Tag Archives: place d’armes

Sunday 6th May 2018 – THIS ISN’T GOING …

… to work out very well either.

Toddled off in the heat down to the station this evening to enquire about the trains, only to be told “you need to come back tomorrow evening. We’ll only know the night before”
“So why did your colleague tell me to come back this evening then?”
“I dunno”.
And so the discussion went on.

In the end, the guy at the ticket office at the station made me aware that there was a bus from Avranches to Lille every day at lunchtime. He gave me the details and cancelled my outward journey. So that’s at least something.

Sure enough, there’s a bus at 12:04 on Tuesday lunchtime, and to Lille it’s only €39:99. Takes all day of course, but it’s better than nothing.

Now to check up on the local buses. Ahh yes – a bus at 10:05 – gets to Avranches at 10:57. That sounds ideal to me. An hour to have a coffee and to compose myself (rather than Beethoven, who spent 60 years composing and 400 years decomposing).

but wait a minute. “Does not run on school holiday dates” – and Tuesday in France is a Bank Holiday isn’t it?

At the limit I could go to Avranches in Caliburn, but then he would be stranded down there until I could go to fetch him back, whenever that might be.

Yes, this is not turning out too well right now is it?

Last night, I was in bed at a fairly respectable time, where I stayed until about 09:00 this morning.

I’d been on my travels though, being my usual obnoxious annoying self, and so a car came to pick me up – something to do with Hearts Football Club I believe. The driver invited me to go for a drive with him and we ended up at the local prison. The chief warden met me there and gave me a conducted tour of the premises, showing me all of the dark recesses and crooks and nannies of the place. We arrived at the communal area where some women, inmates I reckon, were washing the floor. He showed me where the buckets were, showed me where the hot water was, the soap and a mop, and invited me to help clean the floor. I was concerned about walking over the area where the women had already cleaned, but they told me to clean the chute in the wall where the cats come in. It seems that a pile of cats come in at night to keep the inmates company. “At least there’s some good news” I thought. I had to move a bed to get to this chute – a three-tier bunk bed with cheap, thin horrible mattresses, and with a young woman dressed very poorly in a sweater and yellowy-brown slacks sitting on the top. And behind the bed was the most indescribable filth and less. Clearly these women were only cleaning what they could see, and no-one cared about the rest.

After breakfast I vegetated around for quite a while without doing too much (it IS Sunday after all) and then just for a change I had some lunch. Afterwards, I tidied up a huge pile of the backlog of e-mails and, would you believe, found an e-mail from Plenty’s dad asking for copies of the photographs of his lorries that we saw parked up here back in March.

We then had the Welsh Cup Final where Connah’s Quay Nomads saw off Aberystwyth Town without too much effort, although it could well have been a different story had the far-side linesman’s guide-dog been paying proper attention.

From there, I went for my walk to the station and then back here where I made another pizza. The pizza base that I bought yesterday was a dsiaster by the way. Stuck to the greaseproof paper and wouldn’t come off. And when it did it went just about everywhere except where it was supposed to.

And then another walk this evening. And the camera lens, about which I have moaned on a regular basis, has now completely given up the ghost. I’ll be sending it back when I return from Belgium.

Final word is that I seem to be being attacked by ants. There’s a pile of them that have somehow found their way in here. Now I need to find them a way out.

Saturday 5th May 2018 – THIS ISN’T WORKING …

… out like it ought to.

This evening on the way out to the football I stopped off at the station to pick up my train tickets for Ruesday. And with the times being all messed up on there, I went into the ticket office to confirm the departure times.
“But that train’s not running!” said the cashier
“Why not?” I enquired
“Because there’s a strike on Tuesday”.
“So what hapens now?”
“Well, we can change this one (the departure from Granville) to Monday.”
“What about the Paris to Brussels?”
“That’s not changeable”
“But I bought the two at the same time. And if I can’t get to Paris because of your problems, then I certainly can’t get from Paris, can I?”
And so we had a very long discussion which ended with me having to go back tomorrow evening sometime between 17:00 and 19:15 when the service diagrams for Tuesday will be published.

In the meantime, I suppose that I had better think of a Plan B.

But all of this sums up my day because it hasn’t been very good.

It all started to go wrong last night when I was planning to go to bed and A Passion Play turned up on the hi-fi. And so I sat in the dark and listened to it. And then in not-so-quick succession we had Aqualung, Benefit, Stand Up and Thick as a Brick. 5 of the best rock albums ever recorded of course.

By the time that they had all finished (and I played a couple of them twice) it was 05:40 and getting light. No chance of getting up at 06:20 so I switched off the alarms and went to bed.

11:30 is much more like a time to leave the bed after a night like that – not that I regret it of course for good music is good music – but it meant that I had missed my trip to the shops. Still you can’t win a coconut every time.

Breakfast was therefore very late and I lounged around for a couple of hours listening to the radio and laughing at the Clayheads who are relegated from the Premier League. And then I nipped into town for a pizza base for tomorrow’s tea.

Back here there was more football as the season draws to a conclusion and then I headed off out, via the railway station.

At the Cité des Sports US Granvillaise’s 3rd XI were playing US Mortainaise, hopelessly adrift at the foot of the Basse-Normandie Division 1. Their trainer told me that with the beautiful weather three of their players, including the goalkeeper, had gone harvesting and another half-dozen has gone away for a long weekend.

And so they had 11 players (and no substitutes). And the goalkeeper – well, three Tommy Lawrences could have fitted inside his jersey and you could have fitted at least two Jon Scullions inside the jersey of the n°8, who touched the ball three times in the whole 90 minutes.

The result was therefore a foregone conclusion and the game was over after 25 minutes with Granville 3-0 up. And then Granville switched off and strolled leisurely around the park with the ball.

They scored another just before half-time, a fifth after about an hour, and rattled in two more near the end as Mortain ran completely out of steam.

But that’s not all the story. It’s really no exaggeration that Granville could have had half a dozen more from the chances that they created. On one occasion the ball bobbled around the Mortain penalty area like a pinball, bouncing off the keeper, the woodwork twice, a couple of defenders and a couple of attackers before bouncing away to safety.

And the miss of the match, of the season and probably of the century came from a beautiful ball over the top to the Granville trainer (who had come on for a run-around near the end) who beat the offside trap all ends up, advanced on the goal, rounded the keeper and squares it across the goalmouth to the n°7 about three yards out with an open goal in front of him. And the n°7 whacks it with all his might – up into the crossbar and back upfield. Anyone who remembers the famous John Aldridge “goal that never was” – well, this was 10 times better than that.

What was even more disappointing was that had Granville really tried hard instead of messing about, we could have had a cricket score here. And Granville need to learn how to concentrate on a match for the whole 90 minutes and demolish opposition like this.

I walked back here (114% of my daily activity) and made a plate of pasta and vegetables cooked in olive oil, which was delicious.

Now it’ll be bed-time. And I’m hoping for a better night than last night.

And final word goes to the sunburn that I picked up in Africa. My skin is now all peeling. Coming off in shreds.

Friday 4th May 2018 – HAPPY STAR WARS DAY!

Yes, May the Fourth be with you.

And I started off today as I meant to go on, that’s for sure. Flat on my back asleep.

And to 09:10 as well. This idea with me being ill of not having an alarm going off to disturb me is clearly doing me some good, I reckon. Sleeping all the way through until I wake up. You can’t say better than that.

It’s certainly making me feel a little batter too because, much to my surprise, I actually put all the washing away this morning after breakfast. There had been some here on the dryer since before I went away last month and although that was put away, the only reason was to replace it with the stuff that I washed on my return. So that’s some good news.

Not only that, I did a little more vague-ish tidying up and then sat down to edit another huge pile of photos. So if you scan back through a few of the last couple of days, you will probably see some photos and a bit more text that you hadn’t seen last time that you looked.

It was another beautiful afternoon with the window open once again to let in the air.

And while this was going on, I let myself out to go for a walk in the sunshine.

Crowds of people there were out there too, all taking advantage of the gorgeous weather. And I can’t say that I blame them either because it really was nice and the views were outstanding again over the Baie de Mont St Michel.

But I can see it becoming really busy here before too long and I’ll be back on my Friday shopping trips to avoid the rush.

And it wasn’t just pedestrians who were out there taking advantage of the weather.

We had a few more of these vulture-like people soaring up and down over our heads, reminding us of how primitive man must have felt when he had pteranodons and Pterodactyli to contend with.

I’m still waiting for one of these to end up as a crumpled heap at my feet because it’s bound to happen that a couple of these will become tangled up while heading for the same stretch of sky.

Is there some kind of Highway Code for these people?

With the general improvement in my health I found that I could concentrate once more on a course that I’m studying. I mentioned that I found a free 3D program called Hexagon where you can create your own props from “primitives” – that is, basic shapes such as cubes, circles and pipes, that kind of thing that you can combine together. I had a go at it a while ago but didn’t make much progress

However I’m not sure if I mentioned that I found a whole series of videos on Youtube which give a thorough grounding in the basics of the program. So before I was taken ill just now I had started to work my way through them.

But it’s hard going. The presenter might be good at what he does but he drives me berserk with his “pacifically” instead of “specifically” and his “access” instead of “axis” and his “gyro” with a hard “g” (as in “garden”) instead of a soft “g” (as in “German”). I’m not sure if I’ll make it down to the very end at this rate – I really don’t.

As well as that, I’ve had my first session on the guitar for quite some time. Things are definitely looking up here a little.

But not so much that I fancied any lunch. I’m still not feeling that well.

On the other hand, tea was a vegan lentil-and-pepper curry from last November (such are the benefits of having a deep-freezer) but no strawberries – I was right in saying that they wouldn’t last until this evening.

The walk this evening around the walls was almost completely uneventful,

I say “almost”, because there was a large group of people having a late-evening picnic on the grass at the Square Maurice Marland. They certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves, although they didn’t say why.

So I wished them all good health and carried on with my walk.

So now it’s an early night for me. The alarms go back on tonight for it’s a trip to the shops in the morning. Back into the old routine, hey?

Still, the rest did me good, didn’t it?

Thursday 3rd May 2018 – NOW THAT’S MORE LIKE IT.

With my recent health issues, I’ve not been setting an alarm in the mornings and sleeping until I awake.

So this morning, instead of the previous 02:30 and 05:00 or whatever it was, it was a glorious 10:10 when I finally left my stinking pit. And if I hadn’t had to go down the corridor for a ride on the porcelain horse I would probably still be there now.

With it being Thursday, it’s my usual day to walk up to LIDL. But with not having eaten all that much just recently, there’s no urgent need for anything so I can have a day off.

There was even time for me last night to go off on my travels. I was back working for Shearings again and ended up with not one but two coaches under my control. One came back on a Saturday and the other came back on a Sunday and the SUnday one particularly needed a lot of cleaning and tidying before it could go back to the depot so I missed the departure of the shuttle service. Going into the office though, I found two credit cards on the floor. I assumed that these were the new fuel cards for the coaches that I had so I picked up the cards and walked out. The next problem was to return the coaches to the depot. I could drive one, but how would I return home? Had I done that with one of them the shuttle coach service on Saturday evening, I could have had a feeder coach back leaving me with just one to deal with. But with two to move and no way of returning home this was going to be complicated. Just then Nerina put in an appearance. She could drive up behind me in the old gold Cortina that we had and bring me home, that would solve one of the problems. And I was thinking that it was a shame that she couldn’t drive a coach otherwise we could take the two coaches both together. But then we would still have the problem of coming home afterwards.

Breakfast was rather late of course, but at least I managed to eat it okay. But with having a late breakfast I eschewed lunch yet again. No point in forcing the food down and I do need to lose some weight, especially after all that I must have eaten in North Africa.

None of the foregoing stopped me from going for my walk this afternoon, where I met Gribouille and his owner. And he (Gribouille) let me pick him up again and give him a stroke, something that apparently he doesn’t allow everyone to do. But he really is a beautiful cat.

There were crowds of people about this afternoon too enjoying the weather. And plenty of these hang-glider people too circling around like vultures overhead.

It’s a good job that they aren’t real vultures though because I wouldn’t appreciate a bird of that size circling around above me – and for a variety of reasons too as I’m sure you can imagine.

And they weren’t the only airborne creatures with which we had to contend today.

There was one of these motorised hang-gliders soaring about overhead, presumably from the airfield alng the coast at Bréhal. It looks marginally safer than being in a hang-glider, I reckon, but you still wouldn’t get me up there in one of those things either.

I’m all in favour of terra firma – in fact, the more firma the less terra.

And that’s not all either.

With it being such a really a delicious day for once, there was a wedding party out on the promontory this afternoon and a wedding photographer was busily engaged about her business.

I just hope that she doesn’t ask them to step back one pace too far, because it could end up being the shortest marriage on record.

As for tea, I did have my veg, vegan sausages and vegan cheese sauce. And it was just as delicious as I was hoping that it would be. But the strawberries are about giving up I reckon. I’ll be lucky if the ones that are left will be good enough to eat tomorrow.

So a really beautiful day – the first time this year that I have had the windows here open. If we are’t very careful, summer may well be acumen in. Lhude sing seagulls, hey?

And now another early night, and once more there will be no alarm. I’ll need an alarm on Saturday to go to the shops of course but I intend to take advantage of the rest of the week. I’m feeling much better and in a day or so I’ll probably be all right.

Or, as right as I will ever be.

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 – I HAD A SURPRISE …

… visitor this morning.

Some time round about 09:00 (I have really no idea) there was a buzzing on the door. Terry had an appointment in town and was early so he came round for a coffee.

But it’s always the case though, isn’t it? I can have this place looking spotless and clean as a new pin and no-one ever comes round at all. Yet here I am, still not properly unpacked from Africa, papers all over the place yet to be tidied away and me not having cleaned up seeing as I’m not too well, so I have a visit , don’t I?

Not that I’m complaining of course. I don’t see enough people and so visitors, especially good friends, are always welcome round here. But it always happens like this, doesn’t it?

I had another miserable night last night, but I had made sure that I’d switched the alarms off before going to bed so that I could sleep until I awoke. Which was several times during the night, unfortunately. And so much for my good sleep too, because I was up and about at something silly like 07:20.

Terry told me that he had sent a message to tell me that he was going to call round but one of the difficulties that you have when you switch off the alarms is that you have to switch off the phone too, so that explains that.

It’s been another one of those days where I haven’t done very much. I managed some breakfast but didn’t feel like anything at all for lunch. And so you can tell that there’s something wrong with me if it measn that I’m off my food.

But I did manage my two trips out today again. And I’m glad this I did because we were having yet another famous night.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall having seen some magnificent sunsets since we’ve been here. Nothing like as magnificent as what we saw on Long Island Sound in New York State back at the beginning of October last year, but pretty good all the same

And last night’s was a belter.

The thing is, though, that there was nothing like as many people out enjoying it as I would have expected, so I had a pretty good spec all to myself.

And there I stood for a good 10 minutes watching the sun slowly sink down below the horizon into a stormy sea.

And if I’m managing to wax all lyrical about it, then you know that it must have been good. Shame that there were no more than three or four people out there with me.

But “stormy” was certainly the word. That was probably why there were so few people out there enjoying the sunset.

Clutching grimly … "lucky grimly" – ed … onto my hat i staggered off into the wind along the path at the foot of the old town walls to the little spec overlooking the casino and the Place Marechal Foch

And there I could watch the waves crashing onto the sea wall

There were a few intrepid pedestrians down there dodging the waves as they crashed over onto the promenade.

And they needed to be intrepid too because some of the waves were quite impressive. I was lucky enough to capture one of the best ones right at its apogee and I shall enjoy this photo for a while.

There was a tremendous storm here on 3rd January which kept me in the house all day. That apparently caused a considerable amount of damage down there and I regret now that I never managed to struggle out to see it. It must really have been something.

Tea was more oven chips, sausage and beans followed by strawberries and kiwi sorbet. Delicious all of it too. And with a helping of sausages and some grated vegan cheese left (I can get some more next week) I’m going to go for cauliflower, sausages and cheese sauce for tea tomorrow.

Yes, all this talk of food. I must be feeling better than I was just now.

Tuesday 1st May 2018 – I’M FEELING A LITTLE …

… better today.

I was in bed at some really silly time last last, like 21:00 or something. But that’s not the same as saying that I went to sleep. I definitely heard the immersion heater switch on at 22:25.

But drop off to sleep I did, sooner or later. But with having been stark out on the sofa on several occasions, I was wide awake and up and about at … errr … 02:15.

No chance of me making that any kind of time to be up and about on a permanent basis, and I eventually went back to sleep. I’d turned off the alarms of course, with my health issues, and 08:20 was much more of a reasonable time to be out of bed.

No breakfast today – I somehow couldn’t face it. And I spent the morning stretched out on the sofa. Taking it easy, which is not a bad idea. Liz came on line to see how I was. She had heard that I was unwell.

I did manage a butty or two for lunch – another very late one – and then I crawled off out for a walk. I wasn’t feeling at all like it and it was probably a silly thing to do, but I have to push myself onwards otherwise I’m going to be stuck on the sofa for the duration.

Back here, I had a coffee and then watched a DVD – well, some of it anyway.

Just for a change, I did manage some tea tonight. Oven chips, beans and sausage. Followed by strawberries and some of the sorbet that I made the other day. And I have to say it – it does taste as good as it looks and my sorbet maker churned it up nicely.

After tea I did go for another walk and met Minette, the black cat. She was lying in wait for me, possibly because she hasn’t seen me in a while.

So it’s yet another early night. The sore throat has almost gone but I’m sneezing like mad with a streaming head cold.

I just can’t win.

Monday 30th April 2018 – I HAVE SPENT …

… almost all of the day curled up on the sofa under the quilt.

My exertions from the other day coming back from North Africa have finally caught up with me and so that was that.

When the alarm went off at 06:20 I did manage to struggle out of bed and I even ate breakfast too. But that was followed by a blackcurrant, hot lemon and honey drink to try to ease the throat.

There’s some cough mixture too left over from last time and I had a couple of teaspoons of that. And much to my surprise, that seemed to work to some extent.

For lunch, I did manage a sandwich and some fruit (it was a very late lunch though) and then back on the sofa. I put a few DVDs on (the remote controller that I bought does actually work) but I would be lying if I were to say that I saw very much of them.

And although it’s quite early, I’m off to bed. No tea either because I’m really not feeling very much like it.

Let’s all hope that I’ll feel a little better tomorrow.

Sunday 29th April 2018 – HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Even as we speak, here I am curled up on the sofa underneath the quilt and wearing about 10 layers of clothing.

And I’m still freezing!

And in news which will cheer up almost everyone reading this rubbish, I have lost my voice too. I’m definitely sickening for something yet again!

It all started this morning, when I awoke, at the nice and gentle hour of 09:00, and found that instead of a throat I had two sheets of sandpaper there. And as well as that, I was rather unsteady on my feet. None of that was looking very good.

However, it hadn’t stopped me going on a midnight ramble. Last night I was out in North Africa, a very sandy, dusty city and I was part of an army that was on the attack. But the farther we advanced the more cut off we were becoming and there were fewer and fewer of us able to progress. Our situation bega to look quite desperate.
Just like the situation in a book that I was reading on the train the other day about the First Day on the Somme in 1916 in fact.
And later I’d been looking for somewhere to stay. I met up with some man who took me off to place that would be quite comfortable, and he would come to pick me up at 08:00 next morning to take me back to my car. But by the time 08:30 arrived he hadn’t turned up and there was so much to do, like loading my car (the mattress on which I had been sleeping needed to go right at the bottom for a start, so everything needed to be unpacked) before 10:00, the official check-out time. So to save time I set off to walk along the road along which he had brought me because there was a vantage point on a bend with a good view. I had my big red cantilever tool box with me as I walked through the countryside. And it was now 08:45, I was installed on the bend with a village down below but still no sign of this guy and I was wondering if I had done the right thing by moving, and worried that I would be locked out of my accommodation at 10:00 without all my possessions.

We had the usual morning routine of course and then I sat on the sofa and vegetated. On Sundays there is no alarm of course so I can stay in bed as long as I like. And as Matt Dillon so eloquently put it, “Sunday is the one day of the week a man can get up at noon and sit around with his boots off without anybody hollering at him about it”. We all deserve a day like that.

This afternoon I made some butties and a flask and headed out to the Stade Croissant. US St Pair’s 3rd XI were playing US Roncey-Cerisy in a bottom-of-the-table encounter in Division 3 of the regional league. It was cold and windy and at the kick-off the heavens opened and we had a torrential downpour.

Luckily there’s a grandstand there and so at least there was some shelter but I was getting colder and colder as time wore on.

As for the football, there was a general lack of skill as you might expect but at least US St Pair played with a plan and some shape, and they were quite adventurous in what they tried. Had they had some individual skill, or a proper centre-forward (because their “attack” was very lightweight) they would have run away with this match.

They did score once, but penalty was well-saved by the US Roncey-Cerisy keeper who rode his luck quite well. But US Roncey-Cerisy had their moments too particularly in the second half when they strung a few nice balls together and even managed to score an equaliser when the US St Pair keeper slipped on the greasy turf.

Three players who impressed me, all on the US St Pair team, were the old, balding left-winger, the red-headed central midfielder, and the rather portly centre-half who dominated his defence and played some excellent balls upfield.

ON the way back I had the heater on full-blast in Caliburn because I was now shivering. And back here I grabbed the quilt and dived underneath it on the sofa where I crashed out for an hour.

I did manage to make tea though – another excellent pizza.

So now, I’m not bothering with a walk in this weather. I’m going straight to bed and I’ll sleep for the duration.

Ask me if I care.

Saturday 28th April 2018 – PHEW!

That was some football match tonight. US Granville were playing US St Malo tonight at the Stade Louis Dior and even though I’ve still not properly recovered from my recent exertions I walked out there this evening.

US St Malo are third in the table and US Granville are 8th so it was always going to be a difficult task, but Granville matched them toe to toe for the first 50 minutes. While it was evident that St Malo were technically the better side and had more of the possession, Granville looked far more menacing when they were going forward.

And then Granville won a penalty for a mistimed tackle. No card given, but that’s not a problem – it was clearly an attempt to play the ball. And the penalty was beautifully struck – and there was an even better save from the St Malo keeper.

In fact, I don’t know what the St Malo keeper had been drinking but I wouldn’t mind a pint of that. He brought off half a dozen stunning saves that would not have been out of place in the Premier League and he single-handedly (or double-handedly) kept his club in the game.

Granville did score a goal after about an hour, but 10 minutes later St Malo equalised and that was probably the right result. But it was easily the best match that I have seen for some time.

Last night was another disturbed night unfortunately. But not so disturbed that it stopped me going on a midnight ramble.

I was walking along Hightown in Crewe with, of all people, the mother of the boy with whom I spent several weeks in France during my schooldays. A girl was with us too – she might even have been his sister although she probably wasn’t – and someone else. I was pointing out to them all about HIghtown and how it ws 30 years ago and how much it had changed. We were looking at a place that was a venue for high-class wedding services exhibitions but which was in fact probably a secret bar and next door was the old church that became a rock venue and now it had gone up-market and was available for hire for wedding celebrations. But the girl with us was coming out with comments as if she knew Crewe really well which was quite a surprise. This led me to mention the story about a girl aged 7 or 8. She had only been to a certain place a couple of times but we used to send her to the shops there because she could remember the way. This woman, who had now become my niece, said “who do you mean?” and mentioned the name of one of a pair of twins, to which I replied that it was the other one. And that was surprising too because the girl whom my niece had mentioned was much brighter than the other one. We ended up somewhere down Victoria Street in a house with two grey cats and they were huge – massively overweight monsters of things – so I asked my niece whether they were bad-tempered but she replied “not at all. They are the softest cats you could ever imagine” so I gave the biggest one of the two a stroke. My niece then wrote out a shopping list to take to the Chinese takeaway – a bag of chips for 10, 8 food boxes, 1 portion of pie, 1 portion of sausages and all of the usual kind of takeaway food. I offered to go to fetch it. On the way out I heard some people arguing about something and I thought that they were inside the house but it turned out to be a mother and daughter standing outside the door in the street having this argument. In the meantime I glanced at the shopping list and noticed that there was nothing on it for me. It was all meaty stuff, so I got to wonder what was I going to have for tea while I was out there buying tea for everyone else.
Leaning over the edge of a parapet, my notebook fell out of my hands right into the foreign waste and it was a long way down to go to collect it. But I needed to go to retrieve it and bring it back with me. But to get there meant passing through what was to become the first German victory, so I had to crawl along the side of the building under the machine gun fire. But earlier in the evening there had been an opportunity to climb out onto the roof of where we were being held captive – or rather to climb up onto the top and walk about on the sheets that were protecting everyone from the sun -the weather there was absolutely magnificent.

Despite everything I still beat the second alarm, and then after the usual morning performance I had a shower and a general clean-up, followed by a change of clothes.

And then the shops!

LIDL, NOZ and LeClerc and I bought nothing whatever of any importance. I simply did a lap around and came back with the usual stuff.

But I didn’t stay at home long because I had a phone call. Liz and Terry were in town and would I like lunch? So back to the LeClerc and the buffet.

We had a good chat for a couple of hours to catch up on news, and then I came back.

But I didn’t stay at home long because I had to go out for the footy.

On the way back from the football I saw something that made me laugh, and so I had to take a photograph of it.

This is why it’s necessary to wear a hat when you go for a walk around here because the local seagulls have an accuracy that puts RAF Bomber Command to shame. You can see just how well they have done with this car that has only been parked here for a couple of days.

That’ll require a little cleaning before the driver goes too far in it. But what do you expect, living on a rocky crag by the seaside?

All in all, 105% of my daily activity so at least I’m keeping going. But I felt the strain just a little. An early night and a nice long sleep will do me the world of good.

You just watch someone come along to spoil it!

Friday 27th April 2018 – GOD, IT WAS HARD THIS MORNING …

… to get out of bed. I ached in every joint and every muscle.

I’d had a bad night too – couldn’t manage any sort of decent, continuous sleep.

Not that any of this stopped me going on the kind of mega-ramble that I haven’t been on in quite some considerable time though.

We started off with a whole bunch of us in some seaside area or resort and where I was staying was out of the town centre so I had to walk in every day down this same old road to get into town. But it was coming up to our time to leave so we were assembled waiting outside a building for something to happen. After a while I decided that I would go in the building. In there was a load of people whom I knew – probably most of them in fact – and we all ended up having a big chat. Someone began to talk about the time that he had been for a drive with Nerina and the exhaust had become detached from the manifold on the black Cortina and how she had driven over it. I told a few moe stories about car problems that we had had. I happened to glance out of the window to see everyone else starting to come in and they all looked really wet. I asked if it had been raining, and the people replied that it had been snowing too. After a while Anne and Mike (although it wasn’t Mike) decided that they would have to leave regardless of the weather. They went outside but just then two young girls came past on bikes and shouted to Anne “we’ve done it – we’ve done it”. It turns out that Anne and Mike were some kind of medical consultants or the like and had to go to change someone’s bandages, but these two kids had done it instead, and successfully too. I asked what this was all about, so someone explained it to me. And then another two kids appeared. They announced that they had done something else to someone else who needed medicl attention. This ws all very exciting, listening to the accomplishments of these kids. They wandered off so I followed them around the corner. There was this big fat muscular old man there wearing a fez. I went back into the building and ended up in a dark corner doing something, but there was some kind of commotion, and I heard a gruff voice say “right then, we’ll go to his room”. There was the man, dragging roughly a boy from my childhood heading obviously to my room. It was clear that a large amount of force had been used on this boy so I asked him if he was ok. The boy replied “no, not after what he’s just done to me”. That made me pick up the phone to start dialling 999. this man came round to my side of the desk to see what I was doing. I told him that I was phoning the police. He replied “no you aren’t” and went to snatch the phone from me. My response was to pick up one of these dagger-like envelope openers and plunge it straight into his stomach. That’ll settle his hash.
A little later I was changing jobs within an office and all of my old work was going to be taken over by someone else and I would be having new work. I was very very unhappy about this because there were lots of things that I ought to have done yet hadn’t done, and I didn’t want my shortcomings to be exposed to anyone else. In view of this, and seeing that I was beyind retirement age I decided that I would simply retire and walk away. I wandered over to a nearby school to see if any of the school buses needed a new driver, seeing as it was chucking-out time. I had realised that I would be terribly lonely in my retirement as I liked people and was always pleased to see them (!!!). As these kids came streaming out, a young blonde-haired girl came over and greeted me as if we were really old friends. For my part, I had no idea who she was. I couldn’t remember her at all. Nevertheless I told her that I was retiring and that leaving was going to make me fed up. She said that that wasn’t a problem as she baked quite regularly and she promised to contact me each time she baked something and I could come along and buy some cakes off her. We can exchange the money right outside the accountants’ office where I work and that will make him really agitated, seeing me receive money. So I wandered off and ended up in the company of two boys. I ws looking for stones because what I had been doing was building up a breeze-block wall on an earthen bank. But the bank kept on collapsing and as I tried to hammer the breeze block into the cement on the top of this bank it was either making the bank crumble away more or else shaling the breeze block. I needed the stones to make a stabilising layer. My search took me down this cut-off part of road where I encountered these two boys. One of them had a very long pointed stick and he was killing everything that he encountered – deformed stillborn animals, seals caught up in fishing nets – by stabbing them with this pole. I was outraged by this. Halfway down this cut-off we came across a really strong and powerful half-man, half beast thing. He said that if we want to pass, we would have to fight him for it. I immediately volunteered this boy who had been killing everything. I said that he seemed to be in the right kind of humour for the task. But of course, like most bullies, he immediately chickened out. We turned round and retraced our steps much to my disappointment with this boy chickening out of this fight. But that was only to be expected, I suppose. I wasn’t going to get my stones, was I?

With all of that going on, no wonder I was exhausted.

After breakfast and the usual morning routine I sat down and attacked the two missing days. So now Tuesday’s entry and Wednesday’s entry are both on line.

And when you consider that the total amount of words came to just a little short of 5,000, you’ll understand why it took me until 19:50 this evening to finish it off.

It might however have taken less time had I not … errr … had a little relax after my afternoon walk. A good hour or so I was gone. It’s all catching up with me, this jet-setting lifestyle. I’ll be non compos mentis for a while at this rate.

Tea tonight, seeing as I don’t have a great deal of variety in the house just now, was stuffed peppers. I remembered to buy some at LIDL yesterday. And then we had football. Cefn Druids comfortably beat Connah’s Quay Nomads in the Welsh Premier League, live on the internet.

Afterwards, I went for a walk in the dark around the headland, and now I’m off to bed. An early night is called for as there is a lot to do tomorrow, as well as a football match in the evening.

I need to be on top form.

Thursday 26th April 2018 – AND SO …

… after all of my exertions yesterday and the enormous distance that I travelled, I was in bed last night quite early.

No alarm either, so I was expecting to be awake by 05:00 or some other stupid time like that.

But just for a change, and by complete surprise, I was stark out until about 09:00. A long time since I’ve had such a deep and complete sleep.

I’d been on my travels too during the night. A couple of friends and I were running a company of three taxis, although the husband of the couple wasn’t all that keen. And neither were the other taxi operators, one of whom took a great deal of pleasure in driving past us while we were having an animated discussion about something or other.

First job after the usual morning routine was to unpack. And much to my surprise everything arrived back safe and sound, although the opened vegan cheese needed a little care and attention. And there was plenty of the Sahara desert inside my suitcase too.

Second job was to stick all of the clothes and the bedding from before into the washing machine and have it all ready and cleaned. I need to keep up to date with things like this as you know.

Third job was to go to the shops. Caliburn struggled a little to fire into life (I’ll have to check to see how long I’ve had the battery) and then I was off to LIDL. I know that today is usually the day that I walk there but I need too much stuff for that and anyway I’m still feeling the aches and pains of the journey.

The road was exciting though. Some old geezer in a car nearly took Caliburn and me out as he cut off the corner of one of the bends and a little later on, where the road narrowed and we were all stuck at the temporary traffic lights (the cabling work is still going on) some other old geezer sat there convinced that I couldn’t get through, although anyone else could have driven a bus through the gap.

And having eschewed my travelling jacket for something more suitable for the Normandy climate, I found that I had forgotten my wallet with my bank cards in. But not to worry – there’s a €50:00 note tucked away in the pocket of my phone case so I wasn’t as embarrassed as I might otherwise have been.

After lunch I had a chat to Liz on the internet and then set about dealing with the … gulp … 439 photos that I had accumulated in North Africa. And that wasn’t a job of five minutes either.

And what didn’t help was a major interruption as some rather dreadful news filtered through the internet. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I have a soft spot for Bangor City FC in the Welsh Premier League, ever since my girlfriend at the time started to study there in 1975 and I used to go up there every weekend.

Two years ago they were taken over by a bunch of people who had trashed several other sports clubs, and I can confidently use the word “crooks” as one or two of them do have well-publicised criminal convictions. I predicted at the time that it would all end in tears.

And I’m right too, because this afternoon their application for a new licence to play in the Welsh Premier League was refused, and the club has been expelled. This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows the story of the current owners, because it is the same story that can be told by sports fans from many other clubs.

The only good news is that the freehold of the football stadium is owned by a football trust which leases the ground to the club. So at least it will be available for anyone else who wants to use it for football and won’t be turned into housing development that would be ohhh! so lucrative for the owners.

Tea was a frozen curry out of the freezer, and we had both of our walks today.

This evening’s walk was quite exciting though.

In the Place Maurice Marland there was someone setting up a marquee. And so I went over to her to ask her what was going on.
“We’e celebrating the opening of the Place today” she replied. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that it was closed for renovations during most of last year.
“But it’s been open for several months, now, hasn’t it?” said Our Hero
“Ues it has, but we had to have a formal opening” she replied.

Ahh well. Nothing like being up with the times, is there?

So now I’m going to have a rest because the alarm goes back on tomorrow. There’s plenty to do here.

Wednesday 25th April 2018 – I DON’T KNOW …

… whose silly idea this was but a flight at 06:15 in the morning should have given me a clue.

And so it was with a really heavy heart that I hauled myself out of my stinking pit at … errr … 02:00 following the cacophony of alarms and people knocking at the door.

But still I’d had plenty of time to go off on a journey during the night.

I was living in a village with a group of North Africans and the old lady of the village who had been wandering around came to see me in the house where I was living and then wandered away. In this village were two cows and they were both having some kind of psychological issues so I had to go to see an animal psychiatrist to make an appointment for one of them. So we had a little chat about this cow and then I decided that I would go home. But this cow decided that it would follow me and I don’t get on very well with large animals as regular readers of this rubbish will recall so I was rather put out by this. I had to dash home, reach the safety of the inside, lock the door and then park up a revolving door so that entry would be impossible but I could still get in and out of the house – something that was very complicated. And I had to do it pretty quickly too as I didn’t want to have a confrontation with this cow. But as I was trying to arrange the revolving door all of the villagers turned up. They had heard somehow that the old lady had been here and they wanted to come in to talk to her. But of course she wasn’t here, and I was wondering how I could tell them without arousing their anger or suspicions because I could see that although they looked reasonably good-natured, the wrong kind of word in the wrong kind of place could really upset them and we could have an “incident” here. It was all starting to become rather worrying.

The bus was due to leave at 02:41 so I had reckoned on it being here round about 03:15, so no-one was more surprised than me to find it outside the hotel when I hit the foyer at 02:15. Any chance of picking up some food at the all-night bar at the side of the pool promptly evaporated.

We were crammed like sardines into the bus – not a spare seat anywhere – and it took a mere 40 minutes to reach the airport on the way back. We must have come to the hotel via the scenic route.

Just by way of a change, I was one of the first to check in and was thus rewarded with an aisle seat. And passing security was something else. Bells and buzzers going off like nobody’s business but no-one seemed to care at all. That’s what I call a “progressive” attitude.

Take-off was timed for 06:15 but by that time we were probably already 500 feet off the ground. The plane was up there with us too and I for one am not at all used to this idea of people being early – especially in countries that are much more laid-back and in which time is of lesser importance than elsewhere.

We were in another elderly Airbus A320 that had Spanish signs plastered all over it, presumably from a previous employment, and which could have done with a really good clean, especially in the bathroom, of which only two out of three were working.

I had another seat up at the front against the aisle which was just as well because these Nouvelair jets are all rather like sardine tins and we are crammed in tightly. But then, as I have said before, it’s not as if we are going across the Atlantic on it, and the lack of comfort is adequately reflected in the lack of price.

We were served a breakfast – of an omelette and there was once more no vegan option despite my having requested one. But that’s not new, is it? What is new though is that I had missed my opportunity to stock up on stuff from the all-night restaurant.

At Brussels Airport I was first off the aeroplane, and by a long way too. And first at the baggage carousel too. Even more surprisingly I was down in the bowels of the station just as a train to the city was about to leave, so I hopped aboard.

But it was all to no avail because it pulled into Bruxelles-Midi at 11:15, just two minutes after the TGV that I usually catch had pulled out. And there was a wait of an hour and a half for the next one. I must say that I hadn’t expected to be on the 11:13 at all, but it was such a disappointment to be so near and yet so far.

At least it gave me enough time to go to the supermarket for a baguette for lunch and to pick up some of the nice raisin buns that they have. Remember that I had had no breakfast and I’d already been on the go for … errr … nine hours.

The TGV was pretty full and I seemed to have been given a seat next to the person who had all of the luggage. And he was most upset about having to move it, and even more upset when I told him where to stick it.

Not too many people these days seem to know how to use the luggage racks in the train.

You’re probably wondering what the yellow box is in the foreground of this photo.

There are several of them scattered about all over the SNCF railway stations in France. They are called composteurs and you stick your ticket in there to composter it before you board the train.

What the machine does is to insert a time and date stamp on your ticket so that you can’t claim a refund on it as “unused” at a later date. And it’s an offence to travel on the SNCF with an uncomposted ticket.

There’s always an announcement as the train is pulling out of the station to the effect that “if you have forgotten to composter your ticket, please see the conductor immediately”. He’ll growl at you and stamp it by hand, but he’ll do much more than growl at you if he catches you before you catch him.

I didn’t get much of a sleep on board the train, and that was a disappointment. I’ll probably catch up with it later but at a most inconvenient time, I suppose.

Travelling through Paris was pretty straightforward. Line 5 to the Gare de l’Est and then Line 4 down to Montparnasse. But it’s a nightmare trying to get to the ticket office in the station there but it’s even worse just now because they are carrying out renovations there and building a commercial centre.

And the queue for tickets! It took ages to work our way down it to the front – and to find that the next train is the 16:43. There was an earlier way to get to Granville, going on the TGV to Rennes and then on the train to Caen but leaving at some tiny wayside station and catching the bus. But that’s like going in a big letter “Z” and costs a fortune, not to mention all of the effort.

So I went down to the platform for my train and made my butties instead, fighting off the pigeons.

The train that we should have caught is the “return” from Argentan but that was running 50 minutes late so they prepared an idle multiple-unit standing in a vacant platform. Even so, we were still 20 minutes late leaving. And as it was a 6-car unit instead of a 12-car unit we were crammed in there like sardines too.

As the train emptied out I finally managed to doze off. But not for long though – only about 10 minutes I reckon.

I can see that I shall be paying for all of my efforts in due course

We arrived back at Granville bang on time – the driver must have done well to catch up the missing 20 minutes along the way. But it was a long, sad, weary way back home dragging my suitcase behind me up the hill and with the pain in my legs.

It’s good to be back home, as Barry Hay once famously sang, but I would much rather be in Tunisia. It took me a couple of hours to sort myself out and then I made some tea out of a tin.

But what an effort? What a surprise? Who would have ever thought that I would have made it to the desert?

They say that the best things come as a complete surprise and this is certainly true.

I’m now off to bed. With no alarm call either. Just watch me wke up at 05:00 tomorrow morning.

Friday 13th April 2018 – MY LANDLORD …

… back at the place d’Armes is going to die of shock when he sees how much the kitchen that I want is going to cost him.

Yes, I went to IKEA this morning to have a good nosey around. And it’s only the second-ever occasion – I think – that I’ve been to an IKEA and come away empty-handed. But that was more down to the logistics question of carrying away the stuff than a lack of willingness or of money.

On my travels last night I was dealing with giant worm, or snakes or something. Or, rather, I wasn’t – someone else was. it was all happening at a small rural railway station and this snake in the grass was upsetting people so my reckoning was that the easiest way to tackle it was to send in Terry on The Beast of Beaugut, his ride-on lawnmower, to mow the grass and if possible shred the snake. But it proved much more difficult in practice because for one reason or another the snake was refusing to co-operate.

Having had breakfast and the usual morning rituals I walked up to the bus station and leapt aboard the 358 that took me all the way to IKEA. and eventually managing to buttonhole a salesman. We sat down, had a discussion, drew up a few plans and costed it all out, and it came to … errr … a couple of coppers short of €2,000.

But that’s including a fridge, an oven and one of these two-burner ceramic hobs.

It’s not the cheapest range that they had (you really don’t want to buy that) but it’s next to it. The only concession to what I might call luxury is that there’s a brown oak-coloured work surface rather than the horrible cheap and nasty white one.

But whether he will pay for that is another story, isn’t it?

There was a massive crowd at the restaurant for lunch and it took me hours to be served. And then I wandered off for the bus, horribly late (both me, and the bus).

With not knowing the route of the bus into Brussels I ended up going round the houses and had to take a metro to the Bank.

But here we came up once more against the staggering incompetence of the bankers that I have. And it’s not like the BNP Paribas to behave like a load of bankers but even they seem to be managing it now.

They hadn’t ordered the replacement card for me like they promised (twice now) and having had the issues with various forms of proofs of address, they didn’t like the electricity bill either. They reckon that there’s some complication from their point of view about me living in France with a British passport, but I’ve been doing it now for 11 years so it totally bewilders me.

I was so taken aback by all of this that I forgot to mention the two other things that I wanted to do.

Afterwards, I went for a good wander around the city centre. I had planned to finally make it to the railway museum at Schaerbeek but once more with having had all of this messing about I ran out of time.

There was a football match this evening in Tubize – a bottom-of-the-table relegation dogfight between AFC Tubize and Union St Gilles. And for once, the trains were running kindly for me.

At Tubize, having grabbed some cash, I grabbed a bag of fritjes from the fritkot opposite the station and wandered down to the ground where I picked up a ticket.

And here we had a complication that I had not foreseen – they wouldn’t let me in with my backpack. But after a good deal of negotiation and discussion a friendly, helpful (in Belgium???) security guard offered to guard it for me at the gate and with no other option available, I accepted and in I went.

For once, at Tubize, there was adecent crowd. None of this “crowd-changes to the teams” stuff as is usual. And most of the supporters seemed to be from Union St Gilles too, for if they win they are saved from relegation and Tubize go down.

The match itself was dreadful. We had the first foul right at the kick-off and the first yellow card after just 29 seconds. The final score was 12 (I think – I lost count) yellow cards and one red and I do have to say that I didn’t disagree with any of them.

But the game was woeful. Tubize were inept and despite having many good chances they couldn’t hit the nether regions of a ruminant animal with a stringed musical instrument. Only one player, Jae-Gun Lee about whom I have commented before, looked to be of some good use, so of course they withdrew him after about 70 minutes.

And Union St Gilles were even worse. They had a couple of players whom I wouldn’t like to meet down a dark alley late at night, one of whom was the centre-forward – a big bustling, burly type. He looked quite useful as a battering ram but his team never had possession up front long enough to give him the ball. They managed just one shot on target all night – and scored!

Right at the death, Tubize won a penalty – and as is their usual form at moments like this, the St Gilles keeper saved it. Last kick of the game of course, and the jubilation from the players, officials and supporters as the ref blew for time told its own story.

It was a slow stopping train back to Leuven, packed as far as Brussels with St Gilles fans. But I eventually made it back here by about 00:45 and that’s my lot for now.

See you in the morning.

Wednesday 11th Aoril 2018 – SO HERE I AM ONCE MORE …

… not in the playground of my broken dreams but in a little studio in the Dekenstraat in Leuven. Didn’t that four weeks go quickly?

But at least my body clock seems to be working okay still. Despite a night that was … errr … somewhat later than I intended, I was wide-awake at 05:40 and waiting for the alarm;

Despite not having breakfast and not having a shower, I still didn’t have time to do everything that I wanted to doso the floor will have to remain unwashed until I return. But I emptied the rubbish, bleached everything that needed bleaching, cut my fingernails and changed the bedding so that I’ll have nice clean comfortable bedding when I return.

Yes, I lead such an exciting life, don’t I? At least I remembered yesterday to turn off the electricity for the heating and the hot water, even if I did forget to unplug the machinery in the kitchen. And I also forgot the opened jar of jam that I was planning to bring with me.

For some reason or other the walk to the station didn’t take as long as it usually does and I was there in less than 20 minutes. Plenty of time for a coffee and a relax as despite what happened four weeks ago, the train wasn’t in the station.

When it did come in, it was a six-carriage train instead of the usual 12-carriage train, and the seats were not reserved. We could sit anywhere we liked. I chose a seat right at the front – less distance to walk at my destination. As we know, time is pretty important when on the Traversée de Paris without Bourvil to carry your suitcase.

We were late arriving at Paris Vaugirard due to track repairs and the subsequent congestion but there was no queue at the Metro ticket window so I was through there very quickly. And even better-I convinced them to sell me a carnet of 10 tickets which means that I don’t have to queue at all for the next few weeks. And a carnet comes at a substantial discount.

The metro was reasonably painless -line 4 to the Gare de l’Est and then line 5 to the Gare du Nord and that’ll be the route for the next while until the repairs to the Gare du Nord station on line 4 are completed. It’s all getting to be quite complicated.

For the first time so far this year I was able to sit outside and eat my butties. How long this weather will last, though is anyone’s guess. We’ll be back in the snow before long.

The TGV was packed yet again but I had a good spec. And much to my disappointment we arrived 10 minutes late in Brussels.

That meant that I had missed the train that I like and had to catch the older less-comfortable one instead.

And at the place here I had to wait around for the office guy to come with the keys.

So now having been shopping at Delhaize and had my tea, I really am going for an early night. I’ve been fighting off the sleep all day and I’m about done.

I’ll be up early tomorrow though. A shower and a clothes wash and then the hospital.

Tuesday 10th April 2018 – AND SO I WENT OUT …

… this afternoon into town, as I mentioned that I would.

And with the weather being so appalling (no surprise there) I was dressed up like Nanook of the North.

What then happened was completely predictable. The clouds dramatically raced away, we had a bright blue sky with this strange round, golden object in the sky and I melted. First time this year. I was so hot it was unbelievable.

But as I returned, the weather just as dramatically closed in again and we had a pile of rain. I tell you – this is really getting on my wick now. It’s beyond a joke.

Another night of not very much sleep, and I was on my travels yet again. I was driving down the hill (at the Clermont-Ferrand side) into St Eloy-les-Mines of all places in a car that was comparatively modern, and was joined by a pale blue early MkII Consul (the type with the small rear lights) in a rather tatty condition, and an ancient F-series Vauxhall Victor. Our descent took us into the suburbs of London (like you do) and the local MoT station where the three vehicles were examined. On enquiring of the tester, I was told that “they’ve all passed OK” – which totally surprised me. As he handed me the documents I asked him if there were any advisories. “No, none at all. They are all good” – and that I found even more surprising. But who am I to argue with an MoT examiner when he has just passed all of my cars?

We had breakfast and the usual relax afterwards and then SHOCK! HORROR! I vacuumed the floor of the apartment and cleaned the kitchen cupboard. Not that you’d notice, of course, but I do and that’s what’s important.

For lunch I finished off the soup with some more bits of baguette from the freezer and then headed into town.

My wanderings took me to the harbour to see what the crane was doing, but there was nothing particularly evident as to why it should still be there. And there was no-one around to ask either which was surprising.

I went round to the boulangerie where the good baguettes are sold and picked up one of the baguettes that keep for a couple of days. That’s for my butties on the road tomorrow of course. I’m heading back to Leuven aren’t I?

The post Office was next, to post a letter to the Tax Office and then round to the estate agent’s to pay them this famous €0:34 before I go away.

And here I tackled head-on a subject close to my heart. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that the kitchen here is rubbish and I want to do something about improving it. So I asked the estate agents if the owner would consider making an investment into his property by making a contribution to the cost.

My demand wasn’t dismissed out of hand, which is one good thing. I need to make a report and to draw up a little plan about what I would like to do. This involves a trip to IKEA to price out a few things and I may well do that on Friday if I can – the one at Zaventam. I’m sure that there must be a bus from Leuven that goes that way. I shall have to make enquiries. I shall have to measure the kitchen area before I go out tomorrow.

This afternoon I was planning to wash the floor and then go for a walk while it dried but shame as it is to say it, I was stark out on the sofa. And you have no idea just how much this is depressing me.

Tea was a frozen curry out of the freezer and then I had my evening walk around the headland. Ready for bed now and I need a good sleep because I’m on the road tomorrow.

I wonder what Thursday at the hospital will bring for me.

EPIC HALL

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