Tag Archives: early night

Monday 4th April 2011 – Well, I’m back home again …

… after a working day of a mere 28 hours and 16 minutes – for the benefit of many of my readers.

After my exertions fastening down the Minerva back onto the trailer after we nearly left it behind, I set off through the dawn and carried on towards home. And things were, just for a change, going so well until I arrived onto the dual carriageway between Moulins and Montmarault.

Not far from Montmarault I was cut up by an artic that decided that 400 metres was sufficient to try to overtake me with just 2kph different but I got my own back on a dual carriageway bit when I ran him up behind a farm trailer and stuck him there for 8 kilometres.

Then we had yet another police barrage at Montmarault where I had an interesting 20 minutes with a group of gendarmes (30-odd years in driving in France and I’ve only ever been stopped once before – and now twice in a weekend. Time I was moving on, methinks). And when I arrived back here, there was the news of the sudden cancellation of one of the events that forms a major part of our radio programmes – and we had just recorded 5 weeks-worth of programmes advertising them too.

However, I didn’t take to much notice of anything as I cleared off to bed and quite right too. I deserved a really good sleep. But did I get it? Did I ‘eck as like because once I had dropped off, the phone rang again. Mind you, I’m not going to complain too much because the news that came down the telephone was good news indeed – but more of this anon.

belgian land rover minerva les guis virlet puy de dome franceTerry and Liz were on their travels about and they came by chez moi later this afternoon. That was rather fortunate because they were able to give me a hand to take the Minerva off the trailer.

The Minerva is now parked prettily on the hard-standing (isn’t that a good bit of work, that?) and Terry could then take his trailer home with him. That’s the quickest that I’ve ever tidied up after a trip away from home like this.

So now I’m going back to bed again ready for an early start tomorrow. I need to push on as I have some cunning plans to put into operation.

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Monday 7th March 2011 – I’m going to have an early night just now.

I didn’t sleep very well last night and so I’m hopefully going to make up for it. And I deserve it as well as we’ve had yet another day of hard work. What is even more exciting is that we seem to be on the downhill slope.

While Liz carried on painting the woodwork in the living room and I carried on painting the cupboard, Terry started to empty the place of all of the tiling gear and the tools and material that we won’t be using again. Now that is major progress without a doubt, beginning to empty the place.

And when the cupboard was finished I dismantled all of the shelving in my office. Terry took it downstairs while I joined Liz in the living room and put the second coat of paint on the wall. And once that was done we tidied up the plastic sheets protecting the floor and had a good sweep up.

Liz carried on with the woodwork afterwards and Terry grouted the main terrace but I’ve made a start in the hall sticking down the loose wallpaper and scrubbing the outside of the front door to clean it. Yes, cleaning and tidying – these are all positive signs.

Tomorrow I have to sand down the outside of the bathroom door and the outside of the living room door and then I can paint those along with the outside of the cupboard door. Liz will have finished the woodwork by then and Terry the grouting on the back terrace, and then we can get on with the cleaning and tidying and touching up.

It’s all looking a lot more positive here now.

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Saturday 5th March 2011 – We went for a Mexican this evening

But before that, we went to Chi-Chi’s for some food. It was Terry’s idea – as soon as I mentioned going out, he volunteered the Mexican restaurant. And as soon as we got there it was “oooh look, there’s deep-fried ice cream on the menu this evening”. So now we know.

We all had a good meal and the dining was accompanied by Manuel Labour and his mate on the guitars. It makes quite a nice change to have a musical evening.

And Terry and Liz deserved their meal. Terry has finished tiling both balconies and there is only the grouting to do on there, as well as a small amount of cementing. Liz finished emulsioning the walls and has started on the woodwork. I scrubbed the floor in the cupboard again and painted the woodwork in there too. We’ve been working hard just now so it’s nice to go out and relax.

And I’m off to bed in a minute. I had a bad night last night and I’m thoroughly tired out. I’m getting old and I can’t last the pace.

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Wednesday 2nd March 2011 – I’m off to bed in a minute

And it’s only 20:31 too!

I’ve had a hectic few days, as I said yesterday, and it’s going to be continuing tomorrow too.

I managed about 5 hours or so at the side of the road and after yet another uneventful drive I ended up being back here in time for lunch.

This afternoon we carried on working but we have hit a logistics issue. Our little tile cutter isn’t good enough to cut the tiles for the terraces. We need a professional one and to hire one for three days, it’s €250!!! Exactly the same machine is on offer at Screwfix for £199.99 and the Eurotunnel have day trips for €90 just at the moment.

Hence yours truly is up at 07:00 tomorrow and he’s booked on the 10:45 crossing to Folkestone, where there is a Screwfix depot.

I’m not half getting about these days. Rather like the sailor who joined the navy to see the world. Except that in my case, I joined the navy to let the world see me.

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Thursday 10th February 2011 – I was going to have an early night …

… seeing as how everyone else has retired, but I wrote up my blog and then the computer crashed before it could be published. But never mind – it can’t be helped.

So we are (or were) off to bed early because we have been busy little beavers today. While Terry was sorting out the electrics in the third bedroom I was filling in holes in the bathroom for Liz (who reminded me a short while ago that I have missed one). And while Liz started off the painting in there I cleaned up the half of the terrace that we stripped of tiles. It’s now ready for tiling when I buy the bitumen underseal.

However there is a change of plans there. So many of the tiles are damaged that it’s not really feasible to reuse them and so I approached the President of the Residents’ Council with the idea that we replace them all with some more of the black tiles that we bought to do the edging. He’s in agreement and so I rang up the tile place to order some more. We must have a half-share in that shop now.

So after I had done that, Terry and I started on the floor-laying in the third bedroom and that took ages. Would you believe that it is the same patented system that I found when I bought the flooring to fit in the attic back at home, and how much anguish did I have with that?

Liz finished the first coat of her painting early and so she took over helping Terry while I piddled off for the tiles and a visit to Brico. I ended up at the Brico at the Place Bockstael where I found everything I needed but there was no place to park and there was no-one to cut the glass.

“Glass?” I hear you say. But yes. We decided that the shower screen that we will be fitting looks so nice that we will fit one on the window side. But as they don’t do one the correct size, we will have to make one out of glass and channelling.

But at Brico I encountered a situation that would have delighted Terry had he been there. An old lady was looking for light bulbs and the server there told her that they were in aisle 21 and she should p155 off and look for herself. Terry is continually being astonished by what passes for customer service here in Belgium. I did warn him about it.

Back home Liz and Terry had finished the flooring and so we started on the skirting board but ran out of time. Now we have 2 finished bedrooms (that I did a few years ago), an almost-finished third bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and toilet ( and they may well be done tomorrow) and which leaves us just the huge living room and the two balconies to do, as well as rewire the main fuse board.

No wonder that we are tired!

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Monday 7th February 2011 – I’m still here

I haven’t been struck down by a thunderbolt for working on the Sabbath, and I haven’t been a victim of Extraordinary Rendition during the night for daring to criticise the Septics either. Mind you, I had a really uncomfortable night and didn’t sleep too well – my guilty conscience obviously – and I’m going to bed as soon as I press “send”.

This afternoon though, I had to pop out to see my notaire about getting the apartment paperwork together. And she sent me off to get a tax clearance certificate, but of course the tax office is closed in the afternoons so that didn’t work out as planned and I need to do that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have the makings of a beautiful bathroom now – not quite finished but the walls are all grouted, there’s a sink, there are new taps on the bath and on the sink, and there is central heating again. Tomorrow it will have a new floor, some wallpaper, and be painted if we are lucky, and then we can move the washing machine in there.

I also have a bedroom that is painted now, and there’s a radiator fitted too. And I may well have time to start on the flooring tomorrow as well. But fitting the radiator was exciting – the connector broke as we were coupling it up, so we fitted a spare valve but that meant a trip to Brico for an adapter, and then another trip to Brico for a longer connector for the valve.

It was after 20:00 when we finished, and we are all exhausted. And not surprising too. It was a hard day’s work. I just hope that I can manage to press “send” before I ……

…. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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Thursday 20th January 2011 – Winter is back.

I woke up this morning to discover a smattering of snow, sub-zero temperatures and a hanging cloud. Just like it ought to be in January, methinks, although you would never have guessed if from the last few days when we’ve been having May-type weather.

First task was to clean out Caliburn and check him over as tomorrow we are going on a long journey. everything needs to be ship-shape inside. And while I was waiting for the man from Viking to come with a pile of cardboard boxes I packed a few tools and other bits and pieces that might come in handy, as well as some paperwork that I need.

After lunch I packed the computer bits and pieces that I want and some clothes and bedding and that kind of stuff. Not to mention some food. My long driving journeys include nibbling snacks all the way on the journey.

I’ve also been tidying up in the barn and in the lean-to where the wood is. I need to make quite a bit of space (which is always at a premium around here) for when I come back.

And that is that. I’m having an early night due to the fact that I’ll be making an early start tomorrow. And the next time I blog, I’ll be in another country, assuming that the snow lets me leave. How about that?

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Tuesday 7th December 2010 – I HAD A DAY OUT TODAY.

I was quietly drinking a coffee ready to go out and cut wood for this evening when Liz rang me. “Terry and I are on our way to Montlucon. Anything you want?”

Well, as it happens, this very morning I had been making a list of things that I want from Montlucon so I enquired “will you be going to Brico Depot?”
“Of course”
“Well, do you want an extra passenger?”
And so instead of working on my bedroom, I went to Montlucon instead.

I tried a couple of places but no wheel for Caliburn and I also bought a few useful things, including a small coffee pot thingy to fit on my little stove (€25 in the Auchan but only €6 in Gifi) but what was so depressing about the journey was that blasted flaming perishing Brico Depot was blasted flaming well closed for perishing stock taking.

So 30 kms there and 30 kms back for me (and add on another 20 kms each way for Liz and Terry) and the place was closed. So no extra insulation, no bits to finish off the wardrobe.

GRRRRRRRRR at Brico Depot!

But the temperature is crazy right now. It was a grey hazy day with just the odd burst of sun through the clouds but the temperature reached 15°C today. In the heat exchanger it reached 22.3°C. In a space of just about 36 hours the temperature has increased 20°C.

There’s clearly something wrong with this weather right now. But I’m not worrying about it. I didn’t get much sleep last night so I’m having an early night.

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Sunday 15th August 2010 – The weather seems to have changed.

Last night the temperature in my room dropped below 20°C, the first time for ages. And that was with the windows closed too.

Outside, it’s been gradually falling little by little and it dropped as low as 9.1°C. A sure sign that winter is on its way. And it’s only mid-August too! A depressing thought.

I should have gone brocanting today but instead I stayed in. And now my little room looks quite tidy. What a way to spend a Sunday. But it was looking rather a tip in here and its not going to get any better what with doing this roof and so on. We are back on there tomorrow.

And that’s it, really. I’m blogging early as I want to have an early night. I need to keep my strength up.

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Tuesday 27th July 2010 – Terry had other things to do today …

… so he didn’t come down today. Mind you he did ring me at 08:00 to tell me not to wake up, which was kind of him.

So I had a relaxed morning doing not very much. I checked on Lieneke’s house to make sure things were okay and that was that. I was going to do some washing but the weather wasn’t stable enough for that. I need to do some soon as I’m running out of clothes.

This afternoon we went to record our monthly programmes and this was full of hitches. The guy who takes us had his floosie with him and so engrossed were they in talking that he missed our exit on the Motorway and we had to drive miles out of our way to get to the studio. And then they had a technician in repairing the computer so we had to wait an hour or so.

And then the computer still wasn’t working so we had to record our programmes on the analogue tape machine.

And then the tape jammed

And then we ran out of tape.

So all in all it took hours.

And that is really that. I’m thoroughly exhausted and I’m going to have another early night. I’ve not even managed to make myself any food.

But summer has returned. The solar shower reached 35 degrees and if I had made it home earlier than 18:15 I would have had a shower. And the automatic water heater started up again. Only 20 minutes but it pushed the water temp up by 4 degrees.

Tomorrow I may even have a shower if the weather keeps up.

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Monday 26th July 2010 – Lieneke asked me …

roofing guus lieneke chimney pointing les guis virlet puy de dome france… to take a photo every day of the progress on her roof now that she is back in the Netherlands. And I forgot to do it until it was almost going dark but nevertheless here we are.

What we’ve been doing is to take off the roof tiles from the right-hand edge as far as the little window in the roof, replace a couple of chevrons, strengthen the principal horizontal beams and lengthen where necessary, extend the roof out from the chimney line so that it protects the stone wall of the house and then replace the tiles and add the extra for where the roof has been extended (basically, the bit to the right of the roof ladder).

So this morning we finished off the joinery and then replaced the rest of the tiles. This afternoon we took our lives into our own hands and pointed the chimney. It looks much better now than it did and it’s certainly more solid, although there isn’t anything that you can do about the tilt.

Finally we started to fit the edging tiles but one or two of them proved to be more difficult than you would think. And we were at that stage where we know from bitter experience that nothing will ever go right no matter what you do and how long you try to do it, and so we called it a day and we’ll finish it tomorrow.

But I wasn’t surprised. It was 18:10 when we finished and Terry was here at 08:50 so that’s not far off 09:30 hours that we were working. And it’s hard work too. Terry’s had me running up and down that scaffolding all day with buckets of nails, buckets of screws, buckets of tiles and buckets of mortar. It’s keeping me fit, that’s for sure, but it’s wearing me out as well. So much so that I’m going to press “send” and then have an early night.  

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Wednesday 7th April 2010 – Think of a phrase that contains …

… the words “booze-up” and “brewery” – and we aren’t talking about the Open University Students’ Association either!

Yes, I thought that incompetence at its most stunning inefficiency could only be reached in the hands of that august body but I am fast changing my opinion. I have been reliably informed by one of my “moles on various committees” that this week’s radio programme was the one for the 1st week of March – the radio station appears to have thrown the wrong version onto the cutting room floor and gone with the one we discarded which is now 5 weeks out of date.

And that isn’t all either. I’ve been given a task to undertake by the footy club which requires them to send in a form. So I’ve been waiting 3 weeks and it’s not made it there yet. I obtained a duplicate and I rang up the President of the club about completing it – the deadline is Friday – but I got the answerphone so I left a message.

No callback by the time I went to training, so never mind – I’ll see the President’s son down at the ground. But down at the ground there were just 4 of us, and we were locked out of the stadium. It appears that the trainer has given the players the night off so that they can watch the footy on the box.

Unbelievable, isn’t it? Last Wednesday they were rained off; last Friday was someone’s birthday; today there’s something better on the box. And all the teams are struggling right now and need a change of fortune. Fitness is a big issue with the teams – watch them drop off the pace in the last 15 minutes – but the trainer cancels the training session. Stand by for a right spannering on Saturday and Sunday.

I did a couple of laps around the field and then came home. The President eventually rang me back at 21:00 and I explained the situation. “I’ll ring up the secretary right now and call you straight back”. It’s now 02:30 and guess what?

But it’s not all doom and gloom. You remember my action photo from the footy 10 days ago? Well the local rag has published it. It might only be La Montagne but it’s still nice to see my name in lights and it’s another addition to the portfolio. And Claude came back from his holiday in the Midi so we had coffee on the terrasse. We could do that because there was a moment when the rain stopped. After me crowing about the good weather yesterday it p155ed down for most of the day. But in between the showers I dug out a few more treestumps.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be starting to build the new megacloche. The afternoon will be spent at a talk on the history of the area of La Cellette. Marianne wants me to meet the organiser.

And 02:30 in the morning? This 3D program has taken hold of me. My two characters have now made it to the beach with a herd of wild rhinocerous hot on their heels. I shall be scanning the world-wide web tomorrow evening to see if I can find a freeware boat otherwise my little animation will come to a premature end.

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