Tag Archives: loubeyrat

Friday 28th March 2014 – WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

Yes, and I missed it. Liz was having Battle part 39 with the French Social Security agencies and needed a minder. And as I was in need of a rest after my marathon sessions this week in the gaeden, I volunteered.

The drive down to Clermont and the URSSAF offices was really nice and while the lady whom we spoke to wasn’t all that helpful, we did find out some useful information that, later that afternoon, helped me write a very long letter on Liz’s behalf which might resolve the problem. Failing that, a trip to Paris for a day might be in the offing.

From there, next stop was the Auchan at the north end of the city, but that was an adventure in itself. A moment of inattention and I missed my turning and we ended up having quite a sightseeing trip around the city. It took me a good few minutes to pick up a reference point and then straight away I took the wrong turning again. I was definitely having a bad day.

We each did our shopping in the Auchan – and I bought one of those small three-tier greenhouses. Just the job for my seeds, I reckon, and only €15 too. Cheap at half the price.

Lunch was taken at the KFC across the road, and then we returned to Liz’s to write this letter. I then returned home, where I found inter alia tht I had had 195 amps of surplus solar power in the house (so the water in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load was off the scale) and in the barn each of the two banks of 260 watts of solar power had given me 63 amps. This has got me thinking about fridges again.

But it was a day of accidents too. Coming over the Font Nanaud near La Batisse this morning, a car had come out of a side road and hit a luton-bodied van on the main road- and hit it with such force that the body had been torn off.

And on the way back in Loubeyrat, a lorry had somehow managed to smash into a car – right by the cemetery too.

-7

Sunday 13th November 2011 – I DON’T THINK …

… that I will be seeing the wild boar again.

The farmer came down this morning to bring his cows to the field behind the house. He went for his usual walk around to check the boundaries and he must have seen the wild boar tracks because half an hour later the hunters arrived.

I was once at a meeting where I heard a hunter describe hunting as “a noble sport”. I’ve no idea what is noble or sporting about 20 armed men ringing a thicket, sending a bunch of dogs in to flush out everything that is in there and then blasting into oblivion whatever comes fleeing out.

It’s all really sad and pathetic, and brings out the worst in human nature if you ask me. But it’s legal to do it and part of the French rural tradition, so I have to put up with it whether I like it or not.

faille de limagne plaine de limagne riviere allier loubeyrat puy de dome france>This afternoon I went down to Loubeyrat. FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 2nd XI were playing there today and it’s a nice drive down.

We’ve been here before, a few years ago, and one thing that impressed me then was the view that could be had from the corner of the football ground. It’s right on the edge of the Faille de Limange – the fault line that runs down the centre of the département and there are views from here right across the plain and the valley of the River Allier all the way over to Vichy and the Montagne Bourbonnaise.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot loubeyrat puy de dome franceIt was a real shame about the match though.

Although FC Pionsat St Hilare lost the match 3-0 they were desperately unlucky here. Two superb free kicks and a defensive howler were responsible for the goals but apart from that they did really well. This was probably the best that I’ve seen them play in recent times. They even managed to have a good shape that they kept throughout the match.

It’s just a pity that they can’t play like that every week.

Back here this evening I watched one of the videos that I had bought at Noz in Montlucon for a couple of Euros the other day. This was a Frank Sinatra film called Tony Rome.

Not only does Sinatra not sing in it (for which I am extremely grateful) he acts spectacularly well in his role as a private detective in Miami. If you know any of the Philip Marlowe films, then think of Humphrey Go-kart in The Big Sleep, bring it up to date by 20 years, film it in technicolour with good outdoor scenery and give it some meaningful and convincing co-stars and there you are.

It’s easily the best film that I have bought for quite a while and it will be one that will feature on my regular playlist.

There was a follow-up of it called The Lady In Cement. While it is very very rare for a follow-up to be anything like as good as the original, I shall be trying to track down a copy of that.

But it really was a good film, this.

0

Tuesday 21st June 2011 – You might be forgiven …

… for thinking that I haven’t done a tap today.

And in fact, I’ve hardly set my foot outside the door at all. What with one thing and another I’ve been really busy up here today.

I had another … errrr … late-ish morning (I’ve not recovered from the other day yet) and then did some work on my website until the battery went flat. Once I switched the inverter on, I then set about dealing with my mailbox. Dozens of useless mails have gone into the bin, and I’ve created loads of directories into which I’ve filed tons of stuff. Once I work out how to configure a mail server I’ll download a pile of these obsolete directories onto my computer and then delete them from my web site.

With a nice streamlined mailbox I then attacked a load of outstanding correspondence and that’s all en route. But there’s tons of stuff that I haven’t done and I’ll be here tomorrow as well getting all of that up to date.

opening of art gallery pionsat puy de dome franceI was “summoned to attend” the opening of an art gallery in Pionsat at 16:30 as Marianne from the Parish magazine needed a report and some photos and she was otherwise engaged elsewhere.

I bumped into Francois who was wandering around the village with a lady-friend and we went for a coffee and a chat.

And it seems that my little hint to the local newspaper about the closure of Radio Arverne’s Loubeyrat antenna has been picked up and they have decided to run with it, and in spades too.

Back here I carried on with the mail (missing tea, unfortunately) and I’m now on the verge of appointing accountants and creating a limited company for my little wind farm.

There’s also the possibility of some kind of consultancy on the horizon too – it seems that there’s a company in Canada that specialises in this kind of thing and it will save me endless hours and endless amounts of cash tracking down a suitable wind turbine supplier if they already have the contacts.

I’ve also made an astonishing discovery too on the Maplin website. How about this little thing? Never mind the negative reviews, posted by people who don’t seem to understand the principle of wind turbines, this will be a fascinating little gadget to have on the side of the house here, and if I make it detachable, it will be good for use at shows and also for sticking on the side of Caliburn whenever we are parked up at the seaside. That’s an excellent price too, and even as we speak there’s one winging its way to my new mailbox in Stoke on Trent. I’ll have to have a play with that.

And so tomorrow I’ll be up here again carrying on with the correspondence. And quite right too – there’s tons of it to do.

-4