Tag Archives: http://www.lesguis.com

Wednesday 24th August 2011 – Well, I was up early this morning.

We had the most astonishing storm – rain coming down in torrents. And as I was lying in bed listening to it, it suddenly occurred to me that I might have left Caliburn’s doors open.

That made me move quite sharp-ish, I can tell you, and I was downstairs in no time flat. In vain though – I had closed them. But seeing as I was up, I made breakfast. And watching the rain fall was also astonishing. There’s a digital electric rain gauge outside, with a remote sender in the verandah, and the water level rose from 0.7mm to 4.5mm in the tine that it took to make a coffee. No wonder I was drenched just running to Caliburn.

This morning on the computer, I translated into French the work that I had done on my business web site. Quebec and a small part of New Brunswick are very partisan about their right to speak the French language, and so two can play at that game as well. After all, I need the work and I’m not going there simply for the good of my health. I intend to take Canada by storm! Rather like the storm this morning.

I’ve also done the first half of the second series of programmes for Radio Anglais. That will be the programmes for October. I won’t have the opportunity to do anything like that while I’m in Canada so it needs to be done before I go.

This afternoon, in view of the weather, I made a start on assembling the control box for the battery that I will be buying in Canada. It has the two connectors of course, an American plug of the type that I use for 12 volt, and a cigarette lighter multiple socket, into which Ill be fitting one of the two small inverters that I bought in Clarenville in Newfoundland last year. That’s for charging up the laptop, working the slow cooker, etc etc.

Later on in the afternoon it dried up for a little while and so I took advantage and went for a quick dash up the wall with a bucket or two of cement.

I’ve finished the pointing right into the apex, and now I’m on my way down a little, stretching over to the other side and that’s not easy up there like that.

Anyway, I’ve reached my revised target with a few days to spare and I’m pleased about that.

But just as I moved all of the food out of the verandah into the lean-to because it was all far too hot, that really IS the signal for the weather to break, isn’t it?

-4

Tuesday 23rd August 2011 – I was fed up this morning.

Well, I’ve been fed up for a few weeks actually about the question of food storage and what put the tin hat on it was on Monday when some tinned vegetables in an airtight container in the fridge had gone off, after just 3 days. And then a tin of beans came out of the tin already cooked. This morning though, a carton of soya milk had also gone off – after just three days as well.

I know that the fridge that I have isn’t up to much and a new one is very much on the agenda, but the temperature in the verandah isn’t helping. It’s been over a week that we have had temperatures well over 50°C in there and there aren’t too many fridges that would cope with those conditions.

And so late this afternoon I moved some of the boxes in the lean-to, made some space, and moved the food cupboard and the fridge into there. That gave me an opportunity to clean the fridge and the cupboard, to sort out the food and bin a lot of time-expired stuff, and to do something about the state of the verandah because where the cupboard had been was … errrr … rather in need of cleaning.

But I hope that in the lean-to, everything will keep cooler during the rest of the summer. The temperature in there only reaches about 28°C maximum.

This morning I started work on my business web site. It’s something of a mess because I’ve neglected it for so long, and so it’s high time that I bring it up to date, especially as I’m going to be plugging myself quite a bit in Canada. But it might well take more time that I have available as I can see me running out of time yet again.

I also had to nip into Pionsat. The guy in the mairie had found some information for Radio Anglais and I have to do that as well. I also saw Mike and Simon – Mike helped me load his old oil tank into the back of Caliburn and to unload it back at this end. And it isn’t exactly the same as Simon’s – it’s larger and so it wouldn’t fit fully into Caliburn. In the end I had two of the legs balanced on the back bumper and held in with a strap.

What a way to go! I thought I’d grown out of doing crazy stunts like that.

-2

Monday 1st August 2011 – Actually I’m quite astonished …

… by the people who read this rubbish, and how helpful they are. Having published yesterday about my missing morning, the farmer who owns the field next door came roaring to the rescue this morning on his tractor – at 07:11 exactly as it happens. And I didn’t even know that he read my blog!

And so after crawling out of my bed at a reasonably-indecent time, I spent a few hours on my website. I’m now finalising the pages on Halifax ready to publish them. I’ll let you know when they are on line and you can read them, and you’ll see why it is my favourite city in North America.

But before that – you might remember me saying that I have made a few alterations to the media corner in the attic where I live. Well, here you can see it in all its glory and I have to say that it does look quite impressive, as does the huge pile of wood and paper ready for winter.

And that’s not going to be all that far away you know. At least the wood is keeping dry in here. It’ll burn a treat when we need it.

After I finished on the website, I went outside and spent the morning working on the guttering. You may remember that I had several issues with the guttering – on the house there was a piece missing and there was another piece that had collapsed under the weight of the snow in the winter. On the barn, a piece melted in the heat from the fire earlier this year, and part of the rest of the guttering had sagged.

Anyway, I’d fixed it all before lunch. There’s a few new brackets and a couple of the old ones have been bent further round – let’s see if that stops the water cascading over the top. I also replaced the melted bit but apart from the fact that I can’t find the left-hand gutter end that was attached to it, I can’t find any other either – which is bizarre because I have three right-hand ones. How did I manage that?

The guttering on the house is fixed now as well and the missing piece added. I’ll post a pic here tomorrow so that you can see it, for I forgot to take one earlier.

After lunch, seeing as it was a glorious day, I did a load of washing. Temperature in the 12-volt immersion heater, heated by the surplus electric energy, reached 62.5°C and so it was a nice hot wash. And while that was doing, I did some tidying up and then I had a nice solar shower, seeing as the water in there was 38.5°C. So clean clothes, clean bedding, and clean me tonight. What luxury!

After the Anglo-French meeting I bumped into Simon. He was trying to fit a 700-litre diesel tank into the back of his van to take to the tip tomorrow and so I went to help him. But to cut a long story short, it’s now in the back of Caliburn ready for me to use as a biodiesel tank for when I set up my refinery. Thanks, Simon. And apart from that, Bill and I had the guided tour of his new abode.

Tomorrow if the weather stays nice, I’ll be doing another load of washing and that should bring it up to date. And now I have some heavy duty sacks, I’ll be doing what I ought to have done a year ago – namely emptying the Sankey trailer.

And while I was up a ladder hanging on grimly with one hand “lucky grimly” – ed, using a cordless drill and balancing a few lengths of guttering, I seem somehow to have pulled a muscle in my right forearm and it hurts like hell.

-2

Sunday 26th June 2011 – Just so as to show …

… everyone what today was like here, I’ve posted a pic of the temperatures that we had today.

The maximum temperature outside was 33 °C today and at 17:36 this evening it was still over 31°C. In the heat exchanger the temperature reached an impressive 63.7°C and the water in the solar water heater, the black plastic storage container with an old caravan window over the top was 42°C.

That was the cue for a beautifully warm solar shower and I didn’t miss out. It really was nice.

And so this morning Marianne forgot to ring me about this meeting at La Cellette but I was wide awake having had a severe attack of cramp in bed and so I made it in time. And with about 10 officials, one representative of the press and one photographer, they had a grand total of 0 visitors for the two hours that this meeting was on. Ahhh well ….

Marianne invited me to lunch which was nice of her and we had quite a chat afterwards, and back here seeing as it was such a nice day and with wind too, I did a huge pile of washing – something that I haven’t done for a while.

We followed that with the solar shower and that was really it. It’s Sunday, my day of rest, and so I’m not going to be working too hard today.

-7

Sunday 20th March 2011 – There can be no better example …

… of the phrase “what goes around comes around” than what happened this afternoon at Chanat.

You may remember from yesterday evening that Pionsat’s 3rd XI won the game by a penalty which although a clear foul, happened (at least by my reckoning) about 3 yards outside the area.

Today, Pionsat’s 1st XI lost the game by a penalty which was even more dubious and despite the best efforts of Francois in goal.

Handball indeed it was, and inside the area too. But the ball was kicked in at the Pionsat player from point-blank range, hit his boot, ricocheted up to his hand and then away. There was no question of anyone “playing the ball with the hand or arm” as provided by the law, and no question of “depriving the attacking team of an advantage” as provided by another law – the ball was nowhere near goal and nowhere near another Chanat player. It was such an obvious “ball to hand” incident that no-one on the Chanat side (and believe me, it was a hotly-contested affair) made any appeal at all and they were just as bewildered as the Pionsat players and everyone in the crowd (and it was at Chanat too and there was a large crowd in attendance).

If you are going to give a penalty for that, then all of the leaning ins, the holding backs, the holding downs, the feet up by the keepers – all of these are penalties too and you may as well give up playing football and let the 11 players take a penalty kick each in order to decide the outcome.

Even Franck, the stoic and silent Pionsat trainer who managed to be the only one in the stadium to keep his cool during the famous “St Gervais foul” last April, had more than just a few words with the referee after the final whistle.

But it was a gorgeous day with over 260 amp-hours of solar energy (the best of the year so far and I even ran the fridge) and the drive out to Chanat, situated in the hills right behind Cebazat, was superb. What a day for going out.

But it didn’t look like that this morning. I forgot to switch the alarm off and so despite going to bed again at 04:00 I was wide awake at 08:00. And then after drifting back to sleep again Liz rang me at 11:00. Mind you, it’s a good job that she did because heaven alone knows what time I would have woken up otherwise.

But that was my first Sunday at home since mid-January. And nice it was too. So back to work tomorrow.

-1

Friday 14th January 2011 – Ouch!

It’s been an expensive day today – and I didn’t go shopping either. GRRRR What did happen was that the postie came by today bearing some major bad news.

Firstly, when the solicitor charged with handling the sale of Reyers was asked to settle all of the outstanding Brussels taxation issues, well, indeed he did. But he did that on the 29th of September, the day that the cheque for the sale was cleared, and of course the property taxes on Expo were due on October 1st. And so I had a red reminder today for €1200 that I had not taken into account in my budget.

Secondly, a couple of years ago I went into the taxation office here and asked that the taxes that I am to pay on Les Guis and on Montaigut should be paid by direct debit instead of by demand. I told the tax office that I travel around a great deal and was afraid of missing a payment or two, and the tax office very kindly helped me to complete the forms.

And when I went into the tax office that time, I was brandishing around a tax d’habitation form. And so you can guess what has happened. Just how many brain cells do you need to have, to work out that if someone tells you that he travels around a great deal and is afraid of missing a payment or two, he means ALL HIS TAXES? And so that was another €733 that bit the dust.

While I was out, I reckoned that I may as well go and buy the plank that I need for making my false beam, the one that the electric cables will be running behind. So to St Gervais and the sawmill. And he will cut me a plank of the required width and thickness, but to a maximum of 4.15 metres. That’s no good. The room is 4.47 metres and the plank of course needs to be in one piece – it will look silly as a beam if it is in two pieces.

And so I shot off through the wilds to Montel-de-Gelat and the huge sawmill there. And I arrived about half an hour before closing time. They have planks in stock – 4.50 metres long by 18mm thick. Absolutely ideal for what I want. But the width – 150mm whereas I want 120mm ideally.
“Can you trim one down for me?”
“No”
“No? Why not?”
“Because this is the week when the cutting mill is closed for machine maintenance.We can do it for you next Friday”.

I’m clearly having no luck at all today.

I said the other day that I would take a photo of the lean-to with all of the wood. It looked like this in November last year, and all through the following 12 months the pile increased in size as I flung more and more bits of wood in there.At one stage in the summer I couldn’t even get into the place. But anyway, you can see that it’s emptying out quite nicely.

The wall on the left is the eastern wall of the house and the kitchen will be built against this wall. The dark grey cylinder is the large gas bottle that will power the gas cooker. I’ll anchor it to the wall and drill through the wall in order to pass a gas pipe through. The other cylindrical object is an old immersion heater that Claude gave me to play with.

In the bedroom I did some more of the tongue-and-grooving but that came to a dead stop too as I ran out of 20mm insulation. I’ll have to go to Brico Depot tomorrow and buy a load of that so that I can carry on next week. There’s not much else I can be doing until I buy my plank.

-1

Monday 3rd January 2011 – Liz rang me this morning.

“Are you okay, Eric?”
“Yes, fine thanks”
“That’s okay, but we were worried about you. You haven’t blogged for a couple of days”.

So my blog does serve some useful purpose – it lets people know that I’m still there. Not ALL THERE, of course, but then again you can’t have everything.

First job therefore was to put on line the blog entries for the weekend that I had … errr … overlooked to do.

As for today though, it was a much better day than we’ve been having just recently.

I woke up to about an inch of ice on the windows (outside of course) and a gorgeous Alpine morning. And if it had stayed like that all day it would have been wonderful.

But of course it was all too good to be true and by lunchtime had the clouds drifting slowly back.

However, we managed about 175 amps of energy – the second-highest since I’ve been back from Canada – and that has made a difference to my batteries. They’ve been quite down for a couple of weeks.

And inside the house I’ve finished all of the insulation in the bedroom and I’ve made a good start on the counter-battens.

Tomorrow will hopefully see me start fitting the plasterboard.

I’m having a little issue with fitting part of it and I’m going to have to put some of the boards on sideways. The sheets measure 2.50 by 1.20 and normally they would be fitted upright.

But the distance from the wall to the edge on the window is 1.24. A strip of 4cms would look pretty silly and you can also see that if I turn the board sideways-on, I can cut it so that it will do two strips with a very minimal waste.

So that’s what I shall be doing.

And Terry wants me to give him a hand with the scaffolding. “We’ll do it on a nice day” he says. So that will be some time in May then, I reckon.

-1

Saturday 23rd October 2010 – YOU WOULD THINK …

… that I would have learnt my lesson by now, but not a bit of it.

Does anyone still remember my voyage around Wyoming in 2002 and how I hardly had any sleep the first night due to having chosen, in the dark, a motel right next to a railway line?

So here I am, on the outskirts of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and there’s the Canadian Pacific main line between the industrial centres of central Canada and the largest port on Canada’s eastern seaboard, and it passes right underneath my window.

My excuse, back in 2002, was that it was dark, so I’m going to have to think of a pretty good excuse for this one though as it was broad daylight when I arrived here.

But then again, at the first place (a cheap B&B), no-one answered (they had clearly heard all about me). The second place was full. The third place – I took one look at it, made my excuses and left. Yes, even I have principles and scruples even when travelling on a low budget.

And so a convenient motel with kitchen unit at $69, and that will have to do. At least I can cook some food and that will save me something.

However, this is where I spent last night and I will say now that if I can ever find better value than this bed-and breakfast for just $45 per night all-in then I shall move in permanently.

Like everyone else that I have ever encountered on any of my voyages around the Maritimes (with the exception of those people in that museum – The Rooms in St John’s), the proprietors were extremely friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.

Furthermore, although they were Anglophones, the guy here had been a copper in Québec and so was perfectly bilingual and also had some kind of empathy with the Francophone communities around here.

They moved here about 30 years ago and in that time they reckon that not a week has gone by without someone leaving the area to move elsewhere, such has been the consequence of the collapse of the economy following the decline of the fishing industry. They recounted a long, almost endless list of local businesses that had gone – the loss of the local grocery stores being the most painful and now they have to travel miles for their food supplies.

It sounded every bit as depressing as the stories that I heard when I bought my house to the Auvergne in 1997

Now I have seen some strange place-names on my travels, that’s for sure, but the one just here is definitely the one that takes the biscuit to date.

It intrigued me, why they had singled this island out for special attention by giving it this particular name. The idea that there might be drunken islands lurching around in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast here was rather a sobering thought.

But then again, maybe not. This coast is infamous for the amount of maritime accidents, collisions and sinkings of vessels and all that kind of thing, and that might explain it.

I had another leisurely drive along the coast today and nothing remarkable stood out (well, not that I am admitting to anyway) but I did encounter a mystery.

At a wharf alongside a river in a small town there was a ship (well, I think that it was a ship) that looked like it had just been raised from Full Fathom 5 after 50 years in the deeps. A rusting old hulk would have been embarrassed to have moored alongside it

So, with the silliest question being the one that is never asked, I headed off to the library. After all, librarians know everything.
“Ohhhh – that thing” she said. “They sailed it into here about 4 years ago ….”
“4? Or 40?”
“Definitely 4 or so. And it sailed in from Newfoundland” She replied. “And when it docked the people aboard ‘scattered like rats’ and they were gone. The police searched the ship thinking that there might be drugs aboard but they found nothing at all”

“So what’s it doing moored up there?”
“No-one knows” she replied. “But it’s a private wharf and as long as the mooring is paid the owner of the wharf doesn’t care about it”
“So who’s paying the mooring fees?” – I mean, you have to ask the question.
“Now there’s a good question” she repled.
And good question as it might be, she didn’t give me any answer.

What has taken my by surprise just here is that I came this way in the winter of 2003 when I was quite ill, and I made no comment whatsoever about the railway museum at Musquodoboit. Was it not here then? I ask myself. How would I not notice a railway museum? I really must have been ill.

Another thing that has taken me by surprise here is that for once in a provincial Canadian railway museum there is actually a locomotive. I mean it’s not actually a locomotive in the same category as a Pacific 4-6-2 or a Garrett articulated 2-8-8-2, but it’s here and not being turned into a thousand baked bean tins and that’s something, I suppose.

I’m having to really think if I have seen another engine before at a wayside place like this, and I can’t say that I have. There was the steam locomotive that was a stationary exhibit on the waterfront at Windsor but that was about it I reckon – "it was as recently as Baie Comeau actually" …ed

And so here I am in Halifax. I’ve been here twice before, in 2001 and 2003 and on both occasions I was rather ill, and so this evening I’ve been out taking pics – after all the ones that I took on those occasions with cheap compact digitals just didn’t work out at all.

This photo is much better.

It was taken from up on the Angus MacDonald Bridge, the bridge that goes across the Straits between Halifax and Dartmouth. That’s Halifax down there, with the Canadian Navy’s Eastern seaboard base in the foreground.

It really was quite eerie walking around here in the dark retracing the steps that I had taken in my previous visits when I was trying to take pictures like this armed with nothing more than a cheap basic compact digital.

Here, with a top-of-the-range DSLR and an optional-extra zoom lens that cost a lot of money at last I’ve been able to make some of the pics look like something useful.

And if you want to see more of the photos that I took, your wish is my command

-2

Thursday 21st October 2010 – I KNOW THAT I SAID …

… that I wouldn’t be blogging tonight but here I am in the harbour (well, the terminal, not actually in the harbour) of the ferry terminal at Channel Port Aux Basques with a few hours to go before I sail back to civilisation and I’ve discovered an internet hotspot.

And furthermore some very kind lady fellow passenger has shown me how to configure my computer to use it, so here I am

Last night’s B&B was exciting. $50 a night for the room and breakfast. Breakfast was help-yourself, make it yourself, cook it yourself – just like last night’s meal where my stock of food was put to good account.

And although the room was advertised as “with private bath” I quickly learnt that what that meant was that when it was your turn to go in, you could have it to yourself without 20 people clambering in with you.

And that’s not as strange as it might appear either as all through breakfast different people kept on appearing – out of the attic, from tunnels in the ground, all kinds of places. It was a hobbit-hole to go with the best. But who’s complaining? $50 with breakfast and I could do with some more places like that on my travels.

I wasn’t in a great rush to get to Channel Port Aux Basques as the ferry wasn’t until the late evening so I had a leisurely drive southwards.

The scenery along the road is typical of the western side of Newfoundland and in the early morning sunlight with a hanging cloud so typical of my own home in the Auvergne in France, I could be quite at home here.

Along the road I noticed a sign for the town of Stephenville and that rang a big bell with me. During World War II Britain mortgaged everything that it had in order to raise the cash to buy weapons from the USA and when the money ran out, they started selling off the land.

The US Air Force took over a large area of land here at Stephenville and built a huge air base, aimed primarily at refuelling the bombers that were always on patrol ready to attack the Soviet Union. It remained in service until guided missiles and rockets took over from bombers, whereupon it was abandoned.

I stopped for lunch by the seaside in the shadow of the Cap Anguille lighthouse. We’re close to the entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle here, and this is the short cut out of the Gulf of St Lawrence and Western Europe.

The Strait is narrow and is quite often beset with icebergs, so navigation is not as straightforward as it might be. There are hundreds of wrecks littering the shoreline of the Strait as we know, hence all of the lighthouses along here to warn mariners of the dangers.

We’re back on the road and back in the typical Western Newfoundland scenery again. This is what the road looks like between Woodville and Codroy, at Bear Brook Cove not far out of Channel Port Aux Basques.

But now you’ll notice something else, and that is that the weather has closed right in. Rain is something that it’s impossible to avoid in Newfoundland and although I’ve done well this last couple of days, it’s finally caught up with me as I prepare to leave.

At the entrance to the town of Channel Port Aux Basques is a small railway museum exhibiting relics of the Newfoundland Railway. As a good way to pass the time in the middle of this torrential rainstorm I went over for a wander around to see what I could find about the history of the railway.

However, as you might expect, the museum was closed, and that was that.

I wasn’t going to hang around in the town and so instead, I went for a drive along the southern shore of Newfoundland. After a short drive, I found myself at the harbour at Fox Roost.

In fact, this is what most of the southern shore of Newfoundland looks like and had the weather been better, I would have been happy to spend much more time along here having a really good explore around.

And not only is the area famous for its beautiful scenery, it’s also famous for being littered with old waggon bodies from the Newfoundland railway.

The metal frames would be quite valuable for scrap but there would be no market for the bodies and they would make excellent garden sheds and storage units. In fact I could do with a few around here.

The road only goes so far down along the coast – you have to take a ferry the rest of the way – but right down as far as it is possible to go, there’s harbour le cou road – the road to neck harbour.

And the view from down at the end is just as stunning as the view from this end, but there is a limit to the number of photos that you can put on these pages. To see the rest, you need to go to this page.

By now, it’s going dark and I can see my ship in the distance heading towards port. I need to be heading back or I’ll miss it. And it’s not the Joseph and Clara Smallwood either – it’s the “Caribou”, and so when I went into the ticket office, I did say to the girl at the desk that I hope it doesn’t get torpedoed tonight in mid-channel. But that went clean over her head.

But here’s a thing.

There’s a cigarette lighter socket in the boot of Casey, and it only works when the ignition is switched on. I’ve wired a small inverter in there, one that I bought the other day, and I’ve wired the slow cooker into that. At lunchtime I threw in some water, a couple of handfuls of pasta, a small tin of veg, half a tin of beans – and a while later 1/3 of a tin of sauce into it and that’s been cooking away as I’ve been driving around.

While I wouldn’t say that it was boiling, it was certainly hot enough to eat. I reckon that meal cost me less than $1:00 and if I can keep this up, it’ll go some way to bringing the budget back under control.

Eventually, we were allowed to board the ship and Strawberry Moose did well to park Casey correctly.

And having wined and dined, I’ve now found myself a nice comfortable reclining seat and I’m all set for a long voyage across the Gulf of St Lawrence, some of the most unpredictable waters in the world, submarine attacks notwithstanding.

-3

Saturday 2nd October 2010 – THE WEATHER CHANGED …

As you can tell from the photo here. You can also tell that I’ve found my spiritual home part II – a Home Depot. It didn’t take me long, did it?

You can see Casey over there on the left, reversed into a parking space. And here I had an unusual encounter – someone actually came over to me and asked me why I had reversed in. I replied “because I can – I’m a European”. But the real answer, as everyone knows, is so that I can make a quick getaway if I spot any of my creditors approaching.

I’ve stocked up with a pile of electrical fittings – you ought to know by now that I use North American fittings (the plugs and sockets) for my 12-volt DC domestic circuit – and a few other bits and pieces that will come in handy back home in France.

I’ve also bought a SatNav. If I’m going to be here for a lengthy period wandering around in all kinds of obscure places, I’m going to be struggling for accommodation. I’ll have a few addresses gleaned from tourist information places, but I’ll need to know how to find them. I don’t want to be driving half-way around Labrador in a snowstorm late at night. And I’d have a mobile phone too if I could – but that’s far too complicated to arrange just like that.

I’ve also had a strange but interesting encounter in a Zellers shop. Grandma, Mother and daughter aged about 18, if that, dressed in headscarves and … errr … traditional dress. remembering my unfortunate encounter back in 2002 and how it set me back a little in 2005, I went to seize the initiative and interrogate them.

Apparently they are Mennonites, and believe that man is snbordinate to God, and Woman is subordinate to Man

So now I know.

Old cars a-plenty too, far too many to post here. But this one is exciting.

If you came with me when we drove through the Utah Desert in 2002, you’ll recognise this as a Nash Rambler American. But this one isn’t as good and has no running gear. But being an estate version, this is an extremely rare version.

I went off down to the waterfront this afternoon and found my steam locomotive. It’s an old Canadian National 4-6-2 “Pacific” called “Spirit of Windsor” and being “restored” by the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society.

But restoration here, as in the USA, consists of nothing more than slapping thick coats of gungy black paint all over the rust.

From the waterfront, there is, as you might expect, a really good view of the city of Detroit. That’s the USA across the river of course.

And I discovered all kinds of things along here too, including the remains of the old car ferry that used to cross here before the tunnel was built, although how it managed it I really don’t know given the volume of marine traffic along here.

And so back to my motel to pretty myself up ready for my meal with Katherine.

And you can see why I feel quite at home here too. It reminds me very much of Liverpool, or my garden anywhere that I have ever lived. There have always been a few cars parked up on bricks in my drive of course.

Katherine and I found an Indian restaurant where there was a running buffet – all you can eat for … errrr …$6.99 a head. And it was the best Indian meal that I have ever eaten outside Stoke on Trent. After that it was to Tim Horton’s for coffee along with dozens of other people – what a way to spend a Saturday night!

Tuesday 21st September 2010 – I’ve been really busy today ….

… and I couldn’t really afford to spend the time as I have so much to do.

This morning we had to go to this radio station in Marcillat en Combraille to discuss the arrangements for the programme they want us to do. And what we discussed was almost exactly the same and no different from the last time we were there. Mind you, the guy we talked to was as interested in the Ligne Economique as I am and he told me that he has ridden on it to Durdat Larequille. And seeing as the line closed in 1932 and he has ridden on it, then he probably has a good excuse for forgetting things.

He was minded by a woman who may well have been his wife, and while she was much more purposeful about things and helped to keep her husband on track, she had hearing issues. So as you might expect, this meeting was a bundle of laughs. But nevertheless we did fit in a good chat about solar panels, the Anglo-French group and Terry’s little business.

Then it was off to the Mairie to give them copies of the photos from Saturday.They are “internet” quality so if they want them at proper press quality (350dpi and all that) they can tell me which ones.

Then off to Marianne’s where I stayed for ages talking about Pionsat-Patrimoine, the Anglo-French group, the newspaper, the Foreign library and all that kind of thing. Things are moving around here, although you wouldn’t believe it.

The next people to have the pleasure of my company were the people at the bank. I warned them that I would be going to Canada shortly and so not to be surprised at my “extraordinary expenditure” and not to cancel my bank card – not like 2002. I suppose I ought to do that for a couple of other cards too.

I also bumped into Damien from the football club while I was in Pionsat.

Rob and Nicolette were out so I couldn’t give them their photographs (they were out later too) and so after lunch I wrote a few important letters (it’s great having a printer that works!) and carried on with my researches. And I might just be onto something. A company called Tiger Rentals might let me have a Toyota Yaris for just about $1500 CAN – about €1100. It’s said that this figure includes the collision damage waiver and all taxes, allows unlimited mileage and permits travel to the USA and the rest of Canada. Now this sounds too good to be true so I’ve sent them a mail for confirmation.

Watch this space.

Of course I need to pay for the accommodation on top but a Yaris does just about 50mpg whereas a motorhome will do just about 18 to the gallon if you are very lucky before you even think about the extra rental charges and whatever charges you might have to pay for camping.

-4

Friday 17th September 2010 – I had a visitor today

I wonder if he is the same one who came around here earlier in the year.

This time he didn’t stop for food and he didn’t stop to have a play around, he was just sitting down in the field. As soon as he heard me he was off, but this time I had the camera ready.

Mind you, he’ll need to be good. The hunting season has started already and I hate hunters. They are the scum of the earth. It’s no joke being woken up at 07:30 in the morning by the sound of a shotgun blast. If I had my way I would arm the wildlife and set them after the hunters – see how they like it.

I keep on telling Rhys – the American Constitution has been misinterpreted for years. What it actually says is that “Every American Shall Have The Right To Arm Bears”. That’s much more like it.

Meanwhile, here’s a pic of where I got up to yesterday with the pointing. I’ve done half of that row now. Today I did another quarter and I finished off by gouging out the loose sand for the final panel at that level.

Once I’ve pointed that I’ll have to stop as I will have run out of ladder. The other half of this one is the piece that is transformed into the roof ladder and Terry has that which he is using on someone’s roof.

But that’s not too much of a worry – In another 2 weeks I shall be in Canada living the Life of Reilly and before then there is something really important that I need to attend to which requires my absence from here for a day or two. It’s all go, isn’t it? So it’s not really worth starting on more if I’m not able to finish it off. When I come back it will be mid-November (gulp) and I’ll be ready for more encouragement from Ms Stephenson.

In other news, the other day Bill lent me a book on French railways, published by the SNCF. One section talks about viaducts but as you might imagine, in any publication by the SNCF about viaducts, the Viaduc des Fades is conspicuous by its absence, despite it being the highest railway bridge in the world when it was built, being currently the second-highest, and being the highest railway bridge in France, as well as being built using pioneering techniques. Knowing the French like I do and with all of their national pride, it’s hard to understand why they don’t talk about it. Probably because they are ashamed about their handling of the viaduct and don’t want to call attention to themselves.

But his book does talk about the 141R class of locomotives, the type that passed through Montlucon in the summer. I’ll extract some notes.

But here’s a puzzle for you. What is the significance of the 141? And why are some other locomotives of the 130 class, or maybe the 250 class? Or even the 031 class?

It suddenly struck me the other week when I was writing about it – can you remember?

-3

Wednesday 15th September 2010 – It’s been another one of those days ….

…. where I don’t seem to have done very much. I just don’t know where the time is going.

It was a somewhat later breakfast than usual and then I had another couple of hours on the FC Pionsat St Hilaire Football Club website and that’s now up-to-date and running.

That took me almost until lunchtime so after lunch I went outside and raked out another load of rubbish from between the stones on my house wall I then mixed up another bucket-load of pointing, which I duly slapped onto the wall in between the stones.

But it’s soooo sloooooooooow getting this wall all done. At this rate I reckon that I’m going to be here for ever trying to finish it off.

I dug up some vegetables for tea. I can safely say that apart from my veggie burger, everything else for the main course came from out of my garden. Even the onion. That is certainly progress.

Pudding was just as nice – a plain soya dessert flavoured with a blackberry puree made from blackberries in my orchard. Things are definitely looking up.

But I really don’t know where all the time has gone. I’ve just noticed what time it is and I seem to have done nothing at all. I remember the days when holidays used to last forever. I suppose that time speeds up the older you get 🙁

-1

Wednesday 8th September 2010 – It finally stopped raining …

… sometime about midday. Which was just as well as we were being thoroughly drowned out again. As the battery was then flat on the computer I nipped out and did two more bucket-loads of mortar on the wall. I reckon I’ve not done about one-sixth of it, so this time next year I might be halfway round.

That took me until about 15:00 when I knocked off for a late lunch. And just as well because it started to rain again just about then.

So this afternoon I’ve moved the old computer into the barn where I’ll be using it for more technical applications and so on, taking advantage of the bad weather to clean up the hard drive and remove all kinds of unwanted files that were hanging around on there. I have one of these portable hard drives and I’ll be using that to transport files back and to – no sense in having two copies saved at different dates on two computers – I’ll only over-write the more recent one with the older version or do something silly like that.

At about 17:15 the rain stopped so I put yet another bucket of mortar onto the wall and then went and picked my veg for tea until the rain drove me back inside again.

So what have I been doing on the computer these last few mornings? Well, I’ve written a few web pages about Virlet, the village that is my postal address, and I’ve put them on line today. Now you can see all about the village and read about its history.

Talking of history, the Americans’ much-vaunted retreat from Iraq at the end of August is now history. It lasted all of 5 days before the much-prophesied Civil War that erupted grew so far out of control that the troops were sent back in, and only a day or so later that they suffered their first casualties. As I (and many others, it is only fair to say) prophesied, the Anglo-American tactic of invading a country that was the only friend of the Westerners in the Middle-East and overthrowing the only pro-Western government in the Middle East, making them hate us with an intensity that cannot be measured on any scale known to man, and replacing them with another group of Middle-Easterners that already hate the west with an intensity that cannot etc etc, was short-sighted to say the least.

And now it seems now that the Septics are stuck there for a while yet. And no surprise either, because they will probably remember what else that I said – that once the occupying farces have pulled out there will be in due course a dictator of the country that will make Saddam look like a Boy Scout leader and the west will wish that they had him back in power.

-1

Sunday 5th September 2010 – One thing that I promised never to do …

… was to criticise anyone else’s attempts at foreign language translations. And for two reasons –

people ought to be congratulated for making any attempt at doing their best to make themselves understood/li>
of course, the stuff that I do is nothing to write home about and I wouldn’t like mine to receive the same kind of criticism

But be that as it may, my imagination isn’t half working overtime about the condition third from bottom on the list on the right, and all kind of images are floating through my mind.

I had a lovely afternoon out this afternoon though, although this morning was something of a disaster. It was about 04:00 when I went to bed, I was dealing with a computer issue for all of Saturday until then – and yet at 09:00 I was up and about and breakfasted. And on a Sunday too.!

“How did you manage that?” I hear you say.
That was thanks to whoever it was who rang me at 08:10 and said “C’est toi, Albert?” And when I told him that he had a wrong number, rang me back twice more until I finally convinced him.

And so with my Sunday ruined, I did some more website stuff for the rest of the morning.

After lunch I set out for the football at Blot-l’Eglise, a nice village up in the hills at the back of Manzat and Combronde.

FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 1st XI won 1-0 in a good, enjoyable match played in a very friendly atmosphere in beautiful weather conditions, but in all honesty Blot l’Eglise could still be out there now, all on their own attacking an empty net, and they still wouldn’t have equalised.

On the way back I parked up for a while at the Moulin de Braynant (where I saw the above notice) and went for a walk along the Gorge de la Sioule, such a beautiful afternoon that it was. The weather was gorgeous, the scenery was impressive and it really was a pleasure to be out and about.

This is quite a touristy spot here and a very popular place for watersports, as Lee Potty-mouth and Rick Hollyoaks will tell you.

They also hire out kayaks (and this is what the notice above refers to, by the way) and one day I’m going to have a go at this. It’s a long time since I’ve been in a boat – I used to canoe for my school back in the late 1960s, which is just as well as there are no lessons on offer here.

I asked them how beginners manage, and the response was that they have to paddle their own canoe around here.

They need to make sure that they take all the correct equipment with them otherwise that they can find themselves right up the creek without a paddle.

The notice above, by the way, omits two of the most important rules of kayaking, and maybe I ought to repeat them here.

you are not allowed to light a fire in a canoe. After all, you cannot have your kayak and heat it
it is forbidden to make love in a canoe. After all, making love in a canoe is just the same as English beer – it’s f*cking close to water

And after all of that, I came back here and crashed out for … errrr …. four hours – now I can’t sleep.

In other news, something has happened this evening that I have been waiting 10 months to do. And just like a hurricane, you know that it is inevitably going to happen and you are totally powerless – there is nothing that you can do that will stop it.

Yes, I have finally, at long last, managed to spill a full mug of coffee all over the floor in my nice attic room 🙁

-1

EPIC HALL

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