Wednesday 22 July.
It was still raining this morning when we wakened so we didn't venture out for a walk. The data allowance we had for the internet ran out so we couldn't get the newspaper first thing. I read and finished my book instead. After breakfast Moira went to Vodacom in Port Shepstone to get another couple of Gigs for the internet. While she was out I cut round the grouting on a couple of tiles outside the bathroom door. They then lifted easily and I began to chip away at the cement. This time it came away a bit easier and by the time Moira got back I had cleared about a third. I worked on it in spells throughout the morning and had it cleared and ready to relay the tiles mid-afternoon.
Now we had internet it was possible to get the 'Telegraph' downloaded. I read it in between spells of cement chipping. Last week Moira had left my hearing aids with the woman at the Medical Centre for servicing. The report was that they were obsolete and expensive to repair. Moira phoned her this morning and arranged to go in at mid-day to find out what options we had. She forgot about going bowling when she made the appointment and if we wanted to play it would be a rush. When we looked at the weather we decided to give the bowls a miss. It had been raining on and off most of the morning then cleared up. But now close to lunchtime the clouds were dark and it didn't look very good. It tuned out to be the right decision as it got very dark early afternoon and then there was heavy rain again, certainly not a day for playing bowls.
Before lunch we went to the hearing centre and spoke to, Rekha Sugudhav, the Clinical Audiologist about hearing aids. She said the technology had advanced leaps and bounds since I got mine. They were at different performance levels and prices. The cheapest at R12000 each wasn't much good under noisy conditions, at R2000 it was much better and for R34000 you would be able to hear clearly in any conditions. When I got mine about 10 years ago they were R12000 each but the exchange rate at the time was R10 to £1. So maybe the prices aren't too bad and depending also on how much the Medical Aid pay towards the cost. We decided that to leave it until we come out again and also enquire what we can get in the UK under the NHS.
When we got home it was time for lunch and soon after the cycling began on the TV. It was now in the mountains of the French Alps after their rest day. Sky's Chris Froome remains the GC leader after holding off several attacks by second-placed Quintana while Germany's Simon Geschke won in Pra Loup.
Giant's Geschke had broken free with 50km left of the 161km stage. Earlier, the American van Garderen, third in the GC, was forced to retire, he was struggling well behind the peleton. In an aggressive start to the race he was dropped on the first climb of the day, the category 3 Col des Lèques, suffering with illness. While he did regain contact, the pace picked up again on the Col de la Colle Saint-Michel, the third climb of the day, and soon the BMC team car ground to a halt and van Garderen unclipped, climbed aboard, out of the Tour.
Geschke attacked from a large but splintering breakaway just before the foot of the category 1 Col d’Allos, before holding his lead down the mountain and up the short final climb to Pra Loup. Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin) gave chase but it was ultimately in vain, while Rigoberto Urán came home third.
There was plenty of action in the yellow jersey group and while Froome defended his lead over Quintana, and Contador lost over two minutes after crashing on the descent of Allos, and dropped to fifth overall behind Geraint Thomas (Sky).
Pra Loup is symbolic for being the scene of the downfall of the great Eddy Merckx. In the 1975 Tour, the five-time Tour de France winner was in yellow and in the lead on the descent of the Col d’Allos but was overhauled on the final climb to Pra Loup by Bernard Thévenet, who took yellow and went onto to win the race. Merckx wouldn’t wear yellow or win a Grand Tour again and Thévenet wrote himself into cycling folklore as the Tombeur de Merckx – the man who brought Merckx down.
Contador might still be in the race but his general classification ambitions were dealt an equally fatal blow. The Spaniard, part of a select group than included Froome, Quintana, Nibali, and Valverde, crashed on the descent of the Col d’Allos and finished 2:17 down on Froome. He is now 6:40 back on GC and his already faint hopes of pulling off the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double have all but disappeared from sight.
During the cycling when there wasn't much action I mixed up some cement and laid the tiles in the sections I had cleared. I mixed up more cement than I needed and Moira used the extra to grout between the tiles I had previously laid. We also cut away the grout that was loose round some tiles and re-grouted them. When the cycling was over we had dinner then watched the quizzes until about 8 pm. After that there wasn't anything on TV we wanted to watch. I worked on a crossword, not successfully, then read until until bedtime. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow as I want to do more painting on the outside walls of the house.
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