Tag Archives: fridge

Friday 14th June 2019 – HOW MANY …

… employees of the Credit Agricole Bank does it take to sign a form and put a rubber stamp on it?

The answer is “at least three” – and if the girl who finally dealt with me went to see a colleague or two when she disappeared with my form, it might even be more than that.

Yes, I’ve been out and about today, haven’t I? I need to push on and exercise myself, and as there was a letter to post (my hospital bill), a blood test result to pick up, and a form for the bank to sign, this afternoon seemed like as good a time as any.

Today started off quite surprisingly.

Despite the issues of yesterday I was awake at 04:10 and couldn’t go back to sleep at all. By 05:40 I had given it up as a bad job and was up and about.

To my surprise, the alarm didn’t go off. We had had another upgrade during the night that had switched off the phone. I really must do something about that.

And I’ve been a very busy boy too. I’ve started to transcribe the … gulp … 78 voice files off the dictaphone. I need to catch up on that, and catch up quickly if I’m to be up-to-date before I go away.

Another thing too is that I steam-cleaned the fridge. In an effort to tidy up and clean up, and with the ice box iced up, that was a good place to start. It took a good while but now it looks like it’s supposed to.

A few items went to that great dustbin in the sky and now there is tons of room in there. Well, maybe not tons, but plenty of room all the same.

And that took it out of me a little and I had a little … errr … relax for about 15 minutes.

After lunch I had a shower (the first “proper” shower for a while) and then attended to the accounts. That led to my walk up town.

fuel lorry refuelling trawlers port de granville harbour manche normandy franceThere wasn’t all that much excitement out there this afternoon.

Down on the docks we had a fuel lorry lined up ready to refuel one of the trawlers, and that was about that.

First stop was the laboratory for my blood test results from Wednesday. Some of the results are right off the scale, but bad as they might be, none are quite as wild as the “vitesse de sedimentation”.

That should be less than 9, and my figure is 123. I’ll have to see what the doctor has to say about that.

Then to the bank and the pantomime in there. It’s do do with my Belgian pension, and I bet that they are spending more on the admin of it than they will on the monthly payments.

But I did have some luck there;

There’s a special offer there right now on Savings Accounts, and for once I just about fall into the correct category. So I took advantage.

At the Post Office I posted off my payment to the hospital and then staggered up the hill back home. You’ve no idea how unfit I’ve become after two or three weeks without much exercise.

The knee was aching rather a lot by the time that I returned but as Rosemary rang me up for a long chat, I sat with my leg up on a chair for an hour and twenty-four minutes and that eased it off.

While I was tidying up the fridge I threw away some horribly out-of-date stuff but I found some lentil-and-carrot-burgers on the point of expiry, so I had one of those with some pasta, vegetables and tomato sauce.

This evening I had a chat with Liz and now I’m off for an early night. I’m surprised that I’ve kept going for as long as I have and so a good sleep will do me good after my walk.

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Saturday 28th October 2017 – BRAIN OF BRITAIN STRIKES AGAIN!

There I was, doing the rounds of LIDL with a bag full of shopping. Just about to put my shopping on the convenyor when I reached into my pocket for my wallet with my money and bank cards in it.

Yes, I’d had my raincoat on last night, hadn’t I?

I had to dump my bag behind one of the empty tills and nip home for my wallet.

It won’t happen again though. I’ve left €50 in Caliburn and another €50 in the secret pocket in my mobile phone case. But what a silly thing to do!

A strange thing happened this morning. It was 08:20 when I awoke this morning. No alarm. For some reason or other the telephone had stalled at 23:49. And so we didn’t have sucj a good start to the morning anyway.

After doing some stuff on the laptop I went off for my trip around the shops and my unexpected return here. But the old washing machine has now gone to the great laundry in the sky – the dechetterie was open this morning which makes a change. The fridge is there too, along with another pile of cardboard boxes that had accumulated

At the Auchan I did the rest of the shopping. Including some frozen sprouts, frozen mushrooms and frozen peppers. What with the mango sorbet and the loaf of bread the freezer is now full. It’s far too small for what I need and I’ve a good mind to take it back to swap it for a bigger one.

Mind you, I thought that the fridge was far too small too, but I’ve managed to rearrange things around in there and there’s plenty of room in there now. I imagine that once I start to attack the frozen food it will be the same in the freezer there too.

After lunch and a bit of tidying up, I crashed out for half an hour or so, and then I caught up with a few other things that needed doing too.

football us granvillaise es hebecrevon cite des sports granville manche normandy franceBut this evening US Granvillaise’s 3rd XI were playing ES Hébécrevon on the artificial pitch at the Sports Centre. And as it was a reasonable evening, I dressed up warmly and walked all the way there. It’s about 3.5 kilometres up and down hill, and I reckoned that it would do me no good.

Much to my surprise the Sports Centre was closed up, so there was no buvette. How is this possible? In the Auvergne they wouldn’t even consider having a public event without a buvette, and yet here we are, twice in two days, THis isn’t the France that we know and love, is it?

As for the match itself, Granville were bottom of the league without a win and Hébécrevon were 9th. So I was expecting another defeat. But much to my surprise I saw one of the best matches I’ve seen for quite a while.

Granville were much better than their league position suggested and played some beautiful football. Hébécrevon huffed and puffed but never looked likely to seriously trouble the Granville defence, and the home side scored three of the best goals that I’ve seen for a while.

All three of them breakaways, two of which were solo efforts and the third was a cross from the young lad playing left-wing (who had an excellent game) into the centre to the forward who hit it on the half-volley straight into the corner of the net.

I walked back home wfterwards, stopping for a bag of chips. And nice they were too.

Now I’m off to bed and it’s a lie-in tomorrow with an extra hour in bed. We put the clocks back tomorrow – 1 hour if you live in the real world, 50 years if you live in the UK, 120 years if you voted for Brexit and 250 years if you voted Conservative.

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Friday 7th April 2017 – I MADE A CONSCIOUS …

… decision this morning and turned down the thermostat in the fridge. Much a I like ice-cold soya milk and fruit juice, I don’t like the racket that the fridge makes during the night. I can’t have the best of both worlds unfortunately – it’s one or the other.

But once I did finally manage to settle down I was well-away and it was the alarm that once more awoke me. And I’d been on my travels again, with some friends with whom I used to go and watch the Alex play in the mid-70s. We’d been to a match where they had been playing the Clayheads in a tense local derby and had won 2-1, although we didn’t arrive there until the final whistle (which rather defeated the point of going).

After breakfast I didn’t do too much – just chatted to a few people on the internet, and also spent ages (so it seemed) going through the old laptop removing duplicate files. It seems that I had let it get completely out of hand and there was about 15GB of duplicate files in there that needed removing.

I also made a few more enquiries about apartments and I have two more to see – one tomorrow morning and the other on Monday morning.They both look quite nice, but then again I’ve heard – and seen – all of this before and I don’t intend to count my chickens before they are hatched.

For lunch I strolled down to the promenade with my butties, my fruit and my book and sat at the same place as yesterday. If anything, it was a warmer day than yesterday and just for a change it was fatigue that drove me back to my little studio.

And just for a change, it was 17:20 when I came round, and made myself a coffee. I’m really not doing too well with things at the moment.

One thing that I didn’t forget (which was just as well) was to move Caliburn. One part of the public parking is reserved on Saturday mornings for the vans of the market traders and that was where I had parked him up. But across the road there were a few spaces and so he’s gone in there.

Tea was pasta with the rest of the lentil stuff that I had made yesterday. And it was delicious too, although it will be nice to get back to having a proper kitchen and doing proper cooking.

Now I’m having an early night and tomorrow I might even have a shower. Have to look my best for my visits.

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Thursday 6th April 2017 – YES, DEFINITELY THE FRIDGE.

It took ages to go off to sleep again last night with the fridge whining away in the background. And I was awoken once more in the middle of the night by the rattling of the compressor.

But I did manage to go back to sleep and was awoken by the alarm, which is always nice.

I’d been on my travels too – something I’ve not really done for a while. I was taxiing again – this time in the white Volkswagen Passat estate that I own. And the wife of one of the people for whom I drove back in the early 80s put in an appearance too.

And that reminds me – I need to rescue the Passat and the Minerva next time I go back to the Auvergne and put them on the hardstanding. After all, that’s why I had it made.

I had a quiet leisurely morning. I’m not up to doing too much these days. What with chatting to Liz and so on, I was late for going to buy my baguette and ended up at the boulangerie across the road. I had a walk down to Caliburn too, to make sure that he’s okay and to pick up a few things that I need.

casino granville manche normandy franceAt lunch I went for a walk down on the promenade at the back of the Casino over there to sit in the sun and eat my butties. And sit in the sun I did too – for about an hour.

But the wind was rather wicked and despite the sunshine, it was really cold and there was nowhere to shelter. In the end, I decided that the only protection was “flight” and came back home.

Back here I carried out some more research about places to stay and made a few phone calls but no-one called me back. But then I’m not surprised. No-one seems to want to earn any money these days. They just want to sit at home and moan about how cruel the world is.

Tea was the rest of the potatoes, and I made a thing out of a tin of lentils, a tin of veg and a bottle of tomato sauce. It wasn’t too bad after. It was all washed down with some fruit salad and soya dessert which was nice.

So now let’s see what kind of night we have tonight. I managed to avoid crashing out so I should be ready for a good sleep. Watch someone come along and spoil it for me.

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Tuesday 4th April 2017 – I THINK THAT IT’S THE FRIDGE …

… that’s causing me my sleeping issues. I had a good night last night up to about 03:40 when I awoke with a bang. The fridge was rattling away like nobody’s business and so I rearranged a few things inside, made sure that the door was properly closed, and then stuck my head back underneath the quilt.

And there I stayed until the alarm awoke me.

After breakfast I relaxed for a good while and then went out to find a baguette. Four different bakers I have tried here, and four awful baguettes that have the constituency of chewing gum. At this rate, I’ll be having to make my own.

Lunch was partaken in here seeing as how it was misty and damp outside. And then we hit the streets.

I headed south through St Pair sur Mer to Jullouville and Carolle. And apart from a couple of beautiful beaches (especially Carolle-Plage where I stopped for half an hour and read a book) there was nothing of interest.

Mind you, we did have an exciting time at the Square-Immo offices in Jullouville. Yours Truly arrives just as the estate agent is departing. He looks at me – and I look at him.
After a minute’s pause – “well, can I come in?”
“No” replied the estate agent. “I’m just leaving” and he ushered me out of the door.

And they say that there’s a recession ongoing in Western Europe. Is it any surprise when they heave customers out of their shops like this?

So dodging the raindrops, I drove across Granville to Breville. And there was nothing there either. It’s all looking a bit miserable.

However there were two camp-sites and so I made enquiries. This idea of parking up a caravan for the summer and seeing what the winter brings is certainly not impossible. While I have paid less for accommodation in the recent past, it does have its attractions from a financial point of view and might save me from embarrassment when I end up with nowhere to live.

I came home via Donville les Bains to have another look around at the place. It certainly has its attractions too and I shall look a little further into this.

I had vegan burgers for tea, with potatoes and veg. Followed by more vegan carrot cake and soya cream. Now I’m ready for anything – but bed is the most likely.

Despite having had a decent sleep last night, I’m still worn out. It’s taking its toll of me.

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Friday 13th January 2017 – I WOKE UP THIS MORNING …

… du deh du der deh … to find that the snows of winter have once more been covering our landduring the night.

Nothing like as impressive as the other morning (not that that was particularly impressive) but snow just the same. And just like me, it didn’t last all that long either.

And that’s right – I didn’t last long either. I’d had a bad night and had an awakening at about 03:15, but this time I don’t know why I awoke like that. At 04:15 I was still awake too and I didn’t feel at all like going back to sleep, but nevertheless I must have done because the alarm awoke me yet again.

I was alone at breakfast at first, but someone whom I didn’t recognise at all came to join me later. A new tenant because I had to show him around and show him how everything works in the kitchen.

Back down here I did some work, reading this paper that I talked about the other day, and then I had some real work to do. I didn’t mention it yesterday but I had made a start on defrosting the freezer compartments in the fridges here. I have spoken about the oven chips and how they come in big bags. There is in fact the space to put a bag like that although you might not think so seeing how the ice compartments are full to the brim with ice, the doors having been left open at some time. With my mini-wok and boiling water, I managed to defrost everything after a while and clean them out. Now we have room for all kinds of stuff and quite rightly so.

Just before lunch I went out to the supermarket for the baguette, and ended up having a good chat to the girl who seems to manage the place. We were there for about 10 minutes chatting, although I probably understood as much as one word in 20.

After lunch, I went down to Caliburn to bring back some more stuff and the laundry sop – braving the snow because by now the snow was teeming down quite heavily – although it didn’t stick at all.

The launderette was next and I washed a ton of stuff. And now I have all clean clothes, as well as three odd socks and I’ve no idea how I managed that. But it always happens, doesn’t it? There’s a sock goblin living even in launderette washing machines.

Back here I had a crash-out and then made tea. A quick tea out of a tin seeing as tomorrow I’m footballing and Sunday is pizza night.

The djervushka is still here too, but with a young boy in tow tonight. So I can cross her off my list, which is a shame. It also means that I won’t have much of a sleep as her room is directly above mine and we know how these beds creak.

I’m still going to try got an early night though. If the weather is reasonable tomorrow there’s a possibility of a day out. We shall see.

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Friday 10th October 2014 – I MUST HAVE BEEN TIRED LAST NIGHT.

10:45 when I heaved myself out of the stinking pit, and had the ‘phone not rung downstairs at that time, I would probably still be there now. Terry said that he had never known anyone sleep that long, which just goes to show that he’s clearly not kept himself up-to-date with these pages, and that he’s never gone two days with just a fitful doze or two in between. But then again, my lifestyle has always been somewhat extreme compared to the norm, I suppose. Not many people would put up for a minute with what I do just for pleasure.

After breakfast, we had a long chat about things around here and when Liz came back we had lunch. Then, on their way to see Rob and Julie, they dropped me off here.

Caliburn started with just a glance at the ignition key – good old Caliburn – but we are having some issues here right now. I have (once again) left the fridge plugged in permanently while I was away, instead of in the overcharge circuit, and so with the bad weather for the last three or four days that they have had here, the batteries are right down. And with the forecast weather for the next few days, there won’t be much chance of topping things up for a while so I’ll be on short rations again. I really must remember to sort out the fridge properly each time that I go away. I did exactly the same thing last year, you might remember.

The battery in the laptop went flat after a couple of hours’ work and so I was wondering how to charge it up. By then of course, it was late afternoon and in the pouring rain I wasn’t going to be doing much else so the idea came to my mind to go to St Eloy to do my shopping. It would fill in the time this evening, save me a journey tomorrow, give Caliburn an airing and also charge up the laptop. Problem solved. Wasn’t I glad that I had bought that 12-volt charging lead a few months ago?

At LIDL I met Amondine from the Anglo-French group. She was there with her children doing her shopping and we had quite a chat. All in all, at the shops, I spent €21 for a week’s supply of food. That’s much more like old times.

Back here, the internet is down, so I discovered. Dunno what has happened here. I just did a few other bits and pieces and went for an early night. I’ll resolve this issue tomorrow.

Or maybe some other time.

I dunno.

But as Barry Hay once famously said at a concert at Scheveningen Beach, “I’ll tell you one thing, man. It’s good to be back home”.

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Wednesday 16th October 2013 – MEANWHILE, BACK AT POOH CORNER …

… I did a very silly thing. Or rather, I forgot to undo something rather silly, and that was despite my best intentions too.

Before I set out for North America I had every intention of disconnecting the fridge and wiring it into the overload circuit. That way, if we were to have a long spell of heavily overcast weather, it wouldn’t run down the batteries.

But guess what? I totally forgot to do it and we have indeed had a long spell of heavily overcast weather. Consequently, I’m struggling for electricity.

That was what I found this morning when I returned home. I had the best night’s sleep for absolutely ages round at Liz and Terry’s, and after a breakfast of coffee and toast I hit the road for Pooh Corner, stopping at the Intermarché at Pionsat along the way.

Back here though, having seen what I forgot to do, I’ve gone into emergency mode. Everything is disconnected except, as I write, a 1-watt LED light and if that fades out I have a Ryobi lantern standing by. There’s one battery that is fully-charged (I keep that on a separate circuit) and that I put for a top-up via the solar panels in the barn and later in the night I’ll drag it across here. I can wire that into the circuit and disconnect the main battery bank quite easily so there will be some power, and then in the morning it can go back into the barn to be charged up while the battery bank in here is reconnected.

Apart from that, I’ve spent most of the day on the sofa crashed out. The after-effects of my marathon voyage. I’ll have a good rest and then tomorrow I have a radio programme to write.

That is, of course, if I have any electricity. What a silly thing to do.

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Tuesday 4th August 2009 – A PHOTO FROM A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ANGLE TONIGHT

painting facade kwikstage scaffolding les guis virlet puy de dome franceand if you look closely you will notice that the facade of the house has been painted down to the level of the decking on the scaffolding.

That was this afternoon’s task – the morning was taken up in cementing underneath the rest of the eaves. It wasn’t easy without a bricklayer’s trowel, that it until I tried out a piece of recycled plastic slate. What a good finish you can get with a few offcuts of those!

Lunchtime involved a visit to the bank at Pionsat. The temporary insurance certificate for Caliburn has run out
and they haven’t sent me a new one yet.
“Well, you haven’t sent us the log book” was their story
“You didn’t ask for it” I replied. “You just asked for proof of Caliburn’s new registration number and I dropped off the certificate three weeks ago”
“Yes, but we still need the log book”
So GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR to the Credit Agricole! I wish they’d make up their blasted minds!

And it was so hot today that the 15 litres of water in my mini-heat-exchanger was scorching. So I took advantage of that and had another shower. Two in a week! I’ll wash myself away at that rate.

I also connected up the fridge. I’ve decided just to run it during the daylight hours in sunny conditions. I have to do something with the excess solar charge seeing as how the batteries in the house now top out after just 30 minutes and isn’t this a change from a short while ago? I’ve filled it full of these ice-packs so that it should retain the cold for a while and I’ll have nice cool orange juice for breakfast.

After the shower I xylophened the two planks that I’m going to be using for the fascia boards on the house, and put the first coat of wood preservative on. I’ll do the second as soon as I wake up and then put the second coat on the house under the eaves while the planks are drying. When they are dry I’ll fit them and then fit the guttering. After that, the scaffolding will come down another level.

And in other news, I had a phone call from a guy I met in the Auchan. He wants to come round and talk Solar Energy so we’ve arranged for Saturday at 18:00. Good job it looks like we’ve been working around here. I’d hate him to think that this total disorder is habitual.

Perish the thought, hey?

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