Monday 21st July 2014 – DURING THE NIGHT …

… we had 15mm of rain. No wonder I had difficulty sleeping and … errr … difficulty getting up this morning.

And if that isn’t enough, it’s carried on raining for most of the day and I shudder to think about how much rain there is the raingauge when I go downstairs in a few minutes to take the statistics… "20.5mm" – ed .

After breakfast I had an urgent letter to write and then spent the rest of the morning trying to make one of the three printers lying around here to work. To no effect whatsoever.

In the end, remembering that Cecile wanted me to check her post at La Batisse, I picked up her letters but at the same time printed off my letter. I could then send that off by recorded delivery at Pionsat.

After lunch, I waited for the rain to subside and then went out to finish off the guttering. And it is finished too – at least as far as I can reach. And even though I say it myself, it looks as if it might even work. Tomorrow I’ll have to move the scaffolding round a little so that I can reach the rest of it.

I’ve also slackened off the cable that restrains the wind turbine against the wind. I’d tightened it up too tightly and it had bent the pole. Slackening it off a little put the pole more upright and even enables the wind turbine to pivot around better on its axis.

That all took until 19:20 when I knocked off and came up here where I crashed out for an hour or so. Tea tonight was a gigantic mushroom and lentil curry, seeing as how mushrooms were on special offer on Saturday at LIDL in Commentry. That will keep me going for three or four days.

SUNDAY 20th July 2014 – THE WEATHER CHANGED …

… during the night. I was awoken at about 05:00 by a torrential downpour which was rather a shame as I was enjoying my clean bedding.

I was on my travels again too. it went on for ages and ages and another one of those that I was determined to remember when I woke up, but I completely forgot most of it. I do remember being in a service station having fueled up and while the attention of the young girl cashier was distracted, I was trying to buy some bread. All they had was a pack of 6 bread rolls but that was no use. I did find some bread that was suitable but it was in the form of a sandwich and had ham inside.

A little later I was walking down a hill with someone talking about taking Ford Cortinas for the MoT. I was giving this other person loads of useful information but I noticed Nerina having little enigmatic smile because I was being somewhat economical with the truth.

A little later still I was with a group of people in a second-hand clothes shop in Stoke on Trent. They were looking for skiing clothes and all intended to buy a one-piece skisuit. I was instead extolling the virtues of two-piece clothing and here was just the thing – a perfect ensemble. I was trying to attract the attention of my friends to it, without making it too obvious because I wanted it for myself and if I drew too much attention to it, it would be sold before I could rustle up the money for it.

I was up and about at 10:40, a nice lie-in for a change, and after breakast I had another go at this programme I’ve been working on. Not much point in doing everything as it rained almost non-stop throughout the day – 15mm all told.

The bad news is that all of the downloads that I had of this program seem to have been lost with an external drive that went missing when I was at Marianne’s. That means that I can’t go ahead and restore the previous version. But I’m finally making good progress with it, having realised that the reason why I could never make one important part of it work was because I’d forgotten to add in the serial number.

GRRRR

So the weekend is over and it’s back to work tomorrow.

-2

Saturday 19th July 2014 – WHAT A NICE AFTERNOON.

Not particularly sunny, but lovely and hot, so just for a change I went swimming at Neris-les-Bains. Not too crowded but the water was lovely and warm even with the sides of the pool open and I spent a very pleasant hour or so in there. And that gave me an opportunity to give the cement burns on my legs (which are still troubling me) a really good soaking.

Last night it was still too hot to sleep and it was 04:00 again when I went to bed. But about 01:00 we had a sudden hurricane that sprang up out of nowhere and a huge stream of wind blew right through the house.

I was up and about again at 08:00 all the same and after breakfast had a few hours on the laptop as well as a little session with that computer program. I’m determined to crack it, even though I’ve been tempted to delete the newer version that I’ve uploaded and go back to the previous one.

I did my shopping at Commentry – first time for ages, and while neither LIDL nor Intermarche came up with anything special, I bought all that I needed from Bricomarche to complete the guttering on Monday.

Back home from the swimmng baths I crashed out for an hour or so.

Tonight now that I’m nice and clean, I’m going to change the bedding and have a really good sleep in a nice clean bed for just a change. Tomorrow is Sunday and it’s a day off.

-1

Friday 18th July 2014 – I DIDN’T GET OUTSIDE …

… to work until 16:30 this afternoon, and there was a very good reason for this. That is that when I went outside at 11:30 to pay the boulangère, it was already 31°C and continued to rise during lunchtime to over 34°C.

Working up on the scaffolding would have been impossible in that – just being outside was exhausting.

Even with the fan on here (and I had it running all through the night) the temperature still reached 32.3°C but at least in front of the fan it was reasonably comfortable after a fashion.

When I finally did make it outside and up on the scaffolding, I found to my dismay that sometile during the last four Years Brico Depot has changed its supplier of plastic rainwater goods. The new guttering brackets don’t fit on the metal supports that were left over from when I did the barn in 2010. Furthermore, the guttering ends that I bought the other day don’t fit in the gutters that were left over from the barn.

THat led to a session of mix-and-match with whatever was lying around and what I could safely replace from elsewhere, and now there are 5 of the 8 guttering brackets fitted and one of the gutters, complete with an end. I’ll be shopping tomorrow for the rest.

There’s also another added complication in that I can’t reach the end wall of the house from the scaffolding – the scaffolding that I have isn’t long enough. Therefore when I’ve finished fitting the gutters, I’m going to have to dismantle part of the scaffolding and re-erect it on the other side of the bay that I’ll be leaving in position – always provided that it doesn’t fall down.

But it looks as if another trip to Liverpool is on the cards

Thursday 17th July 2014 – THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

Here I am, just after midnight in my little attic and it’s 29.2°C. And that’s with the fan going full-blast too. The temperatue up here reached 32.4°C during the day.

And if you think that that is warm, In the verandah we had over 52°C, and so you can guess what kind of day we had today – glorious sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. I even had another shower this evening.

It was hard this morning to get out of bed before 08:00 but I did just about manage it, and after breakfast we had the usual go on the website although I do admit to going to sleep for about half an hour.

Outside a little later, I was up on the scaffolding finishing off the 1st coat of paint on the woodwork and also, incidentally, finishing off the tin. After lunch, I opened another tin and slapped the stuff all over everywhere. That shouldn’t ever rot now which is just as well.

All of the stuff to do the guttering is now up there on the scaffolding, but I’ve had a change of plan about the fascia board. Firstly, its too heavy for me to lift into position on my own and secondly, because the ends of the chevrons were never squared off, it’s impossible to fit it properly no matter how much padding I use. I’m going to use the gutter brackets that I used for the barn, no matter how much I hate them.

Much to my surprise I have a few of those so I’ll use them as far as I can until Saturday when I’ll buy a pile more.

So after my shower I called it a day – 19:25. And so you can’t say that I’m not putting the hours in.

-1

Wednesday 16th July 2014 – I’M DOING IT AGAIN.

It’s currently 03:30 on Thursday morning and I’m wide awake – not the lest inclination to go to sleep.

And I don’t understand why either because I haven’t had an idle day.

This morning I was up at the usual time and after breakfast cracked on with the website. Later, I went outside and, just as I feared, it seems that the little cement mixer that has done such valiant service here has given up the ghost. Switching on, the motor “pings” into action but the drive doesn’t engage (that’s not so unusual). Swinging the drum by hand, the usual method of working it, does nothing at all except to trip the 100-amp fuse that controls the battery. In other words, the 40-odd amps being generated by the solar panels plus 100 amps out of the batteries is apparently not enough to power a little 375-watt motor.

Clearly something isn’t right here and I’ll have to look into this.

After lunch I mixed a bucket-load of lime mortar by hand and spent a delightful couple of hours up on the scaffolding smearing that everywhere. All of the sealing-in is now done and it makes a much better seal that the mess that was there beforehand.

When I had finished the cementing, I started to paint the wood treatment product all over the wood underneath the roof – the plywood, the battens and the chevrons. I’ve done half of it, and tomorrow I’ll finish the other half and do the second coat. Yes – I’m putting as much as possible on everywhere because I can’t imagine that I will ever be up here again so it will have to last at least another 30 years.

We had a glorious hot day today and the temperature in the 12-volt immersion heater running off the surplus solar energy had gone off the scale (over 70°C). In the solar shower the temperature was 36.5°C and that meant that I could have the first solar shower since I came back from Munich. That, in turn, meant disturbing a bat that had taken up residence there.

And that was that. And here I am. And I’ll probably still be here tomorrow night too.

-1

Tuesday 15th July 2014 – BACK AT WORK TODAY.

This morning I was up and about fairly early and after breakfast I had the usual couple of hours on the website.

When I went outside I started to rebuild the 12-volt immersion heater. I had a couple of attempts at fitting the element before I was satisfied, and then I made up some electric cables out of a jump lead (the red one) and a starter cable (the black one). Once I’d done that, i added another pile of insulation to it and sealed it all in. It’s now all fitted, wired in and working properly.

As an added attraction, I’ve removed the warning light and that’s now fitted into the fascia panel of the socket that’s wired into the excess charge circuit.

This afternoon I was up on the scaffolding ripping off the ivy from the back wall of the house, and it’s all gone now, which is just as well as there was quite a lot and it was stuck fast.

I cleaned off under the eaves too and then spent a pleasant hour looking for tools. Once I had found everything that I was seeking, I charged up the cement mixer with some sand and lime mortar, enough to make two buckets full.

Up on the scaffolding, I started to spread this about over the rubble with which we had infilled between the chevrons. There were some enormous gaps in there which are all infilled now – at least, most of them because I ran out of mortar. Mind you, it was 19:20 and so I’ll mix up another bucket or two and finish it off tomorrow.

This evening I made one of my kidney bean and aubergine whatsits – enough to last me three or four days. I don’t want to spend the rest of the week cooking.

Monday 14th July 2014 – HAPPY BASTILLE DAY

And it started as it meant to go on with my being wide awake at 08:00. And on a Bank Holiday too. And even worse, I didn’t go to bed until 02:30 and so I was expecting to have a long relaxing sleep today. No idea why I awoke so early.

What was evn worse was that I was on my travels again during the night, working at a home for Eastern European boys, and I do remember a boy from Romania coming to the home, and he had a centipede embedded just underneath the skin of his stomach. From there, I went off with Caliburn. We were on the A556 – the major road that runs between Chester and Manchester and connects the M6 and the M63. Coming from the Chester end, I came to the big roundabout on the M6 and so initially I started to descend the slip road for the southbound carriageway, suddenly realised that I really wanted to go northbound but there was a police barrage across the slip road and so my doing a U-turn would attract suspicion. Nevertheless I turned round and slipped around the roundabout to the northbound entrance, and there was another police barrage there. I was, of course, flagged down and the policeman stopped me spoke to me in a mysterious Eastern European language which I understood but couldn’t reply to.

And it hadn’t escaped my notice that I’d gone widdershins around the roundabout, not clockwise as I would do in the UK where, of course, they drive on the left-hand side of the road.

After breakfast I watched part Two of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows and this was much more like it. Even with the same director as Part 1, this film spent much more time exploring the dark side of the whole affair and the tension slowly built up consistently all the way to a climax. In my opinion, it was certainly the best film of the series.

Having said that, the film is full of non-sequitors and inconsistencies and a mature audience will notice the considerable holes in the story, as well as the dozens and dozens of situations and scenarios that anyone who has seen The Lord of the Rings Trilogy will immediately recognise.

And I still say that Ginny is totally the wrong partner for Harry Potter. He would have been much-better suited to Luna and I remain totally convinced of that.

So as the sun came out today, I opened the windows here for the first time for three weeks, and that was the hardest work that I did today.

Tomorrow, I’m back at work.

Sunday 13th July 2014 – WHO WAS IT …

… who said that the weather would improve this weekend? We’ve had another desperate day just like the other day when we had a minimal amount of solar energy. 17.5mm of rain fell during the dy and by the looks of things there in plenty more to come.

Mind you it was very nice where I was during the night. I was back in Crewe driving a coach down Middlewich Street for G&B Travel. At the bottom of the hill I turned right into Badger Avenue and on my left by the petrol station … "WHAT petrol station?" – ed … were a few vehicles belonging to a band of travelling gypsies. All the way along Badger Avenue and as far as the Merlin pub were more gyspy vehicles and a few of them were erecting aerials. I went up to one caravan and asked if there was anywhere where I could have internet accent. The woman there told me that there wasn’t anything there, but in her next breath she said to her neighbour – in Romany – that there was excellent internet connection.

So this morning I was up at, would you believe, 08:15 and after breakfast I watched Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1

This is another disappointing Harry Potter film. It didn’t miss out by much, but what it did miss made a great deal of difference. It was much more of a mystical, introverted film rather than an action film like the earlier ones. It was all dark and broody and could have been an excellent psychological thriller if a real director had been in charge of it. With someone like Hitchcock in charge it would have been one of the best films ever but I had the feeling that the director was afraid of the subject and afraid of losing his audience. As a result, he chickened out of the film and … errr … lost the plot completely.

This afternoon I had a mega-tidy-up, and you won’t believe the difference that it’s made here. I’m quite impressed and I did it.

So tomorrow, more of the same. It’s a Bank Holiday so another day off for me.

-1

Saturday 12th July 2014 – I HAD A QUIET …

… day today. I was on my wanderings during the night although when I woke up, I couldn’t remember where I had been. And then after breakfast, I sat down and started on the next lot of radio programmes for Radio Anglais. However, my heart wasn’t in it and I didn’t stick it for long. I need to be much more resolute.

This afternoon I went to St Eloy to do the shopping and who should I bump into but Lieneke and Guus. They have apparently returned for the summer. We ended up having a good chat for quite a while.

Back here I crashed out for a while, then carried on reading Clay Blair and watched Austin Powers – International Man of Mystery

And that was that. And with Monday being a Bank Holiday, it’ll be like this for another two days as well.

Friday 11th July 2014 – THANKS TO TERRY …

… for helping me erect my scaffolding at the rear of the house this morning.

It was pouring down again at first and I was feeling that we were going to have another day like yesterday when I had the lowest July solar energy figure since I began keeping records in 2007 (just 17 amp-hours for those who are interested).

The field at the back is totally sodden and the scaffolding was sinking in in places but we’ve managed to underpin it. It’s not particularly stable but it’s the best I can do.

The plan is that starting next week I’ll be cementing in under the eaves, something that I have never managed to do since I did the roof in 2009. THat needs to be made good to keep out insects, animals and plants. The ivy needs ripping off the back of the house for a start.

I then need to fit some fascia boards to the end of the chevrons and give everything a really good going over with some wood treatment to keep out the weather. And when that’s done, fit the guttering to take the rain water to the underwater tank that I’ll be fitting and away from the base of the house. I’ll check the roof as well while I’m up there.

Finally, I’ll have to check the mortar to see if the ivy has pulled any out

You can see that I’ll have my work cut out.

I crashed out for an hour or two this afternoon, which was no surprise. I’d been to Mons during the night with the British Army in August 1914 and I do remember that we were being switched around from battlefront to battlefront by wading through filthy, dirty water up to our waists in these canals.

Later in the afternoon I carried on looking for one of these missing black jump leads. This ended up as a full-scale tidying up in the upstairs of the downhill lean-to and I discovered all kinds of exciting things. And also a metre or two of heavy black cable formerly of the starter of a car, and this will do for the 12 volt immersion heater.

I can finish that tomorrow.

-2

Thursday 10th July 2014 – WHAT THE …?

Yes, I’ve spent ages this afternoon looking for a black jump lead. I save all the old ones as they come in useful as a cheap source of heavy duty cable, and I can find no fewer than 5 red ones, but there’s not a black one anywhere to be seen. I just don’t understand this.

During the night I was in Calveley with my father and a few other people, visiting the farm that belonged to my father’s parents. All of the outbuildings were still there but the farmhouse was a prefabricated type of bungalow. It seems that the farmhouse had burnt down and my grandfather had erected a kind of mobile home to replace it, with no planning permission. The uproar that this had caused led to a variety of court cases against my grandfather, all of which he lost, and the farm had to be sold to pay the legal expenses and grandfather went bankrupt. My father was in tears when whoever it was told this story.

So when I woke up and after breakfast I carried on with the website for the customary couple of hours, and then as the driving rain was preventing any outside work, I started to tidy up the bedroom.

This led to a couple of discoveries, one of which was a halogen table light. After lunch (I had to go into Pionsat to buy some bread) I rewired it and fitted a LED bulb in it, and that’s now illuminating my new comfy chair.

I also found a multiple cigarette-lighter socket with USB socket and so I rewired that and fitted it on the control board downstairs.

While I was there, having been told that the bad weather is to contine, I emptied the 12-volt immersion heater and ripped the wiring out. When I made it, I had forgotten to insulate the terminals and that’s not been helping the circuit, and the cables are scorched as I suspected. This led to a couple of design modifications, and then the search for heavier cables, such as old jump leads.

At about 19:15 that up until tomorrow and knocked off work. Rosemary rang up for a chat for about an hour, and then I had tea.

I’ll continue the search for the cable tomorrow.

-2

Wednesday 9th July 2014 – TODAY, I HAVE DONE …

… absolutely nothing at all.

I’ve been outside just three times, twice for filling the kettle to make coffee and the third time to record the statistics. I didn’t even go outside to pick some lettuce for my butties. And I didn’t even have my lunch until 18:30.

And this is the reason why. This is how things looked here at 07:30 and it didn’t change throughout the day.

The rainstorm woke me up at about 07:00 and interrupted a really interesting journey, the details of which disappeared the moment I woke up despite me saying to myself that I’ll have to remember this one.

So after breakfast I cracked on with the website for the usual couple of hours with the intention of going out to clear away the rest of the weeds at the back of the house. But with the torrential rain still pouring down (we had 13mm up to 22:00 and it’s still raining hard) I abandoned that idea.

Instead, I carried on exploring the possibilities of this new upgrade of the 3D computer program that I installed the other week and then spent the rest of the day reading the first volume of submarine warfare in World War II

This and the second volume are two thoroughly absorbing books, but totally spoiled (which is a deep tragedy) by the (American) author’s total Anglophobia. I don’t think that I’ve seen even a German author write with such distaste and disdain about the British war effort in World War II

I’ve not had any tea tonight either as I’m not in the mood for it, even though I have stuff prepared downstairs. I just hope that it will be a better day tomorrow.

-1

Tuesday 8th July 2014 – I’VE BEEN A BUSY BOY TODAY

And I had a restless night too. I can’t remember where I was or what I was doing but it was certainly something quite active and I was quite worn out when I woke up.

So after breakfast I cracked on with the website until about midday, with an interruption from my solicitor in Belgium.

Downstairs I stripped down the water filters as nothing is getting through to the water tank. As I expected, the filters are all blocked up and so I cleaned them all out, fluhed them through and refitted them. Now they are working fine – I can tell you that because we’ve been having further rainstorms today.

I keep saying that I ought to adopt a regular programme of cleaning the filters – every four months or something – and that way they won’t block up. However I keep on forgetting to do it.

Next task was to reorganise the car parking. I’ve moved the Kubota and the Sankey Trailer over so that I can put Caliburn on the concrete. This is why I’ve done the concreting and it certainly does look better.

Talking of the concreting and parking the cars, this is something that I bought on my travels. I’ve been looking for an old-type portable air compressor for ages. In the old days farmers used to have air compressors with detachable air tanks so they can charge up the tanks and take them off down the fields to blow up tractor tyres and the like.

I’ve never found one, but in Belfort I found this. It has just an 8-litre tank and runs off a 270-watt motor which, as you know, is perfect for my low-wattage electrical system. It’s light enough to carry around as well.

I changed over the plug to a British plug (I use British plugs and sockets here as the plugs are fused) and gave it a try. It charged the tank in seconds and inflated the wheelbarrow tyre in an instant. I’m well-impressed with this if it keeps this up.

I also changed the plug on the 500-watt vacuum cleaner that I bought the other week and tried that out. That works fine too.

I’ve been tidying up in the barn too, and then I set to to pull down the ivay and rip out the weeds and brambles and so on from the back of the house so that I can fit the scaffolding and get up there to do the guttering. I’m hoping to have the scaffolding up this week so that I can crack on with that.

-3

Monday 8th July 2014 – TODAY WAS ONE OF THOSE DAYS …

… where I didn’t feel like going outside at all. Woken up by another pile-driving downpour of rain at about 06:30, I was thinking to myself “what a way to start the day”.

Anyway I finally made it out of bed at the usual time and had the traditional couple of hours on the web site. And just for a change I made myself a second cup of coffee at about 10:45. I was cold.

Just as I was about to pluck up the courage to go outside working, Rob came round. His internet is down and he was desperate to check his e-mails. Not a problem of course and we ended up having a lengthy chat. That put paid to any plans that I had to go outside to work as by now it was raining again and so I did some tidying up on the ground floor.

I missed out on lunch. I became involved in something on the internet and it was gone 17:00 when I stopped for my butties. And here’s a surprise. The lettuce fairy seems to have come by while I was away. I have 10 small lettuce plants in one of my raised beds and I’m convinced that they aren’t anything that I planted.

Later, I had a chat – in German – with Cécile. That almost finished off the day but I was determined to make at least some progress and so I tidied up in here, dismantled the old easy chair that marianne gave me years ago and I’ve had here in various stages of disrepair over the last 7 years, and erected the new chair that I bought in IKEA the other day.

It has arms that hold me up and so its much easier to work on than the sofa. That has no arms and so I sink lower and lower on that until it’s impossible to work.

Yes, for CHF29:00 this chair seems to be a good buy.

-1

EPIC HALL

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