… that doesn’t happen very often, isn’t it?

On my way down to the doctor’s this morning I noticed that the tide was out, the gates were wide open and all of the water had gone out with the tide.

In fact, it’s usually about once a year maybe that they drain the port. And as for why I really have no idea because from what I could see, there wasn’t anyone working in there this morning and there didn’t seem to be anything fallen in from the quayside.

It will explain why the port is empty this morning though. Just a solitary yacht over there, settling down in the silt.

It will also probably explain why the trawler Jade III is moored up over against the harbour wall in a NAABSA (not always afloat but safely aground) position.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that we’ve seen her left in the inner harbour while everyone else has gone out to fish, and we’ve also seen her tied up at the Fish Processing Plant now and again just recently.

But the fact that she’s over there today shows that they aren’t in any rush to take her out to sea.

There must be something quite bizarre going on with her that she’s not going out to sea very often these days. I couldn’t see anything about her in any of the local Press.

But whatever was happening about the inner harbour, it wasn’t happening for long.

Usually when they drain it the close the gates once it’s empty so that the water doesn’t come back in with the tide so that they can carry on working.

But they’ve left the gates open and now that the tide is coming in, so are the boats. la Grande Ancre is the first to arrive in port with one of the smaller craft following on in behind.

With a shallow draught, they can boldly go where none of the bigger boats can go until there’s more water in the harbour.

That’s why the larger boats are having to loiter around outside the outer harbour waiting for thigs to happen.

Two of those trawlers down there we know because we’ve seen them in the chantier naval. The one in front is Yann Frederic and the one behind with the pink cabin roof is Trafalgar I reckon.

The second one down there is obscured from view by Yann Frederic so I can’t see who she is.

And over at the ferry terminal we can just about make out the stern of the little freighter Chausiaise. Whatever she was doing in the inner harbour yesterday afternoon, she wasn’t doing it today, having had to move because of the emptying of the inner harbour.

She wasn’t over at the ferry terminal earlier this morning either.

As I was on my way to the doctor’s, I noticed that they had the crane working over there and they were loading something into one of the Joly France boats that was moored up there.

There was a boat moored in front of her but that looks more like Belle France to me.

By the way, when I came back from the doctor’s I saw the Joly France boat heading out to sea, loaded up with crowds of tourists. But there was that much fog and mist about that it wasn’t worth trying to take a photo. I only had the NIKON 1 J5 with me.

A little earlier, I mentioned la Grande Ancre.

Whe I was on my way to the doctor’s she was moored up at the Fish Processing Plant, doing what I don’t know.

In front of her is Valeque, a little shell-fishing boat that we have seen on one occasion in the past, and in front of her is Les Bouchots de Chausey.

Now we’ve seen her on many occasions moored up over there unloading her catch onto the trailer that’s always pulled by the tractor there. And at times we’ve seen that loaded up with an unbelievable number of crates of shellfish.

But anyway, I digress … “yet again” – ed.

Last night was something of (surprisingly) a reasonable sleep but even so, it was still a struggle to leave my stinking pit. These days, it seems to be something to celebrate if I manage to beat the second alarm.

After the medication I went and had a shower. I have to look pretty for the doctor. Well – you know what I mean.

and then I hit the streets.

You’ve seen a few photos that I took of the goings-on in the harbour but the racket coming from the portable boat lift over at the chantier naval told me that there were some goings-on over there too this morning.

As you can see, Anakena is taking advantage of the absence of water in the inner harbour. If she has to go somewhere while they drain it, she may as well go into the chantier naval for an overhaul before she heads of north-about to wherever she’s going this summer.

On the way down into town, the apprentice stonemasons were there again.

The repointing of the brick capping on the wall is proceeding apace. Give them another couple of days and they might even finish it, and then they’ll have to find something else to do.

Not that there’s any shortage of repointing given the state of the medieval walls around here.

At the doctors, he shook his head over my x-rays. There’s no obvious injury to my right knee. What he proposes is that I go to the big hospital at Avranches and have one of these in-depth scans that can even check the muscle tissue.

He asked me how my sleep was doing these days and I explained that there hasn’t been much improvement over the last couple of weeks. Consequently he told me to double the dose.

As regular readers oof this rubbish will recall, I’m reluctant to do that. My life these days isn’t actually what you would call “exciting” and the most interesting part, as I have said before … “and on many occasions too” – ed … is whatever goes on during the night.

And that’s certainly true today, even if it has been an age since Castor, Zero and TOTGA have come for a wander around with me. If doubling the dose means that I don’t get to go out at night, then I’m going to forget it.

At the chemist’s I dropped off the prescription for the Aranesp, picked up another supply of these night-time tablets and then came home.

At the back of the building there were some workmen having a go at something or other.

It’s usually not a good idea to disturb them while they are working so I left them to it, having made a mental note to go for a butcher’s in due course.

Back here, I made breakfast and then phoned the X-ray laboratory for an appointment. Avranches on 13th April at 16:00 and they’ll send me a confirmatory letter with the details.

But not to worry. I’m quite used to people telling me where to go.

And then I had a listen to the dictaphone to see where I’d been during the night.

I’d been working at someone’s house, filling in screw holes etc in the wall. I’d done a reasonable job but the place was covered in dust etc so I asked for a vacuum cleaner. They gave me some kind of vacuum cleaner but it needed a whole pile of extensions and adapters . When I went to connect it up half of them were missing, some were cross-threaded etc and it was turning into a right dog’s dinner. And all the people who were around there, these young “Hooray Henry” type people were taking the mickey somewhat. I was obviously not in their class or anything like that. In the end being totally fed up I found a hosepipe so I started to hose out the floor and push all the dust and dirt out towards the door. That meant putting out all the people with it. They grumbled and groaned but gradually they went. Eventually the girl whose house it was came down to see how I was doing. She was a young girl with waist-length blonde hair. She said “you didn’t need to go to all these lengths to do it”. I told her that I was happy to do it and happy to be here. I explained the problems that I’d had. She asked “are you sure that you want to do it?”. I replied “of course I am” and carried on working while we were talking. She had a good look at what I’d done and really liked it. “you must have done this quite a lot”. I replied “well, here and there”. I didn’t want her to know that this was the first time that I’d done ot. She said “would it be OK if you came back to do some more?”. I replied “I can come back any time any time you like” because obviously I had other things in mind. She asked when I could come back so I replied “I could come back tomorrow evening if you like” the implication being to take her out somewhere but that was where I reached – just about to get my fork stuck in it again.

Later on I’d gone to Burtons because I needed a new suit. We hadn’t been going out together for very long. The only trousers that they had were slightly longer so I asked Nerina if she would take them up for me which she said she would. They fitted me up with a suit and a jacket in dark blue with a light blue shirt and dark blue tie. I thought that it looked quite nice but Nerina said that it looked old

And the rest of the morning was spent dealing with the photos from August 2019 in Canada’s High Arctic. Right now I’m trying to negotiate a zodiac around a pack of seals in Dundas Harbour on Devon island.

After lunch I headed off to the physiotherapist’s.

Down on the quayside as I walked past, a large articulated lorry had pulled up and the driver was organising the trailer while there was someone else in the crane’s cockpit just there. “Are they going to be removing the old bouchot stakes today” I asked myself.

The walk up the hill was straightforward again with none of the issues that I had a few months ago. I’m still not well but this is definitely an improvement.

Today she had me on the couch with the electric massage machine and then a session on the cross trainer and a few exercises. I also told her of my appointment, which meant that I had to change my time with her that day from 15:30 to 14:30.

That means that I can go to see her that day in Caliburn and then drive from there straight to Avranches.

On the way home I popped into the chemist’s near the physiotherapist’s. Not for “something for the weekend” – well, yes actually. I suppose it was. I’ll be doing a lot of walking and I wanted a support for my knee. But I waited an age while the assistant and the customer in front of me told each other their life stories.

In the end I peed off out across the road to Carrefour for a demi-baguette to make my butties for my trip out tomorrow.

Down in the town centre I picked up the Aranesp from the chemist there and she also fixed me up with a knee support

Just in case you are wondering, I hadn’t forgotten the work that was going on at the back here.

They are erecting a fence at the back of the Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs to stop people using the passage as a cut-through by the looks of things.

These Foyers des Jeunes Travailleurs are quite interesting places. With a large proportion of the French population living out in rural areas and public transport being so miserable, any young person who finds a job in a town is usually snookered for transport.

Consequently these places exist where a young person can rent a small room with very basic facilities and where there are some communal facilities. And the rents are usually quite affordable for kids on low incomes.

And I mustn’t forget the beach either.

But I needn’t have bothered because although the tide is not all that far in right now, there was no-one down there despite it being a school half-day.

Instead, I came in here and made myself a coffee and had a play with some photos.

Tea was a rush – pasta veg and falafel. And I ate it in front of the computer, something that I promised never to do, but there was football on TV. A Welsh Premier League Select XI against a Select XI from the English National Conference.

About 5 minutes after kick-off, Rosemary rang me for one of our marathon chats and it’s hard to talk with one ear on the phone and the other ear and both eyes watching a football match.

And it’s impossible to cheer the final whistle, even when Wales manage to stuff the English 4-0.

So right now I’m off to bed. I’ve an early start in the morning and a train to catch. But I’m not going as far tomorrow as I usually do when I’m on my travels. We’re having a change of plan