Tag Archives: rob_nicolette

Thursday 25th November 2010 – WINTER HAS FINALLY ARRIVED

There was no snow when I woke up this morning, but it wasn’t half flaming cold.

So after breakfast I piddled off outside and dug up all my onions. There’s maybe about 50 of them and that’s not really enough for a year’s worth of cooking. I should have planted many more than that.

But with the temperature continuing to drop and with the heavy torrential rain that started to fall I called it a day in the garden and started to unpack the supplies that had come from the States and the supplies that Terry and Liz had bought me from the UK.

And while I was doing that, the heavy rain turned to heavy snow and that was that. It snowed and snowed and snowed and now we have had quite a pasting. It’s sub-zero outside and this snow is going to stick.

I went round to Rob and Nicolette’s too to thank them for keeping an eye on the premises. Nicolette said that she had had some of my beans and courgettes – one of which weighed 4.5 kilos! Courgettes grow well round here.

She had made a huge courgette and bean soup and had frozen some of it for my return which I thought was really nice of her. And in exchange I gave them a little something that I had bought in Canada and which was in the box of goodies.

Funnily enough, I went there at 18:00 for a quick chat and it was 20:45 when I left yet it only seemed like 5 minutes that I was there.

And now I’m holed up here in my room with a raging blaze from the little fire. The temperature was 7.4 degrees when I came up here but a good blaze for an hour or so brought the temperature up to 18 degrees, which is much more like it.

And I have no intention whatever of moving from here.

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Monday 27th September 2010 – IN 24 HOURS TIME …

… if all goes according to plan, I’ll be in a hotel at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Browsing around this evening on the web and looking for some kind of accommodation, I noticed that the airport has a hotel booking service. So on a whim I typed in a request for the cheapest hotel possible within the airport limits.

And the price that came up was €106. So forget that!

But there was one of these Google advert things on the side of the page for some kind of wholesale hotel booking agency. And they offered me a price in the same hotel for … errrr ….€66. So with shuttle to and from the flight terminal included in the price I’m not going to mess around wandering around the city at weird hours of the night – I’ll get a good night’s sleep instead.

But the main reason for not wanting to hang around in Paris is the weather. Winter has come with a vengeance and it fell to 2.9°C last night. And it’s been grey and miserable all day too. I shan’t be sorry to see the back of this weather. Canada won’t be any warmer but at least the cold is different over there.

I was going to spend the day packing and tidying up but I’ve run aground again. It’s a tip up here at the moment with papers and all kinds of things lying around here. But that’s how it’s going to stay until I come back. I’ll just be glad when I’m on the train.

I’ve a lot to organise tomorrow morning, then I need to give Rob and Nicolette the instructions about checking up on the place, and then going round to Liz and Terry’s to park up Caliburn, and then recording 2 months’ worth of radio programmes. I’ll need a rest after all that.

But it’s been 5 years since I last went on a major adventure, and it’s 7 years since I went to Canada last. It’s about time I had a holiday!

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Tuesday 21st September 2010 – I’ve been really busy today ….

… and I couldn’t really afford to spend the time as I have so much to do.

This morning we had to go to this radio station in Marcillat en Combraille to discuss the arrangements for the programme they want us to do. And what we discussed was almost exactly the same and no different from the last time we were there. Mind you, the guy we talked to was as interested in the Ligne Economique as I am and he told me that he has ridden on it to Durdat Larequille. And seeing as the line closed in 1932 and he has ridden on it, then he probably has a good excuse for forgetting things.

He was minded by a woman who may well have been his wife, and while she was much more purposeful about things and helped to keep her husband on track, she had hearing issues. So as you might expect, this meeting was a bundle of laughs. But nevertheless we did fit in a good chat about solar panels, the Anglo-French group and Terry’s little business.

Then it was off to the Mairie to give them copies of the photos from Saturday.They are “internet” quality so if they want them at proper press quality (350dpi and all that) they can tell me which ones.

Then off to Marianne’s where I stayed for ages talking about Pionsat-Patrimoine, the Anglo-French group, the newspaper, the Foreign library and all that kind of thing. Things are moving around here, although you wouldn’t believe it.

The next people to have the pleasure of my company were the people at the bank. I warned them that I would be going to Canada shortly and so not to be surprised at my “extraordinary expenditure” and not to cancel my bank card – not like 2002. I suppose I ought to do that for a couple of other cards too.

I also bumped into Damien from the football club while I was in Pionsat.

Rob and Nicolette were out so I couldn’t give them their photographs (they were out later too) and so after lunch I wrote a few important letters (it’s great having a printer that works!) and carried on with my researches. And I might just be onto something. A company called Tiger Rentals might let me have a Toyota Yaris for just about $1500 CAN – about €1100. It’s said that this figure includes the collision damage waiver and all taxes, allows unlimited mileage and permits travel to the USA and the rest of Canada. Now this sounds too good to be true so I’ve sent them a mail for confirmation.

Watch this space.

Of course I need to pay for the accommodation on top but a Yaris does just about 50mpg whereas a motorhome will do just about 18 to the gallon if you are very lucky before you even think about the extra rental charges and whatever charges you might have to pay for camping.

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Saturday 18th September 2010 – Winter is acumen in …

… Lhude sing Rudolph and all of that. The temperature has been slowly dropping for the last few days and last night it reached a low of 5.6 degrees. You might think that that is cold, but on checking my stats I find that apart from last year when we had to wait until mid-October, the other years that I have been here (2007 and 2008) have been the same. So there!

But today was an interesting day, to say the least. It was the mobile phone ringing that woke me up. Who the h*ll was ringing me at that ungodly hour? So the phone stopped – and five minutes later it rang again. And then stopped. And five minutes later …….
“Arrrggghhhhhhh”.
Yes’ I’d slept right through the normal alarm and it was the alarm on the phone going off – at … errrr ….. 10:40 am. What happened there?

So with the morning knackered, first thing that I did was to go outside and check on how the pointing from yesterday was looking now that the cement has dried. There’s definitely some progress, although it’s not as quick as I would like.

Once I’d done that, I had breakfast and then went shopping. They had a few exciting things at LIDL such as a hammer-action stapler which will really come in useful, and then I came back here for lunch

Once I had had my lunch, I went round to Rob and Nicolette’s. They are the people who bought Claude’s old place. Now Nicolette (on the right in the photo) is an artist of no mean repute and they have turned Claude’s barn into a studio for her where she can display her paintings.

It was the official opening of her studio today and the whole village as well as everyone else was invited. We even had the mayor doing the formal unveiling too

>But upstairs in the barn, the transformation is magnificent. You wouldn’t believe how much work that has taken place up there in just 6 months since they bought the place from Claude.

And you can see by the paintings on the wall just how much of an artist that Nicolette is. I have to admit that I’m not a big art fan, especially not of surrealist images, but even I can see the quality in these paintings.

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Saturday 17th April 2010 – We had another footfest tonight.

We started off at 18:30 with Pionsat’s 2nd XI playing Pontamur. They lost 3-1 but that is something of a triumph as earlier in the season Pontaumur gave them a good spanking.

And the result was something of a travesty. Pontaumur had no more than about 5 shots on target whereas Pionsat spent the whole match peppering the Pontaumur goal – with the woodwork and the Pontaumur goalkeeper working overtime, as in this photo where the keeper pushes a header from Christophe round the post.

After that, the 1st XI played Miremont, and they won 4-1. That was something of a disappointment as in the away fixture, while I was watching the match at Pontaumur, Pionsat won by an astonishing 12-1.

There was quite a big crowd too – the fine weather bringing out the supporter in their … er …. pairs. It really was a beautiful day though – the temperature in the heat exchanger reached 51.5 degrees and the 15 litres of water reached 32 degrees – almost hot enough to shower with.

I went down to the Post Office at 11:40 to post a letter, only to find that it closes at 11:30 on Saturday. And so off to St Eloy for whooping where I spent next to nothing – a record €0:00 in LIDL. I planned to look in on this new megashop that’s just opened but would you believe it – it closes between 12:00 and 14:00 ON A SATURDAY for lunch. Some people just don’t want any custom.

This afternoon I went for an hour or two and socialised with my new neighbours. Now that makes a change – me socialising. And that was the sum total of my day.

But at the football Max was there. He’s the secretary of the club as well as being captain of the 3rd XI.
He asked me “does your mate Terry fancy a game of football on Sunday? we’re short-handed.”
“Shorthanded on Sunday?” I queried. “That’s nothing. Terry has been short-handed for almost a week!”

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Monday 5th April 2010 – Blimmin’ ‘eck!

I’ve just noticed the time – 03:44! Yes, that’ll teach me. But I’ve made a couple of important discoveries with this 3D animation program and suddenly my attempted animations have come on in leaps and bounds. So I managed to get myself carried away.

I can see that I’m going to have to be careful with what I do with this program, otherwise my spare time will simply evaporate.

So with it being another jour ferie today I did just about badger all again. Coffee in bed, read a book, checked on the garden, worked on the website, wrapped a birthday present for Bill, prepared some entertainment for the Anglo-French group – yes, badger all as you can see.

At the group this evening we had quite a few newcomers – an American couple who have bought a holiday home here; my new Dutch neighbours; two French guys that Antoine knew. And with the welcome return from hibernation of Clotilde and the presence of Heidi back temporarily from Germany we were quite numerous. And wasn’t that a nice change?

But not so good news is that the new owners of the Queue de Milan, being much more businesslike than the previous, have now decided that they want to charge us €30 for use of the room. Well, fair enough – it’s their room and they can do what they like with it. But then on the other hand it’s our bodies and we are quite free to take them elsewhere.

We shall have a little sit-down this week and plan our next move. It’s a pity that there isn’t a club room at the footy ground. But there are plenty of other options – it’s a case of seeing what’s available. Marianne, who is the President of the Amis du Chateau de Pionsat, might even have a little room there that we can use.

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Friday 26th February 2010 – I knew I’d pay for yesterday.

Yes, I wasn’t feeling anything like it today. But then again thats what usually happens so I have to make the most of it.

I started again on cutting the wood but not as quickly as yesterday. And I was interrupted for an hour or so by Claude who came round to visit, with two important pieces of news.
Firstly Beethoven has died. And that’s devastating news. He was an Old English Sheepdog and had reached the age of 16 with all his faculties more-or-less intact although he did have to burrow under the fence to escape after the young lady dogs of the area rather than leap over it as he used to in his youth. He had bags of character and was the only dog I ever took to. However this last few weeks he had developed an ulcer on his nether regions that turned out to be a cancer. The vet had given him antibiotics but it seemed that they failed to work.
The second piece of news is much more exciting. Claude hasn’t sold all his land here – he’s still kept the plot down in the forest with the ruined barn. And he tells me that yesterday when he was up here doing something or other at his old property he heard a chainsaw in the forest. So off he wandered – and caught the Parisian in flagrante delicto cutting down one of Claude’s trees. And who should be strolling down the lane right at that moment but one of the mayor’s assistants. Claude and the Parisian hate each other with a passion that goes off the Richter Scale – and I have to say that I find the Parisian gratuitously disagreeable, and catching him red-handed with an impeccable witness in attendance is an answer to Claude’s dreams. From here on in, the matter is sub judice, as you might say.

I went round to see my new neighbours as well to bid them welcome and to offer them a bottle of wine as a housewarming present.There’s no harm whatever in laying the good foundations of friendship. They are Dutch and have moved here permanently so I told them about the Anglo-French group and the activities of the Reseau Rural – even though I don’t get on with the organisers of the Reseau as regular readers will know, I still support the aims of the organisation and give it all the encouragement I can.

In other news, the first buds are coming out on the trees.

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EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality