Tag Archives: place d’armes

Sunday 25th March 2018 – EVEN THOUGH IT’S SUNDAY …

… I was wide-awake at 06:45. And that’s 05:45 in real money too because the clocks went forward today.

That is – if you live in the real world. For those people who voted for Brexit the clocks went back 100 years – but that’s another story of course.

And I was feeling a little better this morning – mind you, it was a 10-hour sleep that I had just had so it ought to have done me some good.

But not so good that it was a steady walk to the bathroom. I think that I clutched at just about everything on my way there, and on the way back too.

Despite all of that though, Id had a very interesting night’s journey. On eof my friends from school put in an appearance to discuss his latest claim to fame and we ended up outside in a yard full of old timber and so on, doing some kind of open-air camp fire stuff. But over away in a corner was a girl from our year at school, a girl who I don’t think I exchanged even half a dozen words with during the whole 7 years that we were there. How come she had suddenly put in an appearance? I felt that I ought to go over and say something to her seeing as I was the host, I supposed, of what was happening, but I couldn’t think of any kind of introduction after all these years.

The morning, was, as you might have expected, very “quiet”. In fact I didn’t do anything at all. But round about 14:00 I felt that I ought to try some food so I made some soup and had that with some bread. We’ve been here before, haven’t we?

There was football on the internet this afternoon – TNS v probably the worst Cefn Druids football team that I have ever seen. 5-1, the score ended up, with New Zealand international striker Greg Draper scoring 4 and he should have had 14. Perhaps it might have been a different result had Cefn Druids’ playmaker Alec Mudimu not been away with Zimbabwe on international duty against Zambia, but one swallow doesn’t make a summer as we all know.

That’s about it really. I’m going to have another good sleep and if I feel better I’ll have some breakfast and a shower tomorrow. I certainly need it after this weekend.

Saturday 24th March 2018 – YOU DON’T WANT …

… to know about last night and this morning. I mean – you’re probably still eating your tea or something. But for those of you who are aware of the vernacular, we had another “Verdun” session through the night.

No sense in sending out for help though because it didn’t do me much good last time – just a case of riding it out and once I’d calmed myself down again I managed to go off to sleep – and slept until midday. Good job that I had remembered to switch off the alarm.

But I had been on my travels though. Dealing with all of the punk rock bands from the mid-late 70s that had female singers or musicians.

Anyway, I crawled (and I did, too!) into here and onto the sofa dragging the quilt and the pillow behind me, and here I stayed all day. Apart from the odd (and they were very odd) trip down the corridor. No food or anything like that, but then again, what doesn’t go in cant come out, can it?

Friday 23rd March 2018 – OHHH NOOO!

But ohhh yes!

I’m afraid that Im sickening for something again.

Despite it being fairly warm outside and despite having the heating on in here, I’m freezing!

And not only that – I’m off my food and that’s always a bad sign isn’t it? Tonight’s tea went in the bin

Even though it’s only 20:11, I’m going to bed, having eschewed my evening walk. I hope that I’ll be warmer in there and I’ll tell you all about it in the morning. But I’ll elave you with last night’s nocturnal ramble, seeing as I’d already written it, and I’ll see you in the morning.

Last night I was out and about on my travels during which I encountered a dance troupe. But, surprisingly – for me, anyway – it was n’t the dancers who caught my eye but the absolutely beautiful green and cream Plaxton Supreme IV that they arrived in. But being more interested in a coach than a troupe of dancing girls? I’m definitely getting old.

Thursday 22nd March 2018 – IT WAS BUSY …

… down in the harbour this morning.

First of all, we had the Normandy Trader in. She’s on one of her shuttle trips between Jersey and Normandy bringing in a load of scrap, and I couldn’t see what she was taking away.

That was because by the time that I had got down there, she had loaded up and gone out. She didn’t hang about at all.

The reason for my delay was that another bit of movement in the harbour had caught my eye.

La Grande Ancre was just setting out on the tide – presumably heading towards the Iles de Chausey (she was back a short while later).

So despite her being registered in Cherbourg, it looks as if she’s now a permanent fixture here in Granville, and I’m all in favour of that as you know.

Also in the harbour today is a piece of history.

She’s the Lys Noir – the “Black Lily” and was built in 1914 in Arcachon as a pleasure yacht for a German prince. But on the outbreak of World War I she was confiscated by the French authorities as a prize of war and subsequently sold into private hands.

She was rebuilt here in Granville in the 1980s and now belongs to an Association to which she has given her name.

In front of it is the ferry that goes to the Channel Islands – presumably being prepared for the season.

But my attention was caught by the name that has been painted out underneath. She is in fact the famous former “Bornholm Express”.

She was built in Singapore in 2006 and came to Denmark on the deck of a cargo ship. Her task was to operate a fast ferry service between Sweden and the island of Bornholm. But the ferry service was unsuccessful and closed down.

And this is where she has ended up – arriving in 2014.

So apart from that, last night was a better night’s sleep and I was off on my travels.

I was in fact at a football match – Altrincham v Morton. But at the ground the end where I usually stand was full of yellow-shirted Southport supporters. However, walking into the ground (there was no-one on the gate) I was just in time to see Morton’s second goal – and we hadn’t played 15 minutes yet. A beautiful shot from a narrow angle on the right wing across the keeper. I headed to an open spot on the far side and found myself in a group of about 50 Morton supporters who were clearly delighted by the result. I started to chat to a young girl there, with half an eye on the game, but a group of very tall men came and stood right in front of us. Despite me asking, they weren’t inclined to leave so we went down to the front – a wooden wicker fence to keep the crowds off the pitch, but there out view was obstructed by a concrete wall which was actually the support of a motorway flyover

We had the usual morning performance, and then the shower, shave and general tidy-up, and then it was shopping time.

And remember the roadworks by LIDL? There was a workman loitering in the vicinity so I went over to quiz him, but he saw me coming and walked away.

Did I mention that there’s a new line of product on sale at LIDL? I can’t remember.

But we have kangaroo meat now on offer, and I bet that you are hopping mad about that.

As for me, I didn’t buy anything out of the ordinary as such but they did have some of the Swedish vegan oatmeal biscuits on offer – the second box half-price – so two large boxes came home with me. And delicious they are too.

On the way back I stopped at the building site that we saw last week, to see what was going on.

They are still clearing the site at the moment, but I did notice that they have put some retaining supports in between the two houses on either side.

The are obviously worried about movement while there’s nothing in between them holding them up.

They say that Auvergnats have a reputation of being près de leurs sous, as they say around here. But Auvergnats have nothing on a Normandy Solicitor.

Solicitors in FRance are allowed to act as Estate Agents and their price calculation is worked out on the basis of the asking price for the client, plus 6% to cover the expenses of the transaction.

So have a close look at the price of this property for sale in a solicitor’s office.

While I was on the docks just now, another thing that regular readers of this rubbish might recall is the piles of shipping containers that arrived for the people rebuilding the harbour gates.

You can se what they have done with them – made two walls and put a roof of sorts over the top.

And I can’t say that I blame them either what with this weather that we have been having.

After lunch I had a few things to do, and then I went off for my afternoon walk.

And I was right yesterday about “Spring is Sprung”.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall me mentioning the topiary guy the other weeK. He’s been back and cut the bushes and this gave me an opportunity to inspect them.

And sure enough – the first buds of 2018 are out already, although you might not believe it given the weather that we have just been having.

There are also hundreds (and I am not joking either) of Primary School kids wandering around Granville at the moment in the company of dozens of adults. Being a firm believer in “if you want to know the answer, you have to ask the question” and so having buttonholed a teacher I was told that it’s “Classe de Découvert” – discovery class, and the kids (at least, those to whom i was talking) had come from Nancy for the week.

But when was the last time that you heard of British kids being sent halfway across the country for a week for a Discovery Class?

Tea was stuffed peppers and spicy rice again, and then my evening walk.

And now I’m off to bed – see where I end up tonight, hey?

Wednesday 21st March 2018 – SPRING IS SPRUNG

The grass is riz
I wonder where de boidies is
De boid is on de wing
But dat’s absoid
I taut de wing was on de boid!

In fact it was such a nice morning this morning that I went for a walk.

Mind you, I had had something of a walk during the night. I was in one of my 3D worlds as a character and it was all totally weird and surreal. So much so that I was rather disappointed when the alarm went off.

Dawn was breaking as I stuck my head over the parapet – the nights are getting shorter. We’ll be putting the clocks forward soon if I remember correctly.

And after the usual morning performance and with it looking so nice, I put the bread that should have been today’s back in the freezer and went out for a baguette.

And instead of going straight down the hill into town I went the very long way round, out past the headland and down the footpath.

We’ve seen lots of evidence of World War II fortifications around here but the area was heavily fortified in the days of Napoleon and there are plenty of remains of 19th Century defences.

I’m not quite sure what this might have been but it’s certainly something to do with it all.

And the footpath that we are on is presumably the old road before the new one just above was built. I need to find out so much more about local history.

That wasn’t the only excitement either.

The passenger ferry to the Iles de Chausey still runs in the winter for the inhabitants, and as I went round the bend there she was, the Joly France, just setting off.

I can’t understand why it goes out to the islands in the morning and comes back in the evening. For the benefit of the islanders it ought to be the other way round.

And if you want to know the definition of bone-idleness and couldn’t care less (or je m’en foutisme as they say around here) I went as I said I would round to the Marité to see what was the programme for the season.

“It’s all on the website. Look there” said the guy in charge. No wonder there’s a recession on when people come armed with a pile of folding stuff and they are told effectively to clear off.

So armed with a baguette from the boulangerie I came back from my walk and made myself a coffee I had earned it.

After lunch, with the home-made mayonnaise that seems now to have emulsified, I did a few things such as worked on a few photos and a session on the guitar where I seem finally to have mastered the Paul Rudolph/Adrian Shaw composite bass line to “Damnation Alley” from the album Quark, Strangeness and Charm.

Back out this afternoon for my usual walk. I have to keep up the pressure and anyway, as I said, it was a glorious day.

There was a nice view along the cliff past the walled town out to Donville les Bains and another one of the many miserable ruins that I visited while looking for a place to live.

Sunlight was just a little bright though – bright enough to bring out the hordes of walkers who don’t have anything better to do than get in my way.

Round at the quayside the big crane that we saw yesterday has now gone. And I couldn’t see what it had done.

But the digger was back digging away at the foot of the wall at the harbour entrance where the new gate is going to be. It’s supposed to be installed by now but they aren’t half taking their time about it.

They need to hurry up and get some ships in

Tea was more vegetables, vegan cheese sauce and vegan sausages, followed by rice pudding. And delicious it all was too. It’s certainly working well. And then we had the evening walk where my mate the black cat was waiting for his evening stroke.

But here’s a thing. My evening route takes about 27% of my day’s activity, so leaving here at 77% I expected it to be at 104% when I returned. But no it wasn’t – it was on 96%. So I don’t know what is happening here. I had to go for another lap around the block.

But next time that I’m out with someone so equipped, we’ll synchronise our fitbits and see what’s happening.

Tuesday 20th March 2018 – THERE’S SOMETHING TO BE SAID …

… for sitting on one’s sofa watching the football on the big screen.

Admittedly it’s only on the internet and the internet connection isn’t as fast as it has been in the past, but buying a decent-sized television and patching the laptop through it is definitely one of my better decisions.

And not only that – regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I have a top-of-the-range DVD player with hard drive and recording facility which I resurrected after 7 or 8 years in a box, and the remote control is dead.

Today, doing nothing much in particular I actually found a new generic one on the internet. It seems that my DVD player is still top-of-the-range and still being made after all these years. And so a new remote control is on the way here (at least, it ought to be).

Who knows – I might even be even more comfortable pretty soon.

Last night was a slightly better night. Still not perfect but good enough. and after the usual morning performance I even had a shower, a shave and a change of clothes.

That was the cue to hit the streets for the shopping.

And a slight amount of excitement up near LIDL. For the last few weeks I’ve noticed piles of hieroglyphics on the road and on the pavement. But today, the street was closed off on one side and they were digging up the area.

I wonder if this is some more of the fibre-optic work. They seem to have moved on from round where I live.

But really I should have gone yesterday to LIDL. It was baking day and they had tons of stuff on offer, most of which had gone. However I did buy a baking sheet and … SHOCK! HORROR! … a cake box that might even fit my next Christmas cake -if there is one;

It was a pleasant walk back here.

And I can tell you that it must be Spring some time soon. The sailing school seems to have started up again and they were out and about in the briny.

I have been meaning to go to see them about a navigation course, but of course I have other preoccupations just now.

But what makes the walk back even more pleasant are the things that you encounter along the way.

Desperately trying to negotiate the roundabout down at the port was a huge yellow mobile crane – a massive thing complete with rear-steering. And that’s the thing over there, fully extended.

It looks as if we are having some serious action on the harbour gates. It’s round about now that they are supposed to be installed.

As for the cooking session, the vegan mayonnaise was rather a disappointment. It was far too liquid and I don’t know what to do about that. But it tastes delicious and I’ll do some more of this regardless. Maybe a little less mustard.

But the hummus – that came out absolutely perfectly and I’m very impressed with that – almost as much as I am with my galvanised steel dustbin. There are two tubs of that in the freezer now for when I finish this packet of vegan cheese.

But it all goes to show that this mixing kit that I bought a few weeks ago was another excellent buy too.

The weather deteriorated for my afternoon walk and I finished in the rain which was disappointing. But it had cleared up by the time that I went out for my evening walk – a quick nip out at half-time.

Tea was a stuffed pepper with rice – cooked in the oven because with having nothing for pudding I made a rice pudding. It’s been a long time sonce I’ve had a proper one cooked in the oven and it was well-worth the effort. It was delicious.

Now that the football is over I can catch up with a couple of things and have an early night. I need it.

Monday 19th March 2018 – ONE SWIFT GLANCE …

… out of the window told me all that I needed to know this morning – and another glance at the thermometer confirmed it.

It was snowing slightly outside and the temperature was 0.5°C. Another swift glance in the fridge told me that I wasn’t going to starve to death and so I put my planned shopping trip … errr … on ice.

And quite right too because I wasn’t feeling much like it either. I’d had a bad night again – although not as bad as the previous – and wasn’t in the mood for a Great Trek today. And I didn’t fancy a shower in the Arctic conditions.

As a result I did some more 3D stuff – for yet another site that I have found – and then attacked the mountain of photographs that has been building up. I’ve been revising these pages working backwards and added some of the missing photographs, and I’ll be going farther and farther back as time, energy and inclination permits.

Lunch was the last of the lettuce and I’ve run out of salad dressing too. But somewhere about it a recipe for vegan mayonnaise and I know that I have everything to make it, so tomorrow morning might be a kitchen day. High time that I did some of this haute cuisine.

The walk this afternoon was absolutely taters. Never mind the First Day of Spring just around the corner, it’s like Christina Rosetti and “In The Bleak Midwinter” outside. And surprisingly, there were several other people suffering in silence as we trudged round.

The bass guitar came out this afternoon but I couldn’t remember the numbers that I’d been rehearsing. How sad is that? It reminds me of that Irish folk group whom I saw a while ago – “we only know two numbers. One of them is ‘Dirty Old Town’ and the other one isn’t”.

Tea was mixed vegetables in the new steamer and vegan sausage, with cheese sauce. And delicious it was too, although there was no pudding. I had to make do with biscuits.

I was the only one out for a walk this evening, although I wasn’t alone as I took the old Nikon with me.

And the quality isn’t very good in the dark, and so I’m suspecting a lens issue. I had a look on the internet to see if I could find a cheap lens to practise with but there’s nothing suitable at a price that I can reasonably afford.

The only thing that’s within my budget is the same lens that I have back on the farm, and it’s pretty pointless to buy another one of those.

And I was even less alone than that too, for my mate the long-haired black cat was there and let me give him a good stroke or two for about 10 minutes. And I would probably still be there now had that dog not come down the street, because he disappeared to safety as soon as he smelt it – which was a long time before I could see it.

So what will tonight be like? Better, I hope. I could do with a really good sleep in my own comfy bed.

Sunday 18th March 2018 – US GRANVILLE’S 2ND XI …

… beat AS Brécey 3-0 this afternoon in a league match at the Cité des Sports, the football pitch of which is photographed with the camera on the new phone.

And isn’t that an improvement on the cheap Chinese one?

And a casual observer watching the match will wonder why I’m not saying that the score was 13-0, and that’s because Brécey were, quite frankly, awful.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen such a one-sided match and had US Granville played with a couple of forwards who knew where the goal was, we could have had a cricket score. The Brécey goal was under continual siege with shots going everywhere except into the net.

Granville could even afford the luxury of taking off Marius, their star central defender after an hour because he was totally wasted out there.

There’s no point in risking him with an injury to rule him out of a more important match.

In fact we had to wait until the 89th minute for the Granville keeper to make a serious save from a Brecey (playing in red and black) player. Up to that point, he had been as much a spectator as we were.

Last night was another bad night for me, despite all of my efforts. At one point, I noticed that it was 04:26 and I was still awake. But 10:01 is a much more reasonable time to leave my stinking pit, that’s for sure.

It took me a while though to come round, and an 11:00 breakfast on a Sunday is always welcome.

The plan today was to go into town to the shops and the brocante, but with the news about Granville’s football match I put everything on hold.

With having had a late breakfast I didn’t need lunch, but I took some biscuits and a banana along with the thermos flask (and of course the building was open, wasn’t it?) to keep me going.

It had been snowing out at Roncey but here it was a nice sunny afternoon, with a little wind and not too cold. A quite enjoyable day in fact.

And the walk back was excellent too, and I retook all of the photos from last weekend.

You can enjoy this photo of St Pair sur Mer and Kairon-Plage away there in the distance, taken with the Nikon DSLR and the telephoto lens. You’ll notice the haze, and also the crowd of people enjoying the late afternoon sunshine.

I’ll put them up in early course – I have tons of photos that need attention right now and for some reason that I don’t understand, I don’t seem to have very much time.

But you’ll have observed that there’s not much wrong with this image here. If there is a fault anywhere with this camera (which is why I stopped using it), it seems to be with the standard lens

But the clouds were closing in the closer to home that I came, as you might have gathered from the previous photo, so I didn’t hang about on the way home.

But long enough to notice La Grande Ancre come sailing … "dieseling" – ed … into harbour. And this good photo is taken with the old Nikon again but this time with the standard lens.

And so there’s not much wrong with this, so there’s definitely something strange going on somewhere. If only the new Nikon could do stuff like this.

As for the pizza – the best one that I’ve ever made. It was totally perfect. And as for my remark about the weather closing in, when I went out for my late evening walk it was raining. I was right there.

So an early night is called for. Supplies are low so this means a shopping trip. Just you watch it pour down.

Saturday 17th March 2018 – I’M BACK!

And so is Marité.

As I wearily trudged (and it was a weary trudge) up the hill to here I saw her moored at her usual anchorage. She’s been away for the winter and now that Spring is just around the corner she’s come back to resume operations.

And I for one will be checking out just what these operations are.

But “Spring is just around the corner” did I say? You wouldn’t think so because it was snowing outside this morning in Leuven when I went for my baguette and how about that for this time of the year?

Not what I would call a major snowstorm, but snow nevertheless. The thermometer on my new mobile phone showed “-1°C, feels like -7°C” and I wasn’t going to argue with that after even two minutes outside at the boulangerie – or maybe I ought so say bakker just around the corner.

Just for a change, I slept the Sleep of the Dead last night. And with having had an early night too, I felt so much better this morning.

And the new phone and new alarm did their business too, although switching it off it something of a performance.

I’d been on my travels too, loitering near the edge of the kerb as Terry turned up to pick me up. In an old FX4 and having trouble trying to make the handbrake engage. Liz shouted across that he had the sandwiches down by his side, bit all I could see was something that looked like a cardboard box all wrapped up in newspaper.

We had the usual performance this morning but I drew the line at having a shower. For some reason that I haven’t remembered, I closed the door to the bathroom last night so it was absolutely taters in there. And that was hardly a surprise given the weather.

So armed with a baguette I made my butties for the road and then having tidied up the place a little, hit the streets for the station.

They weren’t wrong about the temperature either. I was frozen to the marrow by the time that I arrived.And with the ticket machine in the basement I had to retrace my steps to the booking office.

On the platform waiting for the train we were entertained by a photographer across the tracks who was organising a photo shoot with a little girl aged about 6, dressed in clothing that was completely unsuitable for the Arctic conditions.

The poor kid looked as if she was freezing to death over there and I can’t say that I was surprised.

I didn’t have to wait too long though. There was an Intercity train for Blankenberge due in, which was handy, and so I hopped aboard. And it was heaving too.

It looked as if everyone in Belgium was heading off for a day at the seaside regardless of the weather. I ws crammed in rather uncomfortably next to three people who were watching videos on their phones at full volume, and that didn’t half get on my wick.

But it was only for half an hour or so, which was just as well. I wouldn’t have put up with that for a three-hour journey.

No excitement at the Gare du Midi today either. No-one arrested and no train derailed either. In fact nothing to laugh at at all.

And crowded too. You couldn’t even have got a cat on board the TGV, never mind swung one around. It’s getting to be more and more popular this as summer approaches – not that you would ever recognise summer in this weather of couree.

I spent most of the journey with my ears closed to keep out the noisy brats and – shame as it is to day it these days – with my eyes closed too.

I know. I’m in a bad way.

We were minutes late arriving in the Gare du Nord and that’s crucial. I’m tight for time and even more so now that the line metro station is closed here. The deviation that I took on the way out took me about minutes, and that’s all the time that I had available so I took an executive decision (that’s a decision where, if it goes wrong, the person who made it is executed).

I took the line 5 as far as the Gare de l’Est nd then leapt on the line 4 train there and braved the long walk. It ended up being quicker than via the Porte d’Italie which wa good news and I reached my platform with 10 minutes to spare, totally out of breath.

In the freezing cold we rattled off to Granville, with me yet again sleeping most of the way.

And it was a long weary journey where we crawled at snail’s pace on the stretch between Argentan and Briouze. I was pretty much fed up by the time that we arrive back in Granville.

My OAP railcard expires in April so I took the opportunity to renew it. €50:00 for a year but you’ve no idea how much it saves me in discount. I couldn’t afford to do this trip if I had to pay full fare for it.

And then the long trudge back home into the cold, where I switched on the heating and made a coffee.

Tea was pasta and vegetables tossed in oil, garlic powder and chili. All of that followed by a walk outside. I’m on 111% of my daily activity and it feels like it too.

So tonight it’s back into my warm bed. And aren’t I looking forward to it?

Wednesday 14th March 2018 – SO HERE I AM …

… in my little studio in the Dekenstraat.

It’s smaller than the previous room, and what that means is that there is much less of it to heat and I’m all in favour of that.

And as far as I’m concerned, it’s a better room too. And considering that it’s a good few Euros cheaper, I’m more-than-satisfied with this.

I’ve been down to the Delhaize and bought some food, so tonight I had baked potatoes and a tin of Fajita beans for tea. Delicious it was too and now I’m alls et up for bed.

Talking of bed, I was bang awake this morning, right on the button at … errrr … 06:00. The old body clock seems to be doing just fine right now.

And that was something of a surprise seeing that I’d been on a rather unpleasant voyage. I was in my garden, back in Vine Tree Avenue of all places, doing some work there (not like me, is it?) and two boys came past. They started to throw coconuts up to the eaves of the house to see if they could knock down some more that were festooned across the front of the house (it all happens during the night, doesn’t it?) so I told them to clear off. They carried on doing it however and one of the coconuts fell down, missing me by about half an inch. So I told them yet again to clear off. They carried on and when yet another fell down right by me I manhandled … "PERSONhandled" – ed … them off the premises. They then started to mess about with the tyres of my car (a Ford Cortina mk III) and we ended up having something of what the French call a bagarre. I went to phone for the Police but they told me that I was wasting my time. There was one of me and two of them, I couldn’t prove anything and they would say that I attacked them in an unprovoked fashion.

So almost (but not quite – I wasn’t in THAT much of a hurry) beating the first alarm I set about making my sandwiches, preparing my … errr … samples (and I still can’t make this vacuum pump thing work no matter what I try) and SHOCK HORROR doing some cleaning up. That’s not something that happens every day, is it?

The rubbish went out to the bin outside and there was even some time left over to do a little work on the laptop.

On my way up the hill to the station I made an unexpected encounter of some very expansive woman who told me that she had booked to go to Tunisia and that her friend had let her down and would I like to go with her. And all the time I was thinking to myself “are they open already?

Even more of a surprise – although I arrived 25 minutes before the train was due to leave, it was actually waiting in the station and so grabbing a quick coffee, I grabbed my place on board and in the warmth.

And here I breakfasted on the coffee and the biscuits that I had brought with me from home (due to certain inconveniences, I don’t have my medication and breakfast at home when I’m setting out early on my travels).

And it was round about here that I realised that I had forgotten my headphones. I’ll have to use these earpieces and I hate those.

But at Avranches I perked up a little. Glancing out of my window I saw a “shed”, or “Wisconsin”, or “Red Death”, whichever nickname you prefer.

The notorious unreliability of British-built diesel locomotives caused the British railway operators to look elsewhere for their motive power and the “English, Welsh and Scottish” railfreight company went across the Atlantic to General Motors who supplied the EMD Class 66.

They proved to be so reliable in operation that more and more were brought over, leading to the scrapping to much of the native fleet. And as rail freight in the UK declined, some were sold abroad and regular readers of this rubbish will recall a few years ago that we saw one, still in its EWS livery, pulling a freight train in France.

They were so successful over here too that the SNCF ordered some for itself. these are called “Type 77” and they differ from the UK ones in that, inter alia, they are equipped with air conditioning, a microwave and fridge, and a comfortable (!) seat.

But don’t ask me if this a British import or a “77” because I can’t tell from here.

We were late leaving Granville but we arrived at Paris Montparnasse Vaugirard on time. And now I had to negotiate my way to Paris Gare du Nord via a new route, with the metro station on Route 4 being closed.

The new “revised” journey on the metro via the Porte d’Italie is rather longer – it takes about 50 minutes to go round instead of 42 or 43 minutes and I hope that that isn’t going to be crucial for the return journey. It is rather tight for time on the way back.

And there seems to be a change to SNCF policy too. We noticed the train being parked up at the platform at Granville station this morning instead of parked up in a siding and arriving with five minutes to go.

And here at Paris Gare du Nord the boarding gates were open for the TGV almost as soon as it pulled in, rather than 10 minutes prior to departure. That gave us ample time to take our seats and it was all quite comfortable.

But we had the “flying customs” patrol on the platform and true to stereotype they picked on a passenger of African descent. I would have bet the mortgage on that one, as I’m sure that you would have done too.

Despite having had a little doze on the way into Paris, that didn’t stop me from having another little doze on the way to Brussels. I’m really feeling it these days.

In Brussels, I missed the 15:52 train to Leuven due to issues with the ticket machine, so I had to wait for the one at 16:03.

That was an old-generation train with the plastic bench seats in a 3-plus-2 configuration so it wasn’t very comfortable. But it brought us here all the same, and at quite a rapid speed too so I didn’t complain too much..

And then the trudge up the road to the Condo Gardens

And so, here I am in my little room. I’ll have a good sleep, with a shower in the morning ready for my treatment. And I’m not looking forward to that.

Tuesday 13th March 2018 – SHAME AS IT IS TO ADMIT IT …

… I couldn’t even last out the morning today.

And it’s not as if I’d had a late night or anything, and it’s not as if I’d been on an enormous voyage during the night either. Just into one of the rooms on this 3D site that I mentioned just recently.

But I had the medication and the breakfast etc, and a shower, shave and even a haircut today to get ready to go. And then I sat down with a mug of coffee.

Next thing that I remember was that it was 10:30 – I’d been well and truly out for a good 90 minutes. And in the morning too. This is certainly not like me. I could understand it a little if I had been out already to the railway station, but not at all.

You’ve no idea just how much this is dismaying me.

But anyway, in the bright sunlight (because it really was nice) I headed uptown to the railway station and picked up my tickets without a hitch. Mind you, there will be a hitch coming home on Saturday because works on the line are forecast. That’s not nice.

On the way back I called at that good boulangerie to pick up a couple of those tasty baguettes. One was for lunch today but the other one is for my butties for the road tomorrow. And nice the bread is too.

After lunch I hd a few things to do on the internet and to download a couple of things onto the laptop that I take with me on my travels. And then a bit (just a little bit) of packing ready for tomorrow.

And the usual session on the bass guitar – and trying to work out the bass line from “Wind Up” off the Aqualung album by Jethro Tull – one of the albums that has to be in the top 10 of anyone’s list. Everyone immediately thinks of the title track to that album, and good as it might be, in my opinion “Locomotive Breath” and “Wind Up” have to be two of the best rock tracks of all time. And I’m determined to work out the bass lines to both of them, even if Jeffrey Hammond is a hard act to follow.

Tea tonight was the rest of the home-made stuffing with a tin of kidney beans all filled into a couple of tortilla wraps with spicy rice. And delicious they were too of course. And then we had the walk in the beautiful evening. It really was nice outside considering the time of the year.

And so an early night tonight. I have to be on my way quite early – something like 07:45 – as my train is timed for 08:34.

I am not going to enjoy this one little bit.

Monday 12th March 2018 – I WAS RIGHT …

.. last night when I said that I wouldn’t be doing all that much today. In fact, I’ve done another emulation of my namesake the mathematician.

And despite my early night last night and being completely stark out, I still had a struggle out of bed this morning.

And it’s not as if I had done much during the night either. TOTGA put in an appearance again though. Well, actually she didn’t, but one of her kittens did. A tabby and white one found its way into my car and was roaming around the floor getting in the way of the pedals. So I told the girl in the passenger seat that we would have to go round there to drop off the animal. That’s not anything that should wear anyone out now, is it?

We had medication and breakfast and then the usual morning ritual, and then as promised I attacked the photographs that I took yesterday. And if you missed them, they are now on line in yesterday’s entry.

But looking at them, I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that I’ve wasted my money with this new camera. The photos are, quite frankly, total rubbish. The standard lens that’s included in the package is just not up to the job and can’t produce a properly focused, sharp image if it were to try all night.

Consequently, on my walk this afternoon in the howling gale that we were having, I wound up the Nikon and took a couple of lenses with me. The max extension on the standard lens is the same focal length on the min extension on the zoom lens, so I took several photos of the same views with the two lenses, matching the aperture, speed and ISO, and I want to see how they turn out.

It might be possible that it’s the standard lens, and not the camera that is at issue and if so, I’ll see what I can do about finding a cheap AF-S lens to fit it. The irony of it all is that I do have a spare standard lens, and I’ve left it back at the farm, haven’t I? That’s annoying.

Another thing that has occupied some of my time is this 3D program.

You remember a few weeks ago that I had a little project on the go about some items, and then this other 3D site appeared that resells content. So I searched the Internet this morning too and found a tutorial about making clothes.

It uses Hexagon, the deep-level 3D design program that I have, but it assumes a level of knowledge that I don’t have. Something that took the narrator of this video almost three minutes took me almost three hours and I still wasn’t satisfied with what I had done.

But then Rome wasn’t built in a day and I’m certainly learning a lot as I go round, and if that’s not a positive sign of progress then nothing is.

Tea was the rest of the pepper that I hadn’t used on the pizza, stuffed with the usual mixture, and with spicy rice. And I seem to be running out of salad dressing. But I have a recipe for vegan mayonnaise and now that I have a blender, I intend to take full advantage of it.

But I cracked this evening. I turned the heating off on Friday night as I went to bed and it’s not been on all weekend. But with the wind and the clouds it’s gone quite cool again. So this evening I switched it on low again. No point in freezing to death is there?

So an early night and tomorrow I need to go and fetch my rail tickets. My train leaves before the ticket office opens and I’ve seen what happens when the automatic ticket printer fails to work. I’ve no intention of arguing with an intransigent ticket inspector so I want my tickets in my sweaty little mitt before I set out on Wednesday at … errr … 07:45.

Sunday 11th March 2018 -JUST BY WAY OF A CHANGE …

… well, for just recently anyway, I managed to remember everything – including my mug out of Caliburn – when I went off to the football this afternoon.

The plan had been to go to Donville-les-Bains to watch the US Mouettes de Donville play the Jeunesse Cenillaise, but just as I was getting myself ready, something flashed up on the internet to wit that the cup match between US Granville’s 2nd XI and US Ducey, due to be played at Ducey-les-Chéris had been switched to the artificial surface at the Cité des Sports in Granville, where we were last night.

That suits me fine because instead of going in Caliburn, I can walk there. And if I take the long route home along the seashore I’ll have done almost all of my whole day’s fitness routine. So off I went, camera, thermos, mug and telephone, and Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.

In what can only be describes as “changeable” weather, I arrived at the ground to see that game played by those men with odd-shaoed balls.

Not my cup of tea at all, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall. We were a footballing school but one of the new masters tried to make us play with the oval ball but we soon saw him.

But the experience left a rather bitter taste in our mouths for years afterwards.

And if that wasn’t enough, there was a girls’ football match going on too and had I known, I would have been out there earlier to watch because it wasn’t too bad at all.

And I even gave some coaching from the touchline, which DOES NOT account for their 3-0 defeat. They were 3-0 before I arrived and I like to think that I helped them steady the ship a little.

But then, there were only 8 of them out there playing against 11 and so it’s not really much of a surprise that they were struggling. Perhaps they need some moral support.

And if so, that rules me out. Any support that I could give a bunch of girls would hardly be moral now, would it?

As for the main match, US Ducey are one division higher than Granville’s 2nd XI but the two teams were very evenly matched. In fact, of the two goalkeepers, the Ducey goalkeeper was by far the busier.

But the attacks of either side were pretty ineffectual and a 0-0 scoreline was hardly surprising.

We didn’t have any extra time, but went straight on to penalties. Hero was the Granville goalkeeper who made two good stops for his team to run out the winners.

Highlight of the match was the miserable old man from Ducey who “took issue” with a couple of Granville supporters who were hurling abuse at a Ducey player. “Don’t you go round hurling abuse at players” he cried. “You should be able to behave yourself without hurling insults about”.

Five minutes later, he addressed some rather unparliamentary language towards the referee who was booking one of his players. And a voice nearby piped up “Who was it who just said something about not hurling abuse about?”. I wonder who that was!

But it brought my section of the crowd rolling about with laughter, and that’s all to the good.

The walk back along the coast was windy with the occasional shower, but that didn’t stop me taking some photos.

A couple of weeks ago I took a photo of St Pair sur Mer from around here, but that was cluttered up my street furniture unfortunately. Today I found a new spec from over a hedge in a field.

The photo isn’t as cluttered which makes a nice change for around here. You can see how nice the area looks and how much better it will be in ths summer.

And I discovered a new little lane that I hadn’t seen before, with some of the best views that I have yet to see of the town.

You remember back in October when you saw a photo of a house perched up on a clifftop overlooking the beach? Well, it was the lane that led to that particular house.

And it was worth the effort to get there with this beautiful view of the Pointe de la Roc.

And over there to the right of centre is the building where I live – the Place d’Armes.

There are four big stone buildings here that were formerly the military barracks, and they fell into disuse in the 1970s I believe. Since then, one of them has become the local college and a second is the Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs – accommodation for young people from the countryside who come here to study or work.

The other two are being converted into small apartments. My building is finished and that’s why I’m here now, and the fourth one won’t be long.

Over there is the church – the Eglise St Paul.

I have told you about this church on a couple of occasions. It’s one of the first large buildings in modern times (the Romans built thousands) to be built of concrete.

Many of hthe Roman concrete buildings are still standing after almost 2000 years, but this building will be a pile of dust before then. It’s closed to the public due to its deplorable, decaying condition and if that’s not a testament to Roman engineering I don’t know what is.

There is a set of steps down to the road, and then another set of steps down to the promenade.

It’s not really the day for going for a walk along the beach, but the sea is good at any time of day and in any kind of weather – in fact the stormier the better.

After all, that is why I came to live here as you all know. Somewhere by the sea in one of the windiest corners in Europe. It’s just great.

And remember the other day when I pointed out those two “O’Toole” Irish lorries on the dockside? On my way back I was almost squidged by a “Nolan’s” lorry heading for the same place.

So what’s bringing all of them around here? What I shall have to do is that next time I’m in town, I’ll see if it’s still there and then go to buttonhole the driver.

As I have said before … "and on many occasions too" – ed … if you want to know the answer to a question, you have to ask the question first.

But this morning, wide awake at 07:15. And on a Sunday too!

I’m not having this at all and so I turned over and tried to go back to sleep but that didn’t seem to work and by 07:55 there was a very disappointed me up and about prowling the kitchen.

But I’d been on my travels during the night though. To Budapest in fact (and I’ve not been there since 1994) and trying to get to the station. Wandering around aimlessly in the railway station trying to find which train goes to the airport as I have a flight from there and a time limit to keep to. For some reason I have the idea that every train goes to the airport and I don’t know why. But when I hear that a train is actually called to stop at the airport I leap aboard. There are three stops prior to the airport, which seems strange to me as they are all in different towns, and a couple of the locals – and very vocal locals at that – convince me that it’s a different airport than the one that I need and I’ll be hours sorting myself out if I stay on this train. So I disembark just as it is about to pull out, and continue my aimless ramble around the station.
Later on, I am actually at an airport (not the same one) and in the queue to have my passport checked. The people in front of me are there for hours and ll kinds of forms are being completed for them, including a dark green form with white boxes in which the entries are made. I wonder to myself if this is the ESTAS form for the USA and whether I could have mine completed on the spot like this.

We had an early breakfast and then, seeing as it’s Sunday, a good laze around. Although I did have 5 minutes on the bass guitar trying to work out a Jethro Tull number.

After lunch I hit the streets and then back here it was coffee and cake time. But SHOCK! HORROR! Mother Nature has beaten me to the last of the cake. That’s twice now, for the Christmas Cake went the same way too. I shall just have to have another birthday, won’t I?

The pizza was good again tonight and in the walk in the wind around the headland I made it to 115 % of my day’s activity. And that’s always good.

And an early night. Another easy day tomorrow and then on Tuesday I need to go for the train tickets. Just you watch me forget.

Saturday 10th March 2018 – BRAIN OF BRITAIN STRIKES AGAIN!

Halfway down the stairs on my way out for this evening’s football when I suddenly realised that I had forgotten my camera. So I had to nip back to fetch it.

I was halfway down the steps into town when I realised that I had forgotten to go to Caliburn to pick up my mug to go with the coffee that I had made in the flask, and I had to work my evil wiles on the girl in the bakery where there is a coffee machine. She would only give me some plastic beakers, not the insulated ones. But then I suppose, I was lucky that I had remembered the thermos flask.

Halfway up the steep hill, stopping to divest myself of my jacket because it was quite a warm evening, I mused that the camera wasn’t all that important because I could use the camera on the telephone to take the photos that I wanted.

And it was at this point that I realised that I had forgotten the phone too.

To rub it in, there was a handball match taking place at the Sports Centre tonight and the cafeteria was open, so I didn’t need the flask (or the beakers) either.

But then it’s always like that with me, as regular readers of this rubbish will realise.

But it was a beautiful night for football – fairly warm, not much wind and for once, it wasn’t raining. And doesn’t that make a change from these last few days?

Tonight’s opponents were FC Trois Rivieres – not from Québec but from Canisy in the outskirts of St Lô.

And if ever there were two points thrown needlessly away by a team in need of a victory it was tonight, that’s for sure.

I reckon that Granville had about 75% of the possession and they were one goal up early on in the game. It took Trois Rivieères 31 minutes (I timed it) to get into the Granville penalty area.

And when they did, they scored a goal out of nothing. One of those shots that hits a defender’s boot and could go anywhere. This particular one looped up and over the keeper’s head and although he got both hands to the ball it spun out if his grasp and into the net.

It didn’t take long for Granville to restore their lead but then we had another calamity in the Granville defence. A back-pass under pressure to the keeper who decided to pass it out to another defender instead of clearing his lines upfield or out of play for a throw-in.

Of course, the inevitable happened and the ball out was intercepted by an attacker who slotted it into the empty net.

After that, Granville ran out of steam and couldn’t make their possession count for anything.

Highlight of the match had to the the Trois Rivières manager who, having loudly cried for a yellow card to be given to the Granville n°7 a short while earlier, becoming furiously upset when the Granville manager cried for a yellow card to be given to a Trois Rivières player. You can’t make up a story like that, can you?

We had yet another Sleep of the Dead last night, and I spent much of it in a cosy little menage à deux with TOTGA. She didn’t get away last night, not ‘arf she didn’t. Unfortunately it never reached the stage that made a celebrity out of the legendary inmate of a monastery in Bohemia (mind you, nothing can do that these days) but it was certainly a night with a difference.
And later on, I was in the Houses of Parliament interrogating the Chancellor of the Exchequer, leading him a nice merry dance down a mazy little path until he has committed himself unequivocally, and then announcing that there was a mistake in his figures, he was a billion Pounds short in his calculations, and what was he going to do now – to which, having committed himself unequivocally to his position, he had no answer.

After breakfast and a shower, and a machine-load of washing, I set out for the shops. We did the usual round of LIDL, NOZ and LeClerc and I bought nothing of any excitement except in LeClerc.

Several of you will recall that I keep a bright yellow rain jacket with removable fleece lining in Caliburn. But when I went to live in Leuven it made a dramatic reappearance on the streets seeing as I hadn’t anticipated being there in the winter and so didn’t have a winer jacket.

But it’s old, dirty and as much as I might try, it won’t come up clean at all. It’s OK for being round and about doing things but not really for being anywhere important.

And in LeClerc they had a much more respectable bright yellow rain jacket. No fleece lining but there was a size XL so I can wear an ordinary fleece underneath. It was expensive for what it was, but it’ll be better for travelling about in the Spring and Summer.

Back here I had a little … errr … relax before lunch and then this afternoon with fiddling about with the new hi-fi that I bought the other week (and with which I’m even more impressed than with my galvanised steel dustbin) I could pick up the live football commentary on the BBC – although they seemed to be more interested in what was happening underneath the Directors’ Box at the Olympic Stadium than on the football pitch at St James’s Park.

In a change from the usual Saturday procedures, I had the bass guitar out too. I’ve had Liege And Lief – one of the best albums ever recorded, going round n an endless loop for the last few days, and suddenly the bass line to Crazy Man Michael, one of the best songs ever written, leapt into the front of my mind.

And so I sat down for half an hour and picked it out. And chapeau to Ashley Hutchings because it’s not easy.

Back home from the football through the deserted streets of Granville and 114% of my daily activity, I had the last of my tinned English curries. Tinned food for the next I don’t-Know-How-Long will have to be something different, like the champignons à la Grècque or the spicy beans that I can pick up in Belgium.

And here’s a thing.

A told you about how nice the weather had been today. Today is the first day in 2018 where I’ve not had the heat on in the apartment.

Friday 9th March 2018 – AND DIDN’T THAT …

… week go quickly?

And in fact, didn’t the month go quickly? I’m back in the hospital next week and as I type this I realise that I forgot to pick up my rail tickets yesterday. And so that shall mean another walk out there on Tuesday. Don’t let me forget.

But as for this morning, what can I say? I had a reasonably early night, was asleep almost straight away and the first thing that I remember after that was the alarm going off at 06:20. The second thing that I remember was the second alarm going off at 06:30. Yes. Dead to the world I was ll night.

And so I was totally surprised to find myself drifting off to sleep as it approached midday.

And even more surprised to find myself asleep round about 15:00 or so. I’m definitely struggling with all of this, aren’t I?

But apart from that, I’ve taken some of the rubbish – the plastic bottles, the glass jars and the old tetrapaks – out to the rubbish bin. But that’s my lot. Anyone would think that it’s Sunday here today, wouldn’t they?

We had the usual walks and, just for a change, the rain stopped as I set foot outside. Usually it lies in wait for me as you all know.

The afternoon walk in particular was something of a struggle seeing as I’d only just awoken.

But it was worth the long crawl out to the headland at the Pointe du Roc because we are having more of these weird atmospheric conditions that I mentioned the other day.

Over there in this photo across the bay (taken without the telephoto lens) you can see where Cancale is situated. That’s 18 miles away according to that legendary hotel booking site, and it’s as clear as day today, with the headland over there having the effect of hovering above the water.

A nice weird, eerie photograph.

Tea was a home-made vegan burger in a bap with (properly cooked) potatoes, peas and carrots, with mustard and vegan margarine. Delicious it was too. But that was the last of the home-made vegan burgers so I’ll be doing some research on the internet to see if I can find a decent recipe.

And now, it’s bed-time. Another early night and hopefully another good sleep. It’s shopping tomorrow.

EPIC HALL

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