Last time for me to sit outside of the physio while Mme is inside kicking a football around or peddling a static bike like mad. A full twelve months, twice a week is what the consultant ordered, and it has now finished. I will not miss it greatly. Have a good day all
Morning all. Wet and miserable outside, so I will not be doing anything out there today. Large temporary structures are appearing in some of the supermarket car parks that will be used to display and sell Christmas and New Year produce. The council workmen have started to put up the festive lights on the lampposts, with garlands strung across the roads. It looks that there will not be so many this year. The seasons are changing, and some trees are shedding their leaves. The maples are turning red, but a few strong winds will send them away. As yet no cranes have passed overhead, but they can be expected any time now. Have a good day everyone.
It is not raining, and the sun appears from time to time. I found a hole in a 200 mm stone and rubble wall that the mice made to get into one of the outbuildings. They seem to have created a shortcut for visiting the bird table, a sort of rat run if you like. Out with some masonry filler and they can find a different route. Have a good day everyone.
Received an annoying email today - my car insurance renewal quote, at £288 an unexplained increase of £65 on the last 12 months. Feeling a little annoyed, I went on to MoneySuperMarket website to trawl for alternative quotes, but they were all just as bad - with some well worse (looking at you AA). Next step was to check the cost difference between fully Comprehensive to Third Party, Fire & Theft - according to MoneySuperMarket, my current provider (Churchill) gave the cheapest quote of £248. So, back to Churchill website, requested a quote - and it came back as £233. Which begs two questions which I doubt I'll ever get the answers to - how can a 29% rise in premiums be justified , and why do MoneySuperMarket not advertise that that they charge £15?
I was lucky. 18 months ago Saga gave me the option to fix my car insurance at the same price for three years. I think it only cost about £20 extra. So when I compared premiums in July, I was well happy. But perhaps I will get a shock in July 25.
Morning all. Pretty bleak outside, although nowhere near as bad as in the north-west of the country. A strong wind overnight had taken the wheelie bin to a new resting place. As it is for recycle materials, it is not very heavy, and so the wind didn't have to be that strong to move it. Yesterday was one of those days when some shops were open while others stayed shut. It is very different to the UK where shops will be open all the time, except when forced by law to shut. Have a good day everyone.
I woke up this morning to be greeted by a yellow rain warning on my phone - for the North of England. For a moment I wondered if I had been sleep walking. So far, whoever sent it has got it wrong, not a drop to be seen, nor even a raincloud. At 6C flipping cold though - am about to rummage around looking for my bacon cheeseburger soup recipe - my good lady wife will expect some warming sustenance when she gets home from work.
Morning all. Very windy overnight, so my recycle bin was blown over and I have been collecting packets etc from the verges. The jobs still keep coming around the house, but gardening is not possible on a sodden earth. Rain is being forecast for every day until next Saturday, so I hope that the Météo have got it wrong again. Have a good day everyone.
It was six o'clock yesterday evening, dusk was upon us, when there was a knock on the front door. It is our Mayor, who before I can get up, has opened the door, is inside and offering us two large bottles of water. A decree has gone out to 15 communes that we must not use water from the tap for drinking, cooking, or even cleaning the teeth. All the rain over the past few weeks has caused rivers to overflow into the underground reservoirs, which could take bacteria with them. Until testing proves there is no risk, and treatment gives satisfactory results, the decree stays in place. Our commune is large in area, with small hamlets and single dwellings scattered around for the 170 habitants. I think it would have taken the Mayor two to three hours to have visited each house. No sending in the army, or giving a contract to a private company in this situation, just get out there and look after the people who voted for you. So now it is wait for the all clear at some point that is unknown. It makes you very careful about how you use the vital resource.
Another water delivery yesterday, brought to us by a member of the council, with the news that we can collect more bottles each day from the Marie. Three litres a day per person is deemed to be sufficient for drinks, cooking and teeth cleaning. Two half pint mugs of tea to wake me up, a coffee with breakfast, and another mid-morning, another pint of tea at lunchtime, and finally a coffee in the evening. I reckon that is half my daily allowance, so I should get by. If I run short, I will have to put my mug aside and use a small French coffee cup instead, but that is not an option for a good cup of tea. Have a good day everyone.
Evening all. It started out bright and sunny, but by mid-morning had become overcast and wet. Having spent ages over the past few years sending some good French calendars to family in the UK, decided I should get on the job today. Same calendar, but different company in England now doing them, and because I hadn't dealt with them before, I had to type in all those addresses, including postcodes that I never remember. Having got that far, I find that the price no longer includes postage. It is a real shocker to find that will add 30% to the total cost. When I was in England, my daughter was complaining about postage costs. Not sure that the family will get them next year looking at the cost overall. One improvement is that the company now handling them, has already posted them, and even sent tracking details.
Our post lady retired, and we now have an assortment of younger ones delivering mail. Our postie knew who we all were, so after we were given house numbers and street names, it made no difference to her. This new lot write little messages for us, asking that our address be updated. Decided to do it for a bank account I have in England, and found that the card reader was required. This was sent to me in 2008, and I must have used it about four times. After fifteen years the batteries are flat, and there is nothing to say how to change them. Clearly I am not the first, as there are descriptions in abundance on the internet. Despite it being a pain some days, it does have its uses. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Wet, windy and thoroughly miserable outside. We have been told that tap water will not be drinkable until it stops raining and the water levels in the rivers start to drop. There is no sign of that happening, so the water bottles are still being supplied. I have a feeling that the recycling centre is going to be awash with plastic bottles. Have a good day everyone.
I know we live in a nanny state these days where we have half wits on the BBC telling us not to go out if it is raining in case we get wet or not to go out if it is sunny in case we get sunburnt, BUT last night took the biscuit Between 2-30AM and 2-45AM a van went up and then down the main road where I live with a BBC voice from the fifties telling us that there was a severe storm warning, to stay indoors and only travel if absolutely necessary, everyone was ASLEEP apart from a few like me who they woke up We woke up to some scattered leaves, one overturned pot and sunshine
Morning all. Grey with rain falling steadily. Any chance of the river levels falling, enabling us to make a cup of tea with water from the tap, seems some way off yet. I read this morning that long stay visas for UK citizens who own second homes in France have hit a bottleneck because so many applications have been received. Some in government here are trying to speed things up, in the same way they did for the permanent residents. For us three different schemes were proposed, all of which required a mountain of paperwork, before they settled on the easy on-line final one, that just required a visit to the prefecture to have your fingerprints taken. The card we have is similar to a French ID card, and is accepted throughout Europe in the same way. It has more information, including my fingerprints, than my UK passport, so it is very valuable. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Contrary to my fears, we have our water back. Different waters do have an effect on what a cup of tea tastes like. Two different bottled waters, and you could tell the difference. We changed our tea bags to ones that tasted better with our tap water, but they were not so good with our bottled supplies. Yesterday council workmen were out with brooms trying to sweep water back from the road into the brook that had overflowed. Not very productive, I fear. Have a good day everyone.
You wouldn't want to go out wearing a hairpiece here today, you would finish up chasing it down the road. It is little wonder that so many companies in the UK have given up trading with the EU. My calendar has attracted more customs and VAT charges than the value of it. An apologetic company has agreed it is daft and are refunding me the cost, but how many times can they do that? It is all very sad.
Morning all. The wind has dropped, and the sun is making a brace attempt to put in an appearance. The storms that wrecked havoc in the north of the country have been recognized by the government as a situation where people and farmers need help. €50 is being released to help the towns and villages clear up, with aid for the people in homes that were flooded. A further €80 is going to farmers who have lost their crops, and will have to start again. The comments suggest that, despite these being large sums of money, the government is right to help people when this typed of situation occurs. Have a good day everyone.
€50 and €80 don't exactly sound like large sums of money - the latter is roughly what a universal credit recipient would get in a week.
