Wednesday 14th March 2018 – SO HERE I AM …

… in my little studio in the Dekenstraat.

It’s smaller than the previous room, and what that means is that there is much less of it to heat and I’m all in favour of that.

And as far as I’m concerned, it’s a better room too. And considering that it’s a good few Euros cheaper, I’m more-than-satisfied with this.

I’ve been down to the Delhaize and bought some food, so tonight I had baked potatoes and a tin of Fajita beans for tea. Delicious it was too and now I’m alls et up for bed.

Talking of bed, I was bang awake this morning, right on the button at … errrr … 06:00. The old body clock seems to be doing just fine right now.

And that was something of a surprise seeing that I’d been on a rather unpleasant voyage. I was in my garden, back in Vine Tree Avenue of all places, doing some work there (not like me, is it?) and two boys came past. They started to throw coconuts up to the eaves of the house to see if they could knock down some more that were festooned across the front of the house (it all happens during the night, doesn’t it?) so I told them to clear off. They carried on doing it however and one of the coconuts fell down, missing me by about half an inch. So I told them yet again to clear off. They carried on and when yet another fell down right by me I manhandled … "PERSONhandled" – ed … them off the premises. They then started to mess about with the tyres of my car (a Ford Cortina mk III) and we ended up having something of what the French call a bagarre. I went to phone for the Police but they told me that I was wasting my time. There was one of me and two of them, I couldn’t prove anything and they would say that I attacked them in an unprovoked fashion.

So almost (but not quite – I wasn’t in THAT much of a hurry) beating the first alarm I set about making my sandwiches, preparing my … errr … samples (and I still can’t make this vacuum pump thing work no matter what I try) and SHOCK HORROR doing some cleaning up. That’s not something that happens every day, is it?

The rubbish went out to the bin outside and there was even some time left over to do a little work on the laptop.

On my way up the hill to the station I made an unexpected encounter of some very expansive woman who told me that she had booked to go to Tunisia and that her friend had let her down and would I like to go with her. And all the time I was thinking to myself “are they open already?

Even more of a surprise – although I arrived 25 minutes before the train was due to leave, it was actually waiting in the station and so grabbing a quick coffee, I grabbed my place on board and in the warmth.

And here I breakfasted on the coffee and the biscuits that I had brought with me from home (due to certain inconveniences, I don’t have my medication and breakfast at home when I’m setting out early on my travels).

And it was round about here that I realised that I had forgotten my headphones. I’ll have to use these earpieces and I hate those.

But at Avranches I perked up a little. Glancing out of my window I saw a “shed”, or “Wisconsin”, or “Red Death”, whichever nickname you prefer.

The notorious unreliability of British-built diesel locomotives caused the British railway operators to look elsewhere for their motive power and the “English, Welsh and Scottish” railfreight company went across the Atlantic to General Motors who supplied the EMD Class 66.

They proved to be so reliable in operation that more and more were brought over, leading to the scrapping to much of the native fleet. And as rail freight in the UK declined, some were sold abroad and regular readers of this rubbish will recall a few years ago that we saw one, still in its EWS livery, pulling a freight train in France.

They were so successful over here too that the SNCF ordered some for itself. these are called “Type 77” and they differ from the UK ones in that, inter alia, they are equipped with air conditioning, a microwave and fridge, and a comfortable (!) seat.

But don’t ask me if this a British import or a “77” because I can’t tell from here.

We were late leaving Granville but we arrived at Paris Montparnasse Vaugirard on time. And now I had to negotiate my way to Paris Gare du Nord via a new route, with the metro station on Route 4 being closed.

The new “revised” journey on the metro via the Porte d’Italie is rather longer – it takes about 50 minutes to go round instead of 42 or 43 minutes and I hope that that isn’t going to be crucial for the return journey. It is rather tight for time on the way back.

And there seems to be a change to SNCF policy too. We noticed the train being parked up at the platform at Granville station this morning instead of parked up in a siding and arriving with five minutes to go.

And here at Paris Gare du Nord the boarding gates were open for the TGV almost as soon as it pulled in, rather than 10 minutes prior to departure. That gave us ample time to take our seats and it was all quite comfortable.

But we had the “flying customs” patrol on the platform and true to stereotype they picked on a passenger of African descent. I would have bet the mortgage on that one, as I’m sure that you would have done too.

Despite having had a little doze on the way into Paris, that didn’t stop me from having another little doze on the way to Brussels. I’m really feeling it these days.

In Brussels, I missed the 15:52 train to Leuven due to issues with the ticket machine, so I had to wait for the one at 16:03.

That was an old-generation train with the plastic bench seats in a 3-plus-2 configuration so it wasn’t very comfortable. But it brought us here all the same, and at quite a rapid speed too so I didn’t complain too much..

And then the trudge up the road to the Condo Gardens

And so, here I am in my little room. I’ll have a good sleep, with a shower in the morning ready for my treatment. And I’m not looking forward to that.

Tuesday 13th March 2018 – SHAME AS IT IS TO ADMIT IT …

… I couldn’t even last out the morning today.

And it’s not as if I’d had a late night or anything, and it’s not as if I’d been on an enormous voyage during the night either. Just into one of the rooms on this 3D site that I mentioned just recently.

But I had the medication and the breakfast etc, and a shower, shave and even a haircut today to get ready to go. And then I sat down with a mug of coffee.

Next thing that I remember was that it was 10:30 – I’d been well and truly out for a good 90 minutes. And in the morning too. This is certainly not like me. I could understand it a little if I had been out already to the railway station, but not at all.

You’ve no idea just how much this is dismaying me.

But anyway, in the bright sunlight (because it really was nice) I headed uptown to the railway station and picked up my tickets without a hitch. Mind you, there will be a hitch coming home on Saturday because works on the line are forecast. That’s not nice.

On the way back I called at that good boulangerie to pick up a couple of those tasty baguettes. One was for lunch today but the other one is for my butties for the road tomorrow. And nice the bread is too.

After lunch I hd a few things to do on the internet and to download a couple of things onto the laptop that I take with me on my travels. And then a bit (just a little bit) of packing ready for tomorrow.

And the usual session on the bass guitar – and trying to work out the bass line from “Wind Up” off the Aqualung album by Jethro Tull – one of the albums that has to be in the top 10 of anyone’s list. Everyone immediately thinks of the title track to that album, and good as it might be, in my opinion “Locomotive Breath” and “Wind Up” have to be two of the best rock tracks of all time. And I’m determined to work out the bass lines to both of them, even if Jeffrey Hammond is a hard act to follow.

Tea tonight was the rest of the home-made stuffing with a tin of kidney beans all filled into a couple of tortilla wraps with spicy rice. And delicious they were too of course. And then we had the walk in the beautiful evening. It really was nice outside considering the time of the year.

And so an early night tonight. I have to be on my way quite early – something like 07:45 – as my train is timed for 08:34.

I am not going to enjoy this one little bit.

Monday 12th March 2018 – I WAS RIGHT …

.. last night when I said that I wouldn’t be doing all that much today. In fact, I’ve done another emulation of my namesake the mathematician.

And despite my early night last night and being completely stark out, I still had a struggle out of bed this morning.

And it’s not as if I had done much during the night either. TOTGA put in an appearance again though. Well, actually she didn’t, but one of her kittens did. A tabby and white one found its way into my car and was roaming around the floor getting in the way of the pedals. So I told the girl in the passenger seat that we would have to go round there to drop off the animal. That’s not anything that should wear anyone out now, is it?

We had medication and breakfast and then the usual morning ritual, and then as promised I attacked the photographs that I took yesterday. And if you missed them, they are now on line in yesterday’s entry.

But looking at them, I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that I’ve wasted my money with this new camera. The photos are, quite frankly, total rubbish. The standard lens that’s included in the package is just not up to the job and can’t produce a properly focused, sharp image if it were to try all night.

Consequently, on my walk this afternoon in the howling gale that we were having, I wound up the Nikon and took a couple of lenses with me. The max extension on the standard lens is the same focal length on the min extension on the zoom lens, so I took several photos of the same views with the two lenses, matching the aperture, speed and ISO, and I want to see how they turn out.

It might be possible that it’s the standard lens, and not the camera that is at issue and if so, I’ll see what I can do about finding a cheap AF-S lens to fit it. The irony of it all is that I do have a spare standard lens, and I’ve left it back at the farm, haven’t I? That’s annoying.

Another thing that has occupied some of my time is this 3D program.

You remember a few weeks ago that I had a little project on the go about some items, and then this other 3D site appeared that resells content. So I searched the Internet this morning too and found a tutorial about making clothes.

It uses Hexagon, the deep-level 3D design program that I have, but it assumes a level of knowledge that I don’t have. Something that took the narrator of this video almost three minutes took me almost three hours and I still wasn’t satisfied with what I had done.

But then Rome wasn’t built in a day and I’m certainly learning a lot as I go round, and if that’s not a positive sign of progress then nothing is.

Tea was the rest of the pepper that I hadn’t used on the pizza, stuffed with the usual mixture, and with spicy rice. And I seem to be running out of salad dressing. But I have a recipe for vegan mayonnaise and now that I have a blender, I intend to take full advantage of it.

But I cracked this evening. I turned the heating off on Friday night as I went to bed and it’s not been on all weekend. But with the wind and the clouds it’s gone quite cool again. So this evening I switched it on low again. No point in freezing to death is there?

So an early night and tomorrow I need to go and fetch my rail tickets. My train leaves before the ticket office opens and I’ve seen what happens when the automatic ticket printer fails to work. I’ve no intention of arguing with an intransigent ticket inspector so I want my tickets in my sweaty little mitt before I set out on Wednesday at … errr … 07:45.

Sunday 11th March 2018 -JUST BY WAY OF A CHANGE …

… well, for just recently anyway, I managed to remember everything – including my mug out of Caliburn – when I went off to the football this afternoon.

The plan had been to go to Donville-les-Bains to watch the US Mouettes de Donville play the Jeunesse Cenillaise, but just as I was getting myself ready, something flashed up on the internet to wit that the cup match between US Granville’s 2nd XI and US Ducey, due to be played at Ducey-les-Chéris had been switched to the artificial surface at the Cité des Sports in Granville, where we were last night.

That suits me fine because instead of going in Caliburn, I can walk there. And if I take the long route home along the seashore I’ll have done almost all of my whole day’s fitness routine. So off I went, camera, thermos, mug and telephone, and Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.

In what can only be describes as “changeable” weather, I arrived at the ground to see that game played by those men with odd-shaoed balls.

Not my cup of tea at all, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall. We were a footballing school but one of the new masters tried to make us play with the oval ball but we soon saw him.

But the experience left a rather bitter taste in our mouths for years afterwards.

And if that wasn’t enough, there was a girls’ football match going on too and had I known, I would have been out there earlier to watch because it wasn’t too bad at all.

And I even gave some coaching from the touchline, which DOES NOT account for their 3-0 defeat. They were 3-0 before I arrived and I like to think that I helped them steady the ship a little.

But then, there were only 8 of them out there playing against 11 and so it’s not really much of a surprise that they were struggling. Perhaps they need some moral support.

And if so, that rules me out. Any support that I could give a bunch of girls would hardly be moral now, would it?

As for the main match, US Ducey are one division higher than Granville’s 2nd XI but the two teams were very evenly matched. In fact, of the two goalkeepers, the Ducey goalkeeper was by far the busier.

But the attacks of either side were pretty ineffectual and a 0-0 scoreline was hardly surprising.

We didn’t have any extra time, but went straight on to penalties. Hero was the Granville goalkeeper who made two good stops for his team to run out the winners.

Highlight of the match was the miserable old man from Ducey who “took issue” with a couple of Granville supporters who were hurling abuse at a Ducey player. “Don’t you go round hurling abuse at players” he cried. “You should be able to behave yourself without hurling insults about”.

Five minutes later, he addressed some rather unparliamentary language towards the referee who was booking one of his players. And a voice nearby piped up “Who was it who just said something about not hurling abuse about?”. I wonder who that was!

But it brought my section of the crowd rolling about with laughter, and that’s all to the good.

The walk back along the coast was windy with the occasional shower, but that didn’t stop me taking some photos.

A couple of weeks ago I took a photo of St Pair sur Mer from around here, but that was cluttered up my street furniture unfortunately. Today I found a new spec from over a hedge in a field.

The photo isn’t as cluttered which makes a nice change for around here. You can see how nice the area looks and how much better it will be in ths summer.

And I discovered a new little lane that I hadn’t seen before, with some of the best views that I have yet to see of the town.

You remember back in October when you saw a photo of a house perched up on a clifftop overlooking the beach? Well, it was the lane that led to that particular house.

And it was worth the effort to get there with this beautiful view of the Pointe de la Roc.

And over there to the right of centre is the building where I live – the Place d’Armes.

There are four big stone buildings here that were formerly the military barracks, and they fell into disuse in the 1970s I believe. Since then, one of them has become the local college and a second is the Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs – accommodation for young people from the countryside who come here to study or work.

The other two are being converted into small apartments. My building is finished and that’s why I’m here now, and the fourth one won’t be long.

Over there is the church – the Eglise St Paul.

I have told you about this church on a couple of occasions. It’s one of the first large buildings in modern times (the Romans built thousands) to be built of concrete.

Many of hthe Roman concrete buildings are still standing after almost 2000 years, but this building will be a pile of dust before then. It’s closed to the public due to its deplorable, decaying condition and if that’s not a testament to Roman engineering I don’t know what is.

There is a set of steps down to the road, and then another set of steps down to the promenade.

It’s not really the day for going for a walk along the beach, but the sea is good at any time of day and in any kind of weather – in fact the stormier the better.

After all, that is why I came to live here as you all know. Somewhere by the sea in one of the windiest corners in Europe. It’s just great.

And remember the other day when I pointed out those two “O’Toole” Irish lorries on the dockside? On my way back I was almost squidged by a “Nolan’s” lorry heading for the same place.

So what’s bringing all of them around here? What I shall have to do is that next time I’m in town, I’ll see if it’s still there and then go to buttonhole the driver.

As I have said before … "and on many occasions too" – ed … if you want to know the answer to a question, you have to ask the question first.

But this morning, wide awake at 07:15. And on a Sunday too!

I’m not having this at all and so I turned over and tried to go back to sleep but that didn’t seem to work and by 07:55 there was a very disappointed me up and about prowling the kitchen.

But I’d been on my travels during the night though. To Budapest in fact (and I’ve not been there since 1994) and trying to get to the station. Wandering around aimlessly in the railway station trying to find which train goes to the airport as I have a flight from there and a time limit to keep to. For some reason I have the idea that every train goes to the airport and I don’t know why. But when I hear that a train is actually called to stop at the airport I leap aboard. There are three stops prior to the airport, which seems strange to me as they are all in different towns, and a couple of the locals – and very vocal locals at that – convince me that it’s a different airport than the one that I need and I’ll be hours sorting myself out if I stay on this train. So I disembark just as it is about to pull out, and continue my aimless ramble around the station.
Later on, I am actually at an airport (not the same one) and in the queue to have my passport checked. The people in front of me are there for hours and ll kinds of forms are being completed for them, including a dark green form with white boxes in which the entries are made. I wonder to myself if this is the ESTAS form for the USA and whether I could have mine completed on the spot like this.

We had an early breakfast and then, seeing as it’s Sunday, a good laze around. Although I did have 5 minutes on the bass guitar trying to work out a Jethro Tull number.

After lunch I hit the streets and then back here it was coffee and cake time. But SHOCK! HORROR! Mother Nature has beaten me to the last of the cake. That’s twice now, for the Christmas Cake went the same way too. I shall just have to have another birthday, won’t I?

The pizza was good again tonight and in the walk in the wind around the headland I made it to 115 % of my day’s activity. And that’s always good.

And an early night. Another easy day tomorrow and then on Tuesday I need to go for the train tickets. Just you watch me forget.

Saturday 10th March 2018 – BRAIN OF BRITAIN STRIKES AGAIN!

Halfway down the stairs on my way out for this evening’s football when I suddenly realised that I had forgotten my camera. So I had to nip back to fetch it.

I was halfway down the steps into town when I realised that I had forgotten to go to Caliburn to pick up my mug to go with the coffee that I had made in the flask, and I had to work my evil wiles on the girl in the bakery where there is a coffee machine. She would only give me some plastic beakers, not the insulated ones. But then I suppose, I was lucky that I had remembered the thermos flask.

Halfway up the steep hill, stopping to divest myself of my jacket because it was quite a warm evening, I mused that the camera wasn’t all that important because I could use the camera on the telephone to take the photos that I wanted.

And it was at this point that I realised that I had forgotten the phone too.

To rub it in, there was a handball match taking place at the Sports Centre tonight and the cafeteria was open, so I didn’t need the flask (or the beakers) either.

But then it’s always like that with me, as regular readers of this rubbish will realise.

But it was a beautiful night for football – fairly warm, not much wind and for once, it wasn’t raining. And doesn’t that make a change from these last few days?

Tonight’s opponents were FC Trois Rivieres – not from Québec but from Canisy in the outskirts of St Lô.

And if ever there were two points thrown needlessly away by a team in need of a victory it was tonight, that’s for sure.

I reckon that Granville had about 75% of the possession and they were one goal up early on in the game. It took Trois Rivieères 31 minutes (I timed it) to get into the Granville penalty area.

And when they did, they scored a goal out of nothing. One of those shots that hits a defender’s boot and could go anywhere. This particular one looped up and over the keeper’s head and although he got both hands to the ball it spun out if his grasp and into the net.

It didn’t take long for Granville to restore their lead but then we had another calamity in the Granville defence. A back-pass under pressure to the keeper who decided to pass it out to another defender instead of clearing his lines upfield or out of play for a throw-in.

Of course, the inevitable happened and the ball out was intercepted by an attacker who slotted it into the empty net.

After that, Granville ran out of steam and couldn’t make their possession count for anything.

Highlight of the match had to the the Trois Rivières manager who, having loudly cried for a yellow card to be given to the Granville n°7 a short while earlier, becoming furiously upset when the Granville manager cried for a yellow card to be given to a Trois Rivières player. You can’t make up a story like that, can you?

We had yet another Sleep of the Dead last night, and I spent much of it in a cosy little menage à deux with TOTGA. She didn’t get away last night, not ‘arf she didn’t. Unfortunately it never reached the stage that made a celebrity out of the legendary inmate of a monastery in Bohemia (mind you, nothing can do that these days) but it was certainly a night with a difference.
And later on, I was in the Houses of Parliament interrogating the Chancellor of the Exchequer, leading him a nice merry dance down a mazy little path until he has committed himself unequivocally, and then announcing that there was a mistake in his figures, he was a billion Pounds short in his calculations, and what was he going to do now – to which, having committed himself unequivocally to his position, he had no answer.

After breakfast and a shower, and a machine-load of washing, I set out for the shops. We did the usual round of LIDL, NOZ and LeClerc and I bought nothing of any excitement except in LeClerc.

Several of you will recall that I keep a bright yellow rain jacket with removable fleece lining in Caliburn. But when I went to live in Leuven it made a dramatic reappearance on the streets seeing as I hadn’t anticipated being there in the winter and so didn’t have a winer jacket.

But it’s old, dirty and as much as I might try, it won’t come up clean at all. It’s OK for being round and about doing things but not really for being anywhere important.

And in LeClerc they had a much more respectable bright yellow rain jacket. No fleece lining but there was a size XL so I can wear an ordinary fleece underneath. It was expensive for what it was, but it’ll be better for travelling about in the Spring and Summer.

Back here I had a little … errr … relax before lunch and then this afternoon with fiddling about with the new hi-fi that I bought the other week (and with which I’m even more impressed than with my galvanised steel dustbin) I could pick up the live football commentary on the BBC – although they seemed to be more interested in what was happening underneath the Directors’ Box at the Olympic Stadium than on the football pitch at St James’s Park.

In a change from the usual Saturday procedures, I had the bass guitar out too. I’ve had Liege And Lief – one of the best albums ever recorded, going round n an endless loop for the last few days, and suddenly the bass line to Crazy Man Michael, one of the best songs ever written, leapt into the front of my mind.

And so I sat down for half an hour and picked it out. And chapeau to Ashley Hutchings because it’s not easy.

Back home from the football through the deserted streets of Granville and 114% of my daily activity, I had the last of my tinned English curries. Tinned food for the next I don’t-Know-How-Long will have to be something different, like the champignons à la Grècque or the spicy beans that I can pick up in Belgium.

And here’s a thing.

A told you about how nice the weather had been today. Today is the first day in 2018 where I’ve not had the heat on in the apartment.

Friday 9th March 2018 – AND DIDN’T THAT …

… week go quickly?

And in fact, didn’t the month go quickly? I’m back in the hospital next week and as I type this I realise that I forgot to pick up my rail tickets yesterday. And so that shall mean another walk out there on Tuesday. Don’t let me forget.

But as for this morning, what can I say? I had a reasonably early night, was asleep almost straight away and the first thing that I remember after that was the alarm going off at 06:20. The second thing that I remember was the second alarm going off at 06:30. Yes. Dead to the world I was ll night.

And so I was totally surprised to find myself drifting off to sleep as it approached midday.

And even more surprised to find myself asleep round about 15:00 or so. I’m definitely struggling with all of this, aren’t I?

But apart from that, I’ve taken some of the rubbish – the plastic bottles, the glass jars and the old tetrapaks – out to the rubbish bin. But that’s my lot. Anyone would think that it’s Sunday here today, wouldn’t they?

We had the usual walks and, just for a change, the rain stopped as I set foot outside. Usually it lies in wait for me as you all know.

The afternoon walk in particular was something of a struggle seeing as I’d only just awoken.

But it was worth the long crawl out to the headland at the Pointe du Roc because we are having more of these weird atmospheric conditions that I mentioned the other day.

Over there in this photo across the bay (taken without the telephoto lens) you can see where Cancale is situated. That’s 18 miles away according to that legendary hotel booking site, and it’s as clear as day today, with the headland over there having the effect of hovering above the water.

A nice weird, eerie photograph.

Tea was a home-made vegan burger in a bap with (properly cooked) potatoes, peas and carrots, with mustard and vegan margarine. Delicious it was too. But that was the last of the home-made vegan burgers so I’ll be doing some research on the internet to see if I can find a decent recipe.

And now, it’s bed-time. Another early night and hopefully another good sleep. It’s shopping tomorrow.

Thursday 8th March 2018 – YOU MISSED …

… all of the excitement this morning.

Much of the Pointe de la Roc is out of bounds to heavy vehicles, and coaches are only authorised to use a short stretch of the road that leads to the big car park.

But that didn’t stop this driver, and his mate in the coach behind thinking that the rules don’t apply to them. And they duly came up here and then tried to negotiated the corner into the Place d’Armes.

You have probably noticed that the registration number of the bus is “75” – a Paris number. And that explains everything. Rules in the Provinces don’t apply to Parisians as we know. They are far superior to be bothered by that sort of thing

And it was quite amusing to watch the drivers as they were suddenly confronted by the roadworks here.

One coach managed just about to negotiate the tight corner after many vicissitudes, but the other was well and truly wedged and it took the driver about 20 minutes to extract himself.

I did at one stage go over to the driver to ask him if he would like me to manoeuvre the coach for him, but I was met with the kind of greeting that would have been considered out-of-place in the fo’c’sle of an Australian whaler.

But he eventually extracted himself, turned round (narrowly avoiding missing a couple of parked cars) and then disappeared the wrong way down the one-way street.

I had my early night, but I didn’t have much of a relax though because I was tossing and turning throughout most of it. But that didn’t stop me goign on one or two of my voyages.

We started off with one of our 3D characters (and when you have your own 3D characters coming with you on a nocturnal ramble you know that you have problems) having to choose a new ski suit for a holiday and ended up after many more vicissitudes choosing a lemon – coloured one. And simple as that sounds, you have no idea just how long that took.
And from there we moved into the realm of realism (such as it might be) with my father telling me about one of his former colleagues (who actually drove my schoolkids about when I had my taxis) who was selling a Ford Cortina 2000E at the local auctions – for a reserve of £4800. Of course that was way out of my price and so I wasn’t planning to go, but a series of events conspired to have me in Whitchurch at the time of the auction and so I ended up there just in time to see him list the vehicle at a reserve price of £4080. But turning into the car park I had run over a glass bottle in Caliburn, and the tyre was punctured and a ball joint damaged. This man told me that he’d look at it after the auction as he was now running a small tyre business. So the bidding started on his car and was very sluggish round the £2000 mark, when suddenly it took off and went well over the reserve. And at the end of the auction the man told me that he now had to go to a funeral – but I shouldn’t go to Garage X because they weren’t as good as Garage Y – which coincidentally was the one to which I went anyway. He went off to look for his hearse, which he couldn’t find, and his wife told me what a marvellous person he was, to which I replied that I knew all about him. I ended up (I’m not sure how) with Caliburn at Garage Y (which bore a surprising resemblance to my father’s workshop) where the puncture was repaired. But I wanted to fit the wheel, to which he hummed and haa’d because he was planning to close up and didn’t have the time. But eventually I wa son my way and it was now really late. I was obliged to crash out in Caliburn at the side of the road, thinking to myself that seeing as how I’d just got back together with Nerina (it was all happening last night, wasn’t it?) what would she think about me having promised to live a more regular lifestyle, and being out at night like this. So being crashed out like this, I was rudely awakened by a police patrol (reminiscences of Switzerland a few years ago) for a “control” and I could in my befuddled state only find half of the papers that I needed. I had to admit that while I had the insurance certificate, I didn’t have the insurance policy and that led to some harsh words and difficult moments.

No wonder that I was thoroughly exhausted this morning after all of that during the night.

After the usual start to the morning and the Thursday shower, I postponed my trip to the shops seeing as it was totally pouring down. But by about 10:00 I could see some blue sky in the distance heading this way so I took to the streets, having my encounter with the coach drivers on the way.

LIDL was the port of call, and there was nothing special to tempt me. But the place was heaving – a vast contrast to last Thursday in the snow. Four of the tills were open but we still had to queue for ages to be served. That’s why I like to go early.

On the way out I’d noticed a load of stuff piled up at the quayside and so I reckoned that Grima was due in.

And I was right too. There she was on the way back, having the sacks of gravel or whatever they were hoisted aboard, giving her something of a list to starboard.

I hope that they had corrected that before she sailed.

Back here I had my coffee and then a little … errr … relax, before another session on the bass. ANd I ws working out a couple of Groundhogs and Hawkwind numbers – so intently tht I was surprised by how quickly the time passed.

After lunch, I was once more … errr … away with the fairies (I really don’t knwo what’s the matter with me these days) but pulled myself out of it and went for a walk instead.

There was quite a number of people out there this afternoon, even though the weather wasn’t the nicest. School holidays, apparently.

But I was distracted by movement down on the quayside just here. It seems that one of the large boats is being moved – and moved by road too. It’s a huge thing and they were having to take all kinds of special precautions.

Still, it all adds to the excitement of living here.

For tea tonight I had a frozen potato and lentil curry out of the freezer. And delicious it was too.

And that took me nicely round to my evening walk.

Cool and a little windy, with another marvellous view of Jersey, and also a marvellous view of the harbour here under the lights. You can see in this pic that when the gates are up and the water isn’t high enough to admit boats, there’s a couple of chequered poles visible, presumably to warn ships not to enter.

And there were crowds of people at the bar tonight. I wonder what’s going on there.

So if I’m lucky, I’ll have another early night. I’ll leave you to digest this … errr …. 1246 words.

Wednesday 7th March 2018 – AND IN KEEPING …

… with my previous efforts just recently, I have emulated my namesake the mathematician and done three fifth of five eights of … errr … nothing.

So after finally managing to have an early (that is – before midnight) night last night, I went off with the fairies to what seemed to be a Virtual Reality word somewhere. Clearly the events of the past few days have been getting to me. And the highlight (if you can call it that) of this world was being arrested by the police and being on the end of some customary police interrogation that made me unable to walk for the next three days. I’ll have to stop reading this book about Canada in the 1930s, won’t I?

We had the usual performance this morning and then I was sidetracked as I ended up speaking to someone in the USA for 90 minutes or so on the internet. It was about work so I don’t begrudge the time of course, especially if there might be some folding stuff in the offing, but it always happens at the wrong time, doesn’t it?

I was sufficiently distracted after that that I had a change of practice and had a practice on the bass guitar. Something that I usually do late in the afternoon but today it was here and now. And for some reason or another not only did the bass line to Led Zeppelin’s “Communications Breakdown” come back into my head after an absence of 40-odd years, I found myself playing the bass line to Hawkwind’s “Damnation Alley” and that goes back even farther in time.

And not only that, I seem to have regained the flexibility in my left little finger and I can now hold down the string with that. And that’s progress.

But I’ve now worked out why five-string bass guitars have come into fashion. I’m sure that I played the bass line to several tracks in the past – “Born To Be Wild” and “Locomotive Breath” spring immediately to mind – in the same key as I do now, but I find that I run out of notes at the bottom end. It’s maybe because my hearing has changed as I’ve become older and I’m playing it an octave lower than I did in the 70s. And if that’s true, it probably explains why all the bassists of my age and older are now using five-string basses, so they have an extra range of notes.

After lunch I did my best to fight off the temptation to close my eyes for a short while, but I wasn’t successful. But I dragged myself out after 10 minutes and went for a walk. It was nice weather outside and quite a few people were about, but there was nothing exciting going on.

Tea was, as promised, the falafel and vegetables with a vegan cheese sauce. And it was rather … errr … disappointing. In my haste I forgot to test the vegetables before I put them on the plate and to my dismay I found that they weren’t cooked enough. But you can’t recook them after you have smothered them in cheese sauce so I had to make the best of it.

It was another beautiful evening out there with the lights of Jersey glowing in the distance again. Visibility has been impressive at night this last couple of days.

So an early night again tonight – it’s my walk to the shops tomorrow.

Tuesday 6th March 2018 – I’M NOT HAVING …

… much luck with the weather today.

It was bordering on the vergoe of reasonable for much of the day, but that changed as soon as I put my foot outside, as you might expect. It started to rain and my walk this afternoon was undertaken in the wet.

And I wasn’t the only one out in the wet either. We had one of the council workmen out and about practising a little topiary.

Mind you, he wasn’t practising long (and by that I don’t mean that he was perfect either). As I was walking past he was climbing back into his van and by the time I had prepared the camera for the photo he had long-since cleared off down the road.

Clearly a cup of tea was more exciting than being out there in all of this, and I can’t say that I blamed him either.

And if that wasn’t quite enough, this evening it was positively teeming down. But that didn’t put me off by any means. I still went outside and did the rounds nevertheless. I have to keep moving.

And I was certainly moving last night.

I was playing in the attack in some kind of competitive field sport like football or hockey and I managed to get myself into some really good positions, but the speed of the ball off the surface took me by surprise every time and I was always 6 inches short of the ball.

So having just about beaten the second alarm and done the usual morning offices, including a shower, I had a quiet day today. Dealing with some photos as usual, and then investigating this 3D site that I told you about.

Apparently it’s not based on the one that I use but on one that’s much more simple and so I’ll need to find a free copy of that and learn it. That should be exciting but, as I have said in the past, it keeps me out of mischief.

Talking to someone on the internet this afternoon, I almost fell asleep in mid-chat. But I struggled through and felt much better after my walk.

Tea was some more tortillas with the last of the filling that I made the other day. Tomorrow there will be falafel and cheese sauce, which I am looking forward to intently.

And tonight an early night – I hope. It’s going to be another calm day again with a bit of luck.

Monday 5th March 2018 – JUST FOR A CHANGE …

… I managed to wake up bang on the first alarm – and be well out of bed by the time the second one went off. That’s not happened too often just recently, has it?

And it’s astonishing considering the voyage that I was on during the night. That’s enough to tire out almost anyone, never mind me.

I was in my old beige Cortina (UOB, not YLO) driving over Chester Bridge and up to the turning in Delamere Street when I slid on some ice, overshot the turning and collided with a vehicle on the opposite side of the road coming round the bend. The police were called and statements taken, and the policeman told me that it wasn’t really my fault because of the weather conditions and the ice. So back in the car and up Delamere Street and turned into Queensway, where I collided with some cyclists coming the other way. And I wondered how I was going to explain to my insurance company these two accidents in a matter of five minutes, especially as my dash cam will show that although the cyclists were totally in the wrong, I could have done more to avoid them.
From here we were back in the London Underground (a fairly regular destination for our nocturnal rambles as regular readers of this rubbish will recall). I was buying a ticket for a long-distance flight (like you do in the Underground of course) and the flight wasn’t for 90 minutes so I would have plenty of time to go home and pack (of course). But one woman said that I had dropped my insurance card so when I had completed the transaction I bent down to pick it up, but it was only the stub. I had to prove to the person in the booking office that it really was mine by comparing the serial number of the stub with that on the card. And so I went back home again (to Gainsborough Road) to pack for my trip, pulling up in my car (by now a Mark 2 Cortina) on the opposite side of the street a way down, leaving me with a lengthy walk back). As I arrived, my sister’s husband came round the side of the house ad came in with me. He said that he was hungry so I offered him some rice and a tin of something, which he accepted. And I had to show him how to use and induction hob – a strange parallel with something that had happened in the LeClerc on Saturday.

After the usual start to the day, and a little relax, I attacked a pile of photographs that needed things doing to them – and that took longer that I reckoned. And the photos are coming out far too blurred with this new camera, as I have said before. I’m not all that happy with it now, which is a shame.

Having done that, I attacked my travel arrangements for next week.

The rail journey isn’t as cheap as it might have been, due to the fact that I’m coming home on a Saturday rather than a Sunday. If I’m having some kind of transfusion, I’ll be staying the Friday in my room without doing too much.

But the increased rail fare is offset by the room. I can see now why the manager told me to book directly with him rather than with the booking agent that I usually use. They have smaller, cheap rooms for working men that aren’t offered via the booking agent and they are at something of a reasonable discount. I wish that I had known this a couple of years ago.

So at the end of the day, it still works out cheaper.

This afternoon I designed and furnished a room. Yes, I’ve managed to get into the depths of this 3D site that I mentioned the other day and had a play around with furniture, accessories and poses . And once you solve the key, which is not very easy to do, it’s pretty straightforward and I can see some kind of opportunity here.

We had the usual walk this afternoon at 15:30, and I was joined by the heaving multitudes today, including a family looking for a playground for their children.

But my attention was distracted by what ws going on in the Boulevard des Terreneuviers.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I have discussed … "on numerous occasions" – ed … the crane in the Boulevard des Terreneuviers and how once or twice there has been another crane present too.

I was lucky enough to see what it was doing today, and it wa winching some heavy stuff into the building site underneath.

And that puzzled me, because that is three times to my certain knowledge that the crane has been there. And it must cost them a fortune to pay for these regular visits. Why didn’t they just hire in a bigger crane in the first place?

Back here I almost managed to stave off the falling asleep bit – succumbing for a mere 10 minutes.

Tortilla wraps for tea, and then my walk, and now my early night. High time I had one. It’ll set me up for an early start.

That is – is I don’t have phone issues. I noticed that this morning the phone was on 78% charge, and tonight, a mere 9% even though I haven’t used it.

Something’s clearly not right.

Sunday 4th March 2018 – WELL, THAT WAS AN …

… interesting afternoon, and no mistake.

I was planning on going to watch US Granville’s 2nd XI this afternoon but a flash up on the internet announced that it was postponed.

Never mind. Subsequent research indicated that La Brehalaise up the road in Bréhal were to play La Patriote St Jamaise. And so I duly made my butties and hit the streets.

At Brehal the ground was almost deserted except for a couple of guys hanging around. They were indeed players from La Bréhalaise and they told me that the match had been forfeited by La Patriote St Jamaise. So that was that.

But never mind. There was a 4th Division match at Gavray between AS GAvray and ES Tirepied and I had just enough time to get there before kick-off.

And, as an aside, I’ll be coming here again. There’s a small covered area for spectators and that will be very handy in inclement weather.

As for the game itself, ES Tirepied are rooted to the bottom of the table and AS Gavray ran out 7-4 winners. You might think that this showed some level of poor quality, but far from it. It was a very interesting match.

Being a 4th Division encounter, quality was very lacking as you might expect, but there were a great many thoughtful and intelligent passes and play during the game that had the quality been up to it, it would have been wonderful.

ES Tirepied were not at all as bad as the scoreline suggests. They matched AS Gavray blow for blow but the difference was that this was a match of two goalkeepers.

The US Gavray keeper made a couple of saves that any goalkeeper in a higher division would have been proud to make, whereas the keeper of ES Tirepeid was, and without wishing him any malice whatsoever, clearly a guardien de fortune, pressed into service, one assumes.

And he did his best, and you can’t ever fault anyone for that. Chapeau to him for taking it on and persevering.

Final word has to go to an “incident” in the 50th minute. Just as ES Trepied were pulling themselves back into the gale after being 4-0 down at half time (the slope here gives a decided advantage to whoever is attacking down it) the referee blew for a penalty against them. And even the AS Gavray supporters, with whom I was sitting, were totally mystified as to what the referee had seen. The ES Tirepied players were stunned into disbelief and I have a good deal of sympathy with them.

This morning, I had a lie-in until 09:30. And quite right too. It is Sunday, and anyway, I was exhausted after my voyage during the night.

I was on my travels with TOTGA last night – hardly a surprise I suppose as I was speaking to her just before I went to bed (wonderful things, these social networks). We’d been to a rock concert in Carlisle and we had to return home. But we both had vehicles so she needed to follow me as I knew the way. She was impressed with the Motorway system and asked me loads of questions about it, which I could answer her of course. The route out of the venue car park was jammed with traffic and we slowly inched our way out and found the motorway, but there was a complicated section where you joined the motorway, crossed all three lanes to the far side and then crossed back to exit, all in a space of a couple of hundred yards which was no picnic in heavy traffic, so I had to stop and explain it to her and make sure that she understood exactly what was required.
Later, we were both working in an office which was run by a former inept boss that I had very early in my career. The accounts that he had managed were in total chaos and so he had engaged someone to maintain them, someone whom he had been pursuing for two years, so it seems. I spoke to the guy who told me that he’d turned down the job previously but had been persuaded to accept it, and wished he hadn’t because he’d never seen anything like the disorder and disarray. And then he started to rant about the facilities. There was no reception room, no canteen, nowhere to take a rest (a subject very dear to my heart as I worked such long hours in that place) and a whole host of other shortcomings. “And a condom machine” I quipped, making TOTGA blush to the roots of her hair.

THis morning I didn’t do too much. It’s about time that I had a good relax. And then we had the football of course.

Tea was a vegan pizza of course, and rather overcooked. And I know why too. It’s the frozen mushrooms. For a change I put them in the oven to defrost while it was warming and I prepared the pizza, and you should have seen the water that cme off them. No wonder the pizza hasn’t been cooking thoroughly. I’ll have to do that again.

And a walk this evening. It was a gorgeous day for a change and tonight I have never seen Jersey so clearly – even the house lights, which is pretty astonishing seeing that it is just over 30 miles away from here.

Ordinarily that would be something that would bode well for the morning, but here the wind changes so rapidly that it could bring anything in overnight.

We shall have to see.

Saturday 3rd March 2018 – OHH HECK!!!

Yes, I awoke this morning to find bright sunlight streaming into the bedroom.

Blasted 08:20, wasn’t it? The alarms hadn’t gone off.

Subsequent enquiries revealed that the battery and gone flat in the telephone. And so I was in something of a panic.

So much so that I forgot where I had seen during the night. But it did involve a spare wheel of a vehicle – the type that hangs on the back door of a 4×4 and how the owner of the vehicle wanted to make sure that we knew precisely what wheel was under the rainproof cover before we ordered a spare part or something for it.

But I medicated, breakfasted, showered and hit the streets – out of the apartment at the usual time. And here I bumped into Mrs Neighbour who had with her husband just come back from 2 months in Vietnam. It seems that he too spent New Years Eve in hospital, with the same bronchitis that I had. It seems to have been an epidemic all around the world, this illness.

I did the usual round of the usual shops today. At LIDL they had a couple of the sorbet makers left over so I blagged one and I shall have a go with it this coming week.

And at Leclerc I ought a computer mouse. The “other” laptop that I use as a media centre has a broken mouse (that was how I bought it so cheaply) and I’ve been using an old plug-in mouse to work it. And it is so easy to manoeuvre for my 3D programs that I went out and bought one for this laptop. It makes a whole world of difference.

But going into Leclerc it was bright sunlight so I ought a ticket for the cheap open-air standing area at the football ground. nd when I came out the rain was asolutely teeming down. That wasn’t a good plan, was it?

After lunch I spoke to Rosemary on the phone but having only given my phone the briefest of charges the battery went flat. And for some reason the phone wouldn’t charge up off the laptop … "it won’t if it’s not plugged into the mains" – ed … and so I ended up doing a few other things before going to the football.

And as for that, the 540-odd of us in the stadium were treated to a rather unusual sight of a linesman and a referee officiating at a totally different match to the one that we were watching, and I’m still shaking my head at some of it.

Tonight’s opponents were the reserves of Stade Rennais – a professional outfit with a professional set-up and a professional approach to the game. And it told, too.

They might be a couple of places below Granville in the table but I don’t know why because they played some very pretty football. They were well-organised and moved the ball around well, and their three goals were all excellent.

What didn’t help matters was that US Granville allowed them far too much room in midfield and it looked to me as if they wre refusing to close them down.

But the three goals of Granville were from the usual breaks down the wing from the rapid wingers and overlapping full-backs.

However, going back to Stade Rennais’s professionalism, they were very careful to punch the Granville n°5 when the attention of the linesman and referee was elsewhere.

And the Granville was stupid enough to punch back as soon as the referee had turned round. The red card that the referee gave him was more for stupidity than the punch.

But that’s the difference between a professional team and an amateur one. THese amateur players are sometimes so naïve.

The referee did however lose control of the match, which is hardly a surprise with some of the decisions, and it all ended rather nastily. I don’t know what went on in the tunnel afterwards but it was greeted with hoots of derision from the crowd in the stands.

And If I’ve read some of the subsequent comments, it looks as if a few red cards were brandished in the tunnel. We shall see.

It was a pleasant walk back and I didn’t feel the strain, surprisingly. AND i4M ON 111% of my daily activity.

Tea was different. With running low on tinned curries? I tried a new line that LeClerc was offering. Mushrooms in the Greek style. And to my surprise, it wasn’t too bad. Not up to curry standard, but nice enough. I always eat out of a tin on Saturday because I’m usually out at the football or something and I don’t have much time, energy or ambition to cook very much.

So we’ll try this time for an early night, and see where that takes us. Sunday is a lie-in and I need it.

Friday 2nd March 2018 – ONE LOOK …

… out of the window at 15:30 told me everything that I needed to know about my plans to go for my afternoon walk.

Never mind the rain that we were having, there was a couple struggling towards the apartment desperately clutching each other, hoods huddled around their heads, taking two steps back for every step forward that they were taking. You didn’t need to notice the trees being bent double by the force of the wind to realise what was going on.

I closed the curtains and made a coffee instead.

It was a lot warmer this morning – above freezing in fact, although the apartment was still rather chilly. And with having a desperately late night last night I didn’t quite beat the second alarm to leave my bed.

And after breakfast I started to work.

I told you about this 3D virtual world site that sells content from suppliers. So I created myself a couple of accounts and went for a stroll through the rooms to see the clothing, furniture and buildings to see what they are up to and see what the things are like and the quality that they expect.

The quality is very basic – not like the quality that I’m used to. And I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I’ve binned stuff that is better than they have there. But then with over 10 million members and a whopping 90,000 on line at any one time, you don’t go far with your processing power if you turn out high-quality stuff.

It’s the PARETO principle – 80% of the quality takes 20% of the processing power, and the remaining 20% of the quality takes the remaining 80% of the processing power, so I do see and understand their point.

But as for what goes on in this virtual world, well, you’d blush if I told you.

We had the usual crash out this afternoon – but with only three and a half hours sleep last night that’s no surprise, and then for tea, I found a pepper that I had forgotten, so it was stuffed pepper with rice and vegetables followed by the last of Liz’s birthday dessert with a soya yoghurt.

And with the rain having gone and the wind having dropped, I managed my evening walk around the headland. Now I’m going to bed. I deserve an early night.

Thursday 1st March 2018 – IT WAS A …

… lot warmer this morning.

Yes, the temperature when I awoke this morning was at the giddy heights of all of minus 3°C. It wasn’t as cold in here either this morning, but after less than 4 hours sleep, it certainly felt like it too.

What didn’t help though was that after breakfast it started to snow. I wondered why it had gone completely silent outside, with no cars or pedestrians passing.

Under normal circumstances that would have put paid to any idea that I might have had about going to the shops. These, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, are not normal times and I need to move about.

And in any case, you wouldn’t exactly call that a snowfall after what we are used to in the Auvergne, regardless of what they might think around here.

So I had a shower and a general clean-up and cut all 20 of my finger and toe nails (and anyone who knew me even a couple of years ago will realise that an achievement that is). And then I hit the streets.

And there over across the far side of the harbour where the fairground people had their residential caravans are a couple of lorries owned by the Irish company O’Toole.

Everyone knows of course that the company is owned by Plenty O’Toole, one of the James Bond girls from Diaminds Are Forever and who was, famously, “named after her father”.

But more to the point, what are they doing there? And even more interestingly, how did they get here?

That wasn’t all of the excitement down at the harbour either. As you can see, we have a gusher – a ge flow of water into the basin.

I did wonder what it was doing – whether there had been a leak in the gates or whether they were trying something new, but it seems to be the outlet of a rather large pump and I’ve no idea what it’s supposed to be doing.

Or even where the water is coming from. I mean – I know that it’s coming from the sea, but that’s not what I mean.

We had some excitement in the town too. Someone in a 7.5 tonne lorry was delivering parcels – blocking the narrow streets as he unloaded, even though there was a free space just 20 metres higher up.

And another100 metres further on, he stopped OPPOSITE a free space and blocked the passage for the large queue behind him. So when he came out of th shop I asked him if he needed any help to park it – after all, I now have my HGV licence – but he just gave me a dirty look and drove away.

I made it to LIDL to find that there were no more than 20 people in the sho, and I had a till all to myself – something that deosn’t happen very often in LIDL as you know. Clearly the weather had defeated most people. But there was nothing exciting to buy in there, although the sorbet maker looks exciting – I’ll need Caliburn for that.

My usual route back home takes me down past the streets in the upper part of town and there was some excitement here too.

It seems that a couple of old houses in the Rue St Gaude are being demolished, with plans afoot to replace them with modern apartments. This is a street with a good view in places over the harbour and in much demand – I saw a ruin here at an exorbitant price – and quite a lot of the old single-occupancy properties have gone.

But I admired them for attacking the job with a digger.

The day warmed up later and we were treated to rain – put the dampers on my two walks later on though, but at least I made well over the 100% daily exercise target which is always good.

And tea tonight was all kinds of vegetables and falafel with a cheese sauce, and that was delicious too.

But despite my short night last night and my exercise today, I’m not at all tired and I don’t know why. It’s going to be yet another late night.

Wednesday 28th February 2018 – BRRRRR!!!!

It was cool in the bedroom when I awoke this morning, despite the heater being on during the night. But never mind cool, it was taters in the living room. But then, it WAS Minus 5°C outside – the coldest temperature that I have ever recorded here.

That is of course a far cry from the minus 16°C and minus 19°C that we had in thz Auvergne, but theres the fierce wind here to deal with. When I was out for my walk this afternoon the cold wind was blowing straight through my woolly hat and freezing the woolly ears on my woolly head. And that wasn’t anything to be passed over lightly.

It was a slightly more reasonable night last night but what with one thing and another (and once you get started you have no idea how many other things there are) going to bed was nothing like as early as I had hoped.

But when I went I was off on my travels again. Some kind of confusing voyage amongst a group of adolescents, one or two of whom had difficulty understanding the difference between “sleeping with” and “falling asleep with” and couldn’t understand the significance of why a series of doors might be marked as being locked. There was a plate of something like spaghetti involved i it too, although I’m not sure what that was doing in there or what was its significance.

So fist act in here was to switch on both of the heaters in here and put them full-on. Not something that I was ever planning on doing but minus °C here is rather exceptional so I can be excused.

Again, it doesn’t seem that I’ve done very much today but in fact I’ve been rather busy, although there isn’t much to show for it at the moment. Idly surfing the internet like you do, I found a 3D virtual world that acts as some kind of agent for 3D designers to sell their output to the members. I’m far from being at the stage where anything that I ever create is worth selling. However the terms and conditions are not as unreasonable as they otherwise might be, so it gives me some kind of impetus to get myself in order and work on something positive for a change.

Apart from that, not a lot has happened. It’s not been the weather to do to much and it’s not going to get any better tomorrow. I can see my walk out to LIDL being … errr … put on ice.

And I wonder how I’ll sleep tomnight. For some reason I was out like a light for an hour just now and that’s banjaxed all of my plans.

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality