[BITList] Yet another glorious chimney fire!

[fredmno at aol.com]

Salaams,
???????????? Tom asked about semain and mois for week and month and yes they still exist but semain is rarely used and quinze jour is the one and only expression they have for fortnight. As an instance I used recently a product that declared I should use it for huit jour at a certain dose and thereafter at a lesser dose for another quinze jour, simply put they meant a week and then two, this is written on an everyday product. Incidently the product in question is a chimney clearer of tar that one accumalates burning wood, well with its assistance yesterday I had one hell of an inferno going within the said aperture, the bloody tar was running down the outside of the exhaust tube and when I opened the front furnace door off it jolly well went, didn't need a shave later in the day, no eyebrow plucking either for a month. Anyway I slammed the door shut and closed the air inlet and hoped the lack of oxygen would extinguish the fire, it did slowly but alas not so in the chimney and I still had hot spots on the bedroom walls this morning. Last night I spent about an hour at the top of a ladder with hose in hand directing the water down the chimney. I can confirm the said fire is out and the boiler relit. On one of their two visits the fire chief said that the best way to clear chimneys is in fact to have controlled chimney fires every now and then. Why did I bother to put out the fire myself, simply because it depends on what mood the fire chief is in when they arrive, ifs its a bad 'un you get a bill? All our sapeur pompiers are volunteers, rather like Dads Army but with all the equipment and the current chief and I are not seeing eye to eye over my hay. In a nutshell we let him take off our land about a thousand euros worth of hay every year and in return he places sufficient bales in one of our barns that are needed for our two horses. Well three years ago he changed over to the big round bales which proved bloody nigh on impossible for me to cope with on my own! To cut a long story short two years ago I bought in 

the smaller normal size bales and again this year and he took it as read that I was happy with the current situation, like bloody hell I was, it doesent help that he's the husband of our youngest sons godmother. This is where understanding the French comes in and why I read Zola, through his narratives you get an insight into how they think, I'll explain later.
?????????????? Re pensions, mine is a private one, the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund and like all the rest of private pensions we suffered from Gordons removal of tax relief on dividends, rather like changing the goal posts mid match, totally destroyed the finest and best pension system in the world at a single stroke. The only people whose pensions are now index linked are ex government employed pensioners, the likes of teachers, police etc., fair or what?! Anyway I'm off for my snails its football with the kids this afternoon.
?????????????????????????????????????????? BR Fred
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