Tag Archives: place d’armes

Wednesday 19th July 2017 – THIS WALKING IDEA …

… is supposed to make me sleep better at night.

And it worked for the first couple of nights, but last night I dunno what happened because I was still sitting up here working at 01:45 and even when I did go to bed I couldn’t sleep (note to self – check Fitbit next time that I charge it up)

So a very tired me staggered out of bed this morning … errr … somewhat after the alarm had gone off.

Grey, miserable and windy. But that’s enough about me – let’s talk about the weather. And I didn’t feel much like going out for my baguette this morning. But I was early too, which makes a change.

Lunch on the wall, with no lizards and mice to keep me company, a little … errr … repose this afternoon, and another helping of lentil and mushroom curry for tea.

And the blog.

Having spent some time last night (or, rather, early this morning) untangling my visit to the UK in early June 2011, I started the assault on the pages.

I’m halfway through at the morning, having dealt with pages like this one that never even had a place-holder before. The next half a dozen have been done too.

It’s amazing the things that I have forgotten, and the things that never made it onto the blog. it’s high time that I caught up with it.

And remember the other day when I mentioned my mammoth expenditure?

The first part of it has come today. But of course it’s the part that doesn’t work without the other bit, so you’ll have to wait a little longer to see what it is.

Tuesday 18th July 2017 – CRASH! BANG!

No, I’m not doing the washing-up.

There I was at lunchtime sitting on my wall at lunchtime eating my butties and admiring the view (and watching the Grima depart for Jersey with a full load of stuff on board) and thinking to myself “it’s going a bit dark across the bay round by Cancale”.

Back here at about 15:30 the most enormous hurricane sprang up – totally astonishing; I stuck my head out of the window and I could see the wild storm lashing the rocks.

About 5 minutes later it went as black as pitch and I thought “hey up – we’ll get the lot in a minute!” and I hadn’t even finished saying it when there was the most impressive flash of lightning followed by an incredible thunderclap.

And then we had the rain.

Sheets and sheets of it, with the orchestra and light show rumbling on and on.

It all cleared up after about half an hour and we were then back in the sunshine. But that was so impressive. I really enjoyed the show.

What else that was impressive was that I was out like a light last night and slept right though until the alarm went off.

I don’t remember too much abut my little voyage last night though. Except that it was in Luxembourg – or was it Liechtenstein – and a visit to the country’s tax office, only to find that because of the small size of the country there wasn’t enough room for the Government offices there so they were all in the next town in a neighbouring country.

Today, I’ve been pressing on with the blog. And most of the time has been spent on just one particular page. 2300 or so words on there, and it’s hard to believe that there wasn’t even a placeholder there before.

Not only that, I’ve probably done another 9 or 10 too and I’m in April 2011. And I would have done even more had I not … errr … had a little rest.

Won’t be so easy in a bit though because there’s a huge mess of pages to untangle from when I was in the UK. It’s hard to believe that I went from March 2009 to early summer 2011 without setting foot in the Perfidious Albion except for a day trip to pick up the tile cutter.

But then again, apart from a quick day trip for Terry’s slates, I’ve not been there since December 2012. And I can’t say that I miss it any. My future is well and truly here.

And those of you with long memories will remember me moaning a while back about a data cable for my Canadian mobile phone, and Rhys using the medium of the “comments” page to show me on that he had seen?

Well, it arrived in the post today.

So many grateful thanks from me, and you will be receiving a plain brown envelope in the post shortly after I set foot in Montreal.

The comments facility on this blog is a powerful thing. Why don’t you try it some time?

Monday 17th July 2017 – LAST NIGHT …

… I had 5 hours 38 minutes of restful sleep and 1 hour 14 minutes of restless sleep. I can see that I’m going to become pretty annoying with this Fitbit thing.

But don’t worry – it only synchronises the data when I charge it up off the laptop. That’s about once every three or four days, I reckon. And if I charge it up off a plug then it will be even less frequent than that.

But it must have been the restless bit when I was away with the fairies. And just for a change last night, with something that doesn’t happen very often at all, I was an observer in this one.

For some reason the star of last night’s show was a woman. She needed to be somewhere at 08:15 and it was now 07:55 so she reckoned that she had a couple more minutes to loiter around before she needed to leave. But just as she was about to go her husband shouted down from his window that he would take her if she could wait a couple more minutes. It turned out that her husband was a medical man of some description and in taking her he was leaving a couple of patients unsupervised. While he was away something went wrong and he was hauled up before the GMC. It was held that as the nature of his wife’s voyage was something medical, he was not wrong to attend to her, but in abandoning his other patients for that period he was guilty of a lack of good judgement.

The alarm awoke me and after breakfast I went and had a shave and a shower (and to charge up the Fitbit off the laptop – hence the data – while I was in there). And I nipped down to the magasin de presse quite early for the baguette – before the crowds arrived.

Lunch was of course on my wall, and I saw the Grima come dieseling in. I was going to take a photo but I found that I had left my phone behind. But it was nice up there in the sun – I really enjoyed it.

For tea I put a mug full of lentils in the slow cooker at 17:00 and by 19:30 they wee done to a turn. With the left-over mushrooms I made another mega-curry with enough for three more days.

Good news on the blog front. I’ve now caught up with where I wanted to be. I have however lost 48 entries somewhere that don’t fall in the “unclassifieds” and don’t fall in the “updated” either. I’m intrigued to know what is the issue with them.

But what I’ve done is to start at the beginning – july 2009 – and go through looking for missed days – days which have been conjoined into others. I’ve already found eight or none that I have missed and which now have pages of their own.

Two pages in particular from my 2010 visit to Canada – this one and this one – have taken me all afternoon and quite rightly so.

They were immense and it gave me an opportunity to put into practice the idea about which I told you yesterday – to write up my daily adventures in North America on the blog rather than on the website – although I might do that as well in due course.

Now I’m going to go for a 10-minute stroll. I’ve done this the last couple of nights as the Fitbit is telling me that I’m not having anything like enough exercise and that I’m sitting around far too much.

Sentiments with which I concur wholeheartedly.

Sunday 16th July 2017 – ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!

The best yet!

Now that I have finally worked out how to do it, I shall be doing it again and again.

Quite simplt, take out the bottom tray, move the cooking shelf down one notch, and there I had the most beautiful pizza yet, done to a turn just a couple of minutes longer than recommended.

I’m well-impressed with that!

I had a good night’s sleep too, and was off on a considerable number of travels too during the night. And I’ll tell you all about them once I download them off the dictaphone, because I forgot to do that this morning.

D’ohhhh!

So watch this space.

But 07:30 when my feet touched the floor. Best lie-in for a while that was. And a slow and steady start to the day.

But not for long. I had to dash outside for my baguette quite early today.

It was brocante day today in the old town and I expected it to be heaving.

And I wasn’t wrong either. Crowds in the magasin de presse as well, to such an extent that there was a young boy serving there too.
“Are you the proprietor’s son?” I asked
“Yes I am” he replied
“Tough luck!” I said.

The place was heaving, as I said, and there were dozens, if not hundreds, of stalls there. And the one thing that they had was that their stuff was shockingly overpriced.

Some people had totally taken leave of their senses. A portable radio-CD player that would have done a little job in here – they wanted €30:00.
They can forget that!

But if ever you wanted proof that the Brexit had been long-anticipated by the French, this book will prove it.

It’s all about an island nation that abandons its free ride in its biggest market for exported goods in order to save £350 million per week, and then finds that it has to pay four times as much in customs duties because it hadn’t thought about that.

It’s called l’Ile aux Fous – the Island of the Insane.

Up on my wall at lunchtime it was cloudy, and although I was alone there, the lawn was littered with piles of cars that had been abandoned – I refuse to say “parked” – there.

Apart from that, I’ve been on the blog again and I’ve reached early August 2013. Still 70 unclassified pages to go, but about 70 pages somewhere (and I’m not sure where) that need amending. And then I can start on the conjoined ones.

And I’ve had another plan too.

I’m going to rework the Canada pages so that the travelog is included in here and the web pages shall be for the merged voyages.

What I mean by that is that if you take, for example, my drive up the North Shore of the St Lawrence, that’s a merged page of about six (shortly to become seven) trips.

Keep those as a travel guide and keep the non-travel info on the blog.

But that’s a long way off yet.

And I’ve spent a lot of money today Much more than I’ve spent just recently too. But it’s an expense that needed to be made.

I’ll tell you all about it in a week or so’s time..

Saturday 15th July 2017 – OUCH! THAT HURT!

And I’m not talking about cutting my finger open with the sharp vegetable knife when I picked up the cutlery out of the drainer either. It was much more painful than that!

So last night was another restless night. Especially so seeing as how I was off on my travels again.

There was a war on, and of course the UK was very susceptible to a blockade. However there was no rationing and people were going about as it it all was of no consequence, something that struck me as being a great matter of concern.
And then I was with my mother (but whoever it was wasn’t my mother, thank heavens) and it involved something to do with Mark III Cortinas. She drove away and I was left holding a bonnet from the aforementioned – a light blue one. I was trying the blots with my fingers to make sure that they were loose enough without disturbing the settings. A couple of women in a cafe made some ribald remark about me being with a “much older” woman so I went over to say “hello”. Their tune soon changed when they saw me come over because they recognised me, and they realised that the “much older” woman had been my mother.
While I was in the queue here a whole group of people came to the counter and it was all people whom I recognised from from a difficult period of my life. They were all pleased and enthusiastic to see me but I wasn’t at all pleased to see them. They crowded around me and asked me how I was and I was really uncomfortable in all of this. We discussed work and they found out that I had given over a good job to go driving taxis – but at leat “it was my own taxi, and not someone else’s”.

I’ve no idea where all of these people have come from – people whom I met in the early 80s in a couple of unpleasant encounters and whom I wish never to see again. I can’t think whatever it might have been to trigger all of that off.

After breakfast and a shower, shave and clean clothes, Caliburn got his motor running and headed off down the highway in the general direction of the shops.

LIDL came up with nothing special and neither did NOZ, the rubbish shop. But at least they had a few more of these hexagonal herb and spice jars. I get through tons of turmeric here so I stocked up with two containers of that together with a couple more of different types.

At Centrakor I went a little berserk. They were selling cigarette lighter socket twin-USB adaptors for just €1:99. I need one of those for Strider over in Canada so I picked one up.

But they also had some of those portable battery packs for powering your mobile phone or other hand-held appliance – a 2600 mAh set-up and just €3.99. That’s half what I have seen them elsewhere at their cheapest, and that’s without postage and packing too of course!

LeClerc was just the usual banal stuff, but I REALLY went mad in Intersport.

The trainers that I bought at Sports Direct in Leuven last October have fallen apart. So I only paid €20 for them, I know, but they’ve been letting in water for quite a while and now the soles are falling off.

Intersport was having a sale so went to have a look around, and came away with a pair of Salomon Goretex trainer-style hiking boots. They should have been … gulp … €119 but they were reduced by 30% in the sale and they were so comfortable.

I hope that they last a darn sight longer than these ones that I’ve just chucked in the bin.

And that’s not all either.

My rain jacket is falling to pieces. It has a couple of holes in it (never good for a rainjacket – holes in it) and it’s looking well the worse for wear. I have another one but that is one of those bright yellow rubberised ones that is uncomfortable, bulky and sweaty.

Today though, reduced to just €24:95 was a proper McKinley breathable Aquamax. And in my size too, which was unusual.

And last, but by no means least – I’ve been talking for a while about buying a Fitbit – one of these that tells you your heartbeat, how far you’ve walked, how many calories you’ve burnt and all of that stuff. But when I’ve seen the price, it’s put me off.

But a new model has been launched and Intersport was clearing out the remains of the previous one. Nothing wrong with them at all – there’s just a new design – and they were reduced to just €50:00.

Yes, I’m making ready for my holidays, aren’t I?

All I need now is a new suitcase and a new camera.

But this Fitbit – “always ready when you are” it proudly announces on the packet. So I went to wear it … and the battery was flat! What kind of misleading publicity is that?

Back home, the whole town was heaving with grockles as predicted. Even coming home the back way I was stuck for ages. And it’s a good job that we have our own private parking here because the public car park was jam-packed, with grockles dragging off suitcases all over the old town.

Early for my baguette tomorrow, I reckon.

Fighting off the waves of sommeil this afternoon, I was on the blog again. Not reducing the “unclassifieds” but untangling a few bits and pieces from when I returned from the Ile d’Yeu until going back to Brussels.

I’ve put that bit off for a while, but a close look at it revealed that it was fairly straighforward to untangle so here I am. Well on my way to finalising that little lot.

Tea tonight was more mashed potato, frozen veg and burger. And I fried a little onion and garlic with my burger too and it was delicious.

I really do appreciate living here in my little apartment.

Friday 14th July 2017 – BRAIN OF BRITAIN DOES IT AGAIN!

Yes, remember yesterday? When I told you that I was going shopping today?

So there I was checking the date this morning (I take certain pills on odd-numbered days and certain others on even-numbered days) and it was then that I noticed …

Yes, 14th July. Quatorze Juillet – la Fête de la Bastille. The anniversary of when the Paris communards stormed the Bastille and released all of 14 prisoners.

And, of course, it’s a national holiday, isn’t it? And I didn’t have much food in the house either.

I’d had a bad night too – I’m not even sure if I slept at all. And I was up and about long before 07:00 too. But the Bank Holiday threw me out of my stride.

And so I’ve not done as much as I might otherwise have done. I’ve been spending some time socialising on the internet (something that I decided that I would dramatically cut down on) and also sorting out a huge pile of photos from 2007 that I discovered.

Including this absolute gem from Chatelguyon in July 2007.

I mean, what kind of clairvoyant is this? Visits by appointment only?

If she were any good as a clairvoyant you wouldn’t need an appointment because she would know that you were coming, surely!

However, I did do some work on the blog upgrade. Not as much as I would like, of course, but then that’s always been the story of my life. And for much of the morning I was working on this page.

This was another one that started off as a mere 100 or so words as a placeholder, but now it runs to well over 1200 words and a pile of photographs too.

I had to do without a tomato at lunchtime (I had some vegan cheese instead – luckily I still have some left) and tonight we had mash and rozen vegeables (all cooked in the steamer) with a veggie burger and gravy, followed by one of my breakfast fruit purées.

Tomorrow I WILL have to go shopping but I’m not looking forward to that. The holiday season is well under way and the grockles will be out in force.

Thursday 13th July 2017 – IF YOU WANT TO KNOW …

… the answer to a question, the most important thing to do is to ask the question.

And I now know all about the Pluto and the Victress.

I was flat-out in my stinking little pit when the alarm went off this morning. Which totally surprised me because I’m lucky to be still here

I was well-away with the fairies last night, starting off on my old Honda Melody looking for an ice cream. And on the way back I was passed by a couple riding horses rather recklessly down a narrow street. 100 yards further on they had been stopped by a plain-clothes policeman in a silver Range Rover who was giving them both a lecture and an on-the-spot fine, so as I rode past, I made a few remarks of … errr … “encouragement”. It was then that I realised that I had no insurance, road tax or MoT and with the number plate I knew that it would be checked immediately. No hope of flight of course so after a minute or two of wracking my brains I decided to leave the bike in the back yard where I lived and clear off. Of course I did that but I hadn’t gone 50 yards when the landlady stuck her head out of the back gate and told me that I was wanted. No hope of escape now.
A little later I was on a push-bike going into Newcastle upon Tyne. But it certainly wasn’t the Newcastle upon Tyne that I ever knew. I’d taken the route twice and so didn’t have my map with me but I was pretty certain of where I was going so it was no problem. So down the hill, turn left and then round this sweeping right-hand bend following the tramlines – a road that would take me very close to the city centre. But here on this corner, people kept stepping off the kerb right in front of me. And for some reason or other, this degenerated into a situation that appears quite regularly in my nocturnal voyages – namely that I have Mark III Ford Cortinas scattered all over the town in various states of MoT and Tax and Insurance, and I need to consolidate them all so that only the 100%-legal ones are on the road and the rest are safely stored otherwise I’ll lose them, including my precious estate car.

After breakfast and a little pause to gather my wits (which doesn’t take too long these days) I hit the streets, direction town. It was a lovely morning, that’s for sure.

Down the hill and down the bank, and then down the ramp to the harbour and there was a superb view of the Marité looking so splendid in the sunlight

I’m determined that one of these days I shall go out aboard her, even if it is only for a lap around the bay. But I bet that I’ll be very disappointed and find that it will be a diesel-powered “sailing” all the way.

That will be sad.

There was another pile of scrap on the quayside, mostly old agricultural stuff and the usual scrap fridges and cookers.

This seemed to bear out my theory from the other day about the Victress and Pluto bringing it in. But then I had another idea.

By this time I was down near the harbour offices so I popped in to ask them about the ships.

And it seems, I’m wrong. Yes, it does happen occasionally, which I know will surprise you all.

There’s a big quarry near Avranches that produces a special kind of stone and every so often Victress and Pluto come in to load up 2400 tonnes per trip to take back to the UK.

But they always come in empty – it’s not they who bring in the scrap.

So who’s bringing in the scrap then?

It didn’t take me long to find out.

No prizes whatever for guessing what this is – or, rather, was.

She’s the Grima and her claim to fame is that she was formerly the ferry that operated the Shetland Island Council route between Bressay and Lerwick between 1972 and 1992.

She has a carrying capacity of about 8 or 9 cars or so and was sold when the volume of traffic began to overwhelm her. She eventually became a work-boat for the Lerwick fishing industry

She was still displaying her “Lerwick” lifebelts so I hailed the crew who were relaxing on deck.
“Blimey! You’ve come a long way in that”
“Not really” replied the skipper. “Only from Jersey”.

It appears that she now sails out of Jersey and comes into Granville a couple of times each week bringing in the scrap (there are no scrap-processing facilities on the island) and taking back building supplies, wood and the like.

She’s probably not licensed for passengers, but I have a Cunning Plan. You don’t need a maritime permit or whatever to be a ship’s cook and my cooking has never killed anyone yet – although I have seen a couple of people stagger out of my kitchen.

They say that there’s a time for fishing – and a time for mending the nets.

Clearly for today it’s the latter. Here they all are with their needles and thread having a good old sew and sew.

That looks as if it’s the kind of job that might take for ever with a net that size, so good luck to them

We all know what these are, but what surprised me was what they are doing out of the water.

And even more importantly, have they put anything back in to replace them? It would be exciting if they hadn’t.

It’s a little-known fact that Michael Jackson applied to join the US Navy. But he withdrew his application after the Recruiting Officer told him
“I don’t care how it’s pronounced. Those things that line the approaches to every harbour are called BUOYS”.

I headed off around town to check my bank accounts (money STILL not received) and where I bumped in to my neighbour again as I had done last week.

Next stop was to see the estate agents to warn them of my absence. And I forgot to check the times of the buses for the station in … GULP … just 30 days time.

Lunch was once again on the wall overlooking the harbour.

Not much going on today but I did watch the ferry for the Iles de Chausey heading off with quite a crowd on board. Sea as calm as a millpond so they probably all had a good time.

And I had a new lunchtime companion today. Never mind the four lizards who always come to see me – when I dropped my apple core onto the ground for the wildlife, a brown mouse appeared – right at my feet – and dragged it off into the undergrowth to munch at its leisure.

Apart from that, I’ve been bashing away on the blog once more. Not quite the 20-odd (and sometimes more) pages of recent date though.

I ran aground round about 7th January 2013 and that’s when it all went haywire as my concentration and efforts were diverted. So I’ve advanced to June 2013 where there’s a couple of weeks that need to be done.

Then the difficult bits will start.

That wasn’t the only reason that I fell behind. The walk this morning had taken quite a lot out of me and I was totally out of it for two hours and more this afternoon. I clearly can’t last the pace.

But with the final batch of kidney bean and aubergine whatsit having bitten the dust today, and having had a good chat with Liz and Rosemary, I’m ready for bed.

And quite right too. Shopping tomorrow!

Wednesday 12th July 2017 – I WAS DRIVEN …

… off my wall at lunchtime today.

Not by grockles (with or without thermos flasks) and not by the heat either, but by the rain.

The weather has been miserable for a while and it brightened up a little at about 11:00 but round about 14:00 it started again and I came home to finish off my butties and fruit in the dry.

But I went for another quick walk before doing so because the storms of last night seem to have washed up yet another Ship of the Day into our little port.

It’s our old friend Victress come back to see us.

She was here at the end of May as you might remember, and here she is again today, washed in on the storm all the way from Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

You may have noticed all of the gaily coloured flamboyant marquees in the background of the above photo.

Yes, the circus is in town, and I’m not talking about the British Brexit Negotiating Committee either, but the real thing.

They did a couple of laps around the town today with the loud-hailer giving us all of the information. But I shan’t be going. I used to live in a country where there are about 17.4 million of them.

Last night, I took a while to drop off, but when I did I was away until the alarm went off. And I had a struggle to rise, I’ll tell you. Leaving my bed was even worse.

I’d been on my travels too, with a group of quasi-intellectulas who were planning to attack the Old City of Granville – with nautical torpedoes. I’m REALLY sure that that would work, aren’t you?

Lunch has been discussed already, so what else?

Well, apart from fighting off the urge to close my eyes (and how difficult was that?) I’ve been on the blog again. And astonishingly, I’m in late December.

That might make you think that I’ve done piles, but my personal life is no business of yours.

I finished off all of October, even doing the 1st of November too, last night before bed so this morning it was a case of carrying on. But after three and a half weeks of November I headed off to the UK for two weeks (my last ever voyage to the UK as it happens except for a quick aller-retour for Terry’s slates from near Folkestone).

those pages aren’t just conjoined – they are well-and-truly intertwined so like the others that are in a similar condition, I’m leaving them until later.

I’ve already done the next few weeks from when I came back, but not to the current standards so I’m working through them as I go.

The period from January 2013 until June 2013 was a very difficult period, as some of you might remember. What I do about those pages, such as they are (because there aren’t all that many), I haven’t decided yet.

I could have done a lot more too, but one page that wasn’t even as much as a placeholder involved a rewrite that ran well into four figures. And I could have added much more too.

But it took me well over an hour to write it up and there’s only so much that I can do at a sitting like this.

But I did something tonight that I haven’t done in quite a while.

With the windows wide-open I heard a deep hooter coming from the docks and a quick glance out of the window, I could see that it was high tide.

Thinking that this might be Victress on her way out of port, I grabbed the camera and made tracks. It’s pretty tight in and out of the harbour gates and I was intrigued to see how she managed it.

I was too late unfortunately. Whether or not it was the Victress who had sounded her siren, her berth was empty and by the looks of things she had long-gone too.

But it wasn’t a wasted trip out by any means as we were having this most delightful sunset.

Sunsets around here are certainly superb and here’s another one to add to my collection

If the weather clears up tomorrow, which it may well do judging by the sunset, I might go for a walk into town. If not, I’ll sit around here and mooch all day.

There are still some things that I want for my trip – in just exactly a month’s time.

I ought to get weaving.

Monday 10th July 2017 – AND AS FOR TODAY …

… this was one of the quietest days yet;

I was up and about as soon as the alarm went off, down to the magasin de presse for my baguette, and sitting on the wall at lunchtime with my butties.

Thrilling, isn’t it?

I’ve spent a lot of time doing hair washing too.

Not mine, I hasten to add, and not Randy Raquel’s either before you ask, Rhys. But it was something that I’ve been meaning to do for a couple of weeks now and each time something has come up to prevent me. This morning I was finally able to accomplish it.

For the rest of the day, I’ve been on the blog (that’s with an “L”, Rhys)

With something like a new record, I’ve done 23 pages today. My “7 pages per day” target being well-exceeded.

It’s quite interesting to read just how much I was being frustrated over the lean-to. The period that I’ve been doing covers my return from Canada in October 2011 and making a start on rebuilding the lean-to that collapsed in 2002.

I’m at the stage now, end of September 2012, where I finished it all amidst frustrations, cancelled holidays, bad weather, interruptions of all kinds. And personally, I reckon that I did pretty well.

I’d never touched a stone wall before October 2011 but by the time that the end of September 2012 came round, I’d not only completely rebuilt a stone building but I’d roofed it too – and all on my own.

How proud was I of that?

Tea tonight was something that I haven’t done in ages. I made myself a huge wok full of aubergine and kidney-bean whatsit. And it was totally delicious. Enough for another three nights too.

But when I buy my freezer later this year, I’ll be making stuff like this and then freezing it so I can rotate the diet around. That’s what I did when I lived in Expo – and it was bags of Aubergine and kidney-bean, chick pea and mushroom, lentil and green pepper.

Sometimes I’d do a potato curry, and of course I’d rotate the ingredients around too. And pies! I can do pies too, as we know. Every night would be a different meal instead of the same thing consecutively (not that I’m complaining too much, of course).

I can’t wait for a return those good old days.

But one thing that I have learnt is that the vegetable steamer is no good for cooking pasta. At least not in the 20 minutes that I allowed it. I had to finish it off in the saucepan;

That’s something else that I shall need to investigate

So tomorrow I’ll find myself in October 2012. Winter 2012 will be approaching and I have just 130 pages to go and a couple of personal tragedies to handle before it’s all brought up to date.

Saturday 8th July 2017 – WE HAVE ANOTHER …

… Ship of the Day today.

A regular feature when we are up and down the various waterways of the Northern Hemisphere, but it doesn’t happen quite so often here.

Well, at least, not as often as I would like it to.

It must have been a very high tide today because it brought into harbour the Pluto. She’s a bulk carrier of 1762 tonnes and was built as far back as 1984 – which is an impressive age for an ocean-going ship.

She’s come to Granville from Felixstowe, via London and Ramsgate.

We’re also having issues with grockles, as exclusively forecast on these pages only yesterday.

The holiday season has started and even at 09:30 this morning as I was on my way for my baguette the streets of the old town were littered with them, blocking the roads as they heave piles of suitcases out of the boot and into the little cottages that they have rented for the season.

And loads of caravanettes parkeed everywhere too. When I went for my butty on the wall overlooking the harbour, there was even one parked up on the lawn.

Still, it’s my choice to come here. I shall just have to put up with it.

Other issues have reared their ugly head too.

Photos that I’ve been taking with the Nikon have been coming out horribly over-exposed and everything that I’ve done this last few weeks has been ruined (these photos here are taken with the phone cam).

I’ve tried it with another lens, and it seems to be that my 17-105 “standard” lens has handed in its notice. At least, I think so. It’s been on its last legs for quite a while so it looks as if I shall have to replace it.

It’s something that I shall have to do quite quickly, because if the new lens doesn’t fix the issue, I’ll need a new camera body, and I’ll need it quickly. I go away in 5 weeks time.

Having had another decent sleep, I was off on my travels during the night – alone, unfortunately. I went to a motorcycle shop to discuss the kind of bike that I need – something like a 175cc “all weather” motorbike that’s good for around town but can keep up with the traffic on the motorway – when I was distracted. On the shelf in a dirty plastic bag was a single-cylinder barrel, cylinder head and very rusty piston of a DBD34 – a 500cc BSA “Gold Star” high compression racing motorcycle of the 1940s and 1950s. But “ohh no it wasn’t” said the guy in the shop – it’s off a Triumph. But Triumph haven’t made a single-cylinder bike over 350cc since Edward Turner joined them in the mid-30s and you could tell by the shape of the barrel and piston exactly what it was (and if I can do that on a nocturnal ramble then I’m clearly pleased with myself).

The alarm awoke me at 07:00 (and again at … errr … 07:15) as a cue to start the day.

It’s been another day on th blog, and another day working just three or four lengthy pages, including this page with 1200 words, which had just 170 when I left it back in August 2012. That kept me out of mischief all afternoon.

Tomorrow is a Day of Rest with no alarm, seeing as it’s Sunday. And I’ll need it too I recko, seeing as how I’ve managed to keep going all day without a little … errr … pause for reflection.

So watch me wake up at something silly like 06:30.

Friday 7th July 2017 – WHAT A NICE …

… tea!

Mashed potatoes, frozen peas and carrots done in the vegetable steamer, and a vegan burger and gravy done in the wok.

At least, it would have been nice, but 7 minutes in the steamer isn’t anything like long enough. The spuds take 15 minutes or so and when I cook frozen veg next time, I’ll cook them right from the beginning of the cycle.

Still, you live and learn.

Pudding was pear halves and blackcurrant sorbet and that all went down nicely too.

Last night’s sleep was better than the previous, but still not as good as the one from the night before. I was rather hoping that The One That Got Away would come back to continue where we left off last night, but no such luck. You can’t win a coconut every time, unfortunately, not even in the astral sphere.

After breakfast and a shower and shave (I need to look my best) Caliburn and I hit the streets. It’s Friday – shopping today. No point in doing it tomorrow – first day of the school holidays so we’ll be hemmed in with grockles.

I spent a fair bit of money today too – not an extravagent amount, but far more than usual. And I can’t think what cost all of the money. Highlight was in LDL – a set of electronic digital scales for the kitchen at €7:99. That’s not going to rock the boat.

But nothing special in NOZ and nothing special in LeClerc, and nothing at all in BUT. I can see that my plans for a mini-hifi for here are all going to come to nought, which is a shame.

Lunch again was on the wall overlooking the harbour, until the heat drove me in. And then I had an afternoon where … err … my concentration was not at its peak.

But I’ve cracked along with the blog entries, and a couple of those today were quite lengthy and involved. This one of La Roche d’Agoux was one of three that took ages to straighten out. I can see why I abandoned July and August 2012 when I was doing it last time. It wasn’t easy.

So another early night beckons. I doubt very much that The One That Got Away shall put in an appearance tonight – even though we were chatting on the internet for about an hour or so earlier this evening.

But it’s a sad state of affairs and a sad sign of the times that what goes on while I’m on a nocturnal voyage into the unknown is more exciting than what I’m up to in daylight hours anyway.

Thursday 6th July 2017 – I DIDN’T FORGET …

… to have my 17:00 melon this evening. Which was just as well, because it went down a treat. And in this heat, it was beautiful.

It was hot even when I awoke this morning, and as I was sitting doing nothing very much just after breakfast I could see the temperature on the thermometer rise and rise.

I’d had a bad night last night though. Took ages to go to sleep, and woke up in the middle of the night feeling really uncomfortable. It took ages to go back off to sleep again, but when I did, I was away with the fairies.

It was the turn of the person who has been described in this rubbish on many previous occasions as “The One That Got Away” to accompany me on my travels. And she didn’t get away last night – not ‘arf she didn’t! I was back in Crewe (heaven alone knows why!) and going to Hunter’s Lodge – along a road that bore absolutely no resemblance to the road to there, which wasn’t a problem because Hunters Lodge wasn’t anything like it is either. Anyway, there I fell in with the aforementioned and ended up commuting to work across the Channel every day.

So I was flat out when the alarm went off. And … errr … flat out when the reminder went off too. But then again, if you were in an amorous clinch with The One That Got Away during a nocturnal ramble, you wouldn’t want to wake up either.

At 09:15, I went for my little walk into town. Down the hill, down the ramp, and, something that I hadn’t yet done, a good stroll around the harbour. Lots of boats and quite a bit of activity too, and I fell in with a fisherman who told me about all of the fish that one catches here. Mind you, he wasn’t doing so well. In fact, he was doing pretty badly.

And it was around here that I fell in with one of my co-habitees. She had gone for a walk too. And so we chatted for quite a while about nothing in particular, and I went about my business.

That involved a trip to the bank. And sure enough, the payments that I wanted to check had been made, which is good news. The bad news is that my accounts from Pionsat STILL haven’t been transferred over.

This is … errr … unsettling me somewhat. When I go shopping tomorrow I shall go to see if I can find a pickaxe handle anywhere. Giving someone a message by tapping it into their thick skulls in Morse Code with a pickaxe handle usually works wonders.

Back here, thoroughly exhausted and boiling hot by 11:05. That was a nice walk.

And then I spent the rest of the day on the blog. I’ve done tons of it too, although much of my time was spent on just one particular day – another one of these ones that I briefly sketched out and then moved on.

Lunch on my little wall, a little doze in the afternoon too. I’m getting into something of a routine – and isn’t that uncomfortable?

Last of the curry for tea tonight. I shall have to be more adventurous tomorrow.

But with the shops, let’s see what’s on offer.

Tuesday 4th July 2017 – I WONDERED …

… what the noise was that I could hear as I awoke this morning.

After a couple of minutes, having had my curiosity aroused to fever-pitch, I staggered out of bed into the bathroom to find that I had left the bathroom tap running all night. That’s going to be expensive, isn’t it? I have to pay for the water here.

That’s twice that I’ve left the tap running. And also twice that I’ve left the fridge door open. I would say that I’m slowly losing my mind, but as regular readers of this rubbish already know, that went years ago.

Early to bed last night might have been one thing – early to sleep was something else completely. But once I dropped off, I was gone for good until the alarm went off.

I was in Northampton during the night too – don’t ask me why because I reckon that in the whole of my life I haven’t been there half a dozen times. I was in charge of an urban rgeneration project which was so weird – I could grab the ground like you would grab the corners of a tablecloth, give it a shake, and the old Victorian buildings there would immediately disappear and a whole new 21st-Century brick and glass urban landscape would appear – to the horror of the local residents. Then I would shake it again, and they would disappear and the old Victorian stuff would reappear, to the horror of the Planning Committee. I did this a few times until the leader of the planners told me to stop messing about and be serious for once (as if that is ever likely to happen, really!).

Breakfast and then a shower and shave – must look my best. and then off for the baguette.

And the guy in the magasin de presse was having quite a whinge. His brother, who lives in South-West UK is coming over and has just been to collect his Euros. 25% less than what he received the last time he applied. I made a New Years Resolution about 5 or 6 years ago to keep politics out of this blog but sometimes I’m overwhelmed – overwhelmed by the total and utter stupidity of the people with whom I once – for a great many years – shared what is rapidly becoming an insignificant offshore island.

Another thing that I’ve done is bitten the bullet and bought another copy of Paint Shop Pro.

That’s been my graphics editing program for over 20 years but regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I … errr … mislaid it. I’ve hunted high and low for it for a couple of years with no luck and now that I’m here I don’t suppose that I’ll ever find it again.

Anyway, to cut a long story short … "hooray" – ed … there was a later version than mine on sale on eBay. I’d noticed a few shortcomings with the version that I had, and most of them seem to be resolved in this upgrade.

But then we had a problem – with changing bank accounts, my Paypal account is out of date. Luckily Terry was on line at that moment so he did the business for me. It’ll be nice to get back to some serious photo-editing again.

Lunch on the wall overlooking the harbour – and some people had pinched my comfy spec. I had to find another place to sit and that annoyed me. I was enjoying the company of the lizards there, just as the lizards doubtless enjoyed the crumbs that I dropped.

As for the tea, just as nice as yesterday.

The blog amending is coming along in leaps and bounds – quicker than I anticipated. Except when I run agound, that it.

Today I ran aground on a page that I had written in June 2012 about Chateau-sur-Cher. All of about 120 words in haste. and then forgot it. Today I decided that I would attack it with gusto and it’s ended up as almost 1200 words.

Still, if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly, isn’t it? I’m now in July 2012. Only a few more months to go.

Monday 3rd July 2017 – IF THE CURRY …

… that I made tonight tastes any better in 3 days time than it did tonight, it will be something worth eating!

Onions fried to perfection (I love my new wok) with garlic, mushrooms and chick peas. All fried up with cumin, coriander and paprika. Add a tin of mixed vegetables, boulhgour, peanuts and gravy browning, and there you are. Delicious! I was really impressed with that!

But apart from that, it’s been a very mixed day today. Lots of good things and a few things not so good.

We started off with a really good sleep. I remember nothing whatever until the alarm went off. Dead to the world, I was.

After breakfast, I sat down for five minutes to relax and drifted right away with the fairies for a good 45 minutes again – the first of MANY such departures during the day.

And impressive departures they were too. Not a subconscious dozing but a proper full-blooded sleep. I’m clearly sickening for something again.

But I did manage the baguette and in between the waves of sleep I cracked on with the blog. I was doing really well too until I suddenly hit “the wall”. I don’t mean the kind of physical tiredness wall thing, but a much more substantial thing than that.

Yes, I can’t think why but for some reason, I’d lost a huge stack of photos from June 2012. 37 for a summer month just didn’t seem right to me.

Luckily I have all of my external hard drives here and so after sifting through ever so many of them I did actually find the one with the back-up images. Took me ages to do it, mind you – you have no idea how many images that I have, and how many external drives that I have either – but there they were.

That took me to lunch when I went and sat on my wall overlooking the harbour. And as it was such a nice day – not too hot and not too windy – I sat out there for quite a while admiring the fishing boats coming in to unload their catch. Plenty of them too!

This afternoon I attacked the issue that I mentioned briefly yesterday. Not much hope from my insurers – “we’ll let you have our reply within 15 working days” – thanks very much – so I sent off a delaying letter to the Tax Office to give them something to think about meantime.

And then I turned my attention to my journey in August. Eat your hearts out, you British rail travellers. From Here to Eterni … errr … Brussels – 650 kms of which half is done on a new Multiple Unit and the other half on a TGV – costs me just €73:00!

Three nights in the Hotel Midi-Zuid – the one near the station where I stayed with Hannah in March. Excellent value for money and a sale on so I’m there for €150. How about that?

And then three nights in the Hotel Bon Accueil – the cathouse at the back of the bus station in the centre of Montreal near the Berri-UQAM metro station where I stayed last year. That’s setting me back €180 which, for the centre of Montreal is a steal.

I’ve declined the Comfort Inn at the end of the runway at Dorval. Much as I love the hotel and the atmosphere of standing waiting for the bus 202 at the side of the motorway, I have to be practical these days with my health.

One thing that I have decided to do however, so as to still have my fix on the bus 202 is to catch it at Ducollege metro station like I used to do, but do the entire route to see where it goes after the airport hotels.

So now I’m going to try for another early night. And if it’s as good as the last one I shan’t complain at all.

Saturday 1st July 2017 – I NOW HAVE …

… not only a washing machine but an installed washing machine and a working washing machine too.

And also a pile of clean clothes.

Terry and Liz came round this morning and Terry helped me carry it up the stairs into here. We plugged it in and connected up the water, and Robert is your father’s brother.

Last night was a better night. Still not as good as I would like but an improvement on just recently. And it must have been good too because I was away with the fairies for quite a while.

I was living in a commune type of place with loads of people whom I knew – it was round about the station approach in Sandbach somewhere. And at bedtime we all clambered into a variety of big beds – half a dozen or so to each bed. I was lucky in that in my bed everyone else was a female, including Miss Norgain, the lesbian headmistress of Crewe Girls Grammar School. This all worked fine until one of my bed mates started to become very … err … frisky. Not that I minded of course, but I did wonder what Miss Norgain would have to say about it.
Later on, I was taking the short cut into Crewe. For those of you who don’t know the approach into Crewe from the south, it’s rather tortuous around the Gresty area but there is a shortcut down an ancient bridleway that passes under the railway lines by a bridge known locally as “the mucky bridge” for reasons that are self-evident to anyone who tries to take that lane in the wet. So off I went, but instead of being the lane that I have used on many occasions, it became that mountain pass over which we have climbed or skied on many a nocturnal ramble and which regular readers of this rubbish will recall. But halfway down there my way was blocked by a huge shiny metal fence that had been erected right across the pathway. There was a house and office right by the gate and so I enquired. I had to waith in there until the other two or three customers ahead of me were dealt with and had left the room and then I enquired of the woman there to find out what was going on. She replied that they had bought all of the land and had fenced it off, as was their right now that they owned it. I explained that you can’t simply close or fence off a public footpath – a whole process needs to be undertaken and consent is rarely given, but she told me to take it up with the council. I wasn’t allowed to phone but a young girl was, so she relayed the message for me. It had been 20 years since I’d been to Crewe and things hadn’t changed there. The solicitor of Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council (with whom I had many a tangle back in the old days) was doing his best to fob off this girl with meaningless statements and so I told her to tell him that it was Mr Hall who was enquiring. And so she did. You could actually hear the conversation come to a dead stop – if you want to know the meaning of a “pregnant pause” there wouldn’t be any better way of describing it than this – and after about 10 seconds I could hear an “ohhh – Mr Hall. I remember him!” which of course, he most certainly would.

After breakfast I carried on updating the blog and then went out for my baguette. My return saw me start to arrange things around ready for the washing machine, and I’ve still no idea where I’m going to put everything.

We had the machine installed quite rapidly and then drilled holes in the granite to fit the supports for the curtain rails – Terry had remembered to bring his big drill.

As a reward I took everyone off to the bar in the square down the road for a coffee and we stayed there to chat.

The subject of lunch came up, so I nipped to the magasin de presse next door to the bar for another baguette and we came back to make a huge salad. Good job that I bought that sweetcorn yesterday, wasn’t it?

To walk off our lunch we went for a good long stroll around the city walls and then they went home. A job well done.

Standing for a while in the damp hadn’t done the washing machine too much good so I ended up dismantling it and giving it a really good clean as best as I could. And then I set it to work.

I’d been warned about the noise that it makes, which may well be worn bearings, so they reckon. But it made no noise that would cause me any concern. Mind you, I reckon that the bits of metal, screwdriver bits, coins and washers that I retrieved from the innards might be some kind of explanation for all of that.

And so what if it only works on one programme? How many do you need when you are a man?

For tea, I finished off the rest of the salad with a veggie burger and now I’m ready for anything.

Probably bed.

EPIC HALL

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