Tag Archives: place d’armes

Saturday 3rd February 2018 – WELL, THAT WASN’T …

… very much of a walk this evening. And I didn’t go out at all this afternoon either.

Mind you, I can’t say that I blame myself at all. The respite that we had from the rain yesterday didn’t last and it’s pouring down outside. All football cancelled tonight, which is hardly a surprise. This has to be the wettest winter that I have ever encountered.

I ended up being late to bed last night, but I still found time to go on a perambulation during the night.

I was working … "he means “employed”" – ed … in a Government office such as the VAT office somewhere and it was announced that we were moving out to another town. The secretary of the local Workingmen’s Club had been sending us notes about entertainment that I had been using in the Staff bulletins so I decided to go to thank him and return all of his notes. I had them all copied into a mauve-coloured binder that I intended to return to him. In the club he was on the stage so I climbed up there to thank him and return his notes but at the very last minute remembered that there were all kinds of other notes from other people in there and it wouldn’t do any good whatever for them to fall into the wrong hands and enter the public domain.

Once more, it was a struggle to leave my bed and you’ve no idea how much I’m looking forward to my Sunday lie-in tomorrow.

After the usul start to the day I had a shower and a general clean-up in my nice, clean bathroom, and then headed for the shops.

In the usual shops, LeClerc and LIDL, I just bought the usual stuff with nothing exciting at all. And I bought the hi-fi cable and connectors at Mr Bricolage.

But I discovered a new shop that has just opened – an office supplies shop called Bureau Vallée. And here I struck quite lucky.

Remember me saying that I wanted some 2GB memory sticks? Well as it happened, they had three on sale at a reasonable price too, so they have disappeared into my shopping bag. They had a decent 4-hole perforator at a reasonable price for which I have been searching for years and a few other bits and pieces too for good measure.

I shall be going back there too, because while their mainstream stuff is rather pricey, their budget products are really good value, which makes a change these days.

But I had to laugh at NOZ. That’s the kind of place that’s almost impossible to describe. It sells surplus, fire-damaged and bankruptcy clearance stocks, time-limited food goods a,d all of that kind of thing. They try their best to keep it tidy but it inevitably turns into something like a jumble sale within half an hour of opening.

Now my new smartphone is a cheap Chinese import that I reckon might have been for a mainstream manufacturer but now outdated. I’ve had it a week but with there being no case for it, the screen is already scratched more than I would like.

And there in NOZ was a huge heap of all different kinds of mobile phone shells, all mixed up and (for the most part) taken out of the boxes so that people could try them.

I spent a good 15 minutes rummaging around and in the end found one that is an exact fit for my phone, with even the switch buttons being uncovered, but the camera hole is slightly out of position (I can drill that out). Not in the box of course but after a good five minutes rummaging around I found an empty box and packaging, and put it in that to take to the checkout.

The fact that the price tag on the box said €2:99 – the cheapest that I could see – had nothing whatever to do with my choice of box.

Just for a change, I decided to spice up my lunchtime soup a little. It’s tomato and vermicelli for the next couple of days, so besides the usual pasta and bulghour, I added some basil, oregano and chili powder. And different it was too.

With no football and no possibility of going for a walk this afternoon I sorted out the music onto the 2gb data sticks. I now have three and I could do with a pile more. I shall have to go back to Bureau Vallée next weekend and hope that they have some more.

But as well as that, I sorted out a box of paperwork that I had collected ages ago from hanging around in Caliburn. That’s been weeded, sorted, filed and some of it binned. And I didn’t say that I found in NOZ some container that will do fine as a waste paper collector.

Having organised that, I set out to master this database that I want to build for my photos.

And if there is a worse database program in the world I have yet to find it.

In the old days, you could program them so that the numbers would automatically increment, fields would “fill down”, “fill up” or “fill series” like with spreadsheets, and columns could be programmed to auto-adjust for width of data. But if this can do all of that, I have yet to discover how to make it work.

I was hoping to have this running in a couple of hours but I have this uncomfortable feeling that unless I can find out how to make it do what I want, I’m going to be here for ever.

Like with most computer programming, there has to be a way to do things like this because they are the kind of requirement that everyone needs.

But I wish that I knew how to do it.

Friday 2nd February 2018 – IN NEWS WHICH WILL SURPRISE …

… everyone who reads the rubbish that I write, I have spent a good part of the afternoon cleaning the bathroom from top to bottom.

And I have to be honest and say that it wasn’t a case of the bathroom not needing it either. I seem to have been somewhat remiss of late.

It now makes the rest of the apartment look rather dubious and so I have resolved that when I don’t have any other fish to fry, like going to the shops or to football matches, I shall attack the apartment corner by corner.

As Nietzsche once famously said, “out of chaos comes order” – but Nietzsche had never ever visited anywhere where I might have been living.

Sleep was better last night and I almost (but not quite) beat the second alarm. I was poised on the point of putting my foot to the ground when it went off.

And after the usual daily start and a little relax, I attacked the European Photo Mountain – and freed up another 10GB of space on the external hard drive, with plenty more to go. But it’s going to take for ever to do, I reckon.

While I was ferreting around in the freezer I came across another part-loaf of bread from the days when I was feeling well. So I liberated it and treated myself to cheese on toast for lunch. It’s difficult to eat because of my mouth problems, but I managed it, taking my time. And nice it was too. I’ll have to pick up some more cheese from Leuven when I go back there.

But that set me on to tidying up the freezer a little and finding a pack of frozen mixed vegetables about which I had completely forgotten. Next time that I make a curry, instead of using tins I’ll add this stuff in and use it up. Then I’ll have room for more oven chips. Not had them for a while.

And I had a quick go around the fridge too. More stuff that I had bought when I was well that had now time-expired. And all of that went into the bin too.

After lunch I arranged the bathroom as I said, and while the floor was drying I went for my afternoon walk.

It was quite windy but very bright out there this afternoon.

And the tide was right out too. And so we had some unusual activity on the beach, with this person out here going for a walk and, I thought, maybe a paddle too.

Not exactly the weather for it if you ask me, but then some people do have some weird ideas about what constitutes amusement and entertainment.

But then I changed my mind about that person, because as I walked farther around the headland, I discovered that they were not alone.

There were at least three other people here on the beach, and they were carrying some kind of tools. So perhaps it’s mussels season or something like that and they were searching in the tidal pools.

But then, what do I know about shellfish?

Back here, I made myself a coffee, sat down quietly – and went to sleep. You’d be surprised about how much a little thing like tidying the bathroom takes it out of me. I know that I’m not well and unfortunately I’m not going to get any better.

Tea tonight was a frozen curry that I had liberated from the freezer. and delicious it was too with rice, fresh carrots and frozen peas. I can’t wait to install a proper kitchen here – my meals will be even better when I have the correct facilities. As it is, I seem to be managing fine enough as I am.

And so back out for a walk this evening. And it’s probably the first evening for quite some considerable time when it hasn’t rained.

My route took me round the walls again and the Place Maurice Marland where we were the other day. It looks quite beautiful now that it’s all finished and the temporary fencing has been taken down.

The photo of the floodlit trees has come out really well and I’m quite pleased with that.

It’s the shops of course tomorrow; and I’ll have to find some football for tomorrow night too. The season should restart, if there are any pitches that aren’t waterlogged.

But not much hope of that.

Thursday 1st February 2018 – I DON’T KNOW …

… what I did yesterday, but as well as having a message service on my phone, both of the alarmss now seem to work fine this morning. Ask me how I know.

And last night I was in some kind of public place like a shop where I’d bought a DVD, and I wanted to check that it worked correctly. This involved putting it in my DVD player, passing the signal trough some kind of pre-amp and then into a television to watch. And conveniently, all of my equipment was there on the shelf and wired up. I reckoned that this would be quite an impressive thing to accomplish in this public place so I duly set it all up. But it wasn’t as impressive as I wanted it to be and I was left with a pile of omelette sur le visage because somehow there was a radio programmme running in the background of ll of this with the sound coming out of the television as well as the sound of the image and the picture, and it was all very disappointing.

Not feeling much like leaving my bed this morning, the second alarm did the business which is just as well, otherwise I might still be in bed now. No idea why I was so tired, unless it was the after-effects of feeling so bad yesterday.

But the medication, breakfast and a nice hot shower brought me round somewhat and once the medication did its stuff I braved the high winds and headed for the shops. It was the usual struggle up the hill to LIDL and there wasn’t really anything that I needed or wanted. I just made do with a baguette and a couple of bits and pieces of food.

On the way back I went down to the docks to see if I could see what was going on.

But I was out of luck. It’s not easy to see from there at the best of times and particularly now, because they have fenced off everywhere in the vicinity where they are working.

What I’ll have to do is to wait until the tide turns, and then go off to the other side of the basin with the telephoto lens and see what I can see from over there

Back here I made a coffee and settled down for a relax – but not for long. The doorbell rang. It was the Postie with a registered letter for me.

Yes, my new driving licence has arrived – complete with the authorisation to drive buses and articulated lorries for hire or reward. I really can’t take that seriously. But it’s scanned into the laptop for future reference just like all of my important documents

After my soup I tackled some paperwork that had been building up and ow that’s all filed away. I’m certainly more organised than I have been for quite a while – and quite right too. Let’s hope that I can persevere.

My work was however interrupted by a need to have a little rest. And I don’t know what it was that awoke me but I sat bolt upright for some reason or other.

Despite already having had a good walk, it was a nice if windy afternoon so I went for another walk.

And I was wondering what was making all of the noise yesterday. It seems that they’ve been doing some gardening round at the back of the college and it looks quite neat and tidy now.

High time that they did something about it too. But whatever vehicle they had used had churned up the lawn by the lighthouse. It’s really not the right kind of weather for driving heavy vehicles on there.

But here’s a thing!

We saw the other day that there was a big digger out in the tidal harbour during low tide raking over the bed. He’s still out there, but today there was some other activity in the tidal basin.

Like this digger and a couple of earth-moving lorries hard at work making a deep channel.

And if that isn’t enough to be going on with, there was another digger and an earth-moving lorry working closer inshore too.

That’s the place where the fishing boats tie up – right by the fish-processing plant. And they seem to be making the channel along the sea wall there much deeper.

Whether this means that we are going to be having bigger trawlers coming into the port I don’t know. But all of this work in the barbour is exciting for a ship-spotting fan like Yours Truly.

Back here I carried on with a few things that I needed to do (without very much enthusiasm it has to be said) and then made tea. The falafel that I had bought weeks ago went straight into the bin untouched – well past its sell-by date. So I had rice with vegetables and a vegan burger.

With only one cooking ring, it wasn’t easy. But a little oil in a pyrex bowl with onions and garlic and cooked in the microwave for three minutes, and then add the burger for 6 minutes (3 minutes each side) and then add a little water and gravy power, and there you are.

I’d planned to go for a walk but just as I was getting ready we had the most astonishing storm. So I stayed here and played the guitar.

But later I did go for my walk, and you can see what weather we had had.

There had been a hailstorm and it seemed to have fallen like snow – fairly deep in places. I’m glad that I hadn’t gone out in it earlier.

Football on the laptop (or on my television of course) later. A Welsh Premier League match between Connah’s Quay Nomads and Bala Town. A pretty sad game, just like the bad old days of 15 years ago on the Nomads’ sodden, waterlogged pitch that gave no hope whatever of a decent match.

So I’ll see what tonight brings. A nice relaxing sleep, I hope.

Wednesday 31st January 2018 – AND I DIDN’T …

… go out to take my mobile phone to be seen to today either.

And there were three good reasons for that

The weather this morning was almost as bad as yesterday. Not quite, but almost. And seeing as I shall be out at the shops (weather permitting) tomorrow, there’s no point in giving myself an unexpected drenching for no really good reason
I’ve not been feeling too good today. In fact this afternoon I was feeling pretty awful
I’m not quite sure what I’ve done, or what buttons I pressed, but all of a sudden the “messages” started to work as it should. And I’ve been able to send and receive messages now. So I hope that it continues tomorrow. We shall see.

I’d had a reasonable night’s sleep last night but waking up was a struggle. I dozed back off to sleep again and the second one didn’t go off (and I’ve no idea why – it’s correctly programmed). So it was with rather a jolt that I awoke a couple of minutes later than I should have done. And that set the tone for the day.

This morning I attacked the photos again and made more progress. And regular readers of this rubbish will recall that this thing about photos started because I was looking for a certain couple of photos that I couldn’t find anywhere where they were supposed to be. But I found them today – called by a different name than I remembered and in a totally different directory too.

Such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

But I wondered why, as the day drew on, it was starting to go cold in here. It seems that I had forgotten to switch on the heating this morning.

After lunch, my exertions caught up with me and I was flat out for a good 45 minutes. Really feeling the strain. And then the Bank finally called me up and we had a chat for a while. It seems that the information that I had given them back on the 5th of January wasn’t sufficient (but of course they hadn’t let me know) so that needed re-doing.

And tracking down the information wasn’t easy either.

The weather had eased off a little by late afternoon so I went for a walk – around the walls today missing out on observing the bad parking. I don’t want my blood pressure going through the roof.

And it seems that they have installed some kind of step at the entrance to the harbour – the tide was out but there was definitely water in the basin and ships were moored in there without grounding out.

I shall have to go for a wander around there tomorrow for a look around and see what gives.

Back here, I grabbed a couple of memory sticks and copied a pile of music onto them. My new hi-fi only plays 999 tracks so I organised the memory sticks accordingly.

But there are thousands of CDs, tapes and records here, with tens of thousands of tracks, and by the time that I’ve finished I reckon that I’ll need a dozen. So anyone who has any old 2GB memory sticks, let me know.

Tea was more tortillas with my spicy filling, and then I went off for a walk around the headland.

It’s full moon tonight so I need to shave the palms of my hands in the morning of course, but it really was nice watching the moonlight reflecting off the water in the harbour.

It made me realise how lucky I was to find this little apartment. It’s only 38.8 m² but it’s ideal for what I want. A sea view and a balcony would be nice of xourse, but having seen the rubbish that is on offer here, I’m glad that I’m in this place.

And final news will surprise you all as much as it surprised me. I’ve had a message from the Driving Licence people – “your application has been processed and your licence sent for printing”.

Well, well, well.

Tuesday 30th January 2018 – I KNOW THAT I SAID …

… that I would be going out this morning. But one look at the weather once it started to become light persuaded me otherwise.

We all know about hanging clouds as a phenomenon in the Auvergne, but they aren’t the kind of thing that you expect to see right on the coast, but here we are.

In the photo, taken at 16:00 or thereabouts, it had lifted quite considerably. But round about 08:30 to log after lunch you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face out there. And it was wet too as you might expect.

Just for a change I had a better night’s sleep again, although there wasn’t all that much of it.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that there are several recurring themes running through my nocturnal voyages. For a start, there’s a certain ski-slope that figures quite often, but another one concerns cars. And we were off again on that one last night. It actually started off with me having to dress myself one morning – and in women’s clothes too (and I’m not sure why either). This led to the obvious question of what do I wear?”. Dressing as a man, it’s always quite easy. Whatever is on th floor from the previous night – or week – or month.
But later on, Nerina and I were moving house and so we were packing. And this involved finding the cars. As some of you might recall, this recurring dream involves me having a pile of Ford Cortinas, some of which might be taxed and some of which might be insured and some of which might be MoT’d – but none of them with all three – parked up at random all over Crewe. And so with having to move house, we needed to round them up. Nerina managed to find one of them, which was an off-white coloured Austin Cambridge as it happened, but I couldn’t remember at all where I had put my brown Cortina 2000E (the one that’s actually in the garage in Montaigut-en-Combraille). And so off we went on another panic-stricken crisis search – something that seems to be a regular feature of my life.

Despite not going out today, I had a shower and cleaned myself up quite considerably. I look rather respectable now, which will come as a great surprise to anyone who knows me. And I spent all day on these photos – making another 23GB of space on my external hard drive by clearing away masses of duplicates.

I went out for my walk this afternoon in the drizzle seeing as the cloud had lifted a little.

And to my surprise, despite the hanging clouds, we had a mini-storm in the bay and the waves were crashing on the sea wall. Some of them were quite impressive but of course there weren’t any of those while I had the camera ready.

But that’s the story of everyone’s life, isn’t it?

But we’re back yet again on this dreadful parking that seems to be dominating our pages right now.

Here’s another car parked with two wheels on the pavement across the road from the school, blocking the pavement for the kids walking down the hill, and there’s an empty parking space right across the road from where she is parked.

It’s this kind of behaviour that really gets on my wick. There’s just no excuse for it.

Tea tonight was spectacularly good. With the rest of the bulghour stuffing from yesterday, I made some spicy kidney beans with yet more bulghour, onions, garlic, mushrooms, olives, tomato sauce and olive oil. And while a spicy rice was cooking itself with some peas and carrots, I rolled some of the stuffing into two tortillas and cooked them in the microwave.

Thoroughly, absolutely and totally delicious. And there’s enough stuffing left over for another couple of tortillas for tomorrow.

We had the usual walk this evening in the light drizzle and now I’m thinking about having an early night.

But not before I tell you about the experiments with the hi-fi. I need to move it to a more permanent place, and while I was measuring up (I need some more speaker cable and I have miles of it back on the farm of course) I tried to experiment by connecting the old speakers to it – the ones from the old hi-fi system that doesn’t work.

And the result was that it seems to be the speakers, not the hi-fi, that have given up the ghost. They were coming through muted and distorted like they did on the old set-up.

And so the next time that I’m moving things around, I’ll try the new speakers in the old hi-fi. And see what happens then. That was a very expensive hi-fi system and I don’t want to discard it lightly.

Monday 29th January 2018 – I’M OFF …

… on this parking thing today again.

Out on my walk this afternoon I came across two of the worst examples that we have yet to encounter. Here is Madame, parked (with her engine running of course) with two wheels on the pavement right by the school, forcing the kids to walk in the street, and directly opposite her is an empty parking space.

Can you ever get more selfish and stupid than this?

The answer is “of course you can”. And just around the corner too.

Here’s another motorist actually on the main highway, and not only does she have her two wheels parked on the pavement, she’s also parked on a bus stop and she’s blocking someone’s driveway to boot.

This particular parking probably takes the biscuit for being the most stupid of all of the stupid and selfish parking that we have ever seen – but I’m sure that as time passes we’ll see some better examples somewhere.

Just a little reminder – there’s a huge free car park just 50 or so metres from where these vehicles are parked.

The new alarm awoke me just fine this morning, although for some reason the second alarm failed to go off. But as I was up and about by the time that it should have gone off so it didn’t make much difference. But I’ll look into it all the same.

After medication and breakfast, and a little repose I went out to the shops.

And one of the penalties of living in an old Medieval walled city with narrow streets is that delivery is sometimes rather a … errr … challenge.

There are a couple of houses undergoing major renovation and someone has ordered a pile of plasterboard, insulation and the metal framework.

The lorry that has brought it can’t pass underneath the gateway so they are having to trans-ship it in several loads with a smaller van. Ohh the exciting life that we lead!

And remember our crane working on the back of one of the houses at the port?

We have a bigger mobile crane here too and he looks as if he’s beginning to dismantle … "disPERSONtle" – ed … the crane.

But then again we’ve seen that here before and I thought then that it was dismantling the crane, but apparently not. So we’ll have to take our walk around there tomorrow to see what’s going on.

And here’s a sight that I didn’t think that we would ever see. You’ll notice that the harbour basin is empty – not just of ships and boats but of water too.

I told you the other day that they were getting ready to replace the gates to the harbour and they look as if they have started.

And aren’t the seagulls enjoying it, with all of the livestock marooned in the little ponds. But it doesn’t say much for the effectiveness of the dredger that we had here the other week. He’s not done a very even job.

And the issues about the harbour and replacing the gates is that the port is not able to be used at low tide.

There’s the Grima out there riding at anchor waiting for the tide to come in and fill the basin. I imagine that she’s nipping in and out as the tide allows here and that’s going to interrupt their schedule.

And it’s a good jon that the weather has calmed down these last few days. It would have been uncomfortable riding at anchor out there in the storms that we’ve been having.

I struggled off up town (and it was a struggle too these days) to LIDL. And my luck was in.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that a few weeks ago LIDL had on special offer some of these kitchen tool kit things – whisk, chopper, shredder and squidger – ad by the time that I arrived, they had sold out.

The same offer was on starting this morning and I was in luck because they still had some left when I arrived. My squidger is an old one that I liberated from Marianne’s and the plastic body is broked, and the rest of the utensils weren’t there. So I liberated a kit. I’m going to be working on my cooking.

The struggle back here was something else too and I reckoned that I deserved the coffee.

For much of the rest of the day I’ve been attacking that pile of photos that I’ve mentioned. And on a very cursory initial examination, I’ve cleared 21.7GB of duplicates. That cheered me up to, because there’s plenty more to go.

So an evening walk too as well as the morning and the afternoon – 110% according to the fitbit. I shall be meeting myself coming back at this rate.

Lunch was soup of course, and tea was a pepper stuffed with tomato, bulghour, onion, garlic, olives, cumin, olive oil and tomato sauce. Thoroughly delicious it was too. There’s some stuffing left over too and that will come in handy tomorrow for I have a cunning plan for tea.

So bed-time again. An early night, I hope, a good sleep and a nice alarm call. For I’m in town yet again tomorrow.

Sunday 28th January 2018 – I WAS SOMEWHAT …

… premature yesterday with my comments about my new smartphone. We’re back with this “inability to message” again.

I know that I am receiving SMS messages because I set a special tone for them. But where they are going, I have no idea, because they aren’t coming up on the screen.

And then I’m not able to message out. The “Messenger” program that I downloaded simply won’t send them, and when I try with the default message program, I have an error message “no SIM card is allocated to SMS messages”. And in settings, it shows one SIM card in my phone – the “second SIM card” is greyed out because of course it’s empty, and the “change SIM” option is likewise greyed out.

So it looks like a visit to the service provider yet again tomorrow.

GRRRRR!

And I was right about the night last night – well, almost. It wasn’t 05:00 when I awoke but 05:25 instead. But leave my stinking pit at that time of the morning? Not on your nellus secundus. 09:35, that’s much more like it on a Sunday.

And I’d been on my travels too. Sitting in a sloping field close to a stone wall reading a book, and a group of children led by some old woman came past and started to chat to me. And a surprisingly intellectual chat it was too for a bunch of kids of that age.
Later, I was back home again and our eight cats (yes, eight) were feeding. And feeding with Tuppence (and anyone who remembers Tuppence will see just how impossible that might have been) was a big black-and-white cat, which certainly wasn’t one of mine. And so I asked my partner what it was doing here, and just received an enigmatic smile.

After breakfast, I vegetated around for a while (well, it IS Sunday), chatting to TOTGA who came on the air.

And once lunch was out of the way I set off on foot in the light drizzle.

All the way out to the Sports Centre on the edge of town.

It was another agonising climb up the hill, and then the long walk along the plateau to the Sports Centre. Three pitches there are here, and one was set up for rugby, with the rugby team warming up prior to a match.

Not that it interests me at all – I have no time for games played by men with odd-shaped balls.

US GRanville’s second XI was playing, and the match had been transferred to the artificial surface here so at least we had some live football this weekend.

US Granville, who were third in the table and in white, were playing UC Bricquebec who were propping up the rest of the clubs in the table. And for the first half of the match, that’s exactly how it went.

Granville’s wingers, one of whom (the n°7) was called Alexis apparently, were tearing the defenders to shreds down the flanks and the score after 45 minutes of 4-0 was not an exaggeration either. I don’t recall Granville’s keeper having anything serious to do

But at half-time UC Bricuebec made three substitutions which, while not improving the team to the slightest degree, seemed to unsettle US GRanville and they looked as if they had lost their composure.

It took ages for them to get back up to steam before they scored a fifth, and then, unbelievably, they missed a penalty. And that seemed to knock the fight out of them. And even more astonishingly the trainer took off the n°7 after an hour, and with that, US Granville’s attack melted away.

UC Briquebec looked much more like it after that and gave the US Granville defence a few dodgy moments – even scoring from a penalty.

But the scoreline of 5-1 is good enough, although it could have been so much more.

The light drizzle seemed to ease off on the way home, but I noticed that away in the distance over Jullouville they were having a pasting again. This weather really is miserable.

I came back and had a coffee and a little play on the guitar. I’d been listening to Aqualung – one of the finest rock albums ever made, and I had worked out in my head the bass line to the title track.

So I tracked down a copy on the laptop and played along to it for a while. Brought back many happy memories, that did.

And if I keep going like this, I shall have to start looking for a band.

Vegan pizza again for tea (and I forgot the olives) and then another walk. I’m at 114% of my daily activity which is good news of course.

And now bed-time. We’ll see if this alarm on the new phone works as well as the last one.

Saturday 27th January 2017 – I’VE BEEN SPENDING …

… my money again. And I won’t have any left at this rate, will I?

And it wasn’t on the usual Saturday shopping either. A visit to LIDL, LeClerc, Noz and the Foirfouille ran out at just about €33:00 which is reasonably normal – especially when you consider that I spent about €12:00 in the NOZ.

Where the money went was in the electrical section of LeClerc.

You know all about the smartphone issues that I’ve been having just recently, and the little old Samsung that has been helping me out isn’t really doing the job in the long-term. I’ve looked at second-hand ones and there’s nothing that seems reasonable, and as you know, I’ve been quoted some ludicrous prices for some new ones.

There were some cheap ones on eBay and Amazon but the reviews weren’t all that good, and when you buy from places like that, there’s no comeback.

But in LeClerc they had some cheap Chinese ones on offer – with Android operating system. Only 3G, but I’m not too bothered about that, but 16GB of memory and upgradeable with a 32GB micro SD card (and I just happen to have one) and Dual-SIM. They were going for €89:99 but today there was a €15:00 cash-back offer available.

The advantages of buying from LeClerc are that

LeClerc wouldn’t deliberately set out to sell rubbish
They have a cash-back offer if the article isn’t satisfactory
There’s a two-year guarantee on parts and labour

I’m not entitled to a new phone for another year so if this keeps going until then I’ll be happy.

And it’s actually much better than I thought it might be, which is a surprise. The hardest part of configuring it was to fit the SIM card, because that is a complicated procedure. Everything works, and the internet access is quite rapid. So we’ll see how it goes.

There was also an exciting time with the new dash-cam. Configuring that wasn’t straightforward either, and the videos that it produced were rubbish. I must have spent an hour trying to make it record in a better quality, all to no avail.

But it did make a dramatic improvement later in the afternoon when I took the plastic protective coating off the camera lens.

D’ohhhh!

It was another miserable night where I didn’t have much sleep. I’d been on my travels too but I can’t remember too much about it except that we were in a café and there was this strange bar accessory. Some people might know of the machine that looks like a shower fitting with hose, with different buttons on the head that you select to dispense different soft drinks. There was one of those last night but it was dispensing different milks, such as soya milk and the like.

It was an effort to crawl out of bed and after having medicined and breakfasted, I had a shower and then set a load of clothes to wash while I was out.

And then we had the shops.

After lunch I had a play around with the new phone but ended up crashing well and truly out for a good half an hour. And then had the first of my two walks (all the local football tonight is postponed).

There was football on the internet which I watched on the TV – Llandudno v Rhuthun in the Welsh Cup. An exciting match that went into extra time before Llandudno ran out as winners. And while it was on, I carried on configuring the phone and now it seems to do what I want it to do.

Tinned curry for tea – only two of these tins left now which is a tragedy because there won’t be any more. I haven’t been to the UK for almost 5 years now and I’ve no intention of going again. So unless someone else brings me back a supply that will be my lot.

Tomorrow it’s a lie-in of course, and I do have to say that I need one too. So either I’ll still be flat out on my back at midday or I’ll be wide awake at 05:00.

It’s either one thing or the other right now.

Friday 26th January 2018 – NOW, HERE’S A THING.

I had a telephone call this afternoon – at 18:22 to be precise.

It was the bank, exactly as I had hoped. You may or may not believe this but some time shortly after the Bank sent me this famous letter, they actually received the document that they were seeking, so it’s no longer necessary for me to trouble myself to go to the Branch to sign the paperwork. And so the person to whom I was chatting presented his apologies quite profusely.

And then we had a long chat about Banking procedures and the like, and I gradually brought the question round to my problems with the Branch. And after listening to my complaint, he agreed to approach the manager himself, obtain an explanation of all of the errors, and have the manager contact me next week with his proposals to resolve the issues.

So it pays to complain and it pays even more to complain to the right people. Opportunities don’t come along very often but you need

to recognise them
to seize them with both hands

when they do.

Another miserable night last night, and I was running around all over the place. But I’ve no idea where I went because it was one of those dreams that disappeard right out of my head as soon as the alarm went off.

It was a struggle to leave my bed though and I wasn’t feeling at all like it this morning which was a shame. I can’t remember what it was that I did either. I remember fetching a binder ready to transfer all of my bank statements into one place but somehow that project wasn’t even started, never mind finished. It really was a wasted morning.

Just for a change I fancied cheese on toast for lunch, seeing as how I’ll be off to Leuven soon and I can buy more cheese. It was difficult to eat but I managed it all the same and it did make a nice change from soup for once.

This afternoon I cracked on – despite crashing out at one point for a good, deep half-hour. I rescued the micro-SD cards that I use in the dash-cam, copied their contents onto an external hard drive and reformatted them. While that was going on, I spent a considerable amount of time setting up the older dash cam, charging it up and getting it ready to take to Canada next summer.

I had another attack at the photos that I re-found the other day and actually managed to start something off with them, and I’ve also made a start on the dictaphone notes from North America this last summer. Add to that some tidying up and you’ll see that we are making good progress for a change.

Half an hour as usual on the guitar, where I suddenly remembered the bass line for “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”, and I went for the usual couple of walks.

Tea was a frozen Aubergine and Kdney-Bean whatsit. And delicious it was too. There might even be room in the freezer now for the peas and the frozen peppers that I need.

But I wonder if I’ll have an early night? I could certainly do with one.

Thursday 25th January 2018 – THE DIE IS CAST

All last evening, part of the night and for the early part of the morning, I had a long think about the letter that I wrote yesterday.

To say that it’s an incendiary epistle is an understatement and at one stage I was thinking that maybe I should calm it down somewhat. And then I thought again.

I remembered Gotthold Lessing, and his quote, crudely translated by Yours Truly (and if there’s anything that needs doing crudely, then in the words of the late, great Bob Doney “I’m your man) “A man who does not lose his reason over certain things has none to lose”.

What’s been happening to me at the Crédit Agricole over the last 9 months has long since passed beyond the point of reason and one day I’ll tell you all about it.

And there are also the words of Sir Walter Raleigh – not the Elizabethan adventurer but the early 20th-Century author – who said “he is thrice armed who has his quarrel just”.

And so with this letter being the perfect lead-in, there’s no time like the present to start to wage a war, and so I made a couple of minor amendments, posted one copy off to the Bank’s Head Office and took the other one to the local branch where I instructed the receptionist to place it in the hands of the Branch Manager.

As I said, I’ll probably regret writing it, but I need to bring this sorry affair to a conclusion one way or another and there won’t be a better opportunity.

Last night was another bad night. I ended up going to bed late because I couldn’t sleep, and I was awake before the alarm went off too. There’s a lot going on in my mind right now of course.

So I medicated and breakfasted, had a shower and then went off to town and my letter deliveries.

It was a struggle to make it to LIDL but I made it in the end. And then I couldn’t think of anything that I needed. I bought a baguette, some rice and some pasta because that’s the kind of thing that you can always use.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that I’ve encountered another problem. I need to send in a “proof of residence” with my driving licence, and as my annual electricity bill is outside the date limit, I was intending to send a rent receipt for my apartment. But on examining the latest rent receipt, they have the address wrong!

And so while I was in town I went to the estate agents and they revised the details and very kindly printed off a new receipt. So that’s that problem sold.

Just by way of a change, I came back from LIDL a different way – along the plateau to the south of the town and then down the steps right into the centre.

And from the top of the steps there’s this nice view across to the Hotel Des Bains (the big building right of centre) and the sea, right by where the Casino (the turrets poking up left of centre) is.

And you can see that just for a change we were having some fine weather. And it wasn’t cold either.

Back here I made a coffee and then sat down to recover up until lunchtime, when I finished off the rest of yesterday’s vegetable soup.

Having done that, I attacked the driving licence. And start as you mean to go on – a piece of paper jammed itself in the printer and I was there for an hour dismantling … "disPERSONtling it" – ed … it to solve the problem. It was only a tiny fragment too, but it would have to be just big enough to cover the sensor, wouldn’t it? It’s a good job that that didn’t happen when there were important things to do.

But eventually all of the paperwork was completed and having deleted all that I can off my telephone, I had enough free space to receive the texted code from the Bank to authorise my payment.

So that’s gone off and I have the receipt. But by heck it isn’t half a complicated procedure.

I was late for my afternoon walk but I went all the same. And I went once more around the medieval walls.

My route took me past the statue of Maurice Marland. He was a schoolteacher and leader of a cell of Resistance fighters here in Granville. Despite having been arrested and tortured in 1943 he carried on with his Resistance work but was captured again on 22nd July 1944.

No-one knows what happened after that but a couple of days later his body was found in a ditch with five gunshot wounds.

His Resistance cell was broken too and several membfitbiters were likewise executed. This is a monument to all of them.

Another coffee and a session on the guitar, and then a chat to TOTGA on the laptop. That led up nicely to tea which was another frozen curry from the batch in the freezer. Potato and chick-pea, this was.

The day finished off with another walk, and I’m now at 120% of my day’s activity plan.

No sign of the Bank but it’s probably the calm before the storm. We’ll see what tomorrow will bring.

Wednesday 24th January 2018 – I HAD AN UNEXPECTED …

… lie-in this morning. It seems that the telephone battery went flat during the night and so it didn’t ring. Instead of a 06:45 awakening, it was something more like 08:45 when I left my stinking pit. It’s a good job that that hadn’t happened yesterday, isn’t it?

And I’d been on my travels too during the night – reliving parts of a nocturnal ramble that I had undertaken a good while ago. I was at one of the railway termini in South London (Victoria? Waterloo?) and needed to travel to Leicester (why, I have no idea). So instead of going on the Tube, I took the bizarre decision of crossing London on the bus, despite the heavy traffic on the streets. So I walked away from the Underground station that we have visited before on a nocturnal ramble and leapt aboard the bus, with the conductor telling me that it might take TWO HOURS. We ended up going down Euston Road on a high ridge looking northwards to some kind of rural view (which we have seen before) quite unlike anything that you might see around Kilburn and Kensal Green. I cant remember who I was with now but she insisted that we stop for a meal, even though time was running out. And there she was, gaily chatting away quite nonchalantly with her food and the sands of time were disappearing. It all fitted in with another nocturna ramble, where I was on a train heading somewhere but ended up at Crewe Station instead.

With no reason to go out early, I could have my medication and eat breakfast. But I didn’t feel like doing very much at all. In the end I made a start on the pile of photos that I mentioed earlier, trying to sort them, but my heart wasn’t in it and I was easily distracted.

When I was at Coutances yesterday I saw some more packets of soup that I could eat – no milk proteins or anything like that. “9 vegetables passed through a sieve” so I bought a few packets. This lunchtime I made one up. And while it isn’t the best soup that I’ve ever tasted, it went down quite nicely with some more bread. Thickening the soups out with this small pasta and bulghour is definitely the way to go.

This afternoon I finally knuckled down to work and scanned all of the paperwork from yesterday. Tomorrow when I come back from the shops I’ll send off for my new licence. I hope that I have all of the paperwork now.

Many people have asked me why I keep a detailed blog like this, and I always answer that there are several reasons.

When I used to work on rebuilding the farm and installing all of the solar panels and wind turbines and the like, it kept people up-to-date with that I was up to. Believe it or not, there were many people who were interested
When I’m on my travels, it lets people know what I’m doing and where I am, so that they have plenty of time to head for the hills if I’m on my way in their direction.
With my health issues, it lets people know that I’m still here and still alive. And if there’s a silence for a couple of days, like there was in Verdun last March, they can come to look for me and mak sure that I’m okay.
I’m the world’s worst at self-motivation. And so if I put down o here that I’m going to do something the next day, then I’m obliged to do it so that I don’t look silly, as well as being some kind of reminder.

But it serves another purpose too which is much more important. It’s an indexed blog and I can save keywords. And then I can search the keywords and see the entries that relate to those words. And that way I can tell, for example, exactly how many times I went to the Bank since 2009, and more importantly, the text of the blog will tell me why I went.

So when I receive a rather aggressive letter from the Bank, as I did yesterday, about something that they think that I have failed to do, I can search through my index (which takes about half a second) and tell them in an even more aggressive reply of the FIFTEEN times that I have been to the Bank since 27th April 2017, whom I saw and the reason for each of the visits. All there, documented in black and white.

And if they don’t like my reply, which I’m sure they won’t, they can close down my accounts and send me back all of my money. And then I’ll go and look for a competent Bank where my custom will be welcomed.

Having written my letter, I went out for a walk.

Today I took the route by the city walls – but on the pavement, not on the footpath below due to the weather conditions.

And we can see that our crane has now moved from the side of the quay down to the entrance to the port area where there are the lock gates. I imagine that it’s those that are going to be replaced.

And I wonder what that might mean for the port.

But there’s a thing over there.

They have been building a new block of flats at the port for as long as I can remember and they are slowly reaching their finish. There’s a radio aerial been erected and today there was a guy climbing up there connecting the wires.

A hard hat, but no safety harness, not colleague to assist, no nothing. Just imagine that in the UK Nanny State with all of the Health and Safety restrictions.

Back here I made myself a coffee – but promptly fell asleep for an hour instead so it was cold. And then I’ve spent the time, apart from the half-hour on the guitar, re-reading my letter and tweaking it a little. When writing something off the cuff like that, it’s always a good idea to go for a walk and a think before sending it.

I had some grated vegan cheese left over from the other day so I made myself a pile of mashed potatoes and assorted vegetables all drowned in a cheese sauce. And delicious it was too. And then the evening walk around the headland.

And I hope that the alarm works tonight.

Tuesday 23rd January 2018 – AND IN NEWS …

… that will surprise, if not shock, regular readers of this rubbish who have been following my vicissitudes with bated breath, according to the medical examination that I was given this morning by a doctor who works in partnership with the French Government, I am considered fit enough to drive a 44-tonne articulated lorry or a bus with 75 paying passengers on the public highway.

Last night was another miserable night, having gone on yet another lengthy travel, the details of which were immediately wiped from my memory as soon as I awoke. And I staggered off into the living room with no medication and no breakfast this morning, for obvious reasons.

Nevertheless I did manage a shower and a change of clothes though – I need to look my best for my appointment at 09:15.

At about 08:00 I hit the road for Countances.

And it’s a good job that I allowed myself plenty of time because I needed it. Quetteville sur Sienne isn’t “Quetteville on Sienne” at all – it’s “Quetteville-in-the-Sienne” right now.

You’re all aware of the weather that we’ve been having just recently. While most of Europe has been swaddled in snow these last few weeks, we’ve had nothing but torrential rain

As a result the Rivier Sienne has burst its banks and the outskirts of the town (the town itself is perched on an eminence) are flooded.

It’s completely cut off to the north and so all of the traffic heading to Coutances and Cherbourg is diverted down a country lane. And by the looks of things, a couple more days of this weather and this won’t be passable either.

It certainly messed up my arrival.

But I was there in good time and, as luck would have it, I found a parking place right outside the doctor’s at the back of the sous-Prefecture. And that’s not something that happens every day either, is it?

Being early, I was first in. And out again after 10 minutes.

And this medical is a total farce. I hadn’t said anything about it because I was convinced that I would fail it, with my well-documented medical history. And I was determined to answer every question honestly, truthfully and completely. Which I did.

The only problem with that though is that he only asked two or three questions – and nothing of any significance.

The scar on my chest from neck to navel and the chemo port in my left shoulder should have given the game away but, unbelievably, he stethoscoped me with my tee-shirt on.

A test of my vision and a few exercises in co-ordination, and that was my lot. I’m fit to drive a 44-tonne artic or a bus on the public highway. And if that’s an example of a medical undergone by every other lorry or bus driver in France, then God help the average motorist.

Being out early, I had plenty of time to kill. And so I went for a wander around the town.

Coutances is a Roman town, named for the Emperor Constantine, but was destroyed by the Vikings in 866, the French in the 12th Century (Normandy was an independent Duchy until 1204), the Huguenots in the 16th Century, the town planners in the 18th Century and the Royal Air Force and American Air Force on 6th June 1944 and a couple of days thereafter.

And so there are traces of ruins here and there about the place, and you can’t really identify them or say who it was who destroyed them.

But the Allies’ bombardments killed well over 300 civilians and there’s a monument to them at the back of the cathedral.

And I do have to say that I was very disappointed in this monument. I could have done something better and more powerful than this, and I expected to see at least a list of names of those who died.

But apparently not. And I can’t understand why

As for the cathedral itself, it remained surprisingly undamaged during the bombardment. Clearly, the Devil looks after his own.

But then again, it has suffered enough.

The first recorded church on the site (this isn’t of course to say that there weren’t earlier ones) dates from about 430, and the story goes that a heathen temple was cleared away to make the space.

This chirch was destroyed in the Viking raids, and when the town was reoccupied at the beginning of the 11th Century, construction of the cathedral began.

When the French took over from the Normans, they completely redesigned the cathedral and what wasn’t demolished was hidden by their modifications.

The interior of the Cathedral is nothing much to write home about.

I was expecting something spectacular give the cathedral’s fame as one of the favourite churches of William the Conqueror and as a pilgrimage venue, but it’s nothing like that at all.

It’s actually quite spartan ad even the stained glass windows are nothing like as flambouyant as you might expect.

The cathedral is the “Cathedral Notre Dame” – the Cathedral of Our Lady, and so ypu might be forgiven for expecting to see statues of Mary and Jesus all over the place.

But you’ll be very disappointed, because I couldn’t see any statue of any significance.

And as for the Chemin de la Croix, we’ve seen some exotic symbolisation on our travels, but here, there were just a few notices with numbers written thereupon – no paintings or statues at all.

The Twon Hall across the square though is certainly splendid and does the town a great deal of credit.

I’ve no idea when it was built, but a great deal of civic construction took place in the period of the “Second Empire”, so it’s quite possible that it dates from that period – the third quarter of the 19th Century.

The fountai in front of it was rather disappointing though. I was expecting much more than that.

I’m not sure how much the town hall was damaged by the bombings of June 1944, but you can tell that the surrounding area was pretty badly hit.

You’ll notice the building on the left – the row of shops with flats over the top (this is actually a hotel here). Go to any French town that was badly damaged during the war and you’ll see this style of building in every town centre.

Designed by architects such as Louis Arretche, they were designed to be thrown up in a matter of a couple of days to bring back the life into the town centres as quickly as possible, and they’ve withstood the pressure of time rather well.

At 10:00 I was outside the mobile phone repairer’s, and at least, they decided to have a look at it. And that’s progress. They would call me back.

I went for a coffee and then to do some shopping. Apart from the usual stuff that I need, I found a cheap shop and bought some stationery and also a new dash-cam – for just €11:95. I already have one but I don’t like it much – it’s big and obtrusive but it will do to take to Canada and install in Strider. The new little one, I’ll put in Caliburn.

They called me back bang on midday. They couldn’t get it to work so could I come by and pick it up?

Not until 14:00 after lunch so I grabbed a baguette and some stuff to go on it and had a quiet relax in the rain.

There’s an Orange shop in the town so I went in to see what they had. Strangely, they didn’t want me to browse the stock, but they would give me a “special deal”. They would knock 50% off one of their phones for me and let me have it at … errr … €349.99.

Quite.

Down the hill at the repairer’s, they also tried to fix me up with a deal. And while it might have bee more attractive, it wasn’t that attractive. So they suggested I try a phone laboratory in Saint-Lô who might be able to repair mine.

But when my new UK credit card arrives (I posted off all of my letters this morning too) I have another idea.

Having done all of that I came home, to find that yet another problem has arisen at the Bank. I’m not saying too much now, but I’m going out tomorrow to buy a pick-axe handle and I shall deal with the issues in the traditional manner by impressing my message into the skull of the bank manager in Morse Code with the aforementioned.

Having exerted myself quite a lot today, I crashed out for a couple of hours too. And I’m not surprised. And then it was tea. Microwaved potatoes with home-made burger in a bun from the batch at Liz’s, and vegetables. delicious it was too.

And then it was walkies. Around the headland.

And that was where I should have been had I been able to exert myself the other day. At the football. And Granville won too – 3-2 in extra time. Just 16 clubs left now in the Cup and I wonder who they’ll draw in the next round.

Rest assured – I’ll be camping out at the ground the night before and I’ve asked if, if the match is “away”, whether there will be any buses running.

But now it’s bed-time. I’ve done over 100% of my daily activity target and that’s enough for today. All 1560 words of it.

Monday 22nd January 2018 – THERE’S NO TIME …

… like the present to start to change into some good habits.

And so I altered the alarm call from 07:30 to 06:45. Not quite the 06:00 of the last year or two, but it’s a change in the correct direction. If I’m having difficulty sleeping, I may as well have no sleep sitting on the sofa than lying in bed.

During the night I’d been on my travels too – I think. I spent it thinking about horses in warfare and how they pull their chariot or whatever behind them – and so they are most at risk from the enemy. But if you could put something in front of them, like a giant lawnmower, and had the horse push it, it would be so much better and much more effective. And so I went off on my travels experimenting. Of course there are countless difficulties in doing this, and I seemed to be having enormous amounts of fun trying to overcome them when the alarm awoke me.

After the usual medication and breakfast I had a few things to do, that took me much more time than it ought to have done, and then I got down to the correspondence.

I can’t remember now how many letters I wrote but looking through my correspondence directory on my laptop there hasn’t been a day when I’ve written anything like as many. Having to go back through my files of paperwork – that took the time as I kept on unearthing more stuff and yet more stuff that needed attention.

And then there’s the printing too, but luckily the printer seems to be working fine just now, which makes a really good change.

Next plan was to fill in these forms that I need for my replacement driving licence. That wasn’t easy because a couple of years ago all of the Groups for vehicles changed and now bear little resemblance to what is on my licence.

So I had to spend a while researching the new legislation to see exactly what new groups I am covered to drive. And it looks as if I’m covered to drive all of them. So I’ve ticked all of the boxes and they can decide if it’s appropriate.

And here’s an added problem – as if I don’t have enough to deal with. I need a “proof of residence” less than 6 months old. And with my electricity bills being annual, the one that I have is time-expired. So I printed off a receipt for my rent from just a week or two ago – and it seems that the Estate Agents have put the wrong address on the form.

The good news though is that when someone sends you a medical report listing a description of your illness and prognosis, they ought to do it in *.pdf format – not in *.doc format because documents in that format can be edited and that surely can’t be right.

I’ve had my to walks today, and my three meals. I need to make some room in the freezer as the peppers have run out and the peas are likely to follow them. So I had a frozen potato and lentil curry. Trouble is, with taking one of those out, there seems to be less room in the freezer than there was beforehand.

It’s an early start tomorrow and I need a shower before I set off, so I shall try for an early night. And – I hope – a decent sleep.

Sunday 21st January 2018 – TODAY WASN’T …

… the day that I wanted either.

We started off with another depressing night where it took me ages to go off to sleep. And then I was awake again just before 07:00. Mind you I’d been on my travels during the night. Or, rather, someone else had. One of the football clubs whose results I always check is Greenock Morton in Scotland and someone from the club came to see me and chatted for three hours to me about the future plans of the club, all of which were very interesting.

But never mind 07:00 – it was more like 08:30 when I crawled out of bed – mainly for the reason that any male of my age will immediately recognise.

After medication and breakfast, I vegetated for quite a while (well, it IS Sunday) before I did anything. And when I felt like it, I put away the washing that had been drying in front of the radiator for a couple of days.

And having spent a couple of days looking for the little laptop that I take with me on my travels and which I couldn’t find it, I cme across it, in its little portable carry-case. What a silly place to leave it, hey?

Much of the day has been spent going through another portable external drive that I came across on my travels and discovering another pile of unsorted photos on there that relate to one of my trips to Canada.

They’ll need to be sorted at some time or other but I couldn’t face it this afternoon.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Going through the box that I was unpacking, I found two new ink cartridges. I’m hoping that they are for the Hewlett Packard that I have here (I can’t think why else I would have brought them from the farm) and they don’t look much like the old Canon stuff to me.

There should have been a football match at St Pair-sur-Mer this afternoon but with the depressing weather continuing, I decided to give it a miss. If last night’s games were called off everywhere I couldn’t see this match taking place with the additional downpour this morning and it’s a long way to go to find out.

But I’ve been for my two walks today all the same, and got myself pretty wet too in the process. It looks as if it’s never going to stop, doesn’t it?

And for tea, another pizza. And I’m going to have to stop buying the bases at LIDL. Last week’s was rolled backwards so it took all kinds of effort to get it out of the packet, and this week’s wasn’t any better and ended up being quite a mess. I’ll have to bite the bullet and buy the expensive stuff from LeClerc.

So back to work tomorrow, and I need to continue to write the pile of letters that are awaiting me. I’m out on Tuesday so I want to have as many as possible done for then so that I can post them off.

I shall take full advantage of this printer while it’s still working.

Saturday 20th January 2018 – WHAT A HORRIBLE …

… 24 hours I’ve had.

It all started to go wrong round about this time last night when I was thinking about going to bed. Never mind not being tired enough to go to sleep, I wasn’t even tired enough to go to bed – and that’s a surprise after everything that I did yesterday.

Instead I sat on the sofa, read some stuff on the internet and listened to a continual stream of Led Zeppelin until about 03:30.

Going to bed after that although still not in the mood, but I must have gone to sleep at some point because I went off on my travels again. But it’s another one that you won’t want to know anything about if you are eating your tea or have a nervous disposition.

But nevertheless, I was awake at about 06:00 before going back to sleep again – and a very tired and sad me hauled itself out of bed at some time later than the alarm.

After the medication and breakfast I had a shower and then hit the town – rather later than intended. I did the usual round of the shops and the only thing that I bought as an extra was a spectacle repair kit for €5:00. That’s important because it has lots of little stuff in it that will come in handy for dismantling this smartphone and seeing it I can fix the touchscreen.

However, firstly I didn’t spend a centime in NOZ and that’s only happened once or twice over the past seven or so years. There was nothing of any interest at all. In fact, I’ve been noticing that their prices are slowly creeping up and it’s nothing like the bargain basement that it used to be.

And secondly, no tickets for the football on Tuesday night. I tried at LeClerc, the stadium, the ticket agency and a couple of Sports bars. Not a one. And that’s surprising because the opponents, Concarneau, are only one division higher than Granville – it’s not at all like Bordeaux.

Back here, after lunch I found that I had forgotten to put on my fitbit after my shower. So that was a whole morning’s effort unrecorded. And I had so much to do too but instead, I crashed out completely and was gone into a really deep sleep for a couple of hours. 17:15 when I awoke.

There was football this evening at Cérences so off I set in the torrential rainstorm, only to find the stadium in total darkness. That’s not really surprising with all of the rain that we have had. A waterlogged pitch is inevitable.

So I had a quick drive around a couple of other grounds and they were all in darkness to so I came home and had tea.

The rain subsided later so I went for a walk around the walled town, keeping to the cobbled streets so as not to sink in the mud.

So now I’ll be off to bed if I can tire myself out enough. And Sunday is a lie-in and Day of Rest. But I doubt if I shall be able to have one. I’m not doing too well right now.

EPIC HALL

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