Tag Archives: strawberry moose

Sunday 14th July 2019 – THIS MORNING …

… we walked all the way from the harbour at Reykjavik right the way through the city and out the other side, and up the hill to the big new modern church that towers above the place.

When we eventually arrived there we were greeted by a burly man standing cross-armed blocking the doorway, with the air of “none shall pass” as in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
“Why not?” asked Our Hero
“Because there’s a Mass going on. And you won’t understand it either because it’s in Icelandic so come back in an hour!”

Yes, it’s Sunday of course and I had completely forgotten.

Last night I had had a terrible night’s (lack of) sleep, probably one of the worst that I have had for quite a while. In fact so much so that I found myself on one occasion dictating the same dream twice. I’m clearly losing my marbles – not that I had too many in the first place.

Despite all of my exertions I did actually make it up (just) before the first alarm and staggered once more out on deck to take a couple of photos of Reykjavik in the rain. because the weather has now broken.

We had an early breakfast and then because we aren’t amongst the hordes saying goodbye to the ship today we had an hour or so free time. I spent my hour or so in the horizontal position on the bed and enjoyed every minute of what I remembered about it. Which wasn’t much.

At 09:00 we went out across the road to the café in the Flea Market where we were assured of a good wi-fi connection. And a good wi-fi connection it was too and we spent quite some time checking up on things, including the latest chaos in the UK.

Later, Rosemary wanted to go shopping for some presents for her friends so we headed off into town, looking at a few shops on the way, in one of which she bought a few winter woollies. After all, Iceland is the place to come for those.

There was the church of course, as I mentioned earlier, and then a walk down to the waterfront and back along the shore to the ship for lunch.

Grabbing Strawberry Moose we made our way back into town after lunch. We had had to wait for a while to give the rainstorm time to die down, so we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked.

The flea market was now open so we had a look around, and Rosemary tried some dried cod. A few more shops and a few more presents, and a couple of photo opportunities for His Nibs.

By now the rain was coming down in torrents so we fled back to the ship. All of our new co-voyagers were waiting to board but we didn’t hang about. We just charged through them and up the gangway onto The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour.

First thing that I did was to dive into the shower, taking a handful of clothes in with me. I needed a good scrub up and I have to keep on top of the laundry for I have a long way to go.

And then we had all of the briefings that I have sat through on innumerable occasions followed by the mandatory lifeboat drill. And in the time that it took to organise the drill we would have all disappeared beneath the waves a good while ago had we really been in trouble.

For tea we made the acquaintance of a couple from Edinburgh in Scotland on their first voyage. The husband had visited Greenland many years ago so he’s in for a bit of a shock when he gets back there.

After tea we had a tea and a chat, but it’s an early start tomorrow so we decided to retire early.

And I can’t say that I’m sorry. The pace is now going to heat up considerably.

Saturday 13th July 2019 – HAVING HAD …

… yet another reasonable sleep with only a moderate amount of disturbance, I was ready for the alarm when it went off. And ready for the second one too. I did however manage to beat the third alarm.

For a change just recently, I remembered my medication too, so properly provided, I staggered up on deck to see what I could see. And the answer to that conundrum was “nothing at all” because there was more of this thick, clammy fog everywhere.

After breakfast, things changed slightly. We had a briefing or two but I drifted away after a while because I could see in the distance the mast of a boat. This was the pilot boat pulling up alongside and that told me that we must be close to land.

Accordingly, I went up on deck. And I’m glad that I did (and consequently missed the group photograph) because the manoeuvre to get into the harbour here at Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyar Islands is quite interesting. There was a volcanic eruption here in 1973 and a flow of lava spread down from the Eldfell mountain, engulfing half of the houses and flooded into the harbour entrance, almost closing it off.

As a result, the harbour mouth that used to be about 800 metres wide is now about 150 metres. The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour had to perform a series of spectacular manoeuvres, including turning around and reversing in. And when you have a 137-metre ship trying to turn round in a 150-metre opening, it’s certainly exciting.

Eventually we found our way in, pursued by a ferry from the mainland, and tied up.

I’d missed the start of lunch, which meant that I had to dash to be ready for our coach trip around the island. Our driver took us to the museum where we could see the history of the eruption as well as a house that had been excavated from the ash, and then off on a sight-seeing expedition.

He took us to a bay where Algerian pirates had landed and carried off half of the population into slavery, and also to the site of what is considered to be the first settlement on the island, dating from the late 9th Century and may even precede the official date of 874 AD that is given for the first Norse colonialisation of Iceland.

But it was very interesting listening to the guide and the driver talking about “Iceland” as if it were somewhere else and a completely different country to their own out here on Vestmannaeyar.

And had I known – but the local football club IBV Vestmannaeyar plays in the Icelandic Premier Division and they were playing “at home” this afternoon about half a mile away from here. I could have made the game had I put my skates on.

Back at the ship, the others wandered off for a zodiac ride. Strawberry Moose and I went for a walk down to the old fort, the old church and the old house to see what was going on. And I’m glad that I did as I only just managed to beat the caretaker locking up the church.

There were kids playing around, and a wedding party there too. All of the passing ships and boats were saluting them.

My trip took me to the local supermarket to compare prices. Seeing as this is an island in the Far North, I found that the prices were not as ridiculously high as I was expecting. In fact, some of the goods were priced quite reasonably when compared to the mainland of Iceland. I still couldn’t afford to live here though.

Back on the ship we had tea, interrupted by passing the island of Surtsey, the new one that sprang up out of the Atlantic 50-odd years ago and which we saw on our way into Iceland.

We all said our goodbyes too because tomorrow will be quite hectic as people leave. And then we had the “talent show”, from which I steered well clear. I’ve seen at first hand the embarrassment that this kind of event may cause.

So now it’s bed-time. And an early start yet again tomorrow. There’s a lot to be done so I hope that I have a good night’s sleep.

Tuesday 9th July 2019 – HAVING SAID ..

… that I was planning on an early night last night, I wandered back to my cabin and began to watch a film. However, I never even made it past the credits, so tired was I

And it will be the same tonight because I feel totally wasted. It has been a really hectic day.

Something of a struggle to tear myself out of my stinking pit at the sound of the alarm. However I did make it to breakfast at the appropriate time, but it would be wrong to say that I was the life and soul of the party.

During the night we had sailed down the Eyjafjördur fjord and moored at the quayside in the town of Akureyri, the “Capital of the North”, just as Tintin did in the Aurora in The Shooting Star.

First item on the agenda was a trip out to some archaeological ruins but as our bus wasn’t until 09:15, I had time to chill out for a while before leaving. At least, that was the plan, except that my reverie was interrupted by the cleaner bursting in to clean my room.

But I made it onto the quayside in time and much to my surprise the driver was from Wolverhampton. Married to an Icelandic girl whom he had met in London, she wanted to return home so he came too. And just like us, he has no intention of ever returning.

We also learnt a few Icelandic definitions today. A tree is a tree, a wood is two trees standing close together and a forest is three trees ditto.

This morning’s destination was Gasir, an abandoned Norse village about 11 kms away. And when I say “Norse” I don’t really mean it because although it’s from the late Norse period, it’s actually a settlement just occupied seasonally by merchants trading with the area.

We don’t know for sure who these traders were but the discovery of German goods from the pre-Hanseatic days and alse English trade goods is very significant.

There were the remains of a church here and these were quite visible following some excavation, even down to the churchyard wall. Plenty of foundations of booths too, many of which have never been excavated. It was quite a big, busy place during the trading season.

So why was it abandoned? The answer is that you can see from the photo the spread of alluvial silt that has accumulated. Most boats anchored in the river to the side of the settlement but round by the 15th Century the accumulation of silt made this impossible.

It’s very tempting to consider the influence of the mini-Ice Age of this period that put an end to the Medieval Warm period, and look for a change in the weather, the tides and the currents causing the build-up of silt.

But one thing is quite clear. The archaeological investigations of the area so far carried out have turned up absolutely nothing of any size whatever. Trinkets that were easily lost or discarded and broken objects, but nothing of anything that would be classed as a large object. There was no wood discovered of any importance.

This points to what would be described as an “orderly evacuation” of the site where everything possible would be taken away for re-use, rather than a panic-stricken flight such as you might have when invaders arrive and the inhabitants take only what they could carry, or an evacuation following a fire.

Something else I learnt about Iceland this morning too. There are horses everywhere, thousands of them, and we asked their purpose. And the reply can only be given with an Icelandic accent, which is impossible to do in a text format, so you’ll have to do the best you can.

“Ven the horssiss is born they go out into the fields and learn to become ponies. Zen ven they get to four years we go to ride them. And of they bite and kick too much ve make zem into sausages”

So now you know.

On the way back I sat next to our Norse expert, hoping to pick his brains. However he must have had a hard day too because he dozed off and slept all the way back to the ship. So much for that!

After lunch we decided to have a little rest for a few minutes before setting off on our travels. We would meet again at 14:00. I remember seeing 13:50, but the next thing that I remember was that it was 14:10. I needed to put my skates on.

I ended up heading off on my own. Right out of the city to the Air Museum, the Motorcycle Museum and the Museum of Industry. But my admission pass didn’t cover them after all of that, so I headed back to town, stopping off at a few civic museums on the way.

One of them had an exhibition of maps and one of the comments startled me. It went something like “improvement in ships and navigation techniques in the 15th and 16th centuries meant that mariners could visit the New World” or something along those lines, completely forgetting that the Norse had been visiting the New World for 500 years prior to Cabot and Columbus.

Nothing else of any great interest although my admission pass covered them, but we did discover a Toy Museum. Several toys such as pedal cars and kiddies’ tricycles parked outside and Strawberry Moose enjoyed them immensely.

Further along on my route back I came across an ice-cream parlour that sold – would you believe – vegan ice cream, so I stocked up with a large coconut ice cream, that cost me almost €5:00.

Across the road was a signpost pointing up a steep path to the Botanical Gardens, so I staggered my way up there. And “stagger” was the word because it was long and steep.

But well worth the climb because not only was it beautiful, blue poppies and black tulips included, but the smell was delicious. I sat there for a good half-hour to soak it all up, and regular readers of this rubbish will recall that this isn’t like me at all. As I have said before, and on many occasions too, the only time that I would ever be likely to take a photograph of a flower would be if an old car were parked upon it.

Back down into town where I was nearly squidged by a couple of cars, I discovered that many restaurants are selling vegan options. No danger of me having difficulties about eating out – except the price of course because things are horrendous here.

After tea I had a nice hot shower which helped me to relax after my efforts. I washed my clothes too – I need to keep up-to-date with my washing as I don’t have much stuff. Then I girded up my loins. It’s going to be another very long day so I need to be on really good form. I remember the rush around that we had last year and if anything it’s intensified.

Still, no peace for the wicked.

There was another beautiful sunset so I stayed on deck and watched it as the pilot helped us navigate our way out of port and then came back down to go to bed. I need a good sleep ready for tomorrow.

Monday 8th July 2019 – I DIDN’T EVEN …

… know whether I was right or not last night, because I went straight to bed. And fell asleep in the middle of a Fu Manchu film.

Right through to about 05:20 too, which is pretty unusual. So when the alarm went off at 06:00 I was out of bed quite promptly.

Remembering my medicine for once, I went out to take a couple of early-morning photos. We were off the island of Grimsey, 40 or so kms off the Iceland mainland and half in the Arctic Circle.

A very early breakfast and I went to put on my cold weather gear. There are limits on the number of people allowed onshore at any one time so half of us, me included, were going for a ride in a zodiac first.

We saw the basalt columns and the stratified lava layers, and also puffins. There’s a big puffin colony on the island. One of them even performed a dance for me. There were several birds in nests jealously guarding their chicks.

Once we were allowed to land, I took a couple of photos of the harbour and the boats, and then we went for a walk out past the airport. Strawberry Moose came with me and he posed on the marker where the Arctic Circle crosses the land mass.

On our way back we passed another colony of puffins, one of whom had a load of sand eels in his beak. Or so it seemed at first, but on closer inspection it appeared to be its beard.

Back on board ship I had another relax and then it was lunch. Yet another buffet again today, and delicious it all was.

As we left the harbour I noticed a ship in the distance heading our way, so I set out down to the bow to photograph it. But I bumped into the guy who did the presentation yesterday on the Norse. I asked him a couple of questions about his presentation because there were certain things about which I disagreed.

And by the time that I had finished, not only had the other boat gone past, but it was in the harbour and out of sight. Instead I attended a presentation on polar bears in Iceland. And I still disagreed with the previous presenter

Later, we docked at Siglufjördur. This was formerly one of the biggest towns in Iceland but was badly affected by the collapse of the herring industry in the 1960s. At one time, 20% of Iceland’s exports was in herring and herring products from here.

Much of the old infrastructure had been abandoned but a couple of local teachers had collected what they could and restored it, and opened a museum in the old abandoned buildings. We were all invited to see how the herring fishery was back 100 or so years ago.

But aren’t people funny? I’d positioned Strawberry Moose at the wheel of an old trawler and stepped back to take a photo of him. And as I was stepping back, someone pushed right in front of me and climbed into the wheelhouse, obstructing my view and almost knocking His Nibs off his perch.

The old workshop and mechanics’ room was so interesting that I was almost the last person back on board. But I’d been delayed by a moment of high amusement. There was a kiddies’ bouncing castle thing with a pile of kids on it. A girl of about 8 was showing off, bouncing down onto her derriere and back to her feet. An older girl, about 10 or 11 or so, thought that she could do it so she bounced down onto her derriere and bounced right off the mattress into the bushes.

But one thing that I do have to say, and that is that on board our ship is an ancient guy who needs to go everywhere with one of these wheeled walkframes. It’s a totally unsuitable arrangement for life on board a ship, as you can imagine and it’s even worse on land, where conditions are even more difficult.

He set off with his walkframe to visit the museum, which is a good couple of kilometres from the docks, and as you might expect, gave out along the way. He struggled into the museum but they had to send a car to fetch him back to the ship.

This is really rather thoughtless of him, of the people with him and the people who run the operation. A certain level of mobility must surely be an absolute requirement on a voyage like this.

Tea tonight was another buffet and I almost ate the wrong meal. There was a vegetable curry so I helped myself to a good portion, only to find out that it had cream in it, and there was a special supply for me.

Later on, we were entertained by an Icelandic folk group playing all kinds of traditional airs. Not my cup of tea but I stayed and watched nevertheless.

Well, almost, because near the end a big trawler in a neighbouring berth set out to sea so I went outside and photographed it.

Now it’s another early night, and I can’t say that I’m sorry. I’m exhausted after my two long walks and it’s another busy day tomorrow.

Sunday 7th July 2019 – HAVING TAKEN …

… advantage of my early night, such as it was, I awoke at about 04:15 or something and had to make a trip down the corridor. And to find my dictaphone because I had forgotten to put it to hand. This kind of thing defeats the whole purpose of having an early night. I don’t have too many of them and I don’t seem to be able to take advantage of them at all.

I suppose that I must have gone back to sleep eventually because the alarm awoke me at 06:00 and I leapt out of bed with something rather less than the usual energy. Up on deck taking a few photos and wandering into breakfast, I was halfway through my muesli before I realised that I had once again forgotten my medication.

Our luck was in too, for the captain came to join us and we had a lengthy chat.

We were right down the end of a very spectacular fjord and ahead of us was an equally spectacular waterfall, the highest in Iceland and known as Dynjandi. That was our destination for the morning.

Having been first off the ship yesterday, we were last off today so we had plenty of time to watch them loading up the zodiacs and preparing the kayaks for those who had reserved that option.

The ride out was incredibly smooth, due in no small measure to the sheltered location and we arrived at the shore without even a hint of spray and dampness. And divesting ourselves of our warm clothing and wellingtons, we headed off.

It was a stiff, steep tough climb up to the waterfall with plenty of stops for breath for the less-fit members of our party, but most of us made it to the top of the path at the foot of the falls, passing several smaller cascades on the way. Some even made it higher still by scrambling over the damp rocks but in my case discretion was the better part of valour in my state of health.

Strawberry Moose made it up there too and he had a great time, being photographed on several occasions and by many people.too. His fame is spreading.

After a lengthy pause for a rest and good look around, we descended. And that wasn’t as easy as it might have sounded because the path was steep and there were plenty of loose stones about.

Back on the ship I headed for a nice hot shower and to wash my clothes. They are now nice and clean, as am I and it really was beautiful in there.

After lunch there were several lectures. I attended the one about the Norse (not the Vikings as our lecturer insisted on calling them) but it was one of these brief shallow discussions with much glossed over and several opinions that don’t accord with more informed thought. All in all, I was somewhat disappointed.

A little later on I felt a wave of fatigue creep over me so seeing as there wasn’t all that much going on, I retired to my cabin. 90 or so minutes I was there, and I actually dozed off for about 20 of them. But I was quite comfortable and for the want of anything better to do, I stayed in bed until we were called for the briefing for tomorrow’s events.

At tea we were joined by the host of our expedition and we had a lengthy chat about Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia. And while we were so engaged, a voice came over the tannoy to inform us that we had now crossed beyond the Arctic Circle.

Later there was a party and dancing with social games and so on. But I don’t do this North American happy-clappy stuff so I retired to the upstairs lounge where there’s a power point and I did some work.

But I’m not going to be here long. Even though I had a lengthy repose this afternoon I’m pretty tired and we do have an early start tomorrow. I’ll go to bed and watch a film. That’s almost guaranteed to make me fall asleep. But things are so inverted just recently that I’ll probably still be awake at 06:00.

No point in waiting for the sunset because it’s overcast and tying its best to rain, as I expected. I’ll see nothing whatever out there this evening.

Saturday 6th July 2019 – HAVING SAID …

… last night that it was bound to rain before long, I can say that it didn’t at all today, which is always very nice.

And for a change, I was up and about early yet again. Straight after the second alarm went off. That gave me a good 45 minutes to bash away at what I wanted to do before breakfast, which is something that I like to do otherwise tend up falling behind.

After breakfast, we had to get ready as we were going off on a zodiac cruise to shore and a town called Rif. There’s a strange guy there who runs a theatre and hostel, and he was to entertain us for half an hour.

The ride in was good, not too rough so we weren’t soaked. And just for a change, we were first off out of the blocks. That doesn’t happen every time.

The guy there gave us a talk and a few songs, and I talked to one of the residents, a girl called Sonia.

But it was the wrong time of year to be visiting Rif as the centre of the village is well-known for its colony of nesting terns and right now, the eggs have only just hatched so the birds were quite aggressive. Several of us were dive-bombed and received little gifts from the heavens, but one or two of the people where physically attacked by the birds and injuries were suffered.

There was a church in the vicinity that I had wanted to see but the aggressive birds put quite a few areas out of bounds. For the same reason it wasn’t recommended to walk to the town of Hellisandur either.

A waterfall , the Svodufoss, 4kms away was a very good substitute so some of us went there instead. But I don’t know by what route they calculated the 4kms but my fitbit made the round trip 12.1 kms – a bit of a difference and I could certainly feel it.

And it’s as well that I hadn’t had much to drink. After all, you can’t go behind a bush in Iceland because there are no bushes to go behind.

Of course I was not alone out there .Strawberry Moose came with me and took full advantage of the situation, being photographed in several exciting places.

Back on the zodiac and it was lunchtime. I was good and ready for it too, having walked all of that way in just a morning.

After lunch I went and had a shower and washed my clothes. It’s been a couple of days and I bet that they could pick me up on the ship’s radar. And then we had a series of lectures on different subjects.

One of our lectures, on the geology of Iceland, was interrupted. A blue whale had been observed off the port bow so we abandoned the lecture – another “Gold Strike at Bear Creek” moment as in Carry On Cowboy. We were in luck too because there were two of them and they gave us quite a performance.

After tea we sailed past a series of very high cliffs at a place called Latrabjarg. And very impressive they were too. We weren’t the only ones to think so either because right at the point of land (it’s the extreme western edge of Iceland) there was a scenic viewpoint with quite a few cars and people admiring the view.

There was a rep from Nikon there too offering us a trial of various equipment. She had a very high quality 28-300mm lens amongst her hire equipment so I have borrowed that for a few days. I’m interested to see how that shapes up, so I’ll let you know in due course.

Now I have a few things to tidy off and then I might go to have an early night. The sunset might be a good one again but I really need to catch up with my sleep.

Monday 1st July 2019 – IT WAS SOMETHING …

… of a rather depressing night. I had a shower as soon as I got into my room and gave my clothes a quick wash and then, still dripping rather wet, I crawled into bed.

Bed is one thing. Sleep is something else completely. And so it was that I lay awake tossing and turning as the clock rolled on.

However I must have gone to sleep at some point because I was off on my travels at a certain moment. This was another thing where something went wrong. I was with Percy Penguin – at least, it was her but then again it wasn’t – and it was all about cars and so on. I’d arranged to meet Percy Penguin (who doesn’t feature in my notes half as often as she deserves) and I picked her up and we went for a meal. She was asleep on the sofa in this hotel. Everyone was gradually being served and in the end there was just me, another guy and Percy Penguin asleep on the sofa. A woman from the restaurant came out and said “I suppose that you three are all together”. I replied that we were all on our own, except that I might possible be with that girl there. Percy Penguin sat up so I sat next to her and we had the menus. We agreed on a starter and then we had to choose the wine for the wine list. I asked “what wine do you want?” as if she would know.She didn’t so I ordered a nice bottle of full-bodied red Burgundy. The waitress said “oh I don’t have a Burgundy”. I expressed my astonishment that a restaurant wouldn’t have a Burgundy. So I said “how about a Sancilly?”. I explained to Percy Penguin that that came from the area where I lived. The woman looked at me rather peculiarly so she went off to fetch it. Percy Penguin asked about the main course. We hadn’t ordered a main course.I said that maybe we do that a bit later after we’ve had the starter.She said that all the back of my head was oily. I said that I had been working on a car, lying underneath it. She wondered why I hadn’t had it washed. I said that it was almost time to come and pick her up. I hadn’t had time to wash.

At this point I sat up bolt-upright. 04:45. This isn’t any good at all. But nevertheless I was glad that I was awake because I wasn’t disturbed by the alarm on the Canadian phone that, not having adjusted itself to UK time, rang and awoke the Dead at 05:00

That was the cue for me to write up my blog notes for yesterday, which I hadn’t done, not having gone to bed until late.

Rosemary rang me at about 07:00 or so, so I went down to the hotel lobby to say hello. We had a chat and then she went off to breakfast and I went back upstairs to organise myself.

At about 08:45 we met up again, suitcases in hand, and headed off to the bus stop in the cold, cloudy, overcast weather. We just missed a 727 bus and had to wait 10 minutes for the one behind.When it turned up, I found out that my Pound coins were out of date so Rosemary had to help out with the fare.

We were dropped off at the bus station which is right opposite the docks. Finding the docks is one thing, but finding our berth was somewhere else. The first guy at the spoke to in the harbour was more interested in telling me off about crossing a forbidden line than helping us out.

He sent us to the ferry terminal where they were none-the-wiser. However they did suggest that we try elsewhere, being right back where we started by the bus station.

There was an intercom there so I tried to speak to someone but I couldn’t hear a word. Eventually I picked up the phrase “security lodge” and seeing a security lodge in the distance, we headed that way, apparently crossing yet another forbidden line.

This time we had been picked up on CCTV for a rather irate security guard in a pick-up came to tell us off. But when we explained what we were looking for he told us to follow him (not easy when you are dragging suitcases behind you and he’s in a pick-up).

Eventually we caught up with him and, much to my surprise, he knew where we had to go. But knowing is one thing, walking that distance was something else. After a very weary trudge we eventually found our berth.

Finding it is one thing – getting to it was quite another.Negotiating a security gate and moving a barrier, being stopped and searched by security, we were eventually allowed in and we were ushered on board The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour.

Much to my surprise, there were a few people whom I recognised from last year, such as Ashley and Yulya. And of course they asked the obvious question – “how’s Strawberry Moose?.

And they were delighted to hear that he’s once more managed to stow himself aboard. As I have said before … “and on many occasions too” – ed … he’s far more popular with the ladies than I am ever likely to be.

I found my way to my own cabin – right next door to the one that I had last year. And I dumped my stuff and made my way back to the reception to meet my fellow passengers. On this leg of the journey we are a grand total of just SIX. “One deck each” I quipped.

A delicious lunch was served, and afterwards Rosemary and I headed off into town for a walk. We found a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland where, at long last, I could activate my bank cards and change the PINS. And also to swap over my bad money for some good stuff.

We then went for a little wander around the Granite City for half an hour or so, and then headed back to the ship where I bumped into my room cleaner from last year.

Back on board, I had a shower, a clean-up and a change of clothes, doing a little washing along the way. I need to keep on top of my washing otherwise I’ll run out of clothes.

With plenty of time to kill before tea, we all had a chat about nothing much, and then came the safety briefing.
“One short blast on the ship’s siren means put on warm clothing”
“Two short blasts on the ship’s siren means come aloft”
“Three short blasts on the ship’s siren means put on lifebelts”
“Four short blasts on the ship’s siren means abandon ship”
“One long blast on the ship’s siren means that the ship’s siren is stuck”

Tea was even more delicious than lunch, and that was saying something. And then we sat around for ages watching all kinds of shipping leave the harbour – except us of course. This 22:00 departure time is turning out to be some kind of Spanish 22:00.

It was just after 23:00 when the tug pulled us away from the quayside, and then we pulled it forward out of the harbour. And as it attempted to disengage, something caught up somewhere and the rope snapped with an incredible force. Had we been a couple of decks lower, we would have been decapitated.

We watched Aberdeen disappear into the dusk and rain, and then called it a night. 128% of my daily effort, 9.4 kms walked. I’m ready for bed.

Saturday 6th April 2019 – I’VE JUST SEEN …

… a most astonishing football match.

When I tell you that the score was USM Donville 0 US Sainte-Croix St_Lô 4, you’re probably thinking that it was a really one-sided match.

But nothing could be further from the truth. It took about 25 or 30 minutes for the teams to find their feet but then we were treated to a thrilling, pulsating match where the game flowed in waves from one end of the pitch to the other.

We had several misses from open positions in front of goal, superb saves by the two goalkeepers, a good half-dozen desperate last-minute tackles and goal-line clearances and the intervention of the woodwork.

US Sainte-Croix St-Lô were marginally the better side and had the match finished 1-0 in their favour, then no-one could complain about the result. But to lose a match like this by 4 goals to nil is extremely flattering for the victors and extremely depressing for the losers.

Last night was rather a late night, and we had a really strange thing happen this morning. There are three alarms that go off in the morning – at 06:00, 06:10 and 06:20. I definitely heard two of them and I dozed off waiting for the third one.

But either I slept right through it or else it didn’t go off because the next thing that I remember was that it was 07:25.

But at least there was plenty of time to go a-wandering. I’d been doing something with music, playing in groups and I’d been trying to write a song but al my songs ended up being the same. I reckoned that I would work on one while I was away with Alvin and Ann, because we had a skiing holiday arranged. We’d arranged to meet at the airport. I went with Ann and we were waiting to get all of my stuff off the conveyor belt, she had got some of hers, and Strawberry Moose was there of course. Alvin turned up and he was asking about our things and we replid that we hadn’t received them all yet. They were coming round and people were asking me questions about Strawberry Moose, was he coming skiing and all of this kind of thing. But then the phone ringtone sounded in my pocket. But it wasn’t the phone that was ringing but the dictaphone. I’ve no idea why that should be. We met up with our tour guide – there was 6 of us. She took us into this shopping complex that was like an Indian temple, all done out in green and brown tiles. All different shops and I was wondering how anyone could afford to rent a place in here but yet more and more shops were being let out all the time. She took us through a discreet side door and down some stairs. I said that I hadn’t realised that there was another way around this building to which she replied that her husband was a football agent and had an office in this building. We ended up in his office, that was even more like an Indian temple and much more luxurious, said hello to everyone and took us outside. She started to talk to us about the holiday and our ship, and pointed it out. It was across a valley and on top of a hill. She said it’s called the “(I forget) but don’t worry about it being brown – the colour has nothing to do with it. These names are fleet names. She said that it was time to go – her watch said 11:00 but I looked at mine and said it was 08:50 – that tells you how efficient I am. Where we were standing was at the side of a road that ran along the bottom of this slope and there was a big coach depot just a little further along on the other side. There were half a dozen coaches there, all Plaxton Elites from the late 1960s that they had in this yard but with central doors rather than front doors as usual. There were also two brick pllars with a beam across which was uses I suppose for lifting engines and the like. But now I was worried about my blog entry – I hadn’t done it yet (I hadn’t as it happened, last night before going to bed). But there was so much going on that I would be squeezed back all of the time and there would be all kinds of things that would be left out of my usual daily routine
A little later I was with a group of soldiers. We’d been captured on this island and held in a kind of detention cell. One of our party had escaped and was hiding about this building site somewhere. A couple more of our people had been never been arrested. I managed to talk my way out so I thought that I would walk around. I was standing on the roof of this bunker but someone told me to come down. I stayed up there in defiance so he was making all kinds of threats about me. In the end I picked up a flare gun that was lying around and loosed off a couple of flares. He dashed up onto the roof and in the confusion I grabbed hold of his rifle and pushed him so he fell off the roof, fell on his back and broke his back. By now I had alerted all of my friends so I climbed down. The guy who escaped was hiding in a plastic box with a cement mixer and polystyrene tiles. The people who had evaded capture had seen the flare and come back. We took over this island and this building site, imprisoned all of our enemy. Right at the very end this girl came running out and ran up to one of my partners and threw her arms around him. I asked “is this the comic relief then?”. He replied “no – this is … and we are going to get married soon”

There was the usual morning procedure and then I had a shower and a general clean-up ready to hit the streets quite early. But a message on the phone stopped me in my tracks. “Your delivery will be made this morning between 09:00 and 11:00”.

And so I waited, and at 10:05 the package turned up. Or, should I say, one of the packages. Now I’m the proud possessor of at 57-inch telescopic monopod.

Tripods are quite clumsy things to carry around, especially when you are on foot with luggage, but in many circumstances, particularly with the high winds that we have round here and with long exposure times in the dark, you need lots of stability.

There isn’t always a handy wall to lean on or lean against. And so a nice telescopic monopod that will collapse into a corner of your rucksack for just €12:99 is a good deal in anyone’s language.

The rest of the package will follow (hopefully) on Monday and then I’ll tell you all about it.

But I’ve spent even more money today.

Despite its issues I’m still persevering with the mirrorless Nikon 1 J5 because it fits nicely in the pocket when I’m walking and under normal conditions it doesn’t let me down at all. I’ve had some good photos with it.

Its difficulties come under abnormal conditions like very low-light or high-speed situations.

Now that these cameras are gaining wider acceptance there’s moe stuff on the market, so every now and again I’ll keep my eye open on the camera sales to see what second-hand lenses are available.

And much to my surprise one of these popped up on the second-hand market for less than a third of the price that is listed here for a new one.

The price seems to be too good to be true but an f1.8 lens working at 12800ISO should give some incredible low-light photos, so it has to be worth a try and to see what I can make of it. I’m not holding my breath though – if it does turn up and works it will be something, I suppose.

Once the lens had come, I nipped out to the shops, in my new trainers from last weekend. LIDL coughed up a couple of little extras but there was nothing in NOZ worth talking about, except for one of these vacuum storage things that compress your clothing. I’m going to give it a try to see if I can do something about the clothing that I take on holiday with me.

LeClerc had nothing exciting at all, although I bought a spare pair of bootlaces to keep in my rucksack in case I need them on my travels.

Back here, I’ve run out of hummus, so I made another batch. I forgot the garlic unfortunately, but it still tasted really good.

This afternoon, I sat down to work, but by 14:40 I couldn’t go on. I ended up back in bed where I stayed until about 16:30. Dead to the world in fact.

Later on, in the rain I wandered off in the rain and my new boots to the football at the Cité des Sports.

Eems Sea was still down there at the quayside. And in the daylight I can say that it looks so much better than it does in the half-light and I really can believe that it was built comparatively recently.

And furthermore, it looks as if all of the gravel has been loaded and the hatches are all battened down.

While I was walking through the town centre Rosemary telephoned me, so we arranged to speak later.

While I was on the phone, I was admiring the roundabout that has appeared just recently in the Place Charles de Gaulle opposite the Mairie

It looks quite bright and cheerful over there and there were a couple of kids on there having a whale of a time. And why not?

Further on along the road to the Cité des Sports I happened to glance down the driveway of a house and found an old car parked at the end of it.

It’s a Citroen Acadiane and regular readers of this rubbish in one of its many previous guises will recall that I owned one of these for a short while.

I bought it as a D-i-Y project from one of the Ixelles Council’s abandoned vehicle sales but I “lost” it when the garage in which I stored it was cleared out when the site was redeveloped.

After the football I came back home, passing by the empty berth where Eems Sea was moored just three hours ago (that was a quick turnaround) and had a very long chat with Rosemary again.

So now it’s another late night, without any tea too. But I can have a lie-in tomorrow because it’s a Sunday and there’s no alarm.

And then I can try to get back into the rhythm of things.

Thursday 28th February 2019 – DESPITE MY BEST …

… efforts over the last few weeks to maintain a positive point of view, I seem to have slipped into the abyss again.

And not just by a bit either.

Just by way of a change, it was 04:43 when I awoke this morning. So our old sleeping habits are now properly back aren’t they? That didn’t take long.

Plenty of time for me to go off on my travels though. To visit my neice and her family who were now living in Millstone Lane in Nantwich near Crewe Road end. And everyone was there, and that didn’t suit me at all and I spent most of my time trying to avoid everyone.
A little later, there was some African-American guy rather similar to Bill Cosby who had been a professional baseball umpire but had fallen on hard times. Now stranded in North Wales he was trying to find some kind of work to keep his head above water, but there was very little doing, going from place-to-place doing odd jobs. IN the end, he managed to find a parcels delivery job going down to the south so he took it, but it all went wrong, ending up in Court being accused of stealing pyjamas to the value of £54:00 and how he had abandoned his good name and his reputation.
Later still I was a passenger on a coach that was somewhere in Paris but no-one had a clue where because there was a thick pervasive fog and no-one could see where we were. There was a guide next to the driver who was giving the directions, and we could see the lights of the coach reflected off some kind of reflective strip in the road setting out the route. Eventually we turned up outside some kind of hotel where we assembled and where we could take luggage labels from a lamp post. Our own coach piled on board and there I met my mother, who was actually this old French woman who I had met on The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour. We amm piled on board, and I had Strawberry Moose with me, which made things difficult and he was getting in the way of everyone. The guide started to talk about a place called Vercingetorix’s Bay which was a place on the Seine. As the coach pulled forward, we suddenly saw a magnificent vista ahead of us, of the river between the cliffs and a big meander, and I regretted that I hadn’t gone down the road for a walk to see. But the coach stopped so that we could all go out to see. It was then that I suddenly remembered that our coach trip was taking up down the Seine, through the mountains, and then along the Danube valley.

Nevertheless, I was up and about before the final alarm went off and organising myself for the morning.

There was a shower too and, much to my own surprise, an unexpected haircut. I took one look at it and that was what made me decide.

As I mentioned yesterday, it was shopping today. And I didn’t buy anything special at all even though I spent a lot of money. Stocks were getting rather low.

NOZ was quite exciting though.

All of the nonsense about this Brexit garbage is rebounding and the biters are being bit. Here in Noz is a big tray of British souvenir garbage, like “St George’s Autograph Book” (doubtless with St Jude’s phone number just in case) and other assorted stuff.

No prize on it, which means in NOZ that you take it down to the till and “debate and discuss”.

Returning back here through the hordes of caravanettes and the lorry that blocked the street to unload, I bumped into a neighbour. We had a little chat but I warned her to keep a little distance.

She doesn’t want what I’ve got.

Back here, I didn’t have the strength to unpack and in fact sat in a cataleptic daze for a while trying to recover. I shouldn’t really have gone out in my condition but I have to have something on hand to eat.

And that reminds me, I prepared far too many sandwiches for lunch given my current situation.

But nevertheless I took them outside to sit on the wall – right into a rainstorm. First for a while, that is.

I made it as far as the sea wall to see what was going on, and noticed that Normandy Trader was down there tied up at her berth, and they were actually working on her as if they were loading her up ready for sail.

Loads of those savarins around, the kind in which they bring the sacks of shellfish over.

There was some kind of sports boat heading into the harbour too.

She’s not one that I’ve noticed before, so I’ll probably have another wander around down there sometime in the near future to see what it is.

That was enough for me. The rain drove ma back in where I disturbed the neighbours on the door whom I had disturbed as I went out.

Today’s work was starting on the text-searchable database for October 2018 and I didn’t really accomplish anything like as much as I was expecting.

I’ve had a little enthusiasm this last couple of days. But for some reason I’ve slipped into the abyss again, and quite a way in too and I’m not sure why.

At least I can recognise the signs, which is always something.

And so instead I went for my afternoon walk around the walls in the beautiful weather, because the rain had stopped and the sun was back out.

There were some nice views across to Donville-les-Bains today which cheered me up a little (but not much).

And I had a chat with the builder doing that house on the rue du Nord – although he didn’t have too much to say for himself.

And so I carried on with my perambulations around the walls, and was able to have a good look at the beach at the Plat Gousset.

Not many people out there enjoying the sunshine today, which is hardly a surprise. A brief glance at the sky in the distance will tell you why.

Having been caught up in hordes of schoolkids this morning, instead this afternoon I was caught up by a woman pushing her dog around in a pushchair.

And had I not had the sun in my eyes, I would have treated you to a photo.

With having had a larger-than-expected lunch, I had no tea tonight. Just a banana and one of my birthday chocolates from Jenny.

And then out for a walk in the dark. Picking my way through the caravanettes parked everywhere all over the place.

In the wind and cold too because I reckon that lunchtime’s storm front has brought in some different weather.

But now it’s bed-time.

Let’s hope I’m feeling more like it tomorrow.

donville les bains granville manche normandy france

beach plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Thursday 3rd January 2019 – EVEN THOUGH …

… it wasn’t as early a night as I was hoping, it was still with a great deal of dismay that I awoke this morning at 04:35. And even worse, I couldn’t go back to sleep again.

So being up and about and on my feet before the second alarm went off is something of a novelty these days and I have a feeling that I will be paying for this.

I’d been on my travels too during the night. At the home of a certain couple who feature prominently in these pages but who for the sake of this discussion were living in Wistaston Road in Crewe opposite where my old taxi depot was. They were moving house and we’d all gone round to help. One of the things that needed moving was an aquarium which was being taken to a nautical park. The guy who came for it had to come and measure up to see if any wall needed knocking down. He worked out that one wall needed to go, but which was in between two pillars so I couldn’t see how knocking it down was going to help matters as the pillars would still be there. And it upset the measurements that I was taking. Meanwhile, I’d put some wood on one side to use as battens but they had gone, so I asked the woman (who shall be known henceforth as W) where they were. She replied that her husband (known henceforth as H) had taken them and had probably burnt them – rather similar to an event that had really happened. She then told me that there had been some threatening phone calls received by H which was upsetting everyone. A little later, the phone rang and I answered it. I just said “hello” and I didn’t hear the reply because of the noise, but the person hung up. It rang again immediately, and it was a young girl who gave some kind of weird message. H asked me who it was, so I replied that it was a young girl round about 14. He asked if I was sure that she was 14 and not 17 (which is also significant) but I remained convinced. Up on the roof, which was a flat concrete roof, I had a look around. H and W were up there along wiht a pile of charred wood that they had burnt and including my battens. At this point I left the house and went across the road to pick up my car. And I noticed a crowd of young people leaving a house down the street. THis was, I imagined, what the threatening phone calls were all about. I could see H on the roof so I shouted up to him, not too loundly as I didn’t want to attract the intention of the people down the street. But H didn’t hear me so I shouted again. he didn’t respond so I decided to phone him or W, but I couldn’t find their phone numbers at the moment, and in the time that it would take me to do so, the people would be here.

An early breakfast and then I had a few things to do. Including typing and printing out a letter that I had forgotten to do yesterday. May as well do it now because I’ll be off to the shops in a minute and the Post Office is only 50 metres off my route.

So having typed and printed out my letter and put it in an envelope, I headed off for town, only to realise after I’d gone 400 metres that I had left the letter behind. As a result, I had to retrace my steps to pick it up.

On my way down into town I had a look down into the harbour to see what was going on this morning.

There was a lorry down there, unloading a pile of stuff at the quayside. And there on the edge of the quay are a couple of pallet tanks that look as if they might be ready for departure.

We have La Grande Ancre down there. It looks as if she might be the ship that will be loading up with the deliveries. Quite probably she has a trip lined up to the Ile de Chausey. That’s her usual route.

Having posted my letter, I wandered off to LIDL for the shopping. And there was nothing there that took my fancy today. In fact, the things that I had bought I could have easily done without. But the exercise did me good. However, I didn’t pick up a little snack like I sometimes do. I wasn’t in the mood for food.

A coffee to warm me up when I returned home, and then I made some plans for what I intended to do in the afternoon.

It was a late lunch – not because I was so busy but because I wasn’t feeling all that hungry. I managed to eat my sandwiches but that was about that – and then I came back here to attack my project.

I’m not all that further forward because while I can find on the internet all of the links that I need, there’s no trace of the link to the form that I need to download. I need to look further into this.

Ingrid and I had a little chat as well, and so did Liz. Telling me all of the news about Strawberry MooseStrawberry Moose and his Christmas holidays.

I went out for my afternoon walk too.

Just for a change I went for a wander around the walls. With it still being school holidays there were quite a few people out there on the Plat Gousset.

There were even some people brave enough to go for a walk on the beach. But I didn’t notice anyone actually in the water, which is hardly a surprise, given the temperature outside.

A little further around the walk, I finally managed to witness something that I don’t remember seeing before.

The harbour here is a tidal harbour but there is a wet dock that is protected by a pair of gates to keep the water in so that larger ships can dock here and remain for as long as they like.

The gates open for something round about 90 minutes before high tide, and close 90 minutes after high tide. I’ve never seen them actually open and close before, but today I was lucky enough to catch them in action

But I couldn’t go on and ended up under the covers on the bed – for an hour and a half too. And then I couldn’t pull myself out for ages.

One thing that I did notice was that my appetite has gone. It’s been going for a while as you have probably noticed, but this evening I didn’t feel hungry at all. Just a packet of crisps later on. It’s certainly a bad sign when my appetite goes.

I did go out for the walk though. Only two other people out there tonight which was a surprise because although it was cold, it was a beautiful evening. Now I’m going to go to bed though, because despite my little sleep earlier, I’m feeling the pinch.

Sunday 30th December 2018 – I DON’T KNOW …

… where I’d been during the night but when I came back I was running my taxi business again. In a wooden hut of some kind that was quite cold – but when I noticed how tall the hut was and how poor the heating was, this wasn’t a surprise. The phone hadn’t rung at all for the hole shift so I was puzzled as to how we could keep going. But at the end of the shift a large envelope and chart was pushed through the door. “Ahh, the Post” I said, but the girl dispatcher said that it was the work detail of whoever had been working the shift. So we did have a driver and the driver had done some work. I needed to visit the bathroom and so went outside to water the plants. This was in Vine Tree Avenue by now, and I noticed that the front garden had been planted with leeks and lettuce. Just as I started to do the necessary the woman next door came out of her house so I turned my back to her as if I was watering the plants. She came over to me so I had to hurry, and she began to chat. I noticed that her car, a Mark IV Cortina, had strange white numberplate so I asked her about them. “They are German” she said (which they aren’t). I told her that I was in Germany a few days ago. She mentioned that her trip to Toronto shortly had been cancelled due to insufficient bookings. By now we were in a hotel and someone, clearly the organiser, came over and started to usher us to the door. I told him that it’s a sad reflection on the state of affairs of his company that they cancelled the trip to Toronto, but he said nothing, except to continue to usher us towards the door. I asked hi if he was trying to throw us out, and if so, what was his authority to do so. So he began to push me – and I grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and said that if he wanted to ask me to leave he could do so politely. This led to quite a confrontation, including mention of the police, which carried on back into the taxi hut that I had mentioned. he started to look at my books and papers so it was my turn to insist that he left my premises.

That took me up to about 07:15 but there was no chance whatever of my leaving the stinking pit at that time. 09:45 was much more reasonable.

A late breakfast, which is fine for a Sunday, and then a day spent doing almost absolutely nothing.

News from the UK is that Strawberry Moose has made a couple of new friends and is spending his night tonight in a different bed. He certainly has more luck than I do.

I’ve been talking on the internet to Liz and Alison on line too. They had a good Christmas and are having a nice relaxing time. Alison and I made a few plans for my next visit to Leuven.

For lunch, I just had two slices of toast. I’m trying to cut down on my food right now. I’ve definitely been eating too much just recently.

We had the usual two walks today too.

There were hordes of people around this afternoon enjoying the holiday atmosphere. The beach was quite popular too, with people down there scavenging amongst the rocks for shellfish.

Which, presumably, they would share with their friends because you mustn’t be selfish with your shellfish.

One of my neighbours was out there too. He was telling me that at Donville-les-Bains they had a sea dip today and he took part. All of them in fancy dress. They are braver people than I am. Mind you, I wouldn’t have minded being there to see them.

Tea tonight was a vegan pizza. And for some reason the crust wasn’t cooked as well as it might be. But it was delicious all the same.

There will be an alarm tomorrow so tonight is an early night. Last day of the old year. And I’ll have to make a list of the things that I have accomplished.

Saturday 22nd December 2018 – IT’S ALL VERY WELL …

… going to bed really early at something like 21:00 or whenever it was, but it counts for nothing at all if you are wide-awake again at about 23:20.

After that, it took me an absolute age to go back to sleep. And when I finally did manage to drop off, I wasn’t out for long. By 04:30 I was awake again and by 05:00 I was up and about.

None of the aforementioned stopped me going for a little nocturnal ramble though. And wherever I was during the night, I was somewhere that bore a resemblance to the north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. And I don’t remember what vehicle I was in either. But there I was in some kind of small town with some kind of rural business park out there but with buildings so well hidden that they would take some tracking down. There was an ice-cream parlour there somewhere and I was on my way. I had to negotiate a few barriers and ended up in a field that was being used as a car park, but then I couldn’t even see the sign for the ice-cream place, never mind find the buildings. And so I found myself back on the road, heading to the end where there was a huge car ferry that would press onwards. The road to the ferry terminal turned a sharp left right by a series of small lakes and ponds. By now I was accompanied by a young girl who was going to an interview. This was taking place at a modern building near the turning. When we arrived there we met someone who was going to take us thereand we noticed a couple wading across the pond to meet us. I remarked that I wouldn’t like to do that in winter, to which the guy replied that in winter they walked on the ice. Even so, just before the ice formed it would still be far too cold for me. This girl went off with these two people and I was obliged to wait for her. I was shown around the ground floor of this building and while this was happening I saw my ferry steaming… “dieseling” – ed … out of the harbour down the road. Something had to be taken to the theatre, which was upstairs, so I volunteered.This place was much bigger than the ground floor, quite modern, clean and tidy. The bar was in a strange place, down at the end, and there was a woman there. She thanked me for what I had brought and invited me to watch the next production. I explained that by then, I would probably be a very long way away from here.

First thing that I did after I joined the Land of the Living (and believe me, this was at a moment not exactly adjacent to 05:00) was to have a shower. There were clothes ti wash, of course, but I wasn’t up to dealing with those right now. They can wait until the next time.

Second thing that needed doing was to write up my notes for yesterday. Going to bed at 21:00 meant that I hadn’t even thought about that last night. What with an interruption for coffee and a couple of others too for various purposes (including a little relax), it took me quite a while to deal with it.

By now it was 10:00 and I have things to do, so I hit the streets.

It wasn’t very cold at all outside – rather disappointing in fact, because I was hoping for some kind of Arctic weather for Christmas.

And so instead I went for a wander for a good view of the Pope Leo XIII Seminary, nicely framed by the new student accommodation blocks off the Tiensestraat.

And the Christmas Market wasn’t open either. They were still setting it up. Instead, I went to FNAC but there was nothing there that caught my eye.

Moving on, I went on to the Delhaize to buy what I couldn’t carry home yesterday.

My route took me through the Grote Markt where I walked past all of the strange Christmas cabins that they have erected here. They certainly go to town when they tart up the place.

Delhaize came up with what I need, and I now have almost everything that I need, especially as on the market outside was a stall selling Brussels sprouts.

No Christmas meal of any description is complete without Brussels Sprouts.

And so with nothing else to do and nothing else going on, I headed home for lunch.

But not before I took a little diversion onto a car park in the Windmolenstraat to admire a vehicle parked in one of the spaces. I shall leave Strawberry Moose to sum up the situation perfectly.

By the time that I returned it was almost midday so I had a mince pie with my coffee. That’s the official declaration that the Festive season has arrived. Although I don’t really feel festive at all, with a hospital appointment on Christmas Eve.

And being away from home doesn’t help. I do like Leuven, make no mistake, and if I had to be anywhere away from home them Leuven would receive my vote any time. But all the same, it’s not my home.

After lunch, I headed back out again.

This time, the Christmas market was open and I had a good stroll around. But there was nothing that interested me. In fact, it didn’t seem to be anything like as good as last year’s when there was an ice rink and all of that.

First stop was to Kruidvat for some of their gluten-free and gelatine-free sweets. And that place was heaving

Next stop was the Sports Shop. I went in for a look around and saw that they had the trousers that I like on special offer again. As one of my pairs was torn and I seemto have left another behind in Canada, I bought two pairs.

But here’s a shock! Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I went to Africa earlier this year. And I had it in my mind to go to the Travel Agent’s – just across the road – to see if there was anything else coming up in the near future that would be exciting.

But SHOCK! HORROR! It’s closed down! That’s no good to me at all and it’s very disappointing.

Another thing that was very disappointing was that the supply of vegan food in the Loving Hut has dwindled almost to nothing. None of my favourite cheese, none of the spray-on vegan cream. Stocks have been running down in there for quite a while and it doesn’t look as if there’s much more to go.

Instead I wandered off to the Bio shop – the Origin’O – across town in the Vismarkt and they did the business. Well, sort-of. They had pouring cream, not spray-on, but they did have some decent cheese and also a slice of vegan walnut-cake. That’ll do me for Christmas Day.

On the way back, walking up the Muntstraat, I came across a restaurant that I hadn’t noticed before. It was advertising vegetarian and allergy-free meals so I stuck my head in to enqure about vegan and gluten-free. And much to my delight, they could indeed cater for us. So I’ll invite Alison there next time I see her.

Back in my little room, and another mince pie, with vegan cream this time. What they call “pushing the boat out”.

Another little relax, and then 18:15 saw me back on the road again.

Idly scanning through Livescore, I noticed that there was a Belgian Premier League match on in St Truiden this eveninf. STVV v KV Kortrijk. I’d seen STVV play in Oostende earlier this year but I’d never been to St Truiden. It’s only three stops down the line from Leuven and the kick-off time corresponded nicely with the trains.

So there I was, at 18:44 leaping aboard the train to Genk.

At 19:15 I was leaping off it in St truiden and decanted myself into the fritkot right outside the station. Being in Belgium, fritjes are always on the menu and eating them while walking down the road to a football match is always a good plan and typically Belgian.

It really WAS a good plan too, because these were some of the most delicious fritjes that I have ever eaten. And they were quite generous too. It took me all the way to Het Staaien to eat them.

But as for the football though … What can I say?

I’ve seen some rubbish in my time but I would have to search deep and long into my memory to see anything quite like this. Apart from the fact that both teams were too slow to move the ball about and wasted numerous chances by taking one touch too many – something that seems to be a modern trait – the quality was dire.

I don’t know what was up with the STVV keeper but he couldn’t kick to save his life and his antics, especially in the first 10 minutes but here and there throughout the match – as he received back-passes from his team was like watching in slow motion an accident waiting to happen.

Both sets of attackers must have suffered from vertigo or have had lead weights in their boots because I only counted two high balls into the penalty area in the whole match. So clueless were they that from one short corner, the player taking the kick somehow managed to kick it out for a throw-in.

We had dozens of misplaced passes, dozens of players falling over the ball and, even worse, dozens of shots from excellent positions blazed hopelessly over the bar.

STVV were roundly booed off the field at the end of the game (and no surprise either) and had there been more than 100 or so fans from Kortrijk, their team would have been booed off the pitch too. 0-0 was how it finished and you aren’t ever going to win a match playing like these two teams did this evening.

I had to wait for a while for the train back – the last train from Genk as it happened. And it was a little rowdy too with a few Kortrijk supporters who had clearly been just a little too close to the barmaid’s apron.

It was quite late by the time I arrived back, so I wasn’t going to hang around. I had some pineapple and ice cream for pudding and then I went to bed. Although it’s a Sunday there’s an alarm set for 06:00. i’m off out early and I’ll be gone all day.

load of boels schepenenstraat leuven louvain belgium

pope leo 13 seminary chapel leuven louvain belgium

wilfried craps leuven louvain belgium

christmas market herbert hooverplein leuven louvain belgium

christmas market monseigneur ladeuzeplein leuven louvain belgium

het stayen st truiden stvv kv kortrijk football belgium

Monday 17th December 2018 – IT WASN’T …

… so simple this morning about raising myself from the dead. The alarms went off as usual at 06:00, 06:17 and 06:19, but I didn’t see the light of day until 07:45. One of those days, I’m afraid.

I had managed to go off on my travels somewhere too. Something to do with wild horses and chasing them trough a paper-covered archway. The idea was that the first horse through would burst the paper and the rest would rush through, but it seems that the paper didn’t burst the way that it should and the following horse ended up being stuck in the paper and the archway somehow and was galloping around the field still enveloped in the wreckage.

We also had a very slow start to the day. I know that I’ve been feeling not quite like it for the last few days but today was pretty dismal and I couldn’t summon up the energy to do very much.

It went on like this until lunchtime. And even my hummus and salad sandwiches did little to relieve the doom and gloom of the procedures. I really must pull myself together somehow.

This afternoon wasn’t all this much better but I did manage to wrap the Christmas present that I had bought the other day. And then I hit the streets, first calling at LeClerc where I bought another present that I had forgotten. Luckily there were some Charity people doing present-wrapping so they did the business on my behalf.

Back into Caliburn and off to Roncey and Liz and Terry’s. I’d been invited to a pre-Christmas meal and Strawberry Moose had come with me. He’d packed his suitcase, being invited to pass Christmas in the UK with his friends.

I handed over the presents and then we had a meal. Liz had cooked a beautiful, wicked chili meal which was delicious, and this was followed by home-made mince pies.

There was a surprise afterwards. Even though she is very busy these days, Liz had made me a Christmas Present, and when it’s Christmas you’ll all get to see it. Of course, I can’t open it until Christmas Day.

But shame as it is to say it, I had to come home early. I found myself falling asleep there and if I do that I won’t ever come home. I’m not as fit as I have been and I have to take care of myself.

It was a struggle to reach back home, but once I was here that was that. I wasn’t going anywhere else and now I’m off to bed. I’m going to have to push myself on over the next few days ready for my trip to Belgium on Friday.

Thursday 15th November 2018 – I’M FEELING …

… a little better right now.

After having a couple of really good days, it was odds-on that sooner or later I would have a bad one. And yesterday evening I could feel myself sliding down into the abyss.

By the time that I had finished writing my blog from last night, at about 22:00, I was feeling so miserable that I went straight to bed.

It didn’t take me long to go off to sleep either. And apart from one brief awakening, and I’ve no idea when that was, I slept right the way through to the alarm.

The first time for a while that I have had a decent sleep, and as you might expect, when I awoke, I felt even worse. But that’s not really due to the sleep, but due more to the fact that I was having a health crisis.

It took me a considerable while to tear myself out of bed and an even longer time to force my breakfast down.

Eventually I went into the bathroom for a shower and a shave and a good clean-up for it’s shopping day today. In Caliburn too and for several reasons, not the least reason being the fact that on Saturday we might be having a few blockades on the road so I needed to do a big shop today.

LIDL had nothing special, but the next stop – the Leclerc drive-in – certainly did. I’d had an e-mail on Tuesday to say that my printer had arrived and needed picking up. Today was as good a day as any.

At NOZ I swapped the glasses that were broken, and I bought a few other things. Including a 2-foot high Christmas tree complete with 6 silver balls and a set of fairy lights – all for €3:99. I’m really getting into the Christmas spirit, aren’t I?

Leclerc itself came up with nothing special and I was soon back home again, to find that I’d had a power cut while I was out.

However by now I didn’t even have the strength to put away the shopping. There was some coffee in the pot so I poured one out and came to sit down in here – where I promptly crashed out. And I was gone for an hour or so too and it was very uncomfortable.

This meant that I had a rather late lunch. Inside the apartment of course because it was quite misty outside.

This afternoon I had a very pleasant surprise. The people who had organised our voyage to the Hugh Arctic had sent me a promotional video of our journey. And it brought back many happey memories. There was a beautiful shot of Yours Truly and His Nibs on our way to the Brother John Glacier at Etah in Greenland.

And not only that, one of our party was lucky enough to be filming an iceberg when it suddenly capsized in front of her – and she had a beautiful film of it going over. She sent it to the company and they have sent it to us. It is really phenomenal and when I finally manage to organise myself I shall post a link to it.

This afternoon I started to feel a little better and I made some more progress on my third day in the High Arctic

We had the usual afternoon interruption for a walk. I have to keep this up as best as I can.

The tide was slowly going out and there were several people down there on the rocks searching in the rock pools for crustaceans and molluscs and so on.

Which, I imagine, they share with their friends because, as I have said before … “and on many occasions too” – ed … that one mustn’t be selfish with one’s shellfish.

They weren’t the only people out there interested in the local marine life.

Out there just offshore close to the old diving platform were two men in a boat. One man and a dog short of Jerome K Jerome’s famous story of his trip up the River Thames.

I’ve no idea what it is that they catch just down there. One of these days I’ll catch a friendly fisherman and make suitable enguiries.

There was much more excitement on the car park round by the lighthouse on the end of the Pointe du Roc.

Parked up there was a pretty rare Triumph Thruxton.

I remember very well the original Thruxtons from the late 1960s – a series of Triumph Bonneville motorbikes specially modified for competition. However the modern reincarnation of the company launched a limited range of sports motorcycles with the same name in 2004

Back here and back on the High Arctic pages, and t won’t be long now, I reckon, until Day Three is finished. Always assuming that I can find it because the laptop has now crashed and it won’t restart at the moment. I’m having to type this on the laptop that I use as the media centre.

All of this took me up to teatime and I had a nice plate of steamed vegetables and vegan sausages. But once again, the vegan cheese sauce failed to thicken. I notice that I’m using a different brand of soya milk to the one that I usually use, and that might account for it.

I went out for my evening walk as usual after tea.

Despite the fact that the moon is a long way from being full, there was plenty of moonlight about. I hadn’t taken the tripod and the zoom/telephone lens with me so I had to make the most of the equipment that I had

Considering that it’s a hand-held shot, it hasn’t come out at all too badly.

Around the corner, I nearly collided with someone lurking away in the darkness. But he was the only person whom I saw, apart from the people loitering around at the bar and the pizza van.

But now I’m off to bed – something of a late night I’m afraid. I’ve managed to get the laptop to fire up but that’s all that it’s doing. Using a technique that I dredged from the back of my mind with good old T223 at the Open University, I’ve been able to force access to the files and I’m now copying them onto a back-up drive.

I can see me having to do this every couple of hours rather than every night. I don’t want to be losing work like this.

Fishermen in a boat near the old diving platform at the Pointe du Roc

Tuesday 9th October 2018 – OUCH! THAT WAS …

… a tough day today.

Just before going to bed I received a message from my internet supplier saying that my site had now been upgraded as requested. And so I set to and uploaded all of the Arctic photos while I was at it.

And while I was also at it, I had a little bit of fun with one of the photos of Strawberry Moose that we had taken.

One of the people on board The Good Ship Ve … … errr … Ocean Endeavour was an Olympic gymnastics judge and she had taken quite a shine to His Nibs. And so we had done a little posing session with the two of them.

Add a little bit of text and here we are.

The result of all of this was that it was about 02:00 when Yours Truly toddled off to bed. Not the ideal way to end the day when you have to leave your stinking pit at 06:00.

But it made no difference because at 05:05 this morning I was wide-awake and awaiting the alarms. I have a feeling that I’ll be paying for this later.

I’d also been off on a nocturnal ramble again.

Just by way of a change, not to the High Arctic. But where, I have no idea. But we returned to this very impressive stone building that turned out to be a boys’ school. We were all starving and having to queue up near the door, and I had the Cunning Plan to loiter around near the air hostesses because I imagined that with them being “staff”, they would be let into the dining hall first. But when we were let in, we were allowed to take one liquid food off the trays that were being handed around, and then another thing from somewhere else and so on. And eventually someone stuck a cold sausage in my mouth. I made my way back to my room, which was at the end in an alcove off the dining hall. And I was given a large plate of food to take with me. A little later I went back into the dining hall but it was now deserted. Someone had left their mobile phone in “broadcast” mode on one of the tables so I started to look around to see where it was broadcasting to (and to salvage some more food) but the few boys who were left were making such a noise that they interrupted my search.

Anyway despite the alarm going off at 06:00 it was much closer to 07:00 when I finally arose. And with plenty of things to do this morning it was about 09:00 when I had my breakfast. That was followed by a little tidying up and a half-hour session on the bass guitar now that I’ve restarted playing.

And then I had a little snooze. The first of three or four that I had during the course of the day.

Most of the day has been spent on the voyage to the Arctic. I’ve added the photos to one of the earlier pages of the voyage and expanded the text accordingly.

Having completed that (because it took much longer than it ought to have done) I’ve updated the front page for the travel section of the website, prepared an index for the voyage, completed an individual page of photographs for each day and made a start on writing the text for the first page.

None of those is on line yet because there’s going to be so much to do, but as I have said before … “and on many occasions too” – ed … if I don’t start, I won’t finish. So I need to push on.

It didn’t help with the odd bit of dozing off here and there during the course of the day. That 3-hour sleep didn’t do me much good at all.

Lunch was on the wall with my butties, my book and a lizard. And I dropped my banana by accident.

But it was a beautiful day, really sunny and warm with a lovely blue sky. I took full advantage of the conditions by taking a nice panoramic photo of the harbour and the surroundings, all the way round to St Pair sur Mer.

Later on in the afternoon, I went for a walk around the headland. Plenty of people out there today enjoying the sunshine. And I ended up by taking off my jumper and catching a little sun on my arms.

We had a visitor in the harbour too. Thora had sailed into port today and was moored up at the crane.

I didn’t realise that she had a visor bow. I cant have been paying much attention. But there it is, raised up and out of the way of the loading operation.

One of these days I’ll get to go for a guided tour around her to see how she is and to find out how come Grima was retired from operation.

Tea was a frozen aubergine and kidney bean whatsit with pasta, more to make some room in the freezer than for any other reason. I’ll be off shopping in early course and we need the space.

And then I had my evening walk around the walls in the pleasant evening.

Fallen asleep again, but I’m going to do this and them I’m off to bed regardless of how early it is.

I need to be on form for tomorrow.

EPIC HALL

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

Tag Archives: strawberry moose

Sunday 14th July 2019 – THIS MORNING …

Saturday 13th July 2019 – HAVING HAD …

Tuesday 9th July 2019 – HAVING SAID ..

Monday 8th July 2019 – I DIDN’T EVEN …

Sunday 7th July 2019 – HAVING TAKEN …

Saturday 6th July 2019 – HAVING SAID …

Monday 1st July 2019 – IT WAS SOMETHING …

Saturday 6th April 2019 – I’VE JUST SEEN …

Thursday 28th February 2019 – DESPITE MY BEST …

Thursday 3rd January 2019 – EVEN THOUGH …

Sunday 30th December 2018 – I DON’T KNOW …

Saturday 22nd December 2018 – IT’S ALL VERY WELL …

Monday 17th December 2018 – IT WASN’T …

Thursday 15th November 2018 – I’M FEELING …

Tuesday 9th October 2018 – OUCH! THAT WAS …

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