Tag Archives: st eloy les mines

Friday 14th August 2009 – WE HAD A GOOD DAY TODAY.

kwikstage scaffolding damp proof membrane plywood les guis virlet puy de dome france Firstly we dismantled the scaffolding that was in the roof space.
Secondly we fitted the rafters.
Thirdly we took one of the rafters out and replaced it with another new one that we xylophened and painted
Fourthly we cemented the rafters in position
Fifthly we fitted some of the hardboard on the roof
Sixthly we went to Montlucon to get some more hardboard, the guttering (and why have they run out of guttering joints AGAIN? Tons of everything else but no blasted joints for the second time) and a few other bits and pieces
Seventhly we fitted the rest of the hardboard
Eighthly we fitted the damp-proof membrane (white this time as we’ve run out of black)

Terry piddled off after that (who can blame him? He’s worked hard) and I measured up, cut, xlophened and put the first coat of paint on the fascia boards.

Tomorrow I’ll be fitting the fascia boards, loosely attaching the guttering (in the absence of joints) and then starting the tiling. And in between all that I need to go to St Eloy for shopping.

And talking of Terry, I want you all to know how well I treat my workforce. Hottest day of the year so far (38.6 degrees and almost 84 amp-hours from the solar panels on the roof of the house). And so I treated him to a bottle of ice-cold coke. Yes, none of your 22 cents on a bottle of water – a whole 1 Euro 50 cents I spent today.

My generosity knows no bounds.

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Saturday 8th August 2009 – DOESN’T CALIBURN LOOK SMART?

caliburn french number plates les guis virlet puy de dome franceThe postie came by this morning and she dropped off a letter. This was the definitive insurance certificate for Caliburn.

This had Caliburn’s new registration details on it and so I put his new numberplates on him. We’re all legal now.

This means I’ll have to pay more attention to speed limits and the like as I’ll no longer be able to drift past them with “sorry, I’m a foreigner”. But such is life I suppose.

Taking this time out meant that I only put two loads of cement into the wall this morning and that seemed to disappear without trace. I can see me thinking again about my timetable and having a dramatic change of plan.

This afternoon in St Eloy I spent about 33 Euros, but that was due in part to LIDL having brought back into stock their trail mix and crushed nuts and the like, things that I put in my home-made muesli. It’s been out of stock for ages and so I stocked up today just in case this is only a temporary supply.

But the bad news is that the special offer rows are reducing and reducing – looks like the weekly promotions are running out of steam.

And the Carrefour is even worse. Their stock is getting less and less and judging by the length of the queues at the only two checkouts open, the staff is starting to disappear now. I wonder how long this arrangement will continue?

There was a brocante in St Eloy too, and you know how much of a fan I am of French brocantes. But this one had just 10 stalls, some of which were professional overpriced nonsense and the rest were just junk.

Nothing of interest for me so I came home and did some tidying up for my visitor due at 18:00 and who rang me up to say that he would be coming on Tuesday instead. That was that as far as I was concerned and so I came in, had a coffee and looked at the football results.

Crewe Alexandra lost at home to Dagenham and Redbridge, but then I suppose that it’s always difficult when you have to play against two teams at once. But I can see how this season is going to develop and it makes me wish that I’d carried on with the pointing.

Ahhh well.

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Wednesday 5th August 2009 – TODAY, I CHANGED THE HABITS OF A LIFETIME

kwikstage scaffolding les guis virlet puy de dome france My usual working hours here are from 09:30 to 1400 and 15:00 to 18:00 or 18:30. So here I was today, 21:00 when I climbed down off the scaffolding.

But then again I was in full flight painting the front of the house and I totally lost track of time. Mind you, it was so hot at 14:00 when I stopped for lunch that I ate inside the house and stayed here until 16:00 when it cooled down. 35.5 degrees in the shade, and off the scale (more than 40 degrees) in the direct sunlight.

As well as having done more than half the painting, I fitted the fascia board and the guttering. Many people don’t agree with fascia boards when doing roofing (especially round here) on the grounds that they just collect the water, rot away and then drop off.

But that’s exactly the point. If it wasn’t for the fascia board then the exposed ends of the rafters would collect the water, rot away and drop off and if anyone thinks that in 10 years time I’m taking all the roof off to replace the rafters then they have another think coming.

We didn’t buy enough guttering – there’s about a metre short. And I also need two joining pieces. I won’t have time to go back to Montlucon to look for them on Saturday so I’ll have to see what St Eloy can offer.

And in other news, having gone to the bank yesterday to give them a copy of Caliburn’s log book, I had a letter from the bank today reminding me that Caliburn’s temporary certificate has expired and if I don’t give them a copy of Caliburn’s log book by 15th August they’ll cancel the insurance.

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Saturday 1st August 2009 – Saturday is a sort-of day of rest …

… so I didn’t set the alarm clock this morning.

And when I woke up my mobile phone had gone flat and so I didn’t have a clue about the time, so seeing as I was wide awake I reckoned it was getting on for 10:00 so I hauled myself out of the stinking pit to find that it was 08:15!

After breakfast I went up onto the scaffolding at the side of the house and gave it all a really good soaking in xylophene and then walloped some of the brown staining all over it – nice and thick. That won’t rot away any time soon.

By now it was 11:30 and as there’s not much to eat round here I wandered off into St Eloy and the LIDL and Carrefour. I didn’t meet Bill today (just for a change) and once stocked up (to a value of 20 Euros) I dropped by on George but he was going out so I came home.

In the afternoon I cleaned up my room (you’ve no idea how much rubbish was in here that had gathered over the last 4 weeks) and the verandah so I have places to eat ond cook again. All of this was done to music as I coupled up the hi-fi seeing as the power situation is resolving itself more permanently. Even now at 02:00 I have Lindisfarne going on in the background.

And I noticed on Facebook that Terry was praying for rain. And he got his wish almost as soon as he posted for we had a tropical storm. In 3 hours or so about 17mm of rain fell on here. That’s some going. I’m glad we got the roof on in here beforehand.

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