Tag Archives: eric hall

Sunday 14th July 2013 – YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS …

… but it’s Sunday, there’s no alarm clock of course, but nevertheless there I was this morning making my breakfast at all of 07:45 this morning!

It goes without saying though that I couldn’t keep it up. Back on the sofa with a couple of DVDs, a book or two, a bit of desultory surfing around on the internet. But then it is supposed to be a Day of Rest.

Mind yuu, I did have company this afternoon for half an hour or so.

A couple of St Eloy’s finest came to see me about the letter box. I told you yesterday that someone had forced the lock on it.

They didn’t hold out any hope of finding the culprit, but I didn’t expect them to, really.

But you never know what is missing – it might be a banc card or something – and if it suddenly starts to run up a bill, it’s always handy to have as your witnesses a couple of coppers who had seen for themselves the fact that the lock had been forced.

Pizza and garlic bread this evening as usual and that’s my day of rest done for another week.

But I’m really puzzled about this letter box. I’d love to know who did it and what it was that they were after.

Saturday 13th July 2013 – THE BEST DAY …

… of the year so far.

And for a variety of reasons. Not least of which was the fact that I spent it in convivial company.

Up before the alarm clock, just by way of a change, I was washed, dressed and breakfasted and I’d done some more work on my web pages by the time 09:00 came round.

By 10:00 I had unloaded all the wood off Caliburn’s roof rack and I was on my way to the shops at St Eloy-les-Mines.

Although I didn’t spend anything more than usual, I called in at Cheze and bought some glue for the plasterboard so that I can fit that around the window, and also four tubes of sealant to seal the gap between the window and the wall.

From St Eloy-les-Mines I round to Liz and Terry’s. Kate, Darren and the kids had arrived for a holiday and I’d been invited for lunch.

It gave me an opportunity to catch up with Strawberry Moose who had come down here for his holidays a few days ago.

I found him having a marvellous time playing on the trampoline and the slide with Dylan.

They very kindly asked me if I wanted to stay for tea and that was really nice. Then afterwards we sat on the terrace at the back.

That gave Strawberry Moose the opportunity to have a cuddle with Robyn, although I’m not quite sure who was cuddling who.

Terry also very kindly gave and lent me a few things to help me progress in the bathroom, not the least being the Ryobi Plus One mastic gun.

But he also gave me a present, which was really nice. Someone was selling some Ryobi Plus One hedge trimmers with lithium battery and charger, for less than the price of the battery and charger alone.

Consequently he bought two, and one of them was for me. I’m most impressed – thanks very much.

As the day faded out into the night, we watched the stars come out. There are thousands of them in the sky here – more than you’ll ever see at most places and that was one of the things that attracted me to the Auvergne.

All in all, it was a very civilised day.

But I was not so pleased when I returned home. It seems that someone has forced the door on my letter box.

Not sure if there’s anything missing though – I’ll need to talk to the Postie about that, but I’ll have to fetch the coppers in because you never know what it was that they might have been after

-3

Friday 12th July 2013 – IT’S POETS DAY AGAIN

And even though I’m allowed to pi … errr … push off early because tomorrow is Saturday, “early” was something like 19:30.

I don’t know why it is, but even though I’m working from about 12:00 until knocking-off, with a break for lunch, I don’t feel like I’m wasting any time at all.

It’s still taking forever to advance and I feel that I ought to be going twice as quickly as I am.

This afternoon’s work involved fixing in the air pipe from the inside, trimming it back and fitting the bell housing. You may wonder why I’m fitting a bell housing, but the answer to that is that the smallest bathroom ventilator fan that I could find has a 125mm diameter, whereas a length of 125mm pipe wouldn’t fit down the hole that I made in the wall. The bell-housing will have to be cut back too but not until the tiling is done – it needs to be cut flush with the tiling.

From there, I fitted all of the space blanket insulation to the bathroom wall and then fitted all of the counter-battening to hold it in place and to make the air-gap.

Next task was to cut a length of plasterboard to fit in the corner over where the pipes are, drilling out some holes so that the pipes will pass through and into the room.

That took ages to do but, much to my surprise, the smaller pipe fitted perfectly through the hole with no juggling about at all, and the larger one would have done too had I cut it to the correct diameter.

But still, that’s now on, fitted, and screwed into position.

Final job was to run the wiring into the correct position along the ceiling and down the far wall.

That means now that I just need to cut 4 pieces of plasterboard, disconnect and then reconnect the wiring, fit the shower base and build the false wall that will be up against the shower base.

Doing that, I will have done all that I wanted to do, and I can measure up for the tiles.

Mind you, at this rate, it’ll take another 3 months, I reckon. I just don’t know where the time goes to.

-3

Thursday 11th July 2013 – WELL, THE ANGLE GRINDER …

… idea worked just fine.

Mind you, I had to strip it down, remove the safety guard and the side handle, and fit a worn-down diamond disc. Then I could just about get the thing in the hole that I made.

Although it took ages to work out the best way to use it and how to control it, I managed to carve a deep groove into the head of this stubborn lump of ironstone.

The SDS drill, in the stationary position and with a chisel attachment, fitted some way into the hole (after I’d stripped all kinds of surplus stuff off the drill) and after several good poundings I knocked a lump off the rock.

And that was how I proceeded – cut a groove in a lump of rock with the angle grinder, pound away with the SDS chisel, and then use the core drill until it grounded out again.

It took ages too and then of course eventually the angle grinder and the chisel bottomed out and that was that.

But I did find a 500mm 22mm SDS drill and so I used that to punch a whole row of holes, rather like perforations, around the groove made by the core drill. And at about 16:30 this afternoon I broke through and that was that;

Now the pipe is in place, cemented in from the outside and with the filter fitted. It’s mostly filled from the inside but of course the air vent and fan won’t be fitted until the tiling is done.

While I was waiting for all the cement to dry, I had a little (yes, just a little) tidy up in what will be the bedroom and I found loads of stuff that I had been looking for. But now I’m whacked, and that is that.

But back to this morning.

Cécile and I were up early and loaded her car with all of the stuff she’s taking to her mother’s, which was uite a considerable amount.

I then ran her into St Gervais d’Auvergne to post a letter at the Post Office, where we ran into the guy who runs the sawmill. It’s always closed in July and August while he does the harvest, but he did mention that he had a workman down at the mill just then.

Upon hearing that news, I took full advantage and came back with a load of demi-chevrons.

A really good investment, Caliburn’s roofrack.

So now Cécile has left the area, probably for good, and I’m back here making rapid progress now in the shower room.

What’s going to happen next to jam a spanner in the works?

-7

Wednesday 10th July 2013 – OHH GOOD! COMPANY!

And how!

Yes, the pompiers – the fire brigade from St Gervais d’Auvergne came to call upon Cécile this evening. And at Cécile’s request too.

As I told you the other day, she’s put her house up for sale, but a group of squatters has other ideas.

A swarm of bees arrived and seem to have taken up residence in Cécile’s chimney.

She needs to encourage her visitors, not have them stung to death by bees.

No local apiarist was available and so she did the next-best thing, which was to call out the fire brigade.

It’s amamzing, the things that you learn. I didn’t realise that this is a free service in the Auvergne, although one is expected to make a contribution to the Fireman’s Ball.

Apparently they hold a Fireman’s Ball every December in St Gervais d’Auvergne, and the fireman is becoming rather fed up of it.

Anyway, by about 22:00 the fire brigade had gone and Cécile and I carried on working.

This morning I was up as usual and after breakfast I didn’t hang about.

First job was to empty out Caliburn – I don’t know where all of the rubbish inside him comes from.

having done that I drove round to Cécile’s to pick up my stuff and to help her organise herself, although what good I might be at that I really don’t know.

While I was there, I ended up working on the Berlingo. This is Bill’s old car but Cécile has bought it as her Micra is creaking a little around the edges.

The Berlingo failed its controle technique on a couple of silly things, like a frayed seat belt where the Hound of the Baskervilles had had a go at it, so I was sorting all of that out.

Nan came round too to say goodbye to Cécile so we had a really good chat.

Nothing like a convivial evening among friends.

Tuesday 9 July 2013 – I WAS RATHER OVER-OPTIMISTIC …

… with this idea that I might be able to finish this wall today.

You can see that the smaller pipe that will be the aeration for the composting toilet, that’s in place, but there’s no sign of the larger one that will be about 6 feet above it, and I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to do it.

I’ve come up against a solid lump of ironstone and while I was able to drill over half of the wall thickness, I didn’t even make 10cms today.

This lump has a triangular point that is sticking out right into the path of the core drill and the inside of the core drill has grounded out against it.

I’ve drilled all round it with a long SDS drill and I’ve been pounding away at the triangular lump with an SDS chisel and point, but the hole is too deep to do much good and the triangular point is stopping the chisel and point from having a good grasp of the rock.

What I can see me having to do is to grind off part of an angle-grinding disc so that it will fit down the hole, and I’ll have to see if that might do anything. It was really frustrating, I can tell you.

Of course you might be wondering why I don’t go in from the outside.

I must admit that at one time I was ‘arbouring thoughts about that but with not having a small arbour any more, I need to stand off the wall about 1 metre.

With this enormously heavy and powerful SDS drill about 7 metres off the ground on a ladder, you can see that it’s not really possible.

But I had another good night’s sleep last night with the fan going all night for a second time (it was 27°C up here) and the much-maligned and totally underrated Percy Penguin put in a rare appearance in my dreams. My subconscious is clearly trying to tell me something. And awake before the alarm went off, I was all set for a good day’s work on the computer – at least until Rob came around.

But just look at this. Those of you will remember that my good friend Liz died in March 2009 and I bought some fruit trees to plant in her honour.

What with one thing and another though, they’ve remained stuck in the buckets in which I originally planted them and so they are pretty cramped, but one of them has actually produced a fruit.

How astonishing.

But what else?

Ahh yes! When I knocked off I had a look at the water filters and, as I expected, they were choked solid with muck and all kinds of things.

Anyway, the sandbag, the puzzolane and the stainless steel filter have been thoroughly rinsed and cleaned, and the fibreglass mesh has been replaced.

Now it passes water even better than I do, and that is saying something.

All I need now is some rain. But not until I’ve finished this blasted wall, please.

In other news, there’s talk of a furniture removal from Le Quartier up to Gateshead in the very near future. I can’t really spare the time but I would really enjoy the trip.

-5

Monday 8th July 2013 – LAST NIGHT WAS …

… so hot that it was well gone 02:00 and I still hadn’t been able to lie down. Over 25°C up here, it was.

And so I did something that I’ve only ever done once, I think, before.

That was to leave the inverter running all night and I dug out the mains desk-top fan and left that running on the “low” position all through the night.

On that position the fan makes just a gentle humming noise and I think that that rocked me gently off to sleep.

Up at the usual hour of 07:30 as well (although I didn’t feel much like it) and after breakfast I carried on with the website for at least … ohhhh … half an hour, before the first interruption of the day.

Despite having his internet fixed on Friday morning, it’s gone down again so Rob was looking for the use of my cable for half an hour or so…

Ohh yes – who’s next? Yes, there’s this local Reactionary rag called the Trou des Combrailles – the local hippies and activists feuding within its pages.

They are doing an article on wind turbines and they want to feature something about me in it, so someone was sent to interview me.

Apparently they are against wind turbines because they “look ugly”, so I asked the reporter chappy if he would rather have a nuclear power station or a coal-fired generating plant up there on the brow of the hill,

However, in common with most NIMBYs (and these environmentalists are no different that anyone else) they would rather have their electricity from a nuclear power plant next to someone else’s back yard rather than something ecologically and environmentally-friendly near to them.

Eventually I managed to attack the shower room wall seeing as how we had some kind of good clear weather.

And after much anguish looking for my other arbour (which I eventually found) it was all systems go.

The hole that I started is now finished off, with the pipe cemented in place and with the outer filter fitted.

It just needs to be cut to length though on the inside of the wall and so I’ll do that when the plasterboard is in place.

As for the second hole, well…

The long arbour and the huge core drill are so heavy that I couldn’t lift the SDS drill. How I wish I had a small arbour!

There is one but that’s for an ordinary drill and so I tried that. The very small one is only a 10mm chuck but the other one is 13mm and that fitted, but I broke off the chuck key.

Tightening it up with a screwdriver didn’t work and so it was the SDS drill or nothing.

Of course, it’s a rubble wall on the interior and we collided straight away with a big lump of ironstone and that brought everything to a juddering halt.

But using the battery SDS drill with a 300mm (and then a 500mm) drill bit I spent a couple of hours breaking up the ironstone in situ and once that had been done I could attack it with the big SDS drill and the huge core drill.

By the time 19:00 came round and the power started to drop off (it IS 1400 watts, after all) I’d done well over half of the core drilling. And there was dust everywhere (and blood on my new wooden floor – drat!)

My hair was a real mess and so in the end I cut it all off and gave it a run over with the sheep shearer. After that I had a hair wash, a long chat with Marianne and another one with Cécile (her mum has had another fall and is now in hospital – a wise decision for Cecile to return).

Now I’m whacked and that is that.

Tomorrow I need to have another go with a standard SDS drill to break up some more of the rock in the wall and then, if nothing else goes wrong, finish off with the core drill.

If I can get all of that done I might have time to strip down the water filters and have a play with them.

-7

Sunday 7th July 2013 – YES, IT IS …

… Sunday today and, as is usual for a Sunday, I’ve done next-to badger-all.

I say “next to” of course because in my effort to bring order out of chaos I’ve tidied up the kitchen table and given it a scrub, and I’ve also tidied up around the floor a little.

That’s not too bad considering that it was 10:00 before I heaved myself out of my stinking pit.

Not quite as bad as last week when it was 11:00 but it’s still good enough.

And I’ve made a startling discovery – I’m running out of water.

I know that that might be hard to believe after the weather we’ve had this year but remember that it’s at least 6 months since I cleaned the filters.

The volume of water that’s been cascading down the roof and into the pipework could easily have disturbed stuff in the settling tank and blocked the filters.

I’ll have to have a good look at that and lean the filters – it’s either that or there’s a split in the tank.

And Cécile came round with some more of my stuff from her house.

After much deliberation, she’s arrived at the logical decision which I had been expecting her to make, and it’s what I would have done too in the circumstances so I can’t say that I blame her.

She’s put Ice Station Zebra up for sale and she’s moving out on Thursday to take care of her mother full time on the Ile d’Yeu.

I’m going round on Wednesday to rescue the rest of my stuff and take a pile of her rubbish down to the dechetterie, and that will be that.

I don’t know when we shall meet again, but it will probably be at Philippi.

-3

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

Thursday 4th July 2013 – I WAS TOO TIRED …

… to cook tea tonight.

That’s no surprise, though. It was 19:25 (or something like that) the other night, 19:45 last night, and all of 20:40 this evening when I finished.

I’d actually fitted one sheet of plasterboard onto the stud wall, but it has to come off and be refitted as it’s in the wrong place, and I ran out of time and energy.

You are probably wondering why it took so long to fit it. The answer to that is that it’s not as straightforward as I led you to believe yesterday.

Apart from the usual interruptions of the phone and of visitors, first thing that I had to do was to extend the flooring into the bedroom. I’d “overlooked” the fact that I hadn’t refitted the horizontal bracing to the stud wall at ground level.

You may remember that I’d had to raise the level of the shower room floor and so I’d taken up the floor level horizontal bracing. And I hadn’t refitted it. And of course with the higher level of flooring it needed to be reshaped.

Then of course there’s a quick way and there’s a proper way to do all of this and I’ve decided to do it the proper way.

Consequently all of the framework is now on the end wall and the insulation is stapled in place but it isn’t nailed in with the counter-battens yet.

I also still have these two holes to drill in the wall. But it’s all coming together quite nicely right now and we are making progress in leaps and bounds..

Apart from that, you may remember a few weeks ago that I was talking about these Nova Scotia pages that I had half-written.

Since then, I’ve been spending two hours each morning just after breakfast to bring them right up-to-date and this morning I posted the first batch on-line.

have a good read – that should keep you out of mischief for an hour or two.

-6

Wednesday 3rd July 2013 – WELL, THE SHOWER ROOM …

… is looking much more like a shower room now.

All of the horizontal battens on the stud wall have been cut and shaped, drilled for the passage of cables, and then screwed into position.

And if I feel like it tomorrow, I could even put the plasterboard onto the stud wall and that would make a whole world of difference;

In fact, you are probably wondering why I didn’t do that this afternoon.

I could quite easily have done too but in fact I was plagued by interruptions.

Marianne and Rosemary both rang me up today for long chats and I was there for ages with them.

And then Rob and Nicolette came round just as I was getting into full swing. Their internet had gone down and they needed urgent access, and then they needed to report the fault.

That took ages to sort out as well and by the time everyone had left me alone the hours were slipping away and it was ever so frustrating.

Of course, I’m not complaining about the interruptions. Quite the reverse in fact.

Firstly, it’s nice to speak to friends and have a good natter. It all helps oil the wheels of social intercourse.

Secondly, when I fell off my ladder back in November 2011 Rob drove me all the way to Montlucon, waited patiently for three hours while I was sewn up, and then drove me home – and wouldn’t accept even a centime for the fuel.

You’ll put yourself out for neighbours like that every time without a moment’s hesitation, but it always seems to happen at inconvenient moments.

And for the first time in I don’t know exactly how long (but we are talking years here) I had music while I worked for the whole day.And it’s quite true what they say, that “there’s none as thick as those that want to be”.

Having tried a whole series of devices to have music where I’m working, I finally worked out the solution that is so obvious to everyone else. Why don’t I simply take my little notebook computer and find a safe place to wedge it?

Exactly what I did and I had music all day. Berk!

As for last night’s dream, I can’t remember too much of it but I do remember having to rescue Strawberry Moose from an oven and finding that all of his antlers were burnt off – something that I found really upsetting.

I’ll have to give up this cheese lark, I’ll tell you.

-6

Tuesday 2nd July 2013 – *@ç#%§µ ¤£&€ù+§ cheap flaming useless tools!!!

That’s the arbour off the core drill kit that I bought (and spent a lot of money on) 18 months or so ago. The drill end is totally burnt out.

What’s been happening here is that the arbour has not been a precise fit in the chuck of the SDS drill. With the 4 hours of constant pounding that it received yesterday, the percussion effect of the play slowly but surely enlarged the groove in the arbour until it burnt through.

Mind you, as I said yesterday, the impressive thing about this is that everything else – the inverter, the batteries, the wiring, even the LIDL drill, stood up to everything that I could throw at it.

I expected loads of other things to burn out before the arbour would give way.

And it took me hours to dismantle the SDS drill too before I could extract the arbour, and I can tell you absolutely everything about how an SDS drill works now because I’ve seen it first-hand.

Anyway, once I’d freed the arbour I cleaned and greased everything and then reassembled it.

I’m not sure how the automotive circlip will stand up to the pounding but then that would be hammered to death in the con-rods and pistons anyway with much more force than an SDS drill so it should be okay.

Took hours, as I said, and it didn’t make any difference to my work programme because I couldn’t have drilled anything anyway.

Look at the rain cascading off the verandah roof. We had the most amazing tropical thunderstorm, as you can see.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen rain like we had this afternoon although believe me, we have had some here for sure in the past as you know.

Not much good for working in but impressive all the same. And for a while there was no solar energy getting through at all. No chance of doing any drilling today of course, but there is still plenty of work to be going in with.

Later on in the afternoon I did manage to get into the shower room. I started cutting and shaping the horizontal supports for the stud wall between the shower room and the bedroom.

I cut and shaped four of them before I ran out of demi-chevron (and I wasn’t going outside for another one in that weather) and I managed to screw one of them in place before the batteries in the Ryobi Plus One drill and screwdriver went flat.

It just wasnt my day at all.

Mind you, it was 19:40 when I finished off so I suppose it was time enough. But I need to get cracking tomorrow.

I’m wasting far too much time and I don’t have too much to spare.

-3

Monday 1st July 2013 – THERE’S A HOLE …

… in my shower room wall. 48mm in diameter, 18 inches from the floor and almost (but not quite) all the way through to the outside, dear Liza, dear Liza.

. I took advantage of the absolutely beautiful summer’s day to power up the mega-SDS drill and carve a hole through to the outside to act as the air vent for the composting toilet – something that is quite important for not for nothing is this place known as Pooh Corner.

And if you were around a year or so ago when I took months to drill the hole through from the lean-to into the house, it took just four hours to end up a mere 9 centimetres from the outside wall … "and it’ll probably take you another year to do the rest" – ed.

So why didn’t I carry on and finish it?

The answer is simple. The core drills that I use for punching my way through stone are about 15 cms long and I have three extensions – a 6cm one, a 40cm one and a 60cm one – giving me 21cms, 55cms and 75cms respectively.

With the 60cm one and the core drill it would make short work of the 55cm walls but it is so heavy and awkward that I start off with the small one, then graduate to the middle one, and then I finish off with the larger one.

But damn and blast! Would you believe it (well, knowing me, you probably would), the 40mm extension is jammed solid into the chuck and try as I might, can I heck as like move it? .I was there for a good hour or so trying to extricate it from the chuck and no luck at all.

Never mind for now, though.

I’m still impressed that I can run a 1400-watt SDS drill for four hours punching my way through blocks of Grès de Lapeize without even a hiccup. And with the fridge working too. And as well as having electrically-heated hot water to wash in afterwards.

That’s despite all of the doubters and prophets of doom that I had when I first started this project back in 1999.

And despite all of the criticisms that I’ve had to bear, from people whom I thought were friends but behind my back were having a nice little laugh at my expense with their friends in “a certain newsgroup”.

As you know, that was something that angered me intensely, as I have said before … "and at great length too" – ed.

Anyway, enough of me ranting.

By 18:00 I called it a day in the shower room and went outside. With the weedkiller that Liz gave me and the pressure sprayer that I bought on Saturday, I attacked the weeds again for an hour and a half.

They are looking quite sad after my last effort but we are promised sunshine until tomorrow night and so a second helping won’t go amiss.

I forgot to tell you about last night’s dream as well. I was in the EU offices in a long corridor with hordes of people trying to get through a turnstile into the inner sanctum of the building and it was taking hours. But there were two office of member states, Ireland being one of them and I can’t remember the other, and they had access through the rear of their offices into the interior of the building. I knew all of the girls who worked there so grabbing my friend, we went through the Irish Permanent Representation offices into the main part of the building, much to his surprise, the surprise of the girls there and the surprise of everyone else.
From there I was in an exam and I needed to remember the proportion of energy in the UK (at least I think that it was in the UK) generated by coal. I’d taken some papers with me into the exam and they had notes upon them (contrary to the rules) and I spent a few anxious moments looking through the papers, not finding what I wanted and wondering if it was indeed 18% or some other figure.

-5

Sunday 30th June 2013 – IT IS SUNDAY …

… today and for the first time since I can’t remember when, I had a day off today and did … absolutely nothing.

That’s not quite true.

Putting some stuff into the fridge on Saturday night the table on which it sits had a kind of collapse and so the fridge was tilting forwards.

And so was the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load to absorb the surplus charge off my solar panels. As that was fairly empty, I dismantled it and removed the fridge.

With them out of the way I could reinforce the table and then put everything back.

And the pizza was a washout tonight. I couldn’t find the usual pizza base yesterday and so had to use pâte feuilleté instead.

And a terrible discovery that I made was that the new pizza tray that I bought is too big for my little caravan oven downstairs. Hence the pizza being cooked around the edges where I kept turning it around, but the middle was totally uncooked.

That was a catastrophe and no mistake.

EPIC HALL

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