Tag Archives: football

Saturday 8th May 2010 – Something exciting …

… happened at the footy this evening.

rising ground dew pionsat puy de dome franceIn fact many exciting things happened at the footy – more of which anon – but the most unusual of them all was at about 5 minutes to half time when I turned around and noticed a cloud of water vapour rising from off the disused railway embankment at the back of the ground. It was quite astonishing.

The second half was played through the banks of the cloud that was being slowly blown across the Overflow End of the pitch by a light but steady breeze. All in all it made for quite a surreal .atmosphere for this … errrr … tense game.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire lapeyrouse puy de domeligue de football league franceI say “tense” because that’s exactly what it was. With a Lapeyrouse linesman giving goal kicks against Pionsat when the ball hadn’t crossed the line, throw-ins against Pionsat when the ball hadn’t gone out of play, offsides against Pionsat that were nothing like offsides (I was right level with play – much more than the linesman was), and the linesman coming onto the pitch to threaten (yes, to threaten) Gregory after he had put in a heavy but legal challenge on the Lapeyrouse winger.

And with Lapeyrouse players collapsing like ninepins every time a Pionsat player got near to them and with a Lapeyrouse keeper hurling abuse at the Pionsat attackers all throughout the match, how the referee allowed this game to continue I don’t know. But Pionsat lost 1-0 and it’s the result that counts.

Back home (up here is above the cloud level experienced in the valley down at Pionsat) I discovered why the water vapour suddenly rose like that. All the clouds have gone and there is a clear sky with millions of stars again. We were obviously experiencing the effects of the change of the weather – some sudden temperature inversion and a pile of heat radiation into the atmosphere. It may well be hot tomorrow.

I went into St Eloy les Mines to do my shopping earlier and to my surprise almost everywhere was closed yet again. Of course, it’s May 8th – VE Day – and so most places were celebrating the end of World War II in Europe.

But I made an astonishing discovery. I popped round to Claude and Francoise and ….

  1. the bell push has gone from the front door (there’s a long story about this bell-push)
  2. their letter box has been removed
  3. the European Cardboard Box Mountain appears to have disappeared
  4. their car has gone.

All the indications seem to suggest that they have badgered off into the sunset. How bizarre!

-1

Monday 3rd May 2010 – Winter has returned.

Yes, blasted weather! Outside 2 hours ago it was just 4.2 degrees and threatening to go even colder. The sky is full of damp and there’s a mist rising from the ground, getting ready (I shouldn’t wonder) to combine with the cloud that is rolling up the hill. I hate this weather!

This morning I had to ring up the British Embassy in Paris and also the Chambre de Metiers in Chamalieres but of course, with them being civil servants they are closed today. So if they are having a bank holiday then so am I, and I stayed in.

I wasn’t idle though. I’d been letting the footy website slip a little just recently so today I edited and uploaded all of the photos, wrote all of the outstanding commentaries that I could find and then uploaded them too. So all you need to do is to follow the links from this page and you will see the history of FC Pionsat St Hilaire this season in technicolour glory.

There are still some reports missing but I reckon that they are on the digital dictaphone, wherever that may be. Whenever I find it, I’ll do them as well.

At the Anglo-French group tonight in Pionsat something happened that has p155ed me off completely and I’m going to have to do something about it before it escalates out of control. After all the work that we put into running it I’m not going to stand by and watch someone wreck it out of sheer bloody-mindedness and behaviour that would be unacceptable in a three-year-old.

-2

Sunday 2nd May 2010 – As you may well have noticed by now …

… I spend an awful lot of my time on these pages bemoaning the “great clear-up” of French hedgerows and fields in the 1990s that saw thousands and thousands of interesting old French cars depart for the smelter – a national tragedy.

If I were still with Nerina, she would be quite pleased because our summer holidays in the 1980s consisted of us going to France and me abandoning her in a country lane while I leapt over a hedgerow armed with my old Cosina to snap something interesting that I had found.

old car hedge st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceSo today was just like old times as I travelled along a road down which I have travelled hundreds of times before, did a quick double-take over something that I have never noticed before, did a u-turn through the traffic and disappeared over a hedge into a field, armed this time with my Pentax.

I’ve no idea what it is as I couldn’t get close enough but the long bonnet, wings and running boards puts it at the late 1950s at the latest. It’s restored a little bit of my faith in rural France anyway – I don’t know how I could have missed this vehicle considering all the times that I’ve driven down here.

Strangely enough, I was on my way back from an agricultural machinery surplus sale at St Gervais d’Auvergne. I’d been to see if there was anything worthwhile for me to buy for here but it was a waste of time. Just probably 20 items for sale, most of which was heavy stuff. There was a tractor for sale – a huge thing – made in 2006 and the price they wanted for it was €46000. God alone knows how much it must have cost when new. Who says farmers are poor and impoverished?

old car vintage renault Type R2161 lorry puy de dome franceAt the same time as the agricultural machinery sale, there was also a vintage vehicle exhibition. That was really the main reason why I’d come out this morning.

However, it wasn’t all that impressive. There were all of about 10 vehicles on display, most of which I have seen at other shows in the neighbourhood. This is a Renault lorry of the early 1950s and I think that it might be a Type R2161, the famous 2.5T

I bumped into Liz and Terry too – they were fuelling up at the petrol station across the road. That was the highlight of the visit to St Gervais d’Auvergne.

Back at the footy, Pionsat’s 3rd XI were playing Effiat. Effiat are propping up the division and so this was a match that Pionsat couldn’t afford to lose. The game was arranged for two weeks hence but Effiat asked if it could be moved forward, to which Pionsat agreed. Of course this weekend is a blank weekend in the calendar (it’s a bank holiday) and so no other matches are being played. And cynics might think that in this desperate struggle at the foot of the table Effiat have decided to play today so that they can reinforce their team with players from their 1st and 2nd XI.

Indeed, the team that took the field bore no resemblance at all to the team that Pionsat beat back in December. The players were younger, fitter and keener.

fc pionsat st hilaire fcpsh effiat puy de dome ligue de football league franceBut once again, Pionsat not only had a full team out (including one player from the 2nd XI who needed some match practice), they could afford the luxury of Eric, Jerome and Marc on the bench – 3 stalwarts of the team.

Another regular from the team couldn’t get a game and Thomas of the 1st XI and one or two others had turned up “just in case” the 3rd XI was short-handed, but they weren’t needed.

fc pionsat st hilaire fcpsh effiat puy de dome ligue de football league franceAnd they weren’t needed indeed.

Pionsat matched them ball-for-ball and with the luxury of 3 keen players on the bench giving the tired legs of the defence a rest every so often Pionsat prevailed by 2 goals to 0. And quite right too – they really did play well.

The season is over for them now and they ended up finishing 6th out of 10 – a far cry from where they were at the end of November anchored at the bottom of the table. They’ve struggled along in fits and starts but kept on going when things were against them. And a couple of unlikely results have helped them, as well as a good goal difference. Strange as it is to say it, losing 6-1 to Manzat was something of a triumph as 2 weeks ago Manzat beat another team at the foot of the table by a whopping 19-0.

-2

Saturday 1st May 2010 – Yes, I was right

It was a bank holiday today. And everywhere was indeed closed, as I found out when I got to St Eloy les Mines this afternoon. It’s quite ironic in a way – it’s the fete de travail, the festival of work, and so everyone celebrates the festival of work by … errrr … not working.

So with St Eloy being closed I came back here and carried on with what I was doing before I went out – namely “badger all”. as you know, bank holidays count as days of rest for me and I never do anything.

It’s rained as well – 4.5mm, which means that in the past two days we have had 14mm of rain. Now given that the footprint of my verandah is about 4.5mx1.5m, which gives a surface area of 6.75 square metres, and 1 cubic metre is the equivalent of 1000 litres, then to get 1000 litres off the verandah of the roof and into the water butts I need 149mm of rain (that’s right, isn’t it, Krys?). so 14mm of rain has given me 94.5 litres, which is about 20% of my capacity (I have 2×230 litre water butts). Some of the plants are starting to go berserk and I don’t reckon it will be long before I can start eating my radishes.

And no footy tonight either. I was at a loss for things to do. Still, the big grudge match tomorrow – bottom-of-the-table clash between Pionsat and Effiat. Kick-off 15:00 and not to be missed.

-1

Friday 30th April 2010 – Well I was wrong about the rain.

We didn’t get 10mm at all. In fact we had a mere 9.5mm, most of which came around midday. So I nipped downstairs and uncovered everything so that everywhere can get wet. I uncovered the cloche but forgot to cover up the thermometer in there and now that’s wet too – I’ll have to see about drying it oit.

I stayed in, did some work on the computer in the morning and then started the unpacking. I’ve managed to put it (or most of it, anyway) away and I can actually see the floor no without walking on anything.

With the weather having cooled down I went to training tonight and had a good run around for an hour and 15 minutes. It’s totally worn me out, which is a good sign. It shows that things are doing something. And I managed to have a shower too, which is another good reason for going. Clean bedding tonight!

But no footy on Saturday – it’s Labour Day! They don’t even think that the shops will be open either. That will be an inconvenience. On Sunday the 3rd XI are playing Effiat in a right bottom-of-the-table encounter.

But right now, I’m off to bed before I fall asleeep.

-5

Sunday 25th April 2010 – It was one of the nicest …

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire sayat argnat ligue de football league puy de dome france… days of the year so far, and we had another footfest as the season draws towards a close. We weren’t supposed to have one though – it should have been last night but Sayat refused to play at 18:30 so the match had to go on today.

It was a 2-2 draw which was something of a disappointment, especially as Sayat were awarded a penalty (from which they scored) for a handball in the area that everyone else in the ground except for the referee would have said was “involuntary”.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire sayat argnat ligue de football league puy de dome franceBut the equaliser was a superb goal. Little Matthieu playing all on his own in attack (and he’s normally a full-back) struggles with three defenders and a keeper to get into a good position. His shot is blocked and rebounds to Didier who hasn’t scored a goal in all the time I’ve been following the team, and he simply lifts the ball over everyone and into the net. He’s absolutely delighted as you can see, and who can blame him?

The keeper’s trick of lying down and hoping that the referee stops the game didn’t work, and rightly so as once the goal was awarded he was running up and down like a spring chicken.

Mind you, everything happened so quickly that I doubt that the referee would have had time to stop the game even had he wanted to.

I missed the first two goals though because I was at Chatel-Guyon watching the 3rd XI. And for once all of the chickens came home to roost and they were well and truly thumped – something that has been on the cards for a while.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire chatel guyon puy de dome ligue de football league franceDespite everything that I have said and all the “advice” that I’ve been handing out that has stiffened the defence over the last 15 months, we welcomed back into the centre of the defence Lord Lucan and Martin Bormann and they played with what I call the “Lego” formation – they all go to pieces in the box.

And if that wasn’t enough we had a chase the length of the field by one of the Pionsat players, clearly enraged by an “off-the-ball incident” and deciding to have a little friendly word with the Chatelguyon no8. And no amount of whistling by the ref was going to stop him. What is even more ironic is that the Pionsat player doing the chasing is a member of the French Police Force. How about that?

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire chatelguyon puy de dome ligue de football league franceIn between the goals, we had more entertainment too. Another one of the Pionsat players had a real go at the ref about the award of a free kick.

This went on for ages and called for some restraint, in every sense of the word. It’s nice to see the Pionsat players showing such … errr …. passion during a match. It shows that they care about the match and the performance but I wish they would reserve it for when they have possession of the ball – the round plastic thing that they kick, I mean, and not one belonging to one of their opponents.

After the 3rd XI match Chatelguyon’s 1st XI had a game. You might say that the 1st game was the “warm-up act” and you wouldn’t be wrong about that. Things certainly got heated out there in that game.

-3

Saturday 24th April 2010 – I’ve just watched …

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire cebazat puy de dome ligue de football league france… this ...errr....interesting football match this evening.

We had all kinds of blood, guts and thunder for 90 minutes, and played almost entirely between the two penalty areas. Matthieu in the Pionsat goal had to be at his best to claw away a free header from the corner and the Cebazat keeper had to save two weak shots, but that was the sum total of the attempts on goal.

Yes, I'm back at home after all the excitement of Friday evening in Brussels. And what with the late finish getting everything ready last night, I didn't make it home all in one go. I ended up having an overnight stop at Clamecy where I froze to death in a layby (yes, it's still perishing cold at night)

Still, the one thing about that was that it made me have an early start, and I didn't lose very much as I stopped for the weekly shopping at the Carrefour in Moulins.

I was back here by the early afternoon and promptly crashed out for two hours on my sofa. That set me up nicely for the trip down to Pionsat and the football tonight.

As Golden Earring once famously said, "it's good to be back home".

-3

Sunday 18th April 2010 – A record day today.

60.6 degrees in the heat exchanger – the hottest since 21st August. 44.3 degrees in the verandah – the highest since 8th September. The 15 litres of water in the black bucket with the pane of glass on top – that reached 36 degrees,hot enough to shower with. 22.3 degrees up here in the attic (it’s still 21.3 degrees in here now!). You can see what kind of a day we have had.

birdwatching centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de sancy puy de dome franceBut if you peer carefully through the volcanic ash (or click on the image to see a full-size pic) you can make out the Puy de Sancy in the distance. 1886 metres (or about 6000 feet of it) and it’s still heavily-laden with snow. So summer hasn’t quite a-cumen in yet.

I’m in my favourite spot at the viewpoint near St Gervais d’Auvergne on the way to see the not-very-patient and to drop off some scaffolding tubes. And also to pick up some football boots that he won for me on eBay, which was very nice of him and much appreciated.

And had I had the football boots with me earlier I would even have had a game of football because something happened today that has never ever happened before and probably won’t ever happen again. Pionsat’s much-maligned 3rd XI arrived at Neuf-Eglise with not only a full complement, but also 3 substitutes and another player who didn’t make the team but came along to watch the match with his boots “just in case”, making 15 in all – and the opposition could only put out 5 players! How about that?

Now if a team cannot field a minimum of 8 players it forfeits the match, loses a point and has to pay a fine equivalent to the travelling expenses of the opposition etc etc. And believe me, there are some teams that enforce this rule to the letter. But other clubs are much more friendly about it and so it was decided that
1) everyone would pretend that the match took place with an effective complement for each team (and there was a frantic hunting around for medical certificates and official identity cards so as to make the team sheet look correct)
2) Pionsat were credited with the score that they would have had had they won the match by forfeit
3) Pionsat’s 3 substitutes plus the spectator and also a volunteer from the starting 11 were loaned to the 5 players from Neuf-Eglise so that they would have sufficient players to start the match.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire neuf eglise puy de dome football ligue de foot franceAnd as I said, had I had my boots with me I would have got a game as well, which would have been quite nice. I didn’t think until afterwards that I should have volunteered to referee the match now that I’m qualified.

We ended up having a nice leisurely friendly match of 10-a-side, which Pionsat ended up by winning 3-1. I wish more matches could be played in such a friendly atmosphere as this – especially when Pionsat’s 3rd XI can win them.

0

Saturday 17th April 2010 – We had another footfest tonight.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire pontaumur puy de dome ligue football league franceWe started off at 18:30 with Pionsat’s 2nd XI playing Pontamur. They lost 3-1 but that is something of a triumph as earlier in the season Pontaumur gave them a good spanking.

And the result was something of a travesty. Pontaumur had no more than about 5 shots on target whereas Pionsat spent the whole match peppering the Pontaumur goal – with the woodwork and the Pontaumur goalkeeper working overtime, as in this photo where the keeper pushes a header from Christophe round the post.

After that, the 1st XI played Miremont, and they won 4-1. That was something of a disappointment as in the away fixture, while I was watching the match at Pontaumur, Pionsat won by an astonishing 12-1.

There was quite a big crowd too – the fine weather bringing out the supporter in their … er …. pairs. It really was a beautiful day though – the temperature in the heat exchanger reached 51.5 degrees and the 15 litres of water reached 32 degrees – almost hot enough to shower with.

I went down to the Post Office at 11:40 to post a letter, only to find that it closes at 11:30 on Saturday. And so off to St Eloy for whooping where I spent next to nothing – a record €0:00 in LIDL. I planned to look in on this new megashop that’s just opened but would you believe it – it closes between 12:00 and 14:00 ON A SATURDAY for lunch. Some people just don’t want any custom.

This afternoon I went for an hour or two and socialised with my new neighbours. Now that makes a change – me socialising. And that was the sum total of my day.

But at the football Max was there. He’s the secretary of the club as well as being captain of the 3rd XI.
He asked me “does your mate Terry fancy a game of football on Sunday? we’re short-handed.”
“Shorthanded on Sunday?” I queried. “That’s nothing. Terry has been short-handed for almost a week!”

-1

Wednesday 14th April 2010 – I’ve finished all of the beds in the garden

raised bed gardening les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou can see the last one just here on the right of the image.I can’t go any further for to the right are some fruit trees, behind me is the scrap Ford Transit van and to the left of the raised beds are the old Ford Cortina and the diesel w123 Mercedes 240D. And once we get round to next winter I can think about moving all of the vehicles elsewhere.

But 9 raised beds is enough for now, what with the megacloche as well – you may remember that last year it was just 8 raised beds.

There’s a caravan window across the megacloche for the moment. My tray of radishes and my container of carrots are underneath it hardening off ready to be planted. I needed the space in the greenhouse for the April sowing of seed, which I also did today. But nothing much seems to be germinating and that’s pretty disappointing. I’m sure it didn’t take this long last year.

15 of us at football training tonight. We started off with a few laps around the pitch and then had a game of quick-passing football. After that it was a heading match and then we finished off with a 7-a-side game. There was a new player there tonight – someone who I hadn’t seen before. A big guy, bald and a little on the senior side and called Christophe, which is bound to complicate things as there are already more Christophes than you can shake a stick at.

It reminds me of the old days with the Cheese Hall pub in Crewe. If you wanted a labourer or two to help on a job you would stick your head through the door and shout “Paddy”. You’d be trampled to death in the stampede.

But I digress.

There’a a goalkeeping crisis in the club right now – just one fit keeper for all three teams … “I bet he’s busy then” – ed … and this Christophe is someone who somebody else knows who retired from playing a few years ago but he’s been enticed out of retirement to keep goal for the 2nd XI for the next few weeks while Francois, Michael and Philippe recover from their injuries.

But this training lark – I’m miles off being match-fit and at my age I doubt if realistically I can get back into the right kind of fitness. But there is hope for me yet. If Tomi Morgan can crack it in the Welsh Premier League at his age then I can do it in the 14th level of the French pyramid at two and a half years more.

The proof of the pudding will be when I wake up tomorrow morning and see how the bones feel. I did notice that I was running much more freely tonight, and that’s a good sign.

0

Sunday 11th April 2010 – What a good weekend …

… for the footy.

Last night, Pionsat’s 3rd XI lost 6-1 to Manzat. Not very impressive you might think but Manzat are top of the league by a country mile and beat one of the other teams in the division 14-1 the other day, and they have recorded several wins where they have scored in double figures. 6-1 is a good result.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome ligue football league franceAt 13:00 the 1st XI travelled down the road to take on hated local rivals St Gervais d’Auvergne and defeated them comfortably 2-0 and that in itself is astonishing (here is Nico scoring the team’s – and his – first of the two).

Even more surprising is that they played the latter part of the match with just 10 men. but even so they never really looked in any serious danger

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire charensat puy de dome ligue football league franceThat match finished at 14:45 and just 15kms away the 2nd XI were playing against Charensat – kickoff 15:00 so I had a hectic drive through the lanes.

Now there’s a goalkeeping crisis again at Pionsat as they currently have two keepers out injured and Philippe had been called out of retirement to keep goal for the 2nd XI. But he hadn’t turned up and with no other volunteer Christophe was “persuaded” to go between the posts.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire charensat puy de dome ligue football league franceNow he’s the first to admit that he’s no keeper and he let in two goals that maybe some other keeper might have kept out. But he made up for that by having excellent positional sense, excellent timing, quick reactions and a good deal of bravery.

He can be quite pleased with what he accomplished today especially as up at the other end Pionsat scored three times to win the match! Well done Christophe!

After that I went round to see Liz and Terry but they were out. Simon was there doing some plastering so we had a good chat and then I came home. I was sorry to have missed them as I had had need of Liz, in her role as the “Auvergne Snake Murderer”, this morning. Moving a pile of damp and rotting wood I put my hand about half an inch away from a viper. Luckily my reactions were quicker than his!

-2

Saturday 10th April 2010 – It’s Saturday again.

Where did the week go? I’m organising Monday night’s meeting of the Anglo French Group and it seems like only yesterday that it was last Monday night.

And so why do I need to organise the meeting? Well, we are all going to be famous. French TV has heard about our radio show and is coming to interview us on Monday early evening. They also want to have a nosey at the Anglo-French Group and have a chat with them.

Well well well!

So today seeing as there was only one footy match this evening – at 20:00 – it was “shopping in Commentry”, and I had quite a good day. Apart from the usual stuff they had good quality spades on sale in ALDI (I have a garden fork and a shovel of this brand) so I bought one to replace the spade that was broken. I’ve been using the Deputy Spade for the last few days but it’s nothing like as good.

I was also doorstepped on the carpark of the ALDI by someone who wanted to talk about solar panels. A man who has lived 20 years in France and can’t speak French! I asked him if he was planning to learn and he said that he couldn’t be bothered. It really beggars belief – all these Brits that moan like hell about foreigners who come to the UK and won’t speak English and insist on native-language help in British Government offices. They ought to come over here and look at some of the Brits – they won’t moan about them, I bet. Yes, there are even plans to have English-language assistance in some of the French town halls.

Not that I’m all that bothered about it but it’s the people who need the English language help over here that are the ones that moan about the foreigners needing native language assistance back in the UK. The irony goes totally over their head.

While I’m in “rant mode” – remember the other day that I was talking about dealing with some people by the employment of a pickaxe handle? Well, it just so happened that at the Bricomarche they had some pickaxe handles on sale and seeing as I didn’t have one in Caliburn I treated myself. Now let someone argue with me. Never mind the baseball bat – I’m not into globalisation and a good old pickaxe handle as used by generations of British tea leaves will be just fine.

Glorious hot day too, and nice and warm in the swimming baths at Neris but no swimming races or swimming galas. I was quite disappointed. But I wasn’t feeling down – there wasn’t any need to seeing as we didn’t have the pleasure of their company.

-1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-2

Saturday 3rd April 2010 – I didn’t feel much like it this morning.

I woke up with the alarm, just by way of a change, and heard the rain pouring down on the roof (15mm we had today). What a way to start the day! So after a while of vegetating I heaved myself out of bed and set off for Montlucon. Late

At Carrefour they were selling baby lettuce plants – €1:95 for 12 and that’s a bargain so I bought two dozen seeing as mine haven’t taken yet.

I also went to the huge sports shop – Decathlon – to buy some football boots. But firstly they were mostly sold out of the popular sizes. I tried on a couple of pairs of boots my size but they weren’t half tight and pinched my feet like mad so I asked the footwear assistant which ones she recommended for wider feet.
“How should I know?” was her helpful reply. “You’ll just have to try them all on and find out”.
As if I don’t have anything better to do! So that’s Decathlon crossed of my shopping list with their crap customer service.

Noz was quite interesting and I spent a few bob in there too – nothing special (except a proper tray small enough to go through the door downstairs amd with high edges to stop me spilling stuff). There were a few good films – an old black and white Study in Scarlet and a copy of Douglas Fairbanks’ silent movie The Three Musketeers. I passed on the obviously interesting and highly relevant Women In Cages and the astonishing “Dracula in Pakistan”. “A rare film from the archives of Hollywood” it said in the trailer. Well, what more can anyone say?

Next stop of course was the Auchan and I was behind a woman who had spent almost €200 at the checkouts. she couldn’t find her carte de fidelite so she said to the cashier “Put the points on that gentleman’s card” – meaning me! That’s not something that happens every day either.

At Brico Depot I had an encounter with a woman and her daughter. They were looking at dowelling and just happened to catch me on the head with a length.
“Look out!” cried the daughter to her mother. “You’ve just given that man a coup de baguette“.
“It’s okay” I replied. “I used to be married”.
“Ahhh” said the mother. “You’ll know all about coups de baguette then”.
Now my sense of humour has been described as “special” and so I was absolutely astonished to find anyone – let alone a French woman – who was on my wavelength. And imagine my further astonishment when 10 minutes later I collided with the same females.
“We meet again” said Mum
“Yes” I replied. And if you are still here in 15 minutes you can help me load my van!” I was rather loaded up with wood at the time.

But who should I bump into but Simon who was also looking for wood. It’s nice to meet friends and have interesting chats, but why just then? I was onto something with that woman I was sure.

But anyway Simon helped me load up Caliburn and we had a coffee together afterwards.

I told him about my adventures in the swimming pool last week and explained that I was off there right then, so he made sure I had his mobile phone number in case there was another swimming match.

I went to the baths via Virlet to pick up the village’s defibrilator (you never know – there might have been a swimming gala again) and I was half expecting to see a heavy contingent of medical personnel and a tonne of ice ready to dump into the swimming pool in case the water boiled, but no – my luck wasn’t in and I just had a quiet swim with the usual 20 or 30 people who go there.

But there is a swimming gala on Sunday afternoon 11th April. Unfortunately for me Pionsat are playing away so I shall either be at St Gervais or Charensat. But if anyone would like to join me for a rain dance on the Saturday night they will be more than welcome.

-1

Thursday 1st April 2010 – We’re cracking on in the garden!

gardening raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou can see the seventh raised bed – it’s the one on the extreme right at centre-height in the photo. Having dug over everywhere yesterday I made the raised bed – out of Brico Depot Bargain Basement shuttering board, of which I have a considerable amount as it is very handy stuff to have

The older raised beds were made out of board and were 1.40m square, but this board comes in 3m length so I have done this one 1.40 x 1.60.

Once I organised that, I started on digging over where the 8th raised bed will be – behind bed no7. This took ages to dig over – in fact it’s only had its first digging – on the grounds that there are tree roots everywhere and they all need to be hauled out. Mind you I might have made much more progress had I left my bed this morning long before … errr … 10:40. I dunno what’s happening to me about this.

After breakfast I did a couple of hours up here and I’ve put two of the footy web pages on line – this one and this one. Only another 12 to do.

This evening I went round to Michael’s and we had a bit of a jamming session. Because he’s not been playing guitar long I had to teach him some music theory, which is quite difficult as I don’t know it myself. He’s off to the UK in a couple of days time but we resolved that when he came back we would try to get together maybe once a week and see what we shall see. In the meantime I’ll have a rummage through my record collection and look for some 12-bar blues stuff (some Flying Aces stuff or JJ Cale – that kind of thing) and make up a disk of stuff to have a play with.

And all day we had intermittent showers, hailstorms, heavy rain – you name it, we had it. And last night the temperature dropped below freezing.

-6