I woke this morning to see Rita with a big smile on her face, and she then told me that she had Pinched&Punched me during the night while I was asleep. I couldn't remember a thing about it, but then I wouldn't if I was asleep! I didn't know whether to believe her or not, but finally concluded that it was a clever way to claim the honours. But we both agreed not to try that one again.
This morning I watched the Hawks continue their recent good form when they defeated the Adelaide Crows 107-80. They are starting to be able to play consistently well, and seem to have a great team spirit in the way they congratulate and support each other. A delight to watch at the moment, and many are starting to say they could play finals this year, which would be a bit ahead of schedule.
Having got the Novelia house insurance quote yesterday, we have picked ourselves up off the floor, and started to think about alternatives. Since GAN were so good in handling our campervan theft claim last year, we decided to give them a try. So Rita rang the Castelsarassin office, where we got the campervan insurance, and explained the situation to them. They asked a few questions about the property, then said they would get back to us. Within 2 hours (on a Saturday morning) they had got back to us with a quote that was one third of the Novelia quote, and less than we had ever paid to Novelia. We accepted on the spot. Now that's service!
During the afternoon I went down to the engine room for something and found that the grey water pump tank had again overflowed and dumped water in the bilge. So I got to work with the Karcher wet&dry vacuum and emptied 10 bucketfuls out of the bilge. Once again, the problem was the float switch, so I manually triggered it and emptied the remaining grey water out of the tank, then got the trusty WD40 and gave the float switch a good spray and clean to stop it from gumming up again. Let's see how long this lasts.
During the day there has been plenty of noise and activity on the river, with a regional sculling tournament taking place, with hundred of competitors. By listening to the announcer as he calls the competitors to the starting line, they come from all over north-east France, from Lyon, to Dijon, to Strasbourg and all places in between. There's a wide range of skills from the very fast to the not so fast, as shown below.
Sat 1 June - PnP, Hawks, GAN, grey water, sculling, Vindi, John&Trump, SGP
Rita headed off to see Sarah in Besain this afternoon, while I kept writing the BioFACT report so that I could send it to Peter Vizzard before we meet again tomorrow. In the meantime, I noticed a boat entering port and recognise the name - Vindi. This was Phil Tyson's first boat (before Effie) and from it's sleek lines I could see why he still raves about it. I went over to Pontoon B to help them tie up and to introduce myself and explain my connection to Phil. Gus and Ardon were very pleasant people and were very concerned when I described Kathy's fall, and subsequent stay in hospital, to them.
Later in the afternoon, I was on deck and noticed two young boys (maybe 12-24 years old) who had rowed into the marina and were doing practice starts in the clear water between the line-ups of barges. I videod one of these starts, and when they had finished they turned the scull and called out to me as they approached. In a mixture of French and English they asked me if I could sent them a copy of the video that I had made. They came alongside and gave me their mobile number for me to SMS the video to them. I did so, and later in the afternoon, I got a response thanking me for sending the video. A nice interaction with the locals.
As evening approached, Capitain John came to Pontoon A to interact with the newly arriving hire boats. When he had some spare time, I couldn't resist talking to him about Donald Trump. John is not exactly a fan of DJT, and it's always interesting to hear his views on DJT and the state of US politics. But I couldn't listen forever, so I returned to the boat and later that night finally finished the BioFACT Model report, and sent it off the Peter.
I then followed the Speedway Grand Prix from Prague, and was interested to see that Mansfield boy Max Fricke had returned to the field as a permanent replacement for Aussie Jason Doyle who was running 2nd in the championshio, but had a nasty accident in the UK and was now out of action for the rest of the year. Max started off well with a win in his first race, and continued that form in the heats, being beaten only once. But his fairytale return to the series was spoiled in the grand final when he ran 2nd to Martin Vaculik. Great return to top class speedway.
More rain arrived this morning, and lingered around the place for most of the day. As a result, the ongoing sculling event on the river was conducted somewhat less enthusiastically. So I stayed indoors and continued with the BioFACT modelling, extending the analysis from the initial 10 years (which I might live to see) up to three rotations covering 30 years (which I definitely won't live to see). In the afternoon, Peter Vizzard came across from St Jean de Losne and we spent several productive hours discussing the modelling and the pyrolysis project in general. The upshot of all this was that Peter agreed to provide the project with a sizeable loan to help with the initial CAPEX, to help get the project up and running. Very much appreciated that he has such faith in us and the project.
Sun 2 June - rain, more sculling, 30 year plan, Peter Vizzard discussion
I woke early this morning and continued reading my current novel, "Boy Swallows Universe", an interesting story about a boy growing up in an unusual family in Queensland, and the challenges he faces. The rain from yesterday has disappeared, and it is now cloudy but dry. During the morning, Clive and Elaine on Cochon Noir left the port for their trip south to go to the Canal de Centre.
Later in the day, I got an email from son David, who I had also asked about interest in funding the pyrolysis project. He replied that he had examined his finances and investments, and would be able to find a substantial amount to loan to the project. This, combined with Peter's agreement yesterday, is starting to make the financial viability fo the project look pretty good (in combination with the proceeds from the sale of the house in Moissac).
Rita arrived home from her weekend in Bern in the evening, and said that in her meeting with her nephew Janik and his wife Stephie, she learned that Stephie's brother was also involved with some research on pyrolysis systems when he was working in Portugal. It's a small world.
Mon 3 June - up early, reading, dry, Cochon Noir, DJR, Portugese pyrolysis
Given the long hours I have been putting into the BioFACT modelling, and Rita's travel to Bern over the weekend, we decided to have a well-earned sleep-in today. I was awakened by the water pump that had kicked into operation by itself, without a tap being turned on. I did a bit of research and read this was sometimes caused by the accumulator (a pressure cylinder downstream of the water pump) which sometimes loses pressure and needs to be re-pressurised with a bike pump. So I headed down to the engine room with our trusty bike pump and pumped it up as much as I could. It seemed to resolve the problem a little, but by the end of the day the water pump had started to come on by itself again. More research required! In the meantime, we'll just turn the water pump off at night, so that the water pump (which is rather noisy) doesnot come on in the middle of the night.
In the afternoon, Rita headed over the Dijon to collect her Graduation Certificate and to talk with Patrick about the book based on her research and the lecture on ethnology that he wants her to prepare. She came home with a smile on her face!
Tues 4 June - sleep in, water pump bladder, graduation certificate
For a change, the morning started sunny, but who knows how long that will last. During the morning I got another email from David, saying that after more thought about the use of a mortgage offset, he would be able to provide a bigger loan to the pyrolysis project than he originally thought. Very welcome news, as I'm sure he has considered all the reports and modelling I have sent to him and can see that it would be a good investment.
Around noon, I settled down to watch the 1st State of Origin NRL game between NSW and QLD, the most highly contested game of the year (apart from the Grand Final of the NRL Premiership itself). As always, there were confident predictions from both camps before the game, but the NSW confidence only lasted 8 minutes into the game, when one of them ironed out the QLD fullback with a high tackle, and got himself sent off. From then on, it was just a matter of "how far QLD?". In the end, it was 38-10, and this was at the NSW home ground in Sydney.
After the State of Origin game, I thought I would do something useful, so I took all the elasticised cord out of the bimini border and re-strung it with nylon rope. The original cord was put in in 2010, so we got a good 14 years out of it in all sorts of weather. Will be interesting to see how long the new rope lasts.
Wed 5 June - sunny, DJR, SOO1, bimini, bathroom lights, ginguette, fisherman
Since I was in a good DIY mood, I continued with some other jobs around the boat, including renewing all the batteries in the replacement lights in the bathroom. In the evening, we went up to the Ginguette for an evening drink, and met up with Capitain John and Georgie and stand-in capitain Pete, so we sat down with them and ordered something to eat as well as drink. We learned that Pete was soon to change port and move his boat up to Gray. We came home as the sun was setting over the Saone, and the fisherman near the port entrance gave the sunset a very French feeling.
Having finished the "Boy Swallows Universe" book, I started on the next, which was Louis Theroux's story about many of the weird people he had interviewed in the USA, and this was before all the crazy MAGA people emerged.
The morning dawned fine again, so maybe summer is on the way. Rita took the train to Besançon this morning to go to the library and renew her borrowing card, so that she can continue to access books online while she writes the book and lecture that her school wants her to do. In the meantime, I got cracking on trying to catch up on this blog.
That night we went into the centre of Auxonne because there was a Night Market scheduled to happen. Since we had enjoyed the Night Markets in the south of France so much, we thought we'd give the Auxonne one a try. There were plenty of people gathered at tables around the cathedral emoyed a meal and a drink, but the "entertainment" consisted of young people singing karaoke (badly) over a very loud PA system. It was unbearable, so we quickly left the market area and went looking for somewhere else to eat. Most of the cafes/restaurants were closed, but we found a new one, Cafe 44, in one of the back streets. It was only small, but we saw it had a couple of empty tables, so we went in to try out luck. We were in luck, and got a table for two. There were only two staff, the waitress and the chef and the facilities were minimal (all in one room) but that was all that was needed. The chef was very friendly and visited all the tables in between cooking the meals. He was fascinated that we "had come to his cafe from Australia". The meals were good, and so we put it in our memory banks for future visits.
After dinner, Rita headed off to Gospel Choir practice, while I headed home for an early night.
Thurs 6 June - fine, Besançon, blog, night market, Cafe44, gospel choir