Tag Archives: caliburn

Friday 5th June 2015 – CALIBURN IS BACK

I told you the other day that I had had a phone call to say that Caliburn was ready. And so today, Liz came to pick me up and we cleared off down to St Gervais to rescue him.

I had set the alarm for 07:30 as usual but I was wide awake, up and about at 07:00 without any prompting. I had an early breakfast, I remembered to put the money out for the boulangère and I was good and ready well before 09:00 when Liz was due. I walked down to the end of the lane to meet her.

The bill for Caliburn came to €370, most of which was for a new caliper. And I will say that I have never had brakes as good as this, not even when Caliburn was brand new. This was money well spent, and it makes a total mockery of the €2500 estimate that I had from Barrat Ford of Montlucon.

Liz and I went for a coffee afterwards, where we bumped into someone whom I knew from Sauret football club. We had a lengthy chat about football, as you might expected, but one thing that I did notice was that there were 10 or so people in the bar there and they were all totally pickled – at 10:15 in the morning. It was all quite amusing, not at all aggressive as you might find in the UK, and sitting out on the terrace in the glorious sunshine watching the world go by, you couldn’t be anywhere else except in France. It’s a feeling that you can’t explain to anyone who has never spent any length of time here.

I went round to Rosemary’s afterwards to see how she was getting on. Instead of going by the main road, I went by the old road round the back of St Gervais down the Gorge de la Sioule to Chateauneuf les Bains and then along the road through the gorge to the Pont de Menat. That’s one of the most beautiful roads in the whole of France, I reckon.

We had a good chat and Rosemary even made lunch which was very nice of her. I went off later to do my shopping and was back here by the end of the afternoon.

I’ve spent the evening making a database of all of the music that I’ve played on the rock programmes. This had been getting out of hand so with the new laptop I’ve downloaded an SQL program and I’ve been busy trying to remember everything that I learned when I did my Diploma in Computing at University. You’ve no idea how much I’ve forgotten – or maybe you have. After all, I’m not getting any younger.

As well as that, I’ve been extracting soundbytes from the old time radio programmes that I’ve been downloading. I need to build up my library to use in the rock programme for my “studio guests”

I’ve had the fan on all evening too. The temperature up here reached 33°C this afternoon and outside, it was 36°C at one time. This means that it’s either going to snow tomorrow or else we are going to have a terrific thunderstorm.

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Tuesday 2nd June 2015 – IT WAS HARD …

… to get out of bed this morning. The early start yesterday plus a very late night last night didn’t do much good for my rest, and I was as lethargic as the guy yesterday in the garage.

I was in the middle of doing something last night when I finally went to bed and so after a leisurely start to the day I had to carry on. It took far, far longer that I intended to do it – in fact it took me almost to lunchtime and that was rather a waste of a morning.

And Terry rang up. Did I fancy a trip to Brico Depot? I can’t go anywhere right now as I’m awaiting a phone call from the garage to tell me that Caliburn is ready. But Brico Depot does have something special in the arrivages this week. I only have one decent ladder, and it’s not very long. But this week Brico Depot is selling three-plan 8-metre aluminium ladders at just €99 and so I asked Terry if he wouldn’t mind picking one up.

And now, I have a nice new big ladder (or I will do the next time I go round to Sauret-Besserve).

After lunch, seeing how beautiful it was and there was water at 64°C in the home-made 12 volt immersion heater, so I did a huge load of washing. It needs to be done, of course, and it gave me an opportunity to have another little relax this afternoon.

But I really ought to be working – I can’t keep wasting time like this. And so I’m going to have an early night and a decent sleep and I’ll hopefully get a good start in the morning.

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Monday 1st JUNE 2015 – I’M RELIEVED …

… that it’s not just me who doesn’t do mornings. I had to take Caliburn to the garage to have his brakes fixed, and when I arrived (at 07:50) the garage owner was busy opening up the place. I said hello (or, rather, bonjour) and I was greeted by a series of grunts.

Yes, 07:50. I was up and wide awake by O7:00, which makes a change, and having gathered everything that I needed for today, I was on the road by 07:30 and that’s not like me at all.

garage jaillot st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceMind you, I couldn’t help a little smile as I left the premises. Here I was, taking Caliburn to a garage to have the rear brakes fixed, and here are the rear brakes on the garage’s van.

It’s certainly true to say that garages always have the worst cars, just as electricians have the worst electrics, and plumbers have the houses with the most leaky pipes.

abandoned railway station st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceSeeing as I was much too early for Terry, I walked into town. And my route took me past the abandoned railway station here at St Gervais.

The station and the railway line here were closed suddenly and dramatically when it was announced that a snap inspection of the Viaduc des Fades, the highest railway viaduct in the world when it was built, had discovered that the viaduct was totally unfit to take the weight of trains.

But anyone who came with me on out little walk across the viaduct will have noticed that there was nothing sudden about the state of the viaduct. It had been decaying for years and no-one had bothered to look at it – or, rather, they had put off the work so that it would all need doing at once and that would be a good excuse for closing down the line.

Terry and I went off to Riom and much to our surprise, at the sous-prefecture we were number 48, and they were dealing with number 33. That meant a wait of about an hour, a far cry from when I went to register Caliburn in 2009 and I was number 143 and had to wait until after midday.

It was painless at the sous-prefecture and then we went off to have the number plates made for his new van and for me to deal with a taxation issue at the Tresor Publique.

After lunch it was back to Gerzat for the Radio Arverne sessions, and I didn’t feel much like it due to my early start. Liz and I went shopping afterwards and had a coffee, and it was back to see how Caliburn was doing. They had managed to free off all of the mechanism but they needed some parts, which won’t be here until tomorrow. So Liz ran me home and I crashed out. I can’t last the pace these days.

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Friday 29th May 2015 – THIS BACKING-UP …

… of my new laptop wasn’t as straightforward as I had thought it might be. And when I finally did go to bed – at 03:45 in the morning, it was far from finished. Mind you, I was. Keeping my eyes open at this time of night was not as easy as it used to be.

And I was up early to – a good few minutes before the alarm clock went off, and I even had time to make myself some breakfast before setting off to Marcillat-en-Combraille and the radio recordings for Radio Anglais.

Everything went according to plan and we were away quite early too. And that was just as well as I had to go to the garage at St Gervais d’Auvergne with Caliburn. Liz ran me back to her house for lunch afterwards and then Terry and I went down to Riom to sort out the tax payments on his van.

THat was quite straightforward too and we even had time for a run out to Lempdes for Terry to buy a new ladder.

It really was a gorgeous day and we made the most of it, sitting outside having a coffee in the sunshine, and then Liz ran me round to the garage to pick up Caliburn.

All of the mechanism on the brakes is working fine, so the problem isn’t there. If I take Caliburn back on Monday they will strip it all down and check to see exactly what is going on, and why the rear brake isn’t doing what it is supposed to.

The good news is, however, that according to them, there is nothing wrong with Caliburn in the grand. I dida sk them to check it over and their opinion is that he is in good condition for his age with nothing to worry about. The conclusion that I have drawn from all of this is that Barrat Ford in Montlucon will not be able to rely on any more of my custom.

Back here, I carried on with the backing-up and the re-installation of my 3d Program. However, I didn’t get very far. It’s 22:00, I can’t keep my eyes open, I haven’t even done the stats and I don’t care. I’m off to bed before I ……. (zzzzzzzzz)

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Tuesday 26th May 2015 – REMEMBER ME TALKING …

… the other day about the incident at Barrat Ford in Montlucon and my enormous estimate for repairs to prepare Caliburn for the controle technique?

So I duly took Caliburn along to St Gervais for his controle technique this morning, and guess what?

Yes, well done that man. Caliburn passed his controle technique with just a comment about the left-hand rear brake.

The two bald tyres on the rear, according to Barrat (€200 plus TVA plus fitting), have 3.5mm of tread according to the MoT examiner.

The bodywork that is rusted through, according to Barrat, is good for another 10 years, according to the MoT examiner

The knocking from the front end, that is the steering rack about to fall apart and needs replacing according to Barrat (€564 + TVA + fitting) is a worn bush on the anti-roll bar (cost €2:50) according to the MoT examiner.

You can draw your own conclusions from all of this. But anyway, I’ve booked Caliburn in to another garage on Friday for a final check, just so I can have yet another opinion.

With all that was going on, I was wide awake by 06:00 and up and about long before the alarm went off. After a good wash I was on my way and was early at the controle technique.

I had time for a coffee with Liz too. She had come up to St Gervais to run some errands and so we met up. And then I went off for some shopping.

I spoke to Terry too. We’ve agreed to go on Friday afternoon to tax his new van, and on Monday morning to go and register it.

I’m going to be busy these next few days then.

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Monday 25th May 2015 – IF YOU THOUGHT …

… that yesterday was bad, today was even worse. For long periods the internet connection wasn’t giving me any more than 20kbs and for long periods I wasn’t even getting anything at all. It wasn’t until quite late that things took off again and I was back at the 250 Kbs again – far too late for the football.

I didn’t have the same sleep last night either. I was awake in the middle of the night and struggled to get back off to sleep again. And by about 08:45 I’d had enough and was up and about.

To continue my day of rest I read a book and caught up with some work of my own that needed attention. There’s still plenty of time for the radio programmes. And I also had to help Liz design a form for a receipt for a product that she’s dealing with.

So that’s my day of rest over. For the second day in succession I’ve only put my foot outside to take the stats.

But I need to be up early tomorrow – it’s Caliburn’s controle technique.

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Thursday 22nd May 2015 – OUCH!

Yes, just picked Caliburn up from the Ford garage in Montlucon. He’s had his service but anything needed for the Controle Technique has not been done because, according to the garage, there’s “so much that needs to be done” and they’ve given me the kind of written estimate that has noughts all across the page.

And for a start, four of the things that they mention don’t need doing at all and I know that for definite. And as for Caliburn being rusted right through underneath, I’ve never seen so much rubbish in all my life. There’s a small spot on the nearside sill, but that’s not gone through at all and the rest of it is just stone-chip damage, and I did the worst (such as it was) the other day as I’m sure that you remember.

And there’s a lump out of the passenger door that certainly wasn’t there when I left him.

Consequently I’m going to take him for the controle technique “as is”, get a failure slip and then go to chat to someone else. I shall certainly eat Humble Pie if it is as bad as the Ford Garage suggests, and even if it is, I shan’t be paying anything like what the Ford garage wants.

But it will be a cold day in Hell before I ever go to the Ford garage in Montlucon again.

So that’s them off the list. And the Ford garage at Riom came off the list ages ago, and the one at Brussels came off the list after the dismal attempt at fixing the brakes last year as you remember.

There isn’t anyone left now.

Liz kindly took me into Montlucon this afternoon and we had several coffees and a chat, and then after I had rescued Caliburn I went off to do my shopping in the Auchan and in Brico Depot where I bought my bathroom sink and taps.

This morning though, with the new improved workstation, I mixed and engineered the live concert for the next month, and its come out quite well. Just two joints that aren’t quite right and having studied the waveforms, I can say that that’s a fault of the original mixing and there’s not much I can do about that.

As for the rest of it, it either merges in or overlaps perfectly and that was what I was hoping to do. You certainly can’t hear the joins there.

So tomorrow I’ll do the text for the rock programmes, and then start on the rest.

And last night’s temperature? A mere 2°C

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Wednesday 20th May 2015 – I’VE SOLVED …

… the question of the damaged computer screen on the old laptop – and I’ve solved it in spades too.

This morning I made a start on the radio programmes and in particular the rock programmes for the next edition of the Radio Anglais programmes that we will be doing.

Using a variety of sources (the SD card out of Caliburn, the music stored on a couple of mobile phones and the music on the memory stick in the Canadian travel bag) I’ve recovered more than enough music to have a good go at a few radio programmes to keep me going.

I’ve done the “miscellaneous” programme, but there’s an add-on missing from the program that I use for making up the live concerts and I’ve no idea where that might be.

But needing to use Audacity led me to require a full screen, and that started me thinking, which is always dangerous.

collection of input output sockets AKAI DVD player France may 2015Ages ago, Terry gave me a cable with an HDMI plug on one end and a USB plug on the other. And both the laptop and the 12-volt DVD player with its impressive 18-inch screen have the aforementioned.

But no matter which way round I plugged the cable in, it wouldn’t carry the signal from the laptop to the screen. Even jury-rigging an ad-hoc USB cable didn’t work either.

However, when I was at Montlucon this afternoon, I purchased the correct cable and – wha-hey! Not only do I have a most-impressive computer screen, I have the most astonishing stereo sound coming out of the speakers of the DVD player.

This is an exciting discovery and I’ll be actively pursuing this avenue in the future.

I took Caliburn into the Ford main agents for his annual service, but here’s a thing. They don’t have a rolling road there so they can’t balance out the brakes. That surely must be a first.

I had to walk into town afterwards and it’s been quite a while since I’ve done that journey.

canal du berry montlucon allier France may 2015My route took me past the site of the old Canal du Berry. Montlucon used to have a huge steel industry and in the days before the arrival, everything came in and out by canal.

This last 5 years or so, they’ve built over the bed of the canal and as I keep on saying, I woder how long it will be before they regret doing that.

medieval centre montlucon allier France may 2015Montlucon is a old Medieval walled city, although you might not think so if you have only ever see the outskirts of the place.

Liz was working until 18:30 and so that gave me plenty of opportunity to go for a wander around and see what was going on, as well as grabbing something to eat

medieval centre montlucon allier France may 2015This is believed to be one of the oldest buildings in the town, dating from the 14th Century, and it certainly looks it too.

There are several other old buildings in the immediate vicinity, noe of which is as old as this but well-worth a look all the same.

medieval centre montlucon allier France may 2015This though is my favourite building in Montlucon, but what lets it down is its immediate surroudings. Everything has been “redeveloped” with modern concrete slab construction.

It’s not clear whether it was the Mayor or the RAF that was responsible for the demolition in the immediate vicinity, but it’s far enough away from any major centre of any military importance to have been the RAF.

modern montlucon allier France may 2015At least when they rebuilt the city, they had the good sense to leave a large open space all the way from the railway station to the chateau so that there’s this most impressive view, and the fountain sets it all off nicely.

But I really cannot think what must have gone through the minds of the mayor and the town council to have rebuilt thiese dreadful concrete monstrosities.

memorial to SNCF railway employees died in World War II montlucon allier France may 2015Talking of the railway station, there has been some “talk” about the lack of resolution of the French in resisting the German invaders during World War II.

This part of France was only occupied for two years, and this is a memorial to the railway employees of the Montlucon railway depot who lost their lives due to “war-related incidents” during the war.

I’m not sure how many people worked at the depot, but there are 28 names on the list, all of them civilians. It doesn’t say how each of the people died, but I bet that it wasn’t peacefully in bed.

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Wednesday 13th May 2015 – IT’S USUALLY FRIDAY …

… the 13th that is the day for things going wrong. So Wednesday 13th must be the day reserve for disasters because, believe me, we’ve had one of those today – and a major one at that too.

view of tittmoning germany from castle schloss may 2015In fact it started off as we meant to go along. I had climbed most of the way up to the Schloss here at Tittmoning and it was on stopping to take my first photo that I realised that I had forgotten to put the memory card back in the camera last night.

Consequently I had to walk all the way back down to Caliburn, recover the memory card from the laptop, fit it into the camera, and climb back up the hill.

schloss tittmoning prisoner of war camp germany may 2015Finally I made it into the Schloss and had a good wander around.

I did mention last night that it had something of a sinister reputation. This was where British civilian internees, including many people deported by the Germans from the Channel Islands, ended up if they had been naughty, and if they were naughty here, the next (and final) stop was inevitably Buchenwald.

And that does remind me – something I said a few days ago – while many people criticise what they perceive as a lack of resolution by French and other occupied nations, I’ve yet to see one of these critics say anything about a similar stance taken by the vast majority of the (British) inhabitants of the Channel Islands.

schloss tittmoning prisoner of war camp germany may 2015But I digress.

I continue my walk around the Schloss and I’m impressed by the silence here. I seem to be the only person up here admiring the beautiful buildings.

I end up at the museum, because there is a museum on site and, as you might expect, theres a sign “Closed until 13:00”. That was rather odds-on, wasn’t it?

caliburn ford transit crossing into austria may 2015I also mentioned last night that Tittmoning was only about 400 metres from the Austrian border. So with the aim of visiting as many countries as possible, Caliburn and I cross what is a totally unguarded frontier. Hooray for the Schengen Agreement.

And despite the protests from the Lady Who Lives In The Satnav, we continue in Austria for a little while in order to see what is happening, nearly crushing a party of little kiddy learner-cyclists on our way around.

laufen crossing the border into germany may 2015After a drive of about 20 kms we cross back into Germany at the town of Laufen.

This is quite a beautiful little town, right on the border between Austria and Germany, and the two countries are linked by a gorgeous girder bridge. It was built at the turn of the 20th Century and refurbished a couple of years ago.

And if you want to know why I’m being so vague about everything, read on.

walls of laufen germany may 2015Laufen, a beautiful gated medieval city was also the site of a Prisoner-of-War camp somewhere in the vicinity. Oflag VII-C was quite a famous one from which a couple high-profile escapes were made, and which later became a civilian internment camp.

The President of the ruling council of Guernsey was one of the civilian detainees here at Laufen, and Patrick Reid, a Colditz escapee and writer of several books about P-O-W life, including the book on which the film and TV series “The Colditz story” was based, was probably the most famous military prisoner.

historic buildings laufen germany may 2015Not knowing exactly where Oflag VII-C had been situated, I wandered off to the Town Hall to make enquiries. Thats always the first port of call on any occasion such as this.

However, as anyone who has followed my adventures for any length of time might expect, The Town Hall is “closed exceptionally” today and there was no-one there.

No surprise here then.

So that was the end of that then. Back on the road once more, Caliburn and I headed to Eching, in the suburbs of Munich (and only a couple of kilometres from Dachau)

sherwood forest eching germany may 2015My old school-friend Hans runs an archery club, called Sherwood Forest, here and they have recently moved into larger premises.

It was club-night tonight so he took me along to see the activity there and I was quite impressed with the set-up. I was invited to have a go but I declined, not out of fear of showing everyone up by my prowess, but the fact that with a bow and arrow in my hand I’m a danger to everyone around me, except of course the enemy.

Now right at the very beginning, I talked about disasters. And quite right too. because on booting up the laptop to load up todays work, the laptop failed. The thing is only booting up part-way through the notmal opening cycle and then flashing up an error message “Your computer has encountered a problem and must close down. We are collecting details of the error and then your computer will restart”. And then it restarts and at exactly the same point in the boot-up process, it all starts again.

In fact, this is more than a disaster. Its a calamity. And I wish that I knew where all of my old notes were from T223, the Open University’s computer course that I followed, where we learnt (and I have since forgotten) how to hack our way into failed disks and extract all of the information.

All help on this subject will be gratefully received.

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Monday 11th May 2015 – LAST NIGHT WAS ANOTHER …

motorway rest area autobahn leipzig germany may 2015… one of those nights where a bomb could have gone off in the vicinity and I wouldn’t have paid it the slightest moment of attention.

Here on this rest area on the autobahn towards Leipzig, I slept the sleep of the dead until the alarm went off at 07:30 and it was a struggle to rise up and make breakfast.

Back on the road though, with a nice hot coffee, I carried on heading south. And it didn’t take too long to arrive at my destination.

schloss colditz castle germany may 2015Here I am at Colditz Castle, and this is another one of my lifetime ambitions fulfilled. Brought up on a diet of RAF stories and PoW escape books, I’ve been wanting to come here for years.

Visits to the castle under the Communist regime were strictly discouraged and in fact most of the prisoner artefacts that were still here in 1955 had long gone by the time the Communists left.

remains of french escape tunnel schloss colditz castle germany may 2015Nevertheless, there were still plenty of surprises to come.

A digger working up on one of the courtyards suddenly disappeared from view as the courtyard collapsed underneath it. Closer inspection revealed the remains of an escape tunnel (a French one, as it happens) that the Germans had failed to uncover. Its discovery certainly took everyone, especially the digger driver, quite by surprise.

secret hidden radio installation schloss colditz castle germany may 2015Another surprise was sprung on the roofers.

When they lifted off some of the tiles to replace the roof, they found a hidden alcove with a radio receiving set from World War II still in it. This was one of the four secret radio rooms operated by the prisoners, and the only one that remained undiscovered.

french clock tower escape tunnel schloss colditz castle germany may 2015Mind you, a great deal was already known about the history of the escape plans and it just remained to actually track them down.

Perhaps the most famous tunnel was the one that involved sliding down the weight chamber of the tower clock and digging out from the cellar. This had been filled in after the Germans had discovered it, but some of it has been unfilled as you can see.

Strawberry Moose is quite interested in giving them a hand, and maybe himself escaping from the castle.

The guided tour was quite expensive, but it was worth every penny and I really enjoyed my visit.

From here I headed south and crossed into the Czech Republic. Years since I’ve been here and Caliburn has never been here at all, and you may remember from last year that I’m trying to expand Caliburn’s sphere of operations.

hotel cerny orel zatec czech republic may 2015I’ve ended up in a town called Zatec, not too far from Plzen. I was doing a tour of the town when I came across a hotel right in the centre. I couldn’t say fairer than that.

I know that I’m supposed to be sleeping in Caliburn as much as possible, but east of where the Iron Curtain used to be, the police sometimes still have attitude issues and it’s not as if the cost of living is expensive here.

town square zatec czech republic may 2015The town itself is gorgeous, although there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the post-Communist economic miracle has not quite penetrated thoroughly into the region.

Mind you, this is the Sudetenland and the inhabitants, mostly of German origin, were ethnically cleansed out of the region in 1945-46. This might account for some of the issues here, although there’s nothing that I have seen that can detract from the beauty of the place.

There’s a fast food place across the road from the hotel so I resolved to call in on my way back from my walk so that I could pick up a plate of chips. But you can guess what has happened.

You would think that I would be used to this by now.

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Wednesday 6th May 2015 – DOESN’T CALIBURN LOOK SMART …

caliburn new number plate roady nemours france… with his new front number plate?

Here we were, going up the autoroute to wards Paris yesterday late afternoon in a howling gale and I stopped to make what is called a “comfort break”. Going back to Caliburn afterwards, I noticed that the white refelective part of his number plate was detaching itself from the background.

Cheap number plates, I suppose, and here I was off to Germany for two weeks. If it all comes apart in Germany I’ll be sunk, and the controle technique as soon as I return, I could do with having this fixed instanter.

Back on the autoroute again and we drove around the town of Nemours. And there on the Trading Estate I could just about make out one of these car accessory places. 18:55 it was, 5 minutes to chucking-out time, but nevertheless when I arrived they were still there. The plate cost an arm and a leg as you might expect, but they also had a fitting service for a couple of Euros. Anyway, there wasn’t much option. It’s cheaper than a fine and I’m going to have to have the number plate anyway for the controle technique. May as well do it now as later.

I’m not sure whether you can see it in the photo but I now have my dash cam installed. I had that running for the journey. It’s cheap, as you can tell by the price and by the quality of materials, and the instructions, written in basic Chinglish, are, shall we say, “unhelpful”. However, it does what it says it does, and quite good enough for what I want, although I’m going to have to stop talking to myself when I’m driving.

I was on the road by 15:00, having spent the morning tidying the house and doing a little cleaning, and I arrived here at about 23:45 after several stops. One of which was at Melun, where I discovered a new takeaway where they did me proud.

On the way up, though, I started to make a list of things that I have forgotten, including the cooking stove and the portable beichstuhl.

It’s going to be one of THOSE journeys, isn’t it?

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Wednesday 8th April 2015 – GUESS WHO HAS BEEN A BUSY BOY THEN?

Yes, I’ve accomplished a lot today. It’s really been keeping me out of mischief.

I was up early too for a change. When the alarm went off, I was eating my breakfast. I must have been keen.

varnishing landing floor les guis virlet puy de dome franceFirst job was to varnish the floor and the stairs with the third coat of varnish. I gave it a good wallop and it was all over by 10:30. All it needed to do was to dry and set thoroughly – that’s usually about 48 hours. And then I can fit the skirting.

While that was drying, I went outside and had a look around at what jobs that I can be doing. First job was to start on the compost bin. But I didn’t last long on that as I remembered something else quite important to do.

new wheels summer tyres ford transit caliburn les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd doesn’t Caliburn look nice with his new clean wheels?

Yes, I needed to change his winter tyres and fit the summer tyres. Of course, I have two sets of wheels so I really just change the wheels. And because they have been outside for 4 months, they were pretty grubby and so I gave them a really good clean and polish.

One or two of them have come up really well too, but I’m thinking that I might give all of the wheels a good clean, scrub and coat of paint over the summer. I’ll add that to the thousand other jobs.

Another job that I wanted to do was to fix the guttering on the house. This involved assembling the ladder now that I’ve recovered both the parts, but on my way up to the scaffolding I noticed that I hadn’t painted part of the fascia board where I couldn’t reach off the scaffolding. This meant that I had to reposition the ladder, and then I could deal with that.

While I was waiting for that to dry, I started to cut the lengths of wood that I needed to start to make the compost bin (which was where I started) but in a search for something or other, I started to tidy up the downhill lean-to. And I made some progress too, much to my surprise.

fascia board guttering les guis virlet puy de dome france After lunch, I put the second coat on the fascia board and then started to reassemble the guttering.

I’ve repositioned it slightly because in the past, it drained down to the roof of the verandah and into the water tanks there. Now, I’m having drop onto the roof of the lean-to at the other side, because it’s there that i’ll be digging the hole for the subterranean water tank.

It took a while to do that because I had to work out the levels and cut a few lengths to size. I did as much as I could (I need to check it in the rain and make sure that it works like it should before I glue it together) but when I went to move the ladder round to the side of the house to fix the downpipe, I noticed that it was already 19:20

Doesn’t time fly quickly when you are enjoying yourelf? That was enough for me and I called it a day. I’d earned my rest.

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Friday 3rd April 2014 – I HAD A LOVELY …

… day today. A nice day off for Good Friday and I did almost exactly – NOTHING.

Mind you, I did get off to a bad start. Wide awake and up and about – and it wasn’t even 08:00 either. What a way to start a Bank Holiday.

I’d been on my travels too during the night. I’d been out with Terry towing a trailer that was in fact a tanker with a load of some liquid or other. We’d finished the job and the tank had been removed, well on time but we couldn’t take the trailer back as it needed to be cleaned. I nipped off to fetch Caliburn and ended up walking through this old Medieval town with Liz and Terry. We walked past my youngest siser’s house and there she was, having trouble with an infestation of crabs in her garden pond.

At this stage Liz and Terry transformed themselves into my elder sister and her husband and while they were chatting to my youngest sister, I went into a pub in the town centre, where I bumped into my brother. Even though I was walking through the town drinking from a pint of beer, I grabbed a quick half in this pub. And then dashed out where I bumped into my elder sister and her husband again.

Yes – my family appearing in my nocturnal ramblings. This is a first. I wonder what on earth was going on here.

north west river labrador canadaSo spending most of the day on my website where I’m at North-West River. That’s the farthest north in Labrador that it is possible to reach by the highway network and I was there in late September 2014.

I’ve been writing the story of Mina Hubbard, a woman whose husband was lost in the interior of Labrador, due mainly to his own stubbornness and stupidity. She was determined to complete his exploration and succeeded in becoming the first woman of European descent to make it overland to Ungava Bay.

I nipped out to St Eloy this evening to do my shopping. The big shops there don’t close until 19:30 so it means that I do have time to go there on Friday evenings even if I don’t knock off work until 18:00

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Monday 30th March 2015 – OUCH!

Yes, I don’t know what it is that I’ve done, but I have a pain in my right wrist and I’ve pulled a muscle in my left shoulder.

The wrist isn’t too much of a problem but the shoulder is – I can’t lift my left arm any higher than my shoulder and I can’t carry any heavy weight with it.

It’s probably due to my exertions during the night. I don’t remember too much about it except that at one moment the hero of the plot (whoever he was) rounded up a baddie and his girlfriend and held them at gunpoint. Having calmed the situation, he turned his back on the baddie in order to give the girl some instructions. A silly thing to do, turning your back on someone, as events subsequently were to prove as the baddie bent down, picked up a length of 4×2 and whacked the hero across the back of the head.

Despite the hour that we lost on Sunday, I managed to be up and about at a reasonable hour for a working day. And after breakfast I made a prompt start on the tidying up. Half an hour saw tons of stuff gone out of the attic and it’s a long time since I’ve seen it look so empty. I can see plenty of clear floor. Tomorrow, I’ll do a little more and see what that brings me.

Cleaning the dust off everything was quite easy. I just threw the stuff downstairs and that dealt with that issue.

Having dealt with the attic, I turned my attention to the ground floor. I moved 12 sacks of rubbish out of the ground floor – 2 of household rubbish, 7 of builders’ rubbish and three of plastic bottles, tin cans and papers.

Once all of that had been thrown out, I could turn my attention to the rest of the ground floor. A few more bits and pieces, notably the cable sheathes, found their way into the lean-to and I was able to bring in the floorboards out of Caliburn, swapping them for the rubbis.

With a little bit of space downstairs, I could start to stack things better in the ground floor and I can even see some floorspace there too now. So feeling pleased with myself, I knocked off at 18:15.

Tomorrow, I’m going to clear out the bit of the barn that I cleared out before, and then I can see what I can move out over there. If I can move out the wood and the portable gas heater, that will make tons of empty space and I’ll feel much happier about all of that.

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Monday 16th March 2015 – I’VE FINISHED …

… painting the walls of the bedroom today. At least, I’ve done all that I intend to do.

painted wallpaper bedroom les guis virlet puy de dome franceThe plasterboard joints wre still showing through the second coat that I did on Saturday morning, and so that called for a third coat. I had to put some more white paint into the mix to make sure that I had enough paint, and now the colour is too light. Not only that, it’s rather patchy too and, even worse, you can still see the plasterboard joints.

Ahhh well, never mind.

I had a phone call from Cecile and that ended up with me being sidetracked for half an hour or so. Nevertheless, I had finished the painting by 17:00 and that gave me time to start the emptying of Caliburn.

That took about an hour and a half and there’s still a plie of stuff left in there for which I can’t find room at the moment. But it’s a long time since Caliburn has been this empty.

And I was right about some tins of kidney beans. I distincly remember buying some but you will remember that I couldn’t find them. Anyway, once I’d emptied Caliburn I found an IKEA bag with the missing articles – together with some Soya desserts, dated 22 December 2014. They went in the bin.

I had another chat with Cecile afterwards and then sat down to watch a film. Tonight’s film was the whimsical John Wayne comedy McLintock!.

A delightful film, even if the picture quality is very poor – due to the fact that it’s out of copyright and so the original studio copies have long been lost. All that remain are second- and third-hand copies, and we are lucky to have those.

It’s another one of these John Wayne films where everyone is intent on having a good time, on screen as well as off-screen, and the fight scene is one of the inspirations for the fight in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles.

It’s full of all kinds of memorable quotes, but you’ll need to buy the film to listen to them for yourself. Make sure you buy the full (122 minute) version and not the cut-down 90-minute TV edition, which cuts out half the plot, and don’t complain about the wretched quality because it’s all that is available.

For tea, I made another mega-curry of green pepper and lentils. There’s enough for three more days too which is good. It means that I don’t have to exert myself so much for the rest of the week.

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