I'm Caliburn-less at trhe moment.

He's gone to the mender's for his annual check-up and I fear it's going to be another expensive one as apparently he has a warped front disc. And that might explain why the tyres have been wearing unevenly and also why the braking has never been as good as I would have liked ever since he was new.

So we dug ourselves out of a snowdrift this morning and headed off to Montlucon. And I found a car wash that was open (despite the cold) next to the LIDL, so Caliburn could have his annual bath. I was quite tempted myself but mine's not due for another month or so. But Caliburn is clean, anyway and the salt has been washed from out of his wheel arches.

At the Auchan, where I did some desultory shopping, I came across, at long last, a decent camera bag. The right size, with lots of pockets and so on. It was expensive, but then again so is my camera equipment and leaving it rolling around on the floor of Caliburn is not really a solution. I also bought some tins of ratatouille for the storeroom, having noticed the label and thinking "that's the beand for me!". But with lesdyxia luring KO, a closer look at the label revealed that it is in fact branded "Pre-vert", or 'Green Meadow'. Ahh well.

Having left Caliburn at the garage on the edge of town, I had to walk into the centre to meet Liz who had been teaching there today and who had offered to bring me home. And dressed up in layers of coats and jackets with gloves, hat and furry boots to counter the Combrailles weather, while Montlucon was basking in a barmy mere -2°C, it made me feel like Nanook of the North. and I spent a good while looking around, but I couldn't find him anywhere. I did however catch a glimpse of myself in a mirrored door, and I reckoned that I looked just like someone whose trawler had just docked in the harbour. Ahhh, the sartorial elegance of it all.

Back home, we are about to experience something of a crisis - we've run out of Christmas cake! Whatever am I going to do now? But the good news is that I'm sitting here in my little room, basking in a balmy 23°C while outside, it's -6°C. And all done on free fuel as well. What an excellent buy this woodstove was!