Strikes and gutters

Ups and downs

Jun 07, 2025

Sometimes, though such occurrences are rare, things just work. Having mentally set aside an afternoon, or a day, for chin scratching, fiddling, finagling and floundering; one can find oneself at a happy loss when things fall into place.

Of course such triumphant moments are often quickly followed by a creeping, or immediate, realisation that something is not quite right, or worse.

On this occasion no such realisations: I absolutely nailed the internet connection to the second gîte.

Not the most glamorous of jobs, but a relative necessity in modern times. I was expecting to have to delve back into the world of network switches and power injectors, then to run hard-wired cables through exterior walls and to once again have to borrow a drill bit over a metre long in order to be able to do so, but no.

I bought a powerline adaptor set, plugged it in and connected it to our router, then did the same with the corresponding wifi extender in the gîte, and then 1 minute later… it just worked. No faffing, no extensive setup, no ladders, no intricate threading of Cat5 cables into jacks (if you’ve ever done this as an amateur you’ll know the pain).

I hated networking in my previous life… and I still hate it now

This small victory made me inordinately happy, but any feelings of vaingloriousness had to be banished immediately, as the jinx is real.

Par example, the grass needs cutting at least once a week at the moment. I hopped onto the tractor tondeuse and got going, only to realise the blades are ‘scalping’ the grass. On closer inspection one of them was badly bent, so all work had to stop.

Much swearing and effort later, because of course the nut is just the size that I don’t have the right spanner for, and the offending blade is off. I can’t bend it back into position using the vice and manpower so I buy a replacement, which in very un-French fashion, arrives within a couple of days. I sharpened the blade and reinstalled and prepared to get the now-almost-desperation-stakes mowing done.

I turned the key and drove off… only to find there was now a front wheel puncture.

*La crevaison - now fixed with the help of some tyre sealant*

This general rhythm of French life in the countryside is best summed up, as with many things, by the Dude.

In trying to buy specific bolts for a new set of shutters I drove to Sotradis in Caylus - a building supplies store. Well, sort of. Some things they have, and many things they do not. It’s the type of place that sells assorted declassified used bolts by the kilogram, and where health and safety in the workplace is just a mere distraction.

Despite having two rows of boxes dedicated to bolts of various sizes and uses it’s obvious that stock control is a novel concept here, so no dice. This was not the end of the line, however; a 30 minute drive to a town may yet be avoided. Although a small French village, Caylus has two places that sell boulonnerie, so I went down the hill to the quincaillerie, a place that truly does sell almost everything.

All the way through to the back of the store on the right are, literally, the nuts and bolts of the place and, YES!, they have 7x70s with square tab at the top of the shaft and a round domed head. Result.

Bolts, washers, nuts and the price catalogue. Dog not pictured.

Flush with the success of a job well done I moseyed over to the caisse to pay. As always, I regretted not looking at the price when the owner asks me if I knew how much they were, so he consulted his master catalogue of typed price sheets.

So close to full, unadulterated success, I bent down to say hello to a small terrier-like dog on a lead belonging to another customer chatting to the owner. The dog then proceeded to bite me on the hand.

Strikes and gutters indeed.

More generally, the second gîte is now all but done, with only a a few odd jobs left to do before our first guests arrive at the end of next week. Finishing up always takes more time than you expect, but we can reflect on some major changes and extensive renovation work. Perhaps the subject of a later post if I can summon the energy.