What a shambles!

This recording session at Radio Tartasse was nothing but a shambles - it really was. I can understand why it is that performers and other thespians and the like throw tantrums and have hysterics if they have studio staff like this to deal with.

Despite having told them on several occasions how the programme ought to be run they did it completely differently. They had us read out THE WHOLE of "Buying and Selling Property" in one swell foop with the idea that they would edit it into segments. 40-odd minutes of typed text!

Now it might seem logical to do that but there are several major disadvantages.
Firstly - you can't physically read 40 minutes of documentation out loud without wanting to stop for breath, to clear your throat, to gather your wits (such as they are) and so on and so forth.
Secondly - after the first 15 minutes you become bored, your attention starts to wander, you miss your cues and the reading deteriorates rapidly.
Thirdly - Liz and I keep up a constant patter of repartee and ad-lib our way through much of our chats. And if I dare to say it, we do it very well. But after 15 minutes or so we are tired and confused and we don't have the same spark or interaction and it spoils the show.
Fourthly - when it comes to ending our programme we finish off with a little impromptu chat. But they just want to cut it dead and it won't work like that.
Fifthly - and most importantly - if they want our topics "en bloc" and to cut them into segments themselves, how will we know when the topic is finished? How will we know when to prepare fresh stuff? I don't intend to sit around on Sunday mornings writing stuff that won't ever be used - I've enough to do. So suppose I decide not to do anything for a week or two and then find out that they've used up all the material?

No, it won't work like that and I told them so, and I didn't mince my words either.

It's nothing but totally shambolic. The woman that does the technical stuff is a sham, and the old guy that does the organising - he's a load of ... errrr ... rubbish.

So off to Montlucon to order my windows only to find that I'd forgotten the to bring the paper with the dimensions. And Terry, who had measured up "in case you forget" had also forgotten the measurements too. But I did buy the last 30 Brussels sprouts in the whole of France (a Christmas without sprouts is unthinkable) and in Brico Depot I had a most astonishing find - a beautiful faded-oak effect parquet flooring on special offer of about €8:00 per square metre. It's gorgeous and just the thing for my bedroom, so I now have 18 metres of that downstairs and I wish that I had bought some more.

But an astonishing thing happened here while I was away. all day we had nothing but overcast gloomy foggy clouds that followed us around. Back in Pionsat this evening when we returned there was a clearish sky. But the statistics here - 100 amp-hours of solar energy, temperatures of 13 degrees, 12 degrees in my attic - told me that here while we had been away we had been bathed in glorious sunshine for much of the afternoon. And that is just so surprising.

But tomorrow, snow is forecast so we shall see.