What a beautiful day.

Definitely the best of the summ... errrr ... winter so far. Not only did we have the hottest temperatures of the winter, we had the sunniest too. Not a cloud in the sky all day. My batteries in the house are all fully-charged and the water heater (that uses up the excess electricity) ran for 2.5 hours and warmed up the water to 32°C. Not quite shower-warm but we are getting there.

But how ridiculous is this though, when just 12 days ago we had -8.4°C? It could only happen here in the Combrailles.

Today I finished off "holiday lettings" ready for recording tomorrow, and then I worked on a blog for the radio programmes - an important thing that needs doing seeing as we seem to be going nationwide (well - alright, into the Allier and the Creuse). The aim is of course to stream out programmes so that people who miss them or live outside the reception areas can pick them up.

So after that it was off to St Bonnet to watch Pionsat's 1st XI give them a good spannering. and I arrived 10 minutes late to find that they were already ahead 2-0. They won 4-0 in the end and that included missing a penalty, thanks to an excellent double-save by the St Bonnet keeper.

But this match was well-planned to be played in mid-winter. The heat that was generated on the field both on and off the ball would have certainly melted any ice that might otherwise have formed in any traditional kind of winter weather.

And so round to Liz and Terry's to rehearse our radio programmes this week. We are recording at Radio Arverne tomorrow and Radio Tartasse on Tuesday.

And now I'm back home in my warm unheated attic - two consecutive days that I haven't had the heating on here - watching the Jets and the Patriots. And listening to the adverts - including one for Viagra "seek medical attention immediately if you have an erection that lasts for four hours". At my age, it wouldn't be medical attention that I would be seeking, I could tell you. It reminds me of the time that a new machine tools factory opened up in Crewe, and the proud owner put up his sign "O'Malley's Tool Works". So I rang him up and told him "so does mine, but I haven't put up a sign about it".