… that Sunday’s lowest temperature – minus 8.2 degrees – was blasted cold. But that wasn’t a patch on last night’s minus 9.8. It was the coldest night of the winter so far and almost reaching the depths of minus 10.4 – the figure recorded in January last year which was the lowest that I have ever seen.
Even more impressive was the figure recorded in the verandah which was minus 8 degrees. And that is definitely the lowest figure that has happened in there. In fact it was still so cold this morning that the water in my glass froze while I was cleaning my teeth.
It was also bright and clear with a beautiful sunshine – so much so in fact that everything was fully charged by 11:00. That prompted me to run the heater again in the attic but this time the weather was ready for me and it immediately clouded over and started to snow. Serves me right. But at least it warmed up. Mind you it felt warmer in the bright sunshine at minus 5 than it did in the damp and cloudy plus 1.
Round at Claude’s, he’s definitely out of it. So he made enquiries about the cost of hiring a van for 5 days and he’s going to engage Terry and his van for equal terms. Terry and I will move Claude and Francoise – I reckon we can do it in less time than they will.
This idea I had about hotwiring this wattmeter into my system – I’ve abandoned that. Taking the thing apart revealed just how badly it was assembled inside and at the first sign of any serious manipulation (“personipulation please” – ed) the solder for one of the wires on the PCB broke and the wire fell off. I reckon that if I’m going to go down this hardwiring route I’m going to need something much more solid than anything made in China and sold by LIDL.
This afternoon I started to put the insulation down the walls of the cupboard that is the gap behind the stairs. I want to get that finished pretty quickly so I can put some shelves in it.
At the Conversation Group tonight Liz and I spent most of the time chatting about this radio programme we’ll be doing and also about these CREFAD courses such as we went to on Friday evening. There’s one or two that interest us and they are presented simultaneously at Pontaumur and St Gervais.
“Which one are we going to?” asked Liz
“Whichever one Katrine is taking“
“Ohhh yes?” exclaimed Liz. “Chasing after her, are you?“
“Indeed I am” I replied. “And I’m just hoping that I can remember what to do when I catch her“.
That’s the problem with any Chinese product. It just about hangs together. Any attempt to use it and it falls apart. It’s a bit like Ikea/MFI furnature.
Regarding Katrine, you’ll have to buy some educational videos. Might I suggest the good old “Percy’s Progress” and “Stand up British Soldiers” as a great starting point?