Tag Archives: rainstorm

Wednesday 17th January 2018 – AS PROMISED …

repaired saucepan lid granville manche normandy france… yesterday, here’s a photo of my repaired saucepan lid.

I’m quite impressed with this – almost as impressed as I was with my galvanised steel dustbin. You can’t tell that it’s a repair at all and the knob actually matches the surround of the saucepan lid.

But ohhh! what an exciting life that I lead that this is the highlight of my week, hey?

As I said yesterday, today was going to be a relaxing day. And I was right too. In fact, when the alarm went off, I was in no hurry whatever to leave my stinking pit and it was more like 08:30 – never mind 07:30 – when I decided to arise.

I’d been on my travels too. In a car where the alternator light was flashing on and off. My father reckoned that the alternator was scrap but I checked it over all the same. The fan belt was fine, so I took the alternator off and started to dismantle it. It was then that I noticed that the rotor and points (on an alternator!) were rusted solid so I gave them a good soaking in penetrating oil and attacked them with a wire brush. That seemed to make the rotor turn and the points open and close so I asked my father if that might make it work. But he gave one of his usual evasive, non-committal remarks and that really was that. No chance of him ever giving any positive advice.

Once the medication and breakfast were out of the way and I had a little relax, I started to work. As regular readers of this rubbish will recall, there are several hard drives, either from old computers or external drives, going back to … errr … 1998 with all kinds of photographs on them, all confused and jumbled all over the place. So this morning I spent a couple of hours carrying on with the little project that I have on the go of sorting them out and trying to make one consistent and coherent library.

And it’s not easy either, because it wasn’t until 2007 that I started this current numbering scheme. You’ll see above that the photo of my saucepan lid is numbered 1801025.

  • 18 is the year
  • 01 is the month
  • 025 is the number – in consecutive order. And if it overflows, as it sometimes does, the first digit becomes an “a”, or a “b” and so on.

But prior to 2007 they were numbered in some kind of haphazard order, and sorting by date doesn’t help because on at least one old disk I seem to have saved them as “date modified” rather than “date created”.

So I’ll have to plod on

And that’s by no means all.

A huge pile of paperwork from last year was sorted and weeded through, and then filed away. Three or four of them actually need some kind of action, and rather smart-ish too. So tomorrow I really must organise the printer and find a way to make the cable plug stay in.

I went through my e-mails both on my server and on the EU’s intranet system and discarded well over 100 of them that were serving no useful purpose. And I’ll go back one day sometime soon and create a few directories to tidy them up properly.

The telephone has taken a bit of a bashing too. A few things there needed to be sorted out so I’ve done some of that too. There’s still a lot more that needs doing. And then there was the half-hour on the guitar, which ended with me dramatically remembering how to play the bass lines to “All Right Now”.

As the skunk said when the wind changed – “it all comes back to me now”.

For tea, my third meal of the day, I had mashed potatoes with cheese, vegetables and a veggie burger with gravy. And I think that I made far too much because I feel totally bloated.

Two walks too. It was nice when I went out this afternoon but there was a storm brewing in the distance over by Jersey and it started to rain when I was about 400 metres from home.

It rained for the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening too, but after I’d been out on my evening walk for 5 minutes, the rain stopped and the sky cleared.

So let’s hope that the weather improves because it’s Thursday, and my walk right across town and up the hill to LIDL.

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Tuesday 16th January 2018 – I HAVE MET THE WEIRDEST …

… mobile phone “repairer” the world has ever seen.

And it wasn’t easy either.

The bad night hadn’t helped much though. I was asleep quite quickly but awoke halfway through and counldn’t go back to sleep for ages. When I finally did, the alarm didn’t have the desired effect and it took me a good half-hour to haul myself out of bed.

Medication followed by breakfast, a shower, change of clothes and a good clean-up, and then I was ready for the town.

containers port de granville harbour manche normandy franceThe howling gale and driving rain was enough to dampen anyone’s ardour, and might have done mine too, except that I was distracted.

We seem to have acquired overnight a crane and a pile of containers down at the port. What does this mean?

We had all of this dredging just before Christmas to deepen the harbour, so are we going to have a small container ship coming in? Or is there something else happening about which I know nothing.

police barrage taking down christmas decorations granville manche normandy franceThat wasn’t the only excitement either.

The farces of law and order were out there blocking off the street while a cherry-picker went down there taking down all of the Christmas decorations now that the festive season is over.

No diversions signposted of course. The police were just waving away passing motorists who then had to find their own way around.

I found my way to the mobile phone repairer’s only to find, as regular readers of this rubbish will be expecting, a sign “open at 14:00”. It’s certainly not going to be, is it?

So I decamped to the Library for a duplicate card, only to find that that was closed too, with all of the people inside staring at me as if I had come from another planet.

ile de chausey mont st michel granville manche normandy franceI gave it up as a bad job and, picking up another baguette to freeze, came back home.

But as I climbed slowly and wearily back up the hill, I was once again distracted by activity in the harbour. The boat that does the pleasure trips out to the Ile de Chausey and round the Baie de Mont St Michel had just returned from somewhere.

And it doesn’t half make a racket as well. It nearly knocked me off my feet.

bad parking granville manche normandy franceAnd we can’t conclude our morning’s walk without once more discussing parking.

Here are some more fines example of total and utter selfishness. The little Nissan was there last night straddling two parking places, so this morning there’s a car parked in front of it likewise straddling two spaces, and a car behind it straddling a disabled parking bay.

It’s hard to imagine anything more selfish than this and it really annoys me.

Back here, I crashed out for half an hour. Gone with the wind, you might say. Yes, I’ve still not recovered from my illness.

For lunch I finished off the soup and then repaired the saucepan lid. I had to cut down a screw that was in the package that I had bought, but now the lid looks really good with the black plastic remains of the old handle carefully equalled off and a chrome drawer handle to match the chrome decoration.

I suppose that I should have taken a photo of it because it looked so good – but I can do that tomorrow.

After all of that it was back through the wind and rain again to the mobile phone place where I had my bizarre encounter.

He was actually open, and there too. But he may well not have been, for all the good that he was doing.

The lady in the queue in front of me wanted her charging port on her tablet repairing. “But it’s not worth the expense. You’ll be better off buying another”.
“But all of my data is on it”
Well, you’ll still be better off with a new one, sorry”.
I mean – what kind of talk is that?

Then it was my turn. And it wasn’t any better.
“It might be your screen. That will cost about €100 and if it isn’t I’ll have to ty a few other things, so you will have wasted your €100 then. And then even if I do get it to work it will have cost you a lot of money, and I won’t be able to guarantee the repair”.

So what kind of “repairer” is this? Turning away work because he doesn’t want to (or, more likely, isn’t able to) do it?

And intending to charge me for supplying and fitting a new screen even if that isn’t the fault? It’s all total nonsense. I’ll wait until I go to Belgium and have some back-street repairer in Brussels have a look at it.

While I was there, I sorted out my library card (the library is just across the road) and then staggered back home once again where I took it really easy for the rest of the afternoon. Climbing up the hill twice in one day is not good for me right now.

Tea was superb. Rice with fresh carrots and frozen peas, with a green pepper stuffed with bulghour, tomato, onion, garlic, curry powder and tarragon in olive oil and cooked in the microwave. All covered in gravy.

That was just soooooo nice – a real culinary delight.

Just a little walk tonight – the howling wind and rain would be enough to put everyone off.

So I’m off to bed. I’m hoping for a better night tonight, and a better day tomorrow. I shan’t be doing very much, except recovering from my efforts today and cursing this incompetent “repairer”.

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Monday 15th January 2018 – IT GOES …

… without saying that this morning didn’t go according to plan, doesn’t it?

In fact, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, I’m continually being confounded by issues not of my own making and I have to go to extraordinary lengths to circumvent them.

Just for a change, I was awake before the alarm went off, but that’s not quite the same as saying that I was ready to leave the bed. In fact it was something of a struggle to haul myself out of my stinking pit.

Fist thing though was the urine sample. Despite a thorough search this last few days I’ve not found the report from Leuven so I had to go through the procedure here. That’s what I call “taking the P155”. Then I could have my medication and once that worked, I could have my breakfast.

There was a form to fill in to take to the laboratory and that involved some tracking down of stuff too. But once I’d done that I could set off. Into the howling gale and driving rainstorm. After the couple of nice days that we have had, it goes without saying that as I’m out and about on foot we are going to have this kind of weather, doesn’t it?

First stop was the Mobile phone repairer. Having been told that he was back today I made this my first port of call. But as I really ought to have expected, it’s Monday today and many places are closed in France on a Monday – the mobile phone repairer included.

Next stop was the mairie. The doctor who is doing my medical examination told me that I could find some forms here. But according to the mairie, not any more. The forms are available to download on line.

But at least this means that I need to take some decisive action to resolve the cable issues that I’m having with my printer. The tag that holds the plug in place has broken off so the plug won’t stay connected. I shall have to invent a means of locking it in position, or even making a direct connection.

But it’s just typical of Hewlett Knackered. They can’t use standard infinity plugs like anyone else – they have to go for something really fancy and complicated that breaks under the slightest pressure and renders the machine unusable (unless you have a devious mind of course).

Hiking up to the laboratory (which is just on the station roundabout) I was running out of steam – I clearly haven’t recovered from my health. And the bad news is that the lack of this urine sample means that I’ve had to pay €6:80. no wonder I’m spending a fortune with being so unprepared.

On the way back I picked up a baguette and then staggered back up the hill to here – thoroughly exhausted and thoroughly soaked to the skin – to such an extent that I had to change my trousers.

And just for a change, I had a coffee. First one (apart from some warm brown liquid at the football the other week) since I’ve been back from Leuven. And it tasted awful.

Soup with pasta and bulghour for lunch again, with some of the fresh bread (the rest went into the freezer) and then I had a relaxing afternoon not doing very much, although I did have a good session on the bass guitar. To my surprise, some of the stuff that we used to play 40-odd years ago came back into my mind.

For tea tonight, I made a huge curry – the first one for a while. Mushrooms, peppers and because it didn’t make as much as I was hoping, a tin of sweet corn. One helping tonight and four more for the freezer.

My evening walk was a disappointment. Pouring with rain still and a howling gale. So I just did a short lap around the streets and came home. No sense in risking another attack of Bronchitis.

Anyway, tomorrow I’m off down to town again to see if this mobile phone repairer is finally going to make it back to his shop. He better had be because it’s getting my goat.

And the music?

For most of the day we’ve had Jethro Tull going round. If I really had to choose one group to be my favourite, it would have to be Jethro Tull. It takes me back to my school days and Benefit, Stand Up, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play – the latter two albums being so good that it took the critics 30 years to realise it.

Those five albums, and many others that they released subsequently, have been on my playlist for getting on for 50 years and won’t ever lose their place. Other bands and artists may come and go but Jethro Tull will always be there

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Thursday 14th December 2017 – SO FAR TODAY …

… I’ve managed to go a whole 24 hours without a single disaster. That makes a nice change for recent times doesn’t it?

And I’ve also done 198% of my daily activity too, and that has to be a good thing.

We started off last night as we mean to go on, and that meant an early night. And to guarantee a decent sleep I switched on a “Bulldog Drummond” film. Always does the trick, that does.

A bad attack of cramp at 01:3à wasn’t quite so good, but that’s the kind of thing that happens. Soon back to sleep and right through to the alarm as well.

The morning was quite leisurely and included a shower, and then at 10:30 it was out to the shops.

I’d previously forgotten the Kruidvat – but not this time. They have pick-and-mix sweets and they are all labelled as to their allergy rating. I treated myself to a couple of hundred grams of gelatine-free gooey sweets. And they were delicious.

At Zeeman I bought a black jumper for €7:99. I don’t have enough jumpers back at Granville and another cheap one will do me just fine.

But of all of the shops that I went into (and there were dozens) I couldn’t find a cake tin. I don’t know what’s happening to the world.

Alison turned up and we went for a coffee and a wander around the shops looking for Christmas presents for her entourage. And we called into the Loving Hut for another pile of Vegan cheese and some spray-on vegan cream.

I then took my leave and headed off to the hospital.

A new place to visit. No longer do I go to the Day Centre but to the Haematology unit. And there, the girl fitted the vampire bat to my catheter port and extracted the blood in a matter of seconds.

But the thing there is amazing. They don’t call out your name – your photo appears on the TV screen thing next to the room which you have to visit. That’s new technology!

The good news is that – rather surprisingly – the blood count is UP – from 9.2 to 9.5. And also that the protein loss is DOWN – and that’s even more surprising. Professor Janssens is pleased with me – so back in another 2 months.

Back into town again in the rain where I again met Alison. And we went to la Cucaracha – the Cockroach – the new Mexican restaurant. My taco or tortilla or whatever it was stufffed with spicy mushrooms in tomato sauce with rice was absolutely delicious and I’ll make this at home sometime.

We put the world to rights until her bus came, and then I walked back here, stopping to photograph all of the lights. But the camera on this phone is unfortunately pretty useless.

I’m now going to try for yet another early night. It’s quite cold out and my room isn’t as hot as I would like it.

Curling up under the covers is what’s called for in a situation like this.

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Wednesday 13th December 2017 – “SMILE”, THEY SAID …

… “things could be worse”

And so i smiled. And sure enough, things WERE worse. In fact, they are just about as bad as they can be right now. It’s Friday 13th, for heaven’s sake, when things usually go wrong. But not for me. I’m a Wednesday’s child, and Wednesday’s child is full of woe. And there is no-one more woeful than me just at the moment.

At least I was out of bed early. That’s the good news. But from there, it went steadily downhill. The torrential downpour outside with me having to walk all the way to the station dragging my suitcase behind me really put the dampers on everything.

But I had a good breakfast, tidied the apartment a little, emptied the rubbish, and set off through the rain.

Up to now, this was a reasonable day. And the train journey to Paris was quite uneventful. We actually pulled into Montparnasse, right by the entry down into the Metro. Saved me a pile of time, that did.

Down in the bowels, I bought two Metro tickets. I’m usually pushed for time on the way back, so I buy my ticket in advance. And then down into a crowded metro and into an even more crowded train.

Alighting from the train and going up to the barrier, that was when disaster struck me. On Saturday it was my telephone that had disappeared. Today, it’s my wallet. With all of my money, my bank cards, my driving licence and everything else.

Somewhere in the Metro that had gone for a burton.

And so there I was, stranded in Paris with no money, no bank cards, no means of support – you don’t go far on €0:46. There’s a secret pile of cash at home – the ‘fighting fund’ for emergencies – but it’s no good there.

I filled out a report for the police and they gave me the Credit Agricole’s cardstop number. So I was able to do that.

And lucky I, having kicked my phone network provider around the head and having made the internet on it work, I was able to track down the Cardstop numbers for the Fortis Bank and the RBS and stop those too. Luckily I was quicker on the phone than the new possessor of my wallet is, because no payments had been made.

All of this made me late and I had to dash for the train, and luckily I just about made it.

On the TGV there’s internet so I tried to contact Alison. But my laptop chose that moment to do an upgrade (and while it was at it, it upgraded my web browser so I’ve now lost the =.ftp extension there too).

But having persevered last night with the mobile phone I had eventually made my Social network register itself (and it took hours too) so with the slowest connection I have ever seen (it’s quite an old ‘phone) I could finally contact the outside world.

But Alison had by now gone back to work and had switched off her phone.

So there I was with no cards and no money and no way of getting from Brussels to Leuven.

But I’m nothing if not resourceful. The train docks at 15:47 and there’s a branch of my bank down the road 5 minutes away that’s open until 16:00.

And so I was first off the train and down the ramp.

And I’d actually gone halfway out of the station before I realised that I hadleft my jacket on the train – with my camera and a few other things in the pocket.

And so I raced back, and just about caught the train before it pulled out to Amsterdam. And in a frightful panic, retrieved my raincoat.

The Bank closes at 16:00, and I had my foot in the door at 15:59. It’s a good job that I had made a declaration to the police because, armed with that and a passport, I could be issued with a temporary Bank card.

It’s only valid for a short while and there are limits with what you can do with it, but anything is better than nothing right now.

Back through the driving rain to the station, and armed with a ticket I could board the train. And then from the station at Leuven a walk through the driving rain to my flat-hotel at the back of the nick. Luckily I’d paid that in advance.

Later on in the evening I went out to do a little shopping. And the rain, if anything, was even worse. I might have felt better had I not had to buy my toiletries, seeing as how I seem to have forgotten to bring them.

But at least I can eat – and the microwaved potatoes with spicy beans were delicious.

But to add insult to injury, the battery on the camera is flat and I’ve forgotten the charger.

Do you ever get the feeling that it’s just not your day?

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Monday 11th December – WE’RE HAVING …

… a disaster here right now.

On the point of going off to bed last night, I looked for the mobile phone to put under the pillow to awaken me in the morning.

But no trace.

I rang the number but I couldn’t hear the ringing, so I went downstairs to tip out Caliburn to see if it was there. But no trace either. And so I ended up by sorting out the old phone that I used before I got into smartphones, and that fired up okay. At least I had an alarm.

All of this at 01:00 too.

Last night was really a bad night too. I was still awake at 04:30 so it was something of a struggle to rouse myself when the alarm went off. Down in Caliburn at 06:15 to see if I could hear the second alarm, but no such luck.

And so I turned out the apartment making more of a mess that it was before, and although I found my missing notebook (which is always good news) no trace of the phone.

The last time that I remember havong it was at the football match, so at 09:30 I set off to retrace my steps from Saturday. No luck on the roadside, no luck at the Mairie, which deals with the fottball ground issues, and so I went to the police and reported it missing.

My route took me past the railway station where I picked up my tickets on Saturday night, and no luck at the football ground, although I did meat Johann Gallon, the coach of the football club, and we had a chat.

What didn’t help matters was that not only did we have a driving rainstorm, we had a howling gale too and it was really uncomfortable. But I did get to meet a helpful chemist who not only pointed me in the direction of a good doctor, told me that he was authorised to dispense Belgian prescriptions.

I’ve invented a new drink too. Fed up far the moment with coffee, I bought some blackcurrant syrup and I’ve been drinking this with hot water and a dash of lemon juice. And it’s very more-ish. And so I’ve had no coffee all day (and no breakfast either)

This afternoon I had a good sleep to catch up with what I missed, and then went for a walk. But I missed the high tide so I’ll have to try again tomorrow. But all of the zinc guttering and facing on the roof of the building opposite is now flapping about in the wind.

Another sleep and then I spent the rest of the afternoon (such as it was) obliterating duplicate radio programmes from my laptop.

For tea I had potatoes with the beans and vegan sausages left over from the other night, and then went out for a walk. But I was blown back inside.

So I hope that I’ll have a better night tonight and I’ll be able to organise my telephone tomorrow. I can’t be doing with this Monday closing.

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Sunday 10th December 2017 – NOW THAT WAS …

… an exciting football match.

A quick review of the Manche District football website this morning revealed that USM Donville, bottom of the District League Division 3 without a single point, were at home this afternoon against ELS Carpiquet, next-to-bottom with just one point.

The match was to be played on Donville’s seaside pitch in a howling gale (yes, the wind is back), and so that sounded like something too good to miss.

So grabbing my thermos flask (because there’s no pie-hut there) I set off.

They were right about the howling gale, although no-one had mentioned the squally showers (luckily there’s a good raincoat in Caliburn).

And as for the game, it was better than I had expected it to be, even though thewind spoiled the action somewhat. Carpiquet were in fact the better side – more organised and more skilful on the ball, and I bet that, just like me, they were surprisd to find themselves 2-0 down at half-time.

One goal was from a breakaway upfield, and the second was a rather unfortunate wind-assisted goal. A high ball forward, the keeper came out with plenty of time to clear it, but the ball hung up in the wind and dropped shrt. With the keeper miles off hi line in no-man’s land (or “no person’s land” for those of you who remember the legendary Turdi de Hatred) an advancing Donville player was lucky enough to reach the ball first.

Carpiquet pulled one back later in the game, which was no susprise, but they couldn’t push on to find an equaliser. So Donville earned their first points this afternoon.

I’d had a good night last night. Off on my travels down some muddy track on an old industrial estate, where there were several ERF B10 lorries in various states of dismantlement. Not an unusual sight for someone brought up in South Cheshire, you might think. But this was in Canada. And later on, some girl was showing me her red Cortina 2000E – the inner sills, outer sills and floor shuts were rotted away and she wanted to repair them. Having repaired dozens of these (and dismantled hundreds) I started to explain it to her, but she seemed completely disinterested. That surprised me, because to do it properly is a rather complicated process.

No chance of my leaving the bed at 06:45 or whatever stupid time it was when I awoke. 0p:00 was much more like it. A late breakfast and a good relax – what more does anyone want on a Sunday?

After lunch I went off to the football, and when I arrived back here my little furry friend Gribuoille, the long-haired ginger cat, waw waiting on his windowsill. He had a good stroke.

Tea was a vegan pizza as usual, and then a walk in the dark around the headland, just for a change.

Tomorrow I have to do some shopping – I forgot the tomatoes at the weekend.

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Thursday 7th December 2017 – WE HAVE …

… a new visitor in the harbour today.

Thrashing her way into harbour today came Normandy Trader. She’s not a sister ship to Shetland Trader and Islay Trader but she is in fact a converted landing craft of the type that we have seen on several occasions in different places around the world.

She’s not by any means new to Granville – in fact she works a shuttle to here from Jersey on a regular basis just like Grima, and so I’m surprised that I’ve never seen here here before.

But here you can see her smashing her way through the storm into the harbour. It really is wicked outside and the spray is flying everywhere as the waves crash into the concrete sea walls.

The wind has turned round and is now blowing from the north-west, and that’s right into the harbour mouth. No wonder that Normandy Trader is making heavy weather of it. Landing craft aren’t designed for conditions like this, especially with a gross tonnage of just 73 tonnes. She was being tossed around like a cork out there.

Last night was a reasonable night for me. Although it took me a while to go off to sleep, I was well away. I somehow missed the first alarm, although I must have responded as the phone was in my hand when I awoke, not under the pillow where it usually is.

But anyway, the second alarm of Billy Cotton and his “Wakey waaaaaaa ….KEYYYYYY” took me completely by surprise.

After breakfast and a little rest, I had a shower and then braved the wind and rain up to LIDL.

Had I still been living on the farm, I would have bought quite a bit of stuff from their special offers this week. But with having changed my lifestyle considerably, there’s nothing that I really need.

But had I been Rhys, I would have been spending my money there. He’s trying to organise some interior lighting for his bus, and they had the rows of 12-volt LED striplights that I like so much. 212 lumens, which is the equivalent of about 18 watts of incandescent power, but drawing 0.1 watt. And you can link them together to give you a running strip light.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I bought a pile back down on the farm and use them as work lights over the work benches. And they are great.

I walked back here in the rain and was almost trampled to death in the rush of a pile of little kids descending from a school bus. And back here, I had a coffee and a … errr … relax.

After lunch I braved the wind and gales and went for a walk around the headland. And I was the only person out there. And that’s no surprise given the weather.

Tonight I went out for my other walk around the walls – and I’ve done 105% of my day’s target according to the fitbit.

The wind has changed further round now and so I stood for hours on the headland watching the waves down below crash over the sea wall and onto the promenade. It’s an amazing spectacle, the power of nature out there.

Rosemary rang up and we put the world to rights for an hour, and I booked my trip to Leuven for next week too. I’ll be staying at the flathotel at the back of the prison.

Tea was steaeed vegetables and vegan sausages in vegan cheese sauce – and delicious it was too.

So seeing that I have no plans for tomorrow, I’m going to have a nice quiet day of relaxing and organising myself for Leuven

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Friday 1st December 2017 – I DIDN’T …

… go out for my walk this evening.

And it’s hardly surprising either.

I went out for my afternoon walk as usual but i never made it to the headland. The wind was totally wicked and I was blown more backwards than forwards. It was horrific.

And it’s even worse right now with the wind howling away like nobody’s business.

That was quite a shame, because I was having such a good day. I’d crawled off to bed really early last night and I’d been on my travels too, visiting a girl of my acquaintance, gone away and was on my way back, in my old Opel Omega. The access to this girl’s house was down a muddy track and at a certain place I lost traction. On getting out to see what I could do about it I was attacked by a small lioness and a small dog – an alsation-type. They weren’t vicious but it was still quite something and I had a great deal of difficulty getting back into my car. Once I was in though, and managed to close the door, i reversed out and took the damp patch at a run and got over it. I’d apparently had my mobile phone on during this adventure and so when I arrived in this girl’s kitchen she thanked me for the running commeentary.

And I sat up bolt upright at 04:50 too, and yet I managed to go back to sleep again until the alarm went off.

After breakfast I had a good crack on with these photos that are on this hard drive that I resurrected yetserday. About 735 gb of them in fact and considering that they are about 10-15 years old and a lot smaller than modern digital images, there are masses and masses of them. Many of which I don’t actually remember, and yet there still aren’t the ones that I’m looking for and which I certanly know should be somewhere.

After a late lunch I went outside and this was when I encountered the howling wind.

Instead, I went out down the other side of the headland and down the steps. The aim of this little ramble was to see what was going on with this road closure.

The road is now open, but we seem to have acquired a huge crane. The concrete slabs that I had seen and which I thought might heve been a new fencing system are in fact the weights that hold down the crane.

There was also a concrete hod there too.

There wasn’t however anyone around there to ask about what was going on, but I did notice that there seems to have been some work done on the rer of one of the houses down below.

It might well be that they are going to be building an extension or something being added on to the rear of the property, hence the crane and the concrete hod.

Back here dodging the rain, I carried on with the photos (something that’s going to take me about 6 months I reckon) and went through until about 17:30 before having a 10-minute snooze.

I didn’t have any tea tonight either. I seem to have been carried away by what I was doing and forgot. And so with no walk either, it’s been a disappointing afternoon.

Shopping tomorrow so it’s going to be a busy day.

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Thursday 30th November 2017 – MY FITBIT …

.. will tell you everything that you need to know about last night. Hours sleeping – 3:36, of which restless sleep – 0:20.

That’s not very good, is it? No wonder I was feeling rather miserable this morning. But even so, I still beat the second alarm.

The fresh muesli was nice, and so was the coffee that followed it. And the nice hot shower was even nicer. I was ready for anything after that. Well, almost.

It was pouring down with rain outside and it looked as if that was that for my trip to LIDL. But at about 09:30 the rain stopped and we had some small amount of blue sky, so I dashed out to LIDL – well, dashed as well as I can these days.

The bread was nice, and so were one or two other things, but there were no special offers that tempted me. It seems to be toy week thee, and that will account for the massed crowds of people in there.

But on the way, I observed that we are having roadworks down the hill on the little side street. And when I can find out why my *.ftp add-on has disappeared from my web browser, I’ll post you a photo.

It seems that they are replacing the side wall at the back of the houses there. There was even someone with a strimmer cutting down the weeds just there.

I’ll have to go back tomorrow and have a proper butcher’s.

The rain held off too on the way back, which was good. I didn’t fancy being soaked to death. And it also meant that I could take a photo of the cherry-picker that was blocking the street while they were doing something to the eaces of one of the houses.

With the high winds that we’ve been having just recently (it’s blowing a gale outside right now) it’s hardly surprising that slates and the like are bing dislodged from roofs.

And Combattant was back at work today too, with the digger on the lighter at the side of it going flat-out digging up the silt.

They seem to be making a really good go of this dredging the harbour. I do hope that this will be the key (or should it be “quay”?) to more shipping coming into the port. I could do with some more excitement.

Back here, I had some coffee from the flask and then crashed out for half an hour, which is hardly a surprise. No sleep, a long walk and my general ill-health.

This afternoon I attacked another hard drive of photos. This is going to be a major piece of work as there are tons of the things on this drive. Everything that I want, except of course the ones that I’m looking for.

The story of my life.

Tea was oven chips, frozen peas, fresh carrots and a home-made burger on a bap with mustard and vegan cheese. Delicious it was too, but I’ve noticed that I’m almost out of oven chips.

Braving the hurricane, I went out this evening. It was raining on and off throughout the afternoon but now the rain has stopped, we have clear sky and an almost-full moon. And I would have taken some photos of the Christmas lights except that the battery in the camera decided to go flat at the crucial moment.

So off to bed in a moment, and I hope that I can have a decent night’s sleep.

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Tuesday 28th November 2017 – AND JUST FOR A CHANGE …

… I managed to get out and about this evening for my walk.

The weather deteriorated yet again this evening, but the rain stopped round about 20:45 so I set off for my stroll.

The clouds had gone too and despite the howling gale it was another one of these rally clear nights. So much so that not only could you see the lights on Jersey 30-odd miles away, but the red flashing lights on the wind turbines that we saw the other day way out at Barneville-Carteret.

While I was on my way round I saw my feline friend too but he paid little attention to me, being far more interested in stalking a small dog wandering down the street.

JUst by way of yet another change, I awoke early today. At about 04:10. And I thought that I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. But I must have been well away because the alarm awoke me at the normal time. And I managed to be out of bed by the time the second alarm went off.

After I take my medication, I usually have to wait about half an hour before I can eat breakfast, and I use that time to see what is happening in the world. Instead, I found two friends of min from the USA on line so we had a chat. And the next thing that I noticed was that it was now 09:45.

Too late for breakfast. I just had a coffee instead.

And in line with my new procedures, I had a shower too. I need to take far more care of myself than I’m doing. And a nice hot soak in a nice warm bathroom (that little halogen heater that I bought all those years ago is really paying dividends) did me the world of good.

After a rather late lunch, I went for my walk around the headland – about three of us there were out there in total. And that’s hardly a surprise given the wind and the overcast sky (it wasn’t yet raining at that point). And I followed up my walk with a coffee and a snooze as usual.

Tea was one of the vegan pies that we made the other Sunday – I need to make some space in the freezer. With mashed potatoes, frozen peas, frozen sprouts and fresh carrots cooked in the steamer, with gravy made from the liquid, it really was delicious, And that was followed by my evening perambulation.

And now it might even be an early night. You never know your luck.

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Monday 27th November 2017 – I DIDN’T …

… go out for a walk this evening either. And for the same reason too. The day was grey and miserable but this evening the weather deteriorated and we had another torrential downpour after tea.

I’d had a good night’s sleep too. And away on my travels as well. Living temporarily in various rooms here and there about the place just like I have been doing until quite recently. My path crossed another guy who was one of mu co-cottiers. He described some of the places in which he stayed, and it seemed that we had stayed in the same places. He told me how much he had paid, and I was desperately trying to work out if I had been charged more than he had.
Meanwhile, a young boy and girl were in a swimming pool splashing around – the swimming pool being lined with sausages. These kids started to kick the water about and that attracted a shark that attacked them. The police were called and they ended up staying in one of the places where I was staying.

Today was one of those days when I didn’t do too much. I’ve been working on the internet and catching up with what I missed while my news reader was offline (it came back on line dramaically at about 10:00).

After lunch I went for a rather windswept walk around the headland. And I was effectively on my own. I didn’t count more than two or three people out there this afternoon.

Another crash out this afternoon – and for an hour or so. Well away I was too. This kind of thing is getting me down but I suppose that I have to make the best of it. It’s not going to get any better.

But tea tonight was good. Some peppers and a tin or mushrooms, and I made a curry. Having bought som coconut milk over the weekend I added some of that in there too. It was quite delicious and there are another four helpings to go into the freezer.

So with no walk this evening I’m going to have an early night. Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel better and the weather will improve.

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Sunday 26th November 2017 – AFTER LAST NIGHT’S …

… early night, I was wide awake at … err … 04:50.

But badger that for a game of soldiers. I stayed in bed and tried my best to go back to sleep. And it must have worked because I was off on my travels, as a black boy living in a white family, that might even have been my own. I know that I’m very different from the rest of my siblings, but this is being ridiculous.

09:42 when I crawled out of bed. That’s much more like it. And a 10:30 breakfast – that’s even better.

But here’s some bad news – Altavista, the company that provides me with my Usenet newsreader service, seems to have gone offline. I’m rather lost without that and I hope that it comes back on line pretty soon.

With a late breakfast, it was a late lunch too. And then I went out for a walk. I should have gone out to find a footy match but I wasn’t really in the mood.

marker lights buoys iles de chausey granville manche normandy franceWe’re having more of these uusual, clear weather conditions again.

Something out on the skyline caught my eye, and the camera and zoom lens told me that it was the marker lights and buoys on the rocks just offshore from the Iles de Chausey. I’ve never seen them as clear as this before.They were quite impressive.

And it was a quiet walk – not very many people around and no-one wanted to chat.

Having had what is becoming my regular afternoon snooze, I made a pizza again. And I dp like this idea of putting pepper on the topping before the cheese. It gives it a lovely kick.

No chance of going for a walk this evening though. It’s absolutely pouring down. I’m going to stay in and have an early night. Make myself redya for the start of yet another week.

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Saturday 25th November 2017 – YOU MISSED …

accident abandoned car park LIDL granville manche normandy france… all of the excitement this morning.

We arrived at LIDL to find this sight greeting us. No idea what had happened but someone has been hit in the rear and the car abandoned on the side of the LIDL car park. There’s a story here, right enough.

But something else I missed were the little hand-held whizzers with three attachments that they had on special offer. just before 10:00 when I arrived here, and they had all gone.

I was pretty disappointed by that.

It had been a good night last night too. I’d had a decent sleep yet again and even been on a mega-ramble too.

We started off last night in an airport in the UK (might even have been Manchester) ready to fly out to Canada. And whether we had actually flown, we found ouselves in a very neglected and overgrown field that was used by the kids as a rock concert venue. I had a caravan there. But instead of being there, we ended up in some kind of library or bookshop hiding out, because there were some weird goings-on reporte from there. And so after a few hours, three small kids appeared from out of the wall. We let them go about their business for a while and then took them up. They were telling us that there was a fourth sibling who was very ill but they didn’t have the right to fetch a local doctor. We insisted that their mother be sent for, and when she arrived she was a young girl with curly hair and glasses. One of the boys with us announced rather surprisingly that she was his wife and so he was the father of the kids, so he went off to find a doctor. We all adjourned back to my caravan where the field was even more overgrown with weeds and nettles up to head-high. And there were several (British) policemen milling around in there. Someone said that they would be wanting to speak to me later, and everyone disappeared out of what was a very overgrown entrance. I noticed that there was a wooden booth, rather like the old beichstuhl that I built years ago, that was blocking half the entrance. We’d moved it there a while ago and I was sure that the police would want us to move it back, but I knew that it wouldn’t survive another removal.

After breakfast and a shower I hit the streets and went to LIDL as aforementioned. And my little back street route seems to be fine – did the business yet again.

From LIDL I went off to NOZ. And here I spent some cash. For a start, they had some of the seat cushions that I like for the kitchen chairs. And at €2:50 each too. They didn’t have four the same colour but they did have four different shades of dark brown so I bought one of each shade.

Another thing that I did, to put me in the Christmas spirit, was to buy a chain of different coloured LED lights for Christmas. And a few other bits and pieces, bottles of drink and that kind of thing. And some caramel-flavoured soya milk which is delicious too and I wish that I had bought some more.

At LeClerc it was just the usual stuff with nothing particularly exciting, although I was dismayed to be stuck in a queue behind a woman and a cashier who preferred to spend all of the time talking to each other than dealing with the customers in the queue behind them.

granville manche normandy franceAfter lunch I went for my usual walk around the headland. But I didn’t get very far because we were having some unusual weather.

I’ve never seen Jersey as clear as it was this afternoon. Almost everything was visible with the naked eye today,especially when just for a moment, the sun shone down through the clouds and illuminated the island.

Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough with the camera at that moment, but there will be other moments.

rainstorm cancale franceBut as far as the weird weather went, I was quick enough to take a photograph of the rainstorm that was raging ovet there across the other side of the bay near Cancale.

Luckily, there was a northerly wind blowing and that was pushing the rainstorm south down the bay so it wouldn’t be coming across here and soking me.

But it really was impressive

cancale franceAs the rainstorm moved south, the sun came out over there for just a brief minute.

And just for a change I had the camera ready, complete with the zoom lens and so I could take a quick snap of the little bay upon which Cancale is situated.

It’s 18 miles across the Bay as the crow flies, but as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, it’s a darn sight farther than that when you go there by road. It took me well over an hour last April to drive there.

baie de mont st michel franceI followed the storm down the bay, and I snapped this photo of a village away in the distance down at the foot of the bay.

I’ve no idea which village it might be but it’s in the area of Hirel and St Benoit des Ondes.

And having done all that, I carried on with my walk and back to the flat for my afternoon coffee and, unfortunately, another little doze. I just can’t shake this off.

foorball cerences as cerensaise us gavray manche normandy franceAnd later on this evening, I braved the cold and damp and went out. No football in the vicinity but there was a local derby under floodlights at Cerences where AS Cerencaise were taking on hated local rivals US Gavray.

I’d taken a flask with me and so as you might expect, there was a pie hut here and furthermore, it was open too.

3rd Division of District football, and that’s how it started off. And how the second half started too. But apart from that it was a very good exciting game. Cerences won 2-1 in a match that could have gone either way. I shall have to come here again.

Back here I took an age to warm up, but in the meantime I made myself some baked potatoes and beans. And still freezing cold, I went to bed. may as well have an early night.

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Thursday 23rd November 2017 – JUST BY WAY …

… of a change, I’ve done 101% of my daily activity today. It’s not very often I do that these days, is it?

I had a reasonable night’s sleep last night. No-one interrupted me at all and I was stark out until the alarm went off. And I only just made it out of bed before the second alarm too.

After breakfast and a little repose I had a good shower and shave and a general clean-up. And then I hit the streets. It was extremely cloudy overhead but I set off on foot nevertheless, and it wasn’t long before the rain started. But I pressed on nevertheless.

As I expected, it was a long sad haul up the hill past the railway station to the roundabout. I’m even finding that difficult these days as you know, but I have to press on otherwise I won’t ever get anywhere.

Destination was LIDL of course. Another loaf of bread, cut into three and two parts frozen for later on in the week, some menthol sweets to help me keep my nose clear, a lettuce and, on special offer, a guitar stand. That means that I can unleash the Gibbon.

combattant port de granville manche normandy franceOn the way out, I noticed that COmbattant had gone, but the lighter and digger were still there. And so I reckoned that it had gone off to dump a load of silt.

I was quite right about that because on the way back, there she was, moored up to the lighter and back at work again.

They seem to be doing a thorough job of the dredging anyway. Maybe we might see more ships coming into the port. Some old guy with whom I chatted fairly recently did tell me that maritime traffic had declined over the past few years.

After lunch, despite my efforts up town this morning, I went for a walk. It had stopped raining and the wind had dropped slightly so it was reasonably pleasant, especially for this time of year.

And while I was out, I was chatted up by a bunch of schoolgirls from Avranches and their teacher. That was a very pleasant couple of minutes.

Despite feeling a little better today and hoping that I could go all day without crashing out, I did succumb for about 20 minutes round about 17:00. That was disappointing.

Tea was some of that frozen mushroom and lentil curry in soya cream that I made a few weeks ago. And it defrosted very well in the microwave. I’m not mad keen on microwaves as you know but they certainly do what they are supposed to do.

casino beach granville manche normandy franceIt was raining this evening but nevertheless I went out for my evening walk.

Around the walls again in a clockwise direction. And I seemed to be the only person out and about which was hardly a surprise.

The wind had got up again and with the tide being right in the waves were crashing on the sea wall down by the Casino. It was all very exciting and very relaxing too. I love the sound of the sea.

pizza wagon old town granville manche normandy franceMy mate wasn’t sitting on his window sill, which is not really a surprise, but here’s a surprise – something that I hadn’t noticed before.

It seems that we have a pizza wagon here in the old town on Thursday nights. I was tempted to go to investigate but he was rather busy. And so I’ll have to go back again; next week maybe.

Back here I had a relax for a while, and then maybe I’ll go for another early night. I hope that there will be a little more improvement in my health tomorrow.

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