Tag Archives: late night

Friday 31st July 2015 – I’M LOSING MY GRIP!

I’ve done something really silly today and I’m still bewildered as to how I managed it.

I was busy doing some electrical wiring when I glanced at the clock.

18:15! Blimey! The shops will be shut in 75 minutes!

So I quickly changed my clothes, leapt into Caliburn and head for the hi … errr … St Eloy.

The road down the hill from Montaigut was packed with traffic and I did wonder what it was all doing at that time of evening. But on the other hand, LIDL and Carrefour were comparatively empty. LIDL did have some 12-volt LED bulbs (it doesn’t now, of course) and Carrefour had some soya deluxe desserts reduced on special offer.

I picked up some cash ready for my voyage in 2 weeks time, and then drove home.

While I was organising a few things the stop-work alarm went off. 19:00.

What?

Yes, 19:00. It appears that it wasn’t 18:15 when I shot of to St Eloy but actually … errr … 17:15. D’ohhh!

I blame last night, though. I couldn’t sleep and I was still wide-awake and working on the laptop at 03:30. And with an alarm at 07:30, no wonder I’ve been feeling rather feeble today.

I had the usual sessions on the laptop and then after lunch, stripped off all of the masking from the door, fitted the air vents and wired in the socket at the head of the stairs on the landing so that I can plug the livebox in there. And that was where I was at.

But the air vents looks good in the door. The idea is that warm air heading up the stairs (once I finally have the fire going downstairs, whenever that might be) will go in through the vent at the bottom of the door, rise up through the shower room and out through the air vent that you might remember me drilling out all that time a couple of years ago. And that will stop condensation building up too.

So tomorrow, if the parts for this Hyundai haven’t come, I’m sure I’ll find some other things to do around the house. But do you realise – in 2 weeks time, I won’t be here?

But then again, I’m not all here now judging by my performance this evening, am I?

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Thursday 23rd July 2015 – I DIDN’T GET …

… anything like done what I was hoping to do today.

For a start, I failed to beat the alarm clock this morning. I was all set to go to bed nice and early when someone with whom I needed to speak came on line. So I went for a little chat. And I would probably still be there chatting now had the battery not gone flat at 02:05.

So it was rather a bemused and befuddled Yours Truly who struggled out of his stinking pit this morning.

Of the computing jobs that I’ve been trying to catch up, I’ve finished one of them, which is a big sigh of relief. But another – tidying up the blog entries for my 2010 journey to Canada, I’ve hit the part where I was writing in shorthand with no photos, due to being out in the depths of Newfoundland somewhere. So with all of that, it’s taking much longer than anticipated. But to see where I’ve reached, just go to this link and work backwards. If you want to comment on any of the posts, do so on here.

And that reminds me – when I started editing this blog to correct the errors from when it was transferred here, I was having 10 and 12 comments a day regularly. Today, even though readership has tripled, the comments are now at about 10 or 12 per year.

Don’t be shy – if you have something to ask or something to say, then make a comment. If you are new, it won’t appear immediately until I’ve approved it, but that’s no reason to stop you.

After lunch I started to mask off in the shower room, and I’m nowhere near finishing that – that’s the problem with buying doors with small glass panels. And in any case, Rosemary rang up for a natter for a good half an hour.

And I had to fill in a few gaps in the woodwork – I did that by filling the gaps with wood glue and forcing clean sawdust in with a stiff spatula.

One thing that I had forgotten was to drill the holes in the bottom of the door so that cold air will enter the bathroom and prevent condensation when I’m taking a shower (whenever that might be) – anyway I did that today and that took me up to 19:25 when I knocked off.

And this shower room is never going to be finished – I have a car to dismantle on Monday now.

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Thursday 11th June 2015 – I DUNNO …

… what’s happened this last day or two, but today I’ve had another roaring day with the Radio programmes. In the space of two and a half hours, I sat down and dashed off 2000 words on taxation. And that includes having to read a taxation document written in official French and to translate it in my head as I’ve been going along.

So that’s not like me at all just recently given my lengthy spell of lethargy.

I had a very late night as well and struggled to leave my bed this morning. For the first half hour or so I was all ready to go back to bed, and that’s what makes this morning’s efforts all that more remarkable.

composting toilet beichstuhl fitted installed shower room les guis virlet puy de dome franceI’m glad that I chose light oak for the preparation of the surfaces of the oak worktops that I bought in Eching. I shudder to think how it might have turned out had I bought mid-oak or dark oak.

For the kitchen, I’m going to try to find a transparent surface treatment if I can. The stuff that I have is nothing like as good as this stuff that I bought.

But it has turned out rather well – you can’t deny the quality of the stuff. And here’s the worktop for the beichstuhl all in position with the fitted hinge on the lid covering the sawdust container and also with the bracket and peg to hold the lunette in position.

It’s all worked out rather well.

This afternoon I’ve been plasterboarding, spending much of the time trying to extract the plasterboard sheets from the back of the pile. But anyway, they are out and I’ve now plasterboarded the back wall and half of the wall to the left on the stud wall.

I’ve also fitted the shelf for the “bathroom books”

Tomorrow I’ll hopefully finish the plasterboarding in that corner and then I can start to empty more of the rubbish out of the shower room.

That will give me much more room to work.

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Tuesday 2nd June 2015 – IT WAS HARD …

… to get out of bed this morning. The early start yesterday plus a very late night last night didn’t do much good for my rest, and I was as lethargic as the guy yesterday in the garage.

I was in the middle of doing something last night when I finally went to bed and so after a leisurely start to the day I had to carry on. It took far, far longer that I intended to do it – in fact it took me almost to lunchtime and that was rather a waste of a morning.

And Terry rang up. Did I fancy a trip to Brico Depot? I can’t go anywhere right now as I’m awaiting a phone call from the garage to tell me that Caliburn is ready. But Brico Depot does have something special in the arrivages this week. I only have one decent ladder, and it’s not very long. But this week Brico Depot is selling three-plan 8-metre aluminium ladders at just €99 and so I asked Terry if he wouldn’t mind picking one up.

And now, I have a nice new big ladder (or I will do the next time I go round to Sauret-Besserve).

After lunch, seeing how beautiful it was and there was water at 64°C in the home-made 12 volt immersion heater, so I did a huge load of washing. It needs to be done, of course, and it gave me an opportunity to have another little relax this afternoon.

But I really ought to be working – I can’t keep wasting time like this. And so I’m going to have an early night and a decent sleep and I’ll hopefully get a good start in the morning.

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Friday 17th April 2015 – SO …

… after the vicissitudes of yesterday, it was “keep calm and carry on” today.

But it nearly wasn’t. I shouldn’t have had that coffee when I knocked off yesterday evening because at 02:45 this morning I was still up and about. Serve me right.

And having slept on it, I’ve decided that the next worktop that I fit, I’ll cut it, fit it into position and then build the cupboard around it BEFORE I cut out the insert for the sink. That way, it might just withstand the whole process.

After breakfast, I made a start on the new stud wall. I’m building it downstairs and then I’ll take the bits into the shower room and assemble it. It’s had a couple of design improvements too, there are also the brackets fitted for a couple of shelves, and even though I say it myself, it’s much better-built than its predecessor – the joints are tighter for a start – but so it should be, seeing how I’ve taken more time over it.

By the time knocking off came round, it had all been built, shaped and had a trial fitting. Now, all it needs is for some wood treatment to be applied because the wood has been stored in the same place where the other two bits (that I mentioned yesterday) had been stored.

At the shops, I didn’t meet anyone that I knew, but I had to go and pick up a parcel that was awaiting me – more of this anon. I spent the grand total of €19 in the shops at St Eloy this evening even with a couple of little extras – it’s definitely cheaper here than at the Intermarche in Pionsat.

So now I’m off to bed for an early night. I need one after yesterday.

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Saturday 10th January 2015 – I’M A FIRM BELIEVER …

… that if a thing is destined to happen, it will happen. Regardless of however much input one puts (or doesn’t put) into the whole procedure. It seems to happen time and time again and the only secret of this is, as Jacqueline De Bellefort said in Death on The Nile – “You have to follow your star wherever it leads, even to death itself”.
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And with this in mind, I went off to Commentry this afternoon.

Mind you, I nearly didn’t.

I had made a stunning breakthrough with this 3D program that I’ve been playing with. I had totally given up on the modern version of it ages ago and had gone back to an ancient version, and there I was last night trying to make a 4th Generation character work properly when, all of a sudden, it all clicked into place and I was so engrossed in what I was doing that it was 06:00 this morning before I realised it, and I hadn’t had any tea either.

Consequently, it was 11:20 when I crawled out of my stinking pit and seeing the bright sunlight and clear sky I resolved to go to Commentry and the swimming baths. Pausing only to add a little more filler to the wall where there was a hole or two, at 13:30 I was off on the road.

The pool was a little (just a little) warmer than last time, practically empty and the shower was just as delicious, even though the private showers were closed for maintenance. And seeing that I was only half a mile from Bricomarché, I went off in search of some sunken hinges – I’ll need these for the trapdoor that I’ll be making in a week or so.

While I was there, not only did I find siome hinges that will do the job, I solved the problem of the handrail for the stairs. Some huge screwed eyes, with 16mm holes, and a 2-metre length of some very nice 14mm hemp rope – that will make a lovely handrail.

But here’s the exciting bit, that relates to what I was talking about earlier. I was thinking again about these wooden ends for the plasterboarding. Cutting up pine boards was my original idea but at Montlucon the other week the stuff on offer was rubbish. At Bricomarché the stuff is so much better, the staff is so much more friendly and they have cutting facilities too.

So while I was wandering around turning things over in my mind, I came across the tool sale, and there on offer at just €44:00, was a cheap 600-watt table saw. It was the last one in stock too.

It’s not the ideal thing, but it’s the nearest that I can find and i’ll need to build a table for it if I’m going to cut doors down doors and things like this, but for what I want to do at the moment it’s ideal. I can soon trim down half a dozen floorboards with this.

I went to the new NOZ at Commentry too. I didn’t buy anything exciting but nevertheless it was a good opportunity to have a look round.

Back here, nice and clean for once, I crashed out for an hour or two. And I’m not surprised either. And I’m off to bed in a minute with nice, clean bedding too. And as it’s Sunday tomorrow, I ccan have a nice lie-in.

But I’m glad I followed my star all the way to Bricomarché at Commentry today.

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Monday 15th December 2014 – I’VE FINISHED …

solar energy control panel les guis virlet puy de dome france… the control panel in the barn. At least – it’s never ever going to be finished, as I know from bitter experience, but I’m happy with what I’ve done to date. Just one or two things missing – a timer and a charge controller for the wind turbine (although that’s not something that I’m planning on in the near future) and an electricity meter for the mains electricity, but I’ll have to wait until I go to the UK in order to find one of those as they are big, heavy things and cost a fortune to post.

Mind you, even the simplest thinhgs today were complicated. The hook and eye that I bought from Brico depot were the usual Brico Depot rubbish and I had to put the hook into the vice and compress it in order to stop it flying out of the eye. That was the top panel. The bottom panel is held up by a hasp and staple and the front panel is held up by a length of threaded rod through to the rear, and fastened by a wing nut.

Now I need to make the clock work, and to find the instruction book to find out how to configure the new data recorder.

I also made a start on tidying up, and found the Ryobi Plus One flourescent light that I had mislaid, and I’ve finally after much binding in the marsh managed to undo the giant hole cutter from the long spindle – that which jammed up when I was drilling that hole yhrough the wall 18 months ago.

I had a late night last night – about 03:45 and it was difficult to crawl out of bed at 08:00. I went to Marcillat and Radio Tartasse to record another series of rock programmes and then Liz and I did another month of the usual programmes.

And herein lies a problem. We had time to go for a coffee afterwards, but if you remember last time we were there when we heard that the hotel was closing down – well, it’s now closed. And there’s not another cafe open in the town. It seems that that which I had foretold last year, when Pionsat’s mayor announced his grand plans for that town, has truly come to pass and Marcillat is starting to wither on the vine.

This is sad.

Back here, I passed the rest of the morning working on another rock programme – trying to get myself well in advance, and being inerrupted by the postie who brought me the lights that I had ordered for the trailer. And then, after my butty, I went out and attacked the control panel.

Tonight I made myself another giant aubergine and kidney bean casserole thingy, with enough to keep me going for four days. I enjoy doing this as cooking for the next three days is simply a matter of warming things up. Much as I like cooking, I don’t want to spend too much time over it.

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Saturday 6th December 2014 – I’VE BEEN OUTSIDE …

… just once today. And that was about an hour ago to take the statistics. And much to my surprise, I’ve had just half an amp of electricity today – and that was in the barn. It just shows you the importance of inclining the solar panels at the correct angle. Even though there are 6 solar panels on the roof of the house and just two on the barn, the roof panels are inclined at 48° (the pitch of the roof) whereas the ones on the barn are inclined at 71°, which is exactly what they ought to be (degrees north of the Tropic of Capricorn).

I had a late night last night, just for a change these days, and although I woke up when the alarm went off, one look out of the window convinced me that I was wasting my time. It was snowing just then, and had been for a while, and so I went back to bed.

When I finally did raise myself from the Undead, at 09:20, the snow had changed to light rain, and we had 5mm throughout the day. After breakfast I attacked the next month’s rock music radio programmes and they are now complete. It took me ages though because I’ve had to manufacture another concert as well as a speech, and everything was at different speeds and volumes so all of this needed arranging.

I’m beginning to understand how it was that when the radio station did the engineering, they made such a mess of it. I know the results that I am trying to achieve and it isn’t at all easy. The engineers don’t have a clue so they must have found it impossible.

I’ve also been spending some money again. This plant trailer that I bought with the mini-digger is a decent bit of kit, that’s for sure, but as I said the other day, I don’t know who has been playing with the electrics. The rear lights are add-ons – these really cheap and nasty 3-function lights that cost coppers each. And they don’t work either so there’s an even cheaper and nastier trailer board attached.

I hate trailer boards, especially on good-quality equipment, and so having a good browse around on the internet I’ve found a pair of rear lights – 5-function rear lights – that are such a good fit that they might even be the original equipment.

As well as that, I’ve bought a pair of these tiny LED real numberplate lights and a pair of side marker lights, the type that are on stalks so that they can be fitted on the mudguards to mark the extreme width of the trailer.

Apart from that, I’ve not done much else. It’s not been the weather for it.

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Monday 24th November 2014 – WE WERE RADIOING TODAY.

Just this afternoon though, and that’s just as well because I didn’t wake up until 11:00 today.

I should never have drunk that last cup of coffee at Liz and Terry’s ysterday, because it was long after 06:00 that I went to bed. I’m still having these sleep issues, aren’t I?

After breakfast I went round to Liz and Terry’s, and Liz and I went off to to record our radio programmes for Radio Arverne. We did 5 programmes and that took a bit of arranging as there isn’t going to be a programme for Christmas week. I had anticipated this, however, and with 5 weeks of radio programmes prepared, we had taken a sixth week’s events with us so that we could seamlessly skip the Christmas week.

However, I have been asked to prepare another Christmas special – a one-hour programme of variety and entertainment – and I have just two weeks to do it as well. I shall have to get weaving, won’t I?

On the way home, I fuelled up. Diesel at the Carrefour at Menetrol was just €1.19. That’s the cheapest that I’ve seen it for years and so I squeezed as much in as I could, and I wished that I had taken a container with me too. The fruitshop in Mozac produced a red pepper and yet another pile of grapes. They were delicious too.

I dropped Liz off at home and came back here where I promptly crashed out on the sofa.

I need to do something about these sleep issues.

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Sunday 23rd November 2014 – I HATE HUNTERS

But that of course is quite a usual state of affairs isn’t it? However, after today I hate them even more.

I’d had a coffee last night at the footy, hadn’t I? And so at 04:00 I was still not in bed. I eventually crawled into my stinking pit ready for my Sunday lie-in when at 09:30 the hunters came down the lane. B@$t@rd$. Hounds baying, dogs barking, horns nlowing and firearms discharging. I hate every last one of them.

After my rude awakening I had something of a leisurely morning and then set off to Miremont, making a mental note to bring in the washing when I come home as the weather was clouding over.

Pionsat’s 2nd XI were playing at Miremont and just for a change not only did they have a full team but even a substitute too. And they won at a canter, 6-2, without even breaking sweat. One of the goals was probably the best that I have ever seen at this level – a telling, curling cross into the penalty area and a full-length diving header right across the penalty area from Frederic and he met the ball perfectly with his forehead.

Pionsat also had a new player out, a young lad who was playing his first match. He was nominally a striker and was on the bench at first and he admitted that he had never played at this level before. I gave him the benefit of my advice, such as it is, and the most important thing was, in my opinion, that if he was playing up front, to run after the ball every time that it was kicked into the area because at this level of football, anything is possible in the defence.

And so that was what he did and, sure enough, eventually it paid off. The keeper could only parry a fierce shot and this young lad, running in, reached it first before the keeper could recover, and smashed it into the net. He was delighted, and so was I. It’s not every day that anyone takes any notice of me.

But it was tough on the keeper. He was the best that I have ever seen in Division 4 and ought to be playing in Division One at least. He made half a dozen desperate saves and without him, Pionsat could have had double figures quite easily.

I went round to Liz and Terry’s afterwards to rehearse the radio programmes for tomorrrow, and Liz made a nice spinach, mushroom and chick pea curry. Not only that, I even had a doggy bag of the leftovers, which was really nice.

But two wins out of two for Pionsat this weekend. It’s been a long time since this has happened.

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Tuesday 18th November 2014 – I DON’T KNOW QUITE WHAT HAPPENED …

… last night, but it wasn’t until 06:00 until I was tired enough to go to bed. The only thing that I can thinkof is the cup of coffee that I has with Liz yesterday morning at Marcillat. But surely that can’t be right. Nevertheless, something went wrong yesterday.

Even more surprisingly, I was up at 08:30 – not that I felt much like it. But anyway, there I was.

After breakfast, I set to on the battery box. All of the old breeze blocks that were in the way have now been moved, and the new breeze blocks are cemented in in the correct position. A couple of them needed to be cut and one of the joys of having these new batteries is that even in a dark, gloomy, overcast day like today, the angle grinder whizzed around them with not even a hiccup.

While I was cementing in the breeze blocks, Terry came round. He was looking for a 12mm Allen Key socket for the sump plug on his FIAT. I had to have a good search around but eventually found what I was looking for. We also spent some time having a good chat and he had a look around at the progress that i’ve been making;

I had been struggling for breeze blocks. I have dozens, if not hundreds, of 20mm breeze blocks but I had to have a good scavenge around for some 10mm ones. In the end I had to demolish the raised step into the house and so this afternoon after lunch I built a proper one out of the old stair treads from the stairs that I demolished all those years ago. The circular saw came in handy too, and once again, the new batteries earned their corn.

And tonight, I’ve finally succumbed and lit the fire in here. The temperature dropped to 12.8°C and anyway I had to cook my mega-meal for the coming week. Thsi involved moving the kitchen up here before I knocked off this evening. And I’ve also moved the camping gas stove up here too. I’ve decided that my morning coffee will be much better made up here in the warmth as the winter approaches. It’s supposed to be a bad winter this year, so they say.

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Wednesday 22nd October 2014 – BRRRR!

It looks as if winter has arrived here. Last night the temperature outside dropped to 3.7°C outside, the coldest that it’s been in this latter part of the year. No wonder I didn’t feel much like getting up this morning.

So I had another leisurely morning on the internet and then carried on attacking the attic here. And by the end of the afternoon I finally managed to make a good start on the pile of rubbish that is the desk. I’ve been piling stuff up on there since I din’t know when and this is the one place that I really need to tackle.

We’ll see how it develops.

Rosemary rang up again as there has been another change of plan at her house and she needed to chat about a new project there.

And then, I had a quiet night, although for some reason I found it difficult to get off to sleep and I was still awake at 03:00. I need to do something about this;

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Sunday 12th October 2014 – WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME …

… that you have heard of someone waking up at 16:30 in the afternoon? Well, you’ve heard of it now.

There are three reasons for this.
Firstly, jet-lag counts for a lot of it, even though I’d tried my best to deal with this
Secondly, I should never have had that final cup of coffee at Liz and Terry’s. That didn’t help
Thirdly, with the internet back on, I had a lot to do and I ended up being somewhat carried away.
As a result of all of this, I had the dubious distinction of hearing the alarm clock ring to wake me up before I’d even gone to bed to sleep.

Dawn had long-since broken when I went downstairs to switch off the inverter and take the statistics. There was a high wind blowing too and the big wind turbine on the barn was going round like the clappers. That’s always nice to see. I wired in the 12-volt immersion heater too before I went to bed. If there’s any surplus energy, I want to lay my hands on some of that for sure.

On waking up, I wasn’t sure whether to have breakfast or lunch. Anyway, I decided on breakfast, which saves me having to look for extra bread for Monday.

And then I started on the tidying up – or at least, some of it. I decided while I was away that I need to be much more ruthless here with the stuff that I own and that I’m never ever likely to use. There’s reams of stuff that is simply junk and needs to be disposed of. And there’s other good stuff too that is never ever going to be used and I could generate some income from that if I stick it on the internet.

There wasn’t much time to do very much however, as you have no idea how quickly it’s going dark these days, sO it’s not even correct to say that i’ve made a start.

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Wednesday 13th August 2014 – WHAT A DISASTROUS DAY

Wasn’t it just?

I hadn’t gone to sleep by the time dawn broke, and I remember switching off the alarms before going to sleep – that was at 07:30. But the reason for this was the worst rainstorm yet for the summer. Even with all of the windows closed, it was deafening on the roof and I really haven’t heard anything quite like that which was falling through the night. It really was most uncomfortable and depressing.

It was 11:50 when I awoke – that was the morning gone of course – and after breakfast (at midday!) I carried on with the website – no point in going outside.

By about 15:00 the rain stopped and so I went outside and started work. First job was to put the expanding foam under the eaves of the house. I did as far as I could reach and then had to clean out all of the insertion pipes with acetone so that I can use them again. But this stuff is interesting – “there’s enough expanding foam in the can to fill 85 litres” – yes, and enough propellant in the can to get about half of it out.

Next job was to dismantle to guttering, and the far end didn’t need much help from me to be dismantled, leaving me with the thorny question of how I’m going to refit the far end later, where I can’t actually reach it.

Once the guttering was off, I covered all of the wood that I could reach with a thick layer of LIDL’s famous wood preservative, and that took me up to knocking-off time.

Tomorrow I’ll do the second coat of wood treatment and then make a start on tidying up the wiring. Once that’s done, I’ll refit the guttering. I’ve a feeling that we’ll be going to need it.

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Monday 4th August 2014 – I HAD A …

… bad night last night.

Whether it was the two cups of coffee that I had yesterday late afternoon, I don’t know but I was still tossing and turning in bed as the dawn was breaking. I managed to be out of bed at the usual time and I had breakfast, but I don’t remember too much about the rest of the morning. I didn’t make much progress on the website.

After lunch I went outside and, for the first time in 5 years, I cleaned out all of the stuff that was in front of the house. And there was a load of rubbish too. When I finally get round to doing it and finally have the time, there will be tons of stuff going down to the dechetterie.

That took ages to do, as you might expect. But once everything was moved out of the way, I started to fetch the scaffolding round from the farmer’s field. I’ve now started to put it up, and it’s not easy when you are on your own. It takes ages to start it off as you need to make sure that all four sides are perfectly level by adjusting the feet, and then you need to make sure that both pairs of sides are perfectly parallel.

Once the first row of the first bay is up (which is where I reached at 19:10), starting off the second bay and then building upwards is pretty straightforward even if it takes a great deal of effort. I’m hoping that I can finish erecting it tomorrow and make a good start on the things that I need to do.

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