Tag Archives: eric hall

Monday 24th December 2018 – WHAT A DAY …

… to have a hospital appointment.

But despite being in bed rather late last night I’d had a good sleep. I’d even been on a little ramble. Somewhere and I don’t remember where, and there was a black policeman, a big guy, going to move on an old, wiry vagrant from somewhere or other. The policeman pushed him and the old guy grabbed hold of the policeman’s arm, twisted it and pulled it up and you could hear the break from where I was standing. This policeman’s arm was in a dreadful, really unusual position and it quite put me off my supper. I felt that I ought to go over and help the policeman, but seeing as how well, how quickly and how efficiently the old guy had dealt with the policeman, I’d just end up as another casualty without accomplishing anything at all. The old guy suddenly announced “there can’t be many people in that police station. Why don’t I go and sort them all out? It won’t take me long”. So off he went but I ran there first to warn them about what was heading their way.
Despite the alarm going off, I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to leave my stinking pit. There was just enough time for my medication and breakfast and a quick wash before I scrambled off up town. At least the horrendous rain frm yesterday had stopped.

I was at the hospital in plenty of time and at first I thought that I had mistaken the day. There wasn’t anyone about at all. But they were expecting me and when I was registered in, I was sent down to the treatment room. Just one other person in there.

Much of the morning I spent asleep. It’s been a hectic few days as you know, without too much sleep so it was odds-on that I would need to catch up one way or another. And it’s not as if I have much else to do while I’m here.

The bad news is that this last four weeks I’ve put on another kilo of weight, despite all of the walking around that I have done just recently. And even worse, the blood count is down. From 9.8 to 9.6.

It’s not the end of the world of course but it could be so much better and I wish that it was.

Eventually I was thrown out, and I went to check my appointments. 21st january, 18th February and 18th March. At least they are letting me know well in advance which means that I can do some kind of long-term planning. But wouldn’t it be nice if it were once every three months instead?

Time for a coffee but despite the notice in the café that closing time on Festdagen was 19:00, they were closing up the shutters. I expressed my surprise, but the lady replied that “we are closing at 16:00 today”.
“But it’s not 16:00 – it’s only 15;50”
“Well, we’re closed anyway”

As I have said before … “and you’ll say again” – ed … I’m fed up of people who are too bone-idle to earn an honest living.

Even worse, all of the chemists were closed. That’s no good to me, because I need my medication and I won’t be able to collect it tomorrow either.

Back here, it was coffee and mince pie time, and then I had a few things to do. Not that I was in any rush because I’m now officially on holiday.

Tea was a vegan lentil-burger with potatoes and frozen veg, followed by pineapple and ice-cream. I’m looking after myself as far as food goes, anyway.

Later, I had a little rest for an hour or two, and round about 23:30 I went off out again for a stroll around the streets.

Much to my surprise there was no-one around. Well – maybe notquite no-one but the streets were pretty deserted. I took a few photos of the Christmas lights all around the Tiensestraat, as well as the photo of a foreign tourist who asked me if I would take one of her posing against the lights of the Stadhuis.

By 01;00 I was back here and five minutes later I was tucked up in bed. It might be Tuesday tomorrow but it’s also Bank Holiday of course. So no alarm tomorrow and about time too.

night christmas lights tiensestraat leuven louvain belgium

jingle balls at Balls and Glory tiensestraat leuven louvain belgium

You can write your own caption for this

Sunday 23rd December 2018 – SO THAT’S ANOTHER .

… thing crossed off my list of things to do.

Back in the early 1970s when I first started coming over to Oostende, I was always puzzled by the train that was waiting at the station for the passengers. Its destination was always Welkenraedt and I didn’t have a clue where Welkenraedt was.

A little later I had a look for where Welkenraedt might be. It’s a small town nestled in the Ardennes miles from anywhere.

That puzzled me even more as to why the boat trains from Oostende would be going there.
I eventually found the reason. It’s a junction station where lines from Spa and from Eupen come in.

But more importantly, it’s the last station of any importance before the German border. The electricity current in Germany used to be different to that in Belgium, so that was where the Belgian engine came off, and then a German locomotive would be attached to take the train on into Europe.

Alison and I went to Welkenraedt on one of our excursions out back in July to see what was going on. But it was always my ambition, strange though it might seem, to change trains there.

So here I am, on a windswept, soaking wet freezing platform huddled under a tiny shelter at Welkenraedt in the middle of winter waiting for a train to come in.

And no coffee for miles around either

Despite it being Sunday I’d left the alarm connected and at 06:00 it duly rang. No breakfast, no medication, just packing my backpack and then out into the dark, stopping off on the way to take a few photos of around the station area because I had plenty of time..

At 07:24 the train to Eupen came into the station and I leapt aboard. And at Welkenraedt I hopped out. These days the trains don’t go on into Europe but go round to Eupen.

We had to wait for a diesel multiple-unit to come rattling in from Spa.

We didn’t have long to wait until this filthy, dirty disreputable ancient thing came staggering into the station.

Old, covered in grafitti and all kinds of things, and the train was even worse. I’d be ashamed to be seen in something like this, and the idea that the SNCB would be content to send such a machine into a foreign country where it could be compared with the pristine stuff on offer over there is an absurdity to say the least.

But here it was and here I was. So I climbed aboard and rattled off into Germany.

Here I am finally in Germany, in Aachen in fact, at the Hauptbahnhof.

I have to change trains here, and there’s a wait of about 20 minutes for my connection, so there is plenty of time for breakfast.

German bread is probably the best in the world and so a couple of bread rolls of different varieties and a coffee were just what the doctor ordered.

My next train was already in the station. A newish double-decker that put the SNCB offering to shame. This rolled off out of the station, 10 seconds late, and an hour later, I was in Koln.

That was where I took this photograph, by the way.

Interestingly, the announcements on the train were in German followed by English. I imagined what might be the response from the xenophobic racist Brexiters if this kind of cosmopolitanism were ever to happen in the UK.

It’s years since I’ve been to Koln. About 2007 if my memory serves me correctly.

Looking for something to do to pass the time, I’d been idly scanning through the SNCB website and I found that a voyage by train from Leuven to Köln and return would cost me a mere €68:00 – that’s a four-hundred kilometre round trip.

With nothing much happening in Belgium, I decided to come for a day out.

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the city, visiting all of the places that I had visited on my previous trips. But at midday I had to return to the cathedral.

When I was chair of the North European Regional Forum of Open University students, one of the committee members lived here in Koln. And by coincidence she was a big friend of my old friend Liz. Hence the regular visits to Koln. Jackie and I hadn’t seen each other since those days, but she had heard that I was coming to Koln and we were going to meet for lunch.

It was at that moment that the heavens opened. As I picked my way through the crowds I was becoming wetter and wetter, and so I was glad to meet Jackie and go for a coffee.

When the rain eased off a little we headed off into the town and an Italian restaurant. It was a strange place for an Italian restaurant. They wouldn’t do me a plate of vegetables with pasta and tomato sauce. I got the pasta and the tomato sauce, but they couldn’t do the vegetables. That can only mean one thing, as I’m sure that the more astute readers will realise.

By now the rain was coming down even worse, but we headed off regardless. Down the main shopping street and through a couple of the Christmas markets, looking at the products on sale.

We ended up at a hot drinks stall. Jackie had a gluhwein and I had a hot cocktail. The mugs were beautiful so we forewent the deposit and I took them away in my backpack.

Jackie’s partner came down to meet us. They were off to a carol concert at the end of the afternoon so I said goodbye

Now on my own, I retraced my steps back through the markets and down to the River Rhine, thinking that I could have done with a good Rhinecoat.

I walked up along the side of the river and then up the steps to the Hohenzollern Bridge – the huge railway bridge with a pedestrian footpath that straddles the river.

It was a dismal dreary walk in the dark and the rain but even so, it’s good to stand there in mid-stream and watch the fleets of barges and cruise ships passing by underneath.

Eventually I found myself back at the railway station. And to my dismay, the rear of the station has all been cleared up and modernised and the excellent fritkot that I remembered from the past has been swept away.

Nevertheless I did manage to fit myself up with some food. Back inside the station, I found a Thai restaurant in the subterranean shopping gallery that had a range of vegetarian and vegan food.

I had a stir-fry tofu with rice and it was really good.

My train was a few minutes early and already in the platform. To my surprise it was pulled by the same locomotive that had brought me out.

I hopped aboard and grabbed myself a comfortable seat. And here I had an interesting encounter with a German ticket-collector. It had been so wet that the damp atmosphere had caused the ink on my rail ticket to run and he couldn’t read it.

In the end, reason prevailed.

Another wait at Aachen for an even more disreputable Belgian multiple-unit. And which, surprisingly (or maybe not) it was likewise the same one that had brought me out.

There was graffiti all over the inside of the train and rubbish strewn all over the floor. Not a very good advert for the SNCB, sending atrain like this across the border into foreign parts.

And then another wait on the cold and wet at Welkenraedt for my train back to Leuven.

So now, I’m back home, looking and feeling like one more haggard, drowned rat, although I had no idea where I would find one more haggard drowned rat at this time of night.

And straight off to bed because I have the hospital in the morning and I need to be on form.

On my travels today, I took well over 100 photos. Some are in the text and some more below.

But if you want to see the rest, I’ve prepared a web page where you can see them in all their sodding and dripping glory, such as it was.

christmas lights tiensevest leuven louvain belgium

martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

railway station war memorial martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

war memorial railway station martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

war memorial martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

railway station martelarenplein leuven louvain belgium

train station leuven louvain belgium

hauptbahnhof aachen germany

automotrice sncb 644 653 hauptbahnhof aachen germany

Saturday 22nd December 2018 – IT’S ALL VERY WELL …

… going to bed really early at something like 21:00 or whenever it was, but it counts for nothing at all if you are wide-awake again at about 23:20.

After that, it took me an absolute age to go back to sleep. And when I finally did manage to drop off, I wasn’t out for long. By 04:30 I was awake again and by 05:00 I was up and about.

None of the aforementioned stopped me going for a little nocturnal ramble though. And wherever I was during the night, I was somewhere that bore a resemblance to the north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. And I don’t remember what vehicle I was in either. But there I was in some kind of small town with some kind of rural business park out there but with buildings so well hidden that they would take some tracking down. There was an ice-cream parlour there somewhere and I was on my way. I had to negotiate a few barriers and ended up in a field that was being used as a car park, but then I couldn’t even see the sign for the ice-cream place, never mind find the buildings. And so I found myself back on the road, heading to the end where there was a huge car ferry that would press onwards. The road to the ferry terminal turned a sharp left right by a series of small lakes and ponds. By now I was accompanied by a young girl who was going to an interview. This was taking place at a modern building near the turning. When we arrived there we met someone who was going to take us thereand we noticed a couple wading across the pond to meet us. I remarked that I wouldn’t like to do that in winter, to which the guy replied that in winter they walked on the ice. Even so, just before the ice formed it would still be far too cold for me. This girl went off with these two people and I was obliged to wait for her. I was shown around the ground floor of this building and while this was happening I saw my ferry steaming… “dieseling” – ed … out of the harbour down the road. Something had to be taken to the theatre, which was upstairs, so I volunteered.This place was much bigger than the ground floor, quite modern, clean and tidy. The bar was in a strange place, down at the end, and there was a woman there. She thanked me for what I had brought and invited me to watch the next production. I explained that by then, I would probably be a very long way away from here.

First thing that I did after I joined the Land of the Living (and believe me, this was at a moment not exactly adjacent to 05:00) was to have a shower. There were clothes ti wash, of course, but I wasn’t up to dealing with those right now. They can wait until the next time.

Second thing that needed doing was to write up my notes for yesterday. Going to bed at 21:00 meant that I hadn’t even thought about that last night. What with an interruption for coffee and a couple of others too for various purposes (including a little relax), it took me quite a while to deal with it.

By now it was 10:00 and I have things to do, so I hit the streets.

It wasn’t very cold at all outside – rather disappointing in fact, because I was hoping for some kind of Arctic weather for Christmas.

And so instead I went for a wander for a good view of the Pope Leo XIII Seminary, nicely framed by the new student accommodation blocks off the Tiensestraat.

And the Christmas Market wasn’t open either. They were still setting it up. Instead, I went to FNAC but there was nothing there that caught my eye.

Moving on, I went on to the Delhaize to buy what I couldn’t carry home yesterday.

My route took me through the Grote Markt where I walked past all of the strange Christmas cabins that they have erected here. They certainly go to town when they tart up the place.

Delhaize came up with what I need, and I now have almost everything that I need, especially as on the market outside was a stall selling Brussels sprouts.

No Christmas meal of any description is complete without Brussels Sprouts.

And so with nothing else to do and nothing else going on, I headed home for lunch.

But not before I took a little diversion onto a car park in the Windmolenstraat to admire a vehicle parked in one of the spaces. I shall leave Strawberry Moose to sum up the situation perfectly.

By the time that I returned it was almost midday so I had a mince pie with my coffee. That’s the official declaration that the Festive season has arrived. Although I don’t really feel festive at all, with a hospital appointment on Christmas Eve.

And being away from home doesn’t help. I do like Leuven, make no mistake, and if I had to be anywhere away from home them Leuven would receive my vote any time. But all the same, it’s not my home.

After lunch, I headed back out again.

This time, the Christmas market was open and I had a good stroll around. But there was nothing that interested me. In fact, it didn’t seem to be anything like as good as last year’s when there was an ice rink and all of that.

First stop was to Kruidvat for some of their gluten-free and gelatine-free sweets. And that place was heaving

Next stop was the Sports Shop. I went in for a look around and saw that they had the trousers that I like on special offer again. As one of my pairs was torn and I seemto have left another behind in Canada, I bought two pairs.

But here’s a shock! Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I went to Africa earlier this year. And I had it in my mind to go to the Travel Agent’s – just across the road – to see if there was anything else coming up in the near future that would be exciting.

But SHOCK! HORROR! It’s closed down! That’s no good to me at all and it’s very disappointing.

Another thing that was very disappointing was that the supply of vegan food in the Loving Hut has dwindled almost to nothing. None of my favourite cheese, none of the spray-on vegan cream. Stocks have been running down in there for quite a while and it doesn’t look as if there’s much more to go.

Instead I wandered off to the Bio shop – the Origin’O – across town in the Vismarkt and they did the business. Well, sort-of. They had pouring cream, not spray-on, but they did have some decent cheese and also a slice of vegan walnut-cake. That’ll do me for Christmas Day.

On the way back, walking up the Muntstraat, I came across a restaurant that I hadn’t noticed before. It was advertising vegetarian and allergy-free meals so I stuck my head in to enqure about vegan and gluten-free. And much to my delight, they could indeed cater for us. So I’ll invite Alison there next time I see her.

Back in my little room, and another mince pie, with vegan cream this time. What they call “pushing the boat out”.

Another little relax, and then 18:15 saw me back on the road again.

Idly scanning through Livescore, I noticed that there was a Belgian Premier League match on in St Truiden this eveninf. STVV v KV Kortrijk. I’d seen STVV play in Oostende earlier this year but I’d never been to St Truiden. It’s only three stops down the line from Leuven and the kick-off time corresponded nicely with the trains.

So there I was, at 18:44 leaping aboard the train to Genk.

At 19:15 I was leaping off it in St truiden and decanted myself into the fritkot right outside the station. Being in Belgium, fritjes are always on the menu and eating them while walking down the road to a football match is always a good plan and typically Belgian.

It really WAS a good plan too, because these were some of the most delicious fritjes that I have ever eaten. And they were quite generous too. It took me all the way to Het Staaien to eat them.

But as for the football though … What can I say?

I’ve seen some rubbish in my time but I would have to search deep and long into my memory to see anything quite like this. Apart from the fact that both teams were too slow to move the ball about and wasted numerous chances by taking one touch too many – something that seems to be a modern trait – the quality was dire.

I don’t know what was up with the STVV keeper but he couldn’t kick to save his life and his antics, especially in the first 10 minutes but here and there throughout the match – as he received back-passes from his team was like watching in slow motion an accident waiting to happen.

Both sets of attackers must have suffered from vertigo or have had lead weights in their boots because I only counted two high balls into the penalty area in the whole match. So clueless were they that from one short corner, the player taking the kick somehow managed to kick it out for a throw-in.

We had dozens of misplaced passes, dozens of players falling over the ball and, even worse, dozens of shots from excellent positions blazed hopelessly over the bar.

STVV were roundly booed off the field at the end of the game (and no surprise either) and had there been more than 100 or so fans from Kortrijk, their team would have been booed off the pitch too. 0-0 was how it finished and you aren’t ever going to win a match playing like these two teams did this evening.

I had to wait for a while for the train back – the last train from Genk as it happened. And it was a little rowdy too with a few Kortrijk supporters who had clearly been just a little too close to the barmaid’s apron.

It was quite late by the time I arrived back, so I wasn’t going to hang around. I had some pineapple and ice cream for pudding and then I went to bed. Although it’s a Sunday there’s an alarm set for 06:00. i’m off out early and I’ll be gone all day.

load of boels schepenenstraat leuven louvain belgium

pope leo 13 seminary chapel leuven louvain belgium

wilfried craps leuven louvain belgium

christmas market herbert hooverplein leuven louvain belgium

christmas market monseigneur ladeuzeplein leuven louvain belgium

het stayen st truiden stvv kv kortrijk football belgium

Friday 21st December 2018 – THE BODY CLOCK …

… wasn’t working as well as I would have liked this morning. It took the alarm to rouse me from the depths of wherever it was.

And two alarms too, because with having issues about upgrades on telephones switching them off at important times, I’ve resurrected an ancient mobile phone to act as an alarm back-up for when I need to be up and about.

No breakfast as yet, and no medication either. I can’t afford the distractions right now. So instead, I made my sandwiches, did the washing up, took out all the rubbish and then vacuumed the place. On my way out, I washed the floor behind me too.

Dressed up like Nanook of the North, I sallied forth into the open air, only to find that it was 13°C outside. I hadn’t gone more than a couple of hundred yards before I was sweating. It was something of a struggle with all of the stuff that I was taking with me.

Our train was already in the station but we weren’t allowed on it quite yet.

So while I was waiting I grabbed a coffee and admired the destination boards showing that trains from Caen and Rennes were also expected in the station.

That’s really good news from anyone’s point of view, especially mine. It’s nice to see an expanded railway service and might well prolong the active life of the railway station here.

The journey to Paris was pretty uneventful. I’d settled down in my seat and taken the bananas and packet of biscuits from my pockets. Along with the bottle of ginger beer that I had left over from my trip to Germany earlier this year and the coffee from the machine on the station, that was my breakfast.

I had made sure that I had a good view of the Eiffel Tower today. But fates conspired against me yet again, because it was shrouded in mist.

One of these days I’ll be able to have a really good of it and take an excellent photo. But I’m not holding my breath.

The railway station – Montparnasse-Vaugirard – was comparatively empty compared to how it usually is on a Sunday. The metro, however, was heaving although I was lucky enough to grab a seat by the door.

Plenty of time at Paris-Nord to eat my butties and read my book, and then off for my train. The arrival was about 10 minutes late so we had to wait a while while they cleaned it out, and then we could board.

It’s not one of the usual PBKA sets, but one of the Reseau 38000 tri-volt sets – known in the vernacular as the PBA sets because they don’t go to Cologne.

This one here, 4540, was the last to be built.

We set off on time, and hurtled off into the void. But I hurtled off elsewhere into my own little world for about 15 minutes.

Not only did we leave on time, we arrived on time too but we couldn’t disembark straight away as they had to uncouple the Amsterdam portion of the train. And so I missed the 15:52 to Leuven and had to wait for the next one.

This one was late and the third train arrived. So I legged it down the station and up onto the platform for that one, just in time to see it leave the station. And so I had to leg it all the way back to where I’d just been. And that wasn’t easy, with all of my luggage,

The train that I eventually caught was hauled by one of the SNCB Class 27 locomotives.

Built in the eary 80s, they and their sisters (because there are four almost identical classes) are the principle source of motive power on the SNCB

Their claim to fame is highlighted by the fact that one of this class, locomotive 2711, set a world record on 27th April 1991 by pulling 70 carriages from Gent to Oostende – the world’s longest ever passenger train.

The carriages of the train though were like something out of the 1960s. Probably the oldest on which I have travelled for a while. Old bench seats, poorly upholstered, just like something out of history.

And as we passed the carriage sidings at Schaerbeek, full of disaffected multiple-units awaiting dismantling, I wondered just how long it would be before these carriages join them.

I’ve a nice little room here at Condo Gardens. Up on the first floor overlooking the illuminated courtyard. I hope that I’ll be nice and comfortable here.

But I still went off to DelHaize for my shopping. The lights were on at the DenDreefStadion so I went down there to see if there was a match. But the place was all locked up, so I went back to the shops.

I spent a pile here too, but it is Christmas, and they do have (expensive) vanilla-flavoured soya ice-cream. And a pineapple too, ready-peeled and cored. So that’s pudding sorted out for the next few days.

Tea was some potatoes that I had brought with me, with atin of spicy beans and some frozen peas and carrots. Followed by some pineapple and ice-cream. That’s what I call a delightful meal.

It might only be 21:10 but I’m exhausted. I don’t even have the energy to watch a film. So I’m going to make the best of it and have a really early night in my warm, comfy bed. I’m going into town tomorrow morning.

Thursday 20th December 2018 – TOMORROW …

… I’m off to Leuven. So I’ve spent today packing (of a sort) and tidying up (of another sort).

I was out of bed surprisingly early this morning – but that’s what comes of being wide awake at 05:40. And it’s been a while since I was awake that early, hasn’t it?

And after breakfast, I had a little relax before getting myself going.

This time I’m taking the medium-sized suitcase, with a basic foodstuff supply in it. After all, I’m going to be gone for about 6 days and that’s a lot of shopping that I need to organise. As well as that, it’s Christmas and so I’m taking some specialty stuff with me too.

Talking of Christmas, I erected the little mini-Christmas tree that I had bought the other week at Noz for €3:99 – the tree with its electric lights and baubles. It’s not too bad either. i’m pleasantly surprised.

Lunch was as normal, and I had two walks today. one was, as usual, around the Pointe du Roc.

And in the harbour I saw Neptune manoeuvring her way out of the harbour. She must have come in on the early morning tide and loaded up pretty quickly because I didn’t see her arrive during the evening.

I’ve not seen her turn round as quickly as this. She must be in quite a hurry today

But later on in the early evening when it was dark, I went into town.

To Super-U for some fruit seeing as I have run out, and to the boulangerie for one of the baguettes that I like, for my lunchtime butties.

While I was there, I took the opportunity to go around the Cours Jonville and photograph the Christmas decorations. They aren’t so good this year as I remember the and it’s rather disappointing.

Tea was a slice of my pie from the other week, with veg and mushroom gravy.

So now I’m going to have a shower and then go to bed. I’m having an early morning tomorrow, ready to hit the road. It’s a long way to go.

storm sea wall port de granville harbour granville manche normandy france

neptune port de granville harbour manche normandy france

harbour pilot port de granville manche normandy france

christmas lights rue lecampion granville manche normandy france

christmas lights place general de gaulle granville manche normandy france

Wednesday 19th December 2018 – HAVING GONE …

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

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

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

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

We’ve had lunch and then the first of our two walks. But I didn’t get too far out of the building before I came to a resounding halt.

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

It looks quite impressive.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that a while back they were drilling into the wall above the window of a house along the rue du Nord.

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

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

We had a beautiful early moon as well this afternoon.

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

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

We were having a very strong wind this afternoon, and out on the Plat Gousset we were reaping the full rewards of it.

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

And serve them right too.

A day or two ago we saw a strange-looking crane parked up on the Square Maurice Marland.

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

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

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

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

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

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

canoe fishing boat ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

fishing boats ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

canoe sea granville manche normandy france

fishing boats ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

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storm sea wall plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Tuesday 18th December 2018 – TODAY WAS …

… probably the worst that I have felt for a long time. In fact, it is quite a long time since I felt like I did today, although I do have to admit that at one time it was a fairly regular occurrence.

It wasn’t such an early night as I was hoping to have, and it was a struggle to rouse myself from my bed at anything like a reasonable time. I’d been on my travels too, discussing football results with a group of people, one of whom was a former friend of mine from Stoke on Trent. For those of you who are not clued up on these things, TNS – The New Saints of Oswestry Town, perennial winners of the Welsh Premier League, are having a bad time this season by their standards, and are adrift in third position. but last night they had apparently been playing Connah’s Quay Nomads who are out in the lead, and beaten them 7-0. Such an astonishing (but not surprising) result given the inconsistency in the WPL, and there we all were on our nocturnal ramble last night discussing the result.

After breakfast, I drifted around for a while not doing very much because I couldn’t concentrate on anything, apart from stirring around a pile of photographs. For part of the morning I was even flat out on the bed trying to gather my wits. Not quite sleeping, but not far off either.

Lunch wasn’t much better either I could feel myself slipping downhill until round about 15:00 when I went off with the fairies. And there on my chair I sat in a stupor until a loud noise on the computer awoke me. 15:45 it was too.

With something of a struggle I staggered off out into the hurricane and torrential rain. No-one was out there at all which is hardly any surprise given the circumstances.

But Thora was in port again, moored up at a different berth again.

She could well have come in yesterday evening from St Helier because I might have seen her outline at the quayside as I drove past her berth in the night.

There must be some serious kind of work going on somewhere in the old medieval walled town.

There were several pieces of heavy equipment such as this concrete mixer parked up here or hereabouts.

The streets of the old town are very narrow and the two archways through the walls are narrow and low. This prevents this kind of vehicle from going in and they have to park here and trans-ship their load.

We also have a visitor – a piece of heavy equipment – parked up on the forecourt of our building.

It’s some kind of cherry-picker with a large working platform. So it looks as if we are going to be having some kind of roof or guttering repairs to our building within the course of the next day or two.

I’m glad that I live on a lower floor.

Still feeling like death, I remembered that I had some of those high-energy drinks that I had bought last winter when I was ill. And so I liberated one from the Stores and drank it. Surprisingly, I felt a little better after that and I began to perk up.

So much so that a little later I was even working away on my High Arctic web page and it’s been a while since I’ve done that. It’s amazing what a little something like that will do.

For tea tonight, I found a Pepper and Green Bean curry from 14th November 2017. With some rice and vegetables and a leek from the weekend, it was delicious too. It’s amazing the stuff that I’m finding in the freezer.

The wind and rain had died down this evening so it was a reasonably-comfortable walk around the walls.

The sky was pretty clear too for a change and the photography was quite good tonight.

This particular shot of the Plat Gousset and the houses on the top of the cliffs on the rue de la Falaise came out really well. It’s a shame that the tide wasn’t fully in

And now that I’m home, I might try for an early night. I hope that this improvement in my health keeps up tomorrow.

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night donville les baines plat gousset granville manche normandy france

night plat gousset granville manche normandy france

night rue georges clemenceau town hall mairie christmas lights granville manche normandy france

night place marechal foch granville manche normandy france

Monday 17th December 2018 – IT WASN’T …

… so simple this morning about raising myself from the dead. The alarms went off as usual at 06:00, 06:17 and 06:19, but I didn’t see the light of day until 07:45. One of those days, I’m afraid.

I had managed to go off on my travels somewhere too. Something to do with wild horses and chasing them trough a paper-covered archway. The idea was that the first horse through would burst the paper and the rest would rush through, but it seems that the paper didn’t burst the way that it should and the following horse ended up being stuck in the paper and the archway somehow and was galloping around the field still enveloped in the wreckage.

We also had a very slow start to the day. I know that I’ve been feeling not quite like it for the last few days but today was pretty dismal and I couldn’t summon up the energy to do very much.

It went on like this until lunchtime. And even my hummus and salad sandwiches did little to relieve the doom and gloom of the procedures. I really must pull myself together somehow.

This afternoon wasn’t all this much better but I did manage to wrap the Christmas present that I had bought the other day. And then I hit the streets, first calling at LeClerc where I bought another present that I had forgotten. Luckily there were some Charity people doing present-wrapping so they did the business on my behalf.

Back into Caliburn and off to Roncey and Liz and Terry’s. I’d been invited to a pre-Christmas meal and Strawberry Moose had come with me. He’d packed his suitcase, being invited to pass Christmas in the UK with his friends.

I handed over the presents and then we had a meal. Liz had cooked a beautiful, wicked chili meal which was delicious, and this was followed by home-made mince pies.

There was a surprise afterwards. Even though she is very busy these days, Liz had made me a Christmas Present, and when it’s Christmas you’ll all get to see it. Of course, I can’t open it until Christmas Day.

But shame as it is to say it, I had to come home early. I found myself falling asleep there and if I do that I won’t ever come home. I’m not as fit as I have been and I have to take care of myself.

It was a struggle to reach back home, but once I was here that was that. I wasn’t going anywhere else and now I’m off to bed. I’m going to have to push myself on over the next few days ready for my trip to Belgium on Friday.

Sunday 16th December 2018 – NO FOOTBALL …

… today. So I’ve had a day in the house as well.

And it’s just as well because while it might be warmer outside than it has been of late, it’s been wet and windy. Not the day for standing outside in a football stadium.

Despite it being a Sunday and despite not being overly early into bed, I was still awake at 06:22. And despite all of my best efforts, I couldn’t go back to sleep. Round about 07:30 I gave it up as a bad job and arose from my bed. That’s not a very good start.

Most of the morning I spent loitering about. I didn’t do very much, but then again I don’t on a Sunday, do I? I allow myself one whole day when I don’t do anything at all and don’t feel guilty about it.

That took me up to lunch-time and my butties in the dining room. And the hummus that I made the other week that had been in the freezer tasted even better for having stood for a while.

This afternoon I continued with my day of indolence, punctuated by a walk in the wind and rain around the medieval city walls.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that we’ve been looking every now and again at the building sites around the town. This one here in the rue du Nord is slowly taking shape.

Work is advancing bit by bit and they might be finishing it some time soon. But they don’t seem to be in too much of a hurry.

Despite the miserable weather I spent some time out there watching the waves rolling up across the beach. They were coming in with a considerable amount of force

There’s a tidal swimming pool, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall. The waves were crashing over the sides and into the basin.

It’s a shame that there’s a leak in the pool that doesn’t seem ever to be fixed. It would be a good asset to the town, although not in this weather of course.

Despite the weather, I wasn’t the only person out there

Down in the town on the corner of the rue Paul Poirier and the place Charles de Gaulle we had the gilets jaunes out there disrupting the traffic.

While their aims might (or might not) be laudable, their target should be the politicians, the tax collectors and people like that. I don’t understand why they seem to spend their time harassing the ordinary citizen.

Cowardice, maybe? Afraid to take on anyone of any importance? Or simply a group of dysfunctional social misfits with a low self-esteem using the power and the backing of the mob to make themselves look important and powerful?

Back here, I made myself a real hot chocolate. With a couple of squares of patisserie chocolate leted in a small amount of water slowly boiled in a saucepan, and then when melted properly into a syrup, with soya milk slowly stirred into it and even more slowly brought to the boil.

After that, I crashed out. And not just a curl-up on the chair but flat out on the bed under the covers for a good hour or so. And had there not been a loud noise on the radio, I would probably still be there now. Even so, with the radio blasting out a loud programme, I still couldn’t summon up the willpower to leave the bed to turn th volume down.

When I finally did leave the bed, I could feel that I’d gone downhill during the afternoon. All of the signs were there and it’s quite disappointing, seeing that I’m on the road on Friday. I need to try my best to sort myself out over the next few days.

Tea was a pizza of course, being Sunday. Followed by tinned fruit salad with the coconut soya cream stuff. And it really is delicious.

Outside again later, the rain had stopped and the clouds had cleared. The moon was out and there were plenty of stars. All in all, it was quite pleasant despite the wond and cold.

Now I’m going to try for an early night. Back to work tomorrow and I really do need to try to be serious. I can’t waste all of my time like this. there’s plenty to do.

tidal swimming pool plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Saturday 15th December 2018 – WE’VE HAD A BIT …

… of an issue here today.

Coming back from shopping this morning I put on the coffee machine to make a coffee and the whole electrical system in the apartment went “bang” and cut out. Everything had gone and even when I switched the main fuse back on, there was still no current.

Down to the cellar to check the master switch but the door to the electric room was closed with a special lock which I couldn’t undo. And so I called up the Estate Agents.

She came round, showed me the secret to opening the door to the electric room, and I could then power up the apartment. But we had a chat about the electrical system and she said that she would arrange for an electrician to pass by after the New Year.

Last night wasn’t quite so early and as a result it was a struggle to leave the bed this morning. I’d been on an exciting nocturnal ramble too but by the time I’d sat up in bed it had completely gone from my head. I’m not doing too well here either am I?

After breakfast I had a shower and a clean-up and then went off to the shops. It was freezing cold, howling with wind and teeming down with rain.

We did the usual round of LIDL, NOZ and LeClerc, and bought nothing special at all. And on the way back I stopped off to pick up something special for a friend, more of which anon. Back here we had the electrical issues, and then I crashed out for a while.

After lunch I tidied up and put away the shopping. It takes me longer to do things like that these days as I’m slowly slowing up. And that reinds me that one of these days I must go through and clean the apartment from top to bottom.

Later on this afternoon, I hit the streets again. US Granville were playing AS Poissy and I’d bought a ticket for the game in the hope that the weather would change.

And indeed it had changed – it had become worse and it was dreadful outside.

But me no daft, me no silly, I’d dressed in my Arctic wet-weather gear and it worked to perfection.

I was comparatively comfortable squelching my way through the Christmas lights of the town and by the time that I reached the Stade Louis Dior I was hot and sweating despite the freezing weather.

After about 20 minutes, the weather changed again. And I’ve never ever in my life been out in such a torrential downpour and felt so completely dry. The money that I had spent in Montreal three months ago was well-worth it.

For the second half of the game, the weather changed yet again. The rain stopped, the wind dropped and the sky cleared. The stars appeared and the temperature fell.

As for the football, it was a good match. Poissy were better than their league position suggested and Granville made heavy weather of a narrow 1-0 victory. They had bags of chances too, most of which were blazed over the bar.

We had a peculiar incident too. A Poissy player was badly-injured and rolled off the field. And so the game went on. But the Poissy trainer then dragged him back onto the pitch so that the referee would stop the game. A yellow card at last for the player and the trainer, the former for stopping the game and the latter for entering the field of play without the referee’s permission, but the referee simply stopped the game for the medical treatment and ignored the sanction.

The referee also got a throw-in wrong. A Granville player kicked the ball out of play, but then took the throw-in. I noticed it, and so did the linesman who waved his flag like a chef de gare. The referee took no notice but a minute or so later, ran past the linesman and said (and I heard him correctly) “I know – I know”.

Walking back through the town in the cold but dry weather, I could take some time to admire the Christmas lights on the way home.

We saw this decoration here at the same spot last year at the roundabout at the start of the avenue des Matignon.

We seem to becoming quite festive all over the town now. it’s a shame that I won’t be here to enjoy it all but it can’t be helped.

Back here at home there was more football. On the internet this time.

Newtown v Llandudno in the Welsh Premier League. Newtown are a mid-table side and Llandudno are bottom of the league. And it’s easy to see why because Newtown swept them away 3-1 without too much difficulty.

Tea was out of a tin at half-time.

So I’ll be in bed in a minute. It’s late but it’s Sunday tomorrow so I’m having a lie-in. And about time too.

christmas lights avenue du marechal leclerc granville manche normandy france

christmas lights place de la gare rue couraye granville manche normandy france

Friday 14th December 2018 – THAT’S ANOTHER …

…. day where I’ve accomplished much less than I intended to.

it started well enough because, having had a reasonably early night, I was awake and up and about before the final alarm went off at 06:19. And that’s a nice change.

Not so much about the weather though. It had been cold during the night and when I looked at the thermometer, it was 0°C outside.

Welcome to winter. It’s here at last.

After breakfast I had a start on the stuff that needed doing such as arranging some of the files and documents from the desktop computer but for some reason or other I didn’t seem to be able to start and I have no idea why. I wasn’t pushing on like I had hoped.

Even so, I made it as far as lunchtime although I hadn’t done very much. And a couple of nice sandwiches with some of my home-made hummus were delicious.

This afternoon I attacked the carrots. 1kg of them topped and tailed, peeled and chopped. And put in a saucepan with some bayleaves to blanch.

It was then that there was a buzz on the door. Liz and Terry had found themselves in the vicinity so they called in for a chat. It was nice to see them too.

We had biscuits and coffee and a good chat, and the fuse in the electrics decided to blow opportunely seeing as there was an electrician in the apartment. Now I don’t need to explain to Terry what’s going on.

After Liz and Terry left, I was deciding on going out, very much late, for my afternoon walk, when the telephone rang.

It was Rosemary who wanted a chat so we were there for almost 90 minutes putting the world to rights.

With all of the excitement, I don’t remember anything after that until just after 19:00. I’d been flat out on the office chair for just about an hour. I’m clearly not doing too well, am I?

Tea was a burger with pasta and tomato sauce. I wasn’t in the mood for anything exotic or anything that would take time to prepare.

For the first time this winter I wore my gloves. It’s going to be another freezing night tonight, I reckon. But I’m going to be tucked up in my little bed in the warmth in early course. It’s shopping day tomorrow.

Thursday 13th December 2018 – HAVING FINALLY MANAGED …

… to have an early night last night, I felt like death this morning when I awoke.

Nevertheless I did struggle out of my bed on time and that makes a change these days, doesn’t it?

After breakfast I had a few things to do, one of which was to have a shower and a clean-up and to switch on the washing machine with all of the dirty laundry that has accumulated over the past couple of weeks.

That’s just as well because I’m running out of clean clothes. As far as clothes go, I’m running a very tight ship here with limited supplies. So the more I can wash and the more often I wash them, the more comfortable I will be.

Another thing that I had to do was to look out of the window at the racket going on from the courtyard at the back, outside the Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs.

After the military moved out of here in the 1980s, the buildings became derelict and a slow process of enovation has been taking place. My building is of course done, as is the College Malraux and the Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs.

They ahve almost finished the third block, and there are some rooms done in the command block. But it looks as if they have started work on the command block yet again.

It was cold outside. The temperature had dropped down to 3°C during the night and wasn’t any higher when I went out. The wind was bitter too.

And down there in the harbour was Normandy Trader.

She was unloading a huge mound of sacks and so on, which were being loaded into a lorry on the quayside.
“That’s a quick turn-round” I thought to myself.

She can’t have been in long and they were working away like beavers down there. Clearly, something is up.

On the way back home, I noticed that Normandy Trader had gone. That was an even quicker turn-round.

LIDL had nothing particular on offer today so I didn’t buy anything exciting at all. Just the usual bits and pieces, including some carrots that I will freeze tomorrow.

But I know where I shall come if ever I find any electric coffee. Here in LIDL today they are selling grinders for electric coffee – not, as you may well have expected and have already noted, “electric grinders for coffee”

Just a little surprise on the car park as well.

It’s been a while, I reckon, since we’ve seen an old car on these pages. So here’s one to catch up.

Regularly featuring on polls of the “Ugliest Car On The Road”, it’s a very early Citroen Ami-6 break, or estate car, from the period.

Introduced in 1961, they were basically flushed-out 2CV deluxes with larger engines and were probably either the first or second ever production car to have headlamps that weren’t round – to the total disbelief of the Americans who refused to issue import permits for them until the mid-70s for this very reason.

First thing that I did on returning was to make a coffee. The second thing that I did was to sit down on my chair to close my eyes for a short while – a while that wasn’t as short as I hoped that it would be.

After lunch I came back in here and started to do some work – but I didn’t last very long before a wave of fatigue overwhelmed me.

I did manage to struggle out for my afternoon walk in an attmept to clear my head but it will take much more than a walk in the wind to clear what’s going on in my head.

I wasn’t the only one out there either.

A couple of council workmen were busy cutting the hedge here on the Pointe du Roc at the back of the running track that the kids at the College Malraux use as a playing field.

The method and machinery were a bit industrial, but if you don’t do this kind of thing on a regular basis you can’t expect anything else.

but when I came back it wasn’t very long at all before I was stretched out on the bed.

I’m really struggling these days, aren’t I?

Tea was a burger on a bap with vegetables and steamed potatoes with vegan butter. And it was all absolutely delicious. And followed by tinned fruit salad and almond-flavoured soya dessert stuff.

It’s doubtful if I’ll be working late tonight. Its only just after 22:00 and I’m feeling exhausted already. I don’t think that it will be very long at all before I’m off to the Land of Nod.

Wednesday 12th December 2018 – THAT WAS TWO …

… hours of my life that I won’t ever get back, I can tell you.

In fact, the lady whom I saw at the Tax Office couldn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know. And after she had asked me half a dozen questions, she didn’t alter or amend my tax form in any way, neither did she ask me to do so. And I’ll be getting my “certificate of non-taxation” in due course, whenever that might be.

Despite what I said last night, it was nothing like an early night. An early morning more like – something round about 02:15 in fact, so engrossed was I in what I was doing.

Much to my surprise I managed to crawl out of my nice clean bedding round about 06:15, and I don’t remember much about any voyage except that I was on board a ship at one particular moment.

After breakfast I had a rustle around for a pile of papers and it turns out that I can’t find one particular document. I’ve probably overlooked bringing it with me from the Auvergne, so I had to go to the bank for a statement.

Just outside the building here there was a plant lorry dropping off a pile of equipment.

That looked interesting so I went over to them to find out what was going on.

Apparently there are some major engineering and building works taking place in the old walled town so they were dropping the stuff off here.

Heavy vehicles aren’t allowed within the walls.

And there The bank manager looked me out, and came over to shake my hand. I must be well in credit back there right now.

The Tax Office was pretty painless, as I mentioned, and I had a nice walk back here, calling for a baguette on the way.

When I was heading into town, I noticed that Thora had gone out on the morning tide.

That was the same tide that had presumably brought in Normandy Trader, which was now tied up at the quayside loading up with supplies.

But on the way back, I noticed that Normandy Trader had gone out too. That was a quick turn-round.

No wonder I’m finding it difficult to keep up with what is going on in the harbour these days – who’s coming and who’s going – with turn-rounds as quick as this.

You can’t say that people here in Granville are softened by the mild weather.

Hear, the street cafés in the rue Saint-Saveur encourage their patrons to sit outside in all kinds of weather, even in mid-winter.

But for those few who do feel the cold, blankets are provided to make sure that they stay outside.

First thing that I did on reaching the apartment was to make a coffee, and then I crashed out on the chair for a while, until lunchtime in fact.

This afternoon I attacked the files again. But not for long.

I went out in the sunshine for my walk around the walls. And the temperature has plummeted again. Baby, it’s cold outside.

But not too cold for some.

I don’t know whether these people were on the point of going in or coming out of the water, but I wasn’t going to hang around and wait to see.

I left them to it and cleared off.

On returning to the apartment I restarted work but had to go and lie down for a while on the bed. And I was well-away with the fairies until all of a sudden I had one of the worst attacks of cramp that I have had for quite some considerable time.

Despite whatever I tried (and I tried plenty) I couldn’t get it to ease off for quite a while and it still hurts now.

For tea, I found a potato and chick-pea curry from 30th October … errr … 2017. Tons of old stuff in the freezer that needs cleaning out and I’m aiming at one a week until I can keep something like a 6-month time limit.

The wind was rising again when I went out, and we had another endless stream of fishing boats coming into the harbour.

But we are approaching Christmas and the lights are going full-flow now. Right across the valley, the lamps are burning brightly all the way up the rue Couraye.

Won’t be long before we’re all curled up around the tree, although whosever tree I’ll be curling around, it won’t be my own.

That was all that there was about, except for two cars having a race along the road at the top.

But here around the corner there’s another example of our famous bad parking.

Why park in two places when you can take up three between you? As I have said before … “and you’ll say it again” – ed … I really don’t know what goes through the minds of some people.

But now the temperature has really dropped and it’s going to be cold tonight. We were told that the weather would change this week and it looks as if winter has arrived at last.

bathers changing plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Tuesday 11th December – I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED TO APPEAR …

… at 10:00 in the forenoon – at the local Tax Office.

A few weeks ago I had to apply for a certificate of non-taxation from them, and so I went to pick up some forms to fill in and send off. But I didn’t have a clue for what I was supposed to be asking so I filled in the form as best I could and sent it off with an accompanying letter.

So the long and short of it is that they don’t understand either and trying to explain on the telephone was pretty hopeless. And so I need to head that was tomorrow for a personal chat.

It was another night where I vaguely remembered the alarm going off and not doing too much about it. 07:45 it was when I finally arose.

Plenty of time to go off on a ramble during the night. In an aeroplane with a pile of soldiers and we all had to parachute out – and could you really imagine me doing that? We landed in Paris and tried to assimilate ourselves into the population but that didn’t work and we ended up being chased by the German police. It came to a situation where in the end we had to choose the slowest members of our party to stop and fight a rearguard action to hold up the pursuers, so that the quickest could get right away. Rather a cruel decision, but a necessary one – to sacrifice some so that the rest could get away.

After breakfast I had a shower and, just by way of a change, changed the bedding. I haven’t done that for a few weeks so it’s high time – “high” being the appropriate word.

Most of the day has been spend moving files around again – and disposing of another mound of duplicates. There are tons of stuff that are not needed or duplicated.

I hope that when I finally receive my new computer that I can keep it tidy and in order for a change. I thought that back in those days I was really good at keeping it properly filed, but it’s nothing like how I would like it to be and how the more modern computers are organised. I don’t know what I must have been thinking back in those days.

We had a little relax, and our two walks as well. On the way out this evening, I noticed no fewer than eight (and there may well have been even more) fishing boats in line-astern heading into the bay from the English Channel.

And round the corner and in the port, I noticed that our old friend Thora was tying up at the quayside too.

She must have sneaked in as soon as the harbour gates opened a little earlier.

And she was tied up at a different place on the quayside too, so I don’t know what that was all about.

Tea was a pie with veg as I said. And while I had the oven on, I made another rice pudding. And that was delicious too.

And while I was waiting for tea to cook, I mixed some more muesli for breakfast tomorrow seeing as I’ve run out.

So tomorrow morning I need to be up early to find some papers so an early night is called for.

So sweet dreams.

night thora port de granville harbour manche normandy france

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now that’s what I call efficiency.

I had both my walks today.

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

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

And there were some beautiful cloud effects out there today.

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

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

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

Out in the evening air tonight, the wind was almost still.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

night trawlers ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy france

EPIC HALL

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