Tag Archives: football

Saturday 7th May 2011 – Well, I’ve been a busy little bee today.

Yes, and I don’t normally do all that much on a Saturday either.

We started off at this meeting at the Maison Ducros-Maymat that is threatened with demolition. The mayor turned up to meet us as promised, but only 50 minutes late. He told us about the reasons for its demolition, which was sound logic as far as it went, but once we began to push back the barriers, his logic became more and more shaky. What was so funny about this was that one of my arguments is that all of the civic and social functions of the town ought to be regrouped around a focal point, like the town square. Dispersing them is really dispersing the soul of the town. Just at that moment two people, clearly out of breath, came up to us and asked “where is this restaurant – the Queue de Milan?” And so we explained that it was another 500 metres outside the town opposite the old railway station. It rather proved my point.

After that I headed out to St Julien la Geneste to the formal opening of this Gite. It was an old house that the Commune bought and has modernised into holiday accommodation.

It’s been excellently done, that’s for sure. And I was talking to the manager of the place and he was telling me that they need a web-site doing. So I’ll give him a quote and see what happens.

On the way back, Marianne and I went for a good drive around.

The first place that we visited was a little chapel situated on one of the highest points in the area. It’s the Eglise de Notre Dame des Blés – the Church of Our Lady of the Meadows and it was built as recently as 1959 as a site of pilgrimage.

There is, apparently a religious procession up here once a year, although I’ve not been able to tag along quite yet – I’ll add it onto my list of things to do.

But never mind the chapel for a moment – just look at the view!

It’s a shame that the weather wasn’t clearer because had there not been all of this haze the view right across to the Puy de Sancy would have been stunning. It’s not too bad as it is.

This is certainly one of the most spectacular viewpoints in the whole area without a doubt and I’ll have to come back another time.

You’ll know that I have an interest in abandoned railway lines and I’ve featured on these pages quite a bit about the abandoned Paris-Orleans railway extension between Montlucon and Gouttieres that opened as late as 1932 and closed as early as 1939.

We’d walked up to the Tunnel des Bouchards from the Pionsat direction a while ago, and so today we went to try to find our way up to the tunnel from the other direction.

That wasn’t at all possible given the time and the conditions. We need much more time to do this and to come back in February or March when there is no vegetation.

Back home again, Marianne and I had an informal meeting to plan our next line of attack about the Maison Ducros, and then went out to one of the other members of the Pionsat Patrimoine who was having internet issues – for which I diagnosed a new cable (which now works).

I managed 10 minutes to do a quick bit of shopping at the Intermarche and then it was off to Marcillat to watch their 1st XI take on Breuil, 2nd in the division. And much to my surprise, and that of everyone else in the crowd, Marcillat wom 3-1 even though they were under the cosh for much of the game. Mind you, this was a game at level 6 of the French pyramid – 1 level higher than Pionsat (although in a different part of the pyramid) but believe me, Pionsat’s 1st XI could have played both these teams at the same time and won the match with some to spare. The level of football in the Allier is way below that in the Puy-de-Dome.

Tomorrow, still no footy at Pionsat (what a waste of a weekend this is!) but according to Franck, the Pionsat trainer who was at the match this evening, there’s a match at St Marcel, about 5 miles from Pionsat (but in the Allier), kick-off at 15:00. I don’t recall ever having been to St Marcel 😉

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Saturday 30th April 2011 – Well, it was all go at the footy tonight.

Firstly, Pionsat’s 3rd XI had a most unlikely 3-1 victory against a team much higher than them in the league. I’ve no idea what happened though as I wasn’t there to see it. I was there though in time to see the 2nd XI brushed aside 4-1. They are, I fear, doomed for relegation. Short of ideas up front, the defence was woeful – even more so than usual. The defence always was suspect but when they had a lightning-quick attack it usually compensated for it. But with illness, injury and suspension the attack has long gone.

I wasn’t at Pionsat for the 3rd XI game because I was at St Eloy to see the 1st XI take on Nord Combraille, and just for a change, thrash them 7-2 which is always very pleasant to stuff one of our local neighbours. It adds spice to some of these local derbies.

The Miners could only put out 10 players, which is astonishing for a 1st Division match, and while their attack was quite useful, the defence was way beyond woeful and at times passed into the comical.

In one four-minute spell (I counted it) we had –

a Pionsat cross from the by-line driven into the area to no-one in particular (there was no Pionsat player forward) cannon off a St Eloy defender tracking back and go into his own goal.
A high Pionsat cross from the by-line into the area to no-one in particular, and the keeper palmed it into his own net
A long high ball forward from Pionsat to no-one in particular- the keeper shouts “to me” to his centre half – the centre-half heads it backwards but with nothing like enough power – the keeper has to dive miles forward to gather it up, but he spills it – his forward momentum carries the ball quite some distance forward to an unmarked Nico who simply sidefoots it into an empty net.

All of that in four minutes!

I was in Montlucon this afternoon buying stuff for the water system. It cost me €100 more-or-less but it’s all good-quality stuff and that should keep it all in good condition and done up properly, with taps between the two tanks to isolate them, and a central tap to drain them.

But I had a brainwave. I was going to join them up using some pipe connectors and some transparent pipe, but fot the same money I bought one of those stainless steel flexible tap connectors That’s much more like it.

Yes, Brico Depot now selling bulkhead connectors make a whole load of things much more possible.

And now I’m off to bed. Nice clean clothes and nice clean bedding too – I was at the swimming baths this afternoon too.

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Sunday 17th April 2011 – The full moon tonight …

… was really beautiful. As I was cooking my pizza I had half an eye on it slowly moving around. Later when I was doing the washing up it was just appearing above a rare scattered cloud and it had the little Rutland WG901 wind turbine in a perfect silhouette. I couldn’t resist it.

But rare indeed are the clouds these days. I’m going to be tempting fate by saying that apart from two days where there has been a minimum amount of rain, the odd drop or two, there’s been no rain here at all for 14 days. Now that’s guaranteed to produce a thunderstorm, isn’t it?

And talking of full moons, I reckon I should be spending tomorrow planting, rather like Neil Young’s mates in Thrasher I’ll be hiding behind hay bales and planting in the full moon tomorrow. There are the spuds to put out for a start, as well as a few other things. And there’s definitely more than a few signs of life in the cloche now.

It was Sunday today and so a day of rest. But not really – I was up and about before 10:00 and I did some tidying up in here first as well as doing some research into my Newfoundland pages. But the weather was so gorgeous that I went outside and did some tidying up and general nonsense.

After lunch the water in the home-made immersion heater was at 50-odd degrees, what with the blue cloudless sky and all that, so that was the cue for a load of washing, especially as it was a blowy kind of day. While that was doing itself I went down to Pionsat to watch the 1st XI play St Bonnet. They were a loud-mouthed lippy team when I saw them at home, giving the referee all kinds of grief. Today, the official referee didn’t turn up so Damien ended up refereeing.

That was the cue for all kinds of histrionics.

And just how stupid are some footballers?

It was 1-1 and one of the St Bonnet defenders had already been given a yellow card for dissent. He actually scores a goal a few minutes later to put his team in the lead and to celebrate, goes up to Damien and says “how about that then, you **** **** ****?”

So he’s sent to the dressing room as you might expect, St Bonnet are down to 10 men, the missing player being a defender of course, and Pionsat win 3-2 accordingly

At least, there can’t be any disputes about any of Pionsat’s goals – they are all excellent well-taken efforts especially the second one, which was a peach and worth the price of admission on its own.

But somehow St Bonnet still moan and groan all the way through the final 30 minutes of the match, and carry on long after the final whistle has been blown, but of course it isn’t going to do them any good and I don’t know why they bother.
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So now, with the football being over, it’s back home to finish the washing and while that was doing, I did some more tidying up but this time in the little roon underneath the barn. There’s tons of stuff in there and it all needs to be sorted out.

So tomorrow I have the website to work on for a couple of hours, and then planting my stuff for the second half of April. Tomorrow night is Anglo-Francais night at St Eloy as well – it’s a busy day tomorrow.

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Saturday 16th April 2011 – One thing you have always wondered …

… is “what happens to the shop-soiled and damaged goods that LIDL can’t sell?” I can answer that for here in France – it all goes to “Les Bonnes Affaires” in Commentry. One of my favourite “end of series” shops – it’s had a major makeover and a huge pile of the junk that’s been in there for years has all gone. It’s now packed full of LIDL special offers in damaged, damp or torn packages.

The lady who runs it doesnt have a clue about pricing. Some of the stuff is 3 times as dear as it was when LIDL sold it. But other stuff is for nothing, like the battery-operated LED motion detectors at €2:99 and the 12 Volt LED lights with MR16 fittings (the ones that I use here) at just €2:00 each – I cleaned out the stock of them, I can tell you.

It was a really profitable half hour in there, I can tell you.

So this morning I did some tidying up in here and threw away a load of stuff that I no longer need. And then moved the Sankey trailer and dumped it in the lane (and now watch someone want to come past for the first time in a hundred years) before going off to Commentry for the shopping. Apart from the usual, I bought 6 tomato plants for €2.30 and 3 aubergine plants for €1:90. I hope that I will have better luck with the aubergines and tomatoes than I have had previously. And the LIDL in Commentry has been enlarged – and about time too – it was far too small.

Swimming at Neris was next on the agenda. The water was lovely and a good warm shower finished that off nicely. Back home I gave Lieneke some of my mint cuttings (anyone else want any? I’ve a load) and at 20:00 went to watch Marcillat’s 2nd XI play, seeing as there was no footy at Pionsat this evening.

Franck, the Pionsat team coach, was playing central defence but he couldn’t save them from a right spannering – 6-0 thay went down and they were lucky to get nil as well. They really are awful. Within the opening 30 minutes Marcillat had had to use one of their substitutes and he was booked twice and back in the dressing room. An astonishing performance.

But there’s footy tomorrow afternoon at Pionsat – the 1st XI are playing St Bonnet. Pionsat beat them 4-0 down there and they really do need to run up a cricket score tomorrow to keep their promotion hopes alive. We shall see.

Sunday 10th April 2011 – Something rather unusual happened this weekend

All three of the Pionsat teams lost. And I can safely say that that has never happened in all the time I’ve been supporting them.. The 3rd XI lost last night and today the other two teams, playing at Paugnat, both went down.

Pionsat’s 2nd XI was unrecognisable – half of the usual 3rd XI were playing outfield, the veteran Philippe who retired on his 48th birthday 3 years ago turned out in goal, and how they managed to restrict the opposition to just a 1-0 victory was something I didn’t understand.

And had they had a striker up front (in the entire 90 minutes they managed just one shot on target) they might even have sneaked something.

The 1st XI were beaten 3-2 and at one stage with just 15 minutes to go they were down 3-0.

But the defence was unrecognisable – neither of the two usual central defenders were playing and only 1 of the regular full-backs and by the time the match was over both the central defenders had left the field with bad injuries, blood streaming down their faces from elbows into the face that the referee did not notice.

Paugnat’s team was made up of big, physical noisy players, the referee was taking his first or second match, and the Pionsat players are far too naive for this level of football.

I’m not going to comment on the refereeing because having done it myself I know how hard it is, but how the Pionsat captain expressing to the referee his disbelief over a decision, in civil tones, merited a yellow card, yet the Paugnat goalkeeper, bellowing at the top of his voice “YOU’RE A THIEF” to a linesman merited nothing at all is something that will always remain a total mystery to me.

So two football matches consecutively means that I haven’t done very much else today. Never mind – it is Sunday and my day of rest. Tomorrow I’m back at work.

But if you don’t hear from me tomorrow night, it will be cause I’ll be in the nick. I’ve been roped in to go Breaking and Entering tomorrow afternoon.

Saturday 9th April 2011 – The weekend is here at last.

And about time too – I thought it would never ever arrive. And seeing as it was Saturday I wasn’t in any particular hurry to raise myself from the dead either.

Once breakfast was over I made a couple of shelves for in here and I now have all of the DVDs nicely lined up. How long they will stay like that though is anyone’s guess. And once that was done and it was midday, I legged it to St Eloy for the shopping. Nothing much of any excitement, except that LIDL was selling soft fruit trees at €1:69 each. I hate goosegogs, and why buy blackberries when I’m overrun with brambles? But there were two blackcurrant bushes and one blueberry bush left, and they have gone now 🙂

This evening Pionsat’s 3rd XI were playing Teilhet and the Goatslayers won 1-0 due to a disputed penalty (I was in no position to see, it has to be said) but there was quite a bit on moaning and groaning from everyone on the field throughout the match.

Pionsat played quite well for the first hour and were unlucky not to have taken something from this game. They need to win games like these to keep their mid-table slot alive

And this evening I’ve been recording all of the CDs that I bought just recently and copying them onto SD cards to play in Caliburn. The SD cards need to be rearranged and so that means an end to the legendary “Help Yourself to Kate Bush” card, which is sad.

Tomorrow I have a double-header. Pionsat’s 1st and 2nd XI are both away, and they are both playing Charbonnieres – Paugnat at Paugnat. The 2nd XI kick off at 13:00 and the 1st XI at 15:00 so I’m going to be out all afternoon even though I have plenty to be getting on with here.

I hope the weather keeps up.

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Sunday 27th March 2011 – Today I saw…

…the worst football match that I have ever seen in my life.

I drove all the way to St Avit to watch Pionsat’s 3rd XI but when I arrived there I found that the match had been cancelled. And it was pointless going back all the way to Pionsat to watch the 2nd XI – I’d have missed the first half and then I would have to drive halfway back to see Liz and Terry. However I did see some action at Charensat’s ground and so I stopped off there, to see them play Marcillat in a 3rd Division game.

In the first half the score was 0-0, and the teams were lucky to get nil it was so dreadful. In the second half Charensat opened the scoring. The Marcillat keeper’s kicking was pretty dreadful and so after a while the captain decides to take the goal kicks. For his first effort he kicks it all of 15 yards, right to a Charensat forward who prompty volleys it right back into the goal.

Charensat’s second comes from a corner. A ball played right across the goal with everyone standing there watching it except for a Charensat attacker on the far post who just stoops to head it in. Simple.

And Marcillat pull a goal back. A harmless cross into the penalty area with no-one on the other side, and the Charensat keeper, for reasons known only to himself, puts in a really acrobatic climb-cum-twist and I’m still not sure how he did it, and he palms the ball into his own net.

With just minutes to go, a foul is committed and the ref gives it in the favour of Marcillat, even though he was the only one who reckoned it was in that direction. The Charensat trainer tells the ref what he thought of the decision, and the ref tells the trainer what he thinks of the Charensat trainer. The Charensat defence are arguing amongst themselves and still argue as the ref blows his whistle and they still argue as the ball is played over the top of them to an unmarked Marcillat attacker who heads into an empty net.

Marcillat, easily the worst team I have ever seen, have been let out of jail in no uncertain terms.

And it gets worse.

Charensat have a striker called Guillaume who is quick, speedy, skilful, with good ball control, and if he broke through the Marcillat defence once he did it a dozen times. And faced with innumerable 1-on-1s with a shaky Marcillat keeper, he blasted it over the bar every time. And with 50 seconds remaining, he’s through again, two yards out, the best chance of the game, and he blasts it 5 yards over. His trainer’s language is unprintable in what is a family show like this. It was appalling, but then again, so was the miss.

At Liz and Terry’s I was kindly wined and dined, and we rehearsed our radio programme. We are in the studio on Tuesday.

And it’s rained and rained all day too.

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Saturday 26th March 2011 – For those of you concerned …

about my physical welfare, I didn’t have a solar shower today.

And it’s my own fault anyway. Although this morning was slightly cloudy it didnt look too bad at all. I went into St Eloy les Mines and did some shopping there and (just for a change spent a few bob too.

And in the Carrefour they had trays of baby lettuce for €3.99, so I bought one. I was expecting about 10 or 12 but in fact there were 25 all told, and you can’t leave that many in the tiny tray. And so I thoroughly watered one of the potato beds and planted them in there, thinking that I can plant the spuds around them and they will be long gone before I need to uproot the taties.

And of course, that was the cue for a torrential downpour as you might expect, and that was the summer over. I came up here with a coffee, crashed out, and am I going to have an uncomfortable night as I spilled a mug of coffee all over my bed settee as I keeled over and now it’s all wet.

At the footy tonight there was just one match, the 1st XI against Montel Villosanges. And Pionsat won with a most bizarre goal.

A beautiful ball over the top of the defence that set up a chase – two Pionsat attackers against two of the Chimps defenders. But the keeper got to it first, just outside his area, and he fairly whacked the ball as hard as he could – straight into the face of a Pionsat attacker. The ball ricocheted off his face, went back over the keeper’s head and with one bounce it went straight into the net.

Yes, you can tell that things are going Pionsat’s way for a change when they can win matches by scoring goals like this.

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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.

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Friday 19th March 2011 – I didn’t get my early night last night after all.

I was just on the point of going to bed when someone who I hadn’t spoken to for a while came on line. We had quite a bit to talk about and what with one thing and another it was almost 04:00 when I went to bed.

And so I crawled out of my pit at 08:00 feeling like death, and went to Montlucon. It was a big mistake to get my windows fron Lapeyre. I need an empty van for when I go back to Brussels, and while we got these windows in, getting them out on my own without breaking them – that will be something else.

It was gardening day at LIDL and so I have 6 more fruit trees for the Liz Ayers Memorial Orchard, a pile of seeds, and some onion sets, seed potatoes and seed shallots. I shan’t abandon the garden entirely this year. At Noz I spent a fortune, mostly on DVDs and I now have 5 or the 6 Don Camillo films, starring Fernandel. I really enjoyed the books when I was at school and I saw one of the films once and that was just as good.

At Brico Depot I set a new world record by buying nothing at all, but I was in tears nevertheless. Door Strips in Brico in Belgium €10.73 – same one in Brico Depot here €3:49. White Spirit there €3:89 – here €2:09. And it was all like that. I don’t know how they can get away with it in Belgium, I really don’t.

But I’ve made a conscious decision that now that I’m a little more financially sound, first thing that I’m going to be doing is to improve my diet. And to that end I bought a few things that I wouldn’t normally buy such as half a kilo of grapes (which I munched on the way home) and a little packet of sugar-free sweets.

I didn’t go swimming – I was too early and in any case I was whacked. So back here to crash out for a couple of hours. And it was a mistake to eat the grapes and the sugar-free sweets so quickly as I was in … errr … some discomfort for a while.

I went to the footy too this evening. Pionsat’s 3rd XI playing the league leaders so you would normally expect a hammering, but the 2nd XI have no game tomorrow and so there were several … errr … discrete changes to the team line-up, And although they had yet another makeshift goalkeeper (who did really well and I was surprised by that) they had a 2nd XI centre-half playing and it was amazing how much it stiffened the defence.

Pionsat actually won 2-1, with two disputed goals. One was scored by three players cantering off down the pitch while everyone else was waiting for the offside flag. I was in no position to judge but one of their spectators thought that the ref got it right.

I’ve been saying all along that there isn’t much wrong with Pionsat’s 3rd XI that a real goalie and a couple of decent players in key positions can’t put right, and it was proved right tonight.

p>Pionsat’s second goal was a penalty – a clear foul, no mistake about that, but as to whether it was in the area, all I can say is that I was almost level with the area and the Bromont players had some of my sympathy. After that, the match became a little naughty and we had a running feud down each touchline for a while.

Still Bromont should have buried the game and they only have themselves to blame for losing it. Clean through on goal three or four times and one shot round the post, one off the bar, and two straight at Stephane (and didn’t he do well to hang on to them with forwards charging in and he’s never played a real match in goal before?)

But now I’ve had a doze this afternoon, it’s 04:00 and I can’t sleep at all. Crazy.

Sunday, 16th January 2011 – What a beautiful day.

Definitely the best of the summ… errrr … winter so far. Not only did we have the hottest temperatures of the winter, we had the sunniest too. Not a cloud in the sky all day. My batteries in the house are all fully-charged and the water heater (that uses up the excess electricity) ran for 2.5 hours and warmed up the water to 32°C. Not quite shower-warm but we are getting there.

But how ridiculous is this though, when just 12 days ago we had -8.4°C? It could only happen here in the Combrailles.

Today I finished off “holiday lettings” ready for recording tomorrow, and then I worked on a blog for the radio programmes – an important thing that needs doing seeing as we seem to be going nationwide (well – alright, into the Allier and the Creuse). The aim is of course to stream out programmes so that people who miss them or live outside the reception areas can pick them up.

So after that it was off to St Bonnet to watch Pionsat’s 1st XI give them a good spannering. and I arrived 10 minutes late to find that they were already ahead 2-0. They won 4-0 in the end and that included missing a penalty, thanks to an excellent double-save by the St Bonnet keeper.

But this match was well-planned to be played in mid-winter. The heat that was generated on the field both on and off the ball would have certainly melted any ice that might otherwise have formed in any traditional kind of winter weather.

And so round to Liz and Terry’s to rehearse our radio programmes this week. We are recording at Radio Arverne tomorrow and Radio Tartasse on Tuesday.

And now I’m back home in my warm unheated attic – two consecutive days that I haven’t had the heating on here – watching the Jets and the Patriots. And listening to the adverts – including one for Viagra “seek medical attention immediately if you have an erection that lasts for four hours”. At my age, it wouldn’t be medical attention that I would be seeking, I could tell you. It reminds me of the time that a new machine tools factory opened up in Crewe, and the proud owner put up his sign “O’Malley’s Tool Works”. So I rang him up and told him “so does mine, but I haven’t put up a sign about it”.

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Saturday 15th January 2011 – It’s been another day …

where things might have been better.
Not the weather, though. we had a beautiful day today. The solar panels on the house roof generated almost 200 amp-hours today and the batteries in the house are now almost fully-charged. The batteries in the barn have been fully charged for a couple of days of course.

So up with the lark and off to Montlucon for my insulation. And they just had one pack of 20mm sheets left and so I shall have to make do with that for now. I also picked up a pile of door handles for €2:00 each and a few other bits and pieces too in the sale, but the huge disappointment was the sliding doors. They had a pile on sale at €15 each, quite reasonable light oak with inset mirrors and so I immediately went for four of them. But much to my dismay, only the first one was light oak and all of the others were a dark gloomy colour that won’t match the drawers and won’t match the worktop either. So back to square one with that.

I was back home before midday too, despite fitting in a trip to the Auchan, and I did some more on the Holiday Lettings thingy that we are talking about on the radio just now.

At 17:55 I nipped down into Pionsat to watch the 3rd XI play Montfermy, a match specially arranged at that time at the request of the visitors. Not many matches at all on tonight so they had even, for the first time that I can remember, been able to find an official referee for a 4th Division match and so we had the ref, we had 14 Pionsat players – and no opposition.

They simply didn’t turn up.

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Sunday 9th January 2011 – What a miserable day.

Well, at least, the afternoon was. I … errr … don’t know what the morning was like. And having gone to bed quite early (well, for me anyway) last night, all I can say is that I must have been tired. All of this hard work and the early start yesterday have been taking it out of me.

So with the grey clouds and all of the rain that I awoke to, I was surprised to see how warm it was in here. Hot stuff indeed I must be, for when I went to bed last night it was 13.4°C in here, and when I awoke it was 15.4°C. But it didn’t stay like that for long as a huge grey hanging cloud appeared and brought a cold snap with it.

We had a footy match this afternoon – Pionsat’s 1st XI against Cellule. And while Pionsat’s team was well ahead of the opposition on possession and play they couldn’t do it on goals and lost 2-1, and the two goals that Cellule scored were surrounded in controversy. Pionsat are rather naive when it comes to playing the referee and were well outmatched in this department.

The 2nd XI were at Miremont – a team that was in Division 1 last season and who where crushed 12-1 by the Pionsat’s 1st XI last season in one match. I would have liked to have gone to see that match but “a man cannot be in two places at once, unless he were a bird” as the legendary Sir Boyle Roche once said. And so I came home and tidied up a pile of papers.

In other news, if you have been following my comments for a few years now you will know that I have been making a series of predictions, many of which are coming to fruition. One of the things that I have been prophesying is that with Great Satan deposing a pro-western Sunni dictator in Iraq and paving the way for an anti-Western Shia dictator, there will soon be such an anti-western dictator that Great Satan will wish that it had never ever deposed Saddam Hussein.

And so we learn that Moqtada Sadr, he who led the Mehdi Army against the Septics in some fierce fighting in Iraq a couple of years ago, has returned to Iraq and accepted a post in the Iraq government, seeing as his party won 38 seats in the recent elections there.

Watch this space.

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Saturday 8th January 2011 – I had to go …

…and lie down for an hour in a darkened room today.

Yes, I’ve been to order my windows for the bedroom and the bathroom. A whopping great €1100, for which they wanted a 50% deposit on the spot. I’ve never spent that much money in my life, and you should have seen the moths come flying out of my wallet when I unlocked it. These windows at Lapeyre are three times the price of Brico Depot windows but then again they are supposed to be 100 times better. I hope so.

Apart from that, there wasn’t much of any excitement happening in Montlucon. I’ve bought another pile of stuff that I need to carry on working in the bedroom and I did my monthly shopping. But I had a huge GRRRRR at the Auchan. I have €8:50 in credit on my card there so I asked the girl to cash it up – but having checked me out she then forgot to do it and if I’m not careful I’m going to lose this money. I only have until the end of the month to claim it.

At Brico Depot someone from a florist’s left a note on Caliburn for me to go round there to chat to them – one assumes about solar panels and the like. But there was no-one at home so I dunno what that was all about. Next stop was the swimming baths at Nerys-les-Hughes where I spent most of my hour in the water watching half a dozen kids aged about 9 or 10 having a load of fun on a huge foam-rubber raft-type of affair. It’s a long time since I’ve seen kids have so much fun without any adults moaning at them.

I was told that tonight there was to be a football match at Pionsat – one of the matches that was postponed from December. But the place was in total darkness – apparently the game has been re-rearranged for tomorrow. But there were lights on at Marcillat. Their first team had a game and so I wandered off up there for a couple of hours. A Promotion League match this was. That’s about one division higher that Pionsat’s 1st XI but in all seriousness Pionsat’s 3rd XI could have stuffed rhe both of them – at the same time. The standard was pretty dire.

But you can see that I’m slowly emerging from my winter hibernation – I’m getting ready for footy again.

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Saturday 11th December 2010 – I SPENT A FORTUNE TODAY …

… in the shops in Montlucon. Easily €600 reckon. And poor Caliburn creaked and groaned on the way home under the weight of 50 breeze blocks, loads of pine boards to do my wardrobe (and why is it that a 300mm pine board costs €5.75 yet a 600mm pine board costs … errrr … €12.15?), tons more insulation, a load of wire and trunking and (says he, hoping it does the job) a new wheel for his wheelbarrow.

Yes, forget your €15:00 in some shops and your €17.95 on the tool vans that come by, how about a Brico Depot special at €8:75? Much more like my kind of price.

But I had lots of time to spend all of this money as I was up and about at some ridiculous hour and was actually camped outside the door of the new Aldi in Montlucon before its 09:00 opening time. And that’s a change isn’t it? Normally I struggle to make my kitchen by 09:00!

>And it was a gorgeous day to be out as well. Not quite your Alpine winter day but as close as we can get and the solar panels here on the house racked up about 180 amp-hours of charge. That was quite welcome too. We’ve been struggling for a decent charge for the last few weeks and I’ve been on something of an economy drive as far as the electrical energy goes.

On the way home I managed to fit in a visit to the swimming pool at Neris-les-Bains. I didn’t stay long as it was perishing in there but I managed a decent soak and a good warm (not hot, unfortunately) shower so I feel all clean for a change – at least on the outside.

Tomorrow I’m told (for at Auchan I bumped into Michel from the footy club) that there might be some footy – Pionsat’s 2nd XI have a match at St Maurice and it might even be on – so I might even have an afternoon out.

I’m missing the footy. What with this weather there has been none for ages.

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EPIC HALL

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