How long is it...

... since I featured an old vehicle on my blog? I can't remember  nw but it may well have been about a year ago, and it might have been a Citroen lorry. And so here's another old Citroen lorry that I saw on Thursday.

After the customary couple of hours on the web pages I went out and carried on with the framework for the greenhouse, but I didn't have enough chevrons. In fact, doing a considerable bit of mix-and-match, I was just 10 cms short.

So after lunch I had a good root around here, sorted out a pile of stuff for the dechetterie at Pionsat (there were four dustbins full of tin cans), went down there to dispose of it, and then went to the sawmill at St Gervais for some wood. And it was at the sawmill that I saw the lorry.

Now despite the fact that it's a rare-enough lorry as it is, this vehicle is practically unique and there probably won't be another one quite like this anywhere. Do you see what looks like a boiler at the side behind the cab? That had me puzzled for quite a while and I thought at first that it was a tar-spreader. I ruled that out though because the jets are in front of the truck, meaning that to do its spreading it would have to travel in reverse.

And then the penny dropped. We are at a sawmill, aren't we? Yes, and what this is is a lorry that runs on wood-gas - like they did in the war when there was no petrol. And he was here to fuel up with his wood chippings because, astonishingly as it might seem, he still runs it on wood-gas. He'd gone off to chat with his friends otherwise I probably would have been still there now chatting to him. But it's a good job that I had to go out - I would have missed that otherwise.

Last night, the blogspot editor was down so I couldn't publish anything, but I had one of those rare nights - a nuit blanche where I didn't go to sleep. It's been years since I've had one of those. I sat in the window and at approximately 04:45 the sun started to come up, so I took a photo, and then went on to read a book.

Today I've spent most of it on the phone. Katherine has sent a parcel back from Canada and it's gone missing. The Canadian Postal Service's website is useless and the telephone system is one of those digitalised ones where it is not possible to speak to a human, and it tells you nothing that the website doesn't tell you.

Of course, I'm not one to take that kind of thing lying down and after many struggles I ended up speaking to the Personal Assistant of Rob Merrifield, who is the Canadian Government Minister for Posts and telecommunications. We had a lengthy chat and this evening I've received a mail from her to say that someone from the Canadian Postal Service will be in touch with me. We shall see, of course, because I have heard all of this before, but the only way to deal with incompetence and obfuscation is to go to the top. Once a few Government ministers have had their ears bent by a few dissatisfied customers, things might change. Mind you, I'm not holding my breath. It's not like the time that the lavatory attendants closed the public conveniences on Crewe Bus Station, to the inconvenience of everyone. But I didn't take it lying down - I stood up and went over their heads.

So after finishing off the framework for the greenhouse I came in and started tidying up. I have a caller tomorrow - someone who wants to sell me some solar panels so that I can sell electricity to the EDF. I hate these canvassers.