Tag Archives: eric hall

Saturday 28th July 2018 – A DAY AT THE SEASIDE!

Kate, Darren, Dylan and Robyn are spending a week with Liz and Terry. Today they were going to the beach at Agon-Coutainville and Liz asked me yesterday if I would like to join them.

I’d had another one of those nights where I was wide awake at 05:00. I did manage to go back to sleep again, but I was up and about as the alarm went off.

After breakfast I had a shower and then made my butties for lunch. Caliburn and I then went off to the shops, spending most of the trip through the town stuck behing a grockle doing about 20kph in a caravanette as the driver and his wife admired the seagulls.

At LIDL there had been a power failure and only half of the tills were working. A fine start for one of the busiest days of the year, especially as the place was heaving with tourists.

Having been stymied with my attempts to find some black-faced melamine, I went to Mr Bricolage and bought a couple of pine plank boards, one at 40cms and the other at 30cms width.

They are both 2m long so the narrower one I had cut in half so that there are two boards of 1m length which will make two shelves over the desk. The longer one will go across and bridge the gap between the two cupboards, one on either side of the desk.

At LeClerc I remembered the new memory card. But the difference between a 8gb card and a 16gb card was just €1:00, so I bought the larger card. I hope that it will work in the big Nikon.

But apart from that I bought nothing special at all. Not for want of trying, but the place was heaving today. It was almost impossible to move around in there. Mind you I ought to have had a clue with all of the traffic about on the roads. It was nose-to-tail from the ring road to the town centre.

It was a comparatively quick drive to Agon-Coutainville so I was there first before the others, and so that gave me a chance to have a good look around.

And I’m glad that I did because I came across one of the rarest of all mass-produced Western European cars of the late 1960s parked up on the car park.

And when I say “rarest” I really do mean that because in total there were only 14,400 of them ever built.

It’s a Simca 1200s coupé ans in my opinion it’s one of the most beautiful cars ever produced, but the chances of me ever finding one for sale would be about zero, I reckon.

Apart from being a Simca, and with all of the associated quality issues that it would have had, the steering was very … err … imprecise and the brakes had a reputation for being, well, “unmatched” to the performance of the vehicle.

With all of that and with the car being something of an icon amongst the well-heeled and reckless youth of that period, they had a tendency not to last very long.

All eight of us (because Robyn had brought Strawberry Moose with her) went off for a coffee and the little ones went to buy some cakes too.

And then we went for the highlight of the afternoon.

It’s Darren’s birthday today and so for a treat Liz had arranged a session on sand yachts for him. And Kate, Dylan and Terry went along as well.

Dylan was rather light though and his yacht wouldn’t move along so easily. But he soon got the hang of it with a little personal instruction. The others didn’t have the same problems and had a great time, enjoying it thoroughly.

Afterwards, we headed off to a quiet corner of the beach and set up our little camp for a picnic.

We chose a little sheltered spot out of the wind where we would watch the next session of sand yachting, and ate our butties in comfort.

Which was just as well because it was now about 16:00 and my stomach had been thinking that my throat had been cut.

Our neighbours were a French man, his English wife and their two daughters, aged about 11 and 7. At one point, the mother asked the youngest daughter, in English “where’s Ruby?” (presumably the elder daughter).
The younger girl replied, immediately without even a pause for thought “elle est partie chercher des crabes” in perfect French.
There’s a family and a couple of kids who have all of the right advantages and who will go far in life, that’s for sure.

After lunch I had a little bit of a snooze and later, being only half-awake, I had a very interesting conversation with Kate, thinking that she was Liz.

Kate took the kids down to the sea and they all had a good swim. The water was quite warm apparently but the sun had disappeared so they were frozen to the marrow when they came out.

So everyone had a good warm-up in woolly towels and then we all headed for home. It was 18:30 – amazing how quickly time flies when you are enjoying yourself.

I came back here, to discover that Brigitte had left the window of her car open so I had to ring her and tell her about it.

And during my evening walk I met another one of my neighbours who invited me around tomorrow evening for an aperitif.

But despite having had a good crash-out during the day, I was quite tired. So no tea and an early night.

It’s Sunday so I can have a lie in. And I need it too.

Friday 27th July 2018 – I’VE FINISHED …

… all that I can do in the apartment right now.

I’ve fitted the kick panel in behind the desk so that I don’t make marks on the wall with my feet, and I’ve also brought up the two worktops that I bought the other day. The small one fits nicely on the small unit where there is the kettle and the coffee machine, and the large one is on the larger unit.

They are both drilled and screwed so that they won’t move, and for once in my life I now have a decent kitchen worktop where I can prepare meals and cook to my heart’s content.

It was a bit touch and go though, not helped by the fact that despite not going to bed too early, I was wide awake at 05:10 this morning and couldn’t go back off to sleep.

The morning though was quite relaxing and then I’ve spent most of the day going through the enormous piles of photos that have built up over the years. I’ve probably reviewed a few thousand of them but then again that’s just a small drop in the ocean.

Mind you, it’s really relaxing having a proper desk, a proper seat and a proper place to work.

At lunchtime I was making my butties ready to go out and sit on my wall, but a sudden rainstorm put paid for that. It rained for a good hour too and so I ended up eating my butties inside for a change.

The weather cleared up in time for me to go for my afternoon walk around the walls.

There weren’t the usual crowds out there today, which is hardly a surprise given the weather. But the tide was quite far out and you can see the diving platform and how far out of the water it is.

Makes quite a difference from high tide, doesn’t it?

Back here I carried on with my work and that took me right up to tea. And even though I now have my new super-duper worktop, I didn’t feel much like cooking. And so tea was pasta and vegetables with bulghour and tomato sauce.

Tonight there should have been a lunar eclipse. There were crowds of people out and about waiting for it but the south-east was heavily overcast and we couldn’t see anything.

That is to say – we couldn’t see anything of the moon. We did have occasional flurries of rain and all of this produced a really beautiful rainbow.

It’s not very often that you can photograph them so well.

However, away to the west, the clouds suddenly dramatically cleared, just like someone pulling apart the curtains.

And slowly the sun came down out of the clouds and into view.

So at least, the crowds who were waiting for the eclipse with a feeling of disappointment had at least something to watch as the day drew to a close.

And as the evening drew on, the clouds lifted even more to the south-west and we could see more of the sun setting over the ile de Chausey.

There were still a few clouds low down on the horizon so we couldn’t see the sunset at its best but it was still good enough to keep us all entertained while it disappeared.

And then I carried on with my walk, being nearly squided by a motorist on a zebra crossing.

And when I told my friends that I had narrowly avoided being hit by a car, they all expressed their regret.

So having missed the eclipse, I came back here. I’ll be having an early night because tomorrow, I’m going on a picnic.

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sunset english channel ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

rainbow pointe du roc granville manche normandy france

sunset english channel ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

Thursday 26th July 2018 – IT RAINED!

First time for at least 6 weeks I reckoned. On the way back here from Roncey we had a brief downpour for about five minutes. It was quickly here and quickly gone, but it rained just the same and that is something to note.

Last night was rather a mixed night. In bed early, I awoke at some time during the night, although I’ve no idea when, but I was quickly back asleep, where I stayed until the alarm went off. And then, to my own surprise, I was out of bed quite quickly.

The laptop had stalled during the night and so the transferring of the dashcam files had stalled to. And so I restarted it with the broken laptop as I suggested last night. And to my surprise, it was all done in a couple of hours, never mind a couple of days.

In the meantime I’d had my medication, had breakfast and even had a shower and a good clean-up.

Once everything was organised, I went out.

First stop was the harbour to check out the yacht that I saw yesterday.

She was still moored where I saw her, and so I made a note of her name. She’s called the Michel Patrick otherwise known as Milpat.

And having said that, I’m still none the wiser. I’ve not been able to find out anything else about her and she’s not in any database that I can locate.

So I headed off and and tried the remaining DiY shops, but again, no black melamine. So I fuelled up Caliburn and headed out with Strawberry Moose to take him on his holidays with Liz and Terry. Their grandchildren are arriving tomorrow and so he intends to have plenty of fun with them as usual.

Liz and I had a good chat and then some lunch, following which we went to Countances. Liz bought the contents of the LeClerc supermarket and then we went to the Biocoop for some stuff, where I found some gluten-free cornflakes.

Bricomarche, my last hope, let me down for the black melamine, and that was that. It simply cannot exist. I shall have to think of a Plan B.

Back at Roncey, Terry cut the worktop just how I wanted it for my home, while Liz produced something out of the freezer for tea. And I’ve no idea what it was and, strangely enough, neither does she. But whatever it was, it was very nice.

We sat and watched the clouds close in, and then the lightning in the distance. And I told you about the rainstorm on the way back.

So a productive day meeting friends and shopping, even if I wasn’t able to find my melamine. But at least I can press on with my kitchen tomorrow.

Wednesday 25th July 2018 – I HAVEN’T DONE …

… very much in the way of catching up with the outstanding work here today.

And for a couple of good reasons too.

Firstly, I was in bed at about 22:30 last night, thoroughly exhausted despite my good sleep yesterday afternoon. But the result of that was that I was wide awake at 04:40 and out of bed working before 06:00, which will come as a surprise to anyone.

However, the downside of that is that after the usual morning routine and breakfast, I crashed out on the chair at the desk, and was out until about 08:50.

And again for half an hour later on in the afternoon.

The second reason was that this file transfer is dragging on and dragging on. I’m at about 30% of the transfer despite it being working non-stop for 36 hours.

It would have been a better idea to have done this with the laptop that has the broken screen and keyboard rather than blocking up this laptop for so long.

However, I haven’t been idle at all.

I’ve totally rearranged the living area – put all of the shelves with the CDs and DVDs alongside the glass unit and the posh bookshelves at the end of the room.

Next step was to drill out a hole in the back of the posh bookshelves And now the television, DVD and VHS players and the new hifi are all arranged properly in there.

Finally, I turned the sofa, carpet and coffee table around 90% so that they are all facing the TV, with the window now away to my left.

Everything works fine, much to my surprise, and it’s all now looking as if someone lives here. I could even be quite comfortable in here, which would be a surprise to any regular reader of this rubbish.

As a result of all of this, lunch was rather late. And as well as my book and my butties, I was joined by two of my lizards, with a third lurking away in the undergrowth nearby.

There seemed to be a lot of activity in the harbour too.

We haven’t seen Grima for quite some considerable time, but Normandy Trader was in there down at the bottom end loading up. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen her too.

La Grande Ancre was down there loading up too. I’m not sure where she goes but her turn-round time indicates that her destination is probably the Ile de Chausey.

Back here, in between having a little doze, I attacked the bedroom and that’s looking much more tidy too. And the things that I found that I had forgotten makes tidying up all worthwhile.

Later on, I went for my afternoon walk around the medieval walls.

The tide was on its way out and so there was a little bit of beach down at the foot of the cliff just here.

With crowds of people enjoying themselves on the sand and splashing themselves in the sea, even though the waves were just a little bit wild this afternoon.

But that was just a small sample of the people who were out there enjoying themselves in the sea.

Out there in the sea off the Casino Beach there were crowds of people swimming around.

And regular readers of this rubbish will recall from a few weeks ago that the diving platform was almost submerged by the high tide. And even though the tide is far from being fully out, you can tell just how tall the platform is and how high is the tidal range.

And you might also remember the tiny sliver of beach that we saw on our walk the other day as the tide was almost fully in.

Today, with the tide on its way out, there’s much more beach for people to spread themselves around right now.

There still isn’t enough beach for me though. I’d much rather have the whole of the beach to myself of course but that’s not really possible around here in July and August.

But I do have a cunning plan.

I carried on with my walk around the walls and ended up overlooking the harbour.

The Normandy Trader was still there being loaded up, but there was also a great pile of activity as they assembled yet another huge mound of roadstone on the quayside.

It looks as if we might very shortly be expecting another visit from Neptune or one of her sister ships.

Back here, I rather ran aground with the tidying up and loitered around for a while. But then that’s no surprise. Any previous visitor who would come here now would see a totally different place from the one that they would remember.

Tea was a vegan burger with potatoes, vegetables and onion gravy. Delicious it was too.

Later on I went for a walk around the headland.

Nothing much exciting was happening and there weren’t too many people about, but in the harbour was a yacht that I don’t recall having seen before.

It looks as if it’s quite an old yacht, with its beautiful wooden superstructure. Unfortunately its name wasn’t visible so I can’t tell you anything about it.

I shall have to go for a walk down there tomorrow if she is still about.

And hopefully an early night with a good sleep. I’m off out tomorrow so I need to be on form. And this file transfer can manage itself.

Tuesday 24th July 2018 – I’VE HAD ANOTHER …

… bad day today.

Sitting down at the desk at about 14:30 this afternoon I was overwhelmed by fatigue. And not just a tiredness, but a completely “out-of-it” kind of tiredness. I had to lie down on the bed and that was where I stayed until 17:30 – completely out of it.

And it wasn’t as if I had had a late night either. It wasn’t as early as it might have been, to say the least, but it was nothing like as late a it has been just recently.

And once I’d gone to sleep (which didn’t take long) I was out until the alarm went off too.

Leaving the bed fairly quickly, I had the usual morning performance and then after breakfast I set about moving more of the dashcam files into the dedicated drive.

It didn’t take long to fill that drive and so in the end I had to dig out a big one that I bought a while ago and start to copy stuff from one drive to the other.

While that one was going on I had a shower and a tidy-up, and then wandered off to Brico Cash.

They had some kitchen worktops on special offer – 1m80 long for just €15:95 each. So I bought two of them. A few other bits and pieces too, but surprisingly, no black-faced melamine.

After I’d been to the Casino next door for a cucumber and a baguette I went to Mr Bricolage but they were closed. And then to LeClerc’s bricolage shop. And they didn’t have any black-faced melamine either.

And all this because I couldn’t buy a bed in light oak at IKEA last year. That’s why I ended up with a black one and why my bedroom has to be black.

What made this worse was that when I assembled the bed I found that it was indeed a light oak one that had been painted black. Quite a surprise because a light oak one wasn’t an option.

Lunch was with two of my lizards (a third one was loitering in the undergrowth) and nothing much else, because there wasn’t much going on.

But just as I was about to pack up and go back to my apartment on eof the Ile de Chausey ferries came around the headland to give me a few moments of entertainment.

And then I came back to have my wasted afternoon.

Today’s task was to upload a pile of photos, edit them, and then start back on editing the blog to add the photos where I hadn’t done that, so that they can be brought up to date.

Tea was a stuffed pepper and spicy rice, followed by my walk around the headland.

As for the file transfer that I made earlier, this is going to take a while. I’m up to 26% so we’re talking about 3 days for this transfer.

But I shan’t be waiting for it. I’ll be going to bed. Despite having had a lengthy crash-out, I’m feeling rather tired. I just can’t keep going like I used to.

Monday 23rd JUly 2018 – TODAY I HAD NOT ONE …

… not two, not three but as many as FOUR lizards fighting over the pear droppings.

Not even I can drop enough bits of pear to feed four hungry lizards so they spent more time fighting over the bits than eating them.

Talking of fighting, I was fighting to wake myself up this morning. Last night wasn’t particularly late, but it was a struggle when the alarms went off, and I somehow managed to turn over and go back to sleep. 07:35 when I finally aroused myself today.

A nice empty dining table was awaiting me too so I could eat my breakfast in comfort. And then a nice little relax on an empty sofa in the uncluttered living area.

That was followed by a trip to the new workspace in the bedroom where I attacked the European Photograph Mountain.

I took some time out to do some tidying up as well. Some files and paperwork came out of the bookshelves in the living area and onto the shelves in the bookcases in the bedroom, and I tidied up in the bedroom too.

And while doing that, I found the missing computer mouse, the missing hospital paperwork and the missing medication. Tidying up certainly pays dividends.

Another thing that I did involved the scented candles that I buy from IKEA. I’ve put one in each of the clothes drawers in the chest that I assembled the other day. They should make my clothes smell quite nice.

It was a late lunch in the beautiful sunny summer afternoon sitting on my wall with my book and the herd of lizards.

There was quite a bit of movement in the port too. One of the Channel Islands ferries was coming into port from Jersey just as one of the ferries to the Ile de Chausey was setting out.

What with the piles of yachts and pleasure boats around the harbour entrance it was all quite exciting.

After lunch I carried on with my work in my new comfortable surroundings, with a pause taken for an afternoon walk around the Medieval walls to see what’s going on.

There were crowds of people hemmed in on the little sliver of beach that was defying the tide.

Looking at all of those people down there, that kind of thing would really put me off. I couldn’t relax or enjoy myself sitting down there amongst all of those people.

That wasn’t all that was going on down there either.

There were crowds of people out there in the sea, swimming around at the diving platform just offshore.

It really was a beautiful day, but not that beautiful. Not beautiful enough to entice me into the water anyway. Especially these days. I’m getting rather nesh in my old age

After spending my time admiring the crowds on the beach and in the sea I carried on with my trip around the walls.

There was a beautiful afternoon sun shining down onto the harbour making the water glow with some kind of opaque turquoise blue light.

I’ve not often seen the water in there looking quite as beautiful as this. We really were having a good day today.

Later on, I had some tea. Pasta and a kidney-bean and aubergine whatsit out of the freezer. It seems that my appetite has come back.

And then a walk around the headland in the evening sun. With a beautiful view right down towards the bottom of the Baie de Mont St Michel.

Still not sure that I can see the Mont from here though with the headland in the way, which is a shame.

I shall have to go for a drive down that way in due course. And while I’m at it, I’ll stop for a visit to the old excise lookout post out there on the headland.

And now to carry on with work. I’m enjoying my new working conditions and make the most of them.

But not until some silly time in the morning either.

Sunday 22nd JUly 2018 – YOU’VE NO IDEA …

… how nice it is to have a place to sit and relax, another place to sit and do some work, another place in which to cook, and another place in which to eat my meals.

The last time that there was anything remotely like this was maybe in Expo at one time or another, but before that I just can’t think. But it’s really the acme of bourgeoisie that I can sit and do that in my little apartment here.

And it makes a whole world of difference.

What didn’t make a difference however were the several bad attacks of cramp during the night. It’s no good having a reasonably early night and aiming for a reasonably long sleep with this kind of thing happening.

At 09:30, being unable to go back to sleep again, I decided to leave the bed. The usual start to the day followed by breakfast and a chat with my friend in the UK started off the day quite nicely and then I adjourned to the office.

First task was to search through the computers here and look for the dashcam stuff. All of that needs transferring over onto the dedicated hard drive that I bought in Liège so that it’s out of the way and I can review it in due course at my leisure.

But then I suddenly remembered that it’s the Pardon … “Granted” – ed … today – the religious ceremony in the open air when they bless the water and the rocks in order to give a safe homecoming to the sailors.

So dashing outside, tripping over Gribouille as I passed, I made my way the the harbour wall.

And there I was just in time to see the religious ceremony down below. It seems that I’d missed the Blessing of the rocks and the water.

So I came back here and carried on working, ending up with a rather late lunch at 15:00.

I went outside just in time to see the end of the Blessing and parade of boats, not having missed it at all beforehand.

And it’s uncomfortable eating one’s butties in a crowd. I’m not the sociable type as regular readers of this rubbish will recall

Back here, being concerned about the lack of web server, I rang up my web host. “But it’s been on line since Friday!” he told me. So next time I’ll remember to clear my cache before I do an upgrade, won’t I?

And then I carried on working again.

Tea was once again another candidate for the best pizza ever. You’ve no idea how much water comes out of frozen mushrooms so they really do need defrosting and draining off before you cook them. Yes – three meals again!

After that, we had the usual evening walk, with the headland strangely deserted. And it’ll be back to work in a minute. I’m really pleased with how my little apartment is turning out. 39 m² it is, and yet it does all that I need.

A balcony and sea view would have been nice, but on my budget it’s rather hoping for too much. This is the best that I can do and it’s all working fine.

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Saturday 21st July 2018 – FOR THE FIRST TIME …

… in several weeks I actually managed three meals today. I’m not sure why, but this evening I could have eaten a scabby horse, and then gone back for the rider.

But overall, the day wasn’t quite so impressive. As I said yesterday, I was going back to my desk in the evening to carry on working. And I did too, and I certainly didn’t expect to be still hard at it at 03:35 either It is getting just like old times again, isn’t it?

The alarms went off at 06:20 and 06:30, and I did here them too. But it was round about 07:35 when something in the street really woke me up. And that was enough for me to crawl out of bed.

A friend of mine has had some devastating news this last week and is receiving no help – in fact quite the reverse – from her husband. We’ve been chatting on and off for the last few days and she was on-line again. But at least she’s cheered herself up a bit now and things don’t look quite so gloomy.

And then another friend was on-line too and decided to tell me all about her bowel disorder just as I was sitting down to breakfast. Thanks very much!

I had a shower and a general clean-up and then headed off to the shops, negotiating the new barrier to the car park now that they seem to have that working.

LIDL came up with nothing special, but then it was off to the dechetterie to unload the European Cardboard Box Mountain. Caliburn moves around quite quicker now.

NOZ came up with, apart from the usual stuff, a new rucksack. Mine is really good quality but it’s too small and awkwardly packed. There were some big 60-litre rucksacks in there today, waterproof too, at just €19:95. It doesn’t have the useful pockets that the other one has, but it’s the size that counts and how the stuff is prportioned. The rest I can invent.

LeClerc didn’t have too much special either, although I did buy a new decent set of nail scissors. The ones that I have are about 30 years old and slowly giving up the ghost. These new ones are great.

But the media centre there came up with the goods. They were selling 32gb micro-SD cards for just €11:99 so I bought another three. And a good computer mouse too so that the really good one can go into the office and I can use the new one in the laptop on the sofa.

I was so enthralled by the micro-SD cards that I totally forgot that I’d gone in there to buy a new SD card for the big Nikon. I’ll have to do that next week.

Back here I made mu butties and then went to sit on my wall in the sun, with my book and not one, not two but three lizards now for company. I’ll have my own herd by the end of the summer won’t I?

There was a load of excitement too in the port.

The company that runs the ferries to the Ile de Chausey has two ships, one of which sometimes goes off on tours of the bay.

And with it being summer, we have one going out on a voyage while the other one is on its way itno port.

And then some tidying up. And the place does look different too now after that. I shall have to press on next week and make even more improvements.

I started some work too but, shame as it is to admit it, it wasn’t long before I was laid out on the bed fast asleep. For a good couple of hours too, and I would probably still be there now had I not had two really wicked attacks of cramp.

But when I awoke I was starving, hence the meal. Stuffed pepper with spicy rice. And it’s nice to have some proper hot food for a change.

Now, I’ll go back to working again. But not until 03:35. At least – I hope not.

Friday 20th July 2018 – IN THE ABSENCE …

… of a webhost at the moment (upgrades always happen at the most inconvenient times and take longer than planned), I shall be making notes, and posting them up when normal service is resumed, whenever that might be.

In the meantime, I had a decent night’s sleep for a change. In bed not too late, not too early, and I slept all the way through until the alarm. And it’s been a while since that has happened.

We had all of the usual procedure, including fresh coffee (which tasted disgusting) and then, at long last, probably 12 years in fact, I sat down at my desk and did some work.

All the way right through until, would you believe, 17:00 when I reckoned that it might be a good idea to have some more food.

No hummus as I said yesterday, and so I sat down and made some. And it’s wicked too. A pile of chick peas, some tahini, some olive oil, some chick pea liquid, a big pile of garlic, some olives, some tomato, basil, oregano, tarragon and black pepper. All of it whizzed up in the electric whizzer that I bought earlier this year.

Having tried some on my butties I can safely say that I won’t ever be bothered by werewolves and vampires. It’s probably the best that I’ve ever made. There’s a container in the fridge and two more in the freezer and this will keep me going for a few weeks.

And then – back to work. It’s really good having a proper place to work and it’s about time too.

I did actually make it outside – round about 21:45 – for a walk in the dusk. Crowds of people still about even though it’s gone quite cool. Clearly some people don’t have enough to do.

As for me, I’m going back to my desk and carrying on. And quite right too. There’s plenty to do.

Thursday 19th July 2018 – IZZY WHIZZY …

… let’s get busy.

That’s been the motto of today anyway, just for a change.

Last night however, I was pretty exhausted and so I was in bed before 22:00 just for a change. But being wary of what normally happens when I try for an early night – that I end up tossing and turning for several hours – I resorted to the old stand-by of putting the laptop close to the bed and watching a film.

Never fails, does it? Didn’t even make 10 minutes.

So I was up early and organised the medication and all of that. And I wasn’t the only one up early either as a friend was waiting on line for me. Seems that she has had some disappointing news and wanted a chat.

And so I did. That’s what friends are for.

A late breakfast was the result, followed by a later shower and then I set the washing machine a-go.

The walk up to LIDL was painful, but I have to keep on doing it. I need to push myself onwards while I can.

But I had a surprise across the road from there in the Avenue des Vendéens.

Two guys were looking at an old scooter which, at first glance from a distance, looked like one of the old Zundapp prototypes, so I went over to have a look.

It wasn’t quite as rare as that – in fact it was a Peugeot scooter from the 1950s. I’d never seen one before which, the owner told me, was hardly surprising as there can’t be more than a handful still left.

And I’d been lucky to see this one as he had only just wheeled it out of his garage for 30 seconds.

In LIDL my eye was caught by the size of these tomatoes.

Not having a tape measure handy, the best guess that I could make was that these were about 4 inches in diameter. You can get some idea of the size by comparing them to the “normal” tomatoes to the right.

I was going to say that I’d spent nothing today in there. But that’s not really true. But if you compare today with what I’ve been spending this week, it is pretty minimal, But all the same …

First thing that I needed was some coffee. I’d run out of the ground stuff, as I said earlier, so I bought a couple of packets to see what it’s like. Had I known that supplies were so low, I would have stocked up on the coffee that I liked when I was in Belgium. It’s not sold in France.

Another thing is that with having guests arriving, I need some spare sheets. No-one wants to sleep in a sheet after I’ve been sleeping in it – washed or not – and I’d bought a new one at IKEA. But today at LIDL they had some blue ones (my bedroom is blue) on special offer so I added one of those to the guest bag.

It seemed to be my lucky day with old motorbikes too. On the way back, I came across an old guy cleaning a Solex – you know, the typical French moped of the 40s and 50s with the engine underneath the handlebars.

This one was a later one from the late 60s with a pressed-steel frame and so I got to talk to him about it. Regular readers of this rubbish in one of its long-gone guises will recall that I unearthed the remains of one of these in a field of brambles when I was doing a furniture removal back in 2002.

It seems that the guy collects bits and makes complete machines up out of the piles. So seeing as the Solex is doing nothing down on the farm and it’s not something that I’m likely to miss, I’ll bring it back whenever I’m next down there and donate it to the cause.

It pays to keep in with the locals.

We were having some more activity in the Bay as well.

Marité was out there having a little sail around the Baie de Mont St Michel, and she was in company with La Granvillaise.

One of these days I’ll have to take myself out and about on one of them, if they decide one day to go somewhere exciting. Quebec would be nice.

Back here I opened the window in the bedroom, put the clothes dryer thing in the window and hung up the washing. But this isn’t going to be easy with the new chest of drawers in the way. I need to have a think about this.

Liz was on line too and so we had a little chat. Strawberry Moose has his holidays to plan.

After lunch I tidied up Caliburn and got him looking much more like it. A pile of stuff went into the bin from there.

With that out of the way then I attacked the European Cardboard Box Mountain. And it’s now all gone down into the back of Caliburn. It’s amazing how uncomplicated it becomes when you have a ratchet strap handy.

But it was tiring work and I had to sit down halfway through and have a little … err … relax.

And if that wasn’t enough, I attacked the bedroom and did some tidying up in there too. And that looks much better, although there’s still tons to do. But it really is nice to be finally able to sit comfortably on a comfortable chair and do some work in a proper office environment.

The walk around the headland about finished me off, so now I’m going to bed. I deserve it too.

Tomorrow I need to make some more hummus seeing as I’ve run out of that kind of stuff for my butties and I don’t really want to attack the cheese as yet.

Mind you, with what I’ve done today I’ll probably be asleep for a week.

Wednesday 18th July 2018 – I’M WHACKED!

And it’s no surprise either. The last three pieces of furniture came up from Caliburn today, they are assembled, partly filled and now in place.

And what was funny was that when I was at IKEA and loading Caliburn with the two large cabinets, I couldn’t manage it and needed some help. But yet this morning I could pick one of them up with one hand and run up the stairs with it.

The big chest of drawers, well that was a different matter. That needed two trips as I expected. And at about 19:00 at the end of the day when I had to bring up the other large cabinet, it was something of a stagger.

Anyway, now they are all assembled and in position. The bedroom now actually looks like a bedroom-cum-office as it’s supposed to do. And not only that, I’ve even started to tidy up Caliburn.

Caliburn needs a good tidying out too because there needs to be room for the European Cardboard Box Mountain which is now totally out of control. All of that needs taking down and loading into Caliburn so that I can take it to the dechetterie when I’m out and about on my travels on Saturday.

And then I need to start to tidy up in here.

The problem with this illness is that I’m like a lithium battery in that I can work and work, and then just suddenly I hit the wall and all of my energy completely disappears and I’m fit for nothing. So there are paperwork, tools and everything around here and I’m too tired to put them away.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

I did go to bed and some kind of early-ish night. But I lay awake for hours tossing and turning anf trying to make myself comfortable.

And when I finally did go off to sleep I was awoken at 05:45 by the lorry emptying the bins.

So all in all I didn’t have much sleep.

To treat myself I made a nice fresh load of muesli and had a nice breakfast, and then there were a few things to be done.

Once I’d organised that, I started to attack the furniture. That took a while, especially as I was interrupted on a couple of occasions.

Remember me saying yesterday that I needed to telephone Belgium? Well, they telephoned me. And what I reckoned might have been a really complicated procedure was resolved in three minutes flat, entirely to my satisfaction, for which I’m extremely grateful.

I first dealt with this company back in – I think – 2001 and despite all of the issues that have arisen, they have never yet let me down or disappointed me. So Chapeau to them.

Lunch was very late, and one of the lizards came for a chat which was nice. He seems to be quite tame right now.

But yet again I’ve gone without tea. It must be doing me some good – I’m not forcing myself to eat as I have a few kilos to lose, but I’ll be intrigued to see what my weight will be right now.

Instead, I went for my evening walk around the headland.

The tide was quite far out and so we could see the marker light for entry to the harbour. We saw it the other day when the tide was right in, with just the red bands out of the water.

The Ile de Chausey ferries here will give you some idea of how high the red bands are, and this how high the tide is when it comes right in.

And even more interestingly, there was some kind of activity going on at the foot of the new harbour gates.

I’m not quite sure exactly what they are doing in those red boats but they seemed to be quite interested in something that was happening there.

And you can also see here too just how high the tide will rise here on the harbour wall.

But I can’t wait for that. I’ve not crashed out yet, much to my surprise but I’m going to have an early night. It’s LIDL tomorrow and then I have to start the tidying up.

My favourite occupation, I don’t think.

trawler ferry ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

Tuesday 17th July 2018 – WHAT A HORRIBLE …

… day this has been. And I’m having far too many of these just recently.

Not going to bed until 03:30 probably has something to do with it, especially when I did manage to struggle from my stinking pit at 06:30 when the alarms went off.

But the wisdom of that decision was called into question because after having the usual medication routine, I sat down on the sofa to rest awhile, and the next thing that I knew was that it was 11:00. I’ve not had a complete crash-out like this for quite a while, have I?

So a very late breakfast indeed today.

What was even worse was that I wasn’t in much of a mood to do very much. But a whole pile of reading matter has come my way in connection with my little project that I mentioned yesterday, so I downloaded it all and set about reading it, and making a few notes. And I’m already seeing quite a lot of logistics difficulties that need to be overcome.

But then, many people just have problems. However I have solutions. And I’ll solve these problems or else die in the attempt. And as time has gone on during the day, I’m much more clear about what I want to do and how I intend to do it.

Lunch was taken at about 16:30, and that wasn’t without its difficulties either. I’d forgotten to fetch some bread from the freezer, but no matter. I went for a walk into town and picked up one of my favourite baguettes.

Remember yesterday when we saw Neptune sailing out of the harbour with another load of roadstone for Whitstable?

It didn’t take them long to start topping up the gravel bins again, did it?

We might be expecting the Neptune to make a quick aller-retour with all of the roadstone being accumulated like this.

Another thing of which we had seen plenty is the renovation of many of the houses in the rue du Port.

We’ve noticed two so far and it seems no that they are starting on a third one.

We don’t have a crane installed yet, but I imagine that this will be arriving any day now. They don’t seem to be able to do anything in the building line without a crane.

Having made my butties, I sat on the wall with my book and had a good look over the harbour.

The tide was almost out and all of the boats down there had settled down onto the silt.

My two lizards were there for company too, waiting for the bits of pear to fall onto the ground. And with the pear being well-overripe, there were plenty of bits to go round without them having to fight.

On the way back, I met another neighbour on the car park and we had a good chat for quite a while. And then I came back up here where, shame as it is to admit it, the next thing that I knew was that it was 20:00. I’d gone off again!

Still time to do a few bits of work though, and I cracked on and at least managed to salvage something from the wreckage of today. My little project is slowly starting to come together, although a couple of my plans are changing and it’s going to stretch my budget more than I anticipated. But this is no time for the faint-hearted.

And of course, I’ve still not resolved this application issue, have I?

So leaving that alone for a while, I went for my evening walk. It’s cooled down over the last couple of days so it was quite pleasant, but there was nothing going on of note.

However I had remembered something else that I needed to do, but that can only be done during office hours. But nevertheless I did some research when I came back, and it seems that it can be resolved quite easily.

But then again, this time it really does involve a phone call to Belgium, so I’m not holding my breath.

So here we are, 22:30 and here I am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Not feeling in the least like going to sleep.

We’ll probably end up tomorrow with another day like today, I reckon.

Monday 16th July 2018 – IT’S TAKEN UNTIL …

… 20:55 tonight before I could set foot outside the building.

And it all started off so well too. The alarms went off at 06:20 and again at 06:30 and I was up at a reasonable time. We had the usual morning performance and then it all went wrong.

What happened was that I sat down on the sofa “for five minutes” and the next thing that I knew, it was 08:45. It wasn’t as if I’d done anything either.

So after a rather late breakfast, I sat down and did some work.

First thing was to make up a diary. There are some people coming to visit me, hopefully, and I need to know when that might be. And then I have my own appointments too, and a few other things that need attention, so it’s never too late to start.

Having done that, I had a few trips and accommodation to book. And this is where it all started to go pear-shaped.

Plenty of money in my bank account here, so it’s logical to pay with that. But to do this, you need to have the bank confirm your security code by sending you some text messages with a reply code. So I went to authorise the payments … and nothing happened.

I finally received the codes at 20:00 this evening, far too late to be of any good. But in the meantime, I had to pay by another means which was quite inconvenient for me. But it can’t be helped.

Next step was to wade through about 350 mails that had arrived while I was away. Only 10 were of any use, but they all needed attention nevertheless.

And after this, we really hit the wall.

There’s a little project going on in the back of my mind right now and for this, I need a certificate.

Last time that I did this, I applied on line with a simple e-mail and had my certificate within 10 minutes. But on the web-site there’s a “new procedure coming into force for certificates on or after 28th July 2018”.

Mine will be after this date, so I need the new procedure. And I duly read the web page which told me almost everything that I needed to know, including in very great detail how to fill in the form.

One slight problem though – there wasn’t a link on the page to where the form might be found, and no identification number for me to search in the forms bucket.

So I rang then up on the number provided, and had a very helpful automated message – “we don’t deal with applications on this number. All of the information is on our web site”. Which of course is isn’t.

In the end, after much more searching, I found one of these webchat links. So I asked them.
“It’s all on the website” they told me
“No it isn’t” I said. “I’ve been looking for a couple of hours”.
“Here’s the link to the website” he said, sending me the page I was looking at.
“So where’s the link to the form?” I asked.
“We don’t deal with this”
“What do you mean? You’re the help desk. I’m asking for help”
“It’s a ne procedure. We know nothing about it yet”
“What kind of nonsense is this? You’re the help desk and you know nothing about it?”
“Maybe you should speak to our office. Here’s the number”
“I just rang it – it’s an automatic reply that doesn’t take calls”.
And so we went on … “and on, and on” – ed … and got nowhere.

In the end, I’m going to wait until the new procedure comes into force and try again. Hopefully they will have all of the information on line by then.

And, just in case you were wondering, it wasn’t Belgium either.

Four hours altogether I wasted with them. And missed my lunch. And just as I was thinking about making some sandwiches, Rosemary rang.

We were chatting for over an hour. She had some very good news to tell me, that her foot seems to be recovering quite well and she might even be allowed back home in a week or two. I was really pleased for her too.

In the end, my lunch was taken at 17:30. Only Rosemary had cheered up what had otherwise been a lousy day.

Later on, I went for a walk, albeit quite late, and met Gribouille and his mum. She was telling me that the little cat that I had seen was her grand-daughter’s cat who was staying there for a week or two. Gribouille wasn’t impressed at first, but he’s settled down now.

Round the headland I went on my walk, and reached the other side just in time to see the queue of boats waiting for the inner harbour gates to open.

And even as I watched, the gates opened up, and half a dozen trawlers shot in to he inner harbour to find their berths.

That was really impressive timing. I’d not actually witnessed the gates opening like this before.

And Neptune was in the harbour too. It’s been a while since we’ve seen her.

And as I watched, she slipped her moorings, and I was treated to the marvellous spectacle of her doing a nautical danse macabre around the incoming trawlers as she turned round in the harbour and prepared to leave.

She’s a lot bigger than she looks and it was quite a display of seamanship.

She then headed out of the harbour on her way to the open sea, with the incoming boats pulling over to one side to let her out.

So that’s another load of roadstone gravel – about 2500 tonnes or 100 lorry-loads – on its way to the asphalt plant at Whitstable.

She’s timed to arrive there after a voyage of about 19 hours

And as we watch her sailing out into the open sea, we can reflect on yet another effect that Brexit will have on the United Kingdom.

What chance does the United Kingdom have when it doesn’t even have any roadstone of its own to build its roads and so needs to import it from here?

Anyone who thinks that the United Kingdom can hold its own on the world market after Brexit and make a success of it is totally deluded.

So now I’m back, with a nice cold drink. And I might even have an early night. Who knows?

And then there’s more things to do tomorrow, isn’t there?

normandy trader port de granville harbour manche normandy france

Sunday 15th July 2018 – 10:35 …

… is a much more civilised time to be waking up on a Sunday morning, isn’t it?

But what’s not so civilised is the fact that I was still up and about at 04:00 this morning.

For some reason I just wasn’t tired and at some silly time in the morning I was dealing with the hidden files that I told you about yesterday on the portable drive – passing them over to the master disk and then having to work out a way of deleting them from the drive because, for some reason, they had been installed in the system drive part.

In the end, a good old proprietary file shredder came to the rescue. The one that I have can reach into the parts of the computer that other file shredders can’t reach.

As a result of my late arousal, I had a very late breakfast. And I almost forgot my fig rolls too. But I had both of them, which meant that I didn’t have any lunch.

The crowds out here wandering around told me that there was something afoot in the Medieval town. And so I grabbed a quick shower, but my nails, and went out hot-foot (or chaud-pied as they might say around here) to see.

Sure enough, we were having another brocante around the streets. And this time I managed to find something. A Michelin “Green Guide” of Normandy – a 1970-71 version in really good condition for all of €0:50.

There were lots of other things that I would have liked too, but I drew the line at paying €500 for a nice seascape or €220 for a nice model of a sailing ship.

The owner of the sailing ship told me of a secluded harbour in a wide bay where it could be kept, and he made it sound so good that I reckoned that his barque was worse than his bight.

Another thing that was going on up here was a photograph exposition in the open air.

It seems that someone has been out in an aeroplane or maybe one of these paraglider things and taken loads of photographs of Normandy from the air, and there were about 20 of them on display outside this afternoon.

Some of them were quite good too and there were one or two that made my quite envious. I wish that my photographs would turn out like his.

I had another bit of good luck too this afternoon.

The church, the Eglise de Notre Dame de Cap Lihou was open to the public today.

That doesn’t happen all that often, and the last time that I noticed the open doors I didn’t have the camera with me. But today, I was properly equipped.

The origins of the church go back to 1113 when it is said that fishermen dragged up a statue of Mary from the sea, presumably from an earlier shipwreck.

In honour of this event, a chapel dedicated to her was erected in this vicinity.

But all of this changed during the latter stages of the Hundred Years War

After the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 the English occupied Normandy and the the Medieval City was created and the fortifications built.

In 1440 the construction of the current church began. The granite blocks that were used in its construction were brought over from quarries on the Ile de Chausey.

And from then on, after the recapture of the town, the church was continually enlarged, with the sacristy being added as recently as 1771.

There are plenty of very worn gravestones on the floor of the church. It seems that this was the place for the notables of the town to be buried back in those days.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to read the inscriptions on them now.

As an important historical edifice, the church was added to the list of Historical Monuments on 12th December 1930.

While you admire another photo of the interior of the church, I headed for home.

Back here, shame as it is to admit it, after I returned I crashed out for a short while. And then I had to start to do some work.

There’s a possibility that I might be having at least three visits sometime over the next few months so I need to organise my diary, organise my appointments and make a few arrangements with others so that we all know what we are doing it – and, more importantly, when.

And that takes more time than you might imagine too. I don’t know where the time goes to these days.

With having had no lunch, I was ready for tea and with it being Sunday it’s pizza night. But surprisingly (or maybe not) I had a struggle to eat it. I’m definitely not doing too well, am I?

On the walk this evening I met Gribouille again and he came for a pick-up. And it seems that he has acquired a new younger brother, a little tabby, and he came for a pick-up and cuddle too.

And they weren’t the only things to see outside.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that we’ve seen this car before. It’s a Peugeot 403, built between 1955 and 1966 and which replaced the legendary Peugeot 203.

1,200,000 or so of these cars were built and there are still several thousand driving around on the roads of France as daily drivers, never mind as voitures de collection.

So I’ll try for an early night tonight. The alarm goes on in the morning and I really must organise myself. There’s a lot to do.

Saturday 14th July 2018 – EVERYONE KNOWS …

… that today is a Bank Holiday – or jour ferié in France.

It’s also the day 200 – odd years ago that the French stormed the Bastille – the fortified prison in the centre of Paris. The reason why they did this is probably because with it being a jour ferié all of the shops were closed and they had nothing else to do … “are you sure about this?” – ed.

I celebrated the jour ferié by switching off the alarm last night and having a lie-in. But 07:45 was far too early to leave my stinking pit so I turned over for five minutes. And then it was 08:55.

With the usual morning performance, and then I had a very late breakfast. And having reorganised things a little better in here just recently, I set up the coffee machine – only to find that I’ve almost run out of ground coffee.

That’s right – ground coffee. So if people tell me that my coffee tastes like mud I can tell them that it was ground only half an hour ago.

But with it being a jour ferié, I had a little treat – another fig roll. So I pulled that out – and then forgot to eat it. So I’ll have two tomorrow because although it might not be a jour ferié, it’s a Sunday.

First task today was the photos. 271 from my little adventure and I’d dealt with about half. So all through the rest of the morning and the early afternoon I edited them all and then uploaded them to the internet.

A very late lunch, so I made my butties and went to sit on the wall in the glorious sunshine where I was joined by not one but two lizards. This pear treat is becoming quite the thing, isn’t it? I’ll probably end up with a couple of dinosaurs.

On the way back to here i Went via Caliburn to bring another load of stuff up to the apartment, and was accosted by a weird neighbour who wanted to have a good chat – and not about all that much either but it’s amazing just how some people can spin it out.

When I eventually returned to here, I transferred all of the files from the portable laptop to the one that I use here and made sure that they were all deleted to save space.

It was then I noticed that the portable “Storex” drive that I take on my travels, despite being practically empty according to the File manager, had over 5gb of material on it.

Of course, finding “hidden” files on an “empty” hard drive is only the work of half an hour or so – good old T223, hey? – and they were all revealed. More stuff that I knew that I had and had subsequently lost. So they’ll be reignited and moved in due course too.

With the neighbour outside, I’d missed my afternoon walk, but I carried on with another task. when I was in IKEA in Caen before I went away, I’d bought three little units to store the CDs and DVDs but it wasn’t enough. However it was all that they had.

However at the IKEA in Munich they had two more so I bought those (cheaper than at Caen too!) and assembled them this evening. Yes – working at 20:30, and on a Bank Holiday too!

But I didn’t miss my evening walk though.

It was a beautiful evening and there were crowds and crowds of people about, with a group of people having a party sitting on one of the old World War II gun mounts from the Atlantic Wall here on the Pointe du Roc.

And had I not had all of this work to do, I would have joined them too, so nice was the weather.

You’ll remember the other day just how far out the tide had gone, with all of the people collecting shellfish offshore.

But this evening the tide was right in and you can see from the harbour marker light how far in the tide comes in and how high it reaches when it’s really high.

The tidal ranger here is one of the highest in Europe apparently.

While I was out on my walk I bumped into a friendly neighbourhood policewoman.

She told me that there would be a firework display this evening at about 23:00 or thereabouts down in the docks, so round about 22:30 I went back out again.

There was a huge crowd down on the quayside but not all that many up here.

And so I had a grandstand view of the proceedings, sitting on my wall.

We had to wait until about 23:30 before things got under way, and then the spectacle began.

It’s not usually my kind of thing, but I have to be sociable and take part in the local proceedings. And it was actually quite good – much better than I was thinking that it might be.

The crowds weren’t just on land either.

Just before the event started, a few boats pulled up outside the harbour and dropped anchor so that the people on board could watch the fireworks from offshore.

Nevertheless, I still reckon that I had the best view of the proceedings from up here.

The whole show went on for about half an hour, and the finale was certainly impressive.

It certainly lit up the harbour and probably the bay for miles around. And once it had finished all of the crowds and the boats drifted away.

I drifted off back home to my apartment for a relax, and then I’ll go to bed. And hopefully I’ll have another good sleep.

But when will my appetite come back?

baie de mont st michel ferry ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

firework display port de granville harbour manche normandy france

EPIC HALL

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

Tag Archives: eric hall

Saturday 28th July 2018 – A DAY AT THE SEASIDE!

Friday 27th July 2018 – I’VE FINISHED …

Thursday 26th July 2018 – IT RAINED!

Wednesday 25th July 2018 – I HAVEN’T DONE …

Tuesday 24th July 2018 – I’VE HAD ANOTHER …

Monday 23rd JUly 2018 – TODAY I HAD NOT ONE …

Sunday 22nd JUly 2018 – YOU’VE NO IDEA …

Saturday 21st July 2018 – FOR THE FIRST TIME …

Friday 20th July 2018 – IN THE ABSENCE …

Thursday 19th July 2018 – IZZY WHIZZY …

Wednesday 18th July 2018 – I’M WHACKED!

Tuesday 17th July 2018 – WHAT A HORRIBLE …

Monday 16th July 2018 – IT’S TAKEN UNTIL …

Sunday 15th July 2018 – 10:35 …

Saturday 14th July 2018 – EVERYONE KNOWS …