Sunday 16th October 2011 – IT’S A MYSTERY TO ME …

… how it is that Pionsat can play so dismally against mid-table opposition in their own division in the league and yet totally demolish a team two divisions higher up when they play in the cup.

Today it was the turn of Nord Combraille to come to Pionsat for a cup match and with the Miners being two divisions higher up, we were expecting something of a struggle.

But not so. Pionsat were all over a poor Nord Combraille side and demolished them completely, winning 3-1 at something of a canter.

You can read the match report here if you like.

The thing that is probably even more bizarre is that once again in a cup match, Thomas takes the opposition by the scruff of the neck and while his display isn’t quite as scintillating as two weeks ago (but then not by all that much either), it was streets ahead of his performance for the 2nd XI (4 divisions below Nord Combraille) last week when it took me almost an hour to realise that he was on the pitch.

And we had a gorgeous day for it as well. Here I was complaining the other day about the weather and yet for the last two days we’ve had proper summer days, the kind that you would be pleased to see in August. This weather is certainly bizarre.

Tomorrow I’m furniture removing and then going to the Anglo-French group. But I can’t wait to carry on with the house here. I’m getting all keen and enthusiastic and that’s not like me at all these days, is it?

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Saturday 15th October 2011 – WE SAW …

… the geese yesterday but this morning there was a horde of some other kind of bird assembling ready to fly off for the winter, and this is sad. In fact it’s more than sad – it’s depressing. Autumn is coming to a close already.

No idea what kind of bird they might have been. I know that I’m a keen birdwatcher, but that’s not concerned with any kind of bird that you might see flying about in the air over my property.

And so this morning after my 4 hours sleep (I was still up at 05:39) I was up and breakfasted and then I attacked Canada 2011.

But not before I had taken a shot of the work that I’ve been doing. You’ll see how much I’ve built up over the last couple of days, and you’ll also notice that the beam is in position where it should be.

When I restart work next week I’ll be building up the stonework so that it meets and infills the woodwork. And tipping cement and lightweight concrete into all of the gaps, that will hold everything nicely into position.

It’s all good stuff, make no mistake about this, and it’s coming along nicely.

In St Eloy les Mines I bumped into Bill and we went for a coffee and a chat to put the world to rights.

But in LIDL I also encountered a woman who was discussing things with her 4 year-old son “Do try to control yourself, Jasper”
Help! We are being invaded by Hooray Henries.

Back here my return was serenaded by the sounds of flute being played in welcome. Yes, it IS that time of the year and Lieneke and the others have turned up. And how well Lieneke looks. She’s dropped about 20 kilos over the last year and it really suits her. She’s probably losing years as the rest of us are adding them on.

And no footy again tonight either. whatever am I going to do until tomorrow?

-1

Friday 14th October 2011 – WINTER IS ON ITS WAY

This is just a small part of the huge flock of geese that assembled over my place this afternoon. They had been honking for about an hour and eventually they all put in an appearance right over me, coming in from every direction possible.

They circled around for a while, formed up in a huge echelon, and then departed hence. It wasn’t half impressive watching them do all of this and the noise was astonishing. But it is a fact that when they leave they take the sun with them, so I’ll be battening down the hatches and sorting out the firewood

And as as aside – why do birds fly south in winter?

Answer – “it takes too long to walk”.

And while we are on the subject of the weather, on the TV Monday night the weather forecaster promised us sun from Wednesday until next Monday. But I don’t know where it’s all gone too because we haven’t had it yet and the temperature has now plummeted.

Today was a momentous occasion outside on the wall of the lean-to because the beam is now in place where it ought to be. But it’s a bit of a disappointment because it’s about 0.5 inch too high in the vertical plane but about 0.5 inch too low under the chevrons. That means that the central beam is about 0.75 inch too high and the end where I’m working.

Ahh well.

Still, it’s progress I suppose. and from here on, the back-filling is pretty straightforward. It’s not going to take too long to finish off now and then I can plan my next step – always assuming that it doesn’t finish me off first.

But one thing is for sure – it won’t happen on Monday as I have a furniture removal to do – to Issoire.

Thursday 13th October – Just for a change …

… nothing happened today that was any different than the last few days.

I managed an early start for once and spent the morning on the computer. I have all of the Canada photos properly labelled and in some sort of order and so I’ve been sorting out my notes and putting the correct notes with the correct photos.

And that’s not as easy as you might think either. I’m … errr… somewhat disorganised. Anyway I’ve managed over half of that and if things go according to plan I can finish that tomorrow morning.

This afternoon I was back up the wall again and much of the time spent there was sorting stones so that I can find the best ones to use in the corner. That’s not easy either.

But anyway,I’ve now put the stones in right up to where the beam is going to go,and now I just need to find two stones for the side of the pillar. Once that is done and they are in place I can infill with stones and concrete and then drop the beam in place.

And when the beam is in place I can fill in the back wall behind it. That’s tomorrow’s work anyway.

And you can tell how carried away I was – it was well after 19:00 when I knocked off and that’s not like me at all, is it?

I’ve also finished the last of Tuesday’s courgette and lentil curry. That was a shame as I had been quite enjoying that. It’s fun to think of 1001 ways to use up a Combraiiles Courgette.

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Wednesday 12th October 2011 – I DIDN’T ….

… didn’t do so well this morning.

Put that down to a 05:00 bedtime and you will understand. I’m having major sleep issues right now.

And so with what was left of the morning I spell-checked all of my Canada notes (and that wasn’t a 5-minute job either) and then started on the web pages. There are only about 800 photographs – something of a change from the 2500 of last year. I clearly wasn’t working hard enough

This afternoon I carried on with the wall.

I put another two rows on that corner and infilled with stones and concrete. That should do the trick. Really, the stones are only the cladding and it’s the concrete that will be taking all of the weight of the beam and the roof.

Another two rows on there tomorrow and I’ll be able to put the beam in position. That should be fun on my own seeing as how heavy it weighs. But once it’s there I can build up the rest of the side wall.

I must admit that I’m looking forward to doing that and getting it finished. But I don’t think that that’s going to be any time soon

Tuesday 11th October 2011 – AND JUST FOR A CHANGE …

… I was up with the cock this morning.

But that’s enough about my disgusting personal habits, an early start meant a good morning on the computer and what with the glorious day that we had (summer is back) I put on line the Radio Anglais
website and also the updated footy website with the matches from the weekend. That’s a huge job finished, and finished quite early too.

I’ve even made a start on the Canada 2011 web pages, and that’s enthusiasm, isn’t it?

>This afternoon I went and attacked the wall. The breeze block that I had put in the other day had set nicely so I scavenged around for some decent square-faced stones from where the wall collapsed in 2002. It took ages but I found some really good ones and I slowly started to rebuild the corner. It’s a case of cementing two large stones carefully in place at the corner, and

then infilling behind them with several layers of stones and liquid lime mortar – building up little by little. Once the infill reaches the height of the corner stones, I can put another layer of corner stones in place and then infill behind them.
rebuilding lean to les guis virlet puy de dome france While it’s all setting and I’m waiting for it to be dry enough I did some more pointing of the wall.

Anyway, I’ve now two rows of corner stones in place above the breeze block and if you think that this is slow progress, then you are right but it needs to be slow and precise.

The large cross beam that you can see will be sitting on that corner and will be taking the weight of the roof, and also the two sides that meet there will be passing their weight onto it as well. There’s not much room for error

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Monday 10th October 2011 – AFTER ANOTHER …

… late night last night I wasn’t in too much hurry to raise myself this morning, even though for once I heard all of the various alarms.

Mind you, I wish I had hauled myself out earlier because summer has come back, and with a vengeance too. Nice, bright and blue even though the sun is rather watery.

And we are promised this weather until at least Sunday, although I’ve heard all of that before.

I spent the morning working on the football match reports from the weekend. I’ve done the 3rd XI and the 2nd XI reports, and I’m halfway through the 1st XI report. I’m hoping that I can finish that tomorrow and then turn my attention to the Radio Anglais site and bring that up to date.

After lunch, I made a start on pointing the outside wall of the lean-to at the corner where it’s pretty unstable. And I’m not sure that I like what I see there. It’s been pointed once but with cement. The cement has not adhered to the stones but to the old mortar in between. And as the water has infiltrated behind it, due to the absence of roof, the cement has worked loose and fallen out, taking the mortar with it.

And that’s the root of the problem here. What I’ve been having to do is to gently pry out the cement, rake out the loose mortar, fill the gaps with stones and then use lime mortar to point between the gaps.

I now have it stable – well, after a fashion.

What I have done is to put a breeze block in at the upper corner and then I infilled behind it. That will give me something solid and level to start with, which is the most important thing to do.

I can build up from there tomorrow and see how far I can get. But it’s all a mess and the only real solution is to knock it all down and start again, and I’m not doing that.

At the Anglo-French group tonight, Christiane came along – the first time for ages that we have seen her and that was quite nice. Things are picking up.

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Sunday 9th October 2011 – I HAD A …

… nightmare drive out to the footy today. I was hammering Caliburn on through the bends when twice the front end broke right away and I was all over the road and almost off it. I had a look at the tyres and although the front are quite worn they weren’t bald by any means but it didn’t half slow me down after that.

But a short way further on I found someone else who had been taken unawares and I came to the conclusion that the road must have been awash with diesel for some reason or other.

Mind you, I was lucky to be up in time for the footy and if Percy Penguin hadn’t have phoned me at 11:30 I would probably still be in bed now. That was because I was chasing a rodent around my attic at some silly time of the morning. God knows how the thing got in but I can see me having to check the defences again to see if there’s a mouse hole anywhere.

>Braving the rain (all 18 mm of it) and the hanging clouds that gave me hardly a moment of solar energy, I went off the St Angel to see the 3rd XI play – or at least, the 1st half of the match.

And what a transformation they were from last year. 1-0 up when I left, and they could have had a bagful with a little more luck.

The match at St Angel was so interesting that I ought to have stayed and if it wasn’t for the fact that I am now the official press reporter for the 1st XI so it seems, I would have done too for they won at a canter, 3-0

Meanwhile, the 1st XI went down 3-2 to a pretty mediocre Royat side. For once the Pionsat defence was mostly tight and in the right place at the right time for once, except in the left-back position and with a good left-sided defender on the bench, that was the only substitution that the trainer didn’t make.

For once though, the attack misfired and it was a log, hard game. It was only a couple of high “route one” balls into the box that gave them the two goals.

And so back here in the rain again and ready for tomorrow and starting work again.

But I still can’t get over this weird (lack of) substitution at left back. Franck the trainer has been making a few bizarre decisions lately.

-1

Saturday 8th October 2011 – WINTER …

… is definitely here now, just as I predicted last weekend that it would be.

Freezing cold, damp grey and depressing with hardly a drop of sunshine.

I was up before the alarm, which makes quite a change for just recently, and in Montlucon for the shops quite early. Disappointingly there was nothing that was exciting there and I spent almost nothing. Just a few Louis de Funes DVDs reduced in the Auchan.

But while I was in the Auchan in the TV section you couldn’t move for people watching the televisions. France was playing England in the rugby and had a pretty comfortable victory, much to the delight of everyone (including Yours Truly) in the shop.

I had to visit Monsieur Bricolage as well and they had two things that caught my eye – a two-storey wooden cabin – a display model – reduced to €5000 which is cheap, and also a small wood stove with a kind-of top oven for €275 – and I was sorely tempted by that.

The swimming baths at Neris-les-Bains has been taken by surprise by the cold spell. They didn’t have the heating on and so we all froze to death in the pool – all 10 of us in there. That’s a far cry from last week when it was packed out to the gunwhales.

At the footy, Pionsat’s 2nd XI played Aigueperse and won 2-1 in a hard-fought match.

In the first half they were all over the opposition and should have had a hat-full but in the 2nd half they went to sleep as usual and allowed the opposition back into the game. And they would have struggled if their opponents hadn’t missed a penalty.

>We had a floodlight failure too for about 20 minutes, to add some spice to the entertainment.

Overall, what with all of the drizzle it was all quite a depressing day. A foretaste of things to come, I reckon

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Friday 7th October 2011 – I WAS WORKING …

… on the lean-to wall again this afternoon

And I bet you are waiting for me to say that I was building it up. But you would be wrong for I was actually demolishing it.

Well, part of it anyway.

It all started off with me searching for stones, and that entailed rooting around on the floor in the corner near they might have fallen. To do that I needed to hack my way through the brambles and trees and so on and that took a while.

Once I managed to get over there, I uncovered quite a few as well, but I also uncovered quite a few cracks in the wall that I hadn’t noticed. And they are going to need dealing with.

So having rescued some of the stones I also set about rescuing the wooden beam that acts as a lintel for the support of the roof chevrons. That was bought new in 2002 or whenever it was but I never got round to positioning it. Anyway, it’s now roughly in place and tied onto the chevrons over where I’m working,so that it doesn’t fall down again.

But getting it up there led to knocking down a pile of stones that were there. But that’s not a problem – if they won’t stand a clout with a wooden beam they needed recementing.

But the tragedy was when I was reaching over to hold the end of the beam up – I put my foot on the wooden board that I’d used as shuttering when I started to repair the front of the wall all those years ago – but that broke free and fell taking a few breeze blocks and a pile of stones with it as well, and all in all it’s something of a mess.

But then again, that can’t be helped. I’m going to have to start lower down the wall on the outside I reckon and point all of that corner of the wall to hold it all together before I build up any higher. I’m going to have to do it anyway sooner or later but that corner is definitely melting slowly away and urgent attention is required.

>But what was impressive was that the concrete infill that I used back in those days to repair it – that’s all held up and it’s stronger than the actual stone wall itself. I’m impressed with that.

So having decided on something of a plan, I mixed a pile of mortar to start on the pointing, only to be denied by a torrential rainstorm. At least my tarpaulin roof is holding well up, and gave me some shelter while I used the mortar that I had just mixed to point the inside of the wall that I’ve been building up this week.

But talking of rain and so on, the temperature dropped to 5.8°C last night – the coldest for ages. I have all of the windows closed, the fridge switched off and a jumper on.

And I don’t know what happened to the cacophony of alarm calls this morning. I somehow or other managed to sleep all the way through it and it was 10:33 when I woke up. But all the photos are now up to date thanks to another morning session on the computer, and I can now turn my attention to other things.

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Thursday 6th October 2011 – THIS CONFRONTATIONAL THING …

… didn’t quite come off. One of the guys was over half an hour late, but that was nothing. The others were 2:40 late!

The first guy has been working for the company since 2008. Before that he was making jewellery with his father for tourists on a beach in the Caribbean. He very kindly explained how this project works, and this has explained absolutely everything to me about how this scam works.

For scam it is, make no mistake.

For installing solar panels on my roof, The charge is €24000!!!!!!! However I’m entitled to a government grant of 27% (about €6400) and this I have to pay to the company. And so I asked the salesman what I got for my money and so he told me, and I did a quick costing on this and the sum came to …. errrrr …. €6400 give or take a little.

For the rest, you pay €180 per month until the balance is paid off, which according to my calculations was just under 7.5 years even though they insisted that it was nearer 8.5 years.

Apparently you pay the €180 from your income from the Electricity Board’s payment to you, and so I asked what would happen if there was a shortfall. The answer for that, dear reader, was not forthcoming.

Anyway, he was turfed out and I had to wait around until 16:40 for the other people who were supposed to be here at 14:00

They turned up eventually and told me “sorry we are late but we had to go round to see farmer someone and he needs 7Kw of panels”. Following on from that, they tried to insist that my barn orients towards the south east (it’s actually about 5 degrees south of east) and how good it would be for solar panels – which is nonsense because the sun goes off there at about 14:30.

Anyway they were sent packing as well and I could carry on with my wall. But not for long though as it started to rain. That meant working inside and there’s plenty to do. I actually did some tidying up in the lean-to underneath where I’m working. And it needs it too.

Anyway the day wasn’t wasted what with these persons coming round. It got me to tidy up my room and also to tidy up the lean-to.

And the summer has gone too, just as I said the other day that it would. I have all the windows closed and a jumper on. I don’t like this at all.

-2

Wednesday 5th October 2011 – I DIDN’T QUITE MANAGE …

… the early start this morning.

It was in fact 10:20 when I roused myself from the heaving pit but then again, I was still up working last night at 02:30. No danger of that tonight though – I’ve already crashed out twice and I’ll be off to bed in a second.

So having breakfasted, I carried on with the match report from Sunday and that’s now on line. All 48mb of it – I can’t half write some rubbish when I’m in the mood. But I’m going to have to make much more of an effort to keep it all up-to-date this season and not let it slide like I have been doing when I’ve been overtaken by events.

After lunch, I attacked the second part of the wall on the lean-to. And I’ve cheated as well while building it up. It looks like a stone wall, that’s for sure. But it’s only the outer surfaces that are in stone, and then not very much of it either.

I’m just building up the front and the back of the wall with large flat stones laid on their edges, and then pouring a weak lightweight concrete mixture down in between them as a filler. That way, it can be done quickly, simply and effectively.

In fact I’ve made quite a bit of progress – much more than I thought that I would. And I would have made even more had I not leant a little too far over and knocked a large part of my wall into the next field.

What was surprising though was how carried away I was by it all. The only reason that I stopped was that it went dark – 19:25 when I finished and it’s a long time since I’ve been so enthusiastic about what I’ve been doing.

Other exciting developments today were that I had no less than FIVE phone calls in the period between 10:30 and 12:00. The result of some of those is that I have not one but TWO companies sending representatives to see me – and at the same time too – to convince me to have solar panels on my roof.

That will serve tham right. I can’t be doing with these cold-calling canvassers

But it does mean that I have to spend tomorrow morning tidying up for a change. Neitzsche famously said that “out of chaos comes order” – but of course Neitzsche had been and gone long before I was ever about.

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Tuesday 4th October 2011 – I’VE BEEN DOING …

… real work today.

I’ve been working on the back wall – the one adjacent to the farmer’s field – of the downhill-side lean-to this afternoon.

As you know, some of it fell down ages ago and last summer when Terry and I were doing the work at Lieneke’s, I used the leftover cement and concrete in the cement mixer to start to build it up again.

Today though, I built up the remainder of the rear half of the wall and now that’s more-or-less finished.

Not without some issues though – not the least of which was trying to find the outer demi-chevron, that had fallen off the wall sometime while I was in Canada. That eventually came to light in a pile of brambles in the farmer’s field.

I’ve even pointed part of the inner side of the wall to use up all of the mortar that was left. That means that tomorrow afternoon I can make a start on the front half of the wall and that’s not going to be easy because there is quite a bit of that missing. That’s going to need quite a bit of work to put that right.

This morning,I was up at some kind of respectable hour which was just as well as Liz and I were a-radioing at Marcillat for Radio Tartasse. We’re still doing “autoentrepreneurs” with them but we shall be moving on shortly to talk about other things.

I’ve also almost-finished my match report for the footy on Sunday and I hope that I’ll have that on-line tomorrow.

As an aside, we had storm clouds gathering today over here – first clouds I’ve seen for ages. It almost rained as well and that would have been a surprise – I can’t remember the last time it rained here. What an Indian summer!

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Monday 3rd October 2011 – WELL, IT’S BACK …

… to the daily grind now. Or, at least, it should have been, except that at instead of the early night that I had promised myself,I was still wide awake at 05:00. Sleep issues again – it must be my guilty conscience.

Obviously, 08:15 never happened and it was about 10:50 when I heaved myself out of my stinking pit ready to face the world.

This morning I spent writing up my notes for the match yesterday. I’m amazed about how much I wrote and it’s probably going to take me all week to do the web page for it. But I need to exert myself and not let things drag around like I have been doing.

This afternoon I moved a few things around on the car park and managed to get at the immersion heaters under the tarpaulin. There’s a newish 50-litre tank there that Bill gave me because it has a leak in it somewhere so I’ve connected it all up to all kinds of pipes so that I can fill it with water and then close it off. I’ll leave it like that for a day or so to see if I can see where it’s leaking from. Then I can fix the leak, fit a 12-volt element in it and then use it in the lean-to as the new dump load.

>A pleasant surprise at the Anglo-French Group tonight where we had two new members. Peter brought his ladyfriend along to take part, and Nan turned up, seeing as she has now moved to la Cellette. we had a really good time as well and we were all quite animated. It’s nice to see that kind of thing happening.

But that’s it basically and I really am going to be going to bed in a minute. These late nights are catching up on me and I need to be up early tomorrow.

-2

Sunday 2nd October 2011 – AT LAST ….

.. we managed to get some football in today. My withdrawal symptoms are over.

It’s League Cup week – round three as it happens – and this is why matches have been few and far between this weekend.

Pionsat has made it through the first two rounds without my help and today they were up against it – in the shape of Les Ancizes who play three divisions higher up the pyramid and who included two players who played in CFA2 (the 4th level of the French pyramid) last season.

>And what didn’t help matters was that they gave away three silly goals of the type that I have spent the last three seasons trying to get them out of – a lazy defence that won’t talk to each other, won’t track back as soon as they lose possession and no-one who will really dominate the bak line.

They also conceded a fourth goal that was quite a good effort, and not only that, Les Ancizes hit the woodwork twice when I’m sure that it would have been easier to score.

With Cedric working hard up front supported by Nico they huffed and puffed but they never threatened to blow Les Ancizes’ house down, but then Thomas came on as a substitute for Jojo, who was clearly not having the best of games.

I first saw Thomas play three seasons ago as a new kid on the block and how promising did he look in those days. But the last two seasons he never seemed to fulfill what he showed back in those days.

Today, though, he came on clearly with a point to prove and from that moment onwwards the match changed in character. Cedric and Nico scored a goal between them and Thomas ran riot down the inside right position and scored two magnificent goals to pull FC Pionsat St Hilaire up to within touching distance.
Pick of the pair from Thomas has to be this brilliant diving header, and that would not have been out of place on the telly in any league you might care to name.

Highlight though was definitely Pionsat’s equaliser. The two players that had been playing higher up the pyramid spent much of the time showing off on the ball and it was odds-on that it was going to end in tears.

One of them had already had a narrow excape when he tried to dribble around Cedric on the edge of the penalty area and although he eventually managed to keep the ball, his pass out rebounded off a Pionsat player and could have gone anywhere.

But his colleague was not so lucky. His effort with just 10 seconds to go rebounded off the referee of all people and fell to Cedric totally unmarked in front of an empty net and Cedric doesn’t miss those. Thank you very much.

And so we had penalties – and cool heads at Pionsat saw them through by 5 penalties to 4 and an extremely lucky victory that it was too.

It’s not often that Lady Luck smiles on Pionsat but she did today and the team can bask in their success here for the rest of the week.

It was also probably the hottest October day I have ever known. Absolutely beautiful. We are having most unseason-like weather just now and I expect that we will end up paying for this in a couple of weeks time.

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EPIC HALL

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