Much cooler, overcast and dull. Raining when we woke up at eight, so we had a lie in. The 'fridge wasn’t switching on as the voltages were low, so Mike ran the engine after connecting the Markon up. As the generator was running I did some washing. He went into Castanets in the car to the Post Office to pay in the money to cover the dry docking bill. After lunch we went into Toulouse by car to find a ‘phone shop which would unlock the two Ericsson phones that Mike bought via Ebay, which were locked on the UK Vodaphone network. We drove down Rue de Bayard and had to turn off as Mike thought he was driving down a bus lane and traffic was one way, the opposite way to what we were going. We went to go around the block but then saw a cyber café with a notice in its window that said “Phones unlocked”. We parked in the underground car park at Place Jean d’Arc and walked back to the shop. Yes, the young Algerian guy said after he’d made two 'phone calls, could we come back around six o’clock as the bloke who did the unlocking would be there then? Yes, OK. We went back through the city and went into Jardiland, had a look round (a cockatiel insisted on telling both of us its life story but sadly we didn’t listen to its pleas for rescue) and I bought a hanging basket with a strange looking succulent plant that had pink, red and orange flowers, called a pourpier (portulac or moss rose), then we went for a drive in the countryside to the east of Toulouse. Called at a bank ATM for some cash and an MBK bike shop for a new sparking plug for the moped. We parked again in the underground car park at Jean d’Arc and went back to the shop at 6.00 p.m. No sign of the bloke yet, could we call back in an hour? We went walkabout. Sat outside St Sernin’s Basilica after having a very brief look inside. Still no sign of the guy who does the 'phones, could we come back the next day? Nope, we’re moving the boats, we’d be about five days before we get back. OK. Should be done before then. We drove back in the slow moving traffic. Back just in time to get the French weather forecast. OK next day and a slight chance of rain over Saturday and Sunday. Checked with Bill, OK for moving on in the morning.
Friday, 12 February 2010
Wednesday 2nd July 2008 abv Vic C. du Midi
Overcast and cooler, at last! We took Bill with us to Labège 2 to get some groceries. We went to find the SFR shop to sort out our ‘phone and said we’d meet Bill back by the seats at the entrance. The SFR shop was very busy. Young Audrey was very sympathetic, she 'phoned and it turned out that a piece of paper was missing, a proof of domicile in the UK! We had had that subscription with SFR for two years and yesterday they decided that their records weren’t complete and without any warning or explanation severed our telephone connection. We had taken our most recent bill for the Internet connection from SFR – no problems with that! It was not an acceptable proof of domicile! She took a copy of Mike’s carte gris (car logbook), but there was no address (it’s French and coupled to the Livret de circulation) on it. After two ‘phone calls and several faxes she said service would be restored within 48 hours. Bill was on his way to the seats in the exit having already bought his groceries - it had taken us over an hour to sort out our ‘phone. We said we’d be as quick as possible and asked if he wanted to put his stuff in the car, but he said no he’d rather sit and wait for us in the cool air-conditioned mall. That branch of Carrefour was certainly much larger than the one at Agen Sud, so we had trouble finding things. I was a bit annoyed to find no potatoes other than a few loose ones, same for onions. Bill had stocked up on heavies - beer, milk and wine. Back to the boat for a late lunch. Mike checked the boat batteries and found a corroded connection meant only half the batteries were connected to the system. He fixed that and we had lunch. Mike asked the lock keeper at Vic if there was a déchetterrie (rubbish disposal and recycling centre) local to the boat. He and Bill took the empty paint tins that the VNF refused to let us put in their bins – they said take them home with you – we were home! The people in charge of the déchetterrie wanted our postcode or where we came from, so Mike gave them the postcode for Valence.
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