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Friday 28th September 2012 – WE WERE RADIOING …

… today

And just for a change I was up with the alarm clock – I’ve been just a little lazy just recently.

After breakfast I went off to Marcillat-en-Combraille to record my Radio Anglais rock music programmes for Radio Tartasse for the month of November – we are trying to keep a good two months in advance.

Back here afterwards I had yet another quick clean-out of Caliburn. Somewhere is the spare battery for the Nikon D5000 camera and I reckoned that if I was going to be on a roll for finding stuff I might as well try to find that too.

But no such luck as yet. That needs further work, I reckon.

While we are on the subject of finding stuff, on the way down to Liz’s to pick her up for Gerzat the Nokia phone rang – it was Liz reminding me about this afternoon.

But that goes to prove that the SIM card works, and so does the old Nokia and so that’s progress of some sort. And also that Liz is still reading my blog. Anyway at least I’m wired to the world again.

At Gerzat we ran through the 5 Radio Anglais radio programmes for Radio Arverne in no time at all. Bernard was squeezing us in between a couple of other things and so we had to get a move on.

We were back at Liz and Terry’s for before 17:00 and that doesn’t happen too often.

Tomorrow, if I don’t fall asleep again, I’ll be off to Commentry.

The weather has improved again and it might be nice tomorrow, so I’ll go for a swim if I’m lucky.

-2

Monday 24th September 2012 – WE HAD SOMETHING …

… of a change of plan today.

I did manage to crawl out of my stinking pit and make it to Marcillat-en-Combraille in time for recording our Radio Anglais programmes for Radio Tartasse this morning.

And after that, Nan met us and we all went for a coffee as she needed to pick our collective brains about an initiative that she has for the nouvels arrivants.

From there usually it’s down to Liz’s for lunch and then off to Gerzat for our Radio Arverne round of Radio Anglais.

And as I was following Liz down the road I gently mused to myself “wouldn’t it be funny if she put her foot on the brakes and I ran into the back of her car”.

And even as I spoke, she did just that and I very nearly did.

However, when we arrived at Liz’s, we discovered that Candace from Radio Arverne had phoned. The machinery had broken down and so we couldn’t record today. Could we come back some other time?

And so I went back home and worked on the photos that I had taken this weekend.

And as I was preparing to go outside at my usual start time, I listened to the howling wind and the driving rain and it was getting worse and worse and so I stayed up here and had an afternoon off.

I did absolutely nothing at all – not even making any lunch.

Of course it’s a waste of a day and I feel even worse than I did before but, anyway, there you are.

But really, even I know that I can’t afford to mess around like this – I really need to motivate myself as I have a lot to do, but sometimes that’s just how it goes.

I’ll need to work twice as hard tomorrow but somehow I doubt very much whether I will.

I’m off to bed now.

-5

Sunday 23rd September 2013 – AFTER THE DEBACLE …

… that was yesterday, and being still awake at 05:30, it’s no surprise whatever that I had something of a late start this morning.

And the … errr …. 11:30 start meant that the day was over before it had really begun.

I had to be at Marianne’s at 13:00 to set up the stage for this show that started at 16:00. so there was no time to do anything else.

Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze haydn concert church of st bravy pionsat puy de dome franceSetting up of the equipment didn’t take all that long and after the sound check we settled back to listen the music.

We were being treated to a concert of Haydn’s Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze – “The_Seven_Last_Words_of_Christ” – with three violins and a ‘cello.

As you know, it’s not my type of music but even I can recognise quality when I hear it.

Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze haydn concert church of st bravy pionsat puy de dome franceI would rather have a different kind of music as you know, but as I have said before … "and on many occasions too" – ed … around here, you have to take whatever entertainment that is offered, wherever, and whenever you can find it.

The musicians were extremely professional and very well-rehearsed. They certainly gave the music a good haydn. The packed crowd in the church certainly appreciated the performance too.

It all made for an extremely enjoyable afternoon, I have to say

Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze haydn concert church of st bravy pionsat puy de dome franceWith having set up the sound quite quickly, it gave me a god opportunity to have a look around the church.

Of course I’ve been here before, but I’ve never had much of an opportunity to go for a good prowl around.

And I’m glad that I did, because for a modern church (built in 1888 which is new for around here), it is surprisingly interesting and there’s a lot to see.

Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze haydn concert church of st bravy pionsat puy de dome franceThe thing that you’ll notice about this church is that it is not aligned in the more-traditional east-west direction. And there’s a reason for this.

This isn’t the original site of the church – that can be found across the square near where the steps down to the old market place are.

The church that was there was disaffected, like all churches were, during the French Revolution. It was used as a store for saltpetre.

Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze haydn concert church of st bravy pionsat puy de dome franceSaltpetre is however extremely corrosive and during a survey of the structural stability of the church some years later, they discovered that the saltpetre had eaten away all of the structure of the church and it was totally unsafe.

Not only had the church to be demolished immediately, they couldn’t rebuilt on the same site. The site where the church might be found today was the only empty plot of land in the centre of the town, and so they had to build the church around the plot, not the other way around.

Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze haydn concert church of st bravy pionsat puy de dome franceEven more interesting was the fact that it was the feast of St Bravy

He was an abbott on the 8th Century and is the patron saint of the church. And with it being his feast day, his skull, one of the relics of the church, was actually on display for all to see.

This led to one of these fascinating conversations that only ever happen once in a lifetime
Marianne – “it’s a very small skull, don’t you think?”
Our hero – “it’s probably the skull of St Bravy when he was a small child”.

Radio rehearsing came next with Liz, and a lovely stuffed courgette meal later, back here to carry on working.

Printing out the notes for tomorrow produced nothing at all and as I’m too tired right now to do anything about it, I changed the font colour to blue and now I have blue notes. I’ll have to look at this black ink cartridge when I feel more like it.

Right now I need to sort out some music for our radio programmes tomorrow if I can manage to stay awake, and then I’ll be off to bed.

I just hope that I remember to wake up.

-4

Tuesday 18th September 2012 – I’M WHACKED!

Yes, cutting wood is not necessarily all that easy.

Especially when you have as much to do as we did. We had Terry’s Ifor Williams trailer (about 5mx2m) stacked 1m high of wood, and then about another 3 or 4 cubic metres in his van.

We started at about 10:00 and by 17:30 the wood was finished – and so were we!

cutting wood caliburn les guis virlet puy de dome franceAll cut into 30cm lengths and split where necessary, and there’s about 3 or 4 cubic metres in the back of Caliburn.

I could have had much more than that but Caliburn was right down on the suspension and the tyres were bulging so that’ll do me for now.

That should last me all this winter and then some more.

Another problem that I need to face is that I have nowhere to store it. But then again, I would rather have that problem than the problem of having no wood in the middle of winter.

And it was certainly nice coming back home with the smell of newly cut wood percolating through the bulkhead from the back.

Mind you, it was hard to start to move again after sitting down. I wasn’t going to put a row or two of mortar on the wall, that’s for sure – even if it hadn’t been raining.

I’m not sure how I’ll be feeling tomorrow either.

Still, this was a good deal and I’m quite happy about it – and doesn’t that make a change these days?

-2

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

Sunday 26th August 2012 – TODAY DIDN’T WORK …

… out like it was supposed to.

pelerinage st avit la cellette puy de dome franceThe morning bit went OK, though.

The first port of call was to La Cellette down the road, because today is the Pélerinage de St Avit – the Pilgrimage.

St Avit was the Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand in 570-something and his claim to fame was that at the time when th village suffering from one of these mysterious infantile epidemics, he summoned up a Spring, the water of which apparently cured the children.

pelerinage st avit la cellette puy de dome franceThis was something that was classed as a miracle and so every 2nd Sunday after 15th August the well is blessed and a statue of St Avit is paraded around the village.

Hordes of children come to the pilgrimage, especially those whose medical condition isn’t so good. They are presumably hoping for a similar miracle as that which happened 1450 years ago.

But something that Liz and Terry said later on in the day made me think, which is a rare event, I know.

With the current state of the National Health Service and other medical services in the United Kingdom, praying for a miracle is probably just as effective as a means of cure that any kind of treatment dished out in a British hospital by the NHS might be.

cordier traditional rope maker fete du village st maigner puy de dome franceFrom La Cellette, Marianne and I went on down the road to St Maigner.

This is our final pot d’acceuil of the tourist season and I can’t say that I’m sad about it. These persistent early starts have been wearing me out.

The attraction here was not a musical turn but a rope-maker, who spent the session teaching people to use his rope-making machine.

renault juvaquatre 1949 break fourgonnette fete du village st maigner puy de dome franceMy attention however was distracted by the vehicle in which the cordier arrived. And isn’t it beautiful?

It’s a 1949 Renault Juvaquatre, and what’s interesting about this is that it’s not the more usual saloon but an estate car.

The Juvaquatres were inspired by the Opel Olympia that had been released in 1935, and Renault quickly set down to work on a similar car. So quickly that it made its appearance at the Paris Motor Show in 1937.

renault juvaquatre 1949 break fourgonnette fete du village st maigner puy de dome franceSerious production had hardly begun before the Second World War intervened and it was not until 1946 that serious production began.

They filled the streets from then on for many years and you can still see them about on the roads very occasionally even today.

You aren’t likely to see an estate car – a break – version though. They are as rare as hen’s teeth and it’s been ages since I’ve seen one like that.

Paradoxically, when the Juvaquatre was replaced by the much more modern and legendary 4CV – the quatre chevaux – in 1951, they realised that they couldn’t make a van – camionette – or a break out of it because of the rear engine configuration.

Consequently, they reintroduced the Juvaquatre break and production kept on going until the quatrelle was launched in 1960

fete du village st maigner puy de dome franceWe did actually have some music though – it wasn’t all quiet.

Someone from the village produced an old wind-up gramophone and a collection of 78s and spent a happy morning there winding up the music.

It was all good stuff too – the traditional type of French accordion music that you would hear almost everywhere in the 1940s and 1950s and which has sadly long-departed from the scene

I was back home for lunch and then I waited for a phone call  – and waited, and waited. I had arranged to meet up with someone so that we could go together to the Virlet brocante but i didn’t get the call.

And to tell you the truth I fell into the Arms of Morpheus at about 16:00 – I really don’t know what’s up with me these days.

At Liz and Terry’s, Liz and I rehearsed our radio shows and after tea we discussed a few plans and projects that we might undertake whenever we have some free time – whenever that might be.

Tomorrow we have our recording sessions, and after that it’s back to work.

-1

Thursday 9th August 2012 – WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY!

And I’m not just talking about the weather either, although that was certainly superb.

This morning was an early start and that found me in Montaigut-en-Combraille with Terry and Rob where we spent a pleasant 90 minutes visiting a semi-derelict building in the town.

We have big plans for this – well, actually we don’t, but the whole purpose of being there this morning was to measure it up and then draw up big plans for it.
Never mind a cunning plan, we will have several cunning plans for this place.

While Terry and Rob went off to chat amongst themselves I went off to the mairie to have a chat with the mayor of Montaigut-en-Combraille about what our intentions are.

Surprisingly (or maybe not, because times are changing in France when there is a question of foreign money being invested in these small semi-abandoned rural towns) she was quite co-operative and gave me loads of help, even introducing me to her deputy who was the kind of person who would really take an interest in this kind of project.

Back home, I started to turf out of the lean-to all of the accumulated breeze blocks, large stones and so on that I won’t be using again up there so that there would be plenty of space for me to move around.

But then the weather intervened – in the sense that by 13:00 the batteries were fully-charged and the water was heating up.

With all of this surplus energy around, out came the big drill and YESSSSSSSSSSS I finally pushed the core drill right through the wall and into the house.

I’ve even managed to feed the plastic pipe through the wall and so now, next time that it’s too wet to work, I’ll be running three sets of cables through the tube – a 230-volt power line, a 12-volt power line and a 12-volt light line, and then starting to wire everything up

This afternoon I was round at Liz and Terry’s doing the rear brakes on her car. Pretty straightforward of course but I was having issues with fitting the springs what with a lime burn on my thumb – how I managed that on Monday after all this time without one is another one of those total mysteries.

So tomorrow I’ll be fitting the woodwork for the windows and painting it all (I still have tons of this excellent LIDL wood treatment stuff), and then sorting out some wood to make a fascia panel across the exposed ends of the roof chevrons to keep the weather out of the ends of the chevrons.

That wood will be painted too.

I’ll measure up for the glass fit what guttering that I have lying around, and then on Saturday I’ll go into Commentry to buy the glass and the rest of the guttering.

Coming on in leaps and bounds now!

-2

Friday 3rd August 2012 – I DIDN’T DO …

… anything at all on the wall today.

At about 09:30 while I was working on my website Liz rang to say that the brake parts had come for her car.

So after working on the website until lunchtime I made myself a few butties and then had lunch in Caliburn on the way down the road.

Of course, when there is a choice of 4 or 5 types of rear brake shoe it’s easy to choose the wrong one, isn’t it? That’s what we found out after we had dismantled one side of the car.

But at least it gave us an opportunity to look at how it all worked and to give it all a really good clean.

The front brakes were another matter. We had the right disc pads and after the retaining pins had been freed off, we set to work. Or at least, we tried to. The outer right-hand pad was seized in the caliper and looked for all the world as if it had never been used.

That took quite some freeing off but eventually I managed.

Then after spending a while freeing off the piston and cleaning everything off, a little copper grease lubricated everything and it re-assembled quite nicely.

As for the left-hand side, I removed the retaining pins, and as soon as I did that, the friction lining off the outer pad fell off the car, leaving the backing plate behind.

No wonder the car was making strange noises and doing weird things when Liz applied the brakes.

All of that needed a really good clean and the piston in the caliper freeing off, and then it all went back together quite easily

Anyway, now it all works fine, stops like it’s supposed to, and all the strange noises have gone. I’m glad I did all that.

Liz cooked a nice tea and made me some spicy tomato chutney to bring home as a reward. That was really nice.

But seeing what passes for garage mechanics around here, I can see me turning the clock back to where I was in the late 1980s.

What I need first of all is a little workshop.

I shall have to do something about that. I may well be on to something here. 

-1

Tuesday 31st July 2012 – I’VE BEEN OUT …

… all day and so I missed the glorious weather.

142.2 amp-hours in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load for the surplus electrical energy that I create, meaning that the water temperature rose from 44°C to off the scale (over 70°C) during the day.

And it was still over 70°C when I came back at 22:00. That must have been hot.

But today I was at Liz and Terry’s finishing off Liz’s car.

And we reassembled it and much to everyone’s surprise, it fired up straight away and ran (so Liz says) better than it has run for a while.

We took it for a test-drive and it seemed to be fine, although the brakes are a little “hit and miss”, so we ordered new brakes all round and we’ll fit those when they arrive.

We also changed the dampers on the back as they were rather soft and there was a pair hanging around.

And here’s a surprise!

Too much slack in the 19mm socket, and yet an 18mm was too small. This led to a rummage around in the old toolbox and a 3/4″ AF socket was produced – and that fitted perfectly.

Imperial bolts on a 2000 FIAT – who would ever have thought that!

Anyway, Liz reckons that the ride has stiffened up considerably and that is good news too. As a reward, she cooked a good dinner and made some vegan chocolate brownies for me.

The car had better run alright after all of this.

-1

Tuesday 24th July 2012 – CALIBURN DIDN’T FLY …

… home as quickly as he normally does from Liz and Terry’s this evening.

Hardly surprising – there’s half a tonne of stones in the back.

You know how I’m rebuilding the wall of the lean to and how I’m running out of stones – it just so happens that Terry has a barn-full that need moving

So having had an early start at … gulp … 06:40 this morning I was round at Liz and Terry’s for shortly after 09:00 and we set to work to dismantle the engine on the FIAT.

And while it was comparatively straightforward, it took absolutely ages because there are all kinds of complications – cables and wires and plastic housings in the way and to take one thing off you need to remove two other things and to remove those two other things you need to move four other things, and so on. 

Highlight had to be taking off the plastic shroud that covers the timing belt cover.

Undo all of the screws and still the blasted thing won’t move.
Jack up the car and take off the wheel to see why …. ahhh, screw actually holds on the plastic mudguard.
After much manoeuvring, off comes the plastic mudguard, to find that the screw we are looking for is just half an inch away from the mudguard screw, but the mudguard is covering it so you can’t see it until you take off the mudguard. Why they couldn’t put the screw through the plastic mudguard from the outside to save us half an hour’s work I really don’t know.

So guess what I’ll be doing with an electric drill when I come to reassemble it

Yes, not reassembled yet. But everything is cleaned and smoothed down and ready.

What’s holding us up is that for doing many things, such as taking the plugs out with the cylinder head in situ, it’s near-on impossible and so seeing as we have the cylinder head off, we’ve ordered a full service kit and we’ll change everything before we reassemble it.

That way, it’s all done and dusted, and ready for the road. 

-3

Monday 23rd July 2012 -171.4 AND 160.1 AMP-HOURS …

… of solar energy in bank 1 and bank 2 respectively might not be a new record (although it isn’t far off), but 154 amp-hours of that being surplus and hence being diverted into the dump load (the hot water tank) – now, that definitely is.

And having emptied out the hot water from the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load, which was still at an indecent temperature and filled up the tank this morning with cold water, that brought the water temperature down to just a mere 39°C.

And by the time that this 154 amp-hours of solar energy had finished, it was enough to push the temperature of the water off the scale – ie over 70°C.

Now that is impressive.

The temperature of the water in the solar shower tank may well only have been 30°C, but 5 litres of water out of the dump load took it right up to 38.5°C and I had yet another lovely shower.

And I’m all clean now, just for a change.

Mind you, I wasn’t half dirty earlier on.

This morning, after my 07:00 start (despite only going to bed at 02:30), a leisurely breakfast and an hour or so on the laptop, I went round to Marianne’s to move the International Library from her friend’s garage to an empty room at François’ at Barrot.

That was enough to make anyone filthy

From there it was off to LIz and Terry’s to pick up Liz and then off to Gerzat to record the Radio Anglais programmes for Radio Arverne.

And as well as the 5 that we had planned, we needed to do a 6th as Bernard had somehow managed to lose the one for this week. And it’s not very pleasant in the heat up there in their attic.

That’s it, really. Quite busy but nothing much to show for it.

I’m off to bed now, another ridiculously early night as it’s another early start tomorrow.

I’m changing the cylinder head gasket on Liz’s car.

-3

Sunday 22nd July 2012 – IT’S NOT EVERY …

… day that I’m up and about at 08:30 and having breakfast.

For it to happen on a Sunday, when I don’t have an alarm clock set, is really quite extraordinary.

Mind you, it’s just as well because between then and 10:00 I had three telephone calls

  1. Radio Tartasse telling me that the Monday morning session is cancelled
  2. Marianne reminding me about our morning at St Hilaire
  3. Rosemary who wanted to talk about cheese

Just imagine me being polite on the telephone early on a Sunday morning! But then they were all important, especially the one about cheese!

domaine de baudry st hilaire puy de dome franceMarianne is doing this Sunday “tour of the communes” of the Canton of Pionsat thing this summer, and I’ve been tagging along as technician and general labourer. Marianne isn’t as young as she used to be – which goes for all of us.

Today was the turn of the commune of St Hilaire to be honoured by our presence.

But we weren’t actually “in” the commune (although we were, if you understand what I mean”. We were out in one of the Lieux Dits – the hamlets associated with the Bourg – the Lieu Dits of Baudry

domaine de baudry puy de dome franceHere at Baudry is the “Domain de Baudry”. It’s a pisciculture or fish farm where they rear trout and carp for sale or for release into the river system.

It’s very popular with fishermen of course, and everyone can try his hand at it, whether you are an experienced fisherman or a rank beginner. Even the equipment is available to hire.

And it’s not as if you are going to have much difficulty in finding a fish, is it?

misha ann dave domaine de baudry puy de dome franceThe place was absolutely heaving today, and I hoped that they had all come for our exposition and not just for the fishing.

There were loads of people whom I knew too, including Anne and Mike and daughter Misha from up the road in St Fargeol. Misha had tried her hand at fishing and I had spent much of the morning watching her on her maiden fishing expedition.

And to everyone’s surprise and delight, she actually caught five fish! Well, well done Misha! I hope that mum prepared the chips for tea.

fanfare de pionsat domaine de baudry puy de dome franceMusical entertainment was provided by the fanfare de Pionsat – the Pionsat jazz band.

We have encountered them before and I remember saying at the time that they are more noted for their enthusiasm than their technical abiity. And that still holds true today.

However, as I said when watching the rock band at St Gervais d’Auvergne last month, the comments of Samuel Johnson are relevant – “It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all”.

This isn’t a big city where you can choose from 200 musicians. You have to take people as you find them. They do their best, we are all grateful for the effort that they make and we all have fun.

What more can anyone expect?

After dropping off Marianne back at Pionsat I had a couple of hours off in the afternoon (well, it IS Sunday) and then went round to Liz and Terry’s to go over our radio programmes.

Mushroom risotto was on the menu too – a huge improvement on the last mushroom risotto that I had, the famous one at Hardon House in Newport Pagnell, that looked as if someone had eaten it before I had.

Ginger cake for pudding too! That really made for an excellent Sunday.

-6

Monday 11th June 2012 – IT’S ASTONISHING.

Today, the weather was so much better. Only 14mm of rain.

So once again I awoke to the sound of a torrential downpour but no staying in bed today. We had to be a-radioing at 10:00 and I had a lot to do before I could set out.

But it wasn’t as if it mattered any. The woman who does the engineering for Radio Tartasse at Marcillat-en-Combraille forgot that we were coming and so we had something of a wait until she arrived.

The best-made plans of mice and men, and all that.

But eventually we managed to record our 6 weeks of programmes. Luckily I did 2 rock programmes before I went away and so they are up-to-date too.

Back at Liz’s, I was very kindly permitted to have a shower and to wash some clothes. This depressing, miserable weather has meant that I have had no hot water for a week and more, and so I’m really grateful for the good friends that I have.

No need to worry about quantity, as I have said before. It’s the quality that counts.

Down in Gerzat at Radio Arverne this afternoon we did another 6 weeks-worth of programmes and so that’s everything recorded until the end of July.

On the way back, we stopped off at the Carrefour in Riom to buy some of these ethylotests. The law in France from July 1st is that every car should have a breathalyser fitted for the use of the driver and the supermarkets are selling them for peanuts. I bought a kit of 2 for €2:00 and you can’t say fairer than that.

I also had another bit of good luck there.

Last year I bought a neat 25-litre 12-volt coolbox for Caliburn for €27:95 or something like that and it’s useful for when I’m out shopping and when I’m on my travels – I need a place to store the cold food in the hot van.

I drove all around Canada just now wishing that I had had one in the car there too, and here they are in the Carrefour again – this time for €24:90.

So I’ve bought another one and I’ll pack it in the suitcase and fill it with clothes or something next time that I go over and then I can leave it in my storage unit over there in Montreal to keep the cool food and drink in.

It’s MoT time for Caliburn too and so we called in at the testing centre on the way back. Caliburn of course passed with flying colours and so we are all happy

At the Anglo-French group it was nice to see Clotilde back from Annemasse.

Yes, I’ve been rushed off my feet today and not had a moment to myself. That’s why I’m blogging early – I’m off to bed in a minute for an early night.

-1

Sunday 10th June 2012 – FLAMING JUNE?

It’s more like blasted November right now.

It’s been flaming raining all flaming day. 17mm (not cm, Krys) has fallen so far and a quick referral shows that since I came back from Canada there has been only one rain-free day.

I woke up at 09:20 (and that’s early for a Sunday, isn’t it?) and heard the torrential downpour that was going on outside. That was enough to make me turn over and go back to sleep and there I stayed until a much-more-reasonable 11:30.

No point in getting up in this weather.

After breakfast I watched a film while I reviewed the latest edition of the magazine that I receive that gives me info that I need for the radio programmes.

A few likely topics in there as well as a few extra questions to add to the “20 Questions” that I keep in reserve for if ever we are caught short-handed for news.

After lunch I started to tidy up a little in here. Only a little – I can’t get the hang of this “tidying-up” lark. But I did make a useful discovery.

The wooden box that you may remember me building to keep the fruit and veg in makes a useful and quite comfortable seat and so I’ve moved that into the kitchen in the verandah where it ought to be, and put a load of stuff in it.

This evening I went round to Liz and Terry’s to rehearse the radio programmes. 6 weeks for each of the two radio stations. That should take us up to the end of July which is comforting, and keeps us out of mischief.

Liz made some really nice chick-pea and spinach curry as well as a really tasty cake.

I asked Terry if he could order some ink for me for my printyer seeing as how I have run out, but he did better than that. A few of us bought the identical printer a while ago, one of these Epson SX115 all-in-one machines that were on special offer at €49.

While they work just fine, they are rather sloooooow. So Liz, who has to print out loads of stuff for her teaching, has bought a new laser printer that does 17 pages per minute rather than the Epson’s 17 minutes per page (that really is unfair – there is nothing at all wrong with these Epsons in an ordinary domestic environment, especially at that price and at the price that the ink refills are available).

Conseuently I’ve ended up with a box of inks and a spare printer, for which I am extremely grateful.

And it’s still flaming raining.

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Friday 20th April 2012 – We’ve been recording today.

Liz needs to make an urgent departure for the UK and I’m off on me ‘ols, so today was the only day left for recording our radio programmes. It was just as well that I spent that week a couple of weeks ago churning out a pile of stuff to keep in reserve because it’s currently being used.

And how!

We recorded 9 radio programmes today which is something of a record. 3 for Radio Tartasse and 6 for Radio Arverne – that all covers a period of 6 weeks and so takes us through to mid-June when we should all be back again, unless my aeroplane crashes, one of my ferries hits an iceberg or I run away with a couple of nubile bimbos.

And you’ve no idea just how tiring it is doing all of this. So much so that I crashed out for 10 minutes or so at Liz’s when we returned. But very kindly, Liz let me have a shower there, which has saved me a journey to Neris and the swimming baths and means that I can spend all day here tidying up. No point in going to the shops when I don’t really need anything before I go. For my Sunday pizza I’ll make one on a bread base with some mushrooms out of a tin, a chili, some olives and tomato. What can be simpler?

Back here, I watched a cattle – chronologically-disadvantaged-person film (well, hardly, seeing as how the action in the film is taking place in 1951) about which I have spoken before at great length. It’s Riders of the Whistling Pines starring Gene Autry and what makes the film particularly noteworthy is that it concerns the widespread use of DDT and heroes and villains. The heroes are the ones who want to spray the forest with DDT and the villains wre the environmentalists who prophesy that the waters will be poisoned and all of the fish, cattle, and everything else that comes into contact with it will die a horrible death. And it’s all accopanied with scenes of the goodies flying their aeroplanes and the huge clouds of DDT that are emitted therefrom.

Yes, imagine that today!

And what with one thing and another I was searching around the internet for a group called “Eyes of Blue” – a Welsh rock band featuring inter alia “Taff” Williams and Phil Ryan (later of Man) and “Pugwash” Weathers, later of Gentle Giant. And astonishingly, their two albums, Crossroads/in Fields of Ardath are available on Amazon. And so that set me off and I discovered some even more obscure albums from other Welsh bands of the late 60s and early 70s likewise available. And so I’ve been spending my money again. And more than maybe I ought to as well, but these albums are quite rare and extremely sought-after and so copulatum expensium, as we Pompeiians say … "you said that the other day" – ed.

Having these albums in my letter box waiting for me might encourage me to come back home after my trip. 

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