Category Archives: centrakor

Saturday 20th May 2017 – THIS WORLD …

… is becoming far too small for my liking.

This morning I met the previous tenant of this apartment. She lived here until March when she moved to an appartment at the front that has a sea view when it became available. And it turns ot that she formerly lived in Belgium and worked in the Fisheries Department of the EU and remembered me well enough to know my first name.

And regular readers of this rubbish will recall that someone from the EU followed me to live in Virlet. At least they are keeping tracks on me.

It was hard to leave my bed this morning. 20 minutes it took me to haul myself out (although I had been out of bed at about 06:00 but I wasn’t waking up then – ohhh no!) ready for breakfast. And once that was over, I had a little relax and then went off measuring up because I had forgotten to do that on Friday.

By 10:00 I was ready to leave, and this was when I bumped into my former colleague. 20-odd minutes we were chatting, although I do have to say that I didn’t say very much.

I found the dechetterie this morning, although I missed the turning and ended up going right around the houses. But now I know where it is and disposing of all of the cardboard was pretty straightforward. I’m sure Caliburn runs about 5mph faster now.

The dechetterie wasn’t all that I found either. I stumbled across a DiY place just down the road – one that I hadn’t noticed before. And I wish that I’d found it before last week because the stuff in there is a lot cheaper that the things that I bought last week. A set of reasonable screwdrivers cost me just €1:10, 13-amp plugs cost me €2:10 and a reasonable spirit level cost me €3:20.

bad parking brico cash st pair sur mer manche normandy franceAnd while I was there I couldn’t resist taking a photo of some more breath-taking parking. I really don’t understand why people are so selfish.

But it’s a sign of the times and you only have to read some of the comments on your social networking account to see just how much selfishness is prevalent in the modern Western world. It fills me full of dismay.

There’s a big Casino hypermarket on this industrial estate so I had a look in there. Stuff isn’t as cheap as in LeClerc but they had a couple of bits and pieces of household stuff that I needed. A trip to LeClerc was therefore in order. That’s much more like it.

I now have lace curtains in the window of my living room too. I went to Centrakor and found everything that I needed to hang them – and to hang the main curtains too. I don’t particularly like the lace curtains but there wasn’t anything in the way of choice and so beggars can’t be choosers. I was determined that, come what may, I would buy the main curtains too, but I didn’t like the look or colour of anything on offer there and so that was that. I wonder if I can find some on the internet.

Back here, I made my butties and went to sit on the headland in the glorious summer with my book. I was there for a good couple of hours and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, even though there were too many people walking along the pathway in front of me. I’ll have to try to find a quieter place next time.

This evening I went to the football. It’s US Granvillaise’s last match this season and they were at home to Bergerac Perigord. And I really am the kiss of death to whichever team I seem to support because they lost yet again. They went 2-0 down due to two goals in a minute – one of which was a magnificent powerful header from a corner – but pulled it back by scoring 2 goals in a minute themselves just before half-time.

Bergerac Perigord scored 2 more later in the game and the US Granvillaise keeper pulled off a couple of magnificent saves – and then US Granville pulled one back with just 5 minutes to go. That five minutes, plus a lengthy stoppage time, was the only time during the match that US Granvillaise played with any sense of urgency. But of course it was too little too late and that was that.

preteen gymnasts stade louis dior us granvillaise granville manche normandy franceCheerleaders seem to be the thing in Belgium for the half-time entertainment, but here today we had something different. A whole pile of young girls swarmed onto the pitch and performed a pile of gymnastic routines.

Not that I spent too much time watching because gymnastics is not really what I call entertainment. It’s a bit like ice-skating – it only becomes interesting when a competitor falls over or drops his partner, of the skater disappears into the water as the ice collapses underneath her.

But full marks for them for being out there anyway.

I’ll be off to bed in a minute. I want to have a good sleep because I’ve bought myself a new toy today – quite expensive but very cheap for what it is. And I need a full day or so to set it up.

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Friday 5th May 2017 – SO HERE I AM …

… about to spend my first night in my new chez moi.

Last night I had a really good sleep and was awakened from the dead by the alarm. I knew absolutely nothing about anything in between. I’d been on my travels but all memory of them had disappeared by the time that I had come round.

It was something of a painful breakfast – I’ve clearly been doing too much just now – and I ad to sit around for half an hour or so before I could hit the road. But I ended up at NOZ just as it opened.

NOZ was something of a disappointment. It’s a shop that sells all kinds of ends of series, bankrupt stock, all of that, and I was hoping for a pile of stuff to help me set up home, but it had almost nothing whatever.

I had much better luck in Centrakor where I spent almost €100. Tons of stuff in there that I needed, but most important, after a decent big waste bin of course, was some bedding. A single quilt, pillow and quilt cover. I’m sleeping on the sofa until I can sort out a bed, and I’ll need these to keep warm. It won’t be wasted because if I have friends to stay, they can use the bed and the double quilt that I’ll be buying, and I’ll use the single on here.

After that I went to LeClerc and stocked up with whatever I couldn’t get and also a pile of food. And then I came here.

Still creaking and groaning, it took me a while to bring everything up and then I sat down and made my butties – only to be disturbed by the man from EDF. It took him just 5 minutes to reconnect the electricity and another couple of minutes to show me how to figure out the switch to the immersion heater so that it works on off-peak hours only.

Once that was organised I went into town. I had to pick up the lease for this place, but the estate agent wasn’t in. And then I had to go to my internet provider to pick up a new box. On the way back, seeing as how I now have a working fridge, I picked up a box of strawberry sorbet. I may as well make good use of the freezer drawer I suppose;

This new portable halogen hob thing that I bought in IKEA a couple of months ago isn’t half the bee’s knees. Once I’d worked out how to make it function, it cooked a quick meal for me in minutes flat. It just shows you how out-of-date this old technology is. When I organise the kitchen I’ll be having a couple of halogen hobs to cook with, and I’ll see if I can’t find a halogen oven to go with it. I’m very impressed.

There’s no internet here for another week but I’m in luck because seeing as I am so high up here on the rock, I can pick up some really good signals and my internet supplier has a public wi-fi point in the vicinity to provide a service to the hostel for young workers just down the road. With my own ID and password I can connect into it, so here I am. I’m not sure just how reliable it might be though.

So now I’m going to try for my first night here in my new place. No curtains on the window so I’ll be awoken early.

And that’s the cue for an early night then, isn’t it?

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Tuesday 18th April 2017 – IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME …

old car morris 1000 minor traveller leclerc granville manche normandy france… since we’ve featured an old car in this rubbish, so here’s one to be going on with.

Parked on the car park of the LeClerc supermarket at Granville at lunchtime is this rather nice Morris 1000 Traveller. It’s a left-hand drive one too, so how rare is that? (Not quite as rare as my left-hand drive Vanden Plas of course) but it’s still a beautiful vehicle.

And thinking about it, I never owned a Morris 1000, or even a Morris Minor come to that. I must have been slipping.

So despite everything that I said last night, I didn’t have a very good night. Not only did I manage to watch the film all the way through, I had a great deal of difficulty dropping off to sleep afterwards. At one point I did remember it being 00:45.

And I was awake early too – at 06:30 to be precise. That gave me plenty of time to have a good shower, a shave and a tidy up of my room. Then at 09:30 I cleared off.

It’s market day in Jullouville today so I went for a prowl around. And while the market might be better than that at Pionsat, that’s about all that cam be said for it. Rather disappointing.

I went to see an Estate Agent about the possibility of buying a place. Let’s assume for the sake of this discussion that my budget is €70,000 (which it isn’t, but it will do). So I told him that – and he immediately sorted out the properties at €68,000, €70,000 and (of course) €75,000.

“What about that one?” I said, pointing to one at €45,000.
“Do you want to see that one too?” he asked.

Yes, I knew exactly what I was going to get with this estate agent. They are all the same, the whole world over.

So he showed me various photos of various piles of ruins, one with damp clearly visible streaming down the wall underneath the window.

“There’s nothing here that really tempts me” I said.
“You won’t find many where you want at your price range” he said
“I don’t want many” I answered. “I only want one”.

I had a pile of phone calls to make after that, and so I headed off to Granville. Apart from those, I needed some stuff for butties for lunch too. That’s where I saw the Morris 1000.

I found the Centrakor which cheered me up. For the benefit of UK readers, it’s rather like a Wilkinsons but slightly better quality. Lots of nice stuff in there for when I (eventually) find somewhere to live.

NOZ granville manche normandy franceNow here’s a sight that should gladden your hearts. Here we are, the day after Easter Monday, and there’s Christmas items already in the shops.

Actually, this is rather a cheat. There’s also a NOZ here in the town. Not as big as the one in Montlucon but it’s here just the same and worth noting. Stuff in here is, well, end of lines, end of series, all of that, and hence the Christmas items, left over from last year I suppose.

Still, it’s a good photo to cheer you up. Only 250 days to go, you know.

I went up on the headland above the harbour to eat my butties this afternoon. It was beautiful up there, even if the wind was blowing a gale, and I … errr … had a relax for a couple of hours.

Later on, I drove out to where I’m staying for the next two weeks. There’s an old saying that “you can’t win a coconut every time” and given the good luck that I’ve had when I’ve been hotel-hunting, I’m bound to come a cropper every now and again.

I’m in a place called Bricqueville sur Mer which, despite its name, is about 4 miles from the coast, one of two bedrooms and I share a kitchen and bathroom with the people in the other room (it’s empty at the moment). It’s a farmhouse-type of place and it could be so nice if they tried, but it’s furnished in the worst of the 1950s bad taste and it has that horrible, damp, musty, unaired smell that I hate so much.

Still, it’s the cheapest place that had a vacancy for all of that time (so I’m not really complaining), breakfast is included and there is a cat. Old, creaking and grey around the edges and loves his cuddles – but that’s enough about me for now, let’s talk about the cat.

So I’ll have an early night, watch a film and see how I feel in the morning. I hope that I can cheer myself up.

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Saturday 25th August 2012 – I’VE BEEN …

… spending my money once again.

It’s the rentrée pretty soon – yes, all the kids will be back at school in 2 weeks’ time and so the shops are filled with all kinds of stuff.

There’s one shop, called Centrakor in Commentry that is a kind of down-market CASA if that’s at all possible, and they had something on sale that was quite phenomenal.

It’s a kids’ workstation type of thing – a few shelves, a slide-out shelf for a keyboard, a tabletop and then a couple of shelves at eye-level (well, eye-level for a 12 year old) and one good thing about it is that it is on castors.

The best part about it though is the price – a mere €19:99

Here in my little attic I have a kind of tiny round cheap plastic coffee table with two shelves and I have the DVD player/TV on the top shelf and the computer external drives on the other. And it rattle along and bits drop off and there’s no room for anything at all on it.

So when I saw this workstation thing my mind went into overdrive. So now there’s one in the back of Caliburn waiting to be brought up here and assembled whenever I get a moment (whenever that might be). But it’s ever so impressive, especially at that price.

I did quite a mega-shop today in Commentry in fact, including a proper stonemason chisel for raking out the cement from between the stones.

High time I had some decent tools and equipment around here – it might make the next bit of the wall somewhat easier.

From there I went on to Neris-les-Bains and the swimming baths. The weather has cooled down considerably over these last few days but the had all the sides of the pool open and so it was freezing in there. I managed 24 lengths today which is something of a record these days.

I came home afterwards and … errrr … crashed out. I’m not as young as I was.

This morning though I finished off the radio scripts – they need some alterations but I don’t really have the time to do it now and I was too tired this evening.

And after all of my worries as to whether it’s going to be enough, it weighed in at 38kb. That’s the third longest ever.

So now it’s bedtime ready for my day of rest tomorrow, when I’m going to be rushed off my feet.

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Saturday 2nd July 2011 – AND SO, AFTER …

… my day off yesterday and my new plans for the rainwater harvesting I went to Commentry today and bought everything that I need.

Cost me an arm and a leg again but I ought to be getting used to this by now.

And on the way home I thought of yet another potential improvement. But I’ll worry about that later.

And while I was in Commentry I spent a small fortune too – a lot of which went on toys.

Well, you might remember that I bought an eccentric sander for my workshop a few weeks ago. And today, LIDL was selling off its stock of sanding discs – 30 in a box and all for €1:00 a pack.

At that price I had to clean out the store as I’ll get through a pile of them when I’m body-filling. There were a few other toys as well and it all adds up.

One thing I did do was to buy some ready-mixed bread mix. My baker is on holiday and so when I cook my pizza on Sundays I can experiment with making bread. This ready-mixed stuff should make it easier.

And what I didn’t do is spend any money in Centrakor or Les Bonnes Affaires – and that must be an event worth recording too – it’s probably never happened before.

The swimming baths at Neris les Bains were crowded but it was all good fun. So hot was it that the sides of the baths were opened to the air. And I had to wait ages for my private shower – there was a queue.

A report on the other new toys – the SatNav and the new electric coolbox from Tuesday.

  • The satnav doesn’t display the speed at which I’m travelling and doesn’t have an audible speed alarm.

    That’s a major issue. It’s not half as good as the LIDL one, wherever that might have gone to. But apart from that it does everything else that it’s supposed to.

    And strange as it might seem, when I switched it to American English I was reunited with my old friend the Lady Who Lives in the Magellan SatNav that I bought in Canada. Yes, it is she. It’s just like old times now in Caliburn, with me, she and Strawberry Moose.

    I’m half-expecting Casey – the Chrysler PT Cruiser from Canada – to turn up next.

  • The coolbox is impressive.

    An ice-cream left in there for over an hour was still unfrozen – and that was inside the cab of Caliburn with the outside temperature of over 30 degrees.

    The frozen stuff had defrosted after 5 hours but was still pretty cold, and so I suppose that this is doing what it is supposed to.

    I’ll wire that permanently into Caliburn now and they can live happily ever after.

Tomorrow morning I’m helping Marianne at Roche d’Agoux, there’s the brocante at Arpheuilles-Saint-Priest, – first of the year, and then there’s the new water system to fix.

Good job I had the day off on Friday.

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Saturday 14th May 2011 – Wonders will never cease

fcpsh football club de foot pionsat st hilaire biollet st maurice puy de dome ligue football league franceAt the football tonight, Biollet St Maurice put two past Pionsat’s 3rd XI tonight as you might expect, but rather astonishingly, Pionsat replied with FIVE (or was it 6? I lost count). That doesn’t happen very often, does it?

Mind you, Pionsat were bolstered by Cedric and Sebastien from the 1st XI, playing their first competitive matches for many, many months following long injuries.

fcpsh football club de foot pionsat st hilaire biollet st maurice puy de dome ligue football league france Rusty and short of match fitness they may well have been, but they made something of a small difference to the team. The others on the pitch somehow picked up their game and were doing things that they don’t usually do.

But that’s the difference between “being beaten before they start” and “having loads of encouragement and support from the other two teams”. The first and second XIs ought to help out the 3rd XI whenever they can – something that I’ve been saying for years.

And there’s no football anywhere tomorrow – not even in the Allier. It’s cup final day, so it seems. What am I going to do?

This morning that solar panel guy came to see me, and he stayed for about 5 minutes. That suits me. I have no sympathy for canvassers and cold callers.

This afternoon I went to Commentry for the shopping and apart from the usual stuff I made some puchases for the water filters. Chatting to the guys in Bricomarche they had some fibreglass flyscreen stuff at €7:50 per square metre – much better for making a sand filter than a nylon stocking. The Centrakor came up with a pair of those anti-spatter frying pan covers that will be ideal for cutting down and also some stainess steel conical tea strainers, fine for conical puzzolane-filter housings that I’m building.

The Bonnes Affaires came up with some aluminium mesh gutter covers that they use for keeping leaves out. I can make good use of them too, especially at the reduced rate of €1 for a packet ot 0.8 square metres (I bought three). They also had some big casserole saucepans – 12-litre or thereabouts in aluminium for €9.99. I bought one of them to see if it’s any good for making an enclosed composting toilet.

And remember my posting of a few weeks ago about some interesting or exciting news that might be happening? Well, can tell you something but instead I’ll leave you to stew for a few more days.

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Saturday 17th July 2010 – I’ve not done much today

After having had to work on a Bank Holiday and on the odd Sunday just recently I’ve been taking it easy.

A leisurely morning entering the stats into the computer and then at lunchtime going to Commentry for shopping. Aldi produced s few tins of metal paint to replace the one we used on the caravan chassis a few weeks ago and Centrakor – one of the cheapo shops produced a shower curtain. But as usual the other cheap shop – Les Bonnes Affaires – produced the goods – a huge pile of plastic storage containers at 10 for €1 so I bought 30 of them. And then I can sort out all my nails and screws properly.

Most of the day was miserable and it didn’t lighten up until late afternoon. The water didn’t get hot enough for a solar shower and the electric water heater didn’t click in. But never mind.

But while doing the statistics it was interesting to see the figures of solar energy received for the first day that the automatic heater ran. Bank 1 gave an impressive 153.3 amp-hours and bank 2 gave a record 130.7. So now that I have somewhere to dump all of the electricity then you can see that my system is capable of generating almost 285 amp-hours of electricity – that’s over 3KwH – in a good day. And I’m quite pleased with that. Next task is to put up the remaining wind turbine. That should be even more impressive.

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Saturday 22nd May 2010 – I took the plunge this afternoon …

… and went swimming in Neris les Bains. For the first time ever it was warm in there – an air temperature of 26 degrees – so of course they left all of the doors open so a draught of air was blowing around. That won’t half cool down a wet body.

Just the usual suspects of course – no swimming galas or races or anything so it was something of a let-down but at least I’m now clean (in body, anyway).

So this morning I heard all of the alarms go off but badger that – I went back to sleep. I woke up … errr … some time later. So after breakfast and doing some work up here until 13:30 I went off to Commentry. Nothing exciting in LIDL or ALDI or the Intermarche either. Centrakor turned up trumps with a pair of plastic flip-flops for 2 Euros. Just the thing for wandering around swimming baths and muddy football dressing rooms. In Les Bonnes Affaires, the cheap shop, I spent 10 Euros, much of which went on interesting items of food but they did have a plastic stopwatch in there – good value for 2 Euros. I don’t wear a watch but I’ll need something for when I’m refereeing. That’s something useful.

On the weather side the Heat Exchanger recorded 63.9 degrees, the highest total this year and the highest since August 29 last year. In my room the temperature is currently 24.6 degrees – and at 01:30 too! It touched 26.4 degrees during the course of the day and that’s the highest since 9th September. The weather is certainly looking a lot more like it.

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