Tag Archives: mazan

Tuesday 25th November 2014 – I THOUGHT THAT I HAD GIVEN THIS UP YEARS AGO

Yes, I had a phone call erly this morning from Simon. You might remember a week ago that some English people needed an old van moving from a house that had been sold and it had been offered to me. So could I fetch it this morning?

Terry and I went off to have a look at it and we picked up Simon on the way. We found the address and the van was in a shed right at the far end of the property, up a steep hill that had been churned up by a procession of diggers. Consequently, it took me three quarters of an hour to get Caliburn up as far as I could – and that wasn’t anything like close enough.

Luckily, the previous owners hadn’t left the handbrake on, so the three of us were, with much effort, able to push the van out of its shed and couple it up to Caliburn with the length of chain that I always carry about with me. THen we could pull it down the hill to the road.

I would have taken a lovely photo of the vans and all of us up to our eyeballs in mud, but the battery had gone flat in the camera, which annoyed me preatly.

The van didn’t look too bad – it’s a 2000 Ford Transit, the biggest of all the body options, but there’s a slight crack in the windscreen, a water leak and a fe other bits and pieces. And the starter had packed up. More in hope than expectation we gave it a puch down the road and to our complete and absolute surprise, the van fired up. I can’t think who was the most astonished.

A run up and down the lane to test the brakes, which actually worked, and so we made an executive decision (that’s a decision that if it goes wrong, the person making it is executed) to drive it to Terry’s. Terry and Simon leapt into it and I drove Calibuen as a blocking vehicle, to keep an eye open for the police and chase them away. It’s years since I’ve had to do anything like this, and you would never be able to do such a thing in the UK these days. This is what I like about France – you can still get away with doing things like this.

The drive was uneventful and the van is now safely at Terry’s.Then we all went home.

This afternoon, I started on my Christmas Special. I have tons to do, and only a short time to do it.

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Sunday 16th May 2010 – Football isn’t everyone’s cup of tea …

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire puy de dome ligue de football league france… and as we were all staggering off towards the pie hut at half-time today during the match at St Maurice pres Pionsat I couldn’t resist taking this pic of a Biollet St Maurice supporter overcome by emotion due to the hectic pace of the game.

But the young lady fast asleep by the touchline and the blue sky will give you some idea of the weather today. Summer seems to be back – and about time too.

puy de dome franceMind you, I can’t blame the girl for falling asleep because it was one of THOSE games this afternoon. The heat was clearly getting to everyone and so it was played at something of a leisurely pace and in the end, finished as a 0-0 draw.

Pionsat were the better side though and did have one or two chances to take the lead during the match, but I do have to admit I’ve seen many more exciting games than this one. At least, is was a pleasant day out.

I woke up at 09:57 to the sun streaming in through my windows here. It looked beautiful and I couldn’t resist thinking to myself that it was so nice that someone was bound to spoil it. And right on cue the phone rang. Bernard, the football club chairman, wanted to tell me that his son (he who has the digger) wanted to talk to me and could he come round.

So I hauled myself out of bed to wait for him. I asked Bernard a while back if he knew of someone with a digger who can dig out where I want to park Caliburn and he recommended his son. But he was stuck on a chantier in all of this bad weather. It now seems that they’ve been able to work and it may well be that by Friday they’ll be finished. So he came to see the job and reckons he’ll ring me on Friday or Saturday to tell me when he can start.

I told him about Simon’s job and he’s keen to do that too. And by the purest coincidence it seems that where Simon is living is the old workshop of Bernard’s uncle and Bernard was born in the house just next to Simon’s.

This world is getting far too small for me.

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Friday 14th May 2010 – Tomorrow, if I remember,

salvaged hardwood windows les guis virlet puy de dome franceI’ll post a photo of a whole pile of wooden windows. They are about 6 feet tall and about 18 inches wide – something like that, and there’s probably a dozen of them. They were in Simon’s house when he bought them and he ripped them out for double glazing and asked if anyone would like to take them away.

As you know, in my drive for self-sufficiency I’m growing my own food (assuming that this perishing weather relents and we have some decent late-spring weather) and a greenhouse is an essential. I have the cheap little LIDL plastic one and someone gave me a complete aluminium greenhouse but minus all the glass. However a big pile of wooden windows fitted into a frame like an American balloon house (and how I built my verandah) and stood on breeze blocks and that’s an admirable greenhouse, especially as I can make it to measure.

And see – I did remember the photo!

My day of rest following yesterday’s exertions was broken in the afternoon as Terry decided to try his hand at driving his van. We went round to the Lady from Luxembourg who is looking for a handyman and I introduced them to each other. She was impressed with the size of Terry’s equipment and has signed him on, which is good news for Terry. He’s registered himself with the French authorities as a handyman and so now he needs some clients.

Once that was out of the way we went to Mazan to see Simon. He’s looking for a digger to dig the hole for his septic tank and I know a man (Bernard, the President of the Pionsat football club) who just happens to have one. Simon was out though, but his windows were in and he did say that I could have them, and there were two of us with Terry’s big van (which was empty). And so the rest is history.

Shopping at St Eloy les Mines was boring – there was nothing of note – and that was my day today.

Tomorrow the removal has been put back until 10:00. It seems that I’m not the only one who doesn’t recognise the existence of 09:00 on a weekend morning.

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