… 20:55 tonight before I could set foot outside the building.

And it all started off so well too. The alarms went off at 06:20 and again at 06:30 and I was up at a reasonable time. We had the usual morning performance and then it all went wrong.

What happened was that I sat down on the sofa “for five minutes” and the next thing that I knew, it was 08:45. It wasn’t as if I’d done anything either.

So after a rather late breakfast, I sat down and did some work.

First thing was to make up a diary. There are some people coming to visit me, hopefully, and I need to know when that might be. And then I have my own appointments too, and a few other things that need attention, so it’s never too late to start.

Having done that, I had a few trips and accommodation to book. And this is where it all started to go pear-shaped.

Plenty of money in my bank account here, so it’s logical to pay with that. But to do this, you need to have the bank confirm your security code by sending you some text messages with a reply code. So I went to authorise the payments … and nothing happened.

I finally received the codes at 20:00 this evening, far too late to be of any good. But in the meantime, I had to pay by another means which was quite inconvenient for me. But it can’t be helped.

Next step was to wade through about 350 mails that had arrived while I was away. Only 10 were of any use, but they all needed attention nevertheless.

And after this, we really hit the wall.

There’s a little project going on in the back of my mind right now and for this, I need a certificate.

Last time that I did this, I applied on line with a simple e-mail and had my certificate within 10 minutes. But on the web-site there’s a “new procedure coming into force for certificates on or after 28th July 2018”.

Mine will be after this date, so I need the new procedure. And I duly read the web page which told me almost everything that I needed to know, including in very great detail how to fill in the form.

One slight problem though – there wasn’t a link on the page to where the form might be found, and no identification number for me to search in the forms bucket.

So I rang then up on the number provided, and had a very helpful automated message – “we don’t deal with applications on this number. All of the information is on our web site”. Which of course is isn’t.

In the end, after much more searching, I found one of these webchat links. So I asked them.
“It’s all on the website” they told me
“No it isn’t” I said. “I’ve been looking for a couple of hours”.
“Here’s the link to the website” he said, sending me the page I was looking at.
“So where’s the link to the form?” I asked.
“We don’t deal with this”
“What do you mean? You’re the help desk. I’m asking for help”
“It’s a ne procedure. We know nothing about it yet”
“What kind of nonsense is this? You’re the help desk and you know nothing about it?”
“Maybe you should speak to our office. Here’s the number”
“I just rang it – it’s an automatic reply that doesn’t take calls”.
And so we went on … “and on, and on” – ed … and got nowhere.

In the end, I’m going to wait until the new procedure comes into force and try again. Hopefully they will have all of the information on line by then.

And, just in case you were wondering, it wasn’t Belgium either.

Four hours altogether I wasted with them. And missed my lunch. And just as I was thinking about making some sandwiches, Rosemary rang.

We were chatting for over an hour. She had some very good news to tell me, that her foot seems to be recovering quite well and she might even be allowed back home in a week or two. I was really pleased for her too.

In the end, my lunch was taken at 17:30. Only Rosemary had cheered up what had otherwise been a lousy day.

Later on, I went for a walk, albeit quite late, and met Gribouille and his mum. She was telling me that the little cat that I had seen was her grand-daughter’s cat who was staying there for a week or two. Gribouille wasn’t impressed at first, but he’s settled down now.

Round the headland I went on my walk, and reached the other side just in time to see the queue of boats waiting for the inner harbour gates to open.

And even as I watched, the gates opened up, and half a dozen trawlers shot in to he inner harbour to find their berths.

That was really impressive timing. I’d not actually witnessed the gates opening like this before.

And Neptune was in the harbour too. It’s been a while since we’ve seen her.

And as I watched, she slipped her moorings, and I was treated to the marvellous spectacle of her doing a nautical danse macabre around the incoming trawlers as she turned round in the harbour and prepared to leave.

She’s a lot bigger than she looks and it was quite a display of seamanship.

She then headed out of the harbour on her way to the open sea, with the incoming boats pulling over to one side to let her out.

So that’s another load of roadstone gravel – about 2500 tonnes or 100 lorry-loads – on its way to the asphalt plant at Whitstable.

She’s timed to arrive there after a voyage of about 19 hours

And as we watch her sailing out into the open sea, we can reflect on yet another effect that Brexit will have on the United Kingdom.

What chance does the United Kingdom have when it doesn’t even have any roadstone of its own to build its roads and so needs to import it from here?

Anyone who thinks that the United Kingdom can hold its own on the world market after Brexit and make a success of it is totally deluded.

So now I’m back, with a nice cold drink. And I might even have an early night. Who knows?

And then there’s more things to do tomorrow, isn’t there?

normandy trader port de granville harbour manche normandy france