Thursday 23 July.
The weather was nice this morning and we got out for a walk before breakfast. We went round by Edinburgh to Park Rd and down to Norman Av then when we reached Old Faith Rd headed down to the Spar supermarket. We stopped there to pick up the local newspaper before heading up the hill home. It was a good walk and Moira is beginning to move better and isn't feeling so much pain now that she is rubbing 'Deep Heat' into her thighs and calfs.
We didn't bother to shower until later, I was going to do some more painting, this time the front of the house. The man who was making the security gate for us was supposed to come this morning to fit it. He was supposed to come on Monday, then yesterday now Moira kept phoning and texting him until we got a definite time. It wasn't quite definite as it was meant to be this morning but he didn't turn up until the afternoon when I was busy watching the 'Tour'.
I didn't try to ladle the paint from the heavy 20 litre container into the roller tray, it was a messy process yesterday, but just dipped the roller into the top of the tub. I used the tray to run the roller back and forward to spread the paint evenly. I laid out old curtains on the stoop to prevent any paint drips getting on the tiles. It was a bit awkward painting where the creeper was growing over the awning and up the top of the wall. I had to use the ladder to get up to the edging that slopes down from the roof and Moira held it steady for me. It turned out actually to be quite an easy job and the paint went on nicely and covered any marks and stains on the wall. It took me about 2 hours to finish along the front of the house. It is looking very bright and clean.
We showered after I had cleaned the paint brush and Moira stored the roller in the tray with some water. After I was cleaned and dressed I relaxed with a cup of tea and worked on the 'Telegraph' crossword, successfully. After lunch I put on the TV for the cycling. I was enjoying it for an hour until the guy arrived with his two helpers and the new gate and began to install it. It was now noisy with their drilling, grinding and hammering; I couldn't hear the race commentary. I think the guy was a bit of a 'cowboy' and didn't measure the job properly. He had to remove the 'skirting board' tiles to get the gate to open properly and even at that it didn't open fully but fouled on the wall. Another thing was that the hinges looked a bit skew. He said he was coming back tomorrow to put epoxy cement on the bolt heads to prevent anybody removing them. He said he will be here at 10 am but on past performance I shan't be holding my breath for him arriving then.
The second day in the Alps took the riders 186.5km from Gap to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. The Frenchman, Bardet, attacked from a break just shy of the summit of the 'Cat 1' Col du Glandon and carved out an advantage in style on the way down the mountain before holding his lead over the Lacets de Montvernier and the 10 subsequent kilometres to the line.
Compatriot Rolland (Europcar) set off in pursuit after cresting the picturesque Lacets, or shoelaces, which were making their first appearance in the Tour, but he couldn’t gain any ground. Anacona (Movistar) took third from the fragments of what had once been a 29-rider breakaway. It is a debut Tour de France stage win for Bardet, for whom the icing on the cake was to move into the top 10 on GC.
Whereas the pressure was on Chris Froome right from the start of yesterday’s stage, today it wasn't until the Col du Glandon, that he was really tested. The outcome, though, was the same; he would not be shaken and moved one step closer to Paris, and his lead remains at 3:10 over Quintana (Movistar).
It looked like Team Sky would exert their characteristic control all the way up the Glandon but Contador lit things up with an attack that saw him go clear and link up with a group up the road. Nibali made an attack of his own near the top of the climb and while the yellow jersey group thinned, Froome himself remained in contact, and they caught Contador on the descent. Nibali tried again on the Lacets but Quintana, who stands the most realistic chance of overhauling Froome, was fairly inactive given the dwindling kilometres he has to cancel out a hefty deficit. With the top of the GC unchanged, gruelling summit finishes at La Toussuire and Alpe d’Huez on the next two stages are where the attacks will have to be made.
After the cycling Moira made the dinner, no power cuts tonight. We watched the early evening quizzes on TV then I put on the Freeview recorder for something different to watch. There was an old film 'The Corn is Green' starring Katherine Hepburn about a woman setting up a school in a mining community in Wales and discovering a genius who wins a scholarship to Oxford. After that I put on a murder mystery, 'Hidden Remains', only to find when it 'finished' that there was a second part. Unfortunately I hadn't recorded it, and it was very good as well.
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