Tag Archives: letter box

Friday 18th October 2013 – IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG …

… for the battery issue to resolve itself. I’m not going to pretend that I’ve brought all the good weather back with me from Greece, but there’s no doubt that once the weather eye cottoned on to the fact that I was back, the weather has improved no end.

Yesterday I had 200 amp-hours of solar energy and today the batteries topped out to such an extent that I had almost 40 amp-hours of excess charge. Thats good news in itself. but it’s clear from the performance and the statistics that I’ve been keeping is that one of the batteries is on the point of handing in its hat. I have all of the new batteries that I bought – they are still there waiting and so when I finally return from Brussels (I’m heading off there early nrxt week) I’ll change them all over.

This morning though I was off to Marcillat and Radio Tartasse for today’s recordings of “Radio Anglais”. I did the rock programmes and then Liz joined me for the information stuff. We went for a coffee and chat afterwards and then I came home.

First job was to fix the letter box. You may remember from ages back that strange things have been happening to it, and when I came back from Greece it had been propped up against one of the cars in the car park. I spent a pleasant 10 minutes anchoring it back in the ground where it can stay until I have more time to deal with it.

After lunch I started work on another series of radio programmes. We’re recording the “Radio Anglais” programmes for Radio Arverne on Monday and the text needs to be written for that, but I also need more topics for discussion as the pipeline is running low. There were a variety of taxation changes in July this year so I’ve started to do a programme about that lot.

Apart from that, not an awful lot has happened. But I’m not in a rush to start anything because if I’m heading up to Brussels on Monday or Tuesday, it will be just something else that I’ve failed to finish and I have enough projects like that already on the go.

-6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

0

Saturday 13th July 2013 – THE BEST DAY …

… of the year so far.

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

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

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

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

dylan strawberry moose liz terry messenger sauret besserve puy de dome franceFrom St Eloy-les-Mines I round to Liz and Terry’s. Kate, Darren and the kids had arrived for a holiday and I’d been invited for lunch.

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

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

robyn strawberry moose liz terry messenger sauret besserve puy de dome franceThey very kindly asked me if I wanted to stay for tea and that was really nice. Then afterwards we sat on the terrace at the back.

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

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

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

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

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

All in all, it was a very civilised day.

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

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

-3