Tag Archives: neighbour

Saturday 11th November 2017 – I’VE BEEN …

… socialising this evening.

And that’s not like me, is it?

Last night’s sleep was one of the best that I’ve had just recently. And I was away with the fairies too – out in the East End of London with the children who had accompanied me on a voyage the other night. Reading all of these historical criminal cases from the Old Bailey is clearly getting to me.

I beat the second alarm and after breakfast did a little tidying up and putting away the washing which is now perfectly dry. Putting it in front of the radiator seems to work. And then I had some things to do – like sort out a music playlist for this evening.

After lunch I crashed out for a good hour and a half and then had to go for a shower and a shave and a good clean-up. And then I hit the town.

It’s Brigitte’s birthday today and she was having a party on a boat in the harbour for all of her friends, and I had been invited. Braving the rain, I walked down there to the harbour.

We were 27 people on this boat, and they all tucked into a couple of huge seafood platters followed by cheese and birthday cake. Of course, there wasn’t very much for me but then again I wasn’t expecting it.

It’s not my scene at all, being there with all of these people for four hours or so, but I have to get out and socialise and to meet the other people from this building. I was even given a lift back, which was very handy given the rainstorm that we were having.

And I’m having yet another early night. And Sunday is a day of rest – a lie-in. And I’m intending to make the most of it.

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Thursday 2nd November 2017 – A RIGHT LOAD OF BANKERS.

I seem to attract the worst sort of bankers, don’t I?

On my way to the LIDL this morning, I stopped off at the Credit Agricole to check the automatic payments on my account. And the monthly payments to my bank in Belgium and my bank in Canada STILL haven’t been paid.

In the bank I got to see an assistant, and he confirmed that although all of ly accounts are now held at the bank here in Granville, the monthly payments referred to above have never been made.

Consequently I insisted on seeing the manager. And when he was finally free and I saw him, I told him precisely what I thought of his bank. And I was impressed with how much polite but offensive French I could conjure up on the spur of the moment.

What made it worse was what happened once he telephoned his International Department and they said that International Dorect Debits can’t be transferred between branches, but need to be cancelled and restarted. And when I asked him why his assistant hadn’t told me that when I went in in May to transfer my account, he didn’t have a reply.

With the heat from my comments on his remarks, they’ll be having the painters in to redecorate his office. I was one very unhappy bunny, as you can imagine. I’ve just been for two months in Canada and the USA spending money that I ought to have had but didn’t – and if you recall, I didn’t stint on my expenditure out there.

I made an appointment for after lunch to continue our discussion, and I went off to LIDL where I bought the bread for freezing, some ice cube sacks, and the wrong size of plastic bag in which to store my frozen stuff.

During my lunch break I gathered up some papers to take back to the bank, and it’s just as well because they had absolutely nothing on their files and, for some reason, they were extremely reluctant to telephone the bank in Pionsat to obtain the information.

The information for the Belgian bank was easy, but for Canada, not so. On the transit form that I took down, the reference number was 16 digits and there was only space on their computerised form for 9.

Having run round in circles for half an hour, I insisted that they telephone the bank in Canada and obtain the information first-hand. Eventually, they agreed and here we encountered the unfortunate fact that Canada’s clocks haven’t gone back yet, so they weren’t open.

I had to loiter in the bank for 45 minutes before the call went through, and after being thoroughly interrogated as to my movements in Canada, they gave me the account details. A 9-digit number indeed, “but you’ll need the 7-digit branch code”.

“I wondered what that box of 7 digits was for on the form just before the space for the account number” said the bank clerk. I despaired.

So now I’ll have to wait until the beginning of December to see if the payments have gone through. But I’m way beyond being annoyed about all of this, as you can imagine.

As I left the bank, I bumped into Brigitte who was loitering around outside. Three times this week, that is. We went for a coffee and a walk around the docks. I came back here and crashed out for half an hour – after all, I’ve walked over 118% of my daily activity today.

I’d had a rough night last night. Tossing and turning for much of it. And I’d been on my travels too – driving a coach on a holiday feeder service. I’d returned home to find that someone else was trying to go out on a feeder but there was no oil in his coach and he was annoyed to say the least. I said that he could go in mine, which somehow I had managed to park in my room in this hostel where I was staying.

What was ironic about this was that I was idly surfing the internet looking for photos of Ford coaches and there in glorious technicolour was a photo of a coach that I used to drive when I worked for Salopia Saloon Coaches in 1979. It’s a small world.

Having done well over 100% of my daily routine, I’ve exempted myself from going for a walk. I’m going for an early night to recover from today’s exertions.

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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.

plage granville beach manche normandy franceIt 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.

eglise st paul granville manche normandy franceI 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.

eglise st paul granville manche normandy franceWe 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.

vieille ville granville manche normandy franceBut 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.

port de commerce granville manche normandy franceBack 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.

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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.

beach granville manche normandy franceIt’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.

gravel port de commerce granville manche normandy franceI 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.

port de commerce granville manche normandy franceThat’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.

reunion publique haute ville granville manche normandy franceAnd 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.

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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.

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Sunday 15th October – OUR STORY YESTERDAY …

… ended with me creeping off to bed at 20:00 or thereabouts for a lie down.

It restarted at about … errr … 00:30 when I suddenly sat bolt upright again. Wide awake, of course, and that was that.

Interestingly, I’d been on my travels too. Out to sea in a small ship again but I’ve no idea where to.

I wasn’t wide awake enough to do all that much though. I had a mess around on the laptop but couldn’t keep the concentration, and I read a book for a while. By 04:00 or thereabouts I was ready to go off to sleep again.

And go on my travels again. This time we were camping – at one of these steam engine rallies or something like that. We were one of the first to arrive, and we had two tents so we could have had the choice of places. But somehow we had managed to cram ourselves into a tiny corner where there wasn’t much room to move about. It was then that I realised that I had left my sleeping bag and spare clothes behind, and I’d also forgotten to bring the spare tent pegs. The plastic ones that we had were not up to doing the job in this soil.
And then I moved on to being in a restaurant – some kind of posh house-type of place. But I just can’t remember now what was going on there.

09:27 when I awoke (it’s Sunday so there’s no alarm of course) but it was … errr … nothing like that when I finally crawled out of bed. I missed my bed while I was away … "you’ll have to improve your aim" – ed … and so I made the most of it.

Making muesli was the highlight of the morning, seeing as I had run out, but this fridge is finished. There’s an issue with the thermostat which means that it switches off, the fridge warms up, the ice melts everywhere, and the thermostat doesn’t switch back in until it’s too late. Everything inside the fridge is drenched.

After breakfast I went down into town to see if any of the shops were open. But we are now on winter hours of course so the little supermarket down below was closed. But never mind – it was a nice walk and did me good.

Just by way of a change, I had a visitor. My neighbour who looks after my keys came to see how I was doing, which was nice. But not so nice seeing as I had everything out and the place was a total tip. Doesn’t it always happen like this? Still, I gave him and his wife a little present for being so kind.

And that, dear reader, is your lot. I managed to rustle up some food (pasta, veg and tomato sauce) for tea but apart from that I’ve hardly moved. I should be going for a walk but I’ll postpone that for today. I had a little walk at lunchtime as you know.

So tomorrow we’re back in the routine. There’s an alarm set, and I need to visit the shops for just about everything. I tested Caliburn and he started up, which was useful. It’s been nearly 9 weeks since he’s had a run out. A little drive will do him good.

And I’m going to look for some new stuff too. A fridge, a freezer and a washing machine. High time I organised myself.

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Friday 11th August 2017 – MY FITBIT …

… told me this morning that I could reach today’s fitness target by doing 4:46 hours of cleaning.

So it’s really true! Mt fitbit can really see into my apartment!

After my early night (and it was early too) last night, I was up with the cock and having breakfast at a reasonable time. And then I set to work.

Tidying up was one thing of course, and giving everything a really good clean around. The apartment is now looking as if someone actually lives here, which makes a change of course, and it’s vacuumed too.

The floors aren’t washed though. That’s the last job before going to bed so that I can mop myself into the bedroom and let it all dry through the night.

But I am though. Showered and shaved and haircut and fingernailed. I look almost human.

Tomorrow it’s to clean the toilet and the sinks in the kitchen and bathroom – drop tons of bleach down them.

I was in town too at lunchtime. Everything is still okay at the bank – the rent is paid, but still no money transferred over and this is beginning to annoy me no end. I paid a fortune (I’ve run out) in the little Carrefour for a bit of lettuce for lunch and for my butties tomorrow. They will keep me going through the day tomorrow.

Suitcase is finally packed and that was a nightmare. It’s only barely big enough and ended being something of a struggle. I hope that I don’t need anything out of there in a hurry.

Tonight I went round to socialise with the neighbours. A very friendly bunch but as you know, I don’t “do” socialising so I only stayed for a while. I came back to cut my hair and my fingernails ready for my trip.

So an early night and up with the cock tomorrow. 06:00!

But the good news, which I have saved for last, is that the hi-fi is now working. It must have been full of damp – which is no surprise – biut it now seems to have dried out. And so I’ve been on a major nostalgia trip listening to all of my cassette tapes from the 1970s.

The left speaker channel is flaky and the controls on the amp are confused – I ended up wiping a good ten seconds off Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which is a tragedy.

I can see me making a few purchases in early course as soon as I come back.

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Thursday 13th July 2017 – IF YOU WANT TO KNOW …

… the answer to a question, the most important thing to do is to ask the question.

And I now know all about the Pluto and the Victress.

I was flat-out in my stinking little pit when the alarm went off this morning. Which totally surprised me because I’m lucky to be still here

I was well-away with the fairies last night, starting off on my old Honda Melody looking for an ice cream. And on the way back I was passed by a couple riding horses rather recklessly down a narrow street. 100 yards further on they had been stopped by a plain-clothes policeman in a silver Range Rover who was giving them both a lecture and an on-the-spot fine, so as I rode past, I made a few remarks of … errr … “encouragement”. It was then that I realised that I had no insurance, road tax or MoT and with the number plate I knew that it would be checked immediately. No hope of flight of course so after a minute or two of wracking my brains I decided to leave the bike in the back yard where I lived and clear off. Of course I did that but I hadn’t gone 50 yards when the landlady stuck her head out of the back gate and told me that I was wanted. No hope of escape now.
A little later I was on a push-bike going into Newcastle upon Tyne. But it certainly wasn’t the Newcastle upon Tyne that I ever knew. I’d taken the route twice and so didn’t have my map with me but I was pretty certain of where I was going so it was no problem. So down the hill, turn left and then round this sweeping right-hand bend following the tramlines – a road that would take me very close to the city centre. But here on this corner, people kept stepping off the kerb right in front of me. And for some reason or other, this degenerated into a situation that appears quite regularly in my nocturnal voyages – namely that I have Mark III Ford Cortinas scattered all over the town in various states of MoT and Tax and Insurance, and I need to consolidate them all so that only the 100%-legal ones are on the road and the rest are safely stored otherwise I’ll lose them, including my precious estate car.

marite port de granville manche normandy franceAfter breakfast and a little pause to gather my wits (which doesn’t take too long these days) I hit the streets, direction town. It was a lovely morning, that’s for sure.

Down the hill and down the bank, and then down the ramp to the harbour and there was a superb view of the Marité looking so splendid in the sunlight

I’m determined that one of these days I shall go out aboard her, even if it is only for a lap around the bay. But I bet that I’ll be very disappointed and find that it will be a diesel-powered “sailing” all the way.

That will be sad.

pile of scrap port de granville manche normandy franceThere was another pile of scrap on the quayside, mostly old agricultural stuff and the usual scrap fridges and cookers.

This seemed to bear out my theory from the other day about the Victress and Pluto bringing it in. But then I had another idea.

By this time I was down near the harbour offices so I popped in to ask them about the ships.

And it seems, I’m wrong. Yes, it does happen occasionally, which I know will surprise you all.

There’s a big quarry near Avranches that produces a special kind of stone and every so often Victress and Pluto come in to load up 2400 tonnes per trip to take back to the UK.

But they always come in empty – it’s not they who bring in the scrap.

So who’s bringing in the scrap then?

It didn’t take me long to find out.

grima port de granville manche normandy franceNo prizes whatever for guessing what this is – or, rather, was.

She’s the Grima and her claim to fame is that she was formerly the ferry that operated the Shetland Island Council route between Bressay and Lerwick between 1972 and 1992.

She has a carrying capacity of about 8 or 9 cars or so and was sold when the volume of traffic began to overwhelm her. She eventually became a work-boat for the Lerwick fishing industry

She was still displaying her “Lerwick” lifebelts so I hailed the crew who were relaxing on deck.
“Blimey! You’ve come a long way in that”
“Not really” replied the skipper. “Only from Jersey”.

It appears that she now sails out of Jersey and comes into Granville a couple of times each week bringing in the scrap (there are no scrap-processing facilities on the island) and taking back building supplies, wood and the like.

She’s probably not licensed for passengers, but I have a Cunning Plan. You don’t need a maritime permit or whatever to be a ship’s cook and my cooking has never killed anyone yet – although I have seen a couple of people stagger out of my kitchen.

mending the fishing nets port de granville manche normandy franceThey say that there’s a time for fishing – and a time for mending the nets.

Clearly for today it’s the latter. Here they all are with their needles and thread having a good old sew and sew.

That looks as if it’s the kind of job that might take for ever with a net that size, so good luck to them

buoys mending the fishing nets port de granville manche normandy franceWe all know what these are, but what surprised me was what they are doing out of the water.

And even more importantly, have they put anything back in to replace them? It would be exciting if they hadn’t.

It’s a little-known fact that Michael Jackson applied to join the US Navy. But he withdrew his application after the Recruiting Officer told him
“I don’t care how it’s pronounced. Those things that line the approaches to every harbour are called BUOYS”.

I headed off around town to check my bank accounts (money STILL not received) and where I bumped in to my neighbour again as I had done last week.

Next stop was to see the estate agents to warn them of my absence. And I forgot to check the times of the buses for the station in … GULP … just 30 days time.

ferry ile de chausey port de granville manche normandy franceLunch was once again on the wall overlooking the harbour.

Not much going on today but I did watch the ferry for the Iles de Chausey heading off with quite a crowd on board. Sea as calm as a millpond so they probably all had a good time.

And I had a new lunchtime companion today. Never mind the four lizards who always come to see me – when I dropped my apple core onto the ground for the wildlife, a brown mouse appeared – right at my feet – and dragged it off into the undergrowth to munch at its leisure.

Apart from that, I’ve been bashing away on the blog once more. Not quite the 20-odd (and sometimes more) pages of recent date though.

I ran aground round about 7th January 2013 and that’s when it all went haywire as my concentration and efforts were diverted. So I’ve advanced to June 2013 where there’s a couple of weeks that need to be done.

Then the difficult bits will start.

That wasn’t the only reason that I fell behind. The walk this morning had taken quite a lot out of me and I was totally out of it for two hours and more this afternoon. I clearly can’t last the pace.

But with the final batch of kidney bean and aubergine whatsit having bitten the dust today, and having had a good chat with Liz and Rosemary, I’m ready for bed.

And quite right too. Shopping tomorrow!

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Thursday 6th July 2017 – I DIDN’T FORGET …

… to have my 17:00 melon this evening. Which was just as well, because it went down a treat. And in this heat, it was beautiful.

It was hot even when I awoke this morning, and as I was sitting doing nothing very much just after breakfast I could see the temperature on the thermometer rise and rise.

I’d had a bad night last night though. Took ages to go to sleep, and woke up in the middle of the night feeling really uncomfortable. It took ages to go back off to sleep again, but when I did, I was away with the fairies.

It was the turn of the person who has been described in this rubbish on many previous occasions as “The One That Got Away” to accompany me on my travels. And she didn’t get away last night – not ‘arf she didn’t! I was back in Crewe (heaven alone knows why!) and going to Hunter’s Lodge – along a road that bore absolutely no resemblance to the road to there, which wasn’t a problem because Hunters Lodge wasn’t anything like it is either. Anyway, there I fell in with the aforementioned and ended up commuting to work across the Channel every day.

So I was flat out when the alarm went off. And … errr … flat out when the reminder went off too. But then again, if you were in an amorous clinch with The One That Got Away during a nocturnal ramble, you wouldn’t want to wake up either.

At 09:15, I went for my little walk into town. Down the hill, down the ramp, and, something that I hadn’t yet done, a good stroll around the harbour. Lots of boats and quite a bit of activity too, and I fell in with a fisherman who told me about all of the fish that one catches here. Mind you, he wasn’t doing so well. In fact, he was doing pretty badly.

And it was around here that I fell in with one of my co-habitees. She had gone for a walk too. And so we chatted for quite a while about nothing in particular, and I went about my business.

That involved a trip to the bank. And sure enough, the payments that I wanted to check had been made, which is good news. The bad news is that my accounts from Pionsat STILL haven’t been transferred over.

This is … errr … unsettling me somewhat. When I go shopping tomorrow I shall go to see if I can find a pickaxe handle anywhere. Giving someone a message by tapping it into their thick skulls in Morse Code with a pickaxe handle usually works wonders.

Back here, thoroughly exhausted and boiling hot by 11:05. That was a nice walk.

And then I spent the rest of the day on the blog. I’ve done tons of it too, although much of my time was spent on just one particular day – another one of these ones that I briefly sketched out and then moved on.

Lunch on my little wall, a little doze in the afternoon too. I’m getting into something of a routine – and isn’t that uncomfortable?

Last of the curry for tea tonight. I shall have to be more adventurous tomorrow.

But with the shops, let’s see what’s on offer.

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Monday 5th June 2017 – NO CHANCE …

storms granville manche normandy france… English bed-wetting types, of anyone sleeping around here tonight.

Not with this howling gale that’s right now lashing the rock on which I stand, which will slowly sink into the sand, just as Barclay James Harvest predicted, if it keeps on going like this.

In fact, the day started off quite nicely. I was asleep until the alarm went off and, leaping out of bed, I grabbed an early breakfast.

An hour or so later I was down in the town in the glorious sunshine with my huge bag full of dirty washing. The idea was to arrive before the crowds did and before the shops opened, and find a parking place as close as possible to the launderette. In fact, I managed to find a free space right outside the door.

But the launderette isn’t much good. It didn’t clean my clothes too well at all and I had to send them through a second time. I shall have to think long and hard about this and about what I’m going to do in this respect.

While the washing was doing I nipped around the corner for a baguette and some tomatoes, and then headed back to the launderette sort out the clothes.

Next plan was to go to the Bank, the Estate Agent and the Insurance place, but Bane of Britain has struck again. It’s a Bank Holiday here today, so I discovered. So forget all of that.

Back here, I ran into (well, not literally) my neighbour who formerly lived in my apartment. We had a little chat – so little that it went on for over an hour and a half and it was midday before I ended up back in here with a coffee.

By lunchtime the weather had changed and I ate my butties indoors. The storm broke at about 15:00 and it was howling around. I dunno what it was that crashed to the ground up the road from here, but it wasn’t half impressive.

storm at sea granville manche normandy franceI braved the tempest and walked with the camera across to the cliff overlooking the harbour in the hope and eager expectation of seeing the waves lashing over the jetties and crashing on the rocks and all of that. But how disappointed was I?

The bay is quite sheltered from the winds and as a result what was going on down there was nothing like as impressive as I was hoping it might have been. The sea was barely stirring. I’ve had rougher waves in my bath after a plate of baked beans on toast.

storm at sea granville manche normandy franceBack here I had a few things to do to keep me out of mischief, but as the tempo of the wind increased I couldn’t resist the temptation to fit the zoom lens to the camera and stick it out of the window to see if the waves were any more impressive.

The answer was “some, not much”. I can see that living here is going to be a big disappointment. I was really looking forward to watching the waves come crashing up over the headland in the darkest depths of winter.

So having had tea, I’m feeling pretty tired but I suspect that it’s going to be a long night for me with all of this going on.

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Wednesday 24th May 2017 – NOW HERE’S A SURPRISE!

Yes – I spent a pleasant hour or so having a coffee with neighbours here in the building.

And no-one whom I have previously met either. And had I been a little quicker, I might even have acquired a washing machine and I’m a little dismayed about that!

Coming back from buying my baguette this morning, a couple of men were struggling out of the building with a washing machine – so I held the door open for them and watched (with dismay) as they threw it into the back of a lorry. There was a couple half-way up the stairs and we ended up having a chat. It appears that they had just bought a new washing machine, it had been delivered, and they had given away the old one which was taken away by the suppliers.

Drat! And double-drat!

But anyway, to cut a long story short …“hooray!” – ed … we ended up having quite a chat and they invited me in for a coffee. They are my age, inveterate travellers and Monsieur likes Led Zeppelin. And they also told me quite a bit about the other people who live in the building. We have quite a few musicians in here, apparently, and that can only be good news.

Last night was another difficult night for me – took me ages to go off to sleep and then I awoke quite early this morning. And after breakfast I had a good relax before going off to buy the baguette and to come back fro coffee.

And apart from that, I’ve not done very much else. Quietly sitting in here and doing some work on the laptop and some tidying up too. Isn’t that a change?

Tea was more potatoes, peas, carrots and vegan burger, all cooked in the microwave. That was a good purchase, I reckon, and I’m quite pleased with it. When I pick up my oven I’ll be in my element and I can’t wait for that either.

So I’ll be having another early night, another session of Saint episodes, and (hopefully) an early night. Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday so I’m having a day off – always assuming that I can find a baguette.

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