Tag Archives: stuffed peppers

Monday 16th September 2019 – STRIDER HAS BEEN …

… a busy boy today.

Back at the house after the school run, Zoe gathered up all of the glass, aluminium and plastic that she could find and we loaded it up into the back of Strider.

Then down at the bottom of the field by the lean-to we dragged the trailer out of the undergrowth. That was already loaded with a huge mound of stuff so we coupled it up to Strider’s tow hitch. Not for nothing did we fit a decent tow bar on him last year.

And that wasn’t the work of five minutes either. A trailer that hasn’t moved for a year or so and there’s quite a weight in it too. And, of course, the electric connections needed to be cleaned off so that I would have lights.

On the way down the road we hit a bump and the back door of the trailer opened up. As I have said before, I seem to be leaving a trail of possessions all around the world these days. But this time we were quick off the mark and we had it all back on the trailer and the door closed before anyone noticed.

At the garage we loaded more stuff up and then went on a tour of a few places to collect more. Off then to the recycling centre at Bath to weigh in the whole lot of it.

On the way back (for by now it was almost lunchtime after all of that) we went to Tim Horton’s where Zoe bought me a coffee and where I left my bag behind and had to run back and pick it up. It had taken ages to unload it all and separate it, and I question the wisdom of putting heavy glass into cardboard boxes and leaving it on a trailer for a year in the rain.

And inside the back of Strider now smells like a Babylonian boozer’s bedroom.0

The trailer door came open again on the way back (luckily there was nothing in it) and I stopped to pick up a sandwich. By now I was thoroughly exhausted.

And that’s no surprise either. I’d had another miserable night where I didn’t go to sleep until about 03:00 and then a fitful night of tossing and turning.

I don’t remember much of where I went but I remember three different segments. Segment 1, and then Segment 2 which was completely different and bore no resemblance to the previous, and Segment 3 where I stepped right back into where I was at the end of Segment 1. And if you think that that is confusing, imagine how I’m feeling.

And I do recall at some point the welcome return of a young girl who accompanied me on several voyages three or four years ago, and I wonder what has suddenly brought her back into the picture.

We had the school run of course and then the recycling, and then this afternoon I was hauling animal feed for a while, and then we replaced the rear brake caliper on the big Chevy truck that somehow manages to feature quite regularly on these pages just now.

As well as all of that, I’ve ordered my fuel economy chip and also made enquiries about my jacket at the hotel in Calgary.

Back at home I put back the trailer – and I do have to say that despite being out of practice I was totally impressed with my reversing skills – putting the trailer exactly where I wanted it (and in some tight corners too) every time, right on the button.

Not many of us here tonight so I made my usual vegan standby – stuffed peppers – for the two of us. And then I downloaded some more music. Two albums, both of which are vastly underrated.

Nektar’s album Down To Earth is a very interesting curiosity – am album by a British rock band that was totally ignored in the UK but became something of a phenomenon in Germany and eventually the musicians relocated there.

It’s one of these “take it or leave it” albums that I like to play every now and again but I can really live without it.

On the other hand, House On The Hill is a magnificent album. I’ve heard quite a few albums by Audience and was never particularly inspired but House On The Hill is another one of those that comes out of nowhere and stops you dead in your tracks.

It was one of the “Jackie Marshall cassette recordings” from the mid-70s and I bought a vinyl version in the mid-80s, probably the last vinyl album that I ever bought. And somehow I overlooked to purchase a CD version when I was modernising my collection.

As an aside, I’m only hunting down album tracks for albums that I already own and not for anything that isn’t already in my collection.

Now it’s bed-time and I’m hoping for better luck tonight when it comes to sleeping. I really can’t carry on like this and I’m back on the road on Wednesday.

Monday 24th June 2019 – AT LONG LAST …

… I have accomplished two long-term goals today.

Firstly, I have completed the blog entry for last Monday with all of the photos that I took while I was at Coutances.

Secondly, after much binding in the marsh, I have finally finished all of the dictaphone notes.

Mind you , It wasn’t without its interruptions and difficulties.

Last night I’d had a reasonable sleep and been off on a voyage, but it was another one of those nights where as soon as I woke up, all memory of it evaporated even before I had time to grab the dictaphone.

For a change, I was awake before the alarm at 05:45, and up and about before the second alarm at 06:05 went off. How about that?

After breakfast I had a shower and then cracked on to complete the blog entry as I mentioned earlier.

At 08:30 I hit the streets in the rainstorm and headed off to the doctor’s. I was seen pretty quickly and was soon out of the building. The doctor is pleased to see me moving about and has decided that I don’t need an operation. Keep on with the alcohol treatment, take it easy and don’t do too much.

He was totally amazed that I had walked 10 kilometres the other day.

To Carrefour for some lettuce, seeing as the other had died, and to the pharmacie for some more of these gauze patches for my leg.

On the way back home I met a couple of neighbours and had a chat, and then came back here.

Back here, I bumped into the electrician. We’re having all of these new remote electricity meters so I had to show him where they were.

He came up when he was ready to switch off my current to change the meter. I stopped work and had a relax on the sofa to rest my leg, and there I dozed off.

I went off on a travel then and there. To a racing track where a car had broken down in the middle of a race, and had to walk across the track dodging the cars to reach the pits. One driver, parked in the pits, saw him crossing and accelerated out heading straight for him, making the driver run and dodge the traffic. There was some kind of Marshall in the centre of the ring with a glove on his hand with a lED display screen on the back of it. He held it up to show that the driver in the car had been given a 9-second penalty for his actions.

With just a brief 30 minutes for lunch, I cracked on with the blog and had almost finished it when Ingrid rang. We had a really good chat for well over an hour.

Back at the desk, I attempted to finish the blog and as soon as I put finger to keyboard Rosemary telephoned me. So that was another lengthy chat that took me almost up to teatime.

So finishing the blog I had a rather late tea of stuffed pepper and spicy rice.

After that, I booked my rail ticket to St-Lô tomorrow and then applied an on-line form for another project that I have in mind.

My walk around the Pointe du Roc in the damp, humid and misty weather was all alone. No-one else was out there at all, which was no surprise given the weather conditions.

So now an early night. I have an early start tomorrow.

Tuesday 18th June 2019 – IT’S NOT BEEN …

… as productive a day as I would have liked today. Full of all kinds of petty interruptions and so on that prevented me from cracking on.

It started well enough though. Up and about long before the third alarm had gone off. I’d been on my travels too, although this was all very confusing. It concerned someone who was allegedly running a taxi, driving around with music playing pretty loud but he didn’t have any taxi plates. He was summoned to talk to a couple of people about all of this and it turned out that the message had come from the Taxi Owners’ Association. He went very begrudgingly to the meeting but came out much happier. Apparently it was just two neighbours from somewhere or other who had written, so he just bought them a drink and the matter had been brushed under the carpet and he was quite happy about that because obviously he didn’t fancy going up against all these taxi drivers because they could all turn nasty and there were so many of them. His wife said something along the lines that they were all pussies anyway and that he would just sweep them aside. She turned to me and said “you’ve had enough confrontation with them and you were relatively unscathed from that point of view” (which was true). And that was that. But then it turned onto trains and we were working with coal trains. I was bragging that we had dealt with every coal train that came out of Crewe. There was that Keith Morris there and he asked “how do you know that you do?”. I said that I was sure. We ended up talking about one particular one that went out early in the morning at about 05:00 and was pulled by two Class 27 locos with 40 wagons. I looked at Margaret for confirmation and she didn’t really say very much. he wanted to know how I knew that they were class 27s. Of course you can tell by the number but I replied “well, I ask! If I want to know something, I ask because I take photos and edit the photos and write about them so if I want to know something about the photos I’ll ask someone locally and they will tell me the answer”.
From there we moved on. I had an old Ford Escort van like I have and we were all going somewhere. There were two seats in the front and a settee in the back but facing backwards rather than forwards. People were clambering in there. I was back in the house getting things ready to leave these people. I had a mattress that I was going to put down in the van for me to sleep on and al old blanket because there was insulation in part of the Escort but not down the left-hand side. So I put the blanket in and used it to fill in the gaps in the walls. They were all looking at it and I explained about condensation and how I was going to sleep in there and then I went to fetch the mattress.

With an early start I had an early breakfast and then cracked on with some work.

First task was to deal with all of the photos from yesterday, and then to attack the dictaphone notes. Another 5 have now disappeared and we are down to just 55. I’ll have to push on and deal with those pretty quickly if I can.

But I was interrupted by trying to arrange another blood test. Eventually, after much binding in the marsh I managed to arrange it for 11:30 tomorrow.

But even as we speak, I had a phone call from the nurse to say that she will be here at about 08:30 tomorrow morning.

After that, I went for another experimental run with Caliburn. But I didn’t get very far, for there was a police road block.

monument Rond-point des Français-Libres pointe du roc granville manche normandy franceIt seems that there was a Fete de dix-huit juin according to the policewoman holding up the traffic.

Whatever the Fete de dix-huit juin is, I really have no idea but the place was swarming with anciens combattants decorated in medals and the like, so it’s quite possibly something to do with the liberation of the town, although that didn’t take place until 31st July 1944.

Whatever it was, we were held up for half an hour – me in a queue of vehicles held up by the police and no controle technique on Caliburn

One thing that I can say is that I could drive reasonably comfortably all things considered. Seeing that I could move hi about, that prompted me to ring up about his annual service and controle technique.

But to my dismay there are no vacancies until the beginning of July and I won’t be here then. So I’ll have to sort out my flights and book him in for as soon as I return.

That took me up to lunchtime, taken once more indoors because it was raining yet again.

It had cleared up by the time I had finished, so i hit the streets for the laboratory.

rendering house repairs rue du port granville manche normandy franceThe men were still working on the medieval walls, but the workmen on the house extension in the rue du Port were likewise working.

They are now working on the rendering on the second wall of the lift shaft – assuming that that there is indeed the lift shaft.

Only one more wall to go, and then I’ll be wondering what they are going to be working on next. There’s such a lot of rebuilding going on in the town right now.

jeep remains on roundabout place godal granville manche normandy franceNot much further along, I came to another stop.

There are some remains of an old Jeep dumped on the roundabout at the end of the Place Godal. Presumably that’s something to do with the fete too.

At the Laboratory I handed over the stuff that was extracted from my knee, and found to my surprise that they do blood tests there – and without an appointment too.

If only I had known!

Across the road is the station so I went to pick up my rail tickets for next week, which I had forgotten to do yesterday.

The sun was on the way out as i walked back, and that cheered me up somewhat.

A cold drink followed by a start on adding the photos to yesterday’s blog. But I was surprised at just how quickly the time passed.

For tea I had a stuffed pepper with spicy rice, gollowed by one of the cocount dessert things that I had made earlier. Liz had told me not to mut as much milk in, so I put about 350 ml of milk and 50ml of that coconut soya stuff in, mixed it up, and poured it into four bowls into which I had previously put a couple of pineapple rings.

After a couple of hours in the fridge it had set really well and it was delicious.

monument Rond-point des Français-Libres pointe du roc granville manche normandy francelater on I went out for my walk.

First stop was to the monument at the Rond-Point des Francais Libres to see if I could see anything that might give me a hint of what was happening.

There were a couple of wreaths out there, but nothing that gave me any indication.

I shall have to make enquiries.

youth stranded on rock pointe du roc granville manche normandy franceDown on the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs was a youth standing there, cut off from the mainland by the rising tide.

I gesticulated at him, but he didn’t reply and didn’t seem to be in any distress whatsoever.

He clearly didn’t seem to need any help, and so I left him to it and continued my walk

speedboat pointe du roc granville manche normandy franceBut had he really be stranded, it wouldn’t have mattered to me because not only would I have been unable to do anything, there was a speedboat loitering around just offshore

They would have been much better-placed to give him assistance.

But they didn’t hang aroudn long after I moved on. They roared past me like their boat was on fire.

youths diving off sea wall port de granville harbour manche normandy franceExcuse the rather blurred photo but I was taken by surprise by these kids (of course, it’s very bad form for any photographer to be taken by surprise, but that’s neither here nor there).

Just as I was looking at them wondering what was going on, one of them stood up and dived off the sea wall straight into the sea.

I reckon that I was lucky enough to catch it, but what wouldn’t I have given to have had a faster shutter speed?

channel islands ferry port de granville harbour manche normandy franceMeanwhile, as all this was going on, the roar of a couple of diesel engines told me that something large was coming ino port.

It’s our old friend Granville, the new Channel Islands ferry that has been suffering a load of problems just recently.

That’s twice now this week that I’ve seen her in the harbour here. Probably more than I ever saw her in the whole of last year.

charles marie port de granville harbour manche normandy franceShe wasn’t the only visitor in the harbour either.

Charles-Marie is down there too, moored up in the inner harbour. She might be preparing for her summer season of voyages.

And while I was admiring her, I overheard some squealing coming from further down the road. Some young girl and her boyfriend were trying to walk along the top of the railings like some kind of tightrope walkers.

The girl wasn’t all that good, and after about four steps and a loud squeal, she fell off, right at my feet.

So now I’m back home and I’m ready for bed. I’m hoping to have a better day tomorrow.

speedboat pointe du roc granville manche normandy france
speedboat pointe du roc granville manche normandy france

channel islands ferry granville manche normandy france
channel islands ferry granville manche normandy france

Thursday 6th June 2019 – HAVING DONE SOMETHING …

… yesterday that I haven’t done in more than 25 years, I went out this afternoon and did it again.

Having managed almost a completely normal day yesterday apart from an hour or so in the late afternoon, I was asleep at a reasonable time. And Although there was a lengthy period round about 01:35 when I was wide awake, I slept right through to the alarm – and then some too.

Considering my lack of mobility, I’ve had a rather busy day. All of the photos going back to when I broke my hand are now edited, cropped, enhanced and saved, and entered in the database.

And there were more of them than I was expecting too.

When I can sit comfortably, whenever that might be, I’ll bring up-to-date the blog entries. But at the moment, sitting with one leg up in the air is not the easiest way to deal with things like a large batch of typing.

Having had lunch I then went back into the bath for another hour or so. and while it didn’t have the same dramatic effect as yesterday (and most of that wore off as the evening drew on) it still made things much easier for moving about.

The bedroom has been tidied up somewhat too, with some of the stuff that was lying around now arranged on shelves. But it’s only scratching the surface and I need to push on when I can.

Round about 17:30 I had a crash-out on the bed for about 45 minutes, and I’ve also done another month’s indexing of photos (1805) and I’ve made a start on 1804 – that is to say April 2018.

Tea was a small stuffed pepper with spicy rice and I’m glad that I am back to eating a little. I seem to have lost 5kgs and that’s good news.

Tomorrow, more of the same including the bath, because Brigitte is taking me to the doctor’s, which is very nice of her.

I don’t have many friends, as everyone knows, but those I have are the best in the world and quantity is never a substitute for quality.

Thursday 25th April 2019 – THAT WAS A …

… really difficult today today.

What went wrong was the fact that having had a long sleep during the afternoon, I wasn’t all that tired when I went to bed.

Nevertheless I went to sleep pretty quickly and even managed to go on something of a nocturnal ramble. But I’ll spare you the details because you are probably eating your tea right now.

However, I awoke at about 01:30 and that was that. I lay awake tossing and turning until the alarm went off at 06:00.

Just for a change I was up early this morning and after the usual performance and a shower, I set the washing machine off doing a load of washing.

fibre optic cable rue des juifs granville manche normandy franceOnce that was on its way I went into town. But I didn’t get very far before I had to stop.

A few weeks ago I photographed them digging up the pavement in the rue des Juifs for the fibre-optic cable. But they had filled in the trenches and sealed it all over a good while ago.

But today, the fibre-optic people were there digging it all up again. I asked why but the guy to whom I spoke just shrugged his shoulders

normandy trader port de granville harbour manche normandy franceDown at the quayside in the harbour Normandy Trader was there unloading.

I imagine that she had come in on the morning tide,and having missed to opportunity to photograph Thora yesterday, I took a quick photo of here while I was going into town.

After all, the speed in which these ships are turning round these days, she may well not be here by the time that I return.

And so I continued on my way to the Mairie for the Certificate that I needed. But there was no-one there to sign it so I had to go back later.

Next stop was the bank to change the standing order for my rent. The rental goes up at the beginning of next month so I had to do that.

Third stop was the railway station to pick up my tickets for my next trip to Leuven in May. I’m spinning my appointments out now to every 5 weeks so as to fit into a new revised plan.

Just then Rosemary telephoned me. So instead of going to LIDL (I don’t really need anything) I headed for home.

normandy trader leaving port de granville harbour manche normandy franceAnd I was almost right about Normandy Trader.

She had by now left her berth, and I just managed to catch her stern disappearing out of the harbour. Another quick turnround.

And I need to make the most of my sightings of her and of Thora and quite possibly the gravel boats too.

There’s no Customs Post here in Granville so when Brexit inevitably happens, these ships will need to go to a port that has a customs post – like St Malo. No wonder everyone here is so upset.

Rosemary and I had a really good chat for quite a considerable time as usual, and we put the world to rights while we were on the line. Ingrid came onto the internet too and we we had a chat too;

That took me nicely up to lunchtime, which was taken inside because by now the weather had broken and we were having a storm.

Once the weather eased off I went back into town, only to find that the Mairie here doesn’t issue the Certificates. They seem to think that it’s something that only applies to small communes where the mayor knows personally all of his inhabitants.

Anyway, I left them fighting with the prefecture over the issue and came home, being caught in yet another rainstorm;

I had a few things to do, but by 17:30 I was off with the fairies. Back in bed for a good 100 minutes fast asleep.

Tea was a stuffed pepper followed by rice pudding, and then my walk around the headland. Away on the horizon I noticed something moving so the horizon out in the English Channel so I photographed it.

bretagne brittany ferries st malo english channel franceI was right about one thing – that it was indeed a huge ship.

No idea which one though because it was too far out, but I thought that it might be Pont Aven, the Brittany Ferries flagship heading to St Malo.

However, when I looked on live ships database later on in the evening, the recorded position at the time I took the photo seemed to correspond with the known position of Bretagne.

She’s one of the oldest ferries working the Channel, having been launched in 1989, and has a gross tonnage of about 24500 tonnes.

She’s actually living on borrowed time, having been taken out of service in 2016, but the contract for her replacement was cancelled and so she’s back on duty for now.

chantier navale port de granville harbour manche normandy franceMy perambulations took me round the Pointe du Roc and along the path at the top looking over the chantier navale.

There have been a few changes there today. The old trawler that’s been undergoing major reconstruction down at the bottom of the yard has now been brought up to the top end and put on chocs here. It’s weather protection has been removed too.

It’s been joined by another trawler too, the big pink and blue one on the left. No idea what they are doing with that one.

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy franceBut I couldn’t go back into my building without taking a photo of probably the most beautiful sunset that I have ever seen.

It’s not very often that I produce a remarkable photograph but this one actually worked in spades. The sun was just peeking through the heavy clouds and was illuminating the buildings on the Ile de Chausey just like the spotlights might do on a stage set.

It’s really come out well and I’m very proud of this very dramatic photo.

So I’ll try for an early night tonight. I’m not going anywhere tomorrow, but I still have plenty of things that need doing. it’s going to be a long day.

Friday 12th April 2019 – I’M NOT SURE …

… what kind of day it has been today.

It’s been one of those days where I haven’t felt like doing too much, but at least I kept on working and managed to be productive. So it can’t be all that bad.

What didn’t help was that despite the nice clean bed and the nice clean me, I didn’t have a very good night at all. I hardly felt as if I had any sleep at all last night.

However I must have done, because I went on a nice long ramble or two during the night.

My first voyage was something to do with the railway – the line blockages. a group of us were talking about someone who wanted to go off photographing and we had seen a place where a tram coming into town turning right at a curve and one coming out of town was turning right at the same curve (like at a T junction) and it all looked so beautiful that we thought about having some kind of choreography photographs of trams darting around bends in opposition to each other like this. Someone else asked “what do you think about this situation?” and showed us a model of a train that had derailed because the points had moved underneath it. Someone said something like at the front of this incident was a shop that was 2m60 away and all of his electricity was stopped because it was outside the limit of 2m from the accident where the current was broken, to give everyone time to escape. Electricity was only available very close to the accident. One feature of this railway line being blocked was a very large photo or model of someone that had apeared over the end of the railway line behind this accident blocking it off – someone like Nigel Garbage or another one of these far-right people. people were discussin ghow this could possibly be that a dummy like this could block the line. Wasn’t that just typical of the far right that in the interest of free movement they are blocking the railway line
A little later there were three of us on a voyage something like out of the Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, me, another guy and a girl. And I knew even though I was asleep that I seemed to join this in the middle of the voyage. At first I thought that this girl was Nerina. She was ill in bed with a heavy cold moping around so in the end I asked her if she would like some Vicks Rub. Her ears picked up at that “Vicks Rub? Yes!! Do you have some?” So I had to search through my medical case and I found some so I gave it to her. her eyes lit up at that and she immediately got better. The three of us were in a car driving up Stewart Street and Valley Road with this most amazing moon or sun, rather like a half-eclipse of the sun. I suggested that we turn right down a side-street for a better view but then I thought that there would be a better view from a side street further on. We went on to that turning and then found that somehow the moon had gone behind the sun and it wasn’t as good as it had been earlier. That was quite a shame. We carried on, had a couple of adventures, things like that. In the end it was all over and we were due to go home. We were walking back into Sandbach from near where the M6 is. The guy went off somewhere to do something, which left me and this girl. She said that she was going to get a coffee. When she came back she was in tears, about how the guy with whom she was living had been quite nasty to her about the fact that she had been away. I was consoling her. Now, even though I was asleep, I knew exactly how it ended – that she ended up by leaving this guy and the two of us became a couple, but it was this little step in between where I couldn’t find the courage to take this step to ask if I could see her again, even though I knew exactly how it was all going to end up – very positively in my favour.

The alarms went off as usual, and it still took me 15 minutes to haul myself out of the not-so-stinking pit this morning.

After the usual morning ritual I attacked the dictaphone. And despite a few interruptions for nothing in particular, I was still going on at lunchtime.

There’s a whole whack of them now done and that’s made me feel a little better.

With it being such a beautiful day although it might have been a little cold, I went out with my butties and sat upon my wall.

gravel lorry unloading port de granville harbour manche normandy franceDown below in the harbour, we might not have had any ships of any importance in there, but it doesn’t look as if it will be long before there’e one i-cumen in, just like William de Wycombe’s sumer.

The gravel lorries from the quarry are back in the port tipping the gravel. And tipping it on the quayside near to the conveyors rather than the bins too.

That can only mean that we should be expecting the arrival of a gravel boat in the not-so-distant future. Lhude sing cucu.

When I came back, I did a little tidying up (not too much of course) and then ran the vacuum cleaner around the floor for a short while. It makes the place look a little tidier.

The rest of the day was spent dealing with the photos for June 2018, and that wasn’t as easy as it might have been either because I didn’t recognise half of them.

I ended up spending an hour or two on Google Earth trying to mate up images with screen shots. But in the end, I managed all but one. That’ll teach me to lose my dictaphone in Caliburn during that trip to Germany, won’t it?

zodiac baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy franceThere were two little interruptions during the day. The first one was for a little … errr … snooze, and my second was for a walk arounf the Pointe du Roc.

My attention was drawn to some movement way offshore so I coupled up the big zoom-telephoto lens to take a photo to see what it might be.

It turns out to be a zodiac going flat out there way out to sea. That’s a lot farther out than I would be happy to take a zodiac, that’s for sure.

buoy baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy franceWhile I was out there with the zoom lens I scanned the horizon to see if there was anything else of interest out there.

Round to the right not too far out from Saint Martin de Bréhal is another one of these buoys that miraculously appear every now and again.

At one time I thought that it was something to do with fishing, but there didn’t seem to be any sign of any fishermen tending to it.

yacht baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy franceAround the corner into the Baie de Mont St Michel I heard a little putt-putt-putt of some kind of small diesel engine.

A few seconds later a little yacht came round the corner and hove into view. It would have been nice to see it with all of its sails unfurled, especially in this wind when it could have taken full advantage of it.

I can understand why a yacht might need a diesel engine, but not why anyone might be using it in the open sea in this weather. br clear=”all”>

bad parking rue st pierre granville manche normandy francePathetic parking is a feature of these pages, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall.

We’ve seen some pretty miserable stuff but this here really does take the biscuit. Here’s a van driver far too lazy to even walk across the street.

Bad parking doesn’t get much worse than this. it really is quite shameful if you ask me. Whatever is the world coming to?

Back here I carried on with the photos and the research, and then stopped for tea. There’s a pepper lying around here that needs eating so I made myself a stuffed pepper with spicy rice.

That was followed by pineapple and soya cream, and a chat with Liz, another one with Alison and a third with rosemary. I’m in demand right now.

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy franceI had to cut the chats short though because it promised to be a beautiful sunset and I didn’t want to miss it.

Unfortunately there was a large cloud on the horizon over the Ile de Chausey so I didn’t get to see the sun sinking slowly down below the horizon this evening.

But never mind. there will be other opportunities, especially with what I have in mind for later this year, if it all goes according to plan.

Back from my evening walk, I watched the football. Bala Town v Connah’s Quay Nomads in the Welsh Premier League. And Bala have come right off the rails just recently and Colin Caton has lost the plot a little.

Bala, totally disorganised at the back and leaderless up front, were easily swept aside for the third match in succession. What we were watching ir real relegation fodder for next season, and if only the Nomads had played with a decent striker, they could have scored 14, never mind just 4.

So I’m off to bed. No shopping tomorrow as I’m on my travels on Sunday. So i’ll have a little wander down to the market instead and see how the land lies.

It’s not an early night tonight, so I won’t be on very good form tomorrow. But I’ll see what I can do.

chateau de la crete baie de mont st michel port de granville harbour manche normandy france
chateau de la crete baie de mont st michel port de granville harbour manche normandy france

pecheur de la lys chantier navale port de granville harbour manche normandy france
pecheur de la lys chantier navale port de granville harbour manche normandy france

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

Friday 5th April 2019 – – I WAS RIGHT!

eems sea port de granville harbour manche normandy franceRemember the other day when we were watching them pushing around the great heaps of gravel and moving them closer to the quayside and conveyors, and I was saying that we must be expecting the arrivale of one of the gravel boats?

So say hello to today’s arrival, someone whom we haven’t seen beforen and it’s nice to welcome new visitors to the port. Moored up at the gravel bay is is a new ship, the Eems Sea.

She must have slipped in on the late afternoon tide just now while I wasn’t looking.

Last night I had another decent sleep, with only a minor interruption. I was off on a travel too, but I’ll spare you all the details, seeing as you’re probably eating your tea or something right now.

There was an early start to the day too. I was out of bed pretty promptly too. And once the usual procedures were accomplished, I set to work. And I’ve had a very productive day too.

First task was to attack the searchable text database for July last year, starting from the beginning and working forwards this time. That wasn’t as easy as it might have been either because it needed quite a considerable amount of research to work out where I was, including hunting down an on-line version of Field Marshall Blücher’s memoirs and downloading them.

In fact I only managed about 60 photos. But serves me right because this was the period when I had mislaid the dictaphone somewhere in Caliburn.

Having run aground a little with that, I turned my attention to the photos for the High Arctic. That wasn’t quite so simple as it might have been either because I had to look up a few things for those too.

You’d be amazed (or maybe you won’t) about how much I’ve forgotten. But by the time I knocked off for lunch, I’d done another 160 of those too. Another day like that and I’ll have done a third of them.

In total I ended up with almost 1800 from that trip and the more closely I examine the photos on a decent screen, the more I see, the more I crop out, and I am slowly increasing the number all the time.

But as I said at the time, I’m dismayed by the quality of some of them – most of them in fact. I’ve a good mind to go back and take them all again.

It’s still winter outside so I stayed in for lunch. And this afternoon I had a phone call to make. My enquiry was actually successful in part, because although I didn’t receive the information I wanted, I was told that it had already been posted to me so it might be here any day soon.

While I was at it, I had a look around on Amazon for a few things that I needed. So I’ve been spending my money again.

But not in the USA. It seems now that Amazon is charging a “customs anticipation” amount to USA orders that makes the price no longer competitive with European pricing.

I smell a rat here, and I’m not talking about the contents of Baldrick’s apple crumble either.

chantier navale port de granville harbour manche normandy franceOn my afternoon walk around the Pointe du Roc, in a howling gale which explains why there were so few people about, I had a look at the chantier navale to see what was happening.

And I appear to have been mistaken about the band of colour that had appeared on the hull of the boat that’s being resprayed. It seems to be nothing more than a different type of masking tape.

And I’m not surprised that they have had to replace some of the masking in this wind. I imagine that the original stuff will be half-way down the Baie de Mont St Michel by now.

trawler port de granville harbour manche normandy franceThere was more excitement than that too.

In the harbour I was treated to the sight of a trawler doing a very impressive nautical danse macabre around the basin.

From this distance I didn’t recognise the trawler, but I doubt very much if it’s one that’s new to the harbour. Usually they stay quite close to the fish-processing plant to which they are attached these days.

new pontoon walkway port de granville harbour manche normandy franceAnd I now know the story behind the crane – why it was here the other day. There was an article in the local paper about it.

Apparently they are replacing some of the old pontoon walkways in the harbour and they were delivered the other day. The crane was there presumably to lift out the old ones and lower the new ones into the harbour.

They are spending quite a lot of money on the harbour just now, what with renewing the harbour gates, dredging and all of that. All they need now is a lot more commercial traffic.

A hot chocolate was on the menu when I returned from my wanderings, and then I had another whack at the dictaphone notes. At this rate, I’ll probably be finished sometime in about 2525. All of the tasks that I have to do will keep me out of mischief for years, if I live that long.

Tea tonight was a stuffed pepper with spicy rice, and having cooked it for a little longer on a lower temperature in the microwave, it was even better than it has been in the past.

place d'armes granville manche normandy franceIt was still quite light when I went out tonight for my walk. And I was all alone out there too, even though it wasn’t dark outside just yet.

In the past I’ve taken a few photos of the Place d’Armes in the evening from up on the walls by the rue du Nord, but this is the first time this year that I’ve been able to do so in the light.

You can’t see very much of my building though. There’s part of it visible behind the cream building – the Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs just to the left of centre.

eems sea port de granville harbour manche normandy franceHaving done that, I carried on around the corner and there I could overlook the harbour and see Eems Sea tied up at her berth.

Although she might not look it, she was built as recently as 2010 in, of all places, Haiphong in Vietnam. 87 metres long, she is a bulk carrier with a deadweight of 2600 tonnes and a gross tonnage of 1862.

Being owned by a group of people from Werkendam, near Dordrecht, she flies the flag of the Netherlands.

And isn’t it nice to see a new arrival here in the port?

After that, I hurried home because we had football on the internet. Caernarfon Town were playing Connah’s Quay Nomads in the Welsh Premier League. The Nomads needed a win to keep clinging on to the coat tails of TNS whereas Caernarfon needed a win to give them hope of home advantage in the Euro playoffs.

The Nomads’ lack of a striker was apparent yet again because Caernarfon scored early in the match and the Nomads, despite all of their possession and pressure, never ever looked like pulling one back. If only the Nomads had a goalscorer, their season would have been completely different.

And so a late night tonight. and with me needing an early start in the morning, I shan’t be getting too much sleep.

Tuesday 26th March 2019 – I WAS WONDERING …

… why I was planning on having pasta for a change with my stuffed pepper. And so while I was preparing the pepper I decided on rice instead.

It wasn’t until I sat down to the pudding that I realised why. Rice as a main course followed by rice pudding was not really a good idea.

Last night, I was in bed by 22:00. And it was a rather restless night too, with me waking up on several occasions. I’d been on a few travels as well, some of which were quite interesting.

There was a whole pile of us and we’d been walking or something like that and we’d ended up in a really big shop. Eventually I found myself at the front of the queue and I ordered a pound of minced beef (and I’ve no idea why I would order that). The conversation then moved around to a discussion of Belgian trains. Someone shouted something at me and I couldn’t hear them properly and understand what they were saying, but it came out that they wanted to know the price of a train fare from somewhere. I replied that I could remember a certain station where we used to get on at one time – a station right out in the sticks and it cost us €18:00 to go to there. The most that I had ever paid to go anywhere on Belgian Railways was €22:00. This conversation then ended up as a length discussion about Belgian trains
Everyone has the right in post-Brexit Britain to be on the right-hand side of the road in queues and this is just one occasion where people were suddenly being confronted with all of everything that they had bought or collected and it needed to be sorted out and cars needed to be moved over to the other side of the road to be parked. It was all extremely complicated, and all for nothing. I remembered being in the south of Germany and falling over the back of a settee on the border and ending up in Austria on the other side of the settee – the seat bit (and what that voyage was all about, I have no idea at all).
A little later I was in the High Arctic again with Natalie and I was trying to get on board the ship, but I was totally unprepared. I had a couple of lockers and a bed inside a wooden hut. I was trying to pack my rucksack with things that I needed to take on board ship. With natalie being there I couldn’t get at the secret box of supplies because I didn’t want her to see it. Everyone was hurrying about and I was getting p155ed off and Natalie went off, so I started to stuff more things into my rucksack. She then came back and told me that someone had said not to forget about the ghetto blaster so I had to hunt that down and stuff that into the rucksack too. It was all quite chaotic and I was panicking. Everyone was assembling ready to go on board the ship and I was nowhere near being ready.
Finally I was out again somewhere sitting on a table talking to someone who had been on board The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour (but he hadn’t of course). He was an Inuit (although he wasn’t). We were talkig about the High Arctic and he was telling me that Nunavut had now become chair of the Arctic Council and how pleased he was about it all. We were talking about all kinds of things so I asked him if he was planning to go back on the Adventure Canada runs this year. he said that he wasn’t, so I then tried to get in touch with the Company to try to get myself on board the ship this year, but he didn’t seem to pick up on what I was saying, and I was really disappointed at that. I was trying to make him interested in what I was doing but he was more interested in telling me that they now had street lights out there in Nunavut so it was much safer to move around at night – you could see if there were any polar bears around. We ended up wandering off and I was talking about all of this to him but it wasn’t him at all but two other people. I said something about the fact that the people in there – indicating the building from where I had just come – weren’t al that interested, so that had them scratching their heads wondering what I was talking about. I came across a phone box by the Square in Crewe in the ice so I was trying to ring them but it was the wrong time of day, no-one was answering their phones. In the meantime I was planning to do some kind of radio programme on one of these internet radio stations where I could have a couple of people talking in Inuktitut while I played rock music.

Just for a change I left the bed quite early this morning and I was all set for a good day’s work.

I started off with a shower and a general clean-up. And a haircut too. It didn’t need it, but I want to keep it under much better control than I have been doing.

Following that, there were the dictaphone notes and I’m back now into mid-August. But there are plenty for the period from early Spring to then, including a whole voyage around central Europe, so this is going to be a rather long job. 358 files to be transcribed in fact, so it’s not the work of five minutes.

The next thing to do was to bring the blog up-to-date – at least, in recent times. I did all of the photos back until when I set out to Leuven.

All of that took me up to lunchtime.

This afternoon I started on the searchable photo database for September 2018 when I was in the High Arctic. Another hundred or so photos were indexed, but this took far longer than I intended because not only has it involved some research, I also had another closer look at some of them.

Basically, the editing that I did on board ship isn’t very satisfactory and now that I have a much better computer and a better graphics program, I can do far better than I did on board the Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour and I’m planning to go back and do them all again.

Furthermore, with the better screen and higher resolution, I’ve been picking out bits of the photographs with interesting items that I missed. So I’ve been cropping those out and blowing them up – which I can do these days despite modern anti-terrorism legislation.

So there are a few more photos to merge back into the run of things now, and by the time that I finish there will probably be a few more too.

hang gliders place d'armes granville manche normandy franceMy walk around the headland this afternoon was a reasonably solitary one.

But not as solitary as it might have been because we were being observed from above.

It’s that kind pf the year when all of the hang-gliders come out. And there they are soaring up over the old barracks building. On eof these days I might have one dropping in for tea.

ships chantier navale granville manche normandy france But there have been changes in the chantier navale.

The big yacht, that might have been Spirit of Conrad has gone, as have a few of the other ones too, including Charles-Marie.

They’ve obviously finished what they were doing to them, but not to worry – it’ll be full again soon, I imagine.

old cars bedford cf caravanette granville manche normandy franceBut one of our old favourites has come back.

The ancient Bedford CF caravanette that appears here every now and again on a regular basis is back in its little hidey-hole.

One of these days I’ll go down there for a chat to the owner.

And I’ve solved the question about the strange annex to the house down there in the rue du Port. It seems that the plans include installation of a lift. So the space above will be for the machinery.

Tea was as I mentioned. And it was extremely delicious. And there’s enough stuffing left over for another one too.

The wind had risen for the evening walk. I was pretty much alone there too and I didn’t hang around all that long either.

So I’ve had my cocoa for supper and now I’m off to bed. I had an enormous wave of fatigue later in the afternoon and ended up curled up asleep on the chair for 20 minutes.

I really need to have a decent sleep one of these days, and I do hope that it’ll be soon.

Monday 4th March 2019 – MY APPLE PIE …

… is delicious. Especially now that it’s cooled.

And what would have been even nicer would have been to put cinnamon in it instead of coriander. Sometimes I wonder what goes through my head at times.

Today though, has been in football parlance a day of two halves.

Having gone to bed early and having managed a decent sleep, with just one or two little awakenings, it was the alarm that awoke me at 06:00. And again at 06:10. And again at 06:20.

Sometime during the night, I’d been off on my travels. Reliving in some respects –
1) a discussion I’d had a few days ago with Amber
2) another nocturnal voyage of a good while ago
3) a trip that I had made to the UK in the old Ford Escort van in 2006.
It all took place in Ham Street in Kent, where an great aunt of mine used to live and where we used to go on holiday in the early 60s. There was a group of people going off skiing so I tagged along too. I had my skis with me of course, but no ski boots, and I was in a black suit and tie – not a ski outfit at all. The group leader was taking us off, so I explained about the shortfall in my equipment but her response was not to worry about it – and led us off regardless. Somewhere in there too was me in what at the time passed for Canada with a lot of people whom I knew from there, but was pretty much somewhere just like Ham Street, which would be the strangest part of Canada that I ever knew.

There was a lot to do today, so it needed to be done and done quickly. Rather like in MacBeth and “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly”.

First thing to do was to download a form that had been sent to me, and then print it off. All 21 pages or so of it. And then of course, it needed to be filled in.

That wasn’t as easy as it might have been either and there were several questions that I couldn’t answer. So I filled in what I could and put it on one side for a moment.

In the meantime, I booked my trip to Leuven and my accommodation there. I’m spending a good few days there as I have a couple of things that need doing.

As per last time, I’ve booked my train from Brussels to Leuven on line as well. It saves time and stress at Brussels, and saves me 20 cents. Which is just as well, because I couldn’t get a cheap fare to Brussels this time.

By now it was 10:30 and I reckoned that people in the UK would be at work. So I telephoned them and had a discussion about the form that needed signing.

That took about 20 minutes all told, and then I had to scan all 21 pages of the form, assemble it, and send it off by e-mail. It’s not valid until the hard copy is received, but at least it will give them something to work with.

It was now too late to go to the Post Office so I had a nice half an hour shredding paper for the waste bin outside. I need to crack on with this project too and tidy things up here.

After lunch, I went down to the Post Office and sent off the form. That wasn’t cheap either (I’ve paid for a tracking service on it) but I need to know that it’s arrived because it’s important.

Final task was to liquidate my storage locker in the UK. There’s nothing in it of any use and as I have no intention whatever of going back to the UK under any circumstances, it’s pointless keeping it going.

All of this had totally exhausted me. I’m not well and not getting much better and I can’t keep on going. By 15:30 I was on the bed down under the bedclothes and there I stayed until about 17:50.

Totally out of it, I was. And it felt like it too. I’ve had the heating on in the apartment too – the first time for over a week. But I’ll have to be better than this – I’m back on the road in 10 days time.

Tea tonight was a stuffed pepper followed by the apple pie with coconut-flavoured soya cream. And as I said – delicious.

And then the walk around the headland in the storm. I have in mind the idea to go down to the town and see the lights of the fairground, but with this wind there was nothing much happening.

So I’ll go to bed now. See if I can have a good sleep. I need it too if I’m to improve.

But one thing that I will say – and that is that regular readers of this rubbish will recall that a while ago I bought in a cheap €1:00 sale in LIDL a small whiteboard and erasable felt-tip pen.

This is proving its weight in gold for making notes when I’m working. Much better than scraps of paper or trying to remember things that I need to do.

And then just wipe them off afterwards. It’s really one of the best things I’ve ever bought.

Wednesday 13th February 2019 – THIS WAS ANOTHER …

… day when things started off by going wrong.

The alarms went off as usual at 06:00 etc – I know because I heard them – but despite having had an early-ish night it was 07:25 when I awoke. And 07:50 when I crawled out of the stinking pit.

I’d been on my travels during the night too. Back in Crewe again in fact, with a group of people planning to travel to a football match – as we did a few times back in the mid-70s. But this time, the match was somewhere near Wrexham and even on a nocturnal ramble I was able to realise that this was something that would be extremely unlikely.

After breakfast I cracked on with my work.

The blog is now done as far back as 28th December 2018, and the text database for December 2018 is almost finished.

But apart from that, the fact that I now have my passport means that I can set in motion a couple of other little projects that I have in the back of my mind. I sent out a couple of mails and I’ve even had a reply from one of them.

That was quick!

As well as that, I have a contact whom I met on board the Good Ship Ve… errr … Ocean Endeavour. He’s an agent for Nikon cameras so I’ve been talking to him today about a new camera. He seems to think that the new mirrorless Nikon Z6 would do what I want, but after my bad experience with the Nikon 1 J5 I’m just a little bit wary of mirrorless cameras.

We had lunch of course, and a session on the guitar.

beach diving platform plat gousset granville manche normandy franceAnd then a walk out this afternoon.

And it was another gorgeous day. A real pleasure to be out in the sun and it was actually warm out there which was a surprise.

The beach looked really inviting and I was tempted to go for a walk thereupon but I have too much to do right now than to go off idly passing the time.

buoy yacht donville les bains brehal plage granville manche normandy franceThere was a sea haze out there looking northwards and visibility wasn’t all that good today.

There was a yacht in the distance off the coast of Bréhal-Plage, but there were also a couple more of these buoys that we have been seeing just recently.

I still haven’t worked out what they might be for. They appear as if by magic and the next day they are gone.

For tea tonight, I had a stuffed pepper with spicy rice. And it was just as delicious as normal. But there’s plenty of stuffing left so it might be a potato curry tomorrow to finish it off. there’s half a leek from the other day that will go in there nicely.

night trawlers port de granville harbour manche normandy franceOut for my walk again tonight. And once more I was the only one out there, which is a shame because it really was quite nice out there;

You couldn’t see anything to the north because the mist had closed in, but to the south we were treated once more to the fishing boats going around the harbour.

Only the small ones because the tide was only just coming in. The ones with a deeper draught will be in there later.

So while I go to bed for an early night I’ll leave you with the news that the British Defence Minister has said today that The UK will use Military force to protect its interests after Brexit.

He went on to say “we must strengthen our global presence, enhance our lethality, and increase our mass”.

“Increase our lethality”! Just what planet are these fools living on?

To think that these are the people who are going to lead the UK into the Brave New post-Brexit world. They are insane!

It’s this kind of 19th-Century sabre-rattling that makes me more and more ashamed and embarrassed to admit that I’m British.

beach pointe du roc granville manche normandy france
beach pointe du roc granville manche normandy france

buoy yacht donville les bains brehal plage granville manche normandy france
buoy yacht donville les bains brehal plage granville manche normandy france

beach diving platform plat gousset granville manche normandy france
beach diving platform plat gousset granville manche normandy france

promenade plat gousset granville manche normandy france
promenade plat gousset granville manche normandy france

place georges clemenceau granville manche normandy france
place georges clemenceau granville manche normandy france

night trawlers port de granville harbour manche normandy france
night trawlers port de granville harbour manche normandy france

night trawlers port de granville harbour manche normandy france
night trawlers port de granville harbour manche normandy france

coa

Tuesday 5th February 2019 – THE FIRST THING …

neptune port de granville harbour manche normandy france … that I did this morning, after it was light of course, was to go to the sea wall out here and look down into the harbour.

And sure enough, there was Neptune. Tied up to the quayside and judging by the noise coming from down there, they were busy loading it up.

It didn’t take them long either because she sailed out of the harbour on the afternoon tide. She’s now well on her way to Whitstable with 2000 tonnes of gravel.

Just for a change I had a decent night’s sleep. In bed before 23:30 and asleep practically right the way through. And I wasn’t in all that much of a rush to leave my bed.

fishing boats port de granville harbour manche normandy franceAfter breakfast I had a shower and a clean-up, and then went down to have a look at the harbour.

As well as Neptune down there, the fishing boats were coming in on the tide.

There was quite a lot of activity at the fish dock as the unloading was taking place. It’s quite a busy place, what with one thing and another, and that’s why I’m here.

vegan leek and tofu pie granville manche normandy franceBack here, I remembered something that I had forgotten from the weekend.

I’d cooked a vegan leek-and-tofu pie on Sunday, as regular readers of this rubbish might recall. But I’d left it in the oven.

So out it came, and it looked even better than it did the other day. I’ve cut it into quarters and now it’s in the freezer ready for another day or four.

This morning’s task was to bring up-to-date the photos. And by the time that lunchtime came round, they were all done and finished. Thousands of them, and that’s going to take some organising.

After lunch, I made a start on the organising. If I don’t start, I won’t ever finish and that’s for sure.

What I’m doing for now is preparing an indexed text file, sticking the photos in month by month with the *alt* tags displayed for indexing purposes.

It’s even more important because I’ve had yet another request for a photo. That’s three or four already this year and while I won’t ever become rich, the photos won’t go anywhere if I don’t put them on line.

people picking sea shells beach tide out donville les bains granville manche normandy franceOutisde this afternoon, the tide was quite a way out.

There were several people out there today, including a couple of people hunting for shellfish in the rock pools, which made me think that the tide was going out.

Had the tide been out for a while, the seabirds would have had the shellfish. The roads and pavements are littered with fragments of shells where the seabirds have dropped them from a great height to break them open.

fishing boats baie de mont st michel st pair sur mer granville manche normandy franceGoing around the headland, the fishing boats were there, presumably waiting for the tide to come in.

One of them, the big blue and white one, was clearly fed up of waiting. it did a U-turn and started to roll out the net again. It might as well earn some money while it’s waiting. I stood and watched it for quite some time.

But you see the marker light just there. At high tide, the water is up almost to the top of the column.

Back here, I had a coffee and cake and a play on the guitar, and then attacked the photo collection again. I had a little 5 minutes … errr … relax as well.

For tea tonight, I made a stuffed pepper and spicy rice and it was delicious. It set me up nicely for my little lonely walk around the walls.

But here’s a thing.

I’ve been doing a little bit of research on something or other, and I’ve actually found someone who used to live next door (or thereabouts) to me when I was a toddler.

You’ve no idea just how small the world is these days.

Tonight, I’ll have another early night. There’s plenty of things that I need to do tomorrow.

But I’ve set a few things in motion that might bring me some surprising results. But once you take the lid of Pandora’s Box you can’t put it back on.

beach tide out donville les bains granville manche normandy francebeach tide out donville les bains granville manche normandy france


beach tide out donville les bains granville manche normandy francebeach tide out donville les bains granville manche normandy france


silhouette people granville manche normandy francesilhouette people granville manche normandy france


fishing boats baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy francefishing boats baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france


old military buildings pointe du roc granville manche normandy franceold military buildings pointe du roc granville manche normandy france


atlantic wall world war 2 bunker granville manche normandy franceatlantic wall world war 2 bunker granville manche normandy france


fishing boats baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy francefishing boats baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france


Tuesday 29th January 2019 – WHAT A HORRIBLE …

… day.

There was so much that needed doing and so much that I wanted to do, but I spent the afternoon flat-out on the bed under the covers.

And I’m not just talking about a little 10-minute snooze, or even a really deep one-hour sleep. I was flat-out from about 14:30 to long after 17:00. I’d awoken at 16:50 but there was absolutely no chance whatever of me getting up.

Going back a couple of years, I can remember when I could go a whole day without dropping off. And gradually we started with the little 10-minute snoozes. And then, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, I started to complain about the hour-long sessions that were coming my way. And look where I have ended up now.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s the beginning of the end.

It probably has something to do with the late night that I had had. Despite pushing on for all day yesterday, I still wasn’t tired at bedtime and I couldn’t go off to sleep.

Mind you, I must have done at one point because I was off on my travels. I was doing a huge load of tidying up at my old apartment in Brussels, and much to my surprise the person who was actually helping me with tidying away the paperwork was Nerina.

The alarms went off at 06:00 as usual although it was more like 07:00 when I actually arose from the dead. After the usual morning performance I had a shower and a good clean-up too. High time – and I do mean “high” too.

This morning I attacked some more photos and then there was a slight interruption. I have to make a file up of all of my official expenses and the like over the last … gulp … 5 years, but amongst the papers that I can’t find are two of my household charges bills – for 2013 and 2015.

I’d written to the Hotel des Impôts in Montaigut for copies and so I received copies for … 2016 and 2017. Clearly no good.

And so I had to telephone them to find out what was going on.

It turns out that they no longer keep hard-copy records. Just those for the last two complete years. Any further information for other years needs to be obtained from the Tresorerie in Riom.

And so I had to write a letter.

Another project that I had in mind was to start printing off my bass guitar lines. I have the rhythm tabs saved on the laptop but I want to print them off to take with me to places now that I have a decent printer. First off was “Bobby McGee” – the old Kris Kristofferson song.

And that took me longer than it might too, because the printing wouldn’t align with the paper, or vice versa

We had lunch of course and then I came back in here to carry on. “In here” refers of course to my bedroom, because the long wall in here has been transformed into a rather comfortable office.

But, as I said earlier, I didn’t last long. And I missed my afternoon walk, my guitar session, my afternoon coffee, my slice of Christmas cake, all of that too.

Tea tonight was a delicious stuffed pepper with spicy rice. And then biting the bullet, I went for my evening walk.

When I had awoken this afternoon, there was a howling gale outside and a torrential rainstorm going on. This evening though we still had the hurricane but the rain had gone. At least, for half of my journey. For the second part of my walk I got the lot and was like a drowned rat by the time that I returned.

Another day when I haven’t spoken to anyone at all. And I’m not tired after my afternoon sleep. It’s all becoming some kind of circular performance and I can’t break out of it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

This morning I had something of a surprise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

chantier navale port de granville harbour manche normandy franceOn my walk this afternoon, there were a few people around for a change. It’s been quiet just recently out there.

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

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

thora port de granville harbour manche normandy franceBut there are still a few ships sailing out of here.

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

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

storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy franceBut despite the crowds this afternoon, this evening the walk around the walls was totally deserted apart from me.

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

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

thora night port de granville harbour manche normandy franceAnd Thora was still in harbour too.

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

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

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

storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france

storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france

storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france

storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm waves night plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Wednesday 19th December 2018 – HAVING GONE …

… to bed at some kind of reasonable time last night, I actually managed to have a reasonable sleep.

I was off on a travel too, but I’ll spare you the details. It’s another one of those that will catch you just as you are eating a meal or something and you won’t thank me for it.

There was something of a lazy daze which took me a while to overcome, but it wasn’t as late as it might have been which is always good news. Even better news is that the arrangements for my new computer have been confirmed and it might be here in a fortnight if I’m lucky.

After breakfast, I arranged some images, and then started on the High Arctic pages again. A slow ramble through a couple of pages – nothing as exciting as I have been doing in the past, but much better than recently. I’m feeling a little better, but not as much as I would like.

repair work residence vauban place d'armes granville manche normandy franceWe’ve had lunch and then the first of our two walks. But I didn’t get too far out of the building before I came to a resounding halt.

Remember the green machine that was parked out here the other day? Here it is, fully erect and doing a really good impression of a cherry-picker, with some people on board doing some work around the flashing of the dormer window up there.

It looks quite impressive.

repaired stonework rue du nord granville manche normandy franceRegular readers of this rubbish will recall that a while back they were drilling into the wall above the window of a house along the rue du Nord.

Whatever it was that they were doing, they seem to have finished it. And it’s not easy to see where it was that they were working.

You can’t see the join in the stonework where they were pulling stuff out and, presumably, putting stuff back in.

full moon seagull granville manche normandy franceWe had a beautiful early moon as well this afternoon.

I was out there taking a few photos of it, during which I was the victim of a really good photo-bombing.

Here we have a seagull performing a celebratory fly-past. Quite by accident on my part of course, but who knows what goes through the mind of a seagull?

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy franceWe were having a very strong wind this afternoon, and out on the Plat Gousset we were reaping the full rewards of it.

The waves were piling into the sea wall and every now and again, one was getting the timing perfectly right and the spray was soaring up over the unsuspecting passers-by.

And serve them right too.

building work town walls square maurice marland granville manche normandy franceA day or two ago we saw a strange-looking crane parked up on the Square Maurice Marland.

I heard a story a while back that there would be some work being undertaken on the medieval town walls. And here they are with the crane looking as if they are actually doing something.

Loads of bags down there filled with all kinds of building material;

A stuffed pepper (one of the best that I’ve ever made) with spicy rice for tea, and my second walk in the dark. That’s the sum total of my day’s effort. I’m going to go to bed.

But before I go, although I have promised not to fill up my pages with politics, I see that the British press is full of comments about a remark that a British politician is alleged to have made about another one. And it’s caused page after page of drivel pouring out over all kinds of postings on all kinds of communication.

All I can say that with the UK descending into total chaos with talk of troops on the streets to keep order, stockpiling food and baby milk, all this kind of thing, the silly Brits are so stupid and so lacking in any kind of sense of priorities that they consider this to be the most important topic of debate just now.

They need to have their collective heads examined, the stupid people.

canoe fishing boat ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
canoe fishing boat ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

fishing boats ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
fishing boats ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

canoe sea granville manche normandy france
canoe sea granville manche normandy france

fishing boats ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
fishing boats ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

full moon granville manche normandy france
full moon granville manche normandy france

full moon granville manche normandy france
full moon granville manche normandy france

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france
storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Monday 10th December 2018 – BACK IN THE 1960s …

… General De Gaulle famously said that “l’Angleterre n’est pas prêt” to join the European Union.

And 50 years or so further on down the line, the only way that things have changed is that they have changed for the worse.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that another recurring theme that runs through my writings is the failure of British companies to understand what the whole idea is of the European Union, and refuse to sell their products to the rest of the European Union.

Today, I’ve had it said to me not once but twice.

I spent much of the morning on the phone to the UK and I have now ordered my new desktop computer. It will have three hard drives, one of which will be a 256GB solid-state drive. A 3.9GhZ processor and a 8GB of RAM (upgradebale to as much as 32GB if ever I feel the need) complete the package.

And I learnt something new today too. Apparently the only option for an operating system for this set-up is Windows 10. I asked why that might be a problem, to which the salesman replied that most graphics people have abandoned Windows 10 and reverted to Windows 7, which apparently gives much better results.

We hd quite a good chat and he recommended a IPS panel screen. These are flat screens like most computer screens but the image looks the same from no matter what angle it’s viewed.

All I’ll need then is a keyboard, a mouse and a powered USB hub, and then I’ll have all I need.

But here’s the rub. Now that it’s ordered (and paid for) it needs to be delivered. And as soon as I entered my home address in the box, the screen greyed out.

After a considerable amount of trying, I eventually made contact again with the company, who told me that they don’t sell their products abroad. So in the end we inserted THEIR address in the delivery box. They’ll send me a mail when it’s built and I can send someone to collect it.

As it happens I have a friend who lives nearby. She works for a company down the road. She asked me what she should do with the parcel, to which I replied that she could send it over to me by a courier.
“Do you have a courier in mind?”
“No. Just use the one that you use. That should be okay”
“But we don’t sell our products abroad so our courier doesn’t go there”.

The UK has a population of about 65 million people. The rest of the EU has 450 million people and it’s a free, open market where anyone in the EU can sell any product anywhere else in the EU without any restriction whatsoever (not quite true of medicines and one or two other minor products).

And here are a whole pile of British companies refusing to trade with a market of that size!

I’ve never had any difficulty at all ordering stuff anywhere in the rest of the EU and having it delivered. And anyone in the UK has probably never had any difficulty in ordering stuff from the mainland. But for some reason, people in the UK just don’t “get it” and prefer to ignore this massive market.

No wonder there’s a recession and UK industry is collapsing. it really is unbelievable. 450 million people waiting for products and the UK won’t sell to them.

Last night was a late night because I was doing something and lost track of time. When I looked, it was after 02:00 and that’s not very good.

The alarm went off as usual but for once I couldn’t care less. 07:45 was when I plucked up the courage to crawl out from under the sheets.

I’d been away on my travels too during the night. You won’t be interested in the first part of it because you are probably eating your tea right now. But a little later I was in a room with a Muslim girl. She was fitting me out in a headscarf – a light green diaphanous one that when it was folded over double, became an impenetrable yellow. She went off somewhere and I had to get ready to go after her, but for some reason I was taking my time and I had some music playing loudly in the background. So loudly in fact that she came back to tell me to turn down the music and to ask why I hadn’t followed her.

After a late breakfast I sat down and made a list of what I wanted on this computer. It took quite a bit of thought, and once I’d made my list I phoned up and set the rigmarole in motion.

I’ve been using laptop computers since I moved to the Auvergne because of the issue about power. Laptops don’t consume much and of course they will work when the power is switched off. But now I’m installed properly here, it’s high time that I had the kind of set-up that I want.

After lunch I had another phone call to make. It’s only possible to call up on Mondays between 14:30 and 16:30 so I didn’t want to miss it; But each time that I phoned (five times in all) the line was engaged. Eventually I discovered that there was only one person dealing with this enquiry, she worked part-time, and had just one phone line with no queueing facilities.

Now that’s what I call efficiency.

fishing boat and canoe granville manche normandy franceI had both my walks today.

The wind had dropped dramatically this afternoon and it was much more pleasant outside.

And whoever was out there in his little boat towing a canoe somewhere out there between the Pointe du Roc and the Ile de Chausey was having a whale of a time out there

sun clouds baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy franceAnd there were some beautiful cloud effects out there today.

Here, around on the Pointe du Roc overlooking the Baie de Mont St Michel the sun was bursting really beautifully through the clouds and illuminating the sea over there by Cancale.

It’s come out quite well in this photo and I ought to have it framed and mounted.

Tea was a stuffed pepper again, and delicious it was too, with the stuffing having marinaded over a couple of days.

night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy franceOut in the evening air tonight, the wind was almost still.

But there was that much energy stored in the sea that the waves were still crashing down on the Plat Gousset with an astonishing force.

There must be enough energy in the waves to power the whole of the world, I reckon. I don’t really understand why more effort isn’t being put into developing it so that we can continue our escape from a dependence upon fossil fuel.

Well, actually I can. But this isn’t the place to start talking politics.

Tomorrow I might go for pie and mash, especially as there is a leek to use. And that has got me thinking, which is quite a rare event these days. And I’ve decided that I’m going to add a handful of leeks to the shopping order every week in an effort to continue to improve my diet.

It’s probably far too late to do much about my health but there’s no harm in trying.

And did anyone notice the News this evening? Mrs Mayhem made a Statement to the House of Commons to the effect that because she feared that she would lose the vote on secession from the EU, she’s postponed the vote.

I’ve been trying to steer clear of political posts but no-one can ignore this. Mrs Mayhem’s remarks and actions – cancelling the vote because she won’t win it – is the kind of thing that Idi Amin or Robert Mugabe would do.

It’s not the kind of democracy of which any democrat would be proud and makes a total mockery of this idea about “our Parliament being sacrosanct”. It’s a Third-World dictatorship trick and it shows you
1 – just how low the UK has sunk
2 – Mrs Mayhem is running totally scared.

it makes the UK look just like a laughing stock and I really am ashamed to be British.

night trawlers ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
night trawlers ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy france
night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy france