Tag Archives: crash out

Saturday 8th February 2014 – WITH IT BEING SATURDAY …

… that signifies “shopping”. But first I had to heave myself out of bed, and that wasn’t easy. I heard all of the alarms of course but as I was under no real pressure to leave my stinking pit, it was … errr … some time later that I finally surfaced. Mind you, I had been busy. There was a sale on at IKEA through the night and once I’d managed to explain to the salesman what “memory” was all about, I bought a 4GB I-pod for just €15 in the sale. I wish that I could do that in real life.

First job was to write the script for the next rock music show on “Radio Anglais”, and that didn’t take me too long as I was in a creative mood. And then I went round to Cécile’s. She had asked me to check the post (there wasn’t any) and to check the attic to see if there were any leaks given the miserable weather that we have been having this last three or four weeks (and there was nothing evident). I did however take advantage of Cécile’s washing machine again while I was there.

In St Eloy there was nothing exciting on sale except a hand-powered vegetable dicer. I’ve been looking for one of these for ages and sure enough, LIDL had them in the sale.

Back here, I hung up the washing in the verandah (no point at all in hanging it outside unless I want it to have another rinse) and then I came up here with a coffee and crashed out for a couple of hours. Going to sleep some time after 03:30 and trying to wake up at 07:30 is doing me no good at all.

And no footy tonight, nor tomorrow either. Everything is postponed given the state of the pitches around here. And it’s worse in the Creuse just dosn the road where the entire football programme for the weekend has been cancelled. This weather is beyond a joke.

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Thursday 6th February 2014 – “OHH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING”

And it was, too. Just like a mid-March morning, with a lovely fresh wind, the kind of wind that makes you glad to be out and about in it – a feeling that I can’t describe but I’m sure that you know what I mean.

So today, what did I do? The answer is “not as much as I hoped”. I had to fit some battens and counter-battens on the ceiling at the head of the stairs so that the tongue-and-grooving will have a proper support. That meant that there were of course gaps between the battens and as I have said before, no money spent on insulation is ever wasted and seeing as how I had a few leftover slabs of 20mm polystyrene insulation, I cut them up and filled in all the gaps.

But then I had a surprise. Just as I was cutting the last piece, Liz turned up. She had been to Pionsat and it’s a couple of years since she was last inside the house and so she came to inspect the works, having heard all about the progress here this last couple of months. Anyway, we ended up having a chat and a coffee for an hour or so.

After lunch, I started to fit the tongue-and-grooving on the ceiling. That’s not as easy as it sounds as it’s in three dimensions and each length needs to be cut in two pieces – one of 850mm and the other of about 1185mm.

I say “about”, because it needs to be trimmed at one end to follow the profile of the plasterboarding, and once that’s done, then the other end needs to be cut exactly to size to fit over the top of the corresponding piece of 850mm. Not only that, one of the pieces needs to be holed to take the light fitting and this is where Brain of Britain realised that he hasn’t left enough free cable to put the light exactly where he wants it, and so we’ll have to compromise on that.

Ahhh well

The final lengths need to be cut down the lengths as well to fit the width of the ceiling and it was while I was setting this up that Cécile rang.
“If it’s not convenient right now, just tell me”
“Don’t worry – it’s never not convenient for my friends to call”
And so after chatting to Cécile for 10 minutes, I cut the wood incorrectly.

So I took another length of 850mm and cut that incorrectly too.

I’ve owned my Ryobi plus One jigsaw since August 2008 and it’s taken me until now to realise that the blade isn’t in the centre of the tool – it’s offset to the left by a couple of mm (the strangest design fault I have ever encountered). That means that when you cut down a length so far with the aid of a guide, and then put the jigsaw at the far end to come back to where you left off, you will be a couple of mm out.

This will explain a few of my more bizarre woodworking efforts, and why the door into this room looks such a mess. And it’s taken until now for me to find out why.

But I’ve had some bad nights just recently – trouble sleeping and the like and I reckoned that it was catxhing up with me, so I knocked off and came up here where I crashed out for a couple of hours.

And tonight it’s warm and windy – just like March. I’m all confused.

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Saturday 4th January 2014 – I FINALLY MADE IT …

… off the premises today, but I didn’t go far, which is just as well.

I had yet another bad night – not going to sleep until long after 02:00 and being awake long before dawn. And when I finally bit the bullet and hauled myself up, it wasn’t even 09:00.

Just as well, as I needed to make an early start.

I had to go to Cécile’s this morning. She’s awaiting an urgent letter which requires someone -such as Yours Truly – to make a dash to St Gervais prior to 11:30. And while I was there at 10:45 with plenty of time to spare, Cécile’s mailbox rather resembled Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard, so that was that.

I nipped into St Eloy for the shops and the only excitement there was that LIDL was having a sale of tapes. Not the audio variety but the sticky variety and I never have enough aluminium tape or masking tape, so I stocked up. And with all this extra expense, well, my shopping came to a massive €25:00. It’s good to be here and not in Brussels.

This afternoon I did some more work on the website – only a bit because the lack of sleep caught up with me and I crashed out for 90 minutes.

Later on I watched what is my favourite French film, La Folie Des Grandeurs starring my hero Louis de Funès. A magnificent comic actor and this film sums up everything that there is to say about him.

Tomorrow it’s my final day of rest and I need to make the most of it because I’m back at work on Monday. I’ve been making a little list of things to do and believe me, there’s enough to keep me going for a couple of years.

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Tuesday 31st December 2013 – THE MOST ASTONISHING THING …

… happened today- so much so that it’s well-worth recording.

I have never ever talked about, much less photographed, the ground floor of this house. And for good reason too. When I bought the place back in 1998 I quickly dumped in there a pile of rubbish and since then the rubbish has been accumulating. Add to that a huge piles of damaged tiles, a couple of large piles of rubble from demolished walls and excavated floors, several bags of cement and plaster, and whatever else you can think of, then it really is a total disgrace.

On top of that, anything that doesn’t have a home anywhere else has been stuck in there to such an extent that moving around in there can definitely be a hazard to one’s health. I did once hear a story about someone who hoarded old newspapers and was crushed to death when a pile collapsed on top of her. Well, believe me, it’s not too far away from that on the ground floor.

Anyway, having said that, I was untangling a pile of cables from the equipment of the “Tower of Power” so that I can put that upstairs in the lean-to when, you’ve guessed it, I had an avalanche.

So that was that. I spent a delightful four hours this morning in the living room sorting out all kinds of stuff. New stuff into the lean-to, old good stuff ditto, plumbing fittings into the water room etc etc. That was followed by a couple of bags of paper waste into the old damaged water butt which will now be a paper receptacle, and a couple of bags of genuine rubbish into the back of Caliburn.

It doesn’t look like much of an improvement, for there’s 15 years’ worth of rubbish in there and I will need more than four hours to move all of that, but you would be surprised at the difference that it has made and now I can boldly go where no man has gone before since at least 1999. If that’s not progress then nothing is.

Another thing was that I had a bad night’s sleep. I was still wide awake at 03:00 and I was back awake again long before 07:30 when the alarm went off. Either there’s a lot of people talking about me, or else it’s my guilty conscience again.

And while it didn’t rain today, it was overcast and miserable with only the occasional glimpses of sun. We had high winds too – not like the high winds of the other day but high winds nevertheless.

After all of my exertions I knocked off for lunch at about 15:00 – late, I know, but I was on a roll – and then crashed out for a while and when I get my hands on the bank clerk from Pionsat ho woke me up with the telephone, he’ll be looking for a new set of teeth too. I was well away.

Tea was roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots, boiled potatoes, leeks, seitan slices, onion and garlic gravy with sprouts done to perfection, all cooked on the wood stove, followed by vegan Christmas Cake and “artisanal” mango-flavoured lemonade.

What more can any man desire (apart from Kate Bush and Jenny Agutter to share it with me)?

So now I’m off work for the next couple of days. And then, who knows? I might even carry on with the tidying up.

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Sunday 22nd December 2013 – WHAT A GLORIOUS SUNSET!

sunset les guis virlet puy de dome franceI just happened to look out of the window and there it was. I couldn’t let it pass by without photographing it.

Of course it does remind me of the old saying –
Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight
Red sky in the morning, Sy Eloy is on fire.

Talking of mornings, it’s Sunday and so that’s a lie-in. And I was in bed until all of about 08:00 which shows you just how effective an early night might be. But with it being Sunday I didn’t exert myself too much. I’ve collected a pile of wood for up here and I’ve given the kitchen area another really good going-over and that was about my lot.

Apart from another crash-out on the sofa, that is. I’m having problems about staying awake, that’s for sure. And despite the pizza and the possibility of a vital gridiron match tonight between the Cardinals and the Seahawks, I was in bed long before midnight.

I’m definitely not feeling myself, and quite right too. It’s a dreadful habit.

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Saturday 21st December 2013 – TO THOSE OF YOU …

… who believe in these things, a very happy Solstice to you. For those of us who are concerned with the supply of solar energy, then the days will start to lengthen tomorrow and personally, I can’t wait for that.

But last night anyway, not being able to sleep until 04:30 or thereabouts (shouldn’t have had all that coffee yesterday), it was pretty hard to be awake when the alarm went off at 07:30 and it wasn’t until about 09:20 that I crawled out of my comfortable bed.

The trouble with this sort of thing is that one doesn’t feel up to doing much when one is awake and after breakfast and cleaning out the fire, I was a little “distant” for a while. But then the shops were calling and I headed off to St Eloy. I bought nothing special except the fresh vegetables – Christmas isn’t the same without sprouts, broccoli and leeks to go with my seitan slices and roast potatoes, that’s for sure.

I didn’t do too much this afternoon either – I remember making a coffee when I returned home and then the next thing that I remember was that it was 18:15, so I made myself one of these home-made potato and onion pies for tea for the next few days, and that was that.

Outside right now, we’re having a howling gale. there has been plenty of wind just recently and I’m glad that I have my wind turbines.

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Thursday 5th December 2013 – WHY WOULD ANYONE …

… want to sit down and read all 383 or so pages of my travel website? I know that it’s all good stuff but nevertheless that is rather extreme.

However thank you anyway.

woodshed les guis virlet puy de dome franceApart from that, this morning I found one more pallet and stripped it down, and now it’s screwed to the side of the woodshed. And so that’s finished – at least, all I’m going to do of it.

It’s somewhat Heath – Robinson, but as I said before, everything except the screws and a metal bracket is from salvaged materials. There are even some second-hand nails in there holding a few things together.

This afternoon I started to fill it, and I have to say that I didn’t realise just how much wood I have, because I was at it for a couple of hours and I’ve hardly made any impression at all in there. It’s going to be a much longer job than I anticipated moving the wood about.

This evening, I crashed out at about 23:00. I can’t think why. It’s not as if I’ve been working flat out.

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Wednesday 13th November 2013 – IT WAS EVEN HARDER THIS MORNING …

… to get out of bed. Probably going to bed at03:45 might have something to do with that though. Crawling out of bed at 08:00 was definitely an issue.

After breakfast, I went as promised and attacked the barn – the bit where I keep the Ebro. I had almost everything out of the front of the barn and I’ve thrown away two huge sacks of rubbbish. Furthermore, I can actually move around in there now without stepping on things, and isn’t that progress?

It wasn’t without its rewards either. I found an Euro on the floor in there, so spend!Spend! Spend!

The boulandgère came round today too, having forgotten me yesterday. It was Sophie, the woman who lived for a while in the USSR and we always have a little chat whenever she comes round.

After lunch (and a little siesta) I went and attacked the pathways, and now I’ve made it all the way down to the compost bin, which was my ultimate destination. Now, you can walk all the way down there without losing yourself in the vegetation and it’s a great improvement. It didn’t take as long as I was thinking that it might either, and so I’ve started on weeding the first raised bed. I want to have all of those done before the end of the year.

I’ve had a fire in here tonight too and so I cooked tea up here in the oven. It’s nice to recover some of my old familiar habits. I’ve missed being away from here.

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Tuesday 12th November 2013 – GOD, IT WAS HARD …

… getting out of bed this morning. It took me a good half-hour to finally show a leg; And although the sky had clouded over during the night, it was still pretty cold.

Anyway after breakfast, it was time to restart work for the first time for ages, and it was the turn of the lean-to outside to receive my attention – but not before I’d hooked up the crocodile-clip wire across the terminals of the charge controller in the barn so that the battery there will receive some charge.

By lunchtime I’d finished cleaning out the front part of the lean-to and making it look something-like in there, and I’d also collected some wood that was lying around, ready for the fire if I light one tonight.

However, a major issue at lunchtime was that the boulangère didn’t call with the bread, and wasn’t answering her ‘phone either. That meant a quick nip into Pionsat for a load of bread before I could have a butty, and then much to my surprise I crashd out for an hour afterwards.

Once I’d gathered up my wits (doesn’t take long – I don’t have many) I went outside and started to attack the garden. I’ve fought my way down to where the old cars are, and then I made a start on weeding the pathway down to the bottom of the garden and I was well on my way with that when the light disappeared. 18:00 hours or so, and so I did a few little jobs and then came up here to watch a film.

Of course, I can’t sleep now so I dunno what will happen next, but tomorrow’s plan is to clear some space in the barn by the battery box, and then to continue the weeding of the pathways.

We shall see.

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Tuesday 5th November 2013 – I’M GETTING TOO OLD …

… to sleep across the front seats of Caliburn these days.

Despite the ignonimity of having to stop for a sleep on the way home, and despite having taken precautions of rescuing two small cushions, one to wedge down between the seats and the other to use as a pillow, I still had the worst night’s sleep that I have ever had. I managed to avoid the cramp from the last time I slept in Caliburn, but I had an enormous pain in the neck all night and I’m not sure why. I just couldn’t get comfortable.

Still, I had had 8 hours or so of “rest”, if you can call it that, and that totally surprised me, but anyway I took to the road in a driving rainstorm (so much for the beautifully clear evening we had had last night but I did think that “driving” was quite appropriate) and with the odd stop for roadworks and for food at the Carrefour at Montmarault, I was back at Pooh Corner by midday.

I’ve unloaded a few things … "just a few" – ed … but I’ve spent most of the day chilling out and catching up on the sleep that I’ve lost. I’ve also lit the fire – the first of the year of course, and for two reasons too. Firstly, it was cold in here – at just 11.2°C and dropping, and that’s below the threshold for the fire. Secondly, I rescued some dry wood from Marianne’s and all my wood outside is thoroughly soaking due to having been exposed to the rain for the last 6 months. Consequently I need to dry it out, and sticking a load of it over a hot stove is the easiest way to go about doing that.

And with that, I crashed out yet again, and that was that.

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Monday 4th November 2013 – THE DEED IS DONE

Marianne’s apartment has now been sold and her estate liquidated. And when I see just the amounts to which everyone seems to have helped himself, there isn’t much of it left. “Vultures picking over the bones of a corpse” is what immediately springs to mind, and the metaphor seems to be quite apt. “Give everything that is left to the poor” said Marianne, and that’s what I will do, but I can’t help feeling that the poor are going to be rather disillusioned with the Vultures of Belgium.

First thing this morning was to roll up the mattress and bedding and have that ready to go. Second thing was to go to the DiY shop and purchase a new rubber gasket for the sink waste pipe outlet. I’ve fitted that and now the sink drains much better. Everything else that was hanging around went into the last cardboard box and the waste bin, and I put all of that outside along with the plants while I vacuumed everywhere.

The next-to-last thing that I did was to have a shower and to clean the bathroom and to pack up the suitcase of clothes. That went outside along with the shower curtain, and the final task was to read all of the meters.

Fetching Caliburn, I loaded all of the stuff up, and there wasn’t much room for anything else after that. I’d judged it quite fine. It’s a good job I wasn’t intending to take the plants with me – they are decorating the hall of the building now for people to do what they will with them.

I found a quiet nook and settled down with a good book until the relevant moment, and that was that. And I do recall saying to my lawyer as we left the building at the end “I won’t say a definitive goodbye to you, because I said that a couple of years ago and I still ended up coming back, but maybe we shall meet agin, a long time before Philippi”

I still have a few things to do in Brussels, not the least of which being to cancel the standing order about the payments to the apartment and also some things for Marianne, but that will have to wait for another time as I’ve rather lost interest in it all for now. I was on the motorway and out of that accursed nation.

At Melun, I stopped for fuel as usual but my friendly neighbourhood kebab house was closed. That was a disaster. However Dominos Pizza place was open and I ended up with yet another pizza vegetariana. And goodbye to the vegan cheese because I forgot to nip over the road earlier and buy some more.

But back on the motorway, round about midnight I was just overwhelmed with sleep and I’ve no idea why. I can’t keep going like I used to. Nothing for it but to pull off the highway and have a kip. I’m getting old.

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Tuesday 22nd October 2013 – I’M SUPPOSED TO BE TAKING IT EASY …

… today, but you wouldn’t have thought so. First on the ‘phone was Rosemary. Her roofer is staying on for a day or two and so he’s going to have a quick go at her barn. Of course, we took the scaffolding down on Sunday, so could he borrow my roof ladder?

So at 08:30 they were here at Pooh Corner to take it away, and from there it all went downhill. Marianne called me to remind me of an errand that needed doing in Brussels and about which I had clean forgotten. Then I had two other calls in quick succession and I can’t now remember who they were and what they wanted – such is advancing age.

Then I had another task to perform. Seeing as how I’m not leaving until this afternoon now, I went to put another plan into operation and that involved meeting an estate agent in Pionsat. We had a pleasant morning out, but this idea that I have will not come to fruition, which is a shame, as there is a major stumbling block with my idea.

Back at Pooh Corner I fell in with Lieneke and Guus who are here for a week, and we had quite a lengthy chat. It’s always nice to see friendly people – they are in quite short supply here. And Raoul the cat put in his first appearance of the autumn. Checking up on his sources of food supply for the winter, methinks.

I loaded up the van and after a brief repos I set off for Brussels. And I got well on my way before I realised that I had forgotten my passport, and so I had to come all the way back again. I made it as far as Melun where I stopped for fuel and also for a bag of chips and a vegetarian pitta. I’m going for a little luxury in my old age. Another sign of old age is that I only made it as far as Valenciennes, a good 90 minutes short of Brussels, before I pulled off for a kip. I’m clearly not as young as I was. Consequently I didn’t make it here until about 02:30 – to find a major change about the property and also the fact that the internet is disconnected – more of which anon.

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Wednesday 16th October 2013 – MEANWHILE, BACK AT POOH CORNER …

… I did a very silly thing. Or rather, I forgot to undo something rather silly, and that was despite my best intentions too.

Before I set out for North America I had every intention of disconnecting the fridge and wiring it into the overload circuit. That way, if we were to have a long spell of heavily overcast weather, it wouldn’t run down the batteries.

But guess what? I totally forgot to do it and we have indeed had a long spell of heavily overcast weather. Consequently, I’m struggling for electricity.

That was what I found this morning when I returned home. I had the best night’s sleep for absolutely ages round at Liz and Terry’s, and after a breakfast of coffee and toast I hit the road for Pooh Corner, stopping at the Intermarché at Pionsat along the way.

Back here though, having seen what I forgot to do, I’ve gone into emergency mode. Everything is disconnected except, as I write, a 1-watt LED light and if that fades out I have a Ryobi lantern standing by. There’s one battery that is fully-charged (I keep that on a separate circuit) and that I put for a top-up via the solar panels in the barn and later in the night I’ll drag it across here. I can wire that into the circuit and disconnect the main battery bank quite easily so there will be some power, and then in the morning it can go back into the barn to be charged up while the battery bank in here is reconnected.

Apart from that, I’ve spent most of the day on the sofa crashed out. The after-effects of my marathon voyage. I’ll have a good rest and then tomorrow I have a radio programme to write.

That is, of course, if I have any electricity. What a silly thing to do.

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Tuesday 10th September 2013 – I HAD THE MOST UNEVENTFUL …

… drive down to Fredericton that I have ever had. There was nothing going on and nothing to report whatsoever … "hooray" – ed …

But in Woodstock earlier a few things happened.

Zoe and I picked up her price list and stuck it on the wall of her salon where it looks pretty good and effective. We did a few more things (and I’ve still forgotten to fasten her cupboard handles) and then I wandered off to see someone about another little project that I have in mind.

However, that won’t be happening, said he with deep regret.

A small piece of land that I’ve had my eye on for quite a while, well, they want a telephone-number kind of price for it. Its situation is such that it merits a few extra shillings, to be sure, but the price that they are asking is simply delusional. Even half of the asking price would be expensive.

In Fredericton I went to Value Village – the charity shop – to scan the books.

Here in Canada, there isn’t a variety of different charity shops as there is in the UK. All of the charities have joined together and have a charity megastore, and all of the items are colour-coded, the purpose of this I suppose is to tell which charity each item belongs to.

I always visit it because it’s a really good source of books on Canadian affairs, history, grography and the like, and I wasn’t disappointed. Six new books have found their way into the Dodge and now this place looks more like a library than anything else.

strawberry moose harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswickI picked up my Media Pass from the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival offices at Regent Street (it helps, having your own media outlets back in France – good old Radio Anglais).

And Strawberry Moose was in his element – not only were there floozies to admire but they even dressed him up in Festival Gear and allowed him to be photographed with them.

What more does any Moose require?

Lunch was at the side of the river near the boat ramp and for some reason or other I crashed out here. And for a couple of hours too. It’s not as if I’ve been overdoing it or anything just recently.

What woke me up was the book sliding out of my hand and crashing down to the floor of the Dodge. I’d probably be still there now otherwise.

So off to the camp ground – this is at a place called Mactaquac about 20kms outside Fredericton and close to the big dam for the hydro-electric power station. This has created a huge lake and the campground is on the shores of the lake.

deer camp ground mactaquac provincial park new brunswickIt’s a wilderness campsite run by the Province of New Brunswick and so there is a good deal of wildlife hanging around and because it’s protected, it doesn’t have too much of a fear of man.

Consequently there was quite a deputation of Strawberry Moose’s friends and admirers from previous years awaiting his arrival, all keen to continue their acquaintance.

So I’ve emptied the Dodge and tidied it out, and made tea. Now I’m off to bed for an early night. Of course, you can guess what Strawberry Moose will be doing.

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Saturday 24th August 2013 – I DID SOMETHING LAST NIGHT …

… that I haven’t done for years and years and years – and that was to crash out on the side of the road for a couple of hours durig a journey between Brussels and Pooh Corner. It wasn’t as if it was late either – not even 02:00 and I was only 2 hours away from home as well.

I know that I had a bad night’s sleep last night but that has never bothered me before either so I must be getting old, I reckon. It’s a depressing thought.

Anyway after saying goodbye to Esi I set off for home and straight into an enormous traffic jam in the Bois de la Cambre. There’s a show of some kind there this weekend – we saw them setting it up the other day – and it’s blocked all of the roads. In the end I gave up, did a U-turn and came out of the city on the other side by La Hulpe. But in the queue I was stopped alongside a couple of British builder-type guys and we had a chat – and one of the things they mentioned was that they wanted to buy Caliburn. “Buy Caliburn? You can’t do that – he’s part of the family” I told them.

Once on the motorway the journey was quite uneventful except at the péage. With it being the height of the tourist season and all kinds of foreigners on the road they are manned …“personned” – ed and the girl, having had a good look at Caliburn, charged me half the price of what the automatic system charges me. I shall have to look into this. THen off for fuel at Melun ad out on the other side until I fell asleep.

But no issues this morning and I was back here for 07:30. I’m not overgrown – Liz’s Agent Orange stuff has done the trick and there’s thick luxuriant grass now – and I’ve had a slow day of unpacking, repacking, crashing out and configuring my new computer. But here’s a thing – the ew one is more-or less the same as the old one but of the 500GB hard drive only 418GB is available as opposed to 451GB of the older hard drive. THat means the secret file space for recording all of your keystrokes has ow goe up to over 80GB – one sixth of the drive’s capacity. THis Government paranoia thing is getting completely out of hand.

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