Tag Archives: Montlucon

Tuesday 2nd October 2012 – I HAD A GOOD …

… and profitable day out in Montlucon today.

Not the least of the reasons being that a chance visit to the LIDL came up trumps with another 5 packets of these LED light strips. That’s all that I shall be needing anyway for the foreseeable future.

So having picked up Rosemary’s window at Lapeyre we went off to Brico Depot. I bought a tarpaulin to go on the ground where I’m clearing, and I also priced up a whole pile of other stuff that I need for this concreting that I’ll be doing (yes, I have another Cunning Plan).

No suitable wood for shuttering though  – I’ll have to have some cut at a sawmill.

Grand Frais, the Fresh food place came up trumps with everything that I need for my pickling, except the malt vinegar for the shallots, but then again at NOZ they were selling white vinegar flavoured with tarragon and that will do just as nicely.

So after dropping off Rosemary’s window and helping her with her shutters I came back here and did a little tidying up in the barn.

I found the other missing sledgehammer and a few other gardening tools, and I also worked out why the desk light in the barn, over the battery bank, isn’t working. Seems that the wire has become disconnected and its probably been like that for years too.

So when I finished that I took off the flourescent light and fitted one of these LED strip lights in place.

At first I was disappointed but then I realised that I had disconnected the good batteries and I was trying to burn some old ones, and I had a reading of just 7.8 volts.

With 12 volts it should be pretty impressive I reckon, but that’s for another day.

-3

Monday 1st October 2012 – BY THE TIME …

… that you read this I shall be well tucked up in the Land of Nod. I’m thoroughly exhausted.

This morning nothing much happened but with a good run at the website I managed to do all of the photos and write the text for FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s famous victory yesterday against Briffons-Perpezat.

You can read the text here if you like.

mercedes 240D les guis virlet puy de dome franceRosemary came round at lunchtime.

So while I moved the scaffolding and cleared out the weeds, brambles and small trees from around the Mercedes, she dug up the onions and garlic and pulled some dried beans off the plants.

Tons of all of that stuff she harvested too – a good fruitful exercise

But doing this garden is driving me nuts. The brambles have torn lumps out of me, the nettles have stung me to death and so on and some of the tree roots took ages to dig up

But it’s looking all quite good there now. Just that one big tree to cut down and rip up.

Tomorrow I’m off to Montlucon with Rosemary to Lapeyre to buy her window and a few other bits and pieces that I need, and then I’ll be carrying on in this patch of land, sorting out the stones and levelling everywhere off.

Then I can bring everything round there from off the hardstanding.

At the Anglo-French Group this evening we had the biggest crowd for ages with two new attendees. Nice to see some new faces.

Anyway, that’s it. Off to bed before I fall asleep.

-1

Saturday 8th September 2012 – WHEN WAS THE LAST …

… time I saw an SD1 Rover?

sd1 rover 3500 ohio usa october octobre 2010I can in fact vaguely remember – early October 2010 in Ohio, USA as it happens. Here’s the photo to prove it and I’m still recovering from the shock.

In the UK is must be years ago when I borrowed one that a mate was halfway through dismantling, so that I could go to Kings Lynn to drops some stuff off on a girl that I was seeing at the time and the exhaust fell off halfway out.

And so this morning in Montlucon I was completely stunned to see one drive past me as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. And seeing a second one drive past me an hour or two later was even more astonishing. I’ve no idea what was going on there and I bet that I won’t ever see something like that again.

And I nearly didn’t make it to Montlucon either.

The effects of the last few days have been telling on me, because despite the early night I slept right through the alarms this morning. It was only the farmer bringing the cows back (I’m glad I did that wall when I did) that woke me up.

I had a good wander round and bought nothing much out of the ordinary – maybe a pair of these shell trousers that I wear. Auchan had them on sale at €9:99 so I reckoned that I would buy a pair and see what they are like.

I’m fast running out of clothes because I left a huge pile in my lock-up in Canada to pick up when I go back – which should have been this weekend but it isn’t and that’s why I’m running out.

I had a good hour in the pool at Neris-les-Bains as well and finally managed to see the remains of the Roman Baths – how long have I been going there and I haven’t seen them before?

In the blistering heat the baths was crowded as you might expect. And someone was having a load of fun!

A couple were standing about 5 yards apart and hurling an object about between them – the object being a girl of about 3 or 4. And every time she hit the water she was squealing with delight.

I was squealing too, but for a different reason. All of the pool was open and the water was absolutely freezing. Almost as cold as that pool in Québec back in May.

Tonight the football season gets under way and with no game at Pionsat I went to Marcillat en Combraille to watch AS Marcillat’s 1st XI.

One division higher than FC Pionsat St Hilaire in theory (but they play in the Allier leagues, not the Puy de Dome leagues) but you wouldn’t think so. The match was awful and so was AS Marcillat – they only lost 5-2 but they were lucky to get the two and St Prix should have had a dozen.

I’m off to two matches tomorrow – at Chateaugay for the 2nd XI at 13:00 and then down the road to Clermont la Glacière at 15:00 for the 1st XI.

Two teams that I haven’t seen before.

-1

Wednesday 29th August 2012 – WE HAD OUR FIRST …

… no-show today.

Marianne and I went all the way out to Vergheas this afternoon for our Wednesday walk. Unfortunately no punters showed up, which was rather sad.

Mind you, it was only to be expected, I suppose. There had been the walk here a few weeks ago – the good one that I had been on, and then there was the pélerinage to the statue of the Black Virgin 10 days ago.

I suppose that everyone is simply Vergheased out.

Mind you it was just as well that no-one came because the sky was clouding over rapidly. We didn’t want to hang around too long. But long enough for one thing that I had wanted to do.

Vergheas is an old (and I DO mean old) fortified site – the mound upon which the church is built looks artificial to me, and that’s a good-enough indication.

early medieval stone rampart vergheas puy de dome franceWhat I had wanted to do was to see if there might be any trace of the old walls still remaining. When we had been here before, I’d had a good prowl around and had made a mental note of a couple of places that might be likely.

There was another flattened terrace on a lower level than that upon which the church is situated. This looked artificial to me.

The edges of this terrace were quite steep and in one or two places sloped down considerably towards the stream at the bottom. And sure enough, the side of that was lined with dressed stonework.

On the way back to Pionsat the heavens opened and we had 6mm of rain that fell in minutes. I can’t say that I’m sad about that, because we needed a good torrential downpour.

I was going to carry on working when I arrived home but I went upstairs and crashed out instead. I’d had a long, hard day.

This morning I was up early and met Rosemary at Montaigut en Combraille. She hopped into Caliburn and we went in to Montlucon. She ordered her new window at Lapeyre and I bought a load of stuff from Brico Depot.

I was back home for 13:15 – plenty of time to put the final coat of paint on the new woodwork ready to fit it tomorrow.

And in other news, and a bit of malicious gossip, if the conversation that was reported to me today means what a couple of people think that it might mean, no-one will be surprised if there’s a tiny addition to our little expat community’s population round about the start of the New Year.

-3

Monday 27th August 2012 – AFTER THE EXCITEMENT …

… of Sunday, today was just a routine radio day.

Despite a late night I was up early and I printed out all of the paperwork for the recordings and sorted out some music too for Radio Arverne.

While I was at it, which I am occasionally, Rosemary rang up too to see if I would be heading out to Montlucon in the near future. She needs to pick up a few things.

As it happens, I need a few things too – well, more than a few things actually but many of them are unfortunately not available in shops – and so I’ve tentatively pencilled that in for Wednesday morning.

Liz ad I met up for our Radio Anglais recording sessions in Marcillet-en Combraille and Gerzat and much to our surprise they all went according to plan.

I am however very miffed by the fact that I didn’t need to have done all of that work last week. It turns out that about 4 or 5 weeks ago I’d done a pile of stuff on traffic convictions and penalty points on a French driving licence and I’d completely forgotten about it.

We didn’t need any of the stuff that I spent all that time doing this last few days.

Still, it won’t go to waste – it means that I can spend a few weeks, if not months, writing this year’s Christmas Special without being under any last-minute pressure.

What didn’t go to plan though were the roads and the traffic. The place was crawling with grockles blocking the roads and rubbernecking everything. I hate this time of the year.

Anyway, now I’m home and as I’m pretty much shattered I’m off to bed for an early night.

See you tomorrow.

-2

Saturday 28th July 2012 – WHAT A WIMP!

Yes, I’ve been spending my money again today.

And it’s this really hot weather that has made me do it – I mean, it was so hot this morning that I saw a midget buy an ice-cream in LIDL – and then sit in it.

At Brico Depot today they were selling small desktop fans, 40-watt ones, for all of €14:99. And having roasted to death up here for a week, I have to do something about it for the 12-volt lorry fan that I use just isn’t doing the business in this kind of weather.

So what a change it was tonight, actually being cool

.

I did make it to Montlucon as expected, and didn’t really buy anything exciting until I got to Brico Depot. Apart from the fan, they also had 850-watt SDS drills with rotostop.

The 1200-watt one that I have here is too heavy and powerful – it’s aching my shoulders out and at times stalling the 1200-watt inverter. It probably sounds silly but with a smaller, less-powerful drill I might well finish this hole in the wall quicker, as I won’t have to make so many pauses.

But I also went there for a pile of bricks to do the next window (I’m having two in that wall, if for no other purpose than making the wall lighter and for using less stone) and so having bought a pile of lime mortar, they had no common bricks. In fact, they have stopped selling them.

I’ll have to go elsewhere for them, and I wish I hadn’t loaded up the chalk now.

Back home, I watched an old black-and-white cowboy film Santa Fe Trail – notable for its complete rewriting of history and its treatment of the slave-liberators as … errr … the baddies.

It was enjoyable from an entertainment point of view though, but irony of ironies, the film’s most famous line is the one “we are soldiers – we aren’t politicians. We’re supposed to just obey orders”.

It’s spoken by A certain Captain Custer (we’re talking long before Little Big Horn here), the co-star, played by a certain Ronald Reagan.

What a small and strange world this is!

-3

Friday 27th July 2012 – WELL, SO NO-ONE …

… rang me and so I had a full day at home, for the first time since I don’t know when.

This morning it was more of the usual on the website, but I knocked off at 12:30 in order to make a good start on the wall.

And you can tell how much I was enjoying myself by the fact that when I happened to notice the time, it was 19:20 – way past my knocking-off time.

3LEAN6TOBut I’m glad that I did because the results speak for themselves.

The windowsill (a row or bricks) and the brick surround on one side – they are now properly fitted and to the outside, the wall is now finished up to the window.

On the inside, there’s about one-and-a-half rows to finish off and then to pour the concrete in between the outer and the inner face.

In fact I worked really hard today and didn’t really want to stop – not like me at all, is it?

But the hot (and I DO mean hot) solar shower that I had afterwards set the seal on Friday night

Tomorrow, if I’m up early, I may well go to Montlucon for the shopping. I’m getting low on tons of stuff.

-2

Saturday 21st July 2012 – I’VE BEEN A BUSY LITTLE B…..

… all day today, although you might not think so.

Not quite managing an early start, I still managed an early breakfast and then started to work. We needed a series of 5 radio programmes for Monday and so no time like the present.

All morning (and some of the early afternoon) was spent drawing up five minutes of a gardening programme, and then 15 minutes-worth of useful French phrases. It’s all becoming rather complicated.

We had a little break for shopping. St Eloy-les-Mines unfortunately. I was hoping to go to Montlucon as I’m running out of everything, but the radio was more important.

I just managed the basics, as well as some A4 pouches for the laminator, seeing as LIDL had some on offer, and also a pile of bags of hazel nuts for the muesli – it’s been a while since LIDL had any of them in stock.

Back at the ranch I cooked some more rice in the steamer while I had lunch and then continued wih Part II – a load of notes on the system of points for traffic offences here in France.

It’s quite complicated, and having to navigate around the French Government’s own website is not so easy either.

Anyway, there’s enough to keep us going for a good few weeks.

This evening, with piping hot water in the dump load and only 24°C in the solar shower tank and me feeling rather dirty, I dumped 6 litres of water from the former to the latter, which pushed that up to 35°C.

I stripped off and just as I was about to plunge underneath, the ‘phone rang.

And it’s a good job it was a telephone and not a television as it was Marianne reminding me about tomorrow. She would have had a giggle if she had known how I was answering the phone.

So a nice clean me, and I’m off for an early night. And a little lie-in tomorrow.  

-3

Friday 13th July 2012 – IF A THING …

… is too good to be true, that’s because it usually is.

And when you see a thing that is too good to be true taking place on Friday 13th, then you can bet your life that it will be too.

And for that reason I didn’t hold out much hope of my little trip to Montlucon bringing home the bacon, but nevertheless you have to go through the motions and do all that you can, because you never know.

And so, up at 06:00, down the end of the lane by 06:25 to meet Terry as he drove past instead of him coming down here, going to Montlucon as quickly as possible, and all to no avail.

Brico Depot had a sale on this morning, and they had some prefabricated car ports at just €199 each. I wanted two, to put on my hard standing to cover up Caliburn and the Minerva, but even though we weren’t there anything like late, they had all been sold.

Or so they said.

At that price, it really was a giveaway anyway so it wasn’t really a surprise. Still, never mind. I did all that I could do, and it would have been a stunning coup had we really pulled it off.

I bought a few more bits and pieces and on the way back we called at the quarry at Montaigut en Combraille. I wanted some sand but we ended up with a huge load of dry mix for concreting – Terry is concreting a patio at his house next week.

And that has given me a little idea too – more of which anon.

So breakfast at 11:00, an event that occurs quite often regularly around here, but never ever AFTER a full morning’s work, including a trip to Montlucon and to the quarry though.

Wrapping my mitt around a warm cup of coffee I went off to do some work on the website but was interrupted by a phone call from Cheze in St Eloy les Mines. Our water butts have finally arrived.

And so I wandered off to St Eloy les Mines to do the shopping (it’s a Bank Holiday here tomorrow) and then off to Rosemary’s to give her her water butt and her guttering that had been lingering around in the back of Caliburn.

I was there until 19:30 as well – gossiping away like a right bunch of old women, we were.

Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday as I said, and it’s my custom to have a day off work on a Bank Holiday. But due to circumstances beyond my control, I’ve yet to have a Bank Holiday off this year, and tomorrow is no exception as I have a few radio scripts to write for next weekend.

It’s all go here. Really, I don’t know how on earth I used to find the time to go to work.

-2

Thursday 12th July 2012 – I’M OFF …

… to bed in a minute – at a ridiculously-early (well, for me, anyway) time too.

And for two good reasons too.

  1. I have to be up early as you know. Terry and I are off to Montlucon to see what we can find in Brico Depot
  2. I’m thoroughly exhausted and I’ve already crashed out once this evening.

Just for a change I was up and about before the alarms went off and while I was having a leisurely breakfast Rosemary rang up. “It looks as if it might be a comfortable morning so I’ll come round now if you like”.

Well, I need all the help I can get in the garden and one volunteer is better than 10 pressed men so I had to steam-clean the kitchen, tidy up in here, empty the composting toilet, all that kind of thing, at a rapid rate of knots.

And then a car pulled up. It was not Rosemary but Bill who had come for a chat. His van has just failed its Controle Technique, but not with anything serious and so we needed to devise a cunning plan to fix it.

Just then Rosemary appeared and so Bill wandered off while Rosemary and I attacked the garden.

Stopping for lunch for an hour or so was the only break that we had, but by the end of the day several of the beds are all weeded out, some (but by no means all) of the leeks are replanted, and then we attacked some of the jungle that was in the way.

After Rosemary went home, I carried on for an hour or so and that was my lot I’m afraid. I was finished off. Nevertheless, substantial progress was made today in the garden.

I’ve also made a smart discovery too.

I’m using a Xantrex C60 charge controller wired in backwards to act as a dump load controller. Normally, a charge controller senses the voltage levels in the batteries. When the solar panels and wind turbines have fully charged the batteries, the charge controller then cuts off the charge.

With certain charge controllers, you can fiddle about with them so that instead of switching off, they switch on. And then instead of having them wired as
INPUT ENERGY —> CHARGE CONTROLLERS —> BATTERIES
you can wire them
INPUT ENERGY —> BATTERIES —> CHARGE CONTROLLER —> DUMP LOAD (although I still keep my input charge controllers as a safety measure.

My dump load is a home-made 12-volt immersion heater – a huge 500-watt heater element suspended in 25 litres of water, and this is how I heat my water in summer.

The Xantrex controllers have a facility to have a data panel wired in so that you can see the amount of current passing through and I just happen to have a spare data panel that I dismantled from the charge controller that stopped working the other week.

I wasn’t sure if it would work on the one that I’m using as a dump load controller, what with it being wired in backwards and so on, but I gave it a go and in fact it does, which is really exciting news.

I’ve had 22.2 amp-hour worth of excess charge heating my water today. That’s quite impressive considering that the weather has been cloudy for all of the day. I wonder what it will show in a bright sunny glorious day.

But we aren’t ever going to have one of those ever again.  

-2

Saturday 30th June 2012 – IT’S POURING DOWN …

… with rain outside.

The first time we’ve had a really decent downpour for a few days, and you can see how much I’ve become embedded into the local agricultural way of life with my potager – looking forward to the rainstorm.

This morning I slept through the alarms for a change. I was having a nice dream about a former friend and his family and it’s a long time since I’ve had a really pleaant dream.

But anyway after breakfast I did some more work on the laptop and then went out shopping.

I’ve bought a few new toys too. LIDL was selling Brother PC label-makers a while ago and I was tempted at €20 but I didn’t bite. Anyway, they were reduced to €10 today and so I grabbed one.

I also met Rosemary and we went to Cheze where they were selling 510-litre water butts for an incredible €32. Rosemary wanted one, and I’ve decided to buy two of them.

What I shall be doing with mine is that when I take the scaffolding down after I’ve finished the wall of the lean-to, I am going to put up some guttering to catch the water off the lean-to roof and sink a large tank into the ground to catch it all.

But meanwhile I can link these two together and use them as settling tanks with the take-off for the subterranean tank about half-way up the side. That will still leave 250 litres of water at the bottom of each tank.

If I put a tap at the bottom of the first tank, then I can use the water in there (which will be pretty dirty) for watering the vegetable plots. That will help empty the dirt out of the tank.

But I’m getting more and more fed-up of Brico Depot.

We went for the guttering for Rosemary’s barn yesterday but what they had on offer was all badly-damaged rubbish sold by surly staff.

At Bricomarche in Commentry she paid a little more but got everything she wanted and in pristine condition too.

There was some stuff that I wanted too but Brico Depot don’t sell it. They suggested a work-around, but that would cost a fortune.

However, Cheze had exactly what I needed. They also had an inner tube for my wheelbarrow, that has saved me a fortune on a new wheel.

Tomorrow I’m off out with Marianne. She did tell me where we are going but I have forgotten. I suppose that I will find out soon enough.

-3

Friday 29th June 2012 – IT AIN’T ‘ARF ‘OT, MUM!

Well, maybe not quite this evening, but last night it was 31°C up here in my attic and that is going beyond ridiculous.

In fact, things reached such a pitch that I almost went and slept in Caliburn. I’m sure that it would have been cooler in there.

But by 09:00 I was up and about, and by 09:30 I was working.

I was doing some work on a few web pages and then one thing led to another, and pretty soon you begin to find out just how many other things there are.

So much so that I’ve ended up doing a slight redesign of my web pages and I wish that I knew enough to do more.

I really must learn how to do embedded menus and so on. My web design techniques seem to have stuck in a time warp.

I’ve also been dealing with the European Paper Mountain today and a load of that was filed away. There’s still about 20 times that much that needs to be dealt with but every little helps.

Rosemary and I went to Montlucon this afternoon and had a rummage around the shops.

I didn’t buy any wood because the wood at Brico Depot is appalling so I’ll have to go to the sawmill for that like I should have done in the first place. But I have the stirrups, some of the plumbing bits, the corrugated plastic sheets, the hinges, the strengthenign rod and all of the concrete post rings – 20 of them in fact.

Rosemary was disappointed too with Brico Depot. She had wanted some zinc guttering for her barn but the stuff that they had was all bent, knocked about and not fit for use.

In the end, on the way back we went to Bricomarché in Commentry. It was dearer there but it was in perfect condition. You pay for what you get.

I bet that you are all dying to know what I’ll be doing with them – I know that Krys is. But you’ll have to wait until I buy the wood and start to build it – I won’t be giving a clue away.

Aren’t I a meanie? 

-3

Thursday 28th June 2012 – ONE OF THE REASONS …

… and there are many of them, to be sure, as to why I keep a blog is that I can refer back to it and find out when I did something.

I forget all too easily these days what I’ve been up to and when I was up to it – and just remember, before you start laughing, that you will be as old as me too one of these days too.

So I looked back and found that it was exactly a week ago today that I planted the courgette, cucumber, gherkin etc seeds, and sowed some lettuce seed in pots.

And while I was sorting out the herb buckets (those nice heaps of oregano and tarragon have gone – cut down now and hanging up to dry in my attic) I happened to notice that the lettuce were growing.

Blimey! That was quick!

So they had a really good watering, and they need it too in this heat.

And so, out of curiosity, I went to look at the beds where I had planted the courgette etc seeds.

And guess what?

Absolutely! They are rearing their pretty little heads too.

There’s even some beetroot from what I planted a week earlier, but the carrots are once again doing nothing at all.

Anyway, it seems to be all go in the garden again.

I didn’t manage an early start today, unfortunately. It was so hot that at 03:00 I was still up and about and I would probably still be flat out on my back right now if a hornet hadn’t come in at about 08:45 and chased me around the bedroom.

Still, makes a change from Percy Penguin, who doesn’t feature in these pages half as much as she deserves, chasing me around the bedroom.

This afternoon I started to draw up the plans for the next stage of construction work, and began to make a list of the bits that I need. Right on cue, Rosemary rang me up and asked if I would be interested in going to the Brico Depot in Montlucon.

Seeing as how it won’t be very easy getting all of this wood onto Caliburn’s roof rack all on my own, and it’s no skin off my nose whether I go tomorrow or Saturday.

And when I heard that half a day’s gardening was the reward on offer, then that was it, mercenary that I am. It’s a good job I emptied out Caliburn yesterday, wasn’t it?

In between the surveying I dragged out the tabletop washing machine and did a load of washing seeing as I had a pile to do, it was gorgeous and warm, and the water temperature in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load for the surplus solar energy was at 60.5°C.

To finish off the day I treated myself to yet another solar shower seeing the temperature of the water in the black plastic solar hearing box had reached 41.5°C. And that was gorgeous too

It’s all go here right now, isn’t it?

    

-3

Saturday 16th June 2012 – I HAD A DAY OUT TODAY.

In fact I went to Montlucon.

And even though I had a late-ish start I was still out and round and back earlier than usual.

The impetus was that you my remember me receiving a text to say that my new front door needs picking up, and if I didn’t get a wiggle on I would lose it. So offI went to pick it up.

It’s not very substantial at all, being just a sheet of double-glazing with a wooden frame around it, and it’s not going to be used for ages yet. But the reason why I chose it when I did, for those of you with short memories, is that it’s the same style as the windows that I bought for the house and the range was discontinued at the end of March.

The fact that it was the cheapest double-glazed door has nothing whatever to do with the argument, of course.

My luck was in too. At the Amaranthe health food shop there was some soya cream that had gone past the sell-by date and so they were giving a carton away to each customer. That will do very nicely for a mushroom and onion fried rice later in the week.

At at the rubbish shop (NOZ, for the benefit of the foreigners) they were selling a load of flavoured rice milk at just €0:75 a litre. There’s a nice long sell-by date on those and so of course there are now none left in the shop.

Almond-flavoured rice milk on my breakfast muesli – that has to be the way to go.

dammi multi vitamin fruit drink noz montlucon allier franceAnd Dammi if I didn’t find some of this on sale at NOZ as well.

It’s a multi-vitamin, multi fruit drink. And I had a good look at the list of ingredients and, sure enough, it contains vitamin B12. being a vegan as you know,
I have lots of issues about my vitamin B12 intake so I’m always on the lookout for different food items that might contain it.

And with a name like this, it ought to be good too!

It was piping hot too – hottest day of the year for me and so I really fancied a swim, but I had left my swimming trunks back at home. Never mind – Auchan was having a sale and so for €5:00 I treated myself to a pair of new ones.

I took the plunge and went to the Centre Aqualudique at the back of Montlucon. I’d heard a couple of good reports about it.

And it was certainly a far cry from Neris-les-Bains – tidal pools, a fast-flowing current, bubble-massage seats in the pool. And many more people there than at Neris so there was much more to see.

Ohhhh yes – I still chase after the women. The problem is though that at my age I can’t remember why.

€5:00 admission though – and that’s quite a difference from €3:20, and nothing like as intimate. I’ll just have to save the Centre Aqualudique for special occasions such as midwinter when it’s far too cold to be at Neris-les-Bains.

At the Brico Depot I bought 4 demi-chevrons and 3 sacks of sand. And you might be wondering why. The demi chevrons because I want to put shelves up in this cupboard downstairs and I want to do it the next time the weather is bad, without having to wait for a trip to the sawmill for the wood.

And the bags of sand?

There’s some sealing joints that need to be made on the roof of the lean-to that I fitted earlier this year. I’ve no sand here and so I need to dig out the Sankey trailer, change the wheels, trundle down to the quarry, load the trailer, bring it back here and bag up the sand.

With having the sand here I can have the job finished before I’ve even changed the wheels on the Sankey.

But I hate the people at Brico Depot. I loaded up Caliburn and then went off to pay for it “you need to bring your vehicle here” said the girl in the office. Walking 20 metres was clearly too much for her.

And so I brought the vehicle to the door and she came out – and then started chatting to a fork-lift truck driver.
“When you can spare me the time, if it’s not too much trouble for you” I said, and so she shrugged her shoulders to the driver and slumped over to me to check my load.
Yes, the staff at Brico Depot needs a collective smack in the mouth. It’s just like being back in Belgium and how I hate that country.

Back here I sat down to watch a film and the next thing that I remember was that it was 20:00. A long time since I’ve crashed out like that too.

And for the football we watched a team of bouncing Czechs pole-axe their opposition to advance to the next stage of the UEFA Nations Cup.

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Friday 15th June 2012 – TODAY WAS MUCH …

… more like a normal day.

I woke up with the alarm clock (no wonder it was noisy in bed), had breakfast, did some work on the computer and apart from the guy who came to pick up some parcels, that was about that for the morning.

But I’m glad all of the parcels have gone as I now have a little space.

And just as well too because I had a text message – my door is ready.

Rosemary has very kindly said that she will keep the door safe for me but I still need to pick it up, and that means emptying Caliburn of all the stuff I bought at IKEA at Christmas – hence it’s just as well that I now have the space where I can store it.

What I actually bought at IKEA was a trolley load of bits and pieces – all left-over or shop-soiled stuff – for €10.

I always pick one of those up if I can, and that particular lot that I have in the van is an excellent example because

  • there is a load of side panels for wardrobes, cupboards and the like with all of the holes pre-drilled in them for shelves and drawers and so on. Very useful, these, and I have plans for them.
  • there is a pile of sprung bed laths that I need
  • there is a pile of sides and doors from display furniture. You can make nice shelves in the shed with those.

Yes, it’s always a good plan to buy a load of that stuff when you see it.

I’ve done a pile of weeding along the pathways too and it’s much easier to move about now. It’s really only scratching the surface of course but it’s all progress anyway.

And while we are on the subject of weeding, I noticed that the potato beds were looking overgrown and so I spend an hour on them pulling up the rubbish. And you’ll be amazed how different all of that looks now.

The biggest advantage of raised beds is that the soil has not been compacted because you don’t walk upon it – in fact the thorough hoeing and raking that it had before I went away coupled with all of the wet weather means that even the biggest and toughest weed can be pulled out easily by hand without any problem whatever.

From there I went on to pull the old caravan window off the plot in which I had sown some beetroot.

You couldn’t see anything in there apart from a mass of weeds but once I had pulled a pile of rubbish out, there were in fact quite a few beetroot sitting in there doing what beetroot do.

But that has confirmed something – quite a few seeds that I planted, like the beetroot and the brassica, I covered over with some kind of glass covering, and they have taken well. Other stuff that I planted and didn’t cover, they haven’t done so well.

There must be a moral in that.

In other news, I’ve been quietly seething about the Royal Bank of Scotland. I sent some instructions to them ages ago to do something and they replied with a whole host of reasons why they should not do it.

This afternoon I made up my mind that I really ought to take some drastic action, involving pick-axe andles and napalm, but even as I was speaking to myself the phone rang – and it was THEM!

Talk about timing!

And as for my steamed meal; I didn’t have that tonight. We had footy instead and I need a free evening to start with that.

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