Tag Archives: heatwave

Tuesday 20th June 2017 – I’M GLAD …

… that I bought that fan blower yesterday.

It went on at about 07:30 after breakfast and it’s still going around even now as we speak. And I’m not surprised as we’re having another scorching day.

It took ages to go to sleep in the heat last night, and I was flat out until the alarm went off. But I’d been on a few travels too, including one where I was back at the farm at Les Guis (although it wasn’t that particular building) with the rain pouring in through the roof every time that it rained.. I’d had to take a party of tourists around to show them the sights, but there aren’t any sights round there so it was something of a rather pointless ramble. We ended up eventually at the cross-roads on the hill where the road from Le Quartier to Ars-les-Favets crosses the road from Virlet to Montaigut-en-Combrailles, looking down on everywhere and not knowing where to go to next.

After breakfast I had a relax, and then hit the streets for town. In the heat.

marité goelette granville manche normandy franceFirst stop was to see that big sailing ship that we noticed in the harbour on our return from Leuven. She’s called the Marité and is a three-masted goelette built in the early 1920s. She actually took part in the Grand Banks fisheries off Newfoundland until 1929 and then around the various fishing areas of the North Atlantic until the 1960s when it took to general tramping.

Having already been saved a couple of times from scrapping, she was put up for sale in 1999 when she was bought for preservation. The restoration finished in 2009 and here we are.

it’s possible to go for a sail on her, and I shall be looking out for the trips.

But as an aside, she’s a ship of just over 200 tonnes, which you light think is pretty small for braving a North Atlantic winter. But that’s four times bigger than Columbus’s Santa Maria, and hos other two ships, the Nina and the Pinta, were smaller still.

At the bank, yes, my accounts are transferred over. And they gave me the cheque book. But where are the cards? “Ohh dear” blushed my conseilleuse and dashed off to do some hasty manipulations. “They’ll be here next week” she said two minutes later.

Forgotten to request them, have we?

I picked up some spuds and a baguette, and bumped into someone with whom I’d been having a good chat at the Marité.

Back here, I had Rosemary on the ‘phone. She’s had a bit of a disaster back home in the UK and I do feel sorry for her. WHat with her health and all of that, this is the last thing that she needs.

Lunch on the wall overlooking the harbour didn’t last too long. It was far too hot to stay out there very long. I came back here and … errr … went away with the fairies for all of three hours. Astonishing! I even ended up going on a skiing trip around the promontory here in the deep snow with Hannah and her friend.

And the pie?

Delicious. That worked well. And with a dollop of mash, peas, carrots (cooked in the steam cooker which I have now resurrected from the grave) and gravy it was even better.

I shall have to do this again.

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Monday 19th June 2017 – PHWOARRR!!!

record temperature granville manche normandy franceWhat a scorcher!

Never mind the time (which is wrong of course) just look at the temperature at 14:30 this afternoon! It was bad enough outside, but look at what it was doing in Caliburn!

This morning was bad enough. 25°C outside and 23°C in here at 07:55 (that’s 06:55 for those of you living in The Land That Time Forgot) and it just got hotter and hotter. After breakfast, and going for my baguette it became far too hot to concentrate and I didn’t accomplish very much.

vegan lentil and tofu pie granville manche normandy franceBut you can see my vegan lentil and tofu pie though. It had cooled off (well, sort-of) during the night so I pulled it out of the oven. With some cling-film over the top, it’s now gone into the fridge as I made some space in there

It doesn’t look very successful, so I hope that it tastes better than it looks. With some mashed spuds, peas and carrots, it might be okay. You never know. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. But I have to learn sometime and the easiest way to learn is by experience.

sailing boats granville manche normandy franceDown on my wall at lunchtime, I was able to admire the marine traffic entering and leaving the port while I was there eating my butty and reading my book. This kind of thing caught my eye, because it looks as if it might have sailed right out of a late 19th-Century painting.

Sailing boats are classed according to their masts and rigging, so you have schooners, barques, barquentines, yawls, all of these kinds of things. And I have no idea of which is which and I can’t tell the difference anyway, but there you go.

But the heat was intense. I couldn’t stay out there for very long and so I was obliged to retreat. And this was when I saw the temperature.

As a consequence I braved the oppressive heat of Caliburn and went out of town as far as the LeClerc. I’d seen that they had fans on offer and at €19:99 I bought the biggest one that they had. That cooled me down somewhat and I feel much more like it. It still didn’t stop me having a little repose though.

So now the curry is finished, it’s pie for tea tomorrow. If I don’t blog tomorrow night, you’ll know that it didn’t do me any good.

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Sunday 18th June 2017 – LIZ CAME ROUND …

… while I was busy chatting to Krys (with whom I haven’t spoken for quite a while) so sorry if cut you off, Krys.

With Sunday being a day of rest and a cause for a lie-in, I was determined not to leave my stinking pit when I awoke. But finding it impossible to stay in bed any longer, I arose to find that it was … errrr … 06:55. Quite.

So after an early breakfast and a bit of a relax, I headed off to the magasin de presse for my baguette – and he was closed.

But no worries – down the hill to the boulangerie opposite the casino – and closed for holidays.

I ended up in the early morning heat (and believe me, it was hot) tramping around the town until I found a boulangerie that was open. And I’m glad that I found that one because the bread proved to be delicious.

Back up the hill I staggered (I was exhausted and boiling hot by now) and came back to do the rest of the tidying up and have a nice good shower to see me right for the rest of the year. And a chat to Krys of course and another one of my friends – the one who has been described on these pages on various occasions as “The One That Got Away”.

Liz and I had a coffee and put the world to rights, and then made our butties (I’d bought two baguettes). Once that was organised we headed off into the sun and found a spot right down at the end of the promontory by the lighthouse where was had lunch. Liz produced some sliced pineapple for pudding.

Later on after a few hours in the sun we found a cafe on the roof of the aquatic museum near here – and there was a splendid view over the harbour from up there. And much to my delight a close inspection of Liz’s ice cream disclosed that it was in fact a vegan sorbet. Now I really am in my elephant!

Liz went off home and I came back here and … errr … closed my eyes for a little. Well, it really was hot.

Pizza tonight was delicious, but as for the pie that I baked, I don’t make mistakes, I just learn a lot of lessons, such as the fact that I have bought the wrong pastry for a start. The lentils were nice though – done all day in the slow cooker, but the mix was far too wet and there was far too much of it (a pile went in the freezer for another time).

After I’ve finished the curry tomorrow, I’ll start o the pie on Tuesday. If it ends up in the bin, don’t be surprised. You have to pay to learn.

And I’ve made it into November 2011 with my blog revision. By my calculations, only another 300 – 350 entries to go. But the further I go, the more difficult it becomes and there’s a pile of stuff that is going to need some complicated unravelling

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Sunday 11th June 2017 – THERE’S SOMETHING TO BE SAID …

… for this internal alarm clock thing that we are supposed to have. Here I was, due to get out of bed at 07:00 (and on a Sunday too!) and to be on the safe side I’d even set two alarms, and yet there I was, sitting bolt-upright in bed at 06:00 precisely.

Of course, that didn’t last too long and I was soon back under the covers until firstly David Bowie and secondly Billy Cotton did the business.

30 seconds under the shower was more-than-enough and then we had this urine performance thingy. And that’s a real performance when I can’t make the machine work. In the end, I had to empty away a half-bottle of tomato sauce and use that … "the bottle, not the sauce" – ed. That is really taking the p155.

I’d allowed myself an hour to walk to the station and so 20 minutes later, in the bright early morning sunshine, there I was. I’d even had time to stop to buy a baguette to eat with my couscous for lunch. I’m nothing if not prepared (although I do realise that I have forgotten my sponge bag, and I’ll probably realise that there are a few other things that I have forgotten by the time that we arrive in Leuven).

multiple unit SNCF gare de granville manche normandy franceMY ticket from Granville to Paris for a journey of over three-hours costs me just €20:00 (eat your heart out, you Brits!) and this is the train that I take.

Probably not a year old, they are magnificent and I really enjoy the journey. But typing of a train as it’s clattering over the joints in the track is bollyd dficicltue, I’ll tell you.

Pulled into Paris bang on time (eat your heart … ditto) and the direct Metro to the Gare du Nord was open this time. Mind you, it was a hell of a hike to Line 4 and I don’t fancy that in August with Strawberry Moose in his suitcase.

And it was heaving too – and on a Sunday. Like sardines we were. But 40 minutes saw us at the Gare du Nord. I went outside to eat my baguette and couscous. And it was steaming out there too. It’s a long time since I’ve felt it so warm.

And while I was out there I was harassed by a couple of beggars and amused myself watching a pirate taxi driver try his best to tempt gullible tourists into his car. But I was impressed that the savoir-faire of tourists in the town has improved somewhat.

The TGV was packed to the gunwhales and it was stinking hot in there too despite the air-conditioning. You can’t really open the windows at 220 mph I suppose. And we arrived at Brussels-Midi just in time for me to leg it onto the 15:55 to Eupen, with the guard very kindly holding the door open for me.

I’m now installed in my cosy little room with very thin walls and a loud television next door. And Bane of Britain has done it again – forgetting that it’s Sunday and so he can’t go shopping and now he has no coffee, no water, no nothing.

But after a brief repose (because it’s 32°C here believe it or not) I went for a walk and found a shop open and that helped.

The walk did even more to wear me out and when I arrived back I crashed out definitively until … errrr … 20:40 too. And I have so much to do.

But I did manage to find food and so that’s not too bad, and now I’m going to crash out again.

But this thing about three hours or so to Paris on the SNCF does remind me of the story about the Texan in Ireland, looking at the small size of the fields.
“Do you know” he exclaimed. “I can get into my car and it would take me three days to drive across my field back in Texas”
“I know just what you mean” said an Irishman
“Do you really????” asked the Texan incredulously
“Ohh yes” replied the Irishman. “I used to have a car like that myself”.

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Saturday 10th June 2017 – AND IF YOU THOUGHT …

… that yesterday was hot, then you should have been here today.

I slept right through to the alarm, and it was a struggle to leave my stinking pit, that’s for sure. And after breakfast, it was already so hot that I had all of the windows wide open in here. And I noticed that everyone else’s were opened too.

Fun times going down for the baguette. I met one of my neighbours coming back from town with a wheeled shopping basket thingy.
“You’re up early” I said.
“Been to the market” she replied. “Like to get it done early”.

In the newsagents “I’m not open until 09:00 tomorrow” he told me.
“That’s a shame” I replied. “I’ll be halfway to Paris by then”. Well, I won’t. Probably no more than about 4 or 5 miles or so down the line, but I won’t let a bit of poetic licence bother me.

On the way back, I noticed that the doors to the church were grand ouvert too. And just as I passed, the church organist struck up a couple of chords on the organ. It was just like something out of a Hammer Horror film – which is quite a good description from my neighbours’ point of view now that I’m living here.

It was round about here that I met my neighbour again, heading in the opposite direction. “I forgot my money” she explained. “I’ll have to go back and pay them as they all know me in town”.

Liz was next. “We’re going to Coutainville-Plage after lunch” she said. “Would you like to join us?”

So I made my butties, hit the streets, went round to the railway station to pick up my tickets for tomorrow (I’ve been caught out before by a non-working ticket machine) and went to the beach.

I found a secluded spot amongst the crowds, ate my butties in the glorious sunshine spread out on the sand on my blanket. I had a book with me too. It’s the story of the German U-boat offensive at the height of World War II – one month where the balance dramatically shifted to the Allies. It’s called Black May and, in the light of recent events, I would love to see a title more apposite than that.

Liz and Terry came along and we all relaxed in the sun watching two girls aged about 3 and 5 having loads of fun. Terry and Liz even went for a paddle.

windsurfing beach coudeville sur mer manche normandy franceI continued to read my book and to watch the people on the beach, including this guy struggling down to the water’s edge with what looked like a huge wing – presumably attempting to take off for the Iles de Chausey, or that’s what it looked like.

But in fact he was nothing more than one of these wind surfers, and he spent the next couple of hours, once he finally managed to launch his surf board, parading about just offshore.

We had a drink and then I came back here to finish off the rest of the pear sorbet. I have raspberry sorbet for when I come back.

Tea was out of a tin and now I’m relaxing ready for my trip tomorrow.

Leuven again. A nice change, isn’t it?

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Friday 26th May 2017 – HOW LONG IS IT …

… since we featured a proper “Ship of the Day” on these pages?

When I was in Montreal or somewhere down the St Lawrence we could take our pick of dozens each day, but it’s usually pretty thin pickings whenever we are elsewhere.

victress port de granville harbour manche normandy franceBut not today though, because today our ship really has come in.

It’s another really high tide this week and it’s brought in the Victress, who has sailed in from Southampton to pick up a load of gravel. Built in 1992, she flies the flag of Barbados and displaces about 1500 tonnes.

Not the biggest ship we’ve seen, but the biggest that we’ve seen in recent times and the biggest that we are likely to see here in Granville. She’s not there now, though – the ground’s all flat. And she’s somewhere out in the Channel so it seems. And I’ve not been able to find out where she’s heading.

She was formerly known as Uranus but this was changed due to ribald remarks from captains of other ships – something along the line of “with my binoculars I can see Uranus from here”

After breakfast this morning I had a quick shower and shave and change of clothes and hit the streets in search of the bus stop. Of course I have a choice of two, and of course it was “the other one” but just €1:00 and pretty painlessly (and I’ll do this again) I was decanted at the top of town to rescue Caliburn. He’s had his service, and the strange noise seems to have gone, and he’s had his controle technique. That gives me two years motoring without any major worries, which is always a bonus.

And on the way back, I picked up my oven. That’s now installed and working – and I had to change round my kitchen a little to fit it on the shelves and things don’t fit as well as they did before, which is a shame. But tomorrow I’ll be tracking down a pizza tray, some bread-making stuff and some oven chips. THis is going to start to become interesting.

For lunch I headed off to my usual spot – the clifftop overlooking the port – and this was where I made the acquaintance of Victress. But not for too long because once more I was burnt out of my position and head to retreat to here where I promptly crashed out for an hour.

granville manche normandy franceAnd while we’re on the subject of photographs … "well, one of you is" – ed … it occurs to me that you have yet to see the view out of my living room windows.

It’s not very inspiring unfortunately (although I’ve seen much worse) but if I look over to the right-hand side I can in fact see the sea.

It’s not exactly the sea view that I was hoping to have, and I don’t have a terrace which would have been perfect, but here in Granville I can’t do much better than this. Especially as if I just step outside the front door of the building the view is stupendous as you know

Later on, I went out to Roncey. Liz’s grandchildren (whom you have seen many times on these pages) are coming to stay tomorrow and it’s important that Strawberry Moose is there to greet them. So now he’s playing hide-and-seek down the bed.

Back here, I had another dollop of the kidney bean stuff that I made yesterday and it was just as delicious too.

So tomorrow it’s a mega-shop again. So just you watch me forget something important.

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Thursday 25th May 2017 – PHEW!

Or, rather … phwoarrr, what a scorcher!

There I was, outside sitting on the wall overlooking the harbour eating my butties and I was driven in … by the heat! I’d planned to spend most of the afternoon out there too and I’d taken a good book with me – but it was clearly impossible and after a while I fled to the comfort and safety of my apartment. 1-metre thick stone walls don’t let in much heat, so hear I am hoping that they don’t let in much cold in the winter either.

According to the thermometer that I have here, it only reached 26.5°C outside, but it felt 10°C higher than that. And it reached 24°C in here too, and that’s with all of the windows open too.

I had another dismal night last night and I’ve no idea why that should be. But yet again I was awake long before the alarm went off.

After a relax, I headed off to track down a baguette and didn’t have to go farther than the depot de pain at the newsagents. He was in quite a garrulous mood as usual and we had a lengthy chat, and I managed to avoid bumping into any neighbours on the way.

It’s a Bank Holiday and so in accordance with usual procedures I had a day off work. Well, not quite, as I did a little (only a little) tidying up here and there with bits and pieces. And as you know, I took my butties outside for lunch.

My intention was to go back out later in the afternoon and take advantage of the good weather, but just as I was gathering up my book, Rosemary rang me. It’s always nice to talk to friends of course, and we had a really good chat for about an hour and a half, by which time it was tea-time.

Tea was kidney beans and peanuts and olives in a tomato, vegetable and onion sauce (courtesy of Yours Truly) with plenty of garlic. And there’s enough left over for another three days. But there will be an interruption on Sunday when I shall be experimenting with the new oven (if I remember to pick it up tomorrow). And that reminds me – an oven means “oven chips” of course, and so that means at some time I’ll have to buy some more vegan sausages.

Mustn’t forget.

And speaking of the phone, I’ve had the phone – the land line, that is – just two weeks now, and already I’ve received the mammoth total of three phone calls. One was a wrong number and the other two were these “you have won a major prize – please telephone (some massive overpriced premium line) for further details”.

It’s nice to know that I’m wanted. Although I shudder to think what for.

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Friday 17th July 2015 – WE ARE NOT ALONE!

deer in field les guis virlet puy de dome franceI had a visitor this evening, and peering through the gloom I managed to take a photo of it.

A nice deer has come out this evening looking for food, or perhaps looking for Strawberry Moose – after all, it is that time of year and he does need to get back into practice seeing as how he’ll be off to Canada in about three or four weeks time.

I really don’t understand why anyone would want to kill anything as beautiful and graceful as this.

I was awake once more before the alarm clock, mainly due to the heat, and after breakfast I had another really good session on my wen pages. The trouble is though that the more I do, the more there is to do and rather than catching up, I’m falling even further behind.

I was driven out of the attic by the heat too, and I ended up wedged in a corner in the bedroom with the fan blowing full-on at me. Even then, it was almost impossible to keep cool.

After lunch I turned the house upside-down looking for some more tongue-and-grooving but that was completely unsuccessful. There is now no alternative but to go to Montlucon tomorrow and buy some more.

What i did do was to sort out the plasterboarding in the shower room ready for tiling and ready for finishing off the ceiling, and then to attend to some more outstanding bits of wiring. And that was where I reached at knocking-off time.

I finished off today by having a good shower – more to cool me down than to actually clean me off. And that’s me set up for the weekend now.

All ready for Montlucon, in fact.

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Sunday 5th July 2015 – WHY CAN’T THE DAWN CHORUS …

… have a day off too? Here I was on a Sunday morning aiming for a lie-in and they all start up at about 06:30. Mind you, they did have something to start up about because we were having a rainstorm – the first rain for about 10 days.

It didn’t last long, though, but long enough to disrupt my plans to have a really good lie-in, and I was up and about by 08:20.

And I’d been on my travels too during the night. I was with a lady of the female sex but I can’t remember now who it was. Anyway, it concerned “Ye-ye”. And if you want to know who “ye-ye” might be, ask any Belgian child. In these days of recomposed families, it’s quite often the case that a child’s grandmother (“mé-mé”) would have a husband or partner who would not be the child’s grandfather (pé-pé). So he would be “ye-ye”. And in this case, “ye-ye” was living with the children of his wife but was having a rough time there. Consequently I made the suggestion “why doesn’t he come to live with us?” and much to my surprise, the lady of the female sex agreed (I never ever thought she would and I was only half-hearted in my suggestion) and so I had to crack on and decorate the spare room.

Meanwhile, back here, after breakfast I checked over the radio programme that we will be recording tomorrow for Radio Tartasse, and then I did some work on the Radio Arverne stuff. The programme for the week 4th to 10th … errrr … November. Yes, I’m forging ahead.

But I couldn’t keep it up. The heat overwhelmed me round about 11:00 and even the fan couldn’t cool the place down enough. In the end I took the fan and the laptop and went down to the bedroom where there was a much-more-moderate 29°C and I stayed down there till supper time. I had a bit of a doze for a while and then just – I was going to say “chilled out” but that was far from the truth given the weather. There wasn’t much point in doing anything else.

So tomorrow we’re recording a round of radio programmes – the August shows for Radio Tartasse. Liz is off for a couple of weeks and won’t be back until after the first date of broadcasting. For that reason we need to do it this week.

With me being off to Canada mid-August, we’ll have to record the September and October programmes at the beginning of August. And this is the reason why I’m trying to push ahead.

And tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be fitting the two missing shelves in the bathroom and then carrying on with the ceiling.

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Friday 3rd July 2015 – THIS MUST BE SOME KIND OF A RECORD

Today’s temperature outside reached a massive 39.4°C and that can’t be far short of a record. No wonder I had a hard time starting work today.

This morning I wasn’t as bright and breezy as yesterday, even though I had the Dawn Chorus again giving me a helping hand. After breakfast I mooched around for a little and then plucked up the courage to attack the radio programmes.The second lot for Radio Arverne are now half-completed and should be done by Sunday, and I have to check over the rock programmes for Radio Tartasse because they are being recorded on Monday.

When I finally managed to attack the bathroom, it was really slow progress. I’ve only done the first three rows of the ceiling, but then again each one had to be cut and shaped by hand so it isn’t surprising. In fact, because of the way that I’ve done everything, there’s going to be a lot of the ceiling that’s going to have to be cut and shaped by hand.

I’ve also had to fit a supporting strut in the ceiling. There’s going to be a flying shelf in the bathroom and the brackets to hang it from the ceiling have to be fitted, and that’s why I needed the supporting strut.

Apart from that, I had to unload Caliburn ready for my trip to Montlucon tomorrow and you’ve no idea how much I didn’t want to do that in the heat that we were having. But at least the water in the solar shower was 39.0°C so that I could have a really good soak.

Now here’s a thing.

Apparently in the UK, there’s been a minute’s silence in memory of those who were killed in Tunisia. Now – can you remember if we ever had a minute’s silence in memory of anyone who was killed by an IRA terrorist?

This is an old Nazi trick and the Nazis used it to perfection. Whenever an “atrocity” was committed by a hated enemy, they would have these ceremonial minutes’ silence, parade funerals, eulogies and all that kind of thing. They whip up the emotions and subsequently the hatred, and then the Government can go ahead and invade another country to “revenge these dreadful deaths” and the public will be so whipped up by hatred that they can’t see what’s going on. And when you see the outpourings of the Tory Government, that echo the comments that the Nazis made about a death in Danzig or the Sudetenland, you realise just how much the Tories have learned from the Nazis and how much of it they have put into practice.

When it came to whipping up hatred against the Irish Republic or the Vatican over the deaths and other atrocities committed by the IRA, the Government was strangely silent. But when it comes to doing it against brown-skinned people, all of the gloves are off. This tells you all that you need to know about the British Government’s racist policies.

And don’t forget that it was the West that declared war on Islam, with the bushbaby’s “crusade” speech. And just who is so naive to believe that when you declare war on someone and start to fight them, they are not going to fight back?

You couldn’t make that up could you? It just shows you the depths to which the intellectual capacity of the Western world has sunk.

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Tuesday 30th June 2015 – THAT WAS A WASTED DAY

One of the hottest days that I have ever encountered. 36°C outside, 31°C in the attic (with the fan going full-blast on the maximum position) and even 28.4°C on the landing downstairs with the front door and all of the windows open.

In other words, it’s impossible to work. Instead, I’ve stayed up here sitting right in front of the fan. This morning, I did another radio rock show, just to show that I am still making some kind of progress at something, but this afternoon it was impossible to do anything.

And it was just as well, for my promised circular saw never turned up. Instead, I had an e-mail from Amazon to say that Amazon “…n’a pas été en mesure de vous le livrer en votre absence. Un avis de passage a dû vous être laissé, comprenant les coordonnées de La Poste afin d’organiser une nouvelle livraison”.
In other words, because I wasn’t in, my delivery couldn’t be made and there will be a notice somewhere telling me how to organise a new delivery.

And here I am, never moved from my chair all day, and no-one has been and no-one has left any notice of their visit. I dunno who the couriers are (because there is no notice from them) but whoever they are, it’s quite frankly dishonest.

Anyway, Amazon has had an earful from me this evening and they are going to try to redeliver it tomorrow. I shan’t be holding my breath.

Apart from that, not a lot has happened. I’ve done very little but, seriously, it’s not the day to be doing anuthing at all.

And it’s going to be even worse for the next few days. I’ll have to do something about all of this. A wet towel around the next might be a start.

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Wednesday 11th December 2013 – THIS HEATWAVE …

… is still continuing. It’s been five days since I’ve seen a cloud and for the last 3 days I’ve had almost 100 amps of surplus electrical energy – unheard-of in December, and I’ve about 63°C of hot water in the dump load.

There was 15°C of water in the solar water tank too – imagine that in December too. I was almost ready for a solar shower this afternoon, although 15°C is not really what I would be comfortable with.

Today I did indeed demolish the old wood sheds and now there’s space to move around in front of the house. But where the wood had been piled up against the stone wall, there’s not a trace of weeds or moss and that has got me thinking, which I know is dangerous. I’m not here tomorrow but if the weather holds out for Friday, I might mix up some lime mortar and point the wall. Strike while the iron is hot, as it were.

I didn’t put up the scaffolding though. Instead, I emptied Caliburn and finally put away everything that I had brought back from Marianne’s old apartment in Brussels. Loads of stuff has made it up here, especially the bits that will improve my standard of living up here in the attic.

There was also a big bag of biscuits and so on that Rosemary broght back from the UK in the Spring and which I had put in Caliburn, dropped off in Brussels and then promptly forgot about.

Tomorrow I’m taxiing, which might come as something of a surprise to long-term readers of this rubbish. I’m taking a passenger to Limoges Airport.hea

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Thursday 25th July 2013 – PHWOOARRRR – WHAT A SCORCHER

Yes, for some reason that I haven’t yet understood, it was flaming scorching here today.

It didn’t seem very much like it in the sense that it was a bright sunny day, but nevertheless, it wasn’t half hot, mum.

So much so, that despite being up and about long before the alarm went off at 07:30, I didn’t accomplish anything like as much as I was hoping to do today.

In fact at about 16:00 I had to go and crash out for an hour or two. Consequently you won’t notice too much of a difference here in the apartment.

Still, tomorrow I’m off to see the notaire for 10:30 and when I do come back, I’ll have to get cracking and dump half of this lot in the bin;

But one thing is for sure – the first lot of donations on Freecycle might be going at the weekend.

I have an amateur for all of the video and audio cassettes that are littering the place. Next up will be the creche and all of the other Christmas gear.

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Sunday 2nd October 2011 – AT LAST ….

football fc pionsat st hilaire L'Union Sportive Saint-Georges-les-Ancizes puy de dome france.. we managed to get some football in today. My withdrawal symptoms are over.

It’s League Cup week – round three as it happens – and this is why matches have been few and far between this weekend.

Pionsat has made it through the first two rounds without my help and today they were up against it – in the shape of Les Ancizes who play three divisions higher up the pyramid and who included two players who played in CFA2 (the 4th level of the French pyramid) last season.

football fc pionsat st hilaire L'Union Sportive Saint-Georges-les-Ancizes puy de dome france>And what didn’t help matters was that they gave away three silly goals of the type that I have spent the last three seasons trying to get them out of – a lazy defence that won’t talk to each other, won’t track back as soon as they lose possession and no-one who will really dominate the bak line.

They also conceded a fourth goal that was quite a good effort, and not only that, Les Ancizes hit the woodwork twice when I’m sure that it would have been easier to score.

football fc pionsat st hilaire L'Union Sportive Saint-Georges-les-Ancizes puy de dome france With Cedric working hard up front supported by Nico they huffed and puffed but they never threatened to blow Les Ancizes’ house down, but then Thomas came on as a substitute for Jojo, who was clearly not having the best of games.

I first saw Thomas play three seasons ago as a new kid on the block and how promising did he look in those days. But the last two seasons he never seemed to fulfill what he showed back in those days.

football fc pionsat st hilaire L'Union Sportive Saint-Georges-les-Ancizes puy de dome franceToday, though, he came on clearly with a point to prove and from that moment onwwards the match changed in character. Cedric and Nico scored a goal between them and Thomas ran riot down the inside right position and scored two magnificent goals to pull FC Pionsat St Hilaire up to within touching distance.
Pick of the pair from Thomas has to be this brilliant diving header, and that would not have been out of place on the telly in any league you might care to name.

Highlight though was definitely Pionsat’s equaliser. The two players that had been playing higher up the pyramid spent much of the time showing off on the ball and it was odds-on that it was going to end in tears.

football fc pionsat st hilaire L'Union Sportive Saint-Georges-les-Ancizes puy de dome franceOne of them had already had a narrow excape when he tried to dribble around Cedric on the edge of the penalty area and although he eventually managed to keep the ball, his pass out rebounded off a Pionsat player and could have gone anywhere.

But his colleague was not so lucky. His effort with just 10 seconds to go rebounded off the referee of all people and fell to Cedric totally unmarked in front of an empty net and Cedric doesn’t miss those. Thank you very much.

football fc pionsat st hilaire L'Union Sportive Saint-Georges-les-Ancizes puy de dome franceAnd so we had penalties – and cool heads at Pionsat saw them through by 5 penalties to 4 and an extremely lucky victory that it was too.

It’s not often that Lady Luck smiles on Pionsat but she did today and the team can bask in their success here for the rest of the week.

It was also probably the hottest October day I have ever known. Absolutely beautiful. We are having most unseason-like weather just now and I expect that we will end up paying for this in a couple of weeks time. 

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Sunday 21st August 2011 – Well I was right …

… about the heatwave. It burned me out of bed this morning at 09:45. And on a Sunday too! Whatever next?

But I put my early rising to good use by cracking on with a new series of radio programmes. I managed to find some information on the Auvergne Regional Parliament at Clermont Ferrand, and so I spent all morning doing that.

After lunch I worked on the Radio Anglais blog and brought it up to date as far as I can – there are a couple of programmes missing and I shall have to find them if I can.

Once I finished that, I changed the habits of a lifetime and did some work. It started off as grovelling around looking for some battery terminals and ended up as something of a sort-out. I’ve found quite a bit of stuff that I had mislaid and eventually I did discover some terminals. Tomorrow evening I can make up some kind of connection system for a secondary battery.

In the solar water heater the temperature reached 45°C and I had to wait until about 19:30 until the water had cooled down enough for a shower, if 14°C can be called cool.

I’ve also tried my hand at jam-making with some blackberries off the brambles. But I dunno whether I’ve put too much sugar in it but it seems to have transformed itself into toffee. Ahh well – I’ll just have to practise more.

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