Monday 30th October 2017 – I WAS OFF …

… on my travels last night.

I’d arrived at the airport, which might well have been Manchester, and caught the bus to Stoke on Trent. I had to move on yet again but by now it was snowing quite heavily and I didn’t fancy going over the moors in my car. There was however a bus that ran between the two and so I booked myself a seat on that. There weren’t very many people on there but I set next to a man in his 40s who turned out to be a musician and we had a long chat. Through the snow and through one of the towns (which we have visited in the past on a noctuenal ramble and which might have represented Congleton although we wouldn’t go that way of course) and into Sheffield, for all of £6:90. And when I told a friend of mine about the prices, he was amazed at how cheap it was to travel by bus. From Sheffield I had to go onwards and for this stage of the journey I went on a pushbike. And I was surprised about how easy it was to go on a bike these days and how I ought to do this more often.
At my destination I sorted out my suitcase and I was already starting to put aside stuff for my next journey in 12 months time, despite how absurd it was to begin to do this right now. I might need the suitcase well before then.

And so when the alarm went off at 06:00 I awoke and was out of the bed, dressed and having my tablets when the second alarm went off.

During the morning I had a few things to do, and I’ve seen a course on TV sceenwriting affered by the University of East Anglia. High time that I organised myself and gave myself something to do, I reckon.

After lunch I went for a walk, and hadn’t gone more than a couple of hundred yards before I bumped into Brigitte, my neighbour. She had gone for a walk around the walls only in the opposite direction.

It was a beautiful day so I walked down into town, picled up a sorbet from the ice cream stall, and had a nice stroll through the town.

There are a couple of beaches in the town that I have yet to visit, the other side of the marina.

My little walk today took me along the short promenade and up a blind alley, but it was a nice day and I was enjoying the sunshine. And the beach was beautiful too.

I crossed over the main road and wandered through a series of small alleys and side streets.

We’ve seen the eglise St Paul from a distance – it stands out quite prominently on its promontory – but we’ve never seen it from close-to and this was my destination for this afternoon.

But not from inside because it’s closed to the public, and has been for almost 15 years.

We mentioned previously that construction started as recently as 1894 and its claim to fame is that it was one of the first major buildings to be constructed of reinforced concrete.

But modern reinforced concrete was in its infancy, and the absurdity of using (salty) sea-sand in conjunction with metal reinforcing rods was not realised at the time.

However, by 1999 the state of the concrete was found to be quite alarming – not helped by a few other questionable building techniques. And when a lump of concrete fell down, narrowly missing a passer-by in 2003, that was effectively that for the church.

But I enjoyed the walk, and the view across to the old town from up here on the promontory was quite impressive.

I live just to the left of the church over there, and the town centre is down there in the valley in between.

A set of stirs led down to a little side street that took me back down into the town centre. It’s still quite crowded so the school holidays must still be continuing.

Back up the hill towards the old town, and there’s still no sign of the ships that I was expecting to arrive in the port.

But there’s some kind of activity down on the gravel pile. A couple of lorries have called with another few loads of gravel, and there’s a digger down there moving the stuff about into a neater pile.

It looks as if the arrival of one of the gravel boats is imminent.

Having had a little … errr … repose, I made a huge potato, chick pea and runner bean curry. One helping went with a plate of rice and was absolutely beautiful. There’s enough left for no fewer than four other meals, and they are in the freezer. I’m right about space developing as I start to work my way through the supplies.

A walk around the headla,d this evening, and now I’m ready for bed. And a good sleep too, I hope.

Sunday 29th October 2017 – I DON’T BELIEVE IT!

Indeed.

Three days in succession I’ve been to a public event organised here in Granville, and three days in succession there’s been no buvette.

I just don’t know what the world is coming too.

What’s even worse is that today was US Granville’s 2nd XI match against RSG Courseulles in Regional Division 2 and there was a crowd in the region of 120-150 there to watch the game.

And there is a buvette at the Stade Louis Dior – and it was closed!

I’d had a good night’s sleep too – the long walk had clearly done me some good. And I was awake at 09:20 – or 08:20 in real time because the clocks went back today.

And I had been on my travels too. Something of a nightmare the first bit – as I was watching Jai Quitongo play in the Morton – Skint Midden match and score a beautiful swerving free kick from about 30 yards out – for the Skunks!
Later on, my neighbours started to clear their garden and peg out a driveway for concreting. And this meant that I could clear mine of al of the brambles. It only took me half an hour too, and I uncovered an old car, something like the old Cotina that’s lying around on the farm.

It’s Sunday today so I wasn’t in too much of a rush to do anything. I had something of a laze around. Abd my lunchtime butty was very nice too.

After lunch I walked – yet again – to the football. Today though it was at the Stade Louis Dior – a walk of about 3.5 kilometres – or 7 kilomtres both ways.

RSG Courseulles were mid-table but Granville were next to bottom – and you could see why that would be. I have never seen a team attack so much, have so many shots on goal – several of them completely open – and put them either wide or over the top. The attack was more than woeful – it was appalling.

The sad fact though is that they played the opposition off the park. The two strikers of Courseulles offered nothing up front – simply because they were given no service.

Any nother team could have scored a dozen against Courseulles – and so could Granville have done, but their attack really was shocking. We even had one shot on an open goal hit the post, bounce back into play with all of the defence wrong-footed, and a totally unmarked Granville attacker side-foot it wide from three feet out.

Granville in the end won 2-0 – with a free kick after a couple of minutes and a 30-yarder from a defender after a Granville attack had hit a post and rebounded out.

I walked all the way back afterwards.

My route back gave me a good view of the harbour too. All of the gravel is still there so it seems that whoever is coming for it hasn’t arrived yet, And all of the stuff for Grima is still there too.

Marite seems to have disappeared too. She’s not been around for a while. It’s all quiet down at the docks right now.

After having a little … errr … repose, I made my pizza. and the addition of ground black peeper really does make a difference. It was beautiful.

I shan’t be going for a walk tonight either. I’ve done enough today. An early night and an early start will see me right for the forthcoming week.

Saturday 28th October 2017 – BRAIN OF BRITAIN STRIKES AGAIN!

There I was, doing the rounds of LIDL with a bag full of shopping. Just about to put my shopping on the convenyor when I reached into my pocket for my wallet with my money and bank cards in it.

Yes, I’d had my raincoat on last night, hadn’t I?

I had to dump my bag behind one of the empty tills and nip home for my wallet.

It won’t happen again though. I’ve left €50 in Caliburn and another €50 in the secret pocket in my mobile phone case. But what a silly thing to do!

A strange thing happened this morning. It was 08:20 when I awoke this morning. No alarm. For some reason or other the telephone had stalled at 23:49. And so we didn’t have sucj a good start to the morning anyway.

After doing some stuff on the laptop I went off for my trip around the shops and my unexpected return here. But the old washing machine has now gone to the great laundry in the sky – the dechetterie was open this morning which makes a change. The fridge is there too, along with another pile of cardboard boxes that had accumulated

At the Auchan I did the rest of the shopping. Including some frozen sprouts, frozen mushrooms and frozen peppers. What with the mango sorbet and the loaf of bread the freezer is now full. It’s far too small for what I need and I’ve a good mind to take it back to swap it for a bigger one.

Mind you, I thought that the fridge was far too small too, but I’ve managed to rearrange things around in there and there’s plenty of room in there now. I imagine that once I start to attack the frozen food it will be the same in the freezer there too.

After lunch and a bit of tidying up, I crashed out for half an hour or so, and then I caught up with a few other things that needed doing too.

But this evening US Granvillaise’s 3rd XI were playing ES Hébécrevon on the artificial pitch at the Sports Centre. And as it was a reasonable evening, I dressed up warmly and walked all the way there. It’s about 3.5 kilometres up and down hill, and I reckoned that it would do me no good.

Much to my surprise the Sports Centre was closed up, so there was no buvette. How is this possible? In the Auvergne they wouldn’t even consider having a public event without a buvette, and yet here we are, twice in two days, THis isn’t the France that we know and love, is it?

As for the match itself, Granville were bottom of the league without a win and Hébécrevon were 9th. So I was expecting another defeat. But much to my surprise I saw one of the best matches I’ve seen for quite a while.

Granville were much better than their league position suggested and played some beautiful football. Hébécrevon huffed and puffed but never looked likely to seriously trouble the Granville defence, and the home side scored three of the best goals that I’ve seen for a while.

All three of them breakaways, two of which were solo efforts and the third was a cross from the young lad playing left-wing (who had an excellent game) into the centre to the forward who hit it on the half-volley straight into the corner of the net.

I walked back home wfterwards, stopping for a bag of chips. And nice they were too.

Now I’m off to bed and it’s a lie-in tomorrow with an extra hour in bed. We put the clocks back tomorrow – 1 hour if you live in the real world, 50 years if you live in the UK, 120 years if you voted for Brexit and 250 years if you voted Conservative.

Friday 27th October 2017 – HERE’S ANOTHER …

… morning where I was up and about before the second alarm.

It wasn’t quite such an early night as I was expecting, but once I’d gone to sleep I’d really gone, And it was the deepest, most comfortable sleep that I have had for quite some considerable time.

I had been on my travels too, at the airport in my red Cortina estate. Taxiing of couse, picking up a crowd of people and their luggage. And it was a tight squeeze to fit everything and everyone in.

After breakfast I had a little rest and then cracked on with some things that needed doing on the Internet. I ended up at the Siege of Sidney Street and the Aliens’ Act of 1905, and when you research into all of that you’ll find out that there is nothing whatever that is new under the sun. The names might change but the news remains the same.

After a lunch, I went for a walk.

It’s half-term here in France so there are loads of people about.

The tide was going out so despite the cold wind that was blowing, people were down on the beach having fun, although it wasn’t like summer of course.

I walked around the walls to the steps down to the back of the casino. There were even one or two people swimming out there farther around towards Donville-les-Bains. Sooner them than me, that’s all that I can say.

First stop was the bank. Check on the state of the bank accounts (which are not too healthy after my exertions in North America) and to liberate some cash. First cash that I’d drawn out for quite some considerable time.

Next stop was the library to fid out what courses and exhibitions are taking place. But a pair of more unhelpful librarians I have yet to meet. They looked at me as if I had just landed from the moon.

I went round onto the port afterwards. And it looks as if either Victress or Pluto is about to pay us a visit.

This last couple of days a huge pile of gravel has accumulated on the quayside and we know that they come in here every couple of weeks or so to pick up several thousand tonnes of gravel for the UK.

That’s about a good ship-load to go back to the UK. But it shows you what kind of bad state the UK economy finds itself when it even has to import its gravel from abroad.

That’s not all either. Here, there’s a pile (and I do mean a pile) of insulation, a good couple of lorry-loads of steel pipes, several pallets of water, and tucked behind a container is a Ford with a Jersey registration.

All of this can only mean one thing. And that is that Grima is about to pay us a visit too.

She’s the old Shetland Islands ferry that brings the scrap over from the Channel Islands and goes back with a return load of whatever it is that they need over there.

Back here I crashed out for an hour or two. Well away I was too, and I wasn’t particularly polite to the door-to-door religious person who disturbed me.

And later I went round to the public hall here. There’s some work to be done in the old town – some of the water pipes are almost 100 years old and still contain lead, so there’s a project to uproot and replace them.

Not that it interests me, but it’s a way of meeting people. Brigitte, one of my neighbours, was there too and we had a chat and went for a coffee. And a coffee was essential too. It’s the first time that I’ve ever been to a public meeting in France where there has been no buvette.

They have a lot to learn in Normandy.

My stuffed pepper was delicious. Boulghour, tomato and onions seasoned with black pepper and olive oil was the stuffing. With frozen peas, fresh carrots and pasta in tomato sauce it really was beautiful. I’ll have to try some more of that.

Having been out twice today, I didn’t go out for my evening stroll. That’s quite enough.

And tomorrow I’m off to the dechetterie (I hope that it’s open) and some more frozen food.

Thursday 26th October 2017 – BETWEEN 1ST OCTOBER …

… and 30th Aprli, the dechetterie in Granville is closed one day per week.

I wonder if anyone would care to guess which day it is.

With having an early(ish) night last night, I was awake once more before the alarm went off. And I was out of bed and half-dressed when the second alarm went off. Going for a walk before going to bed is doing me some good, I reckon.

The soya milk, fruit puree and grapefruit juice were nice and cold in the new fridge and that’s very pleasant. My ice cubes had frozen quite nicely too.

After breakfast I had a few things to do and then I set off through the thick fog and damp to the dechetterie. It was pretty miserable out there this morning.

At the dchetterie I had the usual disappointment as you might expect. It’s something that seems to dog my trails no matter wherever I go, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall.

But never mind. I went to LIDL on the way back, bought some frozen food for the freezer and some kitchen storage containers that they had on offer – just the kind of thing that goes in the freezer. Some bread and a lettuce too seeing as I’m running low on fresh supplies.

I also called in at the GIFI. When I was there the other day I’d seen a cheap ice cube tray with storage container. I drink quite a lot and it’s nice to have ice in it. This will make things taste a little better and I’m all for luxury these days as you know.

After lunch I crashed out for a while. The exertions of yesterday are still affecting me. I’m aching everywhere and I pulled a muscle in the inner of my left thigh. So that’s playing me up. I’m in a bit of a mess.

With having bought some oven chips this morning I had sausage, beans and chip for tea. Nice though it was, I had clean forgotten about the stuffed pepper that I had half-prepared for tonight. I hope that it will still be okay for tomorrow.

That’s the one thing about having a freezer these days. I can now vary my diet quite considerably and that’s a good thing.

This evening I went for a walk and watched a fishing boat struggling through the gloom. It’s still quite misty outide and damp, although it isn’t raining. I hope that this will mean another decent night’s sleep tonight.

Wednesday 25th October 2017 – FIRST TODAY …

… in the freezer are some packs of lentil pepper and carrot curry. I made a huge batch this evening.

So many thanks to Terry who came round this mornng and helped me drag everything up into the apartment and drag all of the old stuff down into the back of Caliburn ready for the tip tomorrow.

And I’ll tell you something – and that is that Terry had to do most of the lifting on his own because I’m out of it. It’s hard to believe that it wasn’t all that long ago that I was hauling engines and gearboxes out of cars all on my own. Nowadays I can’t even walk up the stairs, never mind carry anything up with me.

Just for a change just recently, this morning I was awake long before the alarm went off. At 05:09 in fact. And I was up before the second alarm went off. That’s been a while since that happened.

I reckon that going for a walk before going to bed might be doing me some good.

And I was on my travels during the night too. In the company of TOTGA who made a welcome return. She was on her way to a hospital appointment in Munich but part of the motorway was closed off. As a result, she was hours late for her appointment, which mean tthat she wouldn’t be finished in time to come home. As a result I had to ring around to find a hotel for her to stay during the night, and then contact her to tell her what to do and where to go to stay the night.

For breakfast I made a pot of coffee. But here’s the bad news. The machine has a timer on it that switches off after 40 minutes. So when you go back for another cup at 09:00, it’s cold. That’s no good at all

When Terry and I had finished our efforts with the moving I invited him to lunch. There’s a fish and chios lace down in the town where we went for a coffee on Sunday, so we went today to try out the food. Good it is, but it’s flaming well expensive.

After Terry went home I crashed out. And a proper crash out it was too. I was in agony in every joint. Ingrid awoke me with a phone call and we chatted for nearly half an hour. Things aren’t going so well for her in the Auvergne and I hope that they improve.

With tea out of the way I went for a walk again. I hope that it tires me out and I can have another good sleep. Tomorrow, I’m off to the dechetterie and then to buy some frozen food.

Tuesday 24th October 2017 – SITTING IN CALIBURN …

… right at this moment are a washing machine, a fridge and a freezer. And in here is a coffee machine.

Yes, I’ve been out and about this afternon.

Just for a change just recently, I was awake before the alarm went off this morning – although that’s not the same as saying that I was out of bed before the alarm this morning. But we’re getting there bit by bit.

And I had been on my travels too. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall Krys who used to read and comment on this blog many years ago. She and I were doing up an old house, putting in some dry-lined walls which were, interestingly, made of steel, not plasterboard. And I remember admiting how well we were fitting the sheets so that the joints were scarcely visible.

After breakfast I sat down to search the internet for the stuff that I wanted. There’s a wholesale site called C Discount and the prices on there looked reasonable. But strnge as it is to say it, the price of the product on the adverts is not the same price as the product once it goes into your basket.

There was about €20:00 difference and when I queried this with the company, they replied that there was a fault on their site.

And that was that.

No offer to deal with the matter or to resolve the issue.

In the end, their prices were no more different than at the BUT, with no delivery charges and no waiting either.

So at 14:00 I went off to the BUT and ordered my product. The fridge and the freezer are th cheapest available – on the grounds that it’s debatable if I’ll outlive them anyway given my health. And the washing machine would have been too, but when I asked for a discount in view of how much I was spending, they wouldn’t do that but they marked down an Indesit to match the rpice of the cheapest machine and you can’t argue with that.

The fridge is your typical standard-size fridge that will go under the draining board. The freezer is identical – a front-opener – that will go in the bathroom. That’s been made possible because I’ve bought a top-loading washing machine. Only a small one but then there’s only me, and with it being a top-loader it can go right in the corner. Hence there’s the place for the freezer next to it.

As for the coffee machine, I didn’t intend to buy one but there they were, marked down to €9:99. You can’t argue with that either!

It wasn’t until 16:00 that I returned, so it was a very late lunch. That meant that I wasn’t hungry at tea-time. instead, I chatted to a friend on the internet for quite a while.

The weather wasn’t so bad either today, so I could go for a little walk this evening. I hope that I can return quickly to my usual habits and settle down.

Monday 23rd October 2017 – I ACTUALLY MANAGED …

… to go out for a walk this evening.

There was a reason for that – in that I hadn’t set foot out of the apartment all day.

With being in bed at a (relatively) early time, I was up shortly after the alarm went off. I’d been on my travels during the night too. In some city in Eastern Europe that bore more than a passing resemblance to the Delamere Street – Chester Street – Greenfield Street area of Crewe with all of the traffic filtering out of half a dozen lanes into just one heading down towards Flag Lane. And I was driving rapidly through the countryside and totally missed a bend that was obscured by overhanging bushes and ended up going through someone’s gate and onto their property. Some girl, who bore more than just a passing resemblance to Cecile, came out to see what was going on. She saw me in my car in the bushes and said that I’d been extremely lucky. There had been a house just there and I’d missed driving into the old cellar by inches. And she was right too!

So with an early start and an early breakfast, you might be expecting an early trip to pick up the baguette. But I’d bought a large loaf from LIDL on Saturday, I’d not touched it, and it was in good shape. So need to go out for bread.

And not only that, the weather was quite foul too. High winds and torrential rainstorms, so that was that. Instead, I stayed in all day and started to tidy up the various hard drives and external drives that I’ve been using just recently.

Not only that, I’ve rearranged the hi-fi system that I invented” the other day. It won’t work with the big speakers unfortunately, but at least I’ve managed to make space in the book cases to fit it all in, so at least it’s tidier.

All of that took me until teatime. And so I finished off the beans, had some more sausages and some baked potatoes. Nice it was too.

And having been for a walk (the wind and rain quietened down this evening), I’m pretty tired. I might even have an early night tonight. And just as well too, because I have a half-day out planned for tomorrow.

Sunday 22nd October 2017 – TONIGHT’S PIZZA …

… was one of the best yet. I think that the addition of some ground black pepper gave it that extra touch. It certainly went down well.

That was more than I did last night. 02:00 when I went to bed, more out of desperation than anything else, and I was still awake at 03:00 reading a book. The bad patch of my skin was itching like mad, even with some of this radical cream that I have, I had a bad itch on my wrist and I had cramp … in my fingers. I was a mess.

Mind you, I did manage to go on my travels though. I was on stage playing bass to a pile of Steppenwolf numbers. And I can still remember them now.

With there being no alarm, it was 09:22 when I awoke, but 10:30 when I left my bed. And it was cold in here too – about 14.5°C. That was the cue to hunt out a sweater. Winter is on its way, without a doubt.

After breakfast I had a shower and then did some more tidying up in here. I even had the vacuum cleaner out.

For lunch I just had a quick snack, and then Liz and Terry turned up. Hence the tidying. Liz had brought with her some home-made vegan apple flapjacks which was very sweet of her. We had coffee and then went for a long walk to the headland, down the footpath into the port where we stopped for coffee.

We returned by way of the town centre, the promenade by the casino and then up the staircase into the old town and then around the walls back here.

it was good to be out and about for a long walk. It’s tired me out again and that’s good news. I might even be able to have a good night’s sleep.

Saturday 21st October 2017 – IT SEEMS THAT FATE …

… is conspiring to be on my side just for a change

I awoke this morning without the help of the alarm clock, and that hasn’t happened for quite a while, has it?

But the bad news about this was that it was light outside. It was actually 08:52 and the alarm hadn’t gone off. The battery had gone flat during the night. So much for my efforts in trying to regulate my day, but at lzeast it gave me a chance to catch up on my sleep and that made me feel a little better.

The trouble with this though is that it ha a kind of domino effect. Getting up late meant that breakfast was late, and meant that going to the shops was late too.

First stop was LIDL of course. I stocked up with a few things there, as well as a ile of grapes. The price has increased today, but only to €2:29 a kilo and that’s still cheap.

A visit to some electrical shops was next on the cards to see if I can better what I saw in BUT the other day. I had a good look round but nothing seemed to compare with what was on offer down the road.

After the food shopping at Auchan I went to bite the bullet and sign away my life at BUT but … ARRRGGGHHH … too late! It’s lunch-time now and the two-hour lunch in France is sacred. The shop is closed.

And so I came back here, unloaded the shopping and had lunch.

After lunch, I did a little clearing up in here. It’s looking quite untidy after I’ve been here for a week – only I can do that – and having had a little snooze (and I’m not sure why) I had a chat to Rosemary on the telephone. And that was a chat that went on for several hours. We have a cunning plan for the New Year.

That took me nicely to tea-time. And just for a change I had baked potatoes, beans and vegan sausages. Nice they were too. And there’s enough left over for a couple of days too.

The weather put paid to my plans to go for a walk. It changed dramatically yet again late in the afternon and we ended up with a howling gale and a terrific rainstorm. I wasn’t going out in that.

But the one thing about having a lie-in and having a crash-out during the day is that it’s evening again and I’m not tired. Another late night, I reckon.

Friday 20th October 2017 – I’VE BEEN FEELING …

… a little better today.

I managed to leave my bed a little earlier than yesterday and although I was off on my travels during the night, I can’t now remember where it was that I went.

And after breakfast and going for my baguette I did … errrr … precisely nothing all day.

It was a nice day today and so I made up my mind to go for a walk later in the day. However the weather changed dramatically and we ended up with a rainstorm and high winds. That put paid to any plans that I might have had.

And despite the … errr … earlier start, I still couldn’t go to bed early. It’s going to be another bad night I reckon. But despite the long day, I managed to go right the way through it without taking a little pause at some time during the day so I suppose that that is progress.

I hope that I feel better tomorrow.

Thursday 19th October 2017 – ONE DAY …

.. I’ll settle back down into my normal routine. But it won’t be soon, I reckon, because I’ve had another miserable day.

It didn’t help that I had another late night last night, despite my efforts to go to be at some time that might be considered more reasonable. And although I missed out on being out of bed by the time that the second alarm went off, it was something much more approaching it than it has been just recently.

And I’d been on my travels too – wandering around some huge industrial or chemical plant near Chicago. And as for the apparel that I was wearing, the least said about that the better.

After breakfast I went for a shower, a shave, a change of clothes and a general tidy-up. And for the first tie this winter, I had the little halogen heater going in the bathroom. It won’t be long, I reckon, before I have the heating on in the apartment.

In fact, after I’d been out for my baguette this morning, I left my fleece on. THat’s a sign of approaching winter. I shall have to look out for a jumper or a pullover or something when I’m on my travels around.

Going out for my baguette was the only time that I went out today. Round by lunchtime the weather deteriorated and we had a rainstorm for the rest of the day. At times it was quite heavy too.

But maybe I ought to mention that while I was out I bumped into my neighbour who was chatting to a lady in the street. I was introduced to her, which was very pleasant, becauseit’s nice to meet new people now that I’m living in a new place.

This afternoon I had a little repose, which is definitely becoming a habit these days unfortunately. And that’s really the highlight of the day.

And if you have ever heard of the phrase “too tired to sleep” that was what it was like later. It was quite late (or early next morning, which is more appropriate) before I could find the strength to pull muself ut of my sofa and into my stinking pit.

Let’s hope for a better day tomorrow.

Wednesday 18th October 2017 – I’VE HAD A …

… bad day today.

As you know, I have them occasionally. And with all that I’ve been doing just recently together with the jet-lag, it’s hardly surprisng. The late night didn’t help matters at all either.

But I did manage to get away during the night, although I’m not quite sure of where I was. It was, I reckon, back at a place where I used to work in Stoke on Trent many years ago. My name had been romantically linked with a young girl, the daughter of one of the women who worked there. While there was no truth in the rumour, I was in no rush to deny it because it was quite flattering. She was quite an attractive girl and I liked her dry, matter-of-fact sense of humour.

That took me nicely up to the alarm at 06:00. But as for the alarm at 06:15, I’ve no idea what happened to that because I certainly didn’t hear it. I was lying there in bed, trying desperately not to fall back asleep, and trying hard to haul myself out of bed.

I reckoned that it was about 07:00 when I set my feet on the ground, but I was surprised by the fact that it was light outside. That was easily explained because it was in fact … errr … 09:40 and that might well account for it.

And I had been on my travels too during that period. I was back in that group of people with whom I was hanging around when I first moved to Brussels. They were all planning to go off on holiday but someone had dropped out at the last moment so there was a spare seat. I decided that I would like to go on the holiday (which I found out was to Malta) and gave all my details. But by now it was Friday evening, we were departing the next afternoon and yet the people in charge of this trip hadn’t given my details to the travel agent. “We’ll do it in the morning” they replied, but I reckoned that this was cutting in extremely fine.

After a rather late breakfast I didn’t feel up to much and so I missed my baguette. I had a little snooze too. But I gathered my wits about me by 14:00 to go into town for a walk and buy a baguette. I picked up some olives and some salad dressing stuff too.

It was therefore a rather late lunch, and by the time that I had nad another little doze, that was the day effectively gone. Luckily tea didn’t take too much effort.

And so I’ll be in bed pretty soon. And I hope that I’ll feel better tomorrow.

Tuesday 17th October 2017 – REGULAR READERS OF THIS RUBBISH …

… will recall that I’ve been having certain issues about music and entertainment here in my little apartment. But today I’ve made a great deal of progress which has gone a long way towards dealing with the issue on a temporary basis.

And as we know, there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.

You may recall that a couple of years ago I bought an “old, new laptop”. They were on sale at give-away prices because although they were new and in working order, they had various defects and were sold “as seen”.

I have one of these data readers for modern vehicles that you plug into the vehicle’s data port to read off the fault codes. It works with a CD-ROM, which I didn’t have on my notebook (it uses an external DVD reader that runs off the mains) and that’s no good for out in the yard, and so a laptop with a working DVD reader was an essential.

The rest of the laptop wasn’t important, so when I ended up with one in which the mouse didn’t work, I wasn’t all that bothered. But then, of course, my plans all changed.

Many years ago, when I lived in Belgium, I rigged up an office with an in-house entertainment system that had a really good speaker system – a huge deep-bass speaker with a couple of all-round stereo treble speakers. And the sound was excellent.

And so today, I rigged up the “old, new laptop” with the speaker system, and it works a treat. I can play all of the music, whether CD or *.mp3, and DVDs, And with the USB Cassette machine that I bought a few years ago, I can even play cassettes through it.

There’s also a USB record deck here, so I can play my LPs on it too.

I’ve dug out an old desktop monitor too – quite a large one, and when I obtain an HDM1 cable, I’ll have large-screen film facilities too.

So having had an early night last night, I managed to raise myself from my stinking pit at about 06:10. It’s my aim to be up and about in between the two alarms as you know.

I’d been on my travels too. Back in Brussels, I was selling my final apartment somewhere on the north side of the city. It was laid out somehow like the place at Hankelow but, obviously, in much better condition. I’d bought it a few years ago but never done too much with it. With me was a girl, something like Cecile, and my solicitor. I was far too ill to take part in the proceedings, being confined to bed, so the solicitor and this girl did everything. After the sale had been completed, the solicitor came in quietly laughing. He told me that the woman had been lamenting about her son, and how she’s just saddled him with a mortgage at the age of 36. I was meantime adding up th cash on hand after selling all of my three places, and how it came to something like half a million pounds, and how I was too ill to spend it all.

I went down for a baguette a little later on. There is still the depot de pain in the newsagents here and the owner remembered me, which was nice.

Back here, I pottered around for a while, and … errr … had a little relax too – which led to a somewhat late lunch. And did some of the unpacking too. But only “some”. I need to gather up my strength to do the rest because it really did take a lot out of me, going around North America like I did.

Tea though was another one of my aubergine and kidney bean whatsits – with no olives because I seem to have run out and I forgot to buy any yesterday. There’s enough left over for three more meals.

So now, despite my early start, my little repose during the morning means that I don’t actually feel tired right now. It will take me a while to readjust to my habitual way of life.

Monday 16th October 2017 – I MEAN, YOU HAVE TO LAUGH.

There has been the most astonishing weather here today. In fact, pretty much the same as in the rest of Western Europe. Devastating high winds, pitch-black at 14:00, the sun a mere orangey thing somewhere behind a dark black cloud.

Loads of people have passed comment on it today, but it was all killed off by one poster who said “Everyone banging on about weird light and a strange orange glow in the sky clearly didn’t spend the 1970s in Teesside”.

It’s this Storm Ophelia that is doing it, a storm named after Ophelia, the daughter of that Labour politician Ed Balls, and I’ll bet that it will take you a minute or two to think about that.

He was famous for writing a speech for Gordon Clown, the-then Prime Minister, which prompted William Hague, leader of the Tory Party in Opposition, to rise from his seat and say “that sppech – typical Labour, it’s all Balls”.

The storm isn’t though. Half of BUT was closed off while they were dealing with something big and heavy that had come crashing down through the roof into the shop during the night.

During my night though, I went on my travels again. But I don’t remember where and it wasn’t for long because it was almost 02:00 before I ended up in bed. Jet-lag strikes again, I reckon.

The alarm went off at 06:00 but I was … errr … somewhat tardy in leaving my stinking pit.

LIDL was the first port of call for me today. And here I did the usual shopping, but plenty of it seeing as I’d let the stocks run down somewhat. It was the same story in Auchan.

In bewteen the two, I went to BUT, negotiating the debris in the store. The stuff in there was better quality and better price than in the Auchan and I was almost ready to sign on the dotted line.

Almost.

I asked if they had a delivery service and installation service and if they took away the old appliances, which they did. But it’s not free.

“It’s €30:00” siad the guy in the shop.
“Per delivery?”
“No, per appliance”. And they are bringing in three and taking out two.

So “sodomisez ça pour un jeu de soldats” as they say around here. We need a Plan B.

But Plan B won’t be the Auchan as their stuff is rubbish.

And here’s a thing.

After months of hassling, the Bio-Coop is now starting to sell Vegan cheese. It’s not the best by any means, but it’s a start and it goes to show you the power of persuasion. You’ll remember that I did the same at Amaranthe in Montlucon.

So I bought some, and some sausages. And that also meant pizza for tea seeing as how I’d missed out on Sunday.

I half-unloaded Caliburn and then I had to go for a sit-down for … errr … a while. That meant a very late lunch. And a bit of desultory tidying up – not very much of that.

Right now I’m feeling the strain so it may well be an early night for me. I’ll be like this for a week or so until I find my rhythm.

EPIC HALL

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