… once famously said “anyone can do a good day’s work when they feel like it. But to be successful you have to do a good day’s work when you don’t feel like it”.
And that’s how I’ve been today. Not feeling like doing a good day’s work at all.
Going to bed at 02:00 is one thing. But waking up at 07:15 was not what I was expecting. And by 08:30 I was fed up of going back to sleep so I got up instead. So much for my lie-in.
After the medication I had to make some muesli because I’d run out. And to my surprise I found that I had bought some sugar puffs instead of corn flakes. Ahh well. I must have been having a bad day yesterday.
But that led on to some tidying in the kitchen and now it’s starting to look a little more like a home. Even though it’s not my usual thing, to be working on a Sunday. But I was feeling a little better so I reckoned that I’d do it while I could.
Breakfast was rather late as a result, and that didn’t leave me with very much time. I had a few things to do, like to spread out all of the walnuts from yesterday onto a couple of trays and put them in the sun to dry. That’s very important, to ensure that they dry properly and thoroughly so that they don’t rot with the damp.
Once they are thoroughly dried, I can crack them open, extract the nuts, bake them in a frying pan and then grind them up.
This afternoon there was an exciting football match in prospect. La Brehalaise was playing FC Sienne – two clubs anchored at the foot of the table in Manche District Division 3.
I headed out there at 14:30 – straight into masses of traffic loitering around outside looking for a car park. And someone crawling along at 5mph looking for a place held me up for 10 minutes – he got a blast of Caliburn’s horn once I could finally get past him.
And then a Belgian pulled straight out off the kerb into the road right in front of Caliburn and it’s a good job that I’d had his brakes fixed. He had a “Hail Columbia” too.
As a result of all of the grockles admiring the seagulls I arrived late at Bréhal and missed the kick-off.
Nevertheless I did arrive just in time to see a rather late sliding tackle by the Bréhalaise n°11 on the FC Sienne goalkeeper, in vain pursuit of a loose ball.
This led to a yellow card for the n°11 and an ambulance for the goalkeeper.
It took a good while for the ambulance to arrive and for the paramedics to investigate the injury.
By my reckoning it looked not unlike a broken leg and the medics seemed quite concerned. After a considerable amount of treatment, they loaded him onto a chair and then carried him to a waiting ambulance.
All in all, the game was held up for a good half-hour while they attended to the keeper.
When the match restarted we were treated to an exciting game of football.
Despite it being a bottom-of-the-table clash, there was a considerable amount of skilful play out there that wouldn’t have been out-of-place a couple of divisions higher up the pyramid.
It was also pretty clear that despite being at the foot of the table, FC Sienne was the more skilful and more purposeful side. They were certainly much-more organised.
And it was therefore no surprise to anyone that they took the lead. And no surprise to any regular reader of this rubbish how they did it either.
If I had a Quid for every time I have shouted and complained at goalkeepers for being stupid, I would be lying on a deckchair in the Bahamas dictating this to a bevy of beautiful bikini babes.
But here we go again.
A backpass to the keeper, the keeper being stupid and taunting the opposition attackers, waiting until the last minute to kick it upfield, but instead slicing his clearance straight into the stomach of the attacker.
The keeper scrambled away the rebound off the goal line just in time – he then saved a volley at point-blank range to keep out the follow -up (and I suspect that he didn’t know anything whatever about his save) but he couldn’t do anything about the follow-up from that.
And as the Sienne team pushed on, Bréhal scored an unlikely equaliser from a breakaway, catching the stand-in keeper on the wrong foot.
Bréhal then missed a sitter – a cross palmed out by the Sienne stand-in keeper straight to a Bréhal forward 5 yards out in the centre of an open goal. All he had to do was to tap in, but instead he blasted it about 25 feet over the bar.
But as the game went on, Bréhal scored and even more unlikely two goals and so ran out 3-1 winners ina match that they never ever looked likely to win at all.
On the way back I went for diesel and then came back here. Some more tidying up and a bit of work, and then a delightful vegan pizza.
There was a beautiful moonlight tonight.
My perambulations this evening took me around the headland instead of the old town, so I could gaze across the Baie de Mont St Michel and see the reflection of the light upon the sea.
This was taken, by the way, with the new 18-105mm standard lens and I shan’t say anything else about the High Arctic.
Carrying on around on my walk, and seeing as I still had the new 18-105mm standard lens on the camera, I took a photo of the outer harbour and the gates to the inner harbour.
What had enticed me to take the pic was the view of the lights shimmering on the surface of the water.
The red “traffic light” to tell us that the tidal gates are closed certainly produced an impressive effect
And now it’s bedtime. And I need to start work again seriously tomorrow. I’ve been letting things slide rather too much just recently.
Treating an injured goalkeeper La Brehalaise v FC Sienne
Treating an injured goalkeeper La Brehalaise v FC Sienne
Ambulance La Brehalaise v FC Sienne
Treating an injured goalkeeper La Brehalaise v FC Sienne
Moonlight, Baie de Mont St Michel, Granville
Moonlight, Baie de Mont St Michel, Granville
Moonlight, Baie de Mont St Michel, Granville
