Thursday 16th July 2015 – NO PRIZES FOR GUESSING …

… what was the first act this morning.

With it being rather hot up here, I went to open the window at the head of the stairs. And there on the windowsill underneath the window – well, I’m sure that you can guess what it was that I found.

The irony of it all is that I can see the windowsill from where I’m sitting. How I failed to see Cailburn’s insurance papers, I really do not know.

This morning I was up early once again and after breakfast I had another marathon session on the laptop and that took me right through until lunchtime. I edited a load of pages from 2009 as well as doing a few album lists from previous Radio Anglais programmes.

But I’ll tell you what – having seen the prices at which some of my CDs are on sale (one is on sale at €199:00) my CD collection must be worth a veritable fortune. And the irony of it all is that I doubt that there’s very much for which I’ve paid more than €10:00.

After lunch I cracked on with the ceiling in the shower room. That involved drilling a few holes, sorting out the wiring a little better and so on, as well as having to find a few tools and things.

But I came to a resounding halt, mainly because I’ve run out of the tongue-and-grooving that I’m using for the ceiling and I’ll have to buy some more. I’m about 10 rows short, which is a shame. I’ll have another scratch around to see if I have any more, but I’m not very hopeful.

Rosemary rang up too – she’s planning on paying me a visit on Tuesday, and then Rob called. The head gasket has gone on his car and could I help him fix it?

Yes, it’s THAT time of the year again.

Wednesday 15th July 2015 – I’VE FINISHED …

… the flying shelf this afternoon.

It took quite some effort and a pair of arms about 2 metres longer than mine, but nevertheless, after some considerable amount of ado about a great deal, I managed to do it. Strangely enough, the part that I thought would be very difficult was comparatively easy, and the part that I had expected to do quite easily was the part that took the longest.

However, looking for tools, nuts and washers was a considerable part of this too. But then that’s only to be expected.

It’s not as good as I would have liked – I can see several shortcomings in my work, but the design was good anyway. Just the execution was wrong and I’ll have to do better than this if I do it again.

But anyway, it looks OK if you don’t look too closely, and everything works as it is supposed to, so I suppose that that is something.

I was on my travels last night, visiting a football ground at a sports club in Crewe with a cement mixer – the lorry-based cement mixer thing. Someone connected with my family had connections there and they had ordered the cement, and meeting up with this person was the last thing on either of our minds. So I tipped the cement and when I tilted up the mixer into the vertical position, the lorry started to roll back. But someone from the football club grabbed hold of the bumper of the truck and hung onto it to stop it moving.

I was up before the alarm clock and so I spent a very profitable morning on the laptop doing some various assorted computer work, including finishing off a couple of radio programmes. I even managed to telephone the insurance company to have a duplicate label for Caliburn sent to me – which means that I will definitely find it now.

I had to go into Pionsat to buy some bread today for lunch, and also to try out the new bank card that I have received.

And tonight, I had a lovely warm solar shower that has made me fit for anything.

Tomorrow, I’ll be finishing the ceiling in the shower room, or at least, doing as much as I can.

Tuesday 14th July 2015 – HAPPY BASTILLE DAY

That’s right – the story goes that the reason why the French stormed the Bastille on 14th July was because it was a Bank Holiday, all the shops were closed and they had nothing better to do.

But I had plenty to do, such as trying to find this insurance sticker. I’ve waded through all of these papers and some have been filed, some have been put tidily in a box and the rest have been filed under CS. But as for the insurance sticker, well, not a glimmer of it, I’m afraid. I’ve no idea where I might have put it.

The only thing now is to contact the insurance company and ask for a duplicate. And then that will guarantee that the original one will come to light immediately.

I’ve also done the notes for four days’ travel around Labrador and I’ve now arrived back in Newfoundland. I’ve also done some research as well and found a few really good e-books about the region that I have saved to read at my leisure.

Not only that, I’ve collected the details for a couple more months of radio rock shows and made up the icons for the albums so that I can build playlists.

But all of that was later first job, before I’d even had breakfast, was to make some muesli, seeing as how I’d run out.

All in all, I’ve had a busy day, despite it being a Bank Holiday.

Finally, I’ve made a huge aubergine-and-kidney-bean whatsit and that will keep me going for four days. It won’t take much to warm up, the food for the next few days, and it won’t make much washing-up.

-1

Monday 13th July 2015 – IT’S JUST LIKE OLD TIMES …

… up here in my attic tonight. I’m surrounded by papers everywhere – all over the floor and over the bed-settee and it feels so good to have reverted to all of my old untidy habits.

It all started off so promisingly too. I had a nice lie-in to reward myself for my efforts over the weekend and then after breakfast I attacked the dictaphone notes from my voyage to Canada in 2014 – must get that done.

No bread today because the boulangère is off on holiday so I needed to go into Pionsat, and that led to a little complication.

The insurance on Caliburn will expire on Wednesday and here in France, you have a little sticker to put in your windscreen to display your insurance details. I need to put the new one in the windowand I know that I have it – it’s been in my sticky little mitt at least once just recently and I’ve probably put it safe somewhere so that I know where it is.

But where?

This led to a search around up here, in the most obvious places, but it still hadn’t come to light by 14:30 and so, fearing that there would be no bread left at all in the Intermarché, I shot off to Pionsat where I was lucky enough to buy the last baguette. Not even one for tomorrow and that’s sad, as it’s Bank Holiday here and all of the shops will be closed.

After lunch, I started to search in the less-obvious places and that led to an unearthing of a load more paperwork – nothing to do with what I’m trying to find but there’s no sense in ignoring it so that’s being ruthlessly sorted out as well. I’m finding tons of stuff, a lot of which is really important and that I wish that I had found ages ago, but no sign at all of the insurance sticker.

Like I said, I know that it’s here somewhere, but the question is “just where?”

So guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow on my Bank Holiday day of rest? It’s not as if I don’t already have enough to do.

-2

Sunday 12th July 2015 – I AM LUCKY ENOUGH …

… to live within spitting distance of the most beautiful place on earth.

This morning, leaving my hotel, I climbed up out of Besse onto the plateau to the north and was presented with the most magnificent view of the Puy de Sancy that I have ever had.

As you know, I can see it from the Font Nanaud just down the road from where I live, but it never looked like this from up on the Font.

A little further along the road I drove round a bend and was treated to a most spectacular view of the Chateau de Murol down there in the valley below.

And if that wasn’t enough, there was a gorgeous view of the Puy de Dome in the distance, and I’ve never been able previously to take a good photograph of the Puy de Dome from this perspective. I put it down to the weather because it really was a beautiful day out here today.

I found a decent parking place just on the edge of Murol and went for a good wander around. And there was quite a bit to see as well.

The town is pretty much hemmed in here in the bottom of a steep valley with a river flowing through the middle. It’s another place full of stone buildings from another, far richer period but with a few exceptions, what isn’t an antique shop or trendy café is now closed down and up for sale.

That’s a shame because this could really be a nice place.

From Murol I worked out the correct way to Olloix and this took me right up into the mountains.

Up here, the road followed a ridge on the hilltops and had I encountered this kind of road in this kind of situation in the UK I would immediately have said that this would have been a Celtic ridgeway, keeping to the high points out of the marshy valley bottoms and away from the wild animals that might have interfered with travel.

Olloix was almost exactly as I imagined it, except that it has undergone quite a bit of tidying-up and the village now looks quite presentable.

There are also many more Knights Hospitalier remains that we are led to believe, if one knows what one is looking for.

I did chicken out of going down into the Gorge de la Monne, not the least of the reasons being that it was so hot this afternoon and I had no water with me.

I managed to visit a Benedictine monastery too, the Abbaye Notre Dame de Randol. I was totally unaware that it was here, because as you probably know, I do most of my research with ancient guide books, on the grounds that there’s so much interesting stuff that hasn’t made it onto the internet and it’s my aim to add as much as possible.

And so my 1957 Michelin Guide told me nothing about this place, which is hardly surprising seeing as construction wasn’t begun until 1969.

But I wasn’t at all impressed to see that, to visit the monastery, there’s a dress code. No shorts, no sleveless tops etc etc. I don’t understand what is the matter with these religious organisations. Didn’t God create man (and women)? So why would it offend God to see what his handiwork looks like?

But who am I to talk? As you all know, I was a big failure in my time in a Monastery. But it was the monotonous diet that did it for me. There were only two people who worked in the monastery kitchen – the chip monk and the fish friar.

From here, I shot off to Tallende and civilisation, because I needed some diesel.

But never mind the diesel, look at this little lot. A couple of London Routemasters, at least one London Royal Tiger and a couple of other assorted buses from assorted fleets. This is the London Bus sales and service depot in, of all places, St Amant Tallende and it took me completely by surprise to discover it.

From here I went on to half a dozen small villages to take a few pics in case I ever get to feature them on the radio programmes that we do with Radio Anglais, and ended up at the Menhir Couché near Fohet.

The Menhir Couché – the lying-down menhir, is a famous place as it was a resting place for the transport of coffins between churches and graveyards in the Middle Ages – burial was quite complicated in those days.

But it’s not lying down any more. I’ve seen a report that it was re-erected after God Knows how many centuries of lying flat because the damp was said to be damaging the stone. Another report says that a group of kids did it one night, although, at about 4.5 tonnes weight, I’d be intrigued to know how they managed it.

One thing is certain though – it’s been re-erected in the wrong place because there is nothing at all emanating from it in the way of rays. It produces quite a sterile atmosphere today.

Next stop was to have been the Lac d’Aydat, there down in the valley with the Puy de Dome as a backdrop.

But that was a big mistake. A really hot Sunday in midsummer just two days before a Bank Holiday, and the whole place was crowded out with people. it was horrible.

And so I reckoned that I had done enough researching for the radio, and came home. I’ve enough stuff now for four or five months’ worth of tourist programmes and I’m already going to amend a few things that I’ve prepared.

Saturday 11th July 2015 – I’M NOT THERE

Well, not all there anyway, but that should come as no surprise to anyone. After spending a few weeks reading this rubbish, you should have come to that conclusion yourselves.

This is where I am, at the Hotel de la Providence et de la Poste in Besse, down at the southern end of the département. And you’ll notice that I have my own personal entertainment, with a Celtic folk band right underneath my window.

It certainly was Providence that brought me to the Hotel de la Providence et de la Poste and no mistake. I’m here in my little room with shower and facilities and this is where I’ll stay until tomorrow morning, for I’m on my travels again.

And this is where I had my tea tonight, at the restaurant le bessoi in the medieval centre. And I have something interesting to report about the place, namely …
Our Hero – “could I have the ‘salade végétarienne’ but without the cheese please?”
Serving Wench – “why don’t you want the cheese?”
OH – “I don’t eat animal products”
SW – “well, I’m not sure what I could offer you instead – an egg is no good, is it?”
OH – “I could have a double helping of mushrooms”
SW – “that’s a good idea – and I’ll bring you a pile of bread too”.
And she did!
That’s the first time that that has ever happened to me in France. What a surprise! Things must be looking up!

So what am I up to then?

The answer is that Liz is off on holiday and needed running to the airport at Limoges. And seeing as I’ll be needing a hand to do the plumbing when I come back from Canada and Terry will be the most likely candidate, I need to repay the favour.

I’d have done it anyway without a second thought, but anyway, there we were, at 09:45, off towards Limoges. And I’d been up since 07:00 too, long before the alarm, and that’s not something that happens every day.

And here we are – or, rather, Caliburn and Strawberry Moose at our lunch stop somewhere on the D941 in the Creuze on the way back. We’d stopped at a Casino supermarket and bought a few things, and so we stopped to have lunch.

And, if the truth is known, I had a little doze too. after all, it was quite an early start and it was by now quite late, as well as having been a hectic day.

On the way back I had resolved to go to Olloix. This is a town that we are covering in the Radio Anglais travel and tourism sector.

We’re ready to leave but there is a variety of roads from which to choose and I couldn’t make up my mind. Consequently, I resolved to have a wander down there and decide upon that for myself.

One road took me past the Chateau de Murol. This is a 12th-Century chateau that was in the hands of the noble d’Estaing family, and for that reason it was spared from destruction by Richelieu when all of the other fortifications in the Auvergne were dismantled.

It escaped being ravaged during the Revolution because it was being used as a prison at the time, and after years of neglect, there was enough left in 1889 for it to be classed as one of the very first Historic monuments in France.

Here, I saw a signpost for the small town of Besse.

That’s an early Medieval walled city that at one time was quite rich. But it lost its fortifications (except the Belfry) under Richelieu and later during the revolution and, with the railways by-passing the town by miles, it fell into decay.

However, the opening up of the area for skiing in the 20s and 30s saw something of a resurgence and the town has recovered a little of its former pride, although there’s still a lot to do.

So tomorrow I’ll go back to Murol for a prowl around and then retrace my steps to Olloix to see what gives around there.

Friday 10th July 2015 – THIS FLYING SHELF IDEA …

… isn’t working as well as it ought to. The upper part of it works fine – the tubes that cover the threaded rod need to be cut down a millimetre or two but apart from that I couldn’t want for anything better. Mind you, it would have helped considerably had I not drilled into it by accident when I was doing something else.

The lower part is fine too. All of the plugs and sockets are fitted and wired in and working. The little LED strip light does its job just fine and although it could be brighter, it’s there and working and illuminating the sink and the mirror behind it (whenever they might be installed). I expected to have had much more difficulty with that than I did.

Where it’s all going wrong is routing the wiring where it’s supposed to go. It doesn’t like these channels that I have cut and so goes everywhere. This means that I can’t properly join the upper and lower parts and that’s where it’s all going wrong. I could put an extra piece in between the two – just a strip around the outside, and screw that in position to clamp the wires in place, but that would mean cutting down the threaded rod, cutting down the tubes and having many more difficulties about screwing the threaded rod to the shelves.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, but getting nowhere yet.

This morning though, after another early start, I finished off the web pages that I’d been bringing up to date, and then starting to transcribe the dictaphone notes. Admittedly the days that I have done so far are short days, but 8 out of 45 in a couple of hours is impressive none-the-less.

And I also had the honour of making a coffee this afternoon in the percolator and forgetting to put the jug in position on the stand, so I’ve had a mini-flood in here.

It’s just not my day, is it?

Thursday 9th July 2015 – EVEN THOUGH …

… it was something of a late night last night, I was still up and about long before the alarm went off. Well, in theory anyway, because I wasn’t in a rush to leave my cosy bed.

Mind you, I forget how many times I had had to leave it during the night. It certainly wasn’t just once or twice, that’s for sure. But that’s a sign of old age.

And here’s another thing too – after breakfast I sat down and sorted out the images and text for no less than 24 days of my voyage across Canada’s Maritime Provinces – without even stopping for breath. Out of 40, with a few previously done, it doesn’t leave too many to do now.

But that’s only just the start of it. I have to retype all of the notes from the dictaphone (and it’s a good job that I saved the dictations to a memory stick on my way around last year) and merge them in, and then research and expand them. So that’s not something that is likely to be finished in a short while.

After lunch, and a big pot of coffee (which I richly deserved), first job was to empty the beichstuhl. And it needed it too. But I’ve gone back to the bigger tub, because the liners are a much tighter fit and that works much better. The smaller one is a better fit in the container, but with the liners being too large, they are just pulled into the tub.

For the rest of the day, I’ve been carving out the cable trunking in the lower shelf of the flying shelf unit that I’m building. That needs to be done precisely and it takes ages, with measuring, drilling, chiselling and filing. But it’s done now and had the first coat of varnish at 19:15 and the second at – would you believe – 23:15. Yes, me working at that time is unheard-of. It’ll have the third and final coat tomorrow early morning too.

But there’s also been a subtle change in the design. While I was lying in bed this morning, I thought of another way by which I could improve the design, and so some of what I had done yesterday ended up in the woodpile. But it’s always like that around here. Design evolves continually, especially during the actual work, and I’ve lost count of the number of amendments that I’ve made to the original plan.

And in other news, a big “well-done” to the three Welsh clubs in Europe tonight. Airbus drew 2-2 in Croatia to lose 5-3 on aggregate to much superior opposition. Bala beat Differdange 2-1, but that wasn’t enough to overturn the away score last week – a match that they should have won at a canter, never mind lost. But pride of place must go to Newtown, who beat Valletta 2-1 away from home to progress through to the next round against FC Copenhagen. So with TNS going through to meet Videoton of Hungary after demolishing Torshavn on Tuesday, that’s a 50% success rate for Welsh clubs in Europe – a percentage that matches what Scottish football could manage in Europe this week.

A few heavy defeats tonight in Europe, including an 8-0, but no Welsh team lost this week. What with 10th place in the National rankings, things are looking up for Welsh football.

And not before time. Maybe people will start taking it seriously now.

-1

Wednesday 8th July 2015 – IT WAS HARD THIS MORNING …

… to leave the comfort and safety of my comfortable bed. 3 alarms went off but it was still something of a struggle to heave myself out of my stinking pit. You wouldn’t ever have thought that last night I was in bed by 23:15 and was in such a deep sleep that the midnight buzzer in the verandah woke me stark upright.

After a rather tired breakfast, I spent some time updating the Radio Anglais stuff – the databases that I keep of what we’ve done and when we’ve done it – and then I updated out Facebook page, and now that’s online too. You can see it here if you like. I hope that you’ll pass by and give us a “like”.

When that was done, I carried on with my own website – I want to bring that up-to-date too but that’s an impossible task, which I fully realise.

However, in between times, I put another coat of varnish on the shelves that I cut yesterday and also on the shelf that will be going over the door. The aim was that they would dry ready for this afternoon.

I forgot that the boulangère is on holiday. That meant that I had to wander off to Pionsat and the Intermarché to buy some bread for lunch. And I wasn’t there five minutes either. It was a baguette today, and I have some speciality bread for tomorrow and Friday.

First job after lunch was to fit the shelf in the shower room.

Space, or lack thereof, is something from which I’ve always suffered and so I’m fitting as many shelves as possible as I carry on with the development. There’s at least two feet (60cms) over the door in the shower room and that’s crying out for a shelf for the washing products and the like until the kitchen is done (whenever that might be). No sense in wasting the space

But the rest of the work isn’t so straightforward. The flying shelf is actually two layers of wood sandwiched together. The idea is that the electrical plugs and the 12-volt LED strip light will fit in the bottom part with the cables sandwiched between, and the top part will go over the top to keep everything covered.

That works fine with a 20mm-thick shelf when your mains plug is 18mm deep, but when your light switch is 25mm you need to think again. Accordingly I spent much of this afternoon making a pattress out of a pine offcut. 18mm deep, this home-made pattress, and that will do the job quite nicely. And it’s also enabled me to have a think about fitting a 12-volt DC socket there too.

And that, dear reader, took me until 20:20 tonight – something of a record for just recently. But today was much cooler, the temperature in the attic never passed beyond 30°C, and it gave me much more of an incentive to work. I even managed to tidy up a little in here too.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Tuesday 7th July 2015 – THIS IDEA …

… about a flying shelf in the bathroom seems to work okay.

You can see how it’s going to work. There’s a bracket in the false ceiling (the false ceiling will eventually go over it) and from there are two lengths of threaded rod hanging down. At the moment the threaded rod is passing right through the shelves and held up with nuts, but there will be some captive nuts fitted into the shelves and the threaded rod will be cut to size.

The threaded rod will be covered by some nice stainless steel tubing and it will all look quite nice.

This morning we braved the heat and made it to Marcillat to record the radio programmes. Things went according to plan, except that Violette fell asleep and one of our 15-minute shows ran on for almost 19 minutes. She’ll have fun editing that down.

We went for a coffee and a good chat afterwards, and then I came home. I installed myself in the bedroom as 34°C in the attic was rather too much, but that didn’t work as I crashed out for a good hour – and I mean “crashed out”. And seeing as how I was in bed last night for 22:30, that was rather astonishing.

After lunch I’ve fitted the bolt on the bathroom door (not that we need it but still, you never know) and then I attacked the shelving. That’s all cut to shape and drilled out where necessary (it’s having a cable run through it to power things like shavers and hair clippers) and now varnished, as is the shelf that I made the other day.

And surprise surprise, I was actually working at 22:30 this evening. I put the first coat on before knocking off at 19:30, but when I went out to take the stats, the first coat was dry so I put a second coat on.

Tomorrow, I’ll finish the shelving (I hope), plasterboard everything in, and then carry on with the ceiling.

-1

Monday 6th July 2015 – NOW HERE’S AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION.

Our Hero – “is it tomorrow that we are recording at Marcillat?”
Liz – “that’s right – at 09:30”
Our Hero – “ohhh” … pause … “I suppose that I’d better go home then”

Yes, the Bane of Britain has done it again hasn’t he? Gone to Marcillat on the wrong day. Still, it could have been worse. It was a nice drive out and in any case, at least it was a day early and not a day late.

And I’d been on my travels in the night. I was in Glasgow, the funniest city in Europe (everyone who goes there comes back in stitches) organising some kind of football training, and then I’d taken the Metro with Strawberry Moose. The train was stuck in the station for a while and so, knowing that I would awaken as soon as the train set off, I allowed myself to go into a deep sleep. But before I did, I took my trousers off and hung them over the back of the seat in front. Sure enough, I awoke as soon as the train moved, and I prepared to alight at the next station. But I couldn’t find my trousers. There was a pair of shorts there but they were nothing to do with me. Of course I made a fuss and the lady driver told me that seeing as how we hadn’t reached the first stop, no-one could have alighted from the train with my trousers. However, a couple of people had boarded the train and alighted before it had set off. I carried on the argument and a couple of the passengers started to become agitated. But none of this was finding my trousers.
Ironically, I’d been reading a little about the Glasgow Underground yesterday evening and also something comnected with North-West Glasgow and the Underground, which was where all of this was going on.

My morning wasn’t wasted though, as I did two more radio programmes – or, at least, half-done them. These are the rock programmes for Radio Anglais and I’ve done the miscellaneous programmes for two more months. I just need to do the two live concerts and find a radio commentary for one of the programmes.

After lunch, I made the shelf that will fit between the door and the stud wall by the beichstuhl. And the new Bosch circular saw – nice and lightweight, it cut through a pine plank as if there was nothing there. A nice neat cut, no need to sand it down, no whining, no rattling, and the inverter showed no sign of distress. This was the best circular saw that I’ve ever used (and so it ought to be at the price that I paid for it) and if it lasts the pace (because one or two people are a little sceptical about it) it’ll be just the job.

I also cut down a 300mm plank into 2x150mm planks, and the circular saw hardly broke wind doing it. But do you remember ages ago when I told you that the 600mm pine planks were actually 605mm? Well, the 300mm planks are actually 295mm. So much for Brico Depot’s precise measuring.

I had yet another shower to cool me down afterwards (I’m having my money’s worth from the home-made solar shower) and made a mega-red-pepper-and-lentil curry for the next 4 days. I may as well start the week as I mean to go on.

-1

Sunday 5th July 2015 – WHY CAN’T THE DAWN CHORUS …

… have a day off too? Here I was on a Sunday morning aiming for a lie-in and they all start up at about 06:30. Mind you, they did have something to start up about because we were having a rainstorm – the first rain for about 10 days.

It didn’t last long, though, but long enough to disrupt my plans to have a really good lie-in, and I was up and about by 08:20.

And I’d been on my travels too during the night. I was with a lady of the female sex but I can’t remember now who it was. Anyway, it concerned “Ye-ye”. And if you want to know who “ye-ye” might be, ask any Belgian child. In these days of recomposed families, it’s quite often the case that a child’s grandmother (“mé-mé”) would have a husband or partner who would not be the child’s grandfather (pé-pé). So he would be “ye-ye”. And in this case, “ye-ye” was living with the children of his wife but was having a rough time there. Consequently I made the suggestion “why doesn’t he come to live with us?” and much to my surprise, the lady of the female sex agreed (I never ever thought she would and I was only half-hearted in my suggestion) and so I had to crack on and decorate the spare room.

Meanwhile, back here, after breakfast I checked over the radio programme that we will be recording tomorrow for Radio Tartasse, and then I did some work on the Radio Arverne stuff. The programme for the week 4th to 10th … errrr … November. Yes, I’m forging ahead.

But I couldn’t keep it up. The heat overwhelmed me round about 11:00 and even the fan couldn’t cool the place down enough. In the end I took the fan and the laptop and went down to the bedroom where there was a much-more-moderate 29°C and I stayed down there till supper time. I had a bit of a doze for a while and then just – I was going to say “chilled out” but that was far from the truth given the weather. There wasn’t much point in doing anything else.

So tomorrow we’re recording a round of radio programmes – the August shows for Radio Tartasse. Liz is off for a couple of weeks and won’t be back until after the first date of broadcasting. For that reason we need to do it this week.

With me being off to Canada mid-August, we’ll have to record the September and October programmes at the beginning of August. And this is the reason why I’m trying to push ahead.

And tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be fitting the two missing shelves in the bathroom and then carrying on with the ceiling.

Saturday 4th July 2015 – NOW THAT WAS A REALLY NICE …

… afternoon at the swimming baths in Commentry. Glorious hot weather, I was all sweaty, what more could I say?

The sides of the pool were open and people were disporting themselves on the terrace and on the lawn (picnicking allowed) and the pool was packed out. So much so that I was going up and down the pool in one of the swimming lanes.

I was there for well over two hours too which is something of a record. But then again, there was so much to see. Ohh yes – I can still chase after the women at my age. I just wish that I could remember why.

And why was I all hot and sweaty? That was because I’d been mauling about half a tonne of tiles and cement about.

Caliburn is now loaded up with tiles for the shower room. You can see in the photo what I’m having. I’m not having those joining pieces though. I’ve bought some “different shades of grey” mosaic tiles, the type where you can cut the string with scissors. That way, if I start from the bottom with the darker tiles and start from the top with the lighter tiles, the gap in the middle can be filled quite easily without the aid of a tile cutter.

Quite astonishingly, I’d been around all of the usual places, done two laps around Brico Depot and loaded up Caliburn by just 11:45. Having the Dawn Chorus wake me up in the morning is an excellent idea. I even had time to go and buy the glass for the window above the shower room door before they closed for lunch.

A trip around LeClerc (where I remembered to change the empty gas cylinder for a new one) and round the Auchan, and I was away from there by 13:45 and in the pool at Commentry by 14:30.

I’d seen a few old cars on my travels too. This is a Unic pick-up that I saw at a tyre-fitting place in Montlucon on my way around.

Unic was a popular French car-maker before World War II, and many of the taxis that took the French troops to fight at the Marne were Unics. After the war, the company was taken over by Simca, for whom it was the commercial vehicle arm.

In 1968 the marque was sold to FIAT and in 1975 was incorporated into the IVECO mark.

You can tell by the FIAT- like badge that This pick-up is from the period 1968-75 and so it’s doing really well to be still on the road and working. and I do have to say that I was impressed by the bodywork repairs on the cab corners, but you have to resort to tricks like this with such a vehicle, as I imagine that body panels are almost non-existent.

The second interesting vehicle that I saw today is almost certainly older. This is one of the Chenard et Walcker vans that were sold by Peugeot as the D3 and D4 series from 1950 to 1965 when the model was replaced by the J7.

This os one of the later ones, as you can tell by the snout at the front. The very first models were powered by a 2-cylinder flat-twin two-stroke motor but that quickly gave was to the 4-cylinder four-stroke engine out of the Peugeot 203 and later the Peugeot 403. The 4-cylinder engines were too long to fit in the body, hence the snout.

It is possible to tell whether this is a D3A, a D3B, a D4A or a D4B, but not by me at this distance. Still, it’s pretty old and quite an interesting curio.

All of the roads around Commentry were closed for repair and so I had to come back through the town. This took me past the Market Hall, the first time for ages.

I remember the market hall as being a dreary, dingy place when I first came past here years ago, but they seem to have done it proud with a programme of modernisation. It looks so much better now that ever it did before.

So that was my day – another expensive one, but loads of interesting vehicles and a lovely day at the baths. i’m off for an early night now to make the most of it.

-1

Friday 3rd July 2015 – THIS MUST BE SOME KIND OF A RECORD

Today’s temperature outside reached a massive 39.4°C and that can’t be far short of a record. No wonder I had a hard time starting work today.

This morning I wasn’t as bright and breezy as yesterday, even though I had the Dawn Chorus again giving me a helping hand. After breakfast I mooched around for a little and then plucked up the courage to attack the radio programmes.The second lot for Radio Arverne are now half-completed and should be done by Sunday, and I have to check over the rock programmes for Radio Tartasse because they are being recorded on Monday.

When I finally managed to attack the bathroom, it was really slow progress. I’ve only done the first three rows of the ceiling, but then again each one had to be cut and shaped by hand so it isn’t surprising. In fact, because of the way that I’ve done everything, there’s going to be a lot of the ceiling that’s going to have to be cut and shaped by hand.

I’ve also had to fit a supporting strut in the ceiling. There’s going to be a flying shelf in the bathroom and the brackets to hang it from the ceiling have to be fitted, and that’s why I needed the supporting strut.

Apart from that, I had to unload Caliburn ready for my trip to Montlucon tomorrow and you’ve no idea how much I didn’t want to do that in the heat that we were having. But at least the water in the solar shower was 39.0°C so that I could have a really good soak.

Now here’s a thing.

Apparently in the UK, there’s been a minute’s silence in memory of those who were killed in Tunisia. Now – can you remember if we ever had a minute’s silence in memory of anyone who was killed by an IRA terrorist?

This is an old Nazi trick and the Nazis used it to perfection. Whenever an “atrocity” was committed by a hated enemy, they would have these ceremonial minutes’ silence, parade funerals, eulogies and all that kind of thing. They whip up the emotions and subsequently the hatred, and then the Government can go ahead and invade another country to “revenge these dreadful deaths” and the public will be so whipped up by hatred that they can’t see what’s going on. And when you see the outpourings of the Tory Government, that echo the comments that the Nazis made about a death in Danzig or the Sudetenland, you realise just how much the Tories have learned from the Nazis and how much of it they have put into practice.

When it came to whipping up hatred against the Irish Republic or the Vatican over the deaths and other atrocities committed by the IRA, the Government was strangely silent. But when it comes to doing it against brown-skinned people, all of the gloves are off. This tells you all that you need to know about the British Government’s racist policies.

And don’t forget that it was the West that declared war on Islam, with the bushbaby’s “crusade” speech. And just who is so naive to believe that when you declare war on someone and start to fight them, they are not going to fight back?

You couldn’t make that up could you? It just shows you the depths to which the intellectual capacity of the Western world has sunk.

Thursday 2nd July 2015 – NOW HERE’S ANOTHER THING!

Wide awake and up and about at 06:30.

Yes, I’ve often been up and about at 06:30 and I’ve often been wide awake at 06:30 too, but I don’t recall ever having done both of them at the same time.

Mind you, I blame the Dawn Chorus.

I went to bed last night and left the bedroom window open – the best way that I could think of of keeping cool. And with no curtains, I had the view of a most beautiful moon to send me to sleep. But as dawn broke, we had the cacophony that is Mother Nature, and that was that.

So after an early start and early breakfast, I attacked the radio programmes. Everything is now ready for the next recording session, which is next week in Marcillat and at the beginning of August at Gerzat. And then I need to do a series of programmes for the next session at Gerzat, four more rock shows and then that, dear reader, will be the radio all organised until the beginning of November.

And quite right too because today, I booked my flight to Canada. I’m leaving on August 14 and coming back on October 14th. Now that I have my own vehicle out there in Canada, then nothing can stop me and I intend to make the most of it.

I’m flying out from Lyon this time, as I said that I would, and not by Air Transat, the bucket shop operator either. Strangely enough, Air Transat want an astonishing $1129 – that’s about €1050 – for a direct flight from Lyon to Montreal and return. However if I go via Zurich on the outbound flight (staying overnight, which suits me fine as I haven’t yet had a good wander around the city) and come back with a changeover at Frankfurt-am-Main, it costs me all of … errr … €788 (plus the hotel in Zurich).

And that’s not with a bucket-shop operator either, that’s with … errr … Swissair, one of the world’s best airlines.

How about that?

But returning to our moutons, as the French say, I’ve also reconstituted the radio databases that were lost (and that wasn’t a five-minute job either) and I’ve also built a simple page on Facebook for Radio Anglais. It’s high time that I sorted something out for this and did a little advertising. It seems that Social Media is the way to go these days.

And did I mention Strider? He is of course a Ranger, the Ford Ranger that I own in Canada and whom I shall be making much use of. I was speaking to an insurance company in Canada today on the telephone and they have sorted out some insurance for me. That’s that bit resolved and all Strider needs now is a safety check (that’s pretty much a formality) and then I can register him in my name – especially as I now have an address in Canada thanks to Service New Brunswick.

I’ve had Rosemary on the telephone twice today. The first time for a really good chat which was very nice, and the second time it was a very delighted and enthusiastic Rosemary who called with a little good news. Ages ago I bought a cheap electric pump to pump out the water from the inspection pit and it worked in spades. Rosemary was impressed and bought one to use in her well.

Anyway, to cut a long story short … "hooray" – ed … with all of the dry weather that we have been having, her water butts are empty and so she set to pump up some water from the well with her pump. And so impressed is she with the result that she rang me up to tell me.

I’ve spent much of the afternoon searching again – for the plastic vent covers for the air holes that i’ll be cutting in the bathroom door. I know that I have them, and they were in the bedroom until I emptied it out in February.

Then, I put them somewhere safe so that they won’t be broken, and that is that. Disappeared off the face of the earth. They’ll turn up on Monday though – that I’ll promise you because on Saturday I’ll be buying some more so that I’m not held up.

In the meantime, talking of cutting, I cut down a floorboard into 25mm strips with the table-top saw and sanded down the edges with the belt sander. With the strips, I made all of the door jambs for the shower room door and the window frame above, and nailed them into position.

I’ve also fitted some quarter-round beading in the corner between the bedroom door and the shower room door so that part is finished too.

Tomorrow, always assuming that I don’t find the missing vents, I’ll be starting on the false ceiling in the shower room. I must remember to cut the holes for the lights and also for the shelf support. And to connect up the final bit of wiring that needs to be done there.

EPIC HALL

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