Tag Archives: late night

Saturday 7th June 2014 – I DIDN’T GO ANYWHERE …

… today. And that’s just as well because although I did manage to crawl out of bed at 07:50, I didn’t go to bed until about 04:30 and I’ve no idea why.

Nothing happened during the night (just for a change) and after breakfast I started on the Radio Anglais stuff. I have to do two months of everything this next fortnight as Liz is going to be away for a while. I’ve done two live concert programmes for the rock music stuff and it’s not so easy, especially as I’m now doing the engineering myself. And I do have a great deal to learn.

I’ve had the fan running all day as temperature in hzere touched 30°C briefly, and I’ve also had a shower – the first one of the year that has not been heated. It was 37.6°C and beautifully warm, and now I smell of coconut.

I’m off to bed now for an early night, and I’ll see what tomorrow will bring.

-3

Sunday 1st June 2014 – TWO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS …

… worthy of note happened through the night.

Firstly, despite there being no footy last night and me not having any coffee since mid-afternoon, it was well after 04:30 this morning when I went to bed. What time I actually went to sleep, I have no idea. It certainly wasn’t quickly.

If that wasn’t bad enough, I was up and preparing breakfast at 07:45. How do you explain that? I can’t even wake up at that time in the week when I’ve had a decent night’s sleep.

So I’ve no idea what has been going on but it’s certainly something extraordinary.

So having crashed out for an hour or so, I’ve been tidying up in here a little and sorted out the fresh food again. High time I did that too. And then I’ve been working on the computer again.

After all, it is Sunday and I’m entitled to have a day off. I’m back to work tomorrow.

-2

Tuesday 20th May 2014 – YAWN

Yes, I had a bad night last night. I was editing sound clips and the like when I happened to glance at the time – 03:45.

It ws about 04:00 when I finally went to bed and i had a very disturbed night, but I still managed to wake up and be out of bed before the cacophony of alarms finished at 08:00.

However it ruined my day quite considerably. I couldn’t concentrate on my website work and in the end rang up Rosemary for a chat.

Outside, I dug over the two potato beds, fitted the new raised bed and then planted all of my potatoes.

I checked over the seeds in the small greenhouse and I’ve planted some more lettuce and leeks. Nothing much survived my two weeks away. I then watered all of the plants (that’s why we’ve had a torrential rainstorm tonight) and soaked everything in the greenhouse.

Only a short blog as I’m shattered and now I’m off to bed. See you in the morning.

-3

Saturday 15th December 2012 – I DIDN’T BLOG …

… last night before going to bed, and I bet that you were all disappointed.

But no matter, I’ll serve it up this morning for you.

Actually, I was far too busy, working on the radio programmes and it was 02:30 before I went to bed. “If you have the inspiration, keep on at it”, as the actress once famously said to the bishop.

But at least it’s all finished today, all …errr … 60kbs of it. That’s the equivalent of almost 2 hours of discussion.

And then you have to add the ad-libs in too and then of course the music that we’ll be playing in between – so that should be enough for the next three years.

At least, I hope so. As I said yesterday, it’ll all come in handy.

And so, apart from writing the radio programme, that was that

The weather warmed up dramatically this morning and it was 17°C in my room when I woke up. That makes a nice change, and at least I was comfortable without the fire when I was doing the radio programme

Shopping was next on the agenda and so a run out to St Eloy-les-Mines was called for.

But there’s been a change of plan as far as the diet goes. Pasta doesn’t work in the oven, and rice is a bit samey day after day and so I’ve bought a big bag of potatoes. Baked spuds should be just about fine for the rest of the winter I think.

But while I’m on the subject of changes, I’ve changed the room around a little.

I’ve moved a bookcase or two and shuffled the pair of chests of drawers around a little, and now the end wall underneath the little window at the side of the oven became miraculously free.

Remember the table that I brought up here a while ago? That’s gone nicely just there and I now actually have a kind of kitchen in that corner. Won’t that be really handy for the winter.

And I’ve finally heard from Bill.

I set Marianne a task viz to contact the hospital. Marianne is not easily brushed aside and managed to find out where he was. So she came up with a number and so I rang him.

He’s out of danger but he’s not himself yet. Time will tell but I’m so relieved.

I was really worried.

0

Sunday 18th November 2012 – I WAS GOING …

… to go to watch a football match this afternoon.

No match for FC Pionsat St Hilaire this weekend so I had had a search around on the internet.

And I came up with quite a choice too – St Avit to see Le Quartier’s 2nd XI (which apparently is many of FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 3rd XI from last year, so they say), Neuf Eglise to watch a cup match, or to Baudelaire or Chambon in the Creuse, where there were a couple of matches.

Instead, though, I stayed in, because I was busy. I have a lot to do and it won’t be done if I don’t do it.

I actually managed a lie-in until 09:45 today, although that wasn’t too much of a lie-in seeing as how I didn’t go to bed until about 02:00.

And after watching The Cannonball Run, which is definitely one of my favourite films for mindless, light-hearted entertainment, I sat down and started on a new project.

As you might (or might not) know, I present a Radio Anglais rock music programme twice a week for Radio Tartasse in Marcillat-en-Combraille.

That sounds very grand but it is in fact just a couple of programmes recycled during the month.

However, I’m playing stuff that most, if not all, my listeners have never heard, because I’m not going for mainstream music but for the more marginal stuff that never had the airplay to be a top 20 hit.

So what I’ve started to do today is to prepare a web page listing all of the albums from which I’ve been playing stuff, and arranging them by month.

It’s a long way from being finished but at least it’s started and it’s well on its way

This evening I picked up Cécile at her place and we went down to Liz and Terry’s – for me to rehearse my radio programmes with Liz and for Cécile to discuss some work with Terry.

In the end we all had a very good chat and a nice socialising evening.

And tomorrow, we’re recording our radio programmes, so I’ll be out all day.

It won’t leave me much time to do this floor.

-4

Friday 16th November 2012 – I’M BACK HOME NOW.

which is something of a surprise.

What isn’t a surprise though is that it’s long after midnight, which is some kind of indication of how much I had to do today.

I nipped out at 09:15 to drop the football club photos off at the new printer’s in Pionsat and then to go to Marcillat-en-Combraille to record my Radio Anglais rock music programme for half an hour or so.

For once, the people at Radio Tartasse were properly organised and I managed to have everything finished by 10:25, and that makes a pleasant change.

From there I went round to Cécile’s, She was having problems with one of her electric radiators – it didn’t seem to be working – and wondered if I could help her out.

So off I duly went to find that lunch had been prepared, which was very nice of her. I’m all in favour of that as you know. I’ll do almost anything for a cup of coffee and a home-made vegan salad.

Anyway, as far as the radiator goes, the fuse seemed to be fine but there seemed to be no power to the appliance. I disconnected the radiator, fitted a standard plug and plugged it into a standard socket.

Sure enough, it fired up as it should so there must be a fault in the wiring in the wall somewhere. Either that or there’s a bad connection at the fuse box end.

So that was that, and then my attention was drawn to a couple of other things that a quick turn of a screwdriver would put right straight away.

But to be quite honest though, I think that we spent more time talking than working, and I didn’t return home until just now.

I’m really going to have to get cracking chez moi though if I want to make any reasonable progress.

-5

Saturday 10th November 2012 – WHAT AN EXTRAORDINARY …

… football match!

I’ve just come back from Pionsat where I’ve been watching the FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 1st and 2nd XIs in action tonight.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot st bonnet puy de dome franceAs for the 2nd XI, despite havng a decent team out there tonight, and despite their rather dramatic improvement over the last couple of matches, they ran out of steam tonight.

It seemed to me that several of the players out there tonight just weren’t “with it”.

That’s quite a contrast to the last couple of matches against the Goatslayers and Miremont.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot st bonnet puy de dome franceIn those matches they played with real enthusiasm, but somehow tonight they couldn’t come up with the goods, and ended up losing 3-1.

This wasn’t really a difficult match either because the opposition didn’t seem to be up to much either.

The three points were definitely there for the taking but they ended up being thrown away.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot st bonnet puy de dome franceAs for the 1st XI’s match against St Bonnet, I’m still shaking my head even now.

The FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s defence was ripped to shreds by a lightning-quick St Bonnet attack team which played in a very robust, even physical manner.

And things didn’t go very well from an official’s point of view either.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot st bonnet puy de dome francePionsat were denied an absolute stone-wall penalty when one of their players was pushed (and a clear two-handed push at that) off the ball.

They also were awarded a penalty for something that only the referee saw – even the FC Pionsat St Hilaire linesman, who was down at that end, said later that he saw nothing to get excited about – and they contrived to miss it.

All in all, you had the feeling that it was going to be “one of those days”

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot st bonnet puy de dome franceAnd so when I tell you that FC PIonsat St Hilaire ran out 2-1 victors at the final whistle, you will be just as surprised as I am.

One slice of good fortune, one spectacular long range effort that could have gone anywhere – and usually does – but this time finds the back of the net, and some dogged last-minute defending, and FCPSH stole the points.

It’s not every day that they come out with three points from a match like this so they should make the most of it.

Despite what I said last night about an early night, it was after 04:00 when I went to bed – clearly my guilty conscience is pricking me. And with going to bed at 04:00, you can imagine just how difficult it was to raise myself at 07:45.

I was rather like a zombie for an hour or two this morning – “only an hour or two? … ed – although I managed to finish my rock music radio programme for Radio Anglais.

Off then for a flying visit to the shops in St Eloy-les-Mines and then round to Rosemary’s to help her move some stuff and to receive the low-down on her date on Thursday night.

If you ask me, I think that it’s cute, all these people going out on dates. As for me, I can still chase after the women, even if I can’t remember why.

>So tomorrow it’s my weekly lie-in and then bits and pieces until the afternoon when I shall be off to Terjat to see AS Terjat in action at home – no footy tomorrow in the Puy-de-Dome.

I aren’t ‘arf getting about these days, aren’t I?

-3

Sunday 7th October 2012 – WHAT HAPPENED TO …

… Sunday morning?

Well, to be honest, I worked through much of it, but from the wrong end.

03:34 when I finished what I was doing last night.

I was a little wrong with my estimate of what time it was when I woke up. I reckoned about 10:40 – it was in fact … errrr … 12:41.

I must have been really tired and even though this is what Sundays are for, I still felt bad about having missed the morning.

I was having a lovely dream though – I was driving a minibus through some forests on a main road through some mountains and explaining to the passengers that these were the Bluegrass areas of Kentucky (work that one out). We were being chased – not in a threatening way – by two cars, one of which was an old metallic mid-blue Peugeot 403 estate, and they overtook us on a sharp right-hand bend, crossing well over the solid white line in the centre of the road, which was divided into one lane for vehicles going my way, and the other way had two lanes coming towards me. This bit – the overtaking – I was watching from the air – maybe 500 feet up. Strangely, we were all driving on the left-hand side of the road as in the UK, so I dunno what all of that might be telling me.

After that, I had just enough time to grab something to eat and then off to Cellule, near Riom, to watch the football.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football as cellule puy de dome franceBut I shan’t be saying anything about the football in this column this evening.

As Ron Atkinson once said, “I never comment on referees and I’m not going to break the habit of a lifetime for that prat”.

Or as Jim Finks, manager of the New Orleans Saints once said, after a match against the St Louis Cardinals in 1986, “I’m not allowed to comment on the lousy officiating”.

We’ll just leave it at that.

But there’s a fruit stall at the side of the road just outside Combronde and I noticed that it was having a sale of apples. I’m getting low on them and so a 3kg bag of Red Gala apples for €2:50 seemed like a bargain, especially as the way fruit prices are at the moment.

So that’s Sunday dealt with. Monday is another day.

-6

Sunday 30th September 2012 – AND IF YOU THOUGHT …

… that last night was dramatic, what with the Miners coming back from the dead, you should have been at Briffons this afternoon, cos you ain’t seen nuffink yet!

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football briffons perpezat puy de dome franceFC Pionsat St Hilaire had no goalkeeper out there today for the match against Briffons-Perpezat for a start.

Michael Bucaud was in the orange and warming up behind the goals. Although he’s not been long at the club, I’ve never seen him play as a goalkeeper before.

And with FC Pionsat St Hilaire being 2-0 down with the game dragging on towards the end, it really did look as if that was that.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football briffons perpezat puy de dome franceBut then, suddenly, someone flicked the switch and the team burst into life.

And in the space of probably 20 minutes they scored 4 times to win the match and to progress through to the next round of the League Cup.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything quite like this – especially from FC Pionsat St Hilaire. They are much more likely to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as we all know.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football briffons perpezat puy de dome franceAnd I bet that you are wondering how come they managed to score 4 times in a match, especially as Cedric was having the day off.

But for a very pleasant change the rest of the attackers, once they had come to life, looked the part as well and tore the Briffons- Perpezat defence to shreds.

Even Vincent, an 18 year old lad who signed for the senior team this year, although about 6 feet tall but weighing about 6 stones, threw himself about and made two goals for his striking partner, as well as hitting the post in the closing stages of the game.

 It was a lovely day to be out as well, a really nice day for a long drive, and I arrived at the ground early en.ough to see the second half of the previous game

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football briffons perpezat puy de dome franceThat was a match in the Ladies’ League.

Briffons-Perpezat won that match quite comfortably – after all, they are second in the league – but the standard of play is much higher than I was expecting.

I was pleasantly surprised by it all. In fact it made me wish that I would have arrived even earlier to watch all of the game.

But this morning, I’m not sure what happened.

Chatting to Rhys until about 02:30, and with it being a Sunday too, I expected to be in bed until midday. But 08:45 when I woke up, and I could not get back to sleep.

So a lazy morning, but I did repair my two chests of drawers that are slowly starting to fall to pieces. At least now they open and close properly.

Anyway, back to work tomorrow. I need to clean out at the side of the lean-to and then move all of the stuff onto there from off the hardstanding.

That isn’t going to be the work of five minutes.

-4

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

Thursday 28th June 2012 – ONE OF THE REASONS …

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

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

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

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

Blimey! That was quick!

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

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

And guess what?

Absolutely! They are rearing their pretty little heads too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s all go here right now, isn’t it?

    

-3

Friday 8th June 2012 – I WAS UP …

… this morning at 08:30.

That was surprising seeing as how it was well after 04:00 and starting to dawn when I went to bed, never mind to sleep.

What was the spur to my leaving the depths of my darkest pit was a phone call telling me that I was going to have a brief visit. I had a few things to do before then, tidying up being not the least of them either.

menat gorges de la sioule puy de dome franceAfter that, it was off to visit Rosemary. She’s had car issues and needed something sorted out at the garage, but didn’t understand what the guy there was telling her.

And so yours truly was summoned to appear …

Rosemary lives in one of the most beautiful parts of the Gorges de la Sioule and the view from the road up to her house is phenomenal – it’s well worth the price of the drive up to visit her.

But anyway, we sorted out her garage man and that part of the story ended happily ever after.

Seeing as I was out and about and I am going to be busy this weekend I nipped to LIDL in St Eloy-les-Mines and did some shopping for next week – no sense in me going out tomorrow if i’m out today.

This afternoon I steam-cleaned the kitchen area of the verandah. Well, some of it anyway. It was in a pretty sorry state.

But I think that I ought to spend some time in my busy schedule doing some kind of cleaning up. The place is looking unhealthy after my long absence just now.

-1

Wednesday 6th June 2012 – WHAT HAPPENED …

… to this morning?

I was up early for a change – before the alarm went off in fact – and had an early breakfast.

But I dunno what someone must have slipped into my coffee because the next thing that I remember was it being 13:57 and my coffee was stone cold.

I’ve no idea at all what happened there. Ahh well.

Mind you it was 03:00 when I went to bed and then I had to leave the bed twice during the night – one to go and ride the porcelain horse and the second because it suddenly occurred to me that I had left outside the house the parcels that I had wrapped yesterday and it was pouring down with rain.

A torrential rainstorm in fact, so it was just as well that I had taken the precaution to wrap them in bin liners and seal them up very well, because that managed to protect them from the worst of the weather. A good idea, that was.

This afternoon I carried on the weeding.

Joy recommended using a mixture of vinegar and water and so I tried a sample plot of that to see what happens.

Another idea that someone had was to use old newspapers, publicity leaflets and the like to cover over the paths and that should suppress the weeds there. I can then spread broken slates (of which I have plenty) everywhere.

Seeing how well things like planks and bits of wood suppressed weed growth while I was away, and seeing how many old newspapers and publicilty leaflets there are hanging around here, there has to be some mileage in that too and so I’ll give that a try.

Rosemary rang up today as well. She needs a little help over her car and seeing how she has some porridge oats for me and that she has offered to store my new front door for me until I’m ready (whenever that might be) then it’s only fair that I pop down there on Friday and see how she is getting on. By all accounts it sounds like a buckled wheel and I know a place in Montlucon that supplies them.

Tomorrow I’m out with Marianne a-wandering around Chateau-sur-Cher. We’re photographing historical bits and pieces over there. I bet we’ll have a rainstorm.

-1

Tuesday 17th April 2012 – Well, I was right…

… about the need to protect my new plants from the frost last night. When I was down in the verandah at 04:00 (don’t ask) it was -2.2°C outside, and it dropped as low as -3.3°C. definitely a good plan to cover them up.

No such issues tonight though, even if it is flaming well taters outside. It’s also p155ing down with rain. And so the covers are on again, but for entirely different reasons.

This morning I spent on the computer doing some more of my web pages. But this was interrupted by the arrival of the postie, who brought me my new memory cards (I’m being organised this time, would you believe?) and also by the boulangère, with whom I need to discuss my bread arrangements.

After lunch I popped into Pionsat to go to the bank and also to the Post Office where I posted a lettler to my UK bank. There really is so much to organise. But at least, good news is that my flights are confirmed. And I’m not going on a bucket shop charter either. A national flagship carrier flies to the same destination for just €50 more, so copulatum expensium, as we Pompeiians say . All I need now are the car hire and the train. The ferries can take care of themselves as I encounter them. But one ferry issue is that one of the boats that I would be taking is away for a refit and so instead of starting the ferry crossing on 20th April, it’s now going to restart on 15th May – two weeks too late for me. I shall have to see about that.

Out in the garden I made a start on the final raised bed but at about 18:15 I was chased inside by a tropical monsoon. Just as well in a way because the framework for that bed needs replacing too and I didn’t fancy doing it at that time of night. But hopefully I’ll finish that tomorrow and then I’ll cover it up to keep the weeds out. I’ll do a final lap around the garden hoeing  and planting more seeds, and that will be that until I come.

Now I’m off to bed and an early night. I’m whacked.

And to let Liz and Krys know that I’m thinking about both of you.

-1

Thursday 8th March 2012 – I HAD ANOTHER …

… one of those nights last night – still awake at 04:30 and up again before the alarm went off at 08:00. And so I’m pretty whacked right now.

Today started with a major tidying up as planned due to my expecting a visitor. And while I was making good progress the aforementioned visitor rang up to cancel.

Ahh well. back to the computer for an hour or two.

Once the computer session had taken place I went outside and finished weeding last year’s potato beds.

There were about 20 potatoes that I salvaged but some of them had started to sprout. So what I did with those was to put them in the raised bed that I had laid down the previous day. We’ll see what happens with that lot.

But there is already a potato plant fully established in one of those beds. There’s no sense in moving that and so we’ll leave that in position to confuse the beans and peas that will be going into that bed.

After that, things became confusing. I have garlic growing in the next row of beds and so I started to clear out the row after that. In that row I discovered some carrots that I must have missed and so I started to clear out the following row of beds so that I can move the carrots.

But in there are some leeks, so I found out, and they need to be moved another rown higher …

Anyway, you get the picture. I’m going to start at the top and move downhill instead.

But then I was sidetracked by a row of nettles that was growing in front of the old Mercedes 240D that is festering in the field, and so I started tugging at that. This turned into something of a major session of weeding higher up the garden and by the time that I had finished (19:15 – isn’t that something of a record?) for the evening, I was well on my way to clearing a rather large part of the wilderness that will eventually be the lawn, whenever that might be.

I’ve worked really hard today. No wonder I’m knackered.

-1