… hunters shooting off their guns in the neighbourhood, no low-flying Air Farce jets, no driving rain beating down on the windows in the roof, no mice doing clog dances in the ceiling, none of the neighbours using a chainsaw .

And so to disturb my Sunday morning Day of Rest, some b****** rang me up on the phone at 09:00. Makes me thoroughly sick.

And seeing as how I started my day in a bad mood, that’s how I carried on.

I watched the odd Bulldog Drummond film. It’s amazing what is available to download on www.archive.org – before I went to Canada I downloaded tons of films from there to watch out there in my car at night.

Who needs DVDs?

I also continued to catch up with registering the data that I collect from the various recording instruments around here.

Every night I write it all down but I’ve been very lax in entering it on the computer. I need to organise myself much more.

This afternoon, braving the howling wind, the driving rain and the freezing temperature, I went off to watch Pionsat against Clermont Foot Auvergne

And a quick glance across the car park tells you exactly what you are going to be up against. When was the last time that any football club has had a team coach in order to bring its players to Pionsat?

But still, a match is never over until the 90 minutes has been played, and this driving rain and howling gale might be a great leveller.

Clermont Foot Auvergne sent their under-21 team for the match and even so, it was still no contest. Pionsat were simply swept aside, as everyone was expecting.

What made it worse was that FC Pionsat St Hilaire had no recognised goalkeeper again.

Michael bravely volunteered once more as you can see in this photo where he brilliantly saves from a Clermont attacker

But despite Michael’s heroics between the posts, neither he nor anyone else could do anything about the relentless Clermont Foot Auvergne side.

If I remember correctly, the opposing goalkeeper just had one shot to save during the entire match.

As is usual in matches such as these, most of the damage was done in the final 20 minutes when the benefits of full-time “proper” training pays dividends.

Pionsat’s players were run into the ground whereas the Clermont players hadn’t even broken into a sweat.

But hang on a minute – what is this?

Yes, the referee this afternoon has stopped the game and held up play so that a Pionsat player could tie up his bootlaces that were trailing everywhere and risking tripping him up.

Contrast that with last week when the referee allowed play to continue with FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s goalkeeper flat-out unconscious on the edge of his own penalty area, and you will see exactly what I mean about just how much of a poor decision that one was last week.

So with the football over and FC Pionsat St Hilaire well-out of the cup I came back home and, believe me, I’m not going anywhere else tonight. The weather really is atrocious.