Tag Archives: eric hall

Sunday 29th June 2014 – YOU CAN’T BELIEVE YOUR EYES, CAN YOU?

I thought you wouldn’t. But that is indeed snow up there in the background. Here on the 29th June, the temperature has dropped to 3.3°C and there is snow in the rain here but up in the mountain pass that I’ve just driven through, it really is snowing.

So where am I then? I’m actually in a village called Lech which is high in the Austrian Tyrol way above the Arlberg Pass between Innsbuck and Bregenz on the Swiss border. Nerina and I visited here on our honeymoon in October 1988 and made a vow that one day we would come and stay here. Of course things have moved on a great deal since those days, but here I am all the same. At least I have made it here.

And here is a guest-house that charges just €25 for bed and breakfast and while it isn’t 5-star luxury, I’ve never had value for money quite like this. I also found a decent Italian restaurant here that cooked me a special meal. I spent the evening there talking Italian to the staff there and it’s amazing how much came back.

This has made me make a decision that for all of the languages that I can speak in a marginal kind of way, I’m going to spend some time in each country at least once per year. I’m not sure how this will work for my Russian, but we’ll see.

This photo is interesting too. This is Sankt Christophe, the highest point in the Arlberg Pass. I have a photo that I took here when Nerina and I passed by. It featured the old Cortina estate that we had – OCC 883S and a hanging cloud that had chased us all the way up the pass billowing over the crest. This photo features Caliburn of course, and it would have featured Strawberry Moose too except that it was absolutely p155ing down and snowing, and His Nibs didn’t fancy getting wet.

And I can’t say I blame him either. This is what it looked like on the Motorway between Innsbruck and Bregenz. Totally dreadful as you can see and I was driving with the rear foglights on. It was the only way to be seen through the spray coming off the road. The hanging clouds wedged up against the mountains look impressive too.

And doesn’t Strawberry Moose take an excellent photograph? He should be proud of his skills.

This is the weather that we have been having all day. It was raining when I left bei Hanzi this morning and gradually degenerated as I drove down the B11 towards the Austrian frontier. Once in the Alps we got the lot and that was that.

So I’m going to have an early night and hope for better things tomorrow.

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Saturday 28th June 2014 – WELL, JUST LOOK AT THIS!

Yes, who do you recognise on the left in the photo here? Quite right. It’s Yours Truly on stage and playing bass in a rock band, somewhere in a damp beer cellar in Munich, with the Roland Cube bass amp in the background.

Make the most of it for as far as I am aware, it’s the only photo extant of me playing bass live on stage, and you have had to wait for 40 years for this. And I wasn’t only playing bass but singing and I did the lead vocals on the old Kinks number “Lola” from 1970 or whenever it was. Shame no-one recorded it.

And not only that, Hans said that e-mail me his playlist so that I can practise at home and the other guy on stage, whose name I’ve forgotten, was very appreciative of my help on the vocals – and that’s a first by any standards.

It’s not actually in Munich to be fair – it’s in Eching which is a suburb of Munich and this is where I’m staying. The sofa was extremely comfortable and I had a good night’s sleep. In the morning we went out for breakfast to a small bakery near here where you can buy German bread rolls (German bread is the best in the world) of all kinds of varieties, helpings of strawberry jam and coffee too.

From there, Hans took me to show me a few places in the vicinity and where he worked, and then we took the metro and the tram into the city. And Brain of Britain hadn’t brought his camera, had he?

We ended up the afternoon going out to the Olympic Park and a mega-music shop nearby, and then came home. A small bio shop produced some vegan cheese which was a surprise, and so Hans made me a pizza base and toppings. That led to us all trooping around to the Pub around the corner and this is where we celebrated Hans’ birthday – three of us on the stage to a crowd (if you can call it that) that might have at one stage reached the dizzy heights of 20 people. Still, from little acorns, and all that.

So what is tomorrow going to bring I wonder?

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Friday 27th June 2014 – IT DIDN’T TAKE ME LONG, DID IT?

There I was this morning after another excellent night’s sleep in this comfy little spec at Meersburg (and I’ll stop here again, no problem), having breakfast of coffee and half a baguette smeared with strawberry jam, when I began to notice a regular stream of small ships sailing back and to across the lake.

That can only mean one thing – that there’s a ferry connection from somewhere over here to somewhere over there and so Yours Truly set out to investigate.

But did I say a good night’s sleep? I certainly did. And not only that I was on my travels again. I was watching some British World War I cavalry charge up this steep hill to attack a German post there and while they were all almost swept away and almost everyone was unhorsed, they carried the position whilst a few of their number tried to round up the loose horses. I remember saying to myself is that had the cavalry been followed up by a regiment of infantry they could have swept on right behind the lines and caused chaos.

Nothing new in this though – at the Battle of the Somme a detachment of infantry did succeed in breaking the lines in one place on the first day and had the cavalry, standing by in the vicinity, been sent in to exploit the breakthrough, they could have cleared up too. But that was a lost opportunity.

From there, Cecile and I went off to look at the animals at the shelter and an old black-and-white collie fell for me and so I took it home and we lived happily ever after. And there is nothing more unlikely than this, as you all know.

I found the ferry terminal, just a couple of kms down the road and €11:50 later, Strawberry Moose, Caliburn and I were sailing to Konstanz on the other side of the lake. Never a good idea, as you know, for me to find a ferry . After all, it makes me cross.

Getting to Knostanz was one thing – finding the correct border crossing into Switzerland (well, I am here!) was quite something else entirely and I actually crossed the frontier three times before I could find the correct road out of the town. A leisurely amble then took me along the southern shore of the Bodensee and eventually across into Austria at Bregenz.

Bregenz had the first (of many) traffic jams and so I didn’t get to see too much of the town but then a drive over the mountains, into southern Germany and a stop for lunch did the business.

On the way over the mountains between Austria and Germany, I encountered these two vehicles. Single-seater machines and equipped like proper little cars, with steering wheels and pedals. But judging by the wiring that I could see inside the vehicles, they may well be electric cars. However there was no-one around to ask.

Mind you, judging by the names of the vehicles – the red one being a City-El and the white one being a Mini-El-City, electricity is a good guess.

Onto the Autoroute after that, and wasn’t that a big mistake? Say what you like about Germans, when they organise something, they organise it in spades and the traffic jam on the autoroute was a belter. We must have sat for 2 hours without turning a wheel at one point. Stop-start all of the 113 kms to Munich and then fighting the rush hour traffic out of the city to Hans’ place.

So now I’m here, eventually, and after a decent meal and some live music in a pub nearby, I’m off to bed. A shakedown on the sofa. I wonder if it will be as comfortable as my last couple of nights in Caliburn?

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Thursday 26th June 2014 – IN WHICH OUR HERO FINDS A BEACH

No idea where I was last night. It was a big town somewhere in the UK and it seems that Esther who formerly ran a motel near where I live had separated from her husband and she started making up to me. I was playing right along because of course my real interest lay elsewhere. Nevertheless we were becoming really close and Esther, doing the holiday rota for this shop where she worked (and which my brother had some kind of connection) put me down for the last two weeks in July – the same holiday period as hers – and that cocked up all of my plans to go to Canada as usual in September.

So here I am, awake in my spec near Dole last night and, like most of my specs at the side of the main road, by the time that I wake up at 08:30 it’s totally deserted, despite the fact that when I came here last night it was heaving with lorries.

And as for this foam-rubber chair bed thing, I’ve slept on many worse things than this, that I’ll tell you. And while I’m sitting up here typing some notes, a roach coach pulls up. It’s just like in the UK.

so back on the road and as you might expect, about 5 minutes further on from where I parked, there’s a beautiful kind of lake with a parking area around it. That would have made a lovely place to have spent the night, if only I had pressed on a little.

Half a mile further on down the road I cross over into the département of the Jura, in the region of the Franche Comté. First village that I come to is called Chemin and this is well worth a stop, and for two reasons too.

I was going to say that there were two things to see here, but you will have to look hard to see them and I wonder how many people have missed them.

If you notice the grey pole just there underneath that tree, that is in fact the pole for a speed camera, would you believe, and the camera itself is well-hidden in the trees so that you can’t actually see it.

“Never you mind” I hear you say. “There is bound to be a warning sign somewhere in the vicinity”. And there is too, but you would never have guessed it because that too is hidden in the trees as you can (or can’t) see.

Quite frankly, I reckon that this is totally dishonest. There’s no point in having them if they are going to hide them in the trees like this if you ask me.

I’ve also been eating a little humble pie too today. I stopped to do some shopping at the LeClerc at Belfort and found to my dismay that when I was going on several weeks ago about the cost of a gas bottle for my camping stove being over €50, I … errr … was clearly not quite on the ball. That’s the cost for the bottle too, and an exchange refill is just €18:00. D’ohhhh. Anyway now I have some camping gas and I can cook.

I’ve also bought a new toy. I mentioned to Rob a couple of days ago that I was looking for a portable air compressor. In the old days you could buy compressors where you could detatch the tank and take it down the fields with the air line and inflate the wheel of your tractor. I haven’t seen one for years, but here in the LeClerc at Belfort they had a portable air compressor with a 6-litre tank and it’s all portable – you can carry the lot off down the field if you need to. And it runs off just 270 watts too so I can even charge it up on the inverter in Caliburn.

It took me ages to drive through Freiburg in Germany – there were enormous queues all over the motorway and the city was covered in roadworks too. Still, I made it through the town and over the mountains. Now I’m sitting here at Meersburg on the shores of the Bodensee looking across to Switzerland.

Tomorrow I’ll make my way on to Munich.

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Wednesday 25th June 2014 – WHERE AM I?

Ohh yes – I’m in a parking space on the side of the road near Dole, 250 or so kms from home, busily making a list of things that I have forgotten to bring with me, such as all of the fresh fruit and the soya desserts in the fridge. The soya desserts will be out of date by the time I return, but seeing as how I’ve closed all of the windows in the attic (in the middle of summer) I shudder to think of what the fresh fruit will be like by the time that I return home.

So with the customary couple of hours on the computer, after lunch I emptied a ton of cememnt out of the back of Caliburn and gave him a good brush out. He’s still not very clean inside and so I laid some sheets of OSB and plywood on the floor – at least that is clean and so should keep me clean.

I then loaded him up and I brought the gas cooker even though I have no gas – I’ll try to find some en route as I travel around. For the bed, I’ve brought a foam-rubber folding chair thing that Marianne gave me a few years ago when she was cleaning out her cellar. I’ll have to see what that is like one day, so why not now? Roxanne had one in her room for when she had friends for sleepovers and no-one ever complained. Mind you, I can’t for the life of me remember how or why I forgot about the folding bed thing that I bought ages ago.

I’ve also disconnected the dump load. The cables are still running too hot for my liking and here in Midsummer and I’m not there, better to be safer than sorry. I really ought to fix this properly one of these days.

I’ve sorted out some clothes and some food (except the fresh fruit and the soya desserts) and drink, made myself a flask of hot coffee, put the Gibson, the Roland amp, the Carlsbro amp, microphone and stand into the van and then hit the road.

I played tag with a woman in a silver-grey Peugeot 206 estate all the way from Montmarault to about 20kms short of Montceau-les-Mines, and stopped at Montceau for tea. I found a Turkish kebab place that made me a gorgeous Oriental salad and chips, with bottled water, all for a very democratic €8:00 and we spent most of our time chatting about our experiences living in a foreign country.

So back on the road in the dusk and here I am

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Tuesday 24th June 2014 – IT DID CLEAR UP …

… even though it didn’t look much like it when we started. Damp, claggy and overcast.

Nevertheless I was at my task early and first job after brzakfast was to empty the beichstuhl as I was to be having visitors. I also steam-cleaned the kitchen in the verandah and unblocked the sink there – I need to have the place looking something like. I followed that by working on the web pages again – getting back into my normal routine.

After lunch, the weather picked up and it looked quite nice. Rosemary turned up as planned and we set about a couple of the raised beds. Rosemary weeded four and I weeded almost three and I do wonder about my technique because Rosemary’s weeding looks absolutly perfect whereas mine looks a total mess. I wish I knew what her secret was.

We had a long chat afterwards and at about 19.15 Rosemary went home and that was that.

Tomorrow I won’t be doing much as I’m off on the road tomorrow night.

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Monday 23rd June 2014 – WELL, ONE OF US …

… that is, Terry or Yours Truly, is in league with the devil, that’s for sure.

For about two or three weeks we’ve been working on this concrete here and thee has hardly been a drop of rain while it’s all been going on, but today, with the work finished for now, I was awoken at 06:20 by the most astonishing thunderstorm and it’s been raining cats and dogs all day. Half an inch of rain we’ve had so far, and there’s planty more to come.

So without the benefit of a decent sleep, I was up and about quite early which was just as well, as we had 14 – yes FOURTEEN – radio programmes to record today. You can see how much work I’ve been doing.

I started off at Marcillat and Radio Tartasse at 09:30 and recorded 4 of the rock music programmes that we do – 2 of the normal ones and two of the live concert performances that I have taken to mixing and engineering myself at home. Liz xame to join me a little later (and it was a little later as she was having car problems) and we recorded four episodes of our information programmes.

Back at Liz’s house I had a look at her Golf but I couldn’t get the thing to go either in the limited time available, and we went off to Gerzat after lunch for Radio Arverne where we recorded 6 of our information programmes.

So that’s the radio done until the end of August which is just as well as Liz is off on her hols in 2 weeks’ time and won’t be back until the end of August. Just in time for us to record another marathon 14 programmes and then I’m heading off to Montreal and Canada again.

Liz fetched a mechanic out from her local garage to look at the Golf – after all, they are supposed to have “repaired” it last time this happened. He started the car (and I’m not going to tell you how because it will only give you all ideas) and drove it back to the garage where they will sort it out, and I came home in the tropical downpour.

I wonder if it will ever clear up?

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Sunday 22nd June 2014 – THE NIGHTS ARE CLOSING IN

Yes, what happened to the first half of the year? I have never known one go so quickly. It’ll be Christmas before we know it.

Even more astonishingly, there I was lying in bed for a good half-hour thinking that I maybe ought to get up, and when I did, noticing that it was just 07:40. On a Sunday too. I’ll never have a decent lie-in at this rate.

Resuming my usual habits after this last few weeks of work, I watched a film this morning while I was breakfasting. Today’s offering was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and I was totally puzzled by this film. I was sitting there watching ti all warm up and wondering when the action might begin and suddenly it ended. 2 hours or so of no real plot and no real action and I can’t think of where the time went because there was nothing memorable about it.

However, having read the reviews of the film, I’m clearly in a minority of one. Lots of people consider it to be the best of the films.

So I spent the rest of the day doing some informal tidying up in here until it became too hot, and also tidying up a huge pile of files on the computer.

This evening Iwas round at Liz and Terry’s rehearsing the radio programmes as we are recording tomorrow. I also went round to Cécile’s to pick up a couple of letters.

Saturday 21st June 2014 – SOMETIMES I HAVE DAYS …

… when I stare at the computer for hours on end, wondering what on earth I am going to write. And on other days the stuff seems to pour out without me even touching the keyboard. Today was one of the latter.

Despite having a little lie-in this morning recovering from the after-effects of an attack of cramp, I was at the computer early enough. And by the time that I had finished early this evening, I’d done another programme for the rock show, including engineering the live concert and making up a sound string, and I’d written three texts for the current affairs programmes, on senior citizens, medical care abroad and on French legal aid, 28kbs of notes.

There’s nothing like cracking on with things when one is in the mood.

For shopping, I went to the Intermarché at Pionsat. Things are slightly dearer there but it saves me about €3:00 i diesel and it has everything that I really need, especially as I’ve been doing a few major shopping trips to Montlucon just recently.

I checked over the concrete too and it seemed to be drying rather quickly, so I connected up the pump and pumped the water out of the pit onto the concrete to moisten it.

It’s a shame that we were in such a rush to do the job, but it’s still looking quite impressive and when it has its stone wall all around it it will make a world of difference here.

Tomorrow I’m getting back into my old habits now that the pressure of work is off for now, so I’ll be having a lie-in and a leisurely morning. We’re recording on Monday so tomorrow evening I’ll be round at Liz and Terry’s, rehearsing.

And I might be off to Munich next weekend. Won’t that be exciting?

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Friday 20th June 2014 – WE FINISHED THIS CONCRETING TODAY

Or was it the concrete that finished us? One of the other anyway.

But in fact the concreting isn’t finished because, strange as it is to relate it, we ended up not having enough. There was 60m² of surface area at 150mm depth, which relates to not quite 9 cubic metres. Take off the surface area of the pit but add on the depths at the side of the pit, I calculated about 10 cubic metres. And as a result, se are about 1.5 cubic metres short.

And it doesn’t look very pretty either. But there’s a reason for this. I planned to have 2 lorry-loads, one coming at 14:00 and the other one oming later in the day, each one having 5 cubic metres of concrete. And so when we finished the shuttering and fitting the grillage at about 13:30, Terry suggested that I went and made my butty.

My reply was, of course, based on past experience, that the moment I turned my back the concrete lorry would pull up.

And so as I turned my back, the concrtee lorry did indeed turn up, and there was just Terry and me to receive it. Rob turned up shortly after and we were shovelling and barrowing like mad. 7.5 cubic metres on this load instead of the 5 that I asked for, so we had to move quickly. And even more so when the lorry came back, just 15 minutes later with the second load.

Hottest day for a couple of weeks to and so it was drying before we could lay it properly. And so with all of this, it’s no wonder that the job doesn’t look very pretty. Still, it’s down and that is what counts. I’ll have to finish it off some other time – probably with the cement mixer.

The water in the solar heat exchanger was a healthy 35°C and so I took the opportunity to have a nice warmish shower. So now, just for a change, I’m all clean and dry. I came up here and crashed straight out. And I’m hardly surprised.

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Thursday 19th June 2014 – I HAD A DAY OUT TODAY

I mentioned yesterday that I had to go to Montlucon today for some more grillage for the concrete that’s coming tomorrow.

As it happened, Rosemary rang up and so it came to pass that we met up this morning at the Texaco garage outside Montaigut and she came with me to Montlucon.

We didn’t spend too long in Brico Depot but I bought the grillage, some more pylons, a few other bits and pieces and so on. I now have everything that I need for tomorrow, especially as Terry has remembered to put the bolt cutters into his van.

Rosemary and I then went to the garden centre and a few more shops before lunch and then afterwards, with the weather being so nice we went for a walk around the lake at Premilhat, stopping for a cold drink half-way round.

We came back via the Gorge de la Cher and, strange as it is to say it, at the tinky village of St Therence, miles of the beaten track and far from anywhere, there was a barrage. Half a dozen gendarmes, a dog handler and a dog were stopping all of the traffic, namely about one vehicle and four cows per hour. I don’t mind these at all, especially these days as Caliburn and I are all totally legal, but it’s still totally bewildering as to why they should have a barrage in such an out-of-the-way place.

Back home, I finished off the shuttering and backfilled with soil and stones ready to lay the grillage. But what a weird place to have a barrage.

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Wednesday 18th June 2014 – THE WEATHER BROKE TODAY …

… and we had the first serious rain today since I don’t know when. Round about 15:00 the heavens opened and that was that. No point in working outside in this weather so Terry called it a day – and I can’t say that I blamed him.

This morning though we cracked on and the pit is finished now. 6 rows of breeze blocks means that it’s about 1.30m high and that’s plenty for me to sit down comfortably and work underneath a car. And you’ve no idea how much I’m looking forward to not having to lie on my back on a cold concrete floor.I’ve been doing that for 45 years and I’m fed up.

We’ve cracked on with the shuttering too and that’s not far off being finished. We would have done that too had it not been for the rainstorm. I carried on doing a little bit of it during a break in the weather, and one thing that I forgot was how slippery plastic is when it’s wet. So slippery in fact that when I stepped back to check the level of the shuttering that I had just installed, I ended up half-in the pit. And I have the scratches to prove it.

Another thing that I learnt today was that after a heavy rainstorm there’s about 20 litres of water on the roof of the digger. And when you put the digger in forward motion, the water cascades down onto your lap.

Anyway, I’ve been in major discussion with the concrete company and they can fit me in on Friday afternoon at their convenience. Two loads of … gulp … 10 cubic metres of concrete in total. I didn’t realise that I had over 60M² to cover and I don’t have enough grillage for that. Consequently I need to nip into Montlucon early tomorrow morning for some more.

I saw the old woman, the mother of the Parisian who has a holiday home here. She parks her car sometimes where the cement mixer has to turn round so I warned her about his visit, and had the usual mouthful of abuse in exchange. All I can say is that it’s no wonder her two sons are so miserable if they’ve had to put up with her for 60 years. She gets right on my mammary glands as it is. Her husband died quite early, apparently, and I’m not surprised. Probably grateful for the peace and quiet. If I had been married to her, she would have had a smack in the mouth a long time ago.

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Tuesday 17th June 2014 – SO THERE I WAS …

… out of bed at 06:45, on the road at 07:00 and at Liz and Terry’s for 07:30.

And by 08:30 we were in the queue at the sous-prefecture at Riom. Ticket number 27 which meant that we only had to wait just over an hour – not like when I took Caliburn to be registered in 2009, had ticket 93 and had to wait until 11:50.

Anyway, the Jeep is now registered in France and we went off to the Carrefour to buy the number plates and have a coffee. On the way back we called at the insurance at St Gervais to pick up an updated insurance certificate, and then we went back to Liz and Terry’s and fitted the new plates.

After lunch we came back here and with Terry in the pit and me on the cement mixer, we fitted three rows of breeze blocks. There wasn’t much sun so I could only do the mix bucket by bucket, otherwise the mixer would stall, but we managed all the same and I’m impressed with this little 350-watt cement mixer. Not the quickest or biggest mixer but it mixes the stuff quicker than I can use it.

Tomorrow we’ll do the final row of blocks in the pit and then do the shuttering. That’s going to be exciting because it’s not a square – neither is it a rectangle and it isn’t an quadrilateral either.

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Monday 16th June 2014 – WELL!

So Terry’s Transit and the Jeep have now been for their controle techniques. Both of them have failed but only on minor points, nothing that will prevent them from being driven on the road. There’s a 8-week period for correcting the faults.

Most surprisingly, the brakes on both vehicles passed with flying colours. After all of the work that I put in on them, especially with the handbrake on the Jeep, I was quite impressed and I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to have to do that again.

Terry was of course preoccupied with the controle techniques today and so I was on my own here.

This new submersible pump that I bought the other day, that really did the business. I’ve 400 litres of water now in a pile of dustbins ready to use or cement, and the rest was pumped out and down the lane. It was all over in minutes and made a change from spending hours baling out with a can and bucket.

Caliburn is also emptied of his concrete pillar blocks and they are stacked. I’m leaving the cement in there for now though – the best place to keep it dry and out of the way.

Once I’d done all of that, I did some weeding in the garden for a change. The onion and potato beds are now clear of thistles.

This afternoon, I did what I should have done at the weekend and completed the Radio Anglais texts for the next recording session. I wish that I had done that on Saturday.

So now I’m off to bed. I have to be up at 07:00 as Terry and I are going to Riom to register the Jeep now that it has passed the controle technique. I’m glad about that – that’s one care less.

Sunday 15th June 2014 – NOTHING MUCH HAPPENED …

… today.

I was awake at about 07:50 but if anyone really thinks that I was going to be out of bed at that time of morning on a Sunday they are thoroughly mistaken.

So at 09:20 when I crawled out of bed and had my breakfast, and that was really about it.

I made something of a drisory effort at tidying up in here, which didn’t last long, and then for the rest of the day I did little if anything. Somehow I wasn’t in the mood for the doing anything and I don’t know why. In fact I crashed out for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

All of the stuff I had planned to do, I ended up doing nothing and I was in bed shortly after 22:00.

I’ve really no idea what is happening right now.

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EPIC HALL

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