Tag Archives: auchan

Monday 27th October 2014 – RED SKY AT NIGHT …

sunset auzances creuse birdwatching ornithological centre st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome france… means that Auzances is on fire.

Yes, on the way back home this evening as the sun was setting, I stopped off at my favourite haunt, the St Gervais Ornithological Centre to take one or two photos. The sun setting below the horizon in the clouds in the general direction of Auzances was particularly impressive.

birdwatching ornithological centre st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceThe view in the opposite direction, while not being quite as spectacular, was nevertheless quite impressive in its own right.

Here, with the evening drawing on and the damp mist slowly rising out of the fields, the Puy de Dome looks as if it is slowly disappearing from view behind a kind of diaphanous veil. It gives a completely different aspect to this view, of which you have seen dozens of examples over the years.

This morning we went to record the Radio Anglais programmes at Marcillat-en-Cembraille for Radio Tartasse. We had a few technical issues but they were resolved by simply returning to the very first version of the studio’s computer program. This new upgrade has caused nothing but problems.

We went from there to Clermont-Ferrand and the Auchan where I did a big pile of shopping. I’d run out of oats for my muesli and lentils for my curries, and so I needed to stock up. I also took advantage of the proximity of the Auchan to the recording studios at Gerzat to do a mega-shop.

The radio session at Gerzat went surprisigly well – in fact four programmes of 15 minutes each took just 1 hour and 5 minutes to record in total. It’s never happened like this before and I wish that it had happened like this that time just before I went to Canada.

Afterwards, we celebrated by going for coffee at Menetrol and doing a lap around the Carrefour there to buy the things that I had forgotten.

And after dropping Liz off, I came home via the birdwatching site at St Gervais d’Auvergne.

Tonihgt, I’ve enrolled in another Higher Education course. The University of Birmingham, in its Future Learn Programme is offering a course in the Development of Aviation in World War I and there was a free place even though the course started a week ago. This kind of thing is right up my Alley as you know and I couldn’t resist the opportunity.

-3

Saturday 14th June 2014 – I WAS UP EARLY AGAIN …

… this morning and after a quick breakfastI was on my way to Montlucon. I wasn’t there long and I was back home by 13:45.

Most of the time I was at Brico Depot, firstly cashing in the pallet that we had loaded with breeze blocks the other day. A lap around inside where I bumped into Christophe and his wife fron FC Pionsat St Hilaire, and I bought all of the fittings for the guttering at the back of the house (for when the cattle have gone from the field behind the house).

as well as that, I bought a submersible water pump. They were on offer at €20:00 and with a 7-metre lift and just 250 watts consumption, it will drain out the pit if it fills with water and also do any amount of pumping of water around here.

Outside, I picked up 8 sacks of cement. I don’t want to run short of that with everything that I have to do around here. As well as that, I bought 45 of these concrete cubes that we use for building pillars. These cubes have no bottom and no top, and you fit them over the metal reinforement that I’ve been buying, and infill with concrete. There you have some ready-made concrete pillars that will support any roof that I want to fit.

I went to Auchan and LIDL afterwards and then came home. Back here, I crashed out for a couple of hours. I had another really late night again last night. I’m still having difficulty sleeping, but I’m off to bed in a moment to see what good an early night will do me.

-3

Friday 6th June 2014 – WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME …

… I was awake at 06:00 (and I don’t mean as in not gone to bed yet)? Anyway, so I was this morning, despite having been on my travels during the night.

And it was all to no avail as well because when I pulled into Brico Depot at 06:55, 5 minutes before opening time, there was already a packed car park and a queue of about 40 people at the door. And then at 07:00 they wheeled out the 4-wheel 1.5 tonne 4-wheeled close-coupled trailers for sand and gravel, that were on special offer at just €799. There was a total of 4 trailers and so that was that. I, and another 30-odd people, had had a wasted journey.

Not quite wasted though because I filled up Caliburn with everything that I might need for the next stage of the concreting (because there will be one) except for the 100mm breeze blocks, which I forgot. I also did a round of shopping, to save on going out tomorrow and at the Auchan I bumped into the Megemonts – a couple from Virlet. M Megemont is President of the Virlet Historical Society and mme Megemont is on the local council so I took the opportunity to ask her to send me anything that might be interesting for Radio Anglais.

I was back here for 15:00 for my butty and it’s clearly a case that Rosemary has a spy camera here as she phoned up the moment I set my foot in the door.

It was 20:00 when I went back outside to unload Caliburn. We had the hottest day of the year to daye and it was not possible to work outside. The temperature today reached 34.50C today.

So now I have the fan on here – the first time this year – and I’m off to bed in a minute. I hzve to start on the Radio Anglais programmes tomorrow.

-2

Friday 28th March 2014 – WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

Yes, and I missed it. Liz was having Battle part 39 with the French Social Security agencies and needed a minder. And as I was in need of a rest after my marathon sessions this week in the gaeden, I volunteered.

The drive down to Clermont and the URSSAF offices was really nice and while the lady whom we spoke to wasn’t all that helpful, we did find out some useful information that, later that afternoon, helped me write a very long letter on Liz’s behalf which might resolve the problem. Failing that, a trip to Paris for a day might be in the offing.

From there, next stop was the Auchan at the north end of the city, but that was an adventure in itself. A moment of inattention and I missed my turning and we ended up having quite a sightseeing trip around the city. It took me a good few minutes to pick up a reference point and then straight away I took the wrong turning again. I was definitely having a bad day.

We each did our shopping in the Auchan – and I bought one of those small three-tier greenhouses. Just the job for my seeds, I reckon, and only €15 too. Cheap at half the price.

Lunch was taken at the KFC across the road, and then we returned to Liz’s to write this letter. I then returned home, where I found inter alia tht I had had 195 amps of surplus solar power in the house (so the water in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load was off the scale) and in the barn each of the two banks of 260 watts of solar power had given me 63 amps. This has got me thinking about fridges again.

But it was a day of accidents too. Coming over the Font Nanaud near La Batisse this morning, a car had come out of a side road and hit a luton-bodied van on the main road- and hit it with such force that the body had been torn off.

And on the way back in Loubeyrat, a lorry had somehow managed to smash into a car – right by the cemetery too.

-7

Saturday 1st February 2014 – CALIBURN STARTED …

… first turn of the key this morning. But then again, the temperature was much warmer and, after the glorious, magnificent day yesterday when I had 134.4 amps of surplus solar energy, it was overcast and pouring down with rain.

And I didn’t even stop for breakfast either but straight off to Montlucon just like young Janet going to the fair at Carterhaugh in Tam Lin – “as fast as go can me”

First stop was the Auchan where I hadn’t been for ages, and I bought the things that I couldn’t buy yesterday. but hasn’t the Auchan changed? Store enlarged and everything moved around, but fairly deserted. You can see where the new LeClerc has found its customers.

Second stop was Brico Depot where I spent a staggering €450. But then, I need about 85 m² of insulation to do all of the walls downstairs and when you see this space-blanket insulation on special offer – 23-layer thickness for just €3:80 per m², which is far, far less than half-price, well, you have to go for it.

I also bought the paint (and I’m still recovering from the shock of course) and the tongue-and-grooving for the ceiling out here, as well as a huge pile of staples for the percussion stapler seeing as how I’m running low.

And that, dear reader, was that. Not even 12:00 and I was well on my way home. So much so that it wasn’t until I arrived home that I realised that I hadn’t bought the big water filter kit that was on offer at just €59:00 and which I also desperately needed.

GRRRRRRRRR!

sapeurs pompiers fire brigade montlucon allier franceOn the way back through the side streets of Montlucon I pass by the fire station and there’s always some exciting stuff going on there.

Today they were stretching the extended ladder and the young apprentice firemen … "firePERSONS" – ed … werepractising running up and down the ladder. I had a good look at them and then left them to it. Far too tiring for me, even just looking at it.

annual village meeting virlet puy de dome franceThis afternoon we were having the annual village get-together at the village hall in Virlet. M Le Maire gave his little speech, and I spent most of the time chatting to Pete Marsh and his lady-friend and also Rob and Nicolette from up the road here.

I didn’t stay long because I don’t “do” social events, but I did stay long enough to receive my village Xmas prezzy (an LED pencil-torch) and also a copy of the photo that they took of me for the village year-book.

So now I’m home and I’m staying home. No footy tonight but the season restarts tomorrow with Pionsat’s 1st XI home to Lapeyrouse.

-6

Saturday 29th June 2013 – WELL I WAS WRONG …

… about my weather prediction today. In fact it started off grey, wet and miserable and simply got worse and worse.

And in something that must be a new world record, I was in Montlucon, a quick round of all of the shops and back home by 12:30, would you believe?

What has contributed to that a great deal is that theres a new Leclerc hypermarket opened just a little way down the road from Brico Depot.

It’s huge, clean and tidy, the parking is really easy, the aisles are nice and wide and, in common with most Leclerc hypermarkets, there are plenty of checkouts and they are always well-personned so there are none of these enormous queues that you find in the Auchan and the Carrefour.

For these reasons alone, the new Leclerc will get my vote for shopping for the forseeable future.

I didn’t in fact leave my notebook at Brico Depot. It was in my pocket all the time.

Nevertheless I went and redid my shopping there this morning and with no pressure from any outside influence I bought everything that I’m likely to need to finish off this bathroom properly.

I’ll restart in there on Monday and put my back into it.

I came back a different way that usual and I’m rather glad that I did.

1962 opel rekord domérat montlucon allier franceDespite everything that I’ve recently been saying about old cars on islands, you do still occasionally find them on the mainland too.

And here just down the road from LeClerc at Domérat I stumbled across probably the most exciting car that I’ve seen for quite some considerable time – Peugeot 230 pickups excepted of course.

And isn’t this a real beauty?

1962 opel rekord domérat montlucon allier franceShe’s a 1962 Opêl Rekord 1700 P2, in almost-mint condition, one owner from new and with just 67000 kms on the clock.

It’s for sale at just €7500 and I could easily be tempted by this, although Opel did make a pick-up version and a convertible, one of which would be even an more exciting find,

Even nicer though would be the Soviet Union’s copycat GAZ M21 III but I wouldn’t have a clue where even to start to look for one of those.

This afternoon I did a little (yes, just a little) tidying up here and then, despite the miserable weather, it was time to go out.

fete de st jacques virlet village walk puy de dome franceRegular readers of this rubbish will recall that at the weekend round about the Fête de St Jacques it’s the custom here in Virlet to go for a walk to beat the bounds of the commune and have a little party afterwards.

Despite the miserable weather, a hard-core of about a dozen or so of us set out, up tp our knees in soaking wet grass and sliding about on the mud.

It made me feel quite at home.

fete de st jacques virlet village walk puy de dome franceIt did brighten up slightly as we made our way around, and it became much easier to walk once we were on the metalled road.

Neverthless, it was still far too wet for our traditional feu de joie, but someone did bring a DVD, a copy of the Fernandel film En Avant La Musique – a tyical whimsical film of village life in Italy during the war, and we sat around and watched that instead.

All in all we had a good time. I wonder what tomorrow will bring me.

-3

Saturday 8th September 2012 – WHEN WAS THE LAST …

… time I saw an SD1 Rover?

sd1 rover 3500 ohio usa october octobre 2010I can in fact vaguely remember – early October 2010 in Ohio, USA as it happens. Here’s the photo to prove it and I’m still recovering from the shock.

In the UK is must be years ago when I borrowed one that a mate was halfway through dismantling, so that I could go to Kings Lynn to drops some stuff off on a girl that I was seeing at the time and the exhaust fell off halfway out.

And so this morning in Montlucon I was completely stunned to see one drive past me as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. And seeing a second one drive past me an hour or two later was even more astonishing. I’ve no idea what was going on there and I bet that I won’t ever see something like that again.

And I nearly didn’t make it to Montlucon either.

The effects of the last few days have been telling on me, because despite the early night I slept right through the alarms this morning. It was only the farmer bringing the cows back (I’m glad I did that wall when I did) that woke me up.

I had a good wander round and bought nothing much out of the ordinary – maybe a pair of these shell trousers that I wear. Auchan had them on sale at €9:99 so I reckoned that I would buy a pair and see what they are like.

I’m fast running out of clothes because I left a huge pile in my lock-up in Canada to pick up when I go back – which should have been this weekend but it isn’t and that’s why I’m running out.

I had a good hour in the pool at Neris-les-Bains as well and finally managed to see the remains of the Roman Baths – how long have I been going there and I haven’t seen them before?

In the blistering heat the baths was crowded as you might expect. And someone was having a load of fun!

A couple were standing about 5 yards apart and hurling an object about between them – the object being a girl of about 3 or 4. And every time she hit the water she was squealing with delight.

I was squealing too, but for a different reason. All of the pool was open and the water was absolutely freezing. Almost as cold as that pool in Québec back in May.

Tonight the football season gets under way and with no game at Pionsat I went to Marcillat en Combraille to watch AS Marcillat’s 1st XI.

One division higher than FC Pionsat St Hilaire in theory (but they play in the Allier leagues, not the Puy de Dome leagues) but you wouldn’t think so. The match was awful and so was AS Marcillat – they only lost 5-2 but they were lucky to get the two and St Prix should have had a dozen.

I’m off to two matches tomorrow – at Chateaugay for the 2nd XI at 13:00 and then down the road to Clermont la Glacière at 15:00 for the 1st XI.

Two teams that I haven’t seen before.

-1

Saturday 16th June 2012 – I HAD A DAY OUT TODAY.

In fact I went to Montlucon.

And even though I had a late-ish start I was still out and round and back earlier than usual.

The impetus was that you my remember me receiving a text to say that my new front door needs picking up, and if I didn’t get a wiggle on I would lose it. So offI went to pick it up.

It’s not very substantial at all, being just a sheet of double-glazing with a wooden frame around it, and it’s not going to be used for ages yet. But the reason why I chose it when I did, for those of you with short memories, is that it’s the same style as the windows that I bought for the house and the range was discontinued at the end of March.

The fact that it was the cheapest double-glazed door has nothing whatever to do with the argument, of course.

My luck was in too. At the Amaranthe health food shop there was some soya cream that had gone past the sell-by date and so they were giving a carton away to each customer. That will do very nicely for a mushroom and onion fried rice later in the week.

At at the rubbish shop (NOZ, for the benefit of the foreigners) they were selling a load of flavoured rice milk at just €0:75 a litre. There’s a nice long sell-by date on those and so of course there are now none left in the shop.

Almond-flavoured rice milk on my breakfast muesli – that has to be the way to go.

dammi multi vitamin fruit drink noz montlucon allier franceAnd Dammi if I didn’t find some of this on sale at NOZ as well.

It’s a multi-vitamin, multi fruit drink. And I had a good look at the list of ingredients and, sure enough, it contains vitamin B12. being a vegan as you know,
I have lots of issues about my vitamin B12 intake so I’m always on the lookout for different food items that might contain it.

And with a name like this, it ought to be good too!

It was piping hot too – hottest day of the year for me and so I really fancied a swim, but I had left my swimming trunks back at home. Never mind – Auchan was having a sale and so for €5:00 I treated myself to a pair of new ones.

I took the plunge and went to the Centre Aqualudique at the back of Montlucon. I’d heard a couple of good reports about it.

And it was certainly a far cry from Neris-les-Bains – tidal pools, a fast-flowing current, bubble-massage seats in the pool. And many more people there than at Neris so there was much more to see.

Ohhhh yes – I still chase after the women. The problem is though that at my age I can’t remember why.

€5:00 admission though – and that’s quite a difference from €3:20, and nothing like as intimate. I’ll just have to save the Centre Aqualudique for special occasions such as midwinter when it’s far too cold to be at Neris-les-Bains.

At the Brico Depot I bought 4 demi-chevrons and 3 sacks of sand. And you might be wondering why. The demi chevrons because I want to put shelves up in this cupboard downstairs and I want to do it the next time the weather is bad, without having to wait for a trip to the sawmill for the wood.

And the bags of sand?

There’s some sealing joints that need to be made on the roof of the lean-to that I fitted earlier this year. I’ve no sand here and so I need to dig out the Sankey trailer, change the wheels, trundle down to the quarry, load the trailer, bring it back here and bag up the sand.

With having the sand here I can have the job finished before I’ve even changed the wheels on the Sankey.

But I hate the people at Brico Depot. I loaded up Caliburn and then went off to pay for it “you need to bring your vehicle here” said the girl in the office. Walking 20 metres was clearly too much for her.

And so I brought the vehicle to the door and she came out – and then started chatting to a fork-lift truck driver.
“When you can spare me the time, if it’s not too much trouble for you” I said, and so she shrugged her shoulders to the driver and slumped over to me to check my load.
Yes, the staff at Brico Depot needs a collective smack in the mouth. It’s just like being back in Belgium and how I hate that country.

Back here I sat down to watch a film and the next thing that I remember was that it was 20:00. A long time since I’ve crashed out like that too.

And for the football we watched a team of bouncing Czechs pole-axe their opposition to advance to the next stage of the UEFA Nations Cup.

-1

Saturday 17th March 2012 – I HAD ANOTHER …

… bad night’s sleep last night.

But I was still up and about at 08:30 in time to go to Montlucon.

The trouble is though that after only about 3 hours sleep I’m never in a good mood, I can’t concentrate and I can’t think straight. I couldn’t remember what it was that I needed from Brico Depot and when I did find some things I wasn’t able to summon up the energy to load them up onto Caliburn’s roof rack.

In fact, for several reasons I wasted my time in going.

It didn’t help in that the Auchan only had early seed potatoes. No onions, no garlic, no shallots, no maincrop seed potatoes and so that was a washout. In the end, I went to Mr Bricolage to see if they had anything exciting.

Nothing at all, as it happened but firstly I bumped into Rob and Nicolette from down the road and we had a good chat;

And then who else should turn up but Liz and Terry. We all had a good chat and then Liz, Terry and I went down the road to Jardiland. They had everything that I needed in the vegetable line, but at quite a price.

Never mind though, Liz and I went halves on most things and so it wasn’t too bad.

After a coffee together my early start ended up being one of the latest returns from Montlucon that I had ever had and I almost missed the start of the footy matches back at Pionsat.

There were two tonight – the 3rd XI of Pionsat St Hilaire against Biollet-St Maurice and the Ist XI against Malauzat.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot biollet st maurice puy de dome franceIn the away match at Biollet St Maurice the 3rd XI had led for much of the game but faded away at the end to lose. But today, with a full team out (but no goalkeeper) they looked the business.

At one stage they were 3-0 up but faded away at the end and hung on grimly for a 4-3 win. And if Biollet St Maurice hadn’t have missed a penalty earlier in the game it would have been a different story again.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot biollet st maurice puy de dome franceBut a win is a win, and it’s a rare enough event for the 3rd XI so they are quite right to celebrate it.

The big difference in the team today was that Simon, who used to play for the 1st XI, was out there playing at centre-forward. He now lives in Switzerland but luckily the club has retains his French football registration.

He he had come back this weekend to visit his family and one of his friends from the football club had talked him into playing.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot biollet st maurice puy de dome franceIt was his irst match for over a year, he told me after the match and to be honest, it looked like it too,

But there was no denying his skill and ball control, and he and Stéphane Gomet, playing on the left wing, spent most of the match tearing the Biollet St Maurice defence to shreds.

It’s a shame that they can’t find a decent goalkeeper for the team because that really is the difference.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot esv malauzat puy de dome franceFC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 1st XI were playing ESV Malauzat in the second match and they also won their match.

2-0 the final score was, and they never ever at any moment looked under any pressure. I don’t recall Matthieu having much to do in the FC Pionsat St Hilaire goal.

However ESV Malauzat’s keeper was working overtime and if it wasn’t for him we would have had a cricket score this evening.

The weather broke too at about 22:00 and now it’s pouring down. And I’m off to bed because I’m really whacked.

-2

Sunday 4th March 2012 – IT WAS SUNDAY TODAY …

… and despite me having another one of these “04:30 in the morning” sessions, it was 10:25 when I was up and about.

Just as well, though, because I had to have an early start.

FC Pionsat Sy Hilaire’s 1st XI was playing Clermont Fontaine du Bac’s 2nd XI today and that necessitated a drive almost to Aubière – and the kick-off was at 13:00. That meant an 11:30 start from here.

Finding the stadium was easy. Finding the entrance was something else. Eventually, after many trials and tribulations, I stumbled upon it – in the … errr …”rue du Fontaine du Bac”.

D’ohhhh!!!!

fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot clermnt fontaine du bac puy de dome franceThe opponents were a good strong attacking side, and Pionsat’s team was … errr … somewhat makeshift, especially in defence. Not one of the four established full-backs was out there today.

And Jerome, who usually tears up opposition defences, was on the bench (the only substitute as well) and Franck resisted all temptation to put him on the field in place of the one or two attacking midfielders who were clearly only there in body this afternoon.

He managed a brief 15-minute cameo when Cedric was forced to hobble off. It was no surprise that Pionsat lost 3-1, and it was something of a disappointment.

On the way back I stopped to fuel up at the Auchan at Clermont-Ferrand – and €1.42 per litre for the diesel. It’s ridiculous the cost of fuel right now, and it’s not going to let up.

It’s also raining – the first time for 8 days – and the wind has shifted direction and is blowing from the north-west. We’ve been promised snow again on Tuesday and by the looks of things it may well be here before that.

-1

Wednesday 1st February 2012 – I’M CALIBURN-LESS…

… at the moment.

He’s gone to the mender’s for his annual check-up and I fear it’s going to be another expensive one as apparently he has a warped front disc. And that might explain why the tyres have been wearing unevenly and also why the braking has never been as good as I would have liked ever since he was new.

But something to do with me that is “warped”. That’s no surprise to anyone, is it?

So this morning Caliburn and I dug ourselves out of a snowdrift and headed off to Montlucon. And I found a car wash that was open (despite the cold) next to the LIDL, so Caliburn could have his annual bath.

I was quite tempted myself but mine’s not due for another couple of months or so. But Caliburn is clean, anyway and the salt has been washed from out of his wheel arches.

At the Auchan, where I did some desultory shopping, I came across, at long last, a decent camera bag. The right size, with lots of pockets and so on. It was expensive, but then again so is my camera equipment and leaving it rolling around on the floor of Caliburn is not really a solution.

I also bought some tins of ratatouille for the storeroom, having noticed the label and thinking “that’s just the brand for me!”. But with lesdyxia luring KO, a closer look at the label revealed that it is in fact branded “Pre-vert”, or ‘Green Meadow’.

Ahh well.

Having left Caliburn at the garage on the edge of town, I had to walk into the centre to meet Liz who had been teaching there today and who had offered to bring me home.

And dressed up in layers of coats and jackets with gloves, hat and furry boots to counter the Combrailles weather, while Montlucon was basking in a barmy mere -2°C, it made me feel like Nanook of the North. and I spent a good while looking around, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.

I did however catch a glimpse of myself in a mirrored door, and I reckoned that I looked just like someone whose trawler had just docked in the harbour. Ahhh, the sartorial elegance of it all.

Back home, we are about to experience something of a crisis – we’ve run out of Christmas cake! Whatever am I going to do now?

But the good news is that I’m sitting here in my little room, basking in a balmy 23°C while outside, it’s -6°C. And all done on free fuel as well.

What an excellent buy this woodstove was!

-5

Monday 23rd January 2012 – I’VE BEEN SPENDING …

… my money again today.

Yes, doing my “Imelda babe – going shopping, shopping for shoes” bit (and quite funnily, I was listening to Golden Heart, the album from which the above-names track is taken, on the way to Liz’s this morning).

The boots that I bought in a Hudson’s Bay trading post in Canada 15 months ago died a death over Christmas (the sole split) and the canvas shoes that I use for wandering around here aren’t really suitable for much.

And a chance glance across a busy road from the Auchan on the outskirts of Clermont-Ferrand revealed a sale on at a shoe shop

So I’ve now acquired a pair of black leather boots, not exactly what I wanted but they look fairly solid and 50% off the retail price of €59 made it look like something respectable, and they will keep my feet warm and dry for the foreseeable future.

But that wasn’t all.

They had some boots that are a kind-of cross between wellingtons and après-ski boots, with thick soles and fur lining and looking pretty solid, and all for €22 as well.

Having frozen my feet off at the football over the weekend and being up to my neck in mud around here as well, I decided that a pair of those wouldn’t go amiss either – for going to to footy and for working outside in the bad weather.

Two pairs of footwear – you really WILL be calling me “Imelda” now.

So what was I doing in Clermont-Ferrand this afternoon?

Well, we’d been to Gerzat this morning to record the radio programmes for Radio Arverne – spending a lot of the time talking rubbish as I predicted.

But I’m running low on soya milk and not having been to Montluçon and the Auchan there for a while, we decided to multi-task and visit the Auchan on the outskirts of Clermont-Ferrand, which is only a cockstride away from the road that takes us home.

And the rest is history.

Back at Liz and Terry’s, I had a really nice surprise.

You may remember that when we were doing the house roof back in 2009, we had Terry’s little cement mixer running here. It’s only small but it runs on just 375 watts and it ticked over all day comfortably on my electrical set-up here.

But it’s really too small for Terry now that he’s in business and so he’s acquired a big professional mixer that needed repair, and he’s now repaired it. The upshot of this is that “would I like a more-or-less permanent loan of the small mixer?”

Well, do bears have picnics in the woods?

A little mixer like that quietly ticking away all day while I do some important building work won’t half make my life easier and I have plenty of work for it in the summer, that’s for sure.

Aren’t I grateful?

This evening, I had the wood stove running hot, and garlic bread, pizza and rice pudding for tea were all cooked in the oven.

All in all it’s been quite a good day today. Hasn’t it just?

-4

Monday 5th December 2011 – UP WITH THE COCK …

… this morning.

But that’s enough about my personal habits, isn’t it?

This morning I was awake bright and early (for me, anyway) and after a rushed breakfast Caliburn and I hit the road for Montlucon, the Auchan, and the new computer which I had mentioned yesterday.

Mind you, on the way to the Auchan I had another think.

I remember that it had always been my plan at one time to buy one of these small notebook computers for travelling – lightweight, extremely portable, and the battery lasts for hours.

Not much in the way of facilities, but back at home, have an external screen, DVD recorder, mouse and keyboard for when I’m working at my desk. And had I not had a similar emergency in the UK last time, that would have been exactly what I would have done as well.

Musing on this thought, I wandered around the informatique section of the Auchan where they had a the huge selection of notebooks. One thing that caught my eye was an Acer Aspire 1 – 500GB of hard drive and 4gb of RAM, on offer at just €299.

Further enquiries revealed that they were sold out and there was only the display model left. And if I would take that, they would do me 10% off. Do bears go to picnics in the woods?

So now I’m the owner of a new lightweight notebook and a new keyboard. And believe it or not, there’s a DVD reader somewhere around here. There’s also a flat-screen that works off 12-volt over there on the bench, a mouse and an external keyboard somewhere too.

So I returned back here ready to start to work on my new toy, and the blasted internet is down.

Now there’s a surprise!

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Sunday 4th December 2011 – YOU ARE PROBABLY ALL WONDERING …

… how come I didn’t post this entry on Sunday night as I usually do.

Or even Monday morning, which I do if I’m too tired to go on line.

The truth is that we have had a tragedy.

On Sunday morning when I was organising the football photographs and text from last night, the battery went flat on the laptop – which it does quite often, as you know.

And so I plugged it in to charge up, like you do, and went back after a couple of hours to start up work again. Switched the computer on – but nothing happened. No charge in the battery.

So after much messing around with AVO meters and the like, I worked out that power is getting to the recharging unit and out the other side, but it isn’t getting to the battery to charge it up. And nothing that I tried to do would seem to make it.

Mind you, it might be a tragedy, but it’s not a catastrophe as it might otherwise been, because it was on its last legs since it fell off the roof of the car in Canada in September, and it was surely only a question of time.

And as it happened, when I was in Montlucon at the Auchan the other day I had seen a laptop for sale at €449 that had 1TB of hard drive and 6gb of RAM. I quite liked the look of that so I shall be going for a little wander tomorrow, I reckon.

Good job that there was no footy this afternoon, wasn’t it?

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Tuesday 29th November 2011 – I’VE BEEN SPENDING …

… my money again.

And if I keep on spending it like this I won’t have any left.

First thing was to go to Marcillat in order to record the Radio Anglais programmes for Radio Tartasse with Liz.

And from there it was to Montlucon.

At LIDL I bought nothing out of the ordinary but at Auchan I bought as well as the usual stuff a little present for Rob and Nicolette for having looked after me, and also a battery pack seeing as all mine are duff. There it was on sale and I said that at €29 it would be a good deal. But with an air compressor included and selling at €22.95 it was an even better deal.

At Brico Depot they had the plywood that I wanted. And 2mm thicker, it cost €9 less than at the other place. And so I now have all that I need. I’m not sure why though because I don’t have the scaffolding to fit it now, as I said yesterday.

What I can be doing instead though is to build the greenhouse but would you believe I forgot to buy the perspex for the roof.

D’ohhh! That was no good.

There’s an issue over my tubing as well. I can buy it from the steel mill at Montlucon but would you believe that a huge place like that (so huge it has its own railway network and locomotive – which you have seen before) they don’t have a bender.They’ve given me an idea where to go and so I’ll follow that up.

And I have my window! Hooray!!!! That’s safely in the van now.

But here’s a thing.

You’ll have noticed without doubt that I have been strangely quiet just recently on the subject of the front door that I would be fitting to the house. But there’s a reason for that. Brain of Britain has done it again and bought a door that opens the wrong way. Mind you, it was at a give-away price in a sale so there’s no harm done there.

But a casual chat with the sales people at Lapeyre revealed that the “exotic wood” selection – the selection from which I have chosen all of my windows – is being discontinued in February. And as a result, they’ve started a clearance sale. The door that matches my windows – a big one with double glazing all the way down the front, is just €374.

That’s too good a deal to miss and so I have bitten the bullet. Now I shall have to get working.

At Rob and Nicolette’s I gave them their prezzy and thanked them for their help the other day. I was grateful for the effort that they took.

But with me forgetting all sorts of things today, this bang on the head doesn’t seem to have helped me any.   

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