Wednesday 3rd December 2014 – I WAS RIGHT …

… yesterday when I talked about this snow.

This morning there was about half an inch on the deck of the new Indespension trailer and other similar surfaces. There was also a layer on the leaves on the plants and so on, but it hadn’t stuck to the ground.

And as the day wore on, the snow gradually disappeared, washed away by the thin drizzle that fell throughout the day.

I’ve been working on the power board in the barn. I’ve found two melamine-covered chipboard planks that were part of an old cheap chest of drawers. They are 25cm wide and so, together, were about right for the 55cms that I need to cover the power board below where the charge controllers are. I’ve mounted them on 37mm laths so that they stand off the back part of the power board and the cables can pass behind.

I’ve invented a kind-of hinge set out of a couple of L-shaped joinery brackets, so that these smaller boards will drop down so that I can work on the cables behind if necessary, and the upper board is installed.

As for the lower board, that has the laths and the hinges, and I’ve also drilled 3x8mm holes in it. I then cut some 80mm lengths of 8mm threaded rod and passed them through the holes.

I’ve fitted some plastic pattresses front and back on each of the threaded rods. And if anyone wonders why it is that I have fitted the terminal connections within pattresses, then drop a spanner down the back of the power board with no pattresses and 660 amp-hours of batteries wired in, and see what happens.

I bolted the rods firmly in place so that there is 25mm of threaded rod out of the back and about 35mm out of the front. Attached to the rear of the threaded rods will be connections for all of the electrical equipment that will be permanently in place, and in the front will be the more temporary types of electrical equipment.

Two of the lengths of threaded rod have been connected together with a negative battery cable, as I’ve found in the past that I need about twice as many negative connections than positive connections.

And why is this?

That’s because there’s a fuse box off a Vauxhall Astra wired into the positive circuit. I like these because they are easy to take off scrap cars, and have one thick lead in, four of the giant fuses, and four wires out. I have four 12-volt electrical circuits – an upstairs lights and upstairs power, and a downstairs light and downstairs power. These circuits feed off the fuse box of course, but each one needs to have the negative circuit connected to the power board individually.

So that’s as far as I have reached today. Tomorrow I’m out, and so I’ll crack on with the power board on Friday.

-2

Tuesday 2nd December 2014 – REMEMBER THE OTHER DAY …

… when i said that I reckoned that winter was just around the corner?

Well, I wasn’t wrong. At about midday today it started to snow – the 1st snow of winter 2014/15.

It might not look like much, but it snowed steadily throughout the afternoon and when I knocked off at 18:00 there was a think layer that was doing its best to stick. And had it been light, I would have taken a better photo of it.

I wonder what it’s going to be like tomorrow morning.

I finished off the portable power board this morning. Well, it’s almost finished because it needs a backing on it to keep the cables and the backs of the sockets covered up.

There’s the inverter on there of course, a 600 watt one, together with an electric meter and a timer. Then we have three types of socket – a pair of 12-volt sockets, a single European 230 volt socket, and a pair of UK 230 volt sockets.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I use British plugs and sockets on my 230 volt system because the plugs are fused, and that’s a useful thing to have.

This afternoon, I started on the new power board in the barn down at the southern end.

The bad news is that I dropped my Ryobi Plus One handlamp and broke it. That’s a tragedy because it’s the best light that I’ve ever had and I shall miss it very much.

The good news is that the power board is up and in position. The Xantrex charge controller that works the bank of solar panels is installed, and that wasn’t as easy as it might have been. I forgot how rigid the ware was and it took me ages to bend it into position and thread it through the series of holes through which it needs to pass.

Threading the wires through for the wind turbine was easier, and that’s in place together with the meter that reads the voltage and the amount of charge.

There was an hour left and so I settled down to connect up the new batteries to the system.

And here’s a thing.

Which company sells batteries that take a certain size of bolt that is supplied, so you can look at it and know which size of battery cable to order – and then sells you a meter that works off a shunt connected to the negative lead between the battery and the grounding circuit – and which takes a larger bolt?

Of course, you can’t buy battery leads with different-sized terminals on each end, so tomorrow I’m going to have to cut one lead in half and solder larger terminals onto the cut end. And my soldering is rubbish too.

I have to say that I’m not at all impressed with this company

With the snow, I lit the fire again tonight and made a mega-aubergine-and-kidney-bean whatsit. There’s enough in there for four days as usual and tonight’s helping tasted really nice. Somehow, cooking in the oven tastes so much better.

-2

Monday 1st December 2014 – THAT HANGING CLOUD …

… that arrived at Chamalieres yesterday followed me home last night. When I went out late last night to check the stats, there it was hanging all over my little mountain.

It was still here this morning and it’s been here all day. In the barn I had the grand total of 0.350 amp-hours of solar energy, and here in the house it was about 1.5 amp-hours.

All day it’s been drizzle and tonight at 21:00 the temperature had dropped to 1°C – the lowest temperature so far. That means that tonight it will probably drop below freezing outside. Anyway, I had the fire lit in here and cooked the last portion of my last week’s curry. As an aside, those small sealed storage jars that I bought at IKEA are doing the business. Filling them up with hot food is creating a powerful vacuum and the food seems to be keeping much longer, as well as tasting better.

At lunchtime too, I had a go at making my own hummus seeing as I’ve run out of vegan cheese and I’m not too keen on this vegan pate. 12 spoonfuls of chick peas all mashed up, three spoonfuls of sesame seed paste, a pile of fresh garlic, some olive oil and some cumin powder and there I was. And it wasn’t all that bad either.

As for work today, this morning I braved the weather to go out and do some work on this new trailer. The lights on the trailer don’t work at all, and I’ll be resolving that issue in due course. It came with a huge trailer board but the light lenses weren’t so good on that, so I had a hunt around and found and old trailer board that still had some bits of light attached to it. I did a bit of mix-and-match with that and now the big trailer board is working properly.

I also cut a bungee strap in half, threaded the two halves through the holes in the traile board, knotting them at the cut ends, and now the trailer board can be hooked properly onto the trailer pro tem, until I can fix the lights on the trailer.

There was a number plate, off the old LDV that I used to have, on the old trailer board, and so now that’s attached to the trailer. The law here in France is that large trailers have to be licensed separately and carry their own number plates. In the UK, that’s not the case. Trailers carry the registration number of the vehicle that is towing them. With this trailer being an old British trailer, it doesn’t have its own number, so I stuck the LDV number plate on it.

That way, the trailer has its own identification and as the LDV is still on the British computer (it was scrapped in Belgium) any information about the trailer will eventually find its way back to me so until I can sort out some paperwork for it, that will have to do.

And then, apart from that, I’ve been up in the upstairs of the barn sorting out the wood and panels to make the power board in the barn – I want to start on that. I also found a decent but of wood for the portable power board, so I’ve been working on that. That should be finished tomorrow morning and then I can start on the power board in the barn.

High time I made use of these new batteries that I bought the other day.

-1

Sunday 30th November 2014 – GRRRR!!!

It was a lovely bright sunny day today and seeing as this is the last good day of autumn (the high winds of the other day tell us that the weather is changing for the worse and there will be snow here by midweek) I took advantage of the bright weather for a leisurely drive down to Chamalieres and Pionsat’s 1st XI away.

Chamalieres have a very good footballing side and Pionsat’s team was the weakest that I have ever seen. Yet they took the lead with a good free kick into the area from Cedric, headed across from almost out of the keeper’s hands, right across to the far post and a simple nod in.

Pionsat only had 11 players today and apart from Cedric, the rest of the defence was all 2nd XI players. Didier, the 2nd XI right winger, was playing at right back and he was carried off after 20 minutes with a knee injury, leaving the team with just 10 men. Chamalieres scored twice later in the first half, and yet Anthony had the ball in the net from a corner (which was disallowed for handball but which will nevertheless do his confidence the world of good) – and then the fun began.

Chamalieres’ ground is situated in a bowl that was an old quarry, in the forest high above the town, and just before half-time a deep, thick cloud rolled in. No-one could see a thing and after waiting for half an hour to see what was going to happen, the game was abandoned.

And so we all had to go home. And not half a mile away from the ground, the weather dramatically improved and we went home again in bright sunlight. Mind you, this might fo Pionsat a favour as when the match is replayed, Pionsat might have a stronger team out.

And I didn’t sleep through the alarms yesterday. They simply didn’t ring.

And how do I know this?

Well, at 0è:30 the perishing alarms went off here. it seems that somehow the date on the telephone has advanced one day so yesterday was, according to the phone, Sunday (hence the absence of alarm) and today was Monday (hence the alarm).

So after the early start, I wrote another radio show for Radio Anglais, to match the Christmas Special that I wrote earlier in the week.

That’s the radio programmes for the month of January now completed, except for the rock programme, and that’s next weekend’s work. I’ll crack this yet!

-1

Saturday 29th November 2014 – WHAT A PLEASANT DAY.

We were invited round to Clotilde’s for lunch today. It’s been ages since I’ve seen her so I was quite looking forward to it.

I had a little lie in this morning (slept through the alarms again – whoops!) and then had a nice relaxing morning catching up on a few things that I’ve let go while I was doing this Christmas Special

At 11:30 I cleared off down to Clotilde’s for lunch, and was delighted to see not only Clotilde, Liz, Terry and Rosemary, but also Ingrid who I haven’t seen for years. There was also another couple there who I had never met before.

Clotilde had cooked a really nice vegan lunch, which was very thoughtful of her and then seeing as how the weather was quite reasonable, we went for a walk.

From Clotilde’s house there’s a good walk through the old quarries of the Gré de lapeize, the stone with which much of St Gervais and St Priest was built.

From the top of the hill at the back, near to where Arno lives, there’s a magnificent view of the town of St Priest les Champs across the valley in the distance, with the Puy de Sancy in the distance.

From there we went round the corner and up to the top of the next hill, and from there was a lovely view of the Puy de Dome in the distance.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of it. And I’m glad that we are in late autumn because the absence of leaves on the trees at this time of the year add some different kind of dimension to the photo.

This evening I was down at Pionsat for the football. Pionsat’s 2nd XI were playing Teilhet. And despite the strength of the team that Pionsat put out (and there won’t be a stronger team than this on the field for the 2nd XI), they really struggled and the attack offered absolutely nothing at all. And that’s a surprise considering the fact that in the 8 games to date, they’ve scored 31 goals. An utterly impotent offering.

They ended up beating the Goatslayers 1-0, with the goal coming from a corner. The ball was headed out but only as far as blond Frederic on the edge of the area who put everything into it that he had, including the kitchen sink.

Still, a win is a win, as anyone will tell you, and the top 4 clubs, including Piosat, have now broken well clear of the pack.

-2

Friday 28th November 2014 – BLIMMIN’ ‘ECK!

I installed the current lot of wind date instruments here about two and a half years ago, and of all of the wind energy that I’ve received since then, about 40% of it has come today.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen wind quite like it, that’s for sure. I can’t see the little Marlec wind turbine from here, but I have a good view of the big old AIR403 wind turbine on the roof and that’s been going round like the clappers all day. I wish that I had it going like this every day.

And I’ve seen it for most of the day for, apart from having to go down and pay the boulangère, I’ve not been out of the house at all. I now have over 50kb of radio programme and with a Christmas recipe to come, that sets things up nicely for the show that we have to do and might even give me a head start for next year.

I’ve even made a startling discovery with this 3D programme with which I’ve been experimenting. There’s an add-on programme available on the internet to transfer shaping morphs from one item to another if they have been made on the same mesh-set. I’ve been fiddling with this for ages and never managed to make it work, probably because the objects that I have been trying haven’t been made on the same mesh-set.

But two of my favourite objects seem to have been so made, because in an idle moment over my lunchtime sandwich, I managed to transfer the morphs over from one to the other. That is certainly progress and I’m impressed with this. I just wish that I could do this with the other objects.

-2

Thursday 27th November 2014 – ANOTHER DAY …

… when I’ve hardly set foot out of doors today.

Mind you, I’ve had a really good bash at this radio programme and I reckon that I’ve broken the back of it. There’s well over 30kb of text now and that in theory may well be enough. However, I need some up my sleeve to cope with any unforeseen eventualities, and there are a few other things that need to be added.

As well as that, it all needs to be tidied up and made into something resembling a dialogue, and that I can do tomorrow. But it’ll certainly be something if I can finish this hour-long programme for tomorrow.

But I was certainly carried away with what I was doing today. I didn’t realise how late it was and I ended up having my lunch at about 17:30 – and thus no evening meal. That’s the penalty that you pay for being absorbed in your work.

And Rosemary rang me up in the morning too. She fancied a good chat so it was quite lucky that I was up and about at the usual time of morning, just for a change just recently.

I’m off to bed too now, something of an early night which will make a change for just recently. Another good day on this hour-long Christmas special should see it finished off.

-2

Wednesday 26th November 2014 – I HAVE HARDLY BEEN OUTSIDE TODAY

I’ve been far too busy in here.

I had an early night last night – in bed before 23:00 and that doesn’t happen very often does it? And even more interestingly, I slept through all of the alarms and didn’t wake up until 09:15. I must have been tired last night.

After breakfast I had a good hunt around and found the script of our Christmas Special from December 2012 and luckily there were a few pages that we didn’t finish. So I added on the bits from the radio programme that we didn’t record, and I wrote some kind of joining text, and that gave me the outline of a radio programme.

It’s not an hour long as yet, but I’ve been embellishing it and adding bits to it and it’s slowly taking shape. I probably have about 45 minutes’worth already.

So despite not going out, it’s been quite a profitable day. Another day or two and I might have a reasonable radio programme. But I really didn’t need this. I have far too much work to do as it is.

-1

Tuesday 25th November 2014 – I THOUGHT THAT I HAD GIVEN THIS UP YEARS AGO

Yes, I had a phone call erly this morning from Simon. You might remember a week ago that some English people needed an old van moving from a house that had been sold and it had been offered to me. So could I fetch it this morning?

Terry and I went off to have a look at it and we picked up Simon on the way. We found the address and the van was in a shed right at the far end of the property, up a steep hill that had been churned up by a procession of diggers. Consequently, it took me three quarters of an hour to get Caliburn up as far as I could – and that wasn’t anything like close enough.

Luckily, the previous owners hadn’t left the handbrake on, so the three of us were, with much effort, able to push the van out of its shed and couple it up to Caliburn with the length of chain that I always carry about with me. THen we could pull it down the hill to the road.

I would have taken a lovely photo of the vans and all of us up to our eyeballs in mud, but the battery had gone flat in the camera, which annoyed me preatly.

The van didn’t look too bad – it’s a 2000 Ford Transit, the biggest of all the body options, but there’s a slight crack in the windscreen, a water leak and a fe other bits and pieces. And the starter had packed up. More in hope than expectation we gave it a puch down the road and to our complete and absolute surprise, the van fired up. I can’t think who was the most astonished.

A run up and down the lane to test the brakes, which actually worked, and so we made an executive decision (that’s a decision that if it goes wrong, the person making it is executed) to drive it to Terry’s. Terry and Simon leapt into it and I drove Calibuen as a blocking vehicle, to keep an eye open for the police and chase them away. It’s years since I’ve had to do anything like this, and you would never be able to do such a thing in the UK these days. This is what I like about France – you can still get away with doing things like this.

The drive was uneventful and the van is now safely at Terry’s.Then we all went home.

This afternoon, I started on my Christmas Special. I have tons to do, and only a short time to do it.

-2

Monday 24th November 2014 – WE WERE RADIOING TODAY.

Just this afternoon though, and that’s just as well because I didn’t wake up until 11:00 today.

I should never have drunk that last cup of coffee at Liz and Terry’s ysterday, because it was long after 06:00 that I went to bed. I’m still having these sleep issues, aren’t I?

After breakfast I went round to Liz and Terry’s, and Liz and I went off to to record our radio programmes for Radio Arverne. We did 5 programmes and that took a bit of arranging as there isn’t going to be a programme for Christmas week. I had anticipated this, however, and with 5 weeks of radio programmes prepared, we had taken a sixth week’s events with us so that we could seamlessly skip the Christmas week.

However, I have been asked to prepare another Christmas special – a one-hour programme of variety and entertainment – and I have just two weeks to do it as well. I shall have to get weaving, won’t I?

On the way home, I fuelled up. Diesel at the Carrefour at Menetrol was just €1.19. That’s the cheapest that I’ve seen it for years and so I squeezed as much in as I could, and I wished that I had taken a container with me too. The fruitshop in Mozac produced a red pepper and yet another pile of grapes. They were delicious too.

I dropped Liz off at home and came back here where I promptly crashed out on the sofa.

I need to do something about these sleep issues.

-1

Sunday 23rd November 2014 – I HATE HUNTERS

But that of course is quite a usual state of affairs isn’t it? However, after today I hate them even more.

I’d had a coffee last night at the footy, hadn’t I? And so at 04:00 I was still not in bed. I eventually crawled into my stinking pit ready for my Sunday lie-in when at 09:30 the hunters came down the lane. B@$t@rd$. Hounds baying, dogs barking, horns nlowing and firearms discharging. I hate every last one of them.

After my rude awakening I had something of a leisurely morning and then set off to Miremont, making a mental note to bring in the washing when I come home as the weather was clouding over.

Pionsat’s 2nd XI were playing at Miremont and just for a change not only did they have a full team but even a substitute too. And they won at a canter, 6-2, without even breaking sweat. One of the goals was probably the best that I have ever seen at this level – a telling, curling cross into the penalty area and a full-length diving header right across the penalty area from Frederic and he met the ball perfectly with his forehead.

Pionsat also had a new player out, a young lad who was playing his first match. He was nominally a striker and was on the bench at first and he admitted that he had never played at this level before. I gave him the benefit of my advice, such as it is, and the most important thing was, in my opinion, that if he was playing up front, to run after the ball every time that it was kicked into the area because at this level of football, anything is possible in the defence.

And so that was what he did and, sure enough, eventually it paid off. The keeper could only parry a fierce shot and this young lad, running in, reached it first before the keeper could recover, and smashed it into the net. He was delighted, and so was I. It’s not every day that anyone takes any notice of me.

But it was tough on the keeper. He was the best that I have ever seen in Division 4 and ought to be playing in Division One at least. He made half a dozen desperate saves and without him, Pionsat could have had double figures quite easily.

I went round to Liz and Terry’s afterwards to rehearse the radio programmes for tomorrrow, and Liz made a nice spinach, mushroom and chick pea curry. Not only that, I even had a doggy bag of the leftovers, which was really nice.

But two wins out of two for Pionsat this weekend. It’s been a long time since this has happened.

-1

Saturday 22nd November 2014 – IT WAS ANOTHER LOVELY DAY …

… today. This weather is totally crazy.

Mind you, I missed quite a lot of it. I actually managed to have a good lie-in and it was after 10:30 this morning when I crawled out of bed. And quite right too. I’ve not had a decent lie-in for quite a while.

After a leisurely breakfast, I attacked the radio programmes and now that’s all finished and ready for tomorrow’s rehearsal. And the weather was still holding out too, and that made up my mind for me. I’ve not done any washing since I came back from Canada and there was a huge mound of it lying about. I therefore made some butties and went down to Pionsat where I stuck the lot (the washing, not the butties) into the large 18kg washing machine. And while that was doing, I ate my butties.

I put the lot into the drier for 20 minutes afterwards, and while that lot was drying I went and took Calibutn for a really good wash and (just for a change) bought another pile of grapes. They are really nice and I’m sure that they do me good.

Tonight we had the footy of course and Pionsat need to put their train back on the rails as they’ll drop off the bottom on the table. However, tonight’s opponents, Blanzat, look like a tough proposition.

Much to my surprise, Pionsat fielded one of the strongest sides that they’ve been able to field this season. Cedric was back from injury and playing in defence again, with Julien and Jerome up front.

Even more surprisingly, Blanzat offered nothing whatever up front. I can’t think of a weaker attack than the one that was out there today. Their goal was direct from a free kick, but in reply, Pionsat scored two. A real screamer on the volley from Michael from about 25 yards out, right into the top corner. The second one was one of these ping-pong efforts from close range – three Pionsat players had a go at getting the ball into the net before it finally crossed the line.

So a valuable win for Pionsat, one that keeps them in touch with the pack down in the basement. But it was marred by a fight on the pitch after the final whistle – one that looked like it meant business too. Two players were involved, both of them from Blanzat. It’s rare to see two players from the same team having a go at each other like this. And I’ve no idea what had caused it either.

-1

Friday 21st November 2014 – AFTER MY EXERTIONS …

… yesterday, I planned to have a lie-in this morning. Consequently I switched off all of the alarms and dug myself in for a long siege. And if I ever lay my hands on that telesales operator who rang me up at 09:15, she will need new dentures and a pair of crutches. I was not in the least amused.

I had a leisurely breakfast, boiling the water up here for my coffee again, And then I didn’t do too much until Sophie the boulangère came with my bread, and we had an interesting chat for a while.

After lunch, I was trying hard to make up my mind to go out and work when the farmer came down with his cattle. It’s very late in the season for him to put his cattle out, but nevertheless he was here all the same. And regular readers of this rubbish will recall that a couple of weeks ago I lit a garden fire in the lane and the pile of ash was still there. Consequently I had to spend a quick half an hour shovelling the ashes away so that his cattle could pass by.

It always happens like this.

After that I started to unload the new batteries. While they aren’t as big as the other ones that I have been moving around just recently, they are still huge and heavy. And there’s something of a problem with them. The terminalsare not across one end of the battery, but down one of the long sides. This means that they won’t go into the battery cupboard as I had intended, and the only way that I can put them in is groups of three – so either 3, 6 or 9 and here I am with 8. Mind you, they are 110-amphour batteries, not 100-amphour ones.

6 of the batteries are now fitted in place and connected together. That was when I ran out of time and also out of strength – moving those six was bad enough. On Monday I’ll make a start on the control board for the wiring in the barn.

I went to Intermarche when I knocked off work, and finished off my shopping. 25 minutes it takes from here to Pionsat to do my shopping and then to go back home. And the prices aren’t so bad when you consider the saving in fuel and time. I bouhgt myself another kilo of grapes, and I’ve just sat here and ate them. I love grapes, especially at this time of year when they are very ripe and very sweet. I might even go back to Pionsat tomorrow and buy some more.

-1

Thursday 20th November 2014 – I’VE BEEN TO PARIS TODAY

And Terry came with me too.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I have recently bought some huge 200 amp-hour batteries for my solar system here and I’ve been rebuilding the battery box and I’ve gradually been installing them one by one as the battery box takes shape.

I’ve been so impressed with these as you know – almost as impressed as I was with my galvanised steel dustbin. But anyway, my wholesaler sent me a circular the other day to tell me that they were having yet another battery sale. The price for the 100 amp-hour batteries was extremely interesting and my ears pricked up, especially as the batteries in the barn are struggling along on their last legs as you know.

Having a decent secondary solar system in the barn is of course very advantageous for many reasons, and so I bit the bullet and placed an order.

There is also a new range of data loggers that look much better than anything that I have around here and so I ordered two of those so that I can give them a whirl.

I would have had all of this delivered, except that the company is now starting to sell solar water heaters and they had an exhibition model on display. This is what I want for here, and Terry is very interested too, and so we decided that we would go, pick up my batteries and so on, and have a lengthy chat about solar water heating.

And so at 06:00 Terry phoned me up to wake me, and at 06:45 we were on the road to Paris.

We arrived on the edge of Paris at about 10:00 and then spent 90 minutes covering a distance of just 20kms to our destination. Not traffic queues and not roadworks either, but my satnav has a fetish with the A86 autoroute. No problm with that in itself, but there’s a height limit of 2 metres on that road, and Caliburn is 2.17 metres. Every road that we took brought us back to the A86.

After a wile I gave up, headed for the centre of Paris and then the road out underneath La Defense. But of course the sat-nav can’t pick up a signal in the La Defense tunnel and so I missed the exit. It was certainly not my lucky day today.

Eventually we arrived and spent a good hour or so there. And the upshot was that I have now come home with a solar hot water system. I couldn’t miss out at this price, even if I don’t have any running water yet.

On the way home, I took a different way and of course in the end after much binding in the marsh, we came to the A86 – not once but three times. This was totally beyond a joke and so I headed west on the A14 to Le Havre and came home via Rambouillet. And if that wasn’t enough, I hit a part of the kerb with a hell of a whack at some speed and I’ve smashed a wheel trim (and probably a few other things too)

The rest of the journey was incident-free but we did come home via Brico Depot in Montlucon, where I bought the insulation for the battery box and a few other things, and then the LeClerc for a bit of shopping.

So, what a day! Nearly 900kms and spending all that money but my renewable energy system will leap ahead in spades if all of this works out.

But I do need to work out this route. It’s doing my head in.

-2

Wednesday 19th November 2014 – AND YET ANOTHER …

… visitor today. I really don’t understand why it is that I’m so popular.

It was Simon’s turn to pay me a visit. His wife is an estate agent and she has just sold a house to someone. The previous owner of the property was an English couple and it seems that they have left an old van behind on the property and the new owner wants it to be taken away.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I seem to spend a great deal of my time towing vehicles around and recovering vehicles from all kinds of places. And anyone who has lingered around for any great length of time will know that I’ve always been up to no good with old abandoned vehicles in one way or another.

But an old van! Of course, Thoughts about a Citroen “H” or a Peugeout D4A immediately sprung to my mind, but in fact it’s an old RHD Ford Transit. But never mind – it will have plenty of company here. After all, there are two other old Frod Transits around here, and that’s not counting Caliburn. I’ll have a play with it and if all else fails, I’ll break it for spares and weigh in the body shell.

So Simon was here for ages this morning and we had quite a lengthy chat. There’s asomething bubbling away underneath the surface here, and he’s noticed it too. I thought that it wasn’t just me.

This afternoon I had some paperwork and a few phone calls to make, and then I finally started work. I’ve rearranged the battery box that I built and I added another new battery in there. That’s now 1300 amp-hours worth of batteries. I need to take out the 5 old Hawker batteries and add in the other four new batteries, but in order to do that, I need to replace the insulation with something more substantial. This means a trip to Montlucon and Brico Depot.

No fire tonight either.

The temperature here dropped down to 14.4°C during the night but climbed back up to 16.8°C today – helped no doubt by me using the gas stove that I brought up here last night to boil the water for my coffee.

But I was right to light the fire last night. The temperature outside dropped down to 2.4°C last night and that’s the coldest night that we’ve had in this latter part of the year. Winter is just around the corner.

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EPIC HALL

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