Tag Archives: neuf eglise

Sunday 18th November 2012 – I WAS GOING …

… to go to watch a football match this afternoon.

No match for FC Pionsat St Hilaire this weekend so I had had a search around on the internet.

And I came up with quite a choice too – St Avit to see Le Quartier’s 2nd XI (which apparently is many of FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 3rd XI from last year, so they say), Neuf Eglise to watch a cup match, or to Baudelaire or Chambon in the Creuse, where there were a couple of matches.

Instead, though, I stayed in, because I was busy. I have a lot to do and it won’t be done if I don’t do it.

I actually managed a lie-in until 09:45 today, although that wasn’t too much of a lie-in seeing as how I didn’t go to bed until about 02:00.

And after watching The Cannonball Run, which is definitely one of my favourite films for mindless, light-hearted entertainment, I sat down and started on a new project.

As you might (or might not) know, I present a Radio Anglais rock music programme twice a week for Radio Tartasse in Marcillat-en-Combraille.

That sounds very grand but it is in fact just a couple of programmes recycled during the month.

However, I’m playing stuff that most, if not all, my listeners have never heard, because I’m not going for mainstream music but for the more marginal stuff that never had the airplay to be a top 20 hit.

So what I’ve started to do today is to prepare a web page listing all of the albums from which I’ve been playing stuff, and arranging them by month.

It’s a long way from being finished but at least it’s started and it’s well on its way

This evening I picked up Cécile at her place and we went down to Liz and Terry’s – for me to rehearse my radio programmes with Liz and for Cécile to discuss some work with Terry.

In the end we all had a very good chat and a nice socialising evening.

And tomorrow, we’re recording our radio programmes, so I’ll be out all day.

It won’t leave me much time to do this floor.

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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.

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Saturday 20th March 2010 – One thing about the warm weather that we are having…

fcpsh football club de foot pionsat st hilaire neuf eglise les guis virlet puy de dome france… is that the footy can recommence. And in the balmy spring weather we had two matches tonight. The 2nd XI played Neuf-Eglise and ground out a 0-0 draw. The second half particularly seemed to go on on for ever and I think that most of the supporters had fallen asleep by the final whistle – I know that I had

The second match was against Artonne and keen followers of my blog may recall the away match back in November which was controversial in the extreme, to say the least. It was refereed by the ref who had the attack of the hysterics against the Miners back in October so fireworks would be guaranteed, one would have thought.

fcpsh football club de foot pionsat st hilaire as artonne les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut instead we had a lamb-like performance from everyone(except the Pionsat no14 who was sent off for two yellow cards) and Pionsat ran out 2-0 winners. I don’t think anyone was expecting that.

For the rest of today, nothing much happened. I did my shopping in St Eloy and didn’t get anything out of the ordinary, except for the seeds I was missing. I went round to see Claude and Francoise but they weren’t there. According to the neighbour they’d gone down to the South of France for a week to see Sandrine, their daughter. Hmmmm.

I did encounter Bob from Montaigut. He’s a Brit and managed to get a job with a French company as an employee. I managed to persuade him to come onto our radio programme some time and talk to us about the French working environment.

And that was that, really.

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Saturday 12th September 2009 – GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

fcpsh football club de foot pionsat st hilaire equipe 3 neuf eglise puy de dome franceThe footy season commenced this evening and Pionsat’s 3rd XI (who were in action aganst Neuf-Eglise’s 2nd team) started where they left off at the end of last season. Damian in goal with his teflon gloves and a 3-0 defeat.

The 1st XI are in action at Miremont and the 2nd XI are in action at Pontaumur tomorrow afternoon. Both away from home and I haven’t been to either ground before so I’m rather spoilt for choice. I can go to Pontaumur again as their 3rd XI are in the same division as Pionsat’s 3rd XI but seeing as it’s the 2nd XI’s 1st game in Division 2 following their promotion, I reckon I’ll be wandering off there to give them my (im)moral support.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I went into Montlucon today and spent a record low 200 Euros at Brico Depot.

And there is a good reason for that. Most sheets of construction material are of a standard size – 2.40 metres long. And short wheelbase Ford Transits are 2.42 metres long in the load bed to take this into account. So I have absolutely no idea why sheets of insulation-backed plasterboard weigh in at 2.50. It’s totally illogical.

I need about 20 for my attic but of course they won’t go inside Caliburn with the door shut and you can’t drive 30 kms with both the back doors wide open, and you can’t leave them in the back of the van until you need them. So if you stand them sideways upright with just one door half-open you can get 13 in which is enough to be going on with, particularly as you have to unload them and put them somewhere (like standing upright outside the house covered by a tarpaulin).

And they are big and awkward to manoeuvre. There’s no way I’ll be getting these up the ladder into the attic in one piece. I’m going to have to cut them to shape outside and then get them up into the attic. And where I could in theory fit a whole one, it’s still going to have to be cut in at least half so I’ll be able to handle it safely.

Mind you, the spending spree continued as I ordered my bed-settee (340 Euros) and my occasional table (I don’t know yet what it is for the rest of the time) and I had to pay a 25% deposit. It’ll all be ready for early October which is my deadline for doing the attic out. A lot of money for a bed-settee you might think, but I’ll be spending a lot of time on it and so I may as well be comfortable.

They also had a really comfortable office chair (like the old one in Brussels that I have curled up and slept in on numerous occasions) and a really dinky miniature gas cooker which has caught my eye for the future.

And as luck would have it they were having a sale of bed linen at the Auchan and I now have 2 quilt covers, 4 pillow cases and 2 fitted sheets for a grand total of 25 Euros. And all in matching colours too! All I need now is a room to put it all in.

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