Snow in a Stevenage garden with thanks for the photo from a www.netweather.tv member
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Snow in Southern England Today
This is extremely rare but it has been snowing in Southern England today, the earliest many can ever remember...
Snow in a Stevenage garden with thanks for the photo from a www.netweather.tv member
Snow in a Stevenage garden with thanks for the photo from a www.netweather.tv member
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Short Weekend....
A couple of faultless flights from London Stansted to Poitiers and back again find me sitting on the Stansted Express train going into London on a Sunday night, after a lovely, but short, weekend in Sigogne with almost wall to wall blue sky and temperatures into the twenties, this is why we moved to France.
It was a busy weekend since it was a short one, normally I fly back on a Monday morning. So I got stuck into the building work with a vengeance, though it is one of those weekends where you really can’t see much evidence of work representing a day and a half of toil. There was lots of measuring and scratching of my head going on as I worked out where the new walls were going to go and then marking up the floor, walls and ceilings accordingly.
It’s always jobs that you think are small that turn into the big ones and this weekend something that I thought would take an hour to do ended up taking 4 or so. All I had to do was chop out some poured concrete to lower a step by about 6 inches ready to be built up again to the correct height for the new lay out.
I started off by trying to save my tired muscles and so got out all the gadgets at my disposal, which comprised my mini kango drill, and when that was not working well it was joined by an angle grinder with a concrete cutting wheel, but between the two of them after and hours work I had not shifted more than a few square inches, so in frustration I hit the step with a hammer that happened to be laying around and a chunk bigger than that managed by the angle grinder and kango just fell off. So it was down to the garage for a club hammer, and after 45 minutes of brute force most of the step was off, so much for modern technology making things easier, there’s no replacement for a bit of brute force and ignorance.
Before I can go much further though I am going to have to buy some more materials otherwise the work is going to grid to a halt (pardon the pun). Also during the week our builder put in a plea for us to stick to our original plan to put in a wooden ceiling in the upstairs bedroom we are building, as he had already fitted up the ceiling to take the wood and not the plaster board we had changed our minds to on cost. So we went to the local DIY store and discovered some wood at a reasonable price, so he will have to work out how much he needs then go with Franca to buy it. So I have to remember to allow for that cost in my purchase of materials in these challenging monetary times.
As I mentioned before the weather was stunning and so we decided to take Fleur to the local park, half an hour’s drive away, well actually she asked to go and I could not refuse since I had been working all day yesterday. So we set off just after 11, and alarm bells started ringing when we saw only one car in the car park, the park was basically closed for the winter, though you could get in and play on the permanent activities such as swings and slides, all the trampolines, water slides and pedelos had been packed away for the winter, as had the snack bar that is there too. So Fleur played a bit on the swings and roundabouts then we went for a short walk along the river before heading back home again somewhat disappointed.
So that was my short weekend, though for many that do the same commute as me, this was a normal weekend, I am lucky to be able to travel back on a Monday morning most weeks. The winter schedules for our band of long distance commuters is going to set us some interesting challenges, as the cheap airlines turn their attention to the winter ski and sunseaker destinations. I can still get my Monday morning flights, but Fridays is proving to be a bit difficult until after Christmas.
It was a busy weekend since it was a short one, normally I fly back on a Monday morning. So I got stuck into the building work with a vengeance, though it is one of those weekends where you really can’t see much evidence of work representing a day and a half of toil. There was lots of measuring and scratching of my head going on as I worked out where the new walls were going to go and then marking up the floor, walls and ceilings accordingly.
It’s always jobs that you think are small that turn into the big ones and this weekend something that I thought would take an hour to do ended up taking 4 or so. All I had to do was chop out some poured concrete to lower a step by about 6 inches ready to be built up again to the correct height for the new lay out.
I started off by trying to save my tired muscles and so got out all the gadgets at my disposal, which comprised my mini kango drill, and when that was not working well it was joined by an angle grinder with a concrete cutting wheel, but between the two of them after and hours work I had not shifted more than a few square inches, so in frustration I hit the step with a hammer that happened to be laying around and a chunk bigger than that managed by the angle grinder and kango just fell off. So it was down to the garage for a club hammer, and after 45 minutes of brute force most of the step was off, so much for modern technology making things easier, there’s no replacement for a bit of brute force and ignorance.
Before I can go much further though I am going to have to buy some more materials otherwise the work is going to grid to a halt (pardon the pun). Also during the week our builder put in a plea for us to stick to our original plan to put in a wooden ceiling in the upstairs bedroom we are building, as he had already fitted up the ceiling to take the wood and not the plaster board we had changed our minds to on cost. So we went to the local DIY store and discovered some wood at a reasonable price, so he will have to work out how much he needs then go with Franca to buy it. So I have to remember to allow for that cost in my purchase of materials in these challenging monetary times.
As I mentioned before the weather was stunning and so we decided to take Fleur to the local park, half an hour’s drive away, well actually she asked to go and I could not refuse since I had been working all day yesterday. So we set off just after 11, and alarm bells started ringing when we saw only one car in the car park, the park was basically closed for the winter, though you could get in and play on the permanent activities such as swings and slides, all the trampolines, water slides and pedelos had been packed away for the winter, as had the snack bar that is there too. So Fleur played a bit on the swings and roundabouts then we went for a short walk along the river before heading back home again somewhat disappointed.
So that was my short weekend, though for many that do the same commute as me, this was a normal weekend, I am lucky to be able to travel back on a Monday morning most weeks. The winter schedules for our band of long distance commuters is going to set us some interesting challenges, as the cheap airlines turn their attention to the winter ski and sunseaker destinations. I can still get my Monday morning flights, but Fridays is proving to be a bit difficult until after Christmas.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Bed and Bathroom no. 4
Work in porgress in the future shower room and part of the large bedroom to be!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Driving up and down France...
Well where to start with this blog, I guess the beginning. I drove the Jaguar back to the UK on Monday ready for it to go in for its MOT and then had a manic week getting the BMW fit for the drive down to Sigogne on Friday. I had to get new front brake discs and pads plus front shock absorbers from Kwik Fit as well as a service from BMW to keep the full BMW service history going. I also need 2 new tyres but they weren’t in stock so had to drive to France on the old ones which only just legal. I was also buying building materials to take back to Sigogne, but in the end I did not get as much as I wanted, the car was half empty. So on Friday morning I was up bright and early at 4:30am to head down to Dover to catch the ferry over to Calais then the drive down to Sigogne. I have to say the BMW, it’s a 1996 BMW 518 touring never put a foot wrong, easily keeping up with its younger counter parts, despite having a reputation for being under powered, obviously it does not go a fast as my Jaguar, but they both cruise at 130kph with no problems, the BMW just takes a little longer to get there.
So I arrived in Sigogne just in time to surprise Fleur and pick her up from school, so she was a happy bunny for a while until the excitement of having papa around and tiredness caught up with each other and then it was time to calm her down stories and sleep, just another Friday night at Au Bellefleur.
Franca was also a happy bunny because amongst the cargo brought from London was an Indian take away from Franca’s favourite Indian restaurant, it not only survived the journey but tasted great as the empty plates attested, and the good bit was there was enough left over for Saturday too.
During the week in London I did my good Samaritan turn and put up a new fluorescent light in a neighbours kitchen, and having almost no tools in London I was looking for the easiest and quickest way to put up the light without heavy duty tools. I chose to use metal screw in rawl plugs however I had not bargained on how tough 1930’s lathes were (I find they usually disintegrate on impact), and I pulled a muscle in my right shoulder forcing these plug in, even with a pilot hole, but in the end the light was installed and they were happy, I even got a tip of 2 cans of Old Speckled Hen mmmmm very nice they were too.
I am not sure if I have already mentioned this, apologies if I have, but having had the summer away from building work, not only has my girth expanded a notch on my belt but last weekend being the first weekend I had taken on any serious building work since July, my muscles were aching like nothing on earth, having cut and laid 12 sheets of 22mm flooring. Now this weekend I have the added disability of being unable to raise my left arm above my shoulder, things are not going entirely to script at the moment. So Saturday morning I tidied the garage, to get myself moving again, which also meant Fleur could help which she likes to do these days. Then it was time to start tackling the planning of the two new bathrooms I am working on. Planning is hard work because neither of us are very good at visualising the finished article from an empty space so a certain amount of building was done in the form of putting up the frame of a wall to give us the size of the room and putting a shower tray and toilet into the bathroom for scale which we just happened to have laying around, as you do. So the wall moved 3 times, and that was before Franca saw it, but luckily it was OK for her. The upstairs bathroom is not as big as I had imagined it to be so there is not really enough room for a bath so it is now going to be a luxury shower room upstairs and a proper bathroom for the room downstairs. Both have to be built together for the services like water and waste to be run correctly, though each will have its own hot water supply. Sunday was more of the same though to preserve my muscles so they are usable over the coming weeks I stopped at lunch time, much to Fleur’s delight.
The weather I hear you ask… it was absolutely fantastic, summer has finally arrived, well it feels like that, though by UK standards the summer was great, but looking at the grape harvest going on all around us most of the grapes were still quite small and very very bitter in taste…
So I arrived in Sigogne just in time to surprise Fleur and pick her up from school, so she was a happy bunny for a while until the excitement of having papa around and tiredness caught up with each other and then it was time to calm her down stories and sleep, just another Friday night at Au Bellefleur.
Franca was also a happy bunny because amongst the cargo brought from London was an Indian take away from Franca’s favourite Indian restaurant, it not only survived the journey but tasted great as the empty plates attested, and the good bit was there was enough left over for Saturday too.
During the week in London I did my good Samaritan turn and put up a new fluorescent light in a neighbours kitchen, and having almost no tools in London I was looking for the easiest and quickest way to put up the light without heavy duty tools. I chose to use metal screw in rawl plugs however I had not bargained on how tough 1930’s lathes were (I find they usually disintegrate on impact), and I pulled a muscle in my right shoulder forcing these plug in, even with a pilot hole, but in the end the light was installed and they were happy, I even got a tip of 2 cans of Old Speckled Hen mmmmm very nice they were too.
I am not sure if I have already mentioned this, apologies if I have, but having had the summer away from building work, not only has my girth expanded a notch on my belt but last weekend being the first weekend I had taken on any serious building work since July, my muscles were aching like nothing on earth, having cut and laid 12 sheets of 22mm flooring. Now this weekend I have the added disability of being unable to raise my left arm above my shoulder, things are not going entirely to script at the moment. So Saturday morning I tidied the garage, to get myself moving again, which also meant Fleur could help which she likes to do these days. Then it was time to start tackling the planning of the two new bathrooms I am working on. Planning is hard work because neither of us are very good at visualising the finished article from an empty space so a certain amount of building was done in the form of putting up the frame of a wall to give us the size of the room and putting a shower tray and toilet into the bathroom for scale which we just happened to have laying around, as you do. So the wall moved 3 times, and that was before Franca saw it, but luckily it was OK for her. The upstairs bathroom is not as big as I had imagined it to be so there is not really enough room for a bath so it is now going to be a luxury shower room upstairs and a proper bathroom for the room downstairs. Both have to be built together for the services like water and waste to be run correctly, though each will have its own hot water supply. Sunday was more of the same though to preserve my muscles so they are usable over the coming weeks I stopped at lunch time, much to Fleur’s delight.
The weather I hear you ask… it was absolutely fantastic, summer has finally arrived, well it feels like that, though by UK standards the summer was great, but looking at the grape harvest going on all around us most of the grapes were still quite small and very very bitter in taste…
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