I had a day out today.

Yes, I went to Montlucon. And even though I had a late-ish start I was still out and round and back earlier than usual.

The impetus was that I had a text to say that my new front door needs picking up otherwise I would lose it, and so I had to go to pick it up. It's not very substantial at all, being just a sheet of double-glazing with a wooden frame around it, and it's not going to be used for ages yet. But the reason why I chose it, for those of you with short memories, is that it's the same style as the windows that I bought for the house and the range was discontinued at the end of March. The fact that it was the cheapest double-glazed door never entered into the argument, of course.

My luck was in too. At the healthfood shop there was some soya cream that had gone past the sell-by date and so they were giving a carton away to each customer. That will do very nicely for a mushroom and onion fried rice later in the week. At at the rubbish shop (NOZ, for the benefit of the foreigners) they were selling a load of flavoured rice milk at just €0:75 a litre. There's a nice long sell-by date on those and so of course there are now none left in the shop. But almond-flavoured rice milk on my breakfast muesli - that has to be the way to go.

It was piping hot too - hottest day of the year for me and so I really fancied a swim, but I had left my swimming trunks back at home. Never mind - Auchan was having a sale and so for €5:00 I treated myself to a pair of new ones. I took the plunge and went to the Centre Aqualudique at St Victor. I'd heard a couple of good reports about it. And it was certainly a far cry from Neris - tidal pools, a fast-flowing current, bubble-massage seats in the pool. And many more people there than at Neris so there was much more to see. Ohhhh yes - I still chase after the women. The problem is though that at my age I can't remember why.

€5:00 admission though - and that's quite a difference from €3:20, and nothing like as intimate. I'll just have to save the Centre Aqualudique for special occasions such as midwinter when it's far too cold to be at Neris.

At the Brico Depot I bought 4 demi-chevrons and 3 sacks of sand. And you might be wondering why. The demi chevrons because I want to put shelves up in this cupboard downstairs and I want to do it the next time the weather is bad, without having to wait for the wood. And the bags of sand? There's some sealing joints that need to be made on the roof of the lean-to that I fitted earlier this year. I've no sand here and so I need to dig out the Sankey trailer, change the wheels, trundle down to the quarry, load the trailer, bring it back here and bag up the sand. With having the sand here I can have the job finished before I've even changed the wheels on the Sankey.

But I hate the people at Brico Depot. I loaded up Caliburn and then went off to pay for it "you need to bring your vehicle here" said the girl in the office. Walking 20 metres was clearly too much for her.
And so I brought the vehicle to the door and she came out - and then started chatting to a fork-lift truck driver.
"When you can spare me the time, if it's not too much trouble for you" I said, and so she shrugged her shoulders to the driver and slumped over to me to check my load.
Yes, the staff at Brico Depot need a collective smack in the mouth. It's just like being back in Belgium and how I hate that country.

Back here I sat down to watch a film and the next thing that I remember was that it was 20:00. A long time since I've crashed out like that too. And for the football we watched a team of bouncing Czechs pole-axe their opposition to advance to the next stage of the UEFA Nations Cup.