Tag Archives: place d’armes

Thursday 10th January 2019 – IT’S BEEN A LITTLE …

… better today.

And that’s really a surprise because it was a late night to start with, and then it took me ages to get off to sleep.

But once I did, I stepped back into last night’s voyage at exactly the place where I had left it. And so it’s another evening where you’ll have to do without knowing where I was. Some of you have some delicate sensibilities.

When the alarm went off, I loitered around in bed for a while and then rose up from my stinking pit. We had the usual morning performance and then I took a shower. it’s been a few days and even I was noticing it.

So one good clean up, shave and shampoo later, I hit the streets.

First stop was the Post Office to post the letter that I had written yesterday.

Second stop was at the Bank. It’s all very well having on-line banking but if you don’t download the statements then you are in trouble. So I needed some instruction as to how to operate an internet banking service. It didn’t take long either.

Third stop was at the railway station to pick up my tickets. It seems now that my TGV tickets are only available on print-out, not from the station. So I mustn’t forget to do that.

Final stop was at LIDL.

But before I could reach there I had to pick my way through the roadworks at the roundabout at the top of the avenue LeClerc by the avenue Aristide Briand.

They are pushing on with the fibre-optic cabling but, according to the workmen here, there’s no timetable as yet for the actual connection. No-one has any idea when it might finally go on-line.

At LIDL, considering that I wasn’t intending to spend anything, I didn’t half spend a lot. As well as a new multimeter, there was a box of electrical accessories, some PTFE tape for plumbing and a pair of working gloves. Not necessarily for working but they are thin and very well-insulated and I can even work the camera with them – and that’s the point of buying them.

I walked back home, stopping half way up the rue des Juifs to see what was happening at the port.

There’s a huge pile of gravel now piled up on the quayside where the gravel boats dock. That must mean that we should be expecting a visit from Neptune or one of her sisters very soon.

Back here I bumped into someone delivering leaflets and was complaining about the cold. And it was all of 5°C too. I told him that he was lucky he didn’t live in the Auvergne.

In the apartment I had a coffee and then attacked the bank’s website. And much to my dismay there are only 6 months-worth of statements still held. That’s not enough but it’s the best that I can do. I printed them out anyway and added them to my file.

After lunch I filed everything away, checked off things on my checklist and then set to work to download my telephone statements. The bad news here is that they only go back 12 months but I’ve been on paperless accounts since March 2015. So I have all of the earlier ones (much to my surprise) and I’ve downloaded all of the later ones, but I’m short of the period 04/15 – 12/07.

So on the telephone to Orange. And what with waiting time it took me 1 hour and 15 minutes and having to tell my story to 3 different people. But eventually someone answered me with the news that they will pas my message onto the Accounts department who will send them to me.

And I hope that they do.

My afternoon walk was thus an early-evening walk after all of that.

There was a wave of fatigue but I managed to fight it off, and went for tea. Burger on a bun with potatoes and veg.

Back out around the Pointe du Roc for my evening walk. it was a cold, windy evening (but not that cold). Quite pleasant to be out.

And away on the horizon near St Malo in the centre of the photo to the left of the trawler, I noticed a couple of moving lights

Based on no evidence at all except pure speculation, the only thing that came into my mind was that it could well have been the huge ferry, Pont Aven, setting off for Portsmouth. There is occasionally a Brittany Ferries departure from St Malo round about 20:30 or so.

I’m glad that I was out there though because the sky was really quite clear and beautiful.

You could see for miles tonight and the street lights across the bay at Cancale were quite prominent. And in the background the clouds in the sky over there were glowing orange with the reflection of the street lights from St Malo.

I really am going to have to treat myself to a better camera with a much wider ISO range.

You’ll remember the trawler that we saw in a previous photograph just now.

I’d taken so long in sorting myself out with the other photos and the 70-300mm zoom lens that the trawler had beaten me into the harbour.

Here she was, just tying up at the quayside ready to unload today’s catch. There’a a van down there ready to take it all away.

So now I’ve printed out my tickets (and I’m glad that I bought a new printer) I might even try for an early night again. i’m out tomorrow afternoon. And I’m not the only one who is out and about. i’ve had a message to say that my new computer is on the road too, heading this way.

trawler night port de granville harbour manche normandy france

Wednesday 9th January 2019 – WHAT A HORRIBLE …

…day.

And it all started off so well too.

Despite a night that wasn’t as early as it might have been, I was still up and about relatively early. I’d even been on a nocturnal ramble but wherever I had been, I don’t remember now because it disappeared from view as soon as I awoke.

After breakfast and a little attention to a few things here and there, I attacked the European Paper Mountain. And by the time that I had finished for the day (more of which anon) almost all of the most important papers had been itemised and filed away in a special binder.

I’d even gone through and made a list of papers that are missing, and I’ve started to send out enquiries for the missing ones.

One thing that surprised me more than anything though was that after living in total chaos since 2012 (according to the papers that have already been filed), with papers just about everywhere all over my house in Les Guis, in sacks and boxes and all over the floor on three levels of home, and living in all kinds of unsatisfactory temporary accommodation until moved here in May 2017, there are so few papers missing.

In fact, I was hard at it for most of the day.

Lunch was soup again, and it was even nicer than before.

I managed to go on my couple of walks today too.

in the wind. Few people about, but then again that’s not a surprise. The wind is a bit strong. But there’s clearly something going on with the tides because there were people out there on the beach scavenging in the rock pools.

Flexing their mussels, you might say.

In fact the tide was quite far out and in the distance I could see that there was a lot going on.

I don’t know whether they are oyster beds or mussels beds just offshore at Donville-les-Bains but whatever they are, it looked as if they were taking advantage of the low tide by doing a spot of harvesting.

There were a few men with a couple of tractors and trailers working around amongst the staves.

But even though the sky was cloudy and overcast, and the wind was quite strong, it was for some reason a beautiful day for photography.

You couldn’t see all that far today but what you could see came out really well.

With the 70-300mm zoom lens I was able to pick out features on the Ile de Chausey that are usually enveloped in haze and spray. That view over there is probably 14 or 15 miles away at the far northern end of the archipelago.

That wasn’t all of the excitement either.

Anyone remember the film Tora Tora Tora? And in particular the scene where as rhe Jpapanese pilots step into their aeroplanes and the sun breaks through the clouds?

That’s exactly what happened here just as I walked around the corner to the Place Maurice Marland and looked over the Baie de Mont St Michel. It really was so impressive.

From my vantage point back on top of the walls, I could see that there was a lot of activity going on on the quayside down below.

There was a lorry pulling up down in the harbour, loaded with another 20 tonnes of gravel. It’s not the first one either because there’s already quite a pile there by the conveyor.

That can only mean one thing – that is that Neptune or one of her sisters will be putting in an appearance pretty soon to take it all away.

There’s a derelict building in the Place Cambernon. Apaprently it was formerly the library and meeting hall.

It’s been like that ever since I moved here nearly two years ago and there was some talk at the mayor’s meeting last year that something was going to happen to it.

And here we are, with scaffolding up and the builders have moved in. This should be an exciting development once things get under way and the work advances.

Back here after my walk, something else that I managed to do was to book my next trip to Leuven and my medical appointment. It’s quite exciting in that the fares are on special offer so I’ve booked my trip – 600 kms each way of which 300 each way are on a high-speed TGV – for a mere €138.

For 1200 kms! I bet that you wouldn’t ever have a fare like that in the UK.

And my room for three nights in Leuven because I’m going to stay on for an extra day and come back on Wednesday.

But the bad news is that round about 17:00 I started to wobble. I kept it up for about 10 minutes and then that was that. On the bed.

At 18:30 I briefly came round and crawled under the covers, and there I stayed until about 20:30. Totally flat out. And I would probably still be there now had I not been required to go for a ride on the porcelain horse.

Mind you, I did go off on a nocturnal ramble. And a welcome return to Zero. She used to accompany me quite regularly on my travels during the night but she’s not been around awhile so it was nice to see her, even if she was known during this journey by another name.

I’ll spare you the details though. You are probably eating your tea right now, which is more than I did because I missed my tea slot.

I did manage to arouse myself enough for my evening walk though.

And the night was another one of those nights that was crisp and clear, and probably deep and even too, with a good view for quite a considerable distance.

Across the bay, the lights of Cancale were quite clear, and you could see the reflection up there in the clouds of the streetlights of St Malo.

There was a patch of light moving across the bay from the direction of the Ile de Chausey.

I wasn’t sure at first if it might have been one of the ferries, but on closer inspection it appears to be a trawler coming into port here at Granville on the evening tide.

And for once, I was able to take a fairly clear photograph of it. It’s not come out too badly, all in all.

So back in my cosy little nook. Tomorrow is shopping so I’ll need to get my rest. But what with all of this rest and sleep, I’m not sure what state I’m going to be in if I don’t manage to go to sleep again.

ostreiculture donville les bains granville manche normandy france

ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

sun through clouds baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france

night st helier jersey granville manche normandy france

Tuesday 8th January 2019 – IT’S JUST LIKE …

… old times in here right now. I’m up to my knees, and probably even deeper, in papers and documents right now.

As part of my little project I have to find all kinds of paperwork going back 6 years. This last 18 months is pretty straightforward since I’ve been here but prior to that, especially during the period when I was ill my paperwork was all over the place.

However, when I was back down there in August I grabbed as much of it as I could and brought it back. So now, I have to go through about three sacks full of paper to find what I need.

I’m not having a great deal of luck from that point of view (at least, so far and there is still plenty to go at) but it really IS astonishing what you find when aren’t looking for it. After I took early retirement in 2004 I worked for a couple of years for an employment agency and for two American companies while I saved up to buy the roofing for my house in the Auvergne.

I’d practically written off anything to do with that period of employment, but today going through the European Paper Mountain I came across my registration certificate for the Belgian National Pensions Office. I’m not sure if I’m entitled to a pension from Belgium and even if I am, it won’t be anything at all to write home about, but at least I can write and make enquiries. You never know.

This morning I had something of a surprise.

When I awoke it was 06:45. What had happened to the alarm?

And then I remembered. Tuesday last week was New Year’s Day, and the previous Tuesday was Christmas Day. So I had switched off the alarms for Tuesday, hadn’t I?

And being nice and relaxed, I’d been on my travels. In a hotel trying to do a pile of paperwork in my room but not being able to concentrate, I went down to the reception area. There it was even worse, so I went back upstairs and tried again, but with no more luck than before. So in the end I packed my things and went outside to try to work out there, but the lorry driver who was taking me on saw me coming and pulled out of the lorry park, did a lap around the block and pulled up alongside me, blocking the road. And so I had to climb aboard, even though it meant that I wasn’t going to be able to do what I wanted to do before I reached home.

A slightly later breakfast (but not as late as some days just recently) and then a chat to Liz on the internet. She and Terry had an important meeting this morning so I wished them luck.

First thing that I needed to do was to obtain a couple of certificates from the British Government. Luckily, this can be done by internet but it’s time-consuming and took a lot of research – as well as being quite expensive.

When that was finally out of the way, I went down to Caliburn and brought up all of the paperwork. And despite stopping for lunch (more soup from Liz), my two walks and tea (a stuffed pepper) I was hard at it all day.

A good proportion of the paperwork has gone in the bin as “no longer necessary” but I found more vital paperwork that I expected to find – in fact I ended up being disappointed in that with a little more effort I might have had a lot more and I’m wondering where the rest might be.

On my walk this afternoon, there were a few people around for a change. It’s been quiet just recently out there.

Another place that was busy was the Chantier Navale. There are quite a few ships hauled out of the water right now receiving some kind of attention there.

I don’t recall having seen it so busy in the past. It’s clearly a booming business and I would have loved to have seen it in its heyday prior to 1992 when all of the Newfie trawlers were sailing out of here.

But there are still a few ships sailing out of here.

We have the gravel boats like Neptune of course, and the ferries to the Ile de Chausey and Jersey, but we also have the little freighters like Normandy Trader and Thora running the freight shuttles to Jersey.

Here today we have Thora in port. We noticed her last night having presumably come in on the evening tide

But despite the crowds this afternoon, this evening the walk around the walls was totally deserted apart from me.

But there was plenty of interest to see because the wind had risen and it was blowing quite strongly outside. The tide was well in too and so the waves were crashing down on the promenade at the Plat Gousset with quite some considerable force.

There was no-one down there taking advantage of the free shower on offer, which is probably not a surprise to anyone.

And Thora was still in harbour too.

That’s quite a surprise because she doesn’t usually hang about here for as long as this. I hope that she’s not having any difficulties.

And no cats tonight. I came straight home, had a chat to Alison after I came back and that’s my lot. A decent night’s sleep and then I’ll attack the paperwork part II. At least, if I know what I don’t have, I can start from there.

And I didn’t crash out today. How about that?

storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Monday 7th January 2019 – NOW THAT’S WHAT …

… I call a bad day

Despite what I might have said yesterday, it wasn’t an early night. I wasn’t tired at all and so it was rather later than I was hoping when I went to bed.

During the night I’d been on my travels – something to do with being on a train but I’ve no idea about any more than that. But when the alarm went off, I just couldn’t bring myself to leave my bed. In fact, it was at 09:15 when I finally emerged, and that was a really bad start for the day.

Much to my surprise, I’d had a reply from an enquiry that I sent out in early October. Not exactly the response for which I was hoping, but it’s a start. And so after breakfast I set to work.

There was an interruption at 10:45 when the postie turned up. Now I have a keyboard that works quite nicely, and also my new 60-litre rucksack.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I bought a cheap rucksack from NOZ a while ago and I’ve been going back and to to Leuven with that – and it works just fine. But the quality was pretty rubbish and it wasn’t lasting the pace. So I’ve bought one that’s much better quality and I’ll be giving it a go with that.

For lunch I had the rest of the squash and potato soup. And it was even more delicious today than it was yesterday.

Now I would have expected that with having had an unexpected lie-in this morning I would have been fighting-fit and raring to go in the afternoon. But instead I ended up crashing out.

And good and proper too – right away with the fairies until 16;45 too. And by the time that I had my feet on the ground it was far too late to go for my afternoon walk.

I’m starting to worry about things like this. It’s not doing me any good at all.

Tea was the rest of Liz’s vegan chili and it was even better than Saturday night. I’m really being looked after just now.

I did however manage to make it out for my evening walk tonight. Just for a change, there were a couple of people out there tonight with me.

And not only that, our old friend Thora was tied up at her berth underneath the crane. She’s apparently come into harbour on this afternoon’s tide.

And I have to say that with the weather just now, it was another really good night.

So now let’s see what’s going to happen tonight. It might be an early night or it might not. It doesn’t seem to make any difference.

But now that I know what I need to be doing, I can get ready to send off another huge pile of letters. That should keep me out of mischief for a while.

Sunday 6th January 2019 – ONE THING THAT …

… I do like about Sundays is being able to turn over, glance at my watch, see that the time is 09:30 and then turn back and go to sleep.

And had I not had the necessity to go for a ride on the porcelain horse I would probably be still there now.

During the night I was off on my travels too. I don’t remember too much about them except that on a couple of occasions I was hanging from the gutter of a house trying to get down to the ground. Someone had passed some kind of rod or pole up towards me but it was a long way short and I was busy pondering the likely consequences were I to drop form the gutter and hope to grab hold of the pole. And not just once but twice as well.

I’ve no idea what time it was that I finally did arise from the dead but breakfast was at a very democratic 11:00. And if that’s not a good Sunday, I don’t know what is.

Highlight of the day has to be the squash and potato soup with fresh brown bread. I told you yesterday that Liz had brought some soup round (isn’t she sweet?) and so I may as well make a start on polishing it off.

During the course of the afternoon Ingrid rang me up and we had a really good chat for well over an hour. As I have said before … “and you’ll say again” – ed … I don’t have many friends, but those I have are the best in the world.

Tea was, as usual, a vegan pizza. And a good one it was too. And I’ve started a new book. Liz disappeared with my Templar book so I’ve dug another one out from the back of the queue. It’s by Barbara Tuchman, the famous historian who has written so many valuable tomes, and this one is called August 1914

It’s the story of the events that led up to the outbreak of World War I written in a very technical and in-depth fashion. And it will be an interesting challenge for me to wade through its 608 pages because it’s written in French. I’m making quite a considerable collection of learned French tomes these days.

I missed my afternoon walk because of course I was busy chatting to Ingrid. But I made it out for my evening walk all the same.

There’s some kind of museum out at the back here behind the College Malraux.

It’s one of these places that is on my list to visit but I’ve never been able to visit it so far. For some reason or another it always seems to be closed

It was really cold out here tonight (well, cold for round here anyway) and there was no-one around at all.

But the sky was perfectly clear and beautiful outside, and once again there was a really good view of Jersey on the horizon.

The street lights of St Helier stood out quite well and they were reflected off the clouds to give the sky a nice orange tint.

When I had gone out for my walk, I’d left the lights on in the apartment so that I could see what the curtains looked like from outside in the evening.

The windows are not as dark as I was hoping – you certainly can see that someone is in at night – but it’s an improvement on what was there before.

I’m not going to complain about it, especially when you consider how much they cost me.

As for any other activity, I’ve done nothing at all. Just messing around on the laptop. It’s Sunday, so I’m allowed to have a day off.

Saturday 5th January 2019 – IT’S CURTAINS FOR ME …

… here in this apartment.

Liz came round this afternoon with her sewing box and Terry came round with his tools. While Liz was cutting the curtain in the bedroom to the required length and sewing it up, Terry and I measured the curtain rods and cut them to length.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I had bought some curtains from NOZ several weeks ago. We hung the new curtains from the rods, measured them to length and pinned them up. When Liz had finished the bedroom curtain she attacked the new ones that we had just pinned.

And when she had done that, she did the lace curtains in the living room too.

It’s really hard to believe, but this place is actually now looking like a home. If I’m not careful I’ll find myself properly settled in here.

Despite what I said last night, it wasn’t an early night at all. I got deep into something on which I was working and it was gone 01:30 when I happened to notice the time. I have a feeling that I’ll be paying for this in due course.

Leaving the bed wasn’t easy, especially as I was in the middle of a nocturnal voyage. I was in my old blue Cortina – PMB 270D – and driving down Welsh Row in Nantwich to visit a former work colleague. It was all left-hand drive stuff – steering wheel on the right, driving on the right. In the car I had three kerbstones in the car and was going to drop them off at his house so that he could make a parking place in the street but as I arrived he was pulling away in his car with his wife and kids – he’d been parked on a hatched area of the road where normally one isn’t allowed to park. I decided to call back later, and at that point I received a text from the guy saying “nice car” and a smiley. Down the hill I went and had to turn right but down here I had to drive on the left so I cut across the traffic at the traffic lights, just as a Ford Paramount coach appeared. I braked and he braked, but I just touched him ever so lightly and there was a tiny dent – a really tiny, barely perceptible dent on the front of his bus. It wasn’t anything at all but the driver started to make an issue of it, filling in forms and all this kind of thing. This annoyed me – not because of the actions of the driver but of disappointment with myself because it was such a ridiculous thing to happen and it was actually the second accident I had had that day and I was annoyed that the insurance people would start to do nasty things to me about it.

After breakfast I had a shower, a clean-up and a change of clothes. And then I hit the streets. It was a bit touch-and-go though. Caliburn’s battery has been sounding a little weak just recently but this morning it was a struggle for it to start. That will need replacing this week, I reckon.

I had to be quick around the shops because I’m expecting a postal delivery today. The parcels postie always arrives between 11:00 and 11:30 so I need to be back by then.

This morning I did the usual round of the shops – LIDL, NOZ and LeClerc – but didn’t buy anything at all special. In fact, it was probably the cheapest round of shopping that I have done for quite a while.

It was 10:40 when I returned, only to find that the postie had already been and gone. There was a message in my letter box to tell me that she would be back on Monday. But there was some stuff there – the powered USB hub and the powered adapter for the Roland Bass Cube amplifier. And it works too.

One thing that I like about having visitors is that it obliges me to tidy up and clean up. With the anticipated arrival of my visitors I cleaned and tidied the bathroom. It actually looks like a bathroom now.

After lunch Liz and Terry arrived and the first thing that we did, apart from have a coffee of course, was to watch a couple of videos. I’d received a package from the people with whom I’d travelled to the Arctic and included were two videos – the famous one of the iceberg capsizing and then a big one that Garrick Ng had made of the whole trip They made me all nostalgic and I’m ready now to pack my bags and return.

During the sewing bee, Terry and I went for a walk. Liz had been dropping hints about us being in the way and she finally stopped hinting and told us in no uncertain terms to clear off We had a wander around the walls and then went to the bar for a drink. By the time that we returned Liz had almost finished.

After Liz and Terry had left, I had tea. Liz had brought me a pile of home-made soup and some vegetarian chili. So pasta and chili for tea. And delicious it was too.

Rosemary called later. And we were on the phone for over 2 hours chatting about this and that. Rosemary is going back to the UK for her medical check-up next week and not looking forward to it.

By now it was almost 22:30 – too late for me to go for my walk. But there were a few things to do on the computer and no-one was more surprised than me to see that it was almost 02:00.

It’s been a long day, but it’s Sunday tomorrow. No alarm and so I’m going to sleep until I awaken.

Friday 4th January 2019 – WHAT WITH ME …

… not feeling so good yesterday, I heard all of the alarms but I took absolutely no notice whatsoever. It was more of about 09:15 when I awoke, and 09:45 when I left the bed and believe it or not, because it’s not usually the case, I felt rather better.

During the first part of the night I’d been on my travels, but I’ll spare you the gory details as you are probably eating a meal right now.

But having gone back to sleep later, I’d been off to see my friend Rhys in South Carolina. Not out in the wilds but actually an urban setting somewhere. It was election time and I’d seen a few people heading into the Town Hall to vote and so I tagged onto the end. In the mayor’s office some woman there asked me for my name, which I gave. I suddenly remembered that I didn’t know his address (and doesn’t this remind me of an incident not so long ago?) but luckily she didn’t ask me that. She named a few names that corresponded in some degree to mine but I said that it wasn’t me and I could see this dragging on so I suggested that I go down to my truck ostensibly to fetch my ID but in reality to make good my escape, but she said that she wouldn’t put me to that kind of trouble to go all that way to the car park. At this point I began to have a feeling of unease, and I was glad when I awoke.

As a result of all of this, breakfast was rather late. And most of the morning had gone by then. And so I spent much of the rest of it tidying up. I’m expecting visitors tomorrow.

There was a brief interruption though when the doorbell went. Running after it, I found that the postie was there. She brought me a parcel that could only be my new computer screen.

After lunch – just a couple of slices of toast with hummus – I attacked my little project again and did some more research. And it’s not going to be easy as my lifestyle up until recently will cause me a few problems. But I’ll keep on keeping on.

There was a small hiatus in the work while I went out for my afternoon walk.

My route this afternoon took me on my route around the city walls where I could admire the view out to sea.

And despite the miserable weather, which you can tell by looking at the mist in the distance on the photo, there were still quite a few people taking the air on the Plat Gousset

My attention was drawn however to the tidal swimming pool.

It looked as if the tide was on its way in and the swimming pool was in the course of being filled, with a couple of spectators enjoying the proceedings.

It’s a shame though that the pool has a leak somewhere. It doesn’t retain the water like it ought to and empties pretty quickly.

As the tide goes quite a way out, a swimming pool just here close to the promenade could be quite an attraction.

There was a new boat out there that I hadn’t seen before. It’s a speedboat of some description and you don’t see too many of those out here on this side of the headland.

They are usually to be found, if at all, on the other side in the Baie de Mont St Michel where the sea is calmer.

The sea can be quite rough out here, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall. Not the kind of sea in which to go flat-out.

With an hour or so to spare, I unpacked the parcel that I received and it is my computer screen. I assembled it and plugged it into the laptop. it took an age to work out how it works as there was no instruction book, but it seems to work fine. The screen is the wrong resolution for the laptop but eventually I managed to figure that out and now it seems to be fine, if not confusing as I type in one direction and use the mouse in another.

After tea – a small stuffed pepper – there was a football match on the internet – Aberystwyth Town v Connah’s Quay Nomads in the Welsh Premier League.

You might think that the final score – 6-1 to the Nomads – indicates a right spannering but that was far from the truth. The Nomads’ first goal – a penalty – didn’t look anything like it and a slow-motion enlarged replay showed that the player caught his foot in the ground.

But the big difference included the fact that the Nomads took their chances when Aberystwyth didn’t, and that Michael Bakare was still going like a runaway truck long after the Aberystwyth defence had tired.

So now I’ll have a little play with my new screen for a while and then go to bed. Shopping day tomorrow.

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.

Wednesday 2nd January 2019 – IT DIDN’T …

… work out like it ought to have done last night.

I was so engrossed with what I was doing, as well as chatting to a friend in North America, that it was well after 02:00 when I realised the time. So much for my early night.

Nevertheless, despite any kind of temptation, I still had the alarms set for 06:00 etc and I was there or thereabouts when they went off. But as for rising from my stinking pit, well, I wasn’t quite so prompt.

We had the usual morning procedure of course and then after a brief relax with a few things that I intended to do, I set to work.

By the time that lunchtime had come round, I’d written a huge pile of letters, which involved a great deal of research, and printed them out. I’m glad that I had bought my new printer because it was simplicity itself and the printer did well.

But I’ve put the kiss of death upon it because I’ve ordered some spare ink off the internet. That’s enough to kill off any printer.

In fact, I’ve ordered a pile of stuff from the internet just now. A new computer screen as I mentioned, together with a powered USB hub and a keyboard for the new computer. As well as that, I’ve ordered a new 60-litre rucksack for my trips to Leuven and a power converter for the Roland bass cube so that I can restart the bass-playing.

And much to my surprise, by the end of the evening I noticed that some of the stuff was on its way.

After lunch I had a shower and a clean-up, seeing that even I was beginning to notice that I was here. And then I hit the streets – down to the Post Office to post the huge pile of letters that I had written. And it wasn’t easy in the Post Office either as the automatic machine wouldn’t read my bank card.

There was still some coffee left from this morning so I drank that when I returned, along with a slice of my Christmas present from Liz and Terry.

With having had a late night and an early start, I couldn’t keep going and by 18:00 I was stretched out on the bed under the covers. And there I stayed until about 19:30. Definitely feeling the strain, I am.

As a result, tea was rather late. The rest of the falafel from the other day, seeing as it had been hanging around for a few weeks, with pasta, veg and tomato sauce.

Later on this evening, I went out for my evening walk.

The weather outside was really beautiful this evening, even if it was cold out there tonight.

The air was clear though and I could see for miles, all the way down past St Malo and along the Brittany coast.

So how about an early night tonight? This afternoon I made a start on another project and that is going to take a lot of work. But there’s a time limit involved and it’s quite important. Some of the letters that I wrote are in connection with this, but the Lord helps those who help themselves and years of bitter experience have told me that I can’t ever rely on anyone else to do things for me.

And so I need my sleep.

night st helier jersey granville manche normandy france

very blurred night brehal sur mer granville manche normandy france

night donville sur mer granville manche normandy france

Tuesday 1st January 2019 – AND A VERY …

… Happy New Year. Not just from me, but from someone else here in Granville too.

I’m grateful for all of the support and encouragement that everyone has given me over the last year. It’s the kind of thing that has kept me going.

As well as that, I’m also even more grateful to everyone who has given me hospitality over the year during my perambulations around the Northern Hemisphere. I may not have many friends, as I have said … “and on many occasions too” – ed … but those I have are the best friends in the world.

So back to the story.

Having complained about sleep issues for as long as I have, it’s much more exciting to report that today, I left my bed at all of … errr … 11:22. And breakfasting at 12:00 is much more like what I expect to see on a Bank Holiday.

I’d been on my travels during the night too. Into a veg shop in Germany to buy a couple of carrots. I’d pressed the key on the automatic machine and the carrots came down into the scales to be weighed, and then I had to go to the counter to pick them up and pay for them. However, I couldn’t remember the German word for “carrots”. In Flemish it’s wortelen and so I tried that, but the shop assistant didn’t understand me. I pointed to the carrots and she still didn’t understand.

After breakfast, or lunch, or whatever you might call it, I had a task to perform.

There was an upgrade proposed a while ago by my blog host but I put off doing the upgrade. However it was forced upon me and while I was in Leuven I performed the upgrade.

And it’s terrible.

The old interface was a simple text-based interface where I could (and did) add my own handwritten *.html coding which I saved in blocks in my text-ediiting program and which I used for every web site on which I worked.

But this upgrade wants everything done in blocks with the *.html coding incorporated into the site itself, and adding the search indices is next-to-impossible and is the most complicated procedure that I have ever seen – especially on a slow connection.

So while I’ve been trying to figure it out (or find another blog interface that does what I want) I’ve been recording my blog entries in my text editor.

Anyway, I’ve given up. It’s not working, and so I’ll have to go with what I’ve got. And that meant adding 6 days-worth of blog entries and editing the indices manually.

That’s what I’ve been doing today.

At last, I could open my Christmas present from Liz and Terry. And now that you can see it in all of its glory, you can see that it was well-worth waiting for.

And it really is delicious too.

This evening we had football. Welsh Premier League basement clash between Carmarthen and Llanelli. Carmarthen aren’t that good but they ran rings round Llanelli who looked determined to shoot themselves in the foot.

Some of Llanelli’s defending was suicidal. They just couldn’t get the ball out of their own defence and tried to play the ball around, losing possession on several occasions in desperate positions. Carmarthen won 2-0 – both goals coming from Llanelli mistakes.

On this showing, Llanelli look well-and-truly doomed and we’re only half-way through the season. And depending who comes up from tier two in the south next season, Carmarthen need to start to think about what they intend to do.

Tea was a vegan burger with a pile of veg and gravy. Totally delicious, as was the endive that I had as a treat.

Outside tonight for my walk, and there was no-one around at all. I didn’t see a soul.

That was quite a surprise because despite the cold, it was a really beautiful, clear, starry night.

There was some cloud pretty high up in the sky over St Malo, and the reflection of the streetlights was magnificent. The town of Cancale, over there across the bay, was nicely illuminated too.

Back to work tomorrow – I have such a lot to do. So I won’t be hanging around too long. An early night is beckoning and if I’m lucky I might just make it too.

Monday 31st December 2018 – BY THE TIME …

… I get to Phoen … errr … that you read this you’re probably already in 2019, so belated New Year wishes from me.

May I wish everyone for 2019 exactly the same as you wished for everyone else in 2018. And I also send special New Years wishes to everyone who was kind enough to offer me hospitality as I travelled around the Northern Hemisphere.

As I have said before … “and you’ll say it again<” – ed … I don’t have many friends, but those whom I have are the best in the world.

The morning, such as it was, didn’t start until about 10:15. That might sound much more like a reasonable time when I have a day off, but I forgot to mention that so engrossed was I about some things that I was doing during the evening that it was almost 04:00 when I went to bed last night.

A late breakfast therefore, and there was a treat in store for me.

Do you remember from Saturday when I bought the vegan pains au chocolat from LeClerc? This morning I made a start on them. A quick 30 seconds in the microwave to warm one of them up and to freshen it up, and on the table for breakfast

And they weren’t too bad at all.

I didn’t do very much for the rest of the day. After all, I’m on holiday, aren’t I?

Lunch was a couple of slices of toast with hummus followed by some fruit. No point in having a pile of butties when it’s late like this.

A little later on I went out for my afternoon walk.

There were the usual crowds of people about this afternoon around the walled town. And there were quite a few people out on the beach having a paddle in the sea to celebrate the New Year.

And good luck to them too – sooner them than me.

Tea was some falafel and pasta in tomato sauce. Delicious it was too

Rosemary rang me up after tea and we had a chat for … errr … one hour and forty-four minutes. And would have gone on even longer had the battery not gone flat in my telephone.

At 23:30 I went out for a midnight walk. It’s New Year and I wanted to be out on the streets.

My ramble took me down to the harbour, across the lock gates and into town. I took a few pics of the harbour at night and then wandered into town. There can’t have been more than a couple of dozen people around, and some of them were quite noisy.

It wasn’t actually the New Year’s celebrations that I was expecting, an so I came home. It’s not exactly early but it’s not late either. Nevertheless, I’m off to bed.

So while you all admire the photos, I’ll clear off. See you all next year.

fishing boat granville manche normandy france

beach plat gousset granville manche normandy france

night steps staircase granville manche normandy france

night port de granville harbour manche normandy france

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 29th December 2018 – SO MUCH …

… for my early night. It doesn’t do any good if you end up lying in bed tossing and turning for as long as I did last night. And then awakening at about 04:30 and not being able to go back to sleep for ages doesn’t help much either.

When the alarm went off at 06:00 I wasn’t in much of a mood to leave my bed and it took me a while to come to my senses, which seeing how few senses I have these days, is rather astonishing.

We had the medication and then we had breakfast, followed a little later by a shower. And then I hit the streets, having set the washing machine off on a cycle. Quite clever, my washing machine.

LIDL didn’t come up with much, except a new pair of slippers. My old ones are starting to fall apart and they had some cheap ones in at just €4:99. And they had some cheap sheets on offer too. I don’t have really enough of those and I would have bought another one, but all of the blue ones had been sold. White is no good for me.

NOZ was pretty good and I would have spent a lot of money in there had I had the space and the inclination. But some orange-flavoured digestive biscuits, an Arsène Lupin DVD, a baking tray for mince pies and the like and three glass dessert coupes were amongst the things that I bought.

LeClerc didn’t have anything special on offer, although I did have a surprise. There on the shelves in the Industrial Bakery section was a pack of 6 pains au chocolate – the type that kids like to eat for breakfast. And the packet was clearly marked “VEGAN – 100% VEGETAL”.

I’ve been complaining about the lack of vegan products here in France – how they are 50 years behind the times – so this was an impressive find.

People making vegan products on an industrial scale need as much encouragement as they can receive, so I bought a packet of solidarity and support. It’ll be good to vary my breakfast habits here and there.

Back here, I had a coffee and then slowly unpacked the purchases. It took me a while and it’s still not done yet. I’m definitely slowing up these days.

After lunch I didn’t do too much at all – downloading a pile of stuff that I had tracked down on the internet and then organising a few directories so that everything is stored correctly. I want to have this computer organised ready for whenever the new one might come.

I was also following the football on the internet. And just for a change, the clubs that I follow all managed to win today. That’s not likely at all. Usually they all fall apart.

As for tea, I didn’t bother tonight. I’ve eaten rather a lot just recently and going without a meal for once won’t hurt me. I had a nibble on some Bombay Mix that I had left over from my trip to Leuven.

It was gone 22:30 when I went out for my evening walk. There was no-one around at all at that time of night except for the kids on the car park.

So now I’m off to bed. It’s Sunday so a lie-in is appropriate. But whether I would ever get one remains to be seen. I’m not doing too well right now what with one thing or another.

Friday 28th December 2018 – WHAT A …

… horrible day.

It didn’t start off too well. I was in bed early enough and away on my travels too.

I shall spare a few blushes by mentioning no names but it concerns someone who went away from home in the afternoon to see a friend and I didn’t see her after that. So I locked the door and went to bed. She turned up at some time during the night, well the worse for drink which would have been quite an unusual thing. Although I knew really what had gone on, I had a member of my family round and so she explained that she had gone to meet a friend at the Wistaston Manor Hotel who was crying in her cups about a failed relationship. This had led to something of a consolation drinking session, which then overflowed into the evening. Consoling her friend took much longer than it seemed so she came back home late, found the house locked, thought that I was out and so went round to my parents’ house in Davenport Avenue – but they were out. So she went across the road to the Social Club which was still serving, and so waited in there until my parents returned home. But of course, she couldn’t wait there without making use of the facilities of the club, such as the bar. A load of nonsense of course, but it wasn’t in my best interests to contradict her in public.

The alarm went off at 06:00 and again at 06:10 and 06:20, and I was up and about at some reasonable time. But it ended up being a late breakfast as I was sidetracked by a few issues.

After breakfast I started to work but at about 08:30 I started to yawn again. And from then on, despite a second coffee, I couldn’t keep going. A short time later I lay down on the bed and the next thing that I remembered, it was 10:45. All in all, it was sometime after 11:00 that I managed to haul myself out of bed.

That wasn’t all either, because this afternoon I had another trip away into the wild. The stresses of the journey yesterday are proving far too much for me.

Most of the day has been spent in debate on a group in my Social Networking account. The affairs of Doctor Beeching and Ernest Marples crop up quite regularly and lead to a huge chasm between the participants, depending upon which side of the political fence one sits. And my regular contribution is to post a pile of facts into the argument, which don’t fit too well with either party. It rumbled on for most of the day until the group Admin closed the debate. That was a shame because everyone was (for a change) conducting themselves with respect and dignity and all in all, it was quite enjoyable. Harks back to the days of OUSA Debate.

The rest of the day has been spent in editing photos and tidying up a pile of directories on my laptop. I’ve freed off a huge pile of space on the laptop by doing that.

We had our usual couple of walks of course today.

It’s obviously “that” time of the year because there were loads of people out there on the beach with buckets and spades and the like, presumably searching for seashells among the rocks and in the sand.

Flexing their mussels, one might say. Still, it keeps them out of mischief.

It wasn’t just at Granville that they were doing their Neville Shute impressions.

Down there at Donville les Bains it looks as if they are bringing in a boat. There are some oyster or mussels beds out there and it looks as if they have been out there servicing them.

They have certainly picked a nice day for it.

Remember last night when there was a fog that had descended over the Baie de Mont St Michel?

It’s still here this afternoon. The pillar with the marker light for the entrance to the harbour is swathed in mist. That puts visibility down to about 800 metres, I reckon.

When you consider that a modern supertanker required several kilometres to pull up to a dead stop, it’s not the kind of day to be out there on board ship without a radar.

Tonight’s meal was a pepper, sweetcorn and mushroom curry from 15th January. And it was just as delicious as it was when I cooked it.

later on after tea, I was out again for my evening walk.

The fog has lifted pretty much, and there were a good half-dozen or so fishing boats already in, tied up at the fish-processing plant and unloading.

Not only that, there were about another dozen fishing boats loitering in the vicinity waiting to come in on the evening tide for their turn to unload.

So now I’m going to have an early night. It’s shopping in the morning of course, being a Saturday and I need to be on form.

people on beach plat gousset granville manche normandy france

winter fog haze baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france

night fishing boat port de granville harbour manche normandy france

Thursday 27th December 2018 – THE ONLY PROBLEM …

… with going to bed early is that despite all of my best efforts, I end up waking up early.

But no danger of me leaving the stinking pit at 04:50. Instead I turned over and tried to go back to sleep until the alarm at 06:00.

I’d been on my travels too. I was making some coconut macaroons so I’d deep-fried the mandarin oranges and I’d assembled a pile of desiccated coconut but I couldn’t remember what else to put in them. And so I was scratching around trying to find a recipe.

When the alarm went off, I was up quite quickly and finished the packing. I left some stuff behind but all that I could practically take, I brought with me.

It was a good plan to come home today because there was almost no-one around. At the station, I arrived just as the express from Genk pulled in. And it was still there by the time I had bought my ticket so I leapt aboard. Usually it’s packed to the gunwhales but today it was quite empty as the commuters have another day off.

No-one in the queue at the Carrefour supermarket on the station where I bought my raisin buns for breakfast, and I forgot AGAIN about the chemists – to see if the one on the station would be open.

Our train was our old friend 4304 – one of the Thalys PBKA (Paris, Brussels, Köln, Amsterdam) trainsets from the mid-90s. Nice and comfortable but starting to show its age like most of them.

There were a few spare seats on board too so we weren’t too hemmed in. I sent the journey to Paris reading a book in comparative comfort.

At the Gare du Nord I stepped onto the Metro platform just as a train pulled in. And that was empty too. I had a seat all the way to Montparnasse which was just as well because this lt in my luggage was heavy.

As I negotiated my way around Montparnasse, Rosemary rang me. And we had a little chat for a few minutes. Then I had to nip down to Vaugirard for my train.

It was already there so I had to shift someone out of my seat before I could make myself comfortable. And it was cold on there too. Ice and frost everywhere and as we left the station we rolled into a thick bank of fog that came with us all the way to Granville.

Not that I know all about it because I had a little doze along the way.

Outside the station I was almost squidged by a woman driver who doesn’t seem to understand the principle of a zebra crossing.

It was a struggle to come back here. I was definitely feeling the strain of all of my exertions. But I eventually made it back and I was glad, even though it was cold in here.

I haven’t done much since I’ve been back. Just some unpacking (but not all of it) and made my tea (a burger and the veg that I brought back).

Later on, I went for my usual evening walk around the headland.

By now, the fog had come down and closed in and it wasn’t very easy to see anything. Everything outside was swathed in a surreal orange glow thanks to the reflection of the street lights.

It wasn’t thick enough to dissuade the fishing boats from working. There were plenty of those unloading in the harbour tonight.

So now I’m off for an early night. I’ve earned it, and I need it too. But whether I’ll get it is another thing. You know how things are these days.

night fog fishing boats port de granville harbour manche normandy france

EPIC HALL

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