goals and from the kickoff Marcillat roared straight up the pitch and scored themselves. And blow me down if 10 minutes later we had exactly the same thing again – a carbon copy. BUt the highlight of the match was the referee. I’ve never ever seen a game so well-refereed as this one tonight. So much so that I went over to the ref after the match and told him so. Credit where credit is due.

Tomorrow I’m cutting my hair, and then I’m packing. Strawberry Moose is already packing his bags and is quite looking forward to the journey.

And so am I

-2

Friday 20th April 2012 – We’ve been recording today.

Liz needs to make an urgent departure for the UK and I’m off on me ‘ols, so today was the only day left for recording our radio programmes. It was just as well that I spent that week a couple of weeks ago churning out a pile of stuff to keep in reserve because it’s currently being used.

And how!

We recorded 9 radio programmes today which is something of a record. 3 for Radio Tartasse and 6 for Radio Arverne – that all covers a period of 6 weeks and so takes us through to mid-June when we should all be back again, unless my aeroplane crashes, one of my ferries hits an iceberg or I run away with a couple of nubile bimbos.

And you’ve no idea just how tiring it is doing all of this. So much so that I crashed out for 10 minutes or so at Liz’s when we returned. But very kindly, Liz let me have a shower there, which has saved me a journey to Neris and the swimming baths and means that I can spend all day here tidying up. No point in going to the shops when I don’t really need anything before I go. For my Sunday pizza I’ll make one on a bread base with some mushrooms out of a tin, a chili, some olives and tomato. What can be simpler?

Back here, I watched a cattle – chronologically-disadvantaged-person film (well, hardly, seeing as how the action in the film is taking place in 1951) about which I have spoken before at great length. It’s Riders of the Whistling Pines starring Gene Autry and what makes the film particularly noteworthy is that it concerns the widespread use of DDT and heroes and villains. The heroes are the ones who want to spray the forest with DDT and the villains wre the environmentalists who prophesy that the waters will be poisoned and all of the fish, cattle, and everything else that comes into contact with it will die a horrible death. And it’s all accopanied with scenes of the goodies flying their aeroplanes and the huge clouds of DDT that are emitted therefrom.

Yes, imagine that today!

And what with one thing and another I was searching around the internet for a group called “Eyes of Blue” – a Welsh rock band featuring inter alia “Taff” Williams and Phil Ryan (later of Man) and “Pugwash” Weathers, later of Gentle Giant. And astonishingly, their two albums, Crossroads/in Fields of Ardath are available on Amazon. And so that set me off and I discovered some even more obscure albums from other Welsh bands of the late 60s and early 70s likewise available. And so I’ve been spending my money again. And more than maybe I ought to as well, but these albums are quite rare and extremely sought-after and so copulatum expensium, as we Pompeiians say … "you said that the other day" – ed.

Having these albums in my letter box waiting for me might encourage me to come back home after my trip. 

-4

Tuesday 27th March 2012 – I DIDN’T DO …

… anything like as much as I wanted to in the garden today. And there is a variety of reasons for this.

  1. it took longer than I was expecting to dig over the first raised bed that I needed to clear.
  2. the framework of the bed needed some repair – and so I had to sort that out
  3. I found some crops growing in there – leeks I think from some seed that I might have planted last year. Only baby leeks but leeks none-the-less, and so they needed careful handling.

And if that’s not enough to be going on with, I’ve been “revisiting” the sites that I have already cleared of nettles and brambles. Each time that I see something new growing, I pull it up.

I also am slowly advancing around the garden area as I clear it from generic weeds such as the aforementioned nettles ad brambles. I’m making huge progress with that and it’s all looking very good, but it’s taking my time to do and distracting me from clearing the raised beds.

Anyway, one of the raised beds is clear and it has garlic growing in it. Only another three to do this week – shallots, onions and leeks are destined for those.

But in something of a record for recent times, I knocked off work at … errrr …. 19:42. It’s been a long time since I’ve been out working that late, and enjoying what I’m doing as well.

Talking of records though, this morning though Liz and I were recording the Radio Anglais sessions at Marcillat-en-Combraille for Radio Tartasse. We’ve finished talking rubbish … "sez you" – ed … and so we’ll have to think of a new subject for May’s programmes.

I had a bad night’s sleep last night though.

There’s evidently a mouse or two that have been hibernating in the wall of the house – finding their way in by means of the place where there was no plasterboarding in the bedroom. Of course I fixed that a few months ago and now that the mice have awoken, they can’t get out of the wall and so go running around inside trying to find a way out.

So at 04:00 I was rudely awakened and had to listen to them clog-dancing around the ceiling for hours.

I wish that they would hurry up and starve to death or something.

-2

Monday 27th February 2012 – IT WASN’T QUITE …

… as warm up herethis morning.

A mere 13.4°C up here in fact.

But considering that the temperature had dropped to -2.2°C outside last night and that I had no heating on in here last night either, I was quite impressed by that.

I’m wondering in fact whether or not it’s staying warmer up here since I finished the ceiling in the room below. It does seem like it.

This morning I went off to Sauret-Besserve and picked up Liz, and then we made our way down to Gerzat to record the Radio Arverne programmes. And wasn’t that a farce? They have had new computers and new programs installed and Bernard didn’t know how to work it all.

It took quite a bit of telephone assistance together with a little first-hand aid from Yours Truly to organise everything.

At one stage it looked like we might have to come back and do it all over again – an idea that didn’t impress me too much.

Instead of being a quick hour or so it ended up more like two and a half hours. Both Liz and I had things to do this afternoon so that meant hurrying back up here to get ready, and then off to Radio Tartasse in Marcillat en Combraille to carry out another little task, more of which anon.

Today we had well over 11 hours of solar energy – a huge improvement on winter’s previous best of 10:49. It seems that the weather has suddenly opened up.

So much so that when I came back from Radio Tartasse I did a little gardening – not on my garden but in the lane there are several small trees starting to grow and their branches have been scratching the side of Caliburn. I spent a pleasant half hour or so cutting them down.

I had a fire up here tonight although it wasn’t strictly necessary. And the temperature went to over 25°C while I cooked my baked potatoes and ratatouille.

It won’t be much longer before I have to abandon the idea of cooking up here on the stove. It’s warming up far too much.

-2

Tuesday 24th January 2012 – WE WERE RECORDING …

… again this morning. This time in Marcillat for Radio Tartasse.

We finished the “winter driving” features and started on a new topic, which is the “talking rubbish” bit – may as well try to keep the programmes in sync.

But in a startling piece of news, I’ve been asked by Radio Tartasse if I would present a Sunday-night rock music show. Now, that’s something interesting and I’ll have a go at working something out for this. It’s always been an ambition of mine to do something like this.

Back here I decided in view of the miserable and depressing weather that I would stay in and make headway on my Trans-Labrador Highway presentation.

But first I repaired the doorway into the attic room. The top hinge has pulled out of the door frame (which isn’t all that surprising because it’s only a 10mm piece of hardboard) and the door has been falling off.

But while I’ve been tidying up in the barn I found some 400mm strap hinges and so I screwed one of those to the top of the door – having first wedged it into position. Now it opens and closes perfectly.

Second task was when I went to clean the glass door to the stove, I noticed that part of the sealing gasket had fallen out. No wonder it’s not drawing properly and the room is filling slowly with smoke.

Luckily I have some fireproof mastic and so I sealed it with that, and it worked so much better after that.

I didn’t get much done at my presentation though, as I crashed out for a few hours. I’m getting over-tired again.

I did manage to wake up in time to cook tea, and I made myself a spicy aubergine and kidney bean casserole that will keep me going for three days. And it’s the best I’ve ever made, it really is.

But I’m off to have an early night. If anything, crashing out has made me even more tired.

-3

Tuesday 20th December 2011 – I HAD ANOTHER …

… lovely tea tonight.

Baked potatoes and tortilla wraps with spicy beans. And once again it was cooked in the oven on the new fire, and once again it did an excellent job.

So much so that tomorrow night I’m going to go for a rice pudding and see what happens about that.

This morning I awoke well on time thanks to this new alarm clock that I have. It has a projector light that flashes the time across the room and makes enough noise to awaken the dead.

But printing off the paperwork for the radio station didn’t work – the new computer doesn’t recognise the printer and I can’t upload the drivers. I’ll have to see if I can do that by downloading them (which I can’t because all of Epson’s European sites don’t work).

So Radio Tartasse was done and then we set off through the driving rain to Gerzat. And as we drove over the Combrailles I joked to Liz that everyone in Riom would be basking in the sun in shirt sleeves.

They weren’t, as it happens, but the sun was there, and some blue sky too.

At Radio Arverne I had a premonition about the music we were to play and sure enough, in what could only be a gazillion-to-one chance, we had both picked a track with the same title. How bizarre!

We did the programmes for January and then recorded our Christmas special. That was a bundle of laughs, and what we did for the carols – well, you’ll find out on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Home into the hills and into the driving rain again. I lit the fire in here and that was that. I had no intentions of moving and so I didn’t.

But tea was nice 😉

-2

Tuesday 29th November 2011 – I’VE BEEN SPENDING …

… my money again.

And if I keep on spending it like this I won’t have any left.

First thing was to go to Marcillat in order to record the Radio Anglais programmes for Radio Tartasse with Liz.

And from there it was to Montlucon.

At LIDL I bought nothing out of the ordinary but at Auchan I bought as well as the usual stuff a little present for Rob and Nicolette for having looked after me, and also a battery pack seeing as all mine are duff. There it was on sale and I said that at €29 it would be a good deal. But with an air compressor included and selling at €22.95 it was an even better deal.

At Brico Depot they had the plywood that I wanted. And 2mm thicker, it cost €9 less than at the other place. And so I now have all that I need. I’m not sure why though because I don’t have the scaffolding to fit it now, as I said yesterday.

What I can be doing instead though is to build the greenhouse but would you believe I forgot to buy the perspex for the roof.

D’ohhh! That was no good.

There’s an issue over my tubing as well. I can buy it from the steel mill at Montlucon but would you believe that a huge place like that (so huge it has its own railway network and locomotive – which you have seen before) they don’t have a bender.They’ve given me an idea where to go and so I’ll follow that up.

And I have my window! Hooray!!!! That’s safely in the van now.

But here’s a thing.

You’ll have noticed without doubt that I have been strangely quiet just recently on the subject of the front door that I would be fitting to the house. But there’s a reason for that. Brain of Britain has done it again and bought a door that opens the wrong way. Mind you, it was at a give-away price in a sale so there’s no harm done there.

But a casual chat with the sales people at Lapeyre revealed that the “exotic wood” selection – the selection from which I have chosen all of my windows – is being discontinued in February. And as a result, they’ve started a clearance sale. The door that matches my windows – a big one with double glazing all the way down the front, is just €374.

That’s too good a deal to miss and so I have bitten the bullet. Now I shall have to get working.

At Rob and Nicolette’s I gave them their prezzy and thanked them for their help the other day. I was grateful for the effort that they took.

But with me forgetting all sorts of things today, this bang on the head doesn’t seem to have helped me any.   

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Saturday 19th November 2011 – WELL, I’M A BIT ….

… disappointed today.

In the last 24 hours we’ve had 21 hours of recorded wind and the turbine has been going round like ye veritable clappers.

And do you know what?

There’s not even one watt recorded on the dial.

A quick check revealed that there’s no current reaching the battery bank. That’s sad.

I checked the two joints to the wind turbine and they seem to be working fine – I connected up a little piazo buzzer and that was ringing like Big Ben – and so it’s either going to be the final joint or else there’s a break in the cable somewhere.

That’s going to be a job for the multimeter on Monday morning

But it was certainly encouraging to see how the thing was going around today. And of course, all the time that it was going round, the big AIR 403 wind turbine didn’t move a muscle. It proves the point that I’ve been arguing with everyone for years that a small turbine can quite often produce more energy than a large one.

Why this is so is quite simple.

Feel the weight of the motors. The heavier a motor is, more powerful it is (generally speaking, of course. There are always exceptions). And the weight is made up of the copper coil and the magnet in the motor (it’s not this simple, but for the purpose of this discussion we’ll leave it here).

So the more powerful the motor, the bigger the magnet and the more magnetic resistance it contains. And so the more wind that you need to overcome the magnetic resistance. A less-powerful wind turbine will have less magnetic resistance and so it will need less wind to make it work. In low-wind situations (which is what I generally have here) two smaller wind turbines will pump out more power than one large one.

This afternoon I went to St Eloy-les-Mines where I spent next-to-nothing again but I did do a mega-wash at the launderette. That’s cheered me up. All clean clothes again. All I need to do is to find a way of getting me nice and clean as well, and then I can have nice new bedding. I shall work on that.

It was the Annual General Meeting of Pionsat Patrimoine this afternoon and interesting as it might be, I still can’t deal with the egos and the people who take 100 words to say either yes or no – and then say it 10 times over.

No footy tonight at Pionsat – Gerzat couldn’t raise a team to play the 2nd XI. But there was a game on at Marcillat, and that provided me with the biggest laugh that I have had for quite a while.

A goalkeeper and a forward went for a 50-50 ball and the keeper came off worse. It was a foul but a genuine attempt to play a loose ball with no malice whatsoever. The ref,in his wisdom, shows the Gannat forward a yellow card.

Outrage from the Gannat bench – and quite rightly so if you ask me. “We have to protect the goalkeepers” shouted the ref.

30 seconds later we have an almost-identical situation and this time it’s the forward who comes off worse And no yellow card. And in the silence of the still night up on the plateau where Marcillat play, the  Gannat trainer bellows out (and I mean Bellows Out- he could be heard back in Gannat I reckon) “and you have to protect the forwards too!”

At that remark, the whole ground collapses in laughter, except for the ref who clearly has no sense of humour whatever and goes over to talk to the trainer

Well, I wasn’t the only one who thought it funny. And doesn’t that makes a change for round here? 

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