Tag Archives: swimming baths

Saturday 9th November 2013 – DUNNO IF YOU REMEMBER …

… a couple of years ago and I posted a photo of the local village shop in Ronnet which had caught fire and burnt out.

The owners moved to other premises in the village with their shop and opened a little café-restaurant there too. But that’s not lasted too long, because this was what I discovered when I went through Ronnet at midday today.

We’ve had another fire and all of this seems to have gone for a Burton too. Even more importantly, when the first place caught fire they had a tarpaulin up and over it almost as soon as the flames were extinguished. Here though after the fire at their second premises, they seem to have abandoned everything to its fate and that seems to be that.

Yes, I was in Ronnet today, on my way to Commentry for shopping, and rather later than intended too. I’d heard the alarm go off but I decided that, seeing as how I’m still recovering from my exertions, I was going to have another morning of rest.

But what a beautiful morning it was though, not a cloud in the sky and the batteries were fully-charged by 10:45. I emptied some more stuff out of Caliburn and tidied up some more in here, slinging some filled rubbish bags into the van and then went off to Commentry, via Ronnet.

Christmas isn’t too far off and so I’ve started buying Christmas nibbles today. And nothing else of note or excitement, except that at Centrakor I picked up a couple of small pepper mills on special offer, to use for grinding my cardamon seeds and so on, and also some waxed table cloth. That was what I wanted, because I don’t want to ruin this new table when I use it as my kitchen worktop up here.

As the weather deteriorated, clouded over and started to rain, Neris was next, and the swimming baths. Ages since I’ve been there and it was freezing in the building. About 25 of us poor souls braving the extremes, but at least I’m clean for once.

So now that I’m back home I can return to my usual haunts and habits, FC Pionsat St Hilaire being one of them, and tonight the Ist XI were taking on Chatelguyon.

I had to get dressed for it too as it was freezing outside, although the rain had stopped. And it’s as well that I did for nothing that happened on the pitch served to warm me up at all.

PIonsat started the stronger and were peppering the Chatelguyon goalmouth and it was no surprise that they took the lead. A beautiful cross across the goalmouth from Nico and Pavel, this new Polish striker, volleying in a superb shot at the far post.

In that opening spell wre had shots kicked off the line, shots pounded into the woodwork and shots put wide when it would have been easier to score and I can’t think how it was that they missed. Pionsat were threatening to run riot.

They were however living dangerously at the back and it was no surprise to anyone that Chatelguyon equalised – with just a few minutes to go before half-time.

A break down the left wing saw a Chatelguyon forward clean on with the ball and although Michael managed to get down and stop the shot he couldn’t hold on and as the ball ran free from his grasp, another Chatelguyon forward following up had a pretty simple tap-in and that, dear readers, was that.

The second half started just like the first half. Pionsat came out of the trap like a rocket and for the first five minutes had Chatelguyon pegged right back in their own half and under something of the cosh.

We had the Pionsat missed chances, the woodwork peppered with shots, the Chatelguyon keeper making some excellent saves, and then the unbelievable happened.

Well, it isn’t unbelievable if you have been following what I was writing about the matches three and four years ago. Back in those days Pionsat were struggling because they had a defence that had a tendency to switch off and gp to sleep at important moments, and this was exactly what we had here.

And it didn’t happen just once or even twice, but FOUR TIMES, would you believe, and what looked like a comfortable Pionsat victory turned into something of an absolute rout as they went on to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I felt sorry for Michael in the Pionsat goal. He’s not a goalkeeper but with injuries to everyone else he’s in there keeping goal and doing his best.

No one could fault him for any of the five goals that he conceded, but with two Pionsat centre-backs standing too far apart so that an attacker can go straight down though the middle for a one-on-one with him, what is he expected to do?

We had two of those, one after the other, and that was followed up by two balls over the top of the defence when the Pionsat defence was pushing too far forward and not quick enough to get back. For the fifth goal we had Michael on his own against three Chatelguyon attackers and no-one can do much about that.

Back home, I was skyped by an old friend of mine, telling me that he’s moved house. He has, but his wife hasn’t, meaning of course that their marriage of some considerable number of years has come to an end. That’s really sad news as between them they made quite an impressive couple with many qualities. But I suppose that it’s none of my business except to dole out the sympathy.

-5

Saturday 6th July 2013 – DAMN AND BLAST!

I went to Commentry today to do my shopping – the first time for I don’t know how many months. And we had two of what can best be described as disasters.

Firstly, there’s a shop there called “Les Bonnes Affaires” – one of these surplus shops that sells overstocks, bankrupt stock and so on. I’ve bought … ohhh … tons of stuff from there and it’s all been useful too – something of a paradise for me.

But I won’t be buying anything from there ever again because there’s a notice on the door – “Fermeture Definitive 23 mars 2013” – yes, closed down for good over three months ago. That is definitely a disaster;

The second thing is not really a disaster – it’s more of a calamity.

Bricomarché has been selling a range of wood stoves and I’ve had my eye on one of them – it’s a wood-burner with oven and back boiler, exactly what I want for downstairs to heat, cook, and to boil the water for washing and heating.

Every time I’ve gone into the shop I’ve been eyeing this oven and thinking to myself “one day you will be mine”

But damn and blast!

Bricomarché has changed supplier and that type of model isn’t in the new range. Of course, Brain of Britain hasn’t made a note of the manufacturer and of course he asked the staff of the shop but none of them could (or would) remember who it was.

Now I’m well and truly snookered.

So after another exciting dream I was up and about in what was the most glorious morning of the year so far (and it held throughout the day too which was a complete surprise).

I didn’t do much in Commentry (there wasn’t much to do in all honesty) but I did go to Neris-les-Bains, the swimming pool was indeed open, and I had the best swim for absolutely ages.

I really felt the benefits of that too.

This evening I went round to Marianne’s. It’s been 6 months since Bill’s death and so a group of us had a little party and get-together in his memory.

She had found a bag with all of Bill’s drawings and paintings, and we were allowed to choose one each as a memory.

I have many paintings here, all painted by people who have flashed in and out of my life at one time or another, and I was pleased to add a small watercolour of a beach scene to my collection.

Now I’m nice and clean (for once) and so I’m going to treat myself to clean bedding tonight. That’s pushing the boat out rather far, isn’t it?

But I’ll be on my own tonight because Strawberry Moose has gone on a sleepover.

And the dream? Ohh yes, I forgot. I was working in a big office and I had a pile of folders on my desk with post in that needed to be dealt with. The post was put inside the files ready to be worked, but some of the cases were quite complicated and I had had a few sitting there for months and I hadn’t told anyone about them. I’d just learnt that I had been transferred to another office immediately, which meant that these cases had to be abandoned and would be inherited by another who would immediately identify my misdeeds and wouldn’t my name be mud? I was in something of an awful panic about this.

-7

Friday 5th July 2013 – IT’S POETS DAY TODAY

Yes – p … errr … ush off early, tomorrow’s Saturday and so I did knock off early too. Upstairs sitting in my room with a good book by … errr … 19:35.

This morning I had another couple of hours on the internet with the next instalments of web pages, with just a minor interruption from Rosemary. Her car’s gone wrong and she didn’t understand the garagiste.

Anyway, I gave him a quick ring and found out that a wheel bearing – roulement – has packed up. I duly relayed the message to Rosemary and after a little chat, I carried on with my work.

This afternoon I took off the sheet of plasterboard that I’d fitted incorrectly and dismantled the wiring that I’d assembled last week.

I then threaded all of the wiring down the channels that I had drilled, reassembled it and then fitted two (or rather one and a half) sheets of plasterboard, as you can see.

But there are two issues with all of this.

Firstly, you’ll notice a horizontal line right across the nearer sheet of plasterboard. Trying to put a sheet of plasterboard into the cutting position, I dropped it (these 13mm waterprrof sheets are flaming heavy) and it snapped.

And so I fetched another one – and did exactly the same.

I’m working in a confined space with no room to move around and I’m on my own with these heavy objects so I’m bound to have accidents.

But at least the split in this one will be below the level of the tiling and so seeing as how it will be bunged up with tile cement it doesn’t really make much odds.

The second thing though is more important. I’ve cut some of the wires too short and I’ve not much idea exactly what I can do about that. I shall have to think of something.

Last night though, I was in Nantwich. Of course I know Nantwich very well – it’s where I went to school and I like to go there for a wander around the shops and to sit by the river on a summer evening. In my dream Nantwich was very much like it is today except that although just recently that have built a new road around the back of the town, in my dream there was an old road system around the back there) that went to Winsford and Middlewich (and is much more logical that the road system of the late Victorian age). . A friend and I went for a walk through the crowds sunning themselves by the river at the back of the swimming baths and we carried on along this old abandoned road. After about half a mile, after passing some mile posts of the 1920s we came to a roundabout where the roads for Middlewich and Winsford diverged. This roundabout had all of the signs and street furniture of the 1920s and was probably one of the earliest roundabouts ever to be built, On the fourth exit off the roundabout, there were a couple of big cars of the late 1920s parked up. They were in fact die-cast models but life-size and I remember trying to lift up the bonnet of one of them.

Anyway, now I’m filthy dirty, unshaven, unwashed and in the same clothes for a week and feel totally uncomfortable.

Tomorrow, come what may, I’ll be going for a swim at Neris-les-Bains. You just watch the baths be closed for maintenance.

-9

Saturday 29th December 2012 – I went swimming today.

And how!

And the reason for that is that on the informal weather scale that I keep, this morning was classed as “scattered clouds” but this afternoon was classed as “glorious”. Nothing in the heavens to stop the sun streaming down, and I had the amount of solar energy that would have been expected in the summer.

So after a lie-in I finally finished off the Quebec pages after all this time and these are now on line. After that, it was a quick thrash around the shops in Commentry and then off to the swimming baths at Neris-les-Bains. And for a change it was reasonably warm in there and I’m nice and clean, and I’m looking forward to a good sleep tonight.

All in all, a very quiet day. I’ve been having a few of those just recently. I’m saving my strength for the new year.

-3

Wednesday 14th November 2012 – I DIDN’T MANAGE …

… to rip up the bathroom floor today.

In fact, I was considerably sidetracked.

This morning though was pretty much more of the same. 11 pages of writing about the French laws of slander and libel for Radio Anglais – important for ex-pats due to a couple of high-profile court cases just recently concerning postings on social network sites;

And you wouldn’t believe just how different is the law over here compared to the UK.

Yesterday however when Rosemary was on the phone, she told me that the swimming baths at St Eloy-les-Mines had reopened after maintenance, and that one of the few times that they are open is Wednesdays at 13:30.

And seeing as it’s been a good while since I’ve had a decent soaking, we agreed to meet up this afternoon and go for a swim.

And so we did.

Flaming cold in there it was (although not as cold as that swimming baths in Québec last May), but at just €1:88 a ticket, it was value for money and I had a really good scrub in the shower afterwards.

I look almost human now.

We went for a coffee and a chat afterwards, and then for a wander around a couple of the DiY places.

That wasn’t all though.

I’m nice and clean now, but my clothes weren’t. In fact my bedding walks off into the cupboard every morning under its own steam. Consequently, off I went to the laundrette and washed everything that I could lay my hands on.

Yes, a nice clean me, nice clean clothes and nice clean bedding tonight. I won’t know myself, will I?

But we did have a culinary disaster tonight. I made one of my mega-aubergine-and-kidney-bean-chili things tonight, to last me for three days, only to realise that I had forgotten to add the kidney beans.

And then I dropped tonight’s portion on the floor in the verandah. Luckily that I had a few more helpings left over.

But what a waste of food, hey?

-3

Saturday 8th September 2012 – WHEN WAS THE LAST …

… time I saw an SD1 Rover?

I 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 25th August 2012 – I’VE BEEN …

… spending my money once again.

It’s the rentrée pretty soon – yes, all the kids will be back at school in 2 weeks’ time and so the shops are filled with all kinds of stuff.

There’s one shop, called Centrakor in Commentry that is a kind of down-market CASA if that’s at all possible, and they had something on sale that was quite phenomenal.

It’s a kids’ workstation type of thing – a few shelves, a slide-out shelf for a keyboard, a tabletop and then a couple of shelves at eye-level (well, eye-level for a 12 year old) and one good thing about it is that it is on castors.

The best part about it though is the price – a mere €19:99

Here in my little attic I have a kind of tiny round cheap plastic coffee table with two shelves and I have the DVD player/TV on the top shelf and the computer external drives on the other. And it rattle along and bits drop off and there’s no room for anything at all on it.

So when I saw this workstation thing my mind went into overdrive. So now there’s one in the back of Caliburn waiting to be brought up here and assembled whenever I get a moment (whenever that might be). But it’s ever so impressive, especially at that price.

I did quite a mega-shop today in Commentry in fact, including a proper stonemason chisel for raking out the cement from between the stones.

High time I had some decent tools and equipment around here – it might make the next bit of the wall somewhat easier.

From there I went on to Neris-les-Bains and the swimming baths. The weather has cooled down considerably over these last few days but the had all the sides of the pool open and so it was freezing in there. I managed 24 lengths today which is something of a record these days.

I came home afterwards and … errrr … crashed out. I’m not as young as I was.

This morning though I finished off the radio scripts – they need some alterations but I don’t really have the time to do it now and I was too tired this evening.

And after all of my worries as to whether it’s going to be enough, it weighed in at 38kb. That’s the third longest ever.

So now it’s bedtime ready for my day of rest tomorrow, when I’m going to be rushed off my feet.

-5

Friday 24th August 2012 – WELL, FOLKS …

… here it is. The wall’s all finished!

I was rather optimistic about my “couple of hours” – in fact it was more like 3.5 hours before it was all done.

But the hardest part of it was of course the clearing up afterwards that took the time – I don’t do clearing up as you know.

Anyway, there you are – all done and dusted. The tools have been put away and the araa has been cleared of rubbish the best that I can do.

As for the bits of old cement and so on that I dug out of the wall, they are on a tarpaulin at the side of the house. Soon I’ll be doing some concreting and I’ll be needing hardcore.

As for the weather behaving itself, the moment that I finished putting the last trowel of mortar into the wall, it started to rain. Bang on cue, you might say.

Anyway, seeing as it was 18:10 when I finished, I called it a day and boiled up some water for a shave and a good wash.

Following that, I crashed out, to such an extent that I didn’t make tea. I’d probably be asleep even now if Radio Tartasse hadn’t rung up – apparently the music files for the radio programme are corrupted so can she copy them again?

That’s where I was this morning, in Marcillat-en-Combraille, recording the Radio Anglais rock music programmes for Radio Tatasse. That was fairly straightforward after last month’s debacle.

So tomorrow is shopping at Commentry and maybe even the swimming baths at Neris-les-Bains. A good soak and a good relax should do me the world of good, I reckon, after all of my exertions.

Sunday is the pellerinage at La Cellette and the pot d’acceuil at St Maigner with Marianne, followed by the Virlet brocante and then Liz and Terry’s for rehearsals for the rest of the Radio Anglais programmes, and that’s the weekend done.

And do you like my Sunday?

That, would you believe, is a day of rest.

-6

Saturday 23rd June 2012 – PHEW! I’M EXHAUSTED!

And I’m not surprised either, for I’ve had a busy day today.

This morning I was busy tracing the antics of Séraphin Margane de Lavaltrie and his regiment, the Carignan-Salières along the banks of the St Lawrence River, as well as unravelling the tangled web weaved around Quebec by the enigmatic Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac.

Yes, this is all very exciting, doing these web pages. I’m certainly learning a lot – and that’s the whole point.

Anyway, in the afternoon I shot off to Commentry and did a pile of shopping, but didn’t buy any wire netting. The price of the stuff is exorbitant and I’m sure that I can do far better than that elsewhere with a bit of exertion.

In the meantime I’ll see what I can conjure up or otherwise invent.

I did however manage to fit in an uncomfortable hour in the swimming pool at Neris-les-Bains. Note to self- “don’t go swimming straight after eating a tub of LIDL sorbet”.

And so in the evening a nice clean me went back out and off to the village for our traditional, annual walk to explore some of the lesser-known back lanes of Virlet.

I’d stuck a note on the board of the Anglo-French group and so instead of the usual 20 or so people we ended up being quite a crowd – many of whom I knew – and we all had a really nice, cheerful and friendly walk around.

People from all ages were here and that’s nice to see – I like the idea of the youngsters being involved.

. It’s not only the villagers who are drawn out by the likelihood of crowds and of an audience.

Whenever there’s a possibility of a photo opportunity with a new group of admiring fans, you can bet your life that Strawberry Moose won’t be far away.

And sure enough, he leapt out of his seat in Caliburn to mingle with the crowds and made the acquaintance of a few more admirers. His fame is certainly spreading and he had just as much fun as everyone else did tonight.

Because fun there was, and plenty of it too, and for all ages.

After the walk we all headed back to the field at the back of the church. Here, seeing as it’s the Fête de St Jacques we had a feu de joie, a barbecue and snacks, a film and dancing with music provided by my friend Rick the Trailer Guy on cello and his violinist friend.

All very convivial.

A good time was had by all although I didn’t stay too long. I didn’t stay as long as I might have though. For some reason I was absolutely exhausted, and so I was home by midnight.

It’ll take me a week to recover, I reckon.

Friday 22nd June I DIDN’T HAVE …

… such a good day today.

I was up and about by 08:00 and that’s not something that happens too often as you know. And by 09:00 I was busy on the laptop writing up my notes from Canada.

Anyway, I became somewhat side-tracked, like you do …”like YOU do” – ed … with an exciting little story that I managed to piece together and which shows just how much of a role coincidence seems to play in people’s lives.

There are two neighbouring villages, St Sulpice and Lavaltrie, on the north shore of the St Lawrence.

In Lavaltrie is a man named Riel who has 14 children and as his farm is far too small to support them all as they grow up, the younger children disperse westward to where Canada is expanding.

Meanwhile, in St Sulpice is another family, the Lacombes, who also have too many children and the younger ones likewise disperse, one of them becoming a missionary to the Blackfoot Indians in Saskatchewan.

In 1885 a rebellion breaks out in Saskatchewan and the Missionary Lacombe is sent to persuade the Blackfoot not to join in the fighting. When he arrives he finds that the leader of the rebellion is busy trying to incite them to join in and butcher the Government forces.

And the name of the leader of the rebellion? Yes, he’s Louis Riel from Lavaltrie.

What a small world!

Of course the story is far more complicated than that, but I only have a small amount of space to write it. Anyway, you can see why I’ve been side-tracked for most of the morning.

This afternoon, when I finally did manage to go outside, I checked on the beans and peas. The peas are slowly coming to life but now there are about 20 baby bean plants busy battling their way out of the soil.

I definitely need some more climbing frames for them and so I’ll have to see about some wire netting tomorrow.

After that, it was up on the roof and put the second layer of lime mortar on the roof joint. Hopefully that won’t need any more attention. It should be watertight anyway as there’s plastic membrane there anyway and there is an overhang off the house roof that will shade it.

I used the rest of the mortar to fill in part of the gap in the rendering. There’s still quite a bit of that to do as well.

After that did some tidying up in the lean-to and noticed that I had some cucumber, courgette and gherkin seeds that are okay to plant in the beginning of June. As we are still a few weeks behind with the weather right now I hoed and raked an few empty bits of a couple of the beds and planted a variety of seeds there.

They have two chances now, whereas in the packet nothing would ever be likely to happen.

I also made up a few pots with lettuce in. I’ll see what happens to that lot.

When I was down checking over the beans and peas I happened to look up the slope across all of the other beds that I had set out, and with all of the plants happily growing away in them I really did have a moment of pride.

With the drastic weeding since I’ve been back, I have to say that my vegetable garden looks the best that it ever has. The new climbing frames for the beans really do set it off.

Tomorrow it’s Commentry shopping, seeing what I can find for wire netting, and then maybe I’ll go for a swim at Neris-les-Bains. I must look my best for the village fête and evening walk tomorrow night in Virlet.

-3

Saturday 10th March 2012 – BRAIN OF A DUCK, YOU KNOW!

Yes, Brain of Britain drove all of the way to Commentry to do his shopping this afternoon, only to find when he arrived there that he had forgotten his money, his wallet and his bank cards.

And so all the way back to here to fetch them and then go all the way back again.

That meant that I didn’t have time to do much shopping and so I just did the bare essentials – and then only some because I forgot quite a lot, I reckon.

And after that, a nip to the swimming baths at Neris-les-Bains.

It was freezing in there this afternoon and I wasn’t sorry to come out after an hour or so.

But I did have an amusing time watching a group of kids in there. All aged between 6 and 8 I reckon and all came in individually with parents, but after a while I noticed that they were all playing together in a corner of the shallow end.

It never ceases to amaze me how unself-conscious kids of that age are, and how quickly they all seem to integrate.

FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 3rd XI were playing Sauret this evening at football down at the bottom of Division 4 of the Puy de Dome District league in Pionsat.

For once they had a full side out with a couple of new players as well as a few decent players who have featured for the second XI. And so they spent most of the match peppering the Sauret goal whereas the opposition just contented themselves with a few breakaways.

And such is the perversity of modern football that Sauret won the encounter by 2-1.

This was another match that Pionsat threw away. They really do need to win encounters like this if they want to crawl away from the basement.

-2

Friday 9th March 2012 – WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY TODAY!

Apart from the wind, which had the wind turbines going round for most of the day, we had beautiful blue skies with not even a trace of cloud anywhere.

I’m not sure how much solar energy I received but there was about 55 amps in the barn, with all of the batteries fully-charged – and here in the house when I looked at about 17:00 we had had 250 amp-hours with some more after that.

That’s a total of something in the region of about 4 KwH and that can’t be much short of a record.

The water temperature in the dump load had reached 63°C as well by 15:30 and so with all of that kind of thing today, there was only one thing to be done. And that was to unearth the little table-top washing machine and do a load of washing – with proper washing powder this time, not those nuts. Nuts to them!

I’m not quite completely up-to-date with it, but there’s not much left to be done.

And if I go to the swimming baths tomorrow (if the good weather keeps up) I’ll treat myself to the luxury of clean bedding tomorrow night.

While the washing was doing, I did some tidying up on the ground floor in here. I did a lot too, as you might expect in 90 minutes, but you can’t see any improvement. There’s that much that needs to be sorted out there. 90 minutes isn’t even chipping away at the edges.

This morning though, after computing, I went back outside and did an hour or so on the wasteland that I started to clear yesterday when I should have been doing the vegetable beds.

That’s much easier to clear than the downstairs of the house and the results are so much more tangible as well. I’ve actually made it to the stone wall at the boundary of my property and that’s astonishing.

The downside of this is that the heap to burn is far too high for safety where it is, and I shall either have to move it elsewhere or else burn it in stages – probably the latter.

-1

Saturday 3rd March 2012 – THE WEATHER …

… wasn’t quite as nice today.

Based upon the scheme of description that I use, we had “scattered clouds” this morning followed by “clouds” this afternoon. That’s rather a change from the “glorious” of the last couple of days.

I was up quite early this morning and had something of a lazy half-day doing nothing in particular.

From there it was off to Commentry, just for a change, to do a round of the shops there. But there was nothing extraordinary at all on offer about the place today and I didn’t buy anything special at all

I did make it to the swimming baths at Neris-les-bBains though, for the first time in ages, and I’m all clean now.

I finally managed to watch a football match tonight – the first time for what feels like several years.

Down in Pionsat, FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 2nd XI were playing Menetrol so I went along to lend them my support. And despite playing a little better than they have done just recently, they still managed to lose again.

They are now struggling near the foot of the table with relegation starting to stare them in the face and it’s all looking quite ominous.

-3

Friday 2nd March 2012 – WELL, I DIDN’T …

… quite have my early night last night.

I started talking to someone on the internet just after I posted last night’s blog and it was 02:00 when I finally went to bed.

But here’s something that doesn’t happen every day – not only was I awake when the alarm went off, and not only was I breakfasting, but I was actually outside weeding the garden when the alarm clock went off this morning.

Wide awake at 07:30, I was, and I’ve no idea why. I must have wet the bed or something.

But it was a good day to be wide awake so early. By the time that I came in for a coffee – at about 11:50 – it was 24.6°C outside with gorgeous blue skies and everything. It really was marvellous.

Terry came round a little later. He had a job of work to do in the vicinity and so he popped by to sey hello. And I swapped a few 4mm bolts for a few sacks of sawdust – the composting toilet depends on sawdust, and plenty of it, and I was starting to run low, although you might not think so with all of the wood that I have cut up just recently

With it being so nice, I quickly coupled up the solar water heater -cum – shower unit. I was not really wanting to do that as there are a few improvements that I want to do, but it was a shame to miss out on the solar heat and the possibility of a shower some time in the near future.

I could certainly do with a shower anyway, and I’ll be heading to the swimming baths at Neris-les-Bains if it stays nice tomorrow.

With so much solar energy (we had 243 amp-hours today – that’s about 3KwH) the water in the dump load reached 48°C. That was the cue for the first load of washing for the year.

And there was plenty of that to do as well.

And it was nice to sit outside this afternoon with a butty or two, a coffee from the electric coffee machine, and watch the washing machine do the business using water heated by the surplus energy off my system. It really is a sense of acccomplishment for all of this to happen.

But as for the washing itself, most of it is going to have to be done again. I tried to do it using these washing nut things but they turned out to be a dismal failure and haven’t made mush impression at all on the dirty stuff.

I’ll have to buy some “proper” washing powder stuff and do it again.

After all of that, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden again.

I didn’t have the fire going because I had the washing hanging out, but there’s now a huge mountain of weeds and so on ready to be burnt and I might do that tomorrow morning.

The area to where I’m going to move one of the compost bins is now clear. All I need to do is to dig up a few small tree stumps there, and compact some hardcore down to stop the weeds from penetrating from underneath, and then I can put the first of the bins there.

And when the pile of weeds has been burnt, I can start to put the greenhouse there where it ought to be.

It seems to me that everyone is starting to come out of hibernation now.

-2

Saturday 12th November 2011 – I’M GOING …

… to bed in a second.

Yes, I’m thoroughly exhausted and I don’t know why. Probably the early start this morning had something to do with it.

Up with the alarm waiting for a phone call for this photo safari thing, and it turns out that I had not been patched in to an earlier e-mail circular and so I’d missed the point of this trip out. But anyway it didn’t take us long to do what it was that we had to do.

This afternoon, seeing as how the weather was so beautiful I went to Commentry to do my shopping there.

And while I was in the car park of the Les Bonnes Affaires I was buzzed by one of these motorised hang-glider things passing low over the town. I was trying to think where he might have come from because there’s no suitable cliff in the vicinity off which to leap into the ether – unless he can run with his feet fast enough to make a clean take-off.

And I wonder what the rules might be about low-flying over a built-up area like this

While I had the camera out, I noticed another example of poorly-sighted solar panels – over there on the roof of that bungalow. Facing full west they are, so they don’t receive a glimmer of sunlight until early afternoon.

These “become a producer of solar energy and sell to the electricity board” high-pressure salesmen have struck again. It’s hardly surprising that the industry has such a bad name when they do things like this.

I did make a couple of interesting discoveries though. And they were both at Bricomarche.

they have a huge pile of water-resistant 8mm plywood at €39 a sheet of 2.5×1.25 metres. It’s expensive all right but it’s what I need for the roof of the lean-to and they do have it in stock.
they also have the stove that I want for downstairs. A woodstove with an oven and with a central heating boiler built in – for €1499 too. That’s exactly what I want, because the sun will heat the water in the summer and I need something for heating it in the winter. If this does everything, it will be perfect. I can even do cooking with it as well.

But the real reason for going to Commentry was that with the weather being so nice I could nip down the road to Neris-les-Bains for a swim. It was glorious in there – the water just right and the pool quite warm as well. Shame it can’t be like that all the time.

At the footy tonight the 3rd XI match was cancelled as the opposition couldn’t raise a team, and the first XI went down 2-1 to a team that they had played off the park, something of which they seem to be in a habit of doing

I’d tell you much more about the game but enough of this for now. I’ve fallen asleep twice already while typing as far as this, and if I don’t get a move on I’ll be ……..THUD THUD

…….ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

-1

EPIC HALL

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

Tag Archives: swimming baths

Saturday 9th November 2013 – DUNNO IF YOU REMEMBER …

Saturday 6th July 2013 – DAMN AND BLAST!

Friday 5th July 2013 – IT’S POETS DAY TODAY

Saturday 29th December 2012 – I went swimming today.

Wednesday 14th November 2012 – I DIDN’T MANAGE …

Saturday 8th September 2012 – WHEN WAS THE LAST …

Saturday 25th August 2012 – I’VE BEEN …

Friday 24th August 2012 – WELL, FOLKS …

Saturday 23rd June 2012 – PHEW! I’M EXHAUSTED!

Friday 22nd June I DIDN’T HAVE …

Saturday 10th March 2012 – BRAIN OF A DUCK, YOU KNOW!

Friday 9th March 2012 – WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY TODAY!

Saturday 3rd March 2012 – THE WEATHER …

Friday 2nd March 2012 – WELL, I DIDN’T …

Saturday 12th November 2011 – I’M GOING …

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