Tag Archives: eric hall

Monday 28th May 2018 – IT’S BANK HOLIDAY …

… in the UK today. And seeing as how I’d missed a Bank Holiday the other day I decided that I would take advantage of the day by having my Bank Holiday today.

So no alarm and a nice lie-in until all of … errr … 08:25. Nothing like the lie-in for which I was hoping but a lie-in all the same.

A late breakfast too, and then I did precisely nothing at all for the whole of the day except to mooch around and take it easy. At least, the morning passed like that anyway.

But there was an unexpected twist at lunchtime. I was joined by not one but two lizards waiting for the bits to drop off the pear. I’ll probably end up with a whole herd of lizards by the end of next week at this rate.

This afternoon I went for my little walk around the headland. It was school chucking-out time too and so I was able to observe the antics of the parents.

Pathetic parking is a regular feature of this blog as regular readers of this rubbish will recall. here’s yet another example. You cans ee the woman parked right by the bus stop with two wheels on the kerb to prevent passers-by from passing by on the pavement and yet right opposite her is an empty car parking space.

Not to mention the free car park lass than 100 yards down the road of course. I’m really surprised that the local police don’t come round and ticket them all.

was a really pleasant surprise. Ingrid came on line so we had a chat and then a telephone conversation that lasted one hour and forty-one minutes. I’m surprised that I could find that much to talk about. But then Ingrid has her own health issues too and so we jog each other along as best we can

Ingrid asked me what I was going to have fr tea, so I had to make one of these instant decisions. And I decided on another lot of mixed veg with vegan sausages and vegan cheese sauce. That all worked very nicely and was delicious.

And what was even better that with two burners now, I can fry my onions, garlic and sausages at the same time that I make the cheese sauce. As they say, it’s little things like that which make a great big difference.

But while the cooking was reaching a climax, Rosemary rang me up. I told her that I’d call her back in an hour or so after I’d had my tea. And so after the tea and the washing up, I went for my evening walk around the medieval walls.

And with the tide being well-in, I was interested in seeing what the little beach at the foot of the steps that I had seen the other evening looked like.

The answer to that is that I can forget any idea of going for a midnight stroll on the beach down there. What’s left of the beach at high tide is cut off from the part where the steps are.

No way down and no way up. So not a good idea

A little further along, I was distracted by sounds of hilarity coming from offshore somewhere. Not being able to see anything clearly, this was a job for the telephoto zoom lens.

There’s a diving platform about 4 metres tall right out on the beach and which is well-submerged at high tide. It’s quite a way offshore too and the sea was quite lively, so the last thing that I expected to see were a couple of people out there fooling around.

I watched them for a while to make sure that they were not in distress, and then left them to it.

Having paid my respects to Minette the black cat, who allowed me to pick her up yet again, I went back home and phoned Rosemary back. And there we were on the telephone for an hour and a half.

She’ll be back in the Auvergne sooner that she imagined, and having spent the last 6 months stranded in the UK after her operation she has made a decision that she’s ready to abandon the country too and settle permanently in France. She wanted to know the steps to take.

And I’ll tell you this – anyone who knows anything about Rosemary will realise from this discussion just how deeply the UK has slid into the abyss just recently if she’s upping sticks and moving on.

And as you all know, I can’t say that I blame her one minute. The last time that I set foot in the UK was over 5 years ago – a quick day-trip aller-retour to pick up Terry’s slates from near Folkestone. I can’t remember the last time that I was there before that, and I don’t miss it for a moment. I have no intention whatever of ever going back, although something might be brewing in the background which will mean that a day trip will be necessary some time soon. And I’m not looking forward to that at all.

So it ended up being a later night that I was expecting. But I’m not complaining. I don’t speak to enough people these days anyway. Frederick the Great once made the remark “the more I see of people, the more I like my dog” and he has my sympathy because I know just how he feels.

However Maria McKee wrote “a good heart these days is hard to find” and that’s just as true. It’s a very valuable commodity. I don’t have many friends but it’s quality over quantity any time. My friends are the best in the world and I’ll happily sit up all night talking to them without any problems whatsoever.

But right now, I’m off to bed. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Sunday 27th May 2018 – MYSTERY SOLVED

Remember yesterday when I said that I reckoned that my fitbit was playing up? I happened to glance at my fitbit this evening when I expected that the 100% of my day’s activity would be up. And it was showing 92% of my day’s activity.

But that’s not the exciting bit of it. A closer inspection revealed that it was indeed 7.7 kms – and that was 100% of my day’s activity when I first programmed it. It seems that somewhere along the line it has reprogrammed itself and a day’s activity is now 8.4 kms. So that’s going to wear me out even more.

But that’s a long time away from where we started. Although not as long as you might think because 09:10 is a really nice time to awaken on a Sunday morning. And 09:40 is an even nicer time to rise up from your stinking pit too.

This led to quite a late breakfast – a brunch in fact – and the fig roll is quite a good idea too. I have to treat myself on a Sunday after all. High time that I did that.

The rest of the morning, such as it was, was quite leisurely. And I ended up spending almost an hour and a half talking to Rosemary. She’s had her plaster taken off her foot and is now in ordinary footwear. But it’s a long, hard road to recovery for Rosemary, and she still has a long way to go.

With having a late start this morning I went without lunch. I grabbed some biscuits and made a flask of cold drink with ice cubes. And then I set off for the football.

An important match this one, for if US GRanville’s 2nd XI do better than FC ST Lo Manche they will be promoted.

The football wasn’t the only thing that was going on either.

There was a bicycle race – the Tour de Normandie – taking place this weekend and today’s stage finished here in Granville.

And so there were hordes of people and hordes of cyclists swarming through the town this afternoon as I was passing through.

All the way up the hill I was being passed by bunches of cyclists. And they were struggling up the hill as much as I was too.

And there were fleets of cars with the spare bikes on the roofs following the cyclists, and following the cars were the fleets of ambulances.

But I was diappointed that there weren’t the fleets of advertisers like there were in Le Gendarme et les Extra-terrestres. Anyone who grew up with French cycle races in the late 1960s will know exactly what I mean

There’s a lot of money in cycle racing in France these days, and you can tell that by all of the equipment that is on show being used by the bigger teams.

So it was something of a surprise to find an old Peugeot 504 – probably getting on for 45 years old I reckon – doing service as a bicycle team support car.

Probably the most famous French car of the early modern era, the French equivalent of the British Ford Cortina III and IV, and seeing as we haven’t had an old car for quite a while, it gives me pleasure to feature it here.

So the most crucial match of the season here at the Stade Louis Dior. US Granville’s 2nd XI against AS Tourlaville. Everything riding on this match. No matter what FC ST Lo Manche do in their match, Granville must do better.

And by God they made hard work of it. For once the back four were incredibly nervous and were making a couple of silly careless errors. And it could have been so much worse as two suicidal backpasses from the usually-reliable central defenders put a Tourlaville attacker through for a one-on-one with the US Granville keeper.

Had the attackers been any better, US Granville could have been 2-0 down but one shot from one backpass went wide and the other one hit the post and bounced away to safety. And with only the keeper to beat.

And as for the keeper, he was nervous too. He dropped three simple crosses (luckily a defender got to the loose ball first each time) and was generally shaky throughout the match.

Eventually though Granville took the lead – a beautiful run down the wing, a good pinpoint cross into the centre and a forward sliding into the goalmouth steered it in.

And in the second half, a beautiful free kick put Granville 2-0 up. And that set the match aflame as Granville continued to pour forward, with Tourlaville resorting to some desperate (and quite often illegal) measures to keep them out, much to the frustration of the Granville players. Yesterday’s rainstorm to cool down the players would have helped here.

And then of course, another defensive loss of concentration right at the death allowed a Tourlaville attacker to finally find the back of the net.

So a 2-1 victory for Granville. And it was all in vain as FC ST Lo Manche had won by five goals to one.

So that was that. We’ll have to wait until next year now.

I had a nice walk back home in the warm early evening sunshine, just in time to see a saling boat come a-dieseling into the harbour. A bit disappointed that it didn’t come a-sailing in but you can’t have everything.

And it’s usually around here that I clock up my 100% of daily effort when I’ve been to the Stade Louis Dior. So I checked and you know the rest.

Tea was the usual vegan pizza and then I went out for a walk to clock up the missing metres. Not far of course, but far enough to reach the 100%. It’s a good thing, this fitbit. It pushes me along

So now it’s bed time and I can’t say that I’m sorry. I could do with an early night.

Saturday 26th May 2018 – I HAVE JUST SEEN …

… something that I have never ever seen before.

One of US Granville’s attacker bursts into the EC Tessy Moyon Sports box, and goes down under a challenge from a defender. The referee blows hiw whistle and points to the penalty spot.

The match is being played at the Stade Louis Dior despite it being the 3rd XI. I’m in the grandstand, absolutely level with the incident and quite high up, so I have a perfect view. And in mt opinion that was one of the best challenges that I have seen at this level of football.

The Tessy Moyon players are furious, their coach is livid, The US Granville player comes to the touchline and shouts something to his captain. The captain takes the kick – and kicks it to the corner flag.

Apparently the referee was the only person in the whole stadium who thought that that was a penalty. But I’ve never seen a team kick away a penalty before. The Age of Chivalry isn’t dead after all.

It was another struggle to leave the stinking pit this morning, We Went through the usual morning procedure followed by a shower, and then Caliburn and I hit the streets

We went the long way out to the garage, out to near Bréhal and down the by-pass. The idea is to get the engine stinking hot so that it burns more efficiently and shows a better reading on the air meter. The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley, as Robert Burns would have us believe. I ended up being stuck behind a load of grockles crawling along the road.

However, none of this caused a problem and at the Controle Technique, not only were we early but we were in and out and finished even before the time of the appointment. Caliburn passed with no problems and there is nothing to worry about as far as his bodywork goes. He’ll be 11 on Tuesday by the way

Sopping today was just Noz and LeClerc. I didn’t feel like going all the way round to LIDL. And it didn’t take me long to buy what I needed (and to buy nothing else) and I was home by 11:30. Maybe I ought to go out this early again.

Having put everything away and having had a coffee, it was lunchtime. Beautiful weather for it too, sitting on the wall watching the shipping, eating my butties, reading my book and chatting to the lizard. He was enjoying the weather too.

Back here, shame as it is to admit it, I crashed out yet again for a good hour too. Perhaps this early start wasn’t such a good idea after all. But I was up and about and ready for my trek up town.

Some of the trek involved following a couple of beautiful young maidens. They stopped somewhere along the route and gave a kiss to some boy who was clearly a friend.
“Could I have a kiss too?” I enquired. But the trouble today is that no-one has a sense of humour.

It was a beautiful evening for football and we were lucky enough to be at the Stade Louis Dior for this. It’s not very often that the 3rd XI get to play here.

No-one on the gate at all of course so we could just walk in and go anywhere, so I blagged a seat in the stands where the view is quite good.

US Granville were 8th going into the match and EC Tessy Moyon Sports were 7th, and eo we expected a hard-fought tight match and that’s exactly what we got.

Granville had most of the play but couldn’t convert the chances that they were making. And it seemed that fortune might have been on their side when Tessy Mosson were obliged to replace their goalkeeper with an outfield player after a collision.

But the new keeper was actually quite good – he’d clearly played in goal before and at a reasonable standard too. He was coming out for crosses – and catching them too – and his handling and distribution was quite good too.

But he was eventually beaten by a ball over the top and a Granville player running on for a one-on-one. No-one could complain about the keeper there.

But the real highlight of the evening was the weather.

There had been some rumbling and grumbling in the distance, and then a huge dark cloud started to blow over the ground.

And you can see, if you look closely, the torrential rain that is falling, away over there in the distance. We were going to be in for it.

The rain waited until we were leaving the stadium before it let go. And then we got the lot.

Luckily there was a strong wind blowing so I kept in the lee of the buildings at the side of the road. Had I been in the open, I would have been a drowned rat before I’d gone 50 yards.

But it was quickly over. And we had one of those unusual phenomena of a sharp weather front, where you could see the end of the rainstorm like a curtain as it drew away from me up the street. It’s been a while since I’ve seen something like that.

Back here, I hadn’t completed my 100% daily activity which is a surprise. There’s definitely something wrong with the fitbit.

And so I went for a lap around the block until the 100% came up, and this enabled me to watch the sun sink slowly into the sea, surrounded by flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder something like The Return Of The Demon King.

But I was too tired to do much back here. I even fell asleep talking to someone on the laptop. So in the end I went to bed.

Sunday tomorrow. A day of rest. And I need it too.

Friday 25th May 2018 – AND SO HERE’S …

… the new toy that I bought yesterday. It’s a vitro-ceramic twin-hob cooker, all plugged in and working.

Strictly speaking, you aren’t supposed to plug these in. They should be wired in to a dedicated cooking point, but as you can see, it has possibilities of being either a free-standing unit as well as a fitted unit in a worktop, and seeing as the max power output is 2960 watts, that’s well short of the 16 amps that they use in domestic circuits here.

So its utility as a free-standing plug-in unit is not to be sneezed at.

And I’m glad that I bought it because I’m fed up of only having one burner, which means that I have to shuffle things around when I’m cooking. An added advantage is that you can use any kind of flat-bottomed saucepan on it. So the ones that I stuck in a cupoboard that didn’t work on the induction hob, I can fetch them out again.

I spent an exciting afternoon stripping down, cleaning and reorganising the table that I use for cooking and eating. That’s all clean and tidy … "for the moment" – ed … and it actually looks as if someone is working on it now.

I’m amazed at just how dirty it was, especially when I’d done my best to keep it clean. It’s amazing when you discover when you take the oilcloth off to turn it around.

Just by way of a change, I didn’t crash out this afternoon. But as the Duke of Wellington said about the Battle of Waterloo, it was “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”

You can either attribute that to the fact that I was keeping quite busy this afternoon and didn’t have time to sit down and relax, or else you can attribute it to the fact that when the alarms went off this morning, I was in no hurry to leave my bed.

In fact, all in all, it was a rather leisurely morning while I sorted out a few things that needed doing. I wasn’t in any rush.

It was quiet at lunchtime. No-one really loitering around on the streets. But a workman had pinched my spec on the wall so I had to sit further down to eat my butties and read my book. And my friend the lizard eventually tracked me down for the pear leavings.

I mentioned the tidying up of the cooking area. And I was hoping to make a start on emptying out Caliburn. After all, there is tons of stuff in there that I no longer need or use, as well as hoping to find the missing spring clip. But I didn’t have time. Looks as if that might be next week’s task.

Tea was a stuffed pepper with spicy rice. And then I went for a walk.

The evening walk is usually the one where I go around the footpath at the foot of the walls of the medieval town and it’s a very nice walk.

But not all of the walls are medieval. There have been some later additions to the fortifications and this covered passageway down there that leads out to the part that overlooks the Place Marechal Foch certainly looks much more recent.

The stairway and footbridge over the walls is of course even more recent.

As I walked further on around the walls I noticed something away across the Baie de Mont St Michel in the distance over near Cancale that might have been another ship lurking in the doom and gloom, like the one we saw a few weeks ago.

The benefits of having some good equipment and a decent graphics program is that you can photograph it and manipulate it so that you can have a better view of what there is to see. Hard to believe that that’s about 18 miles away, isn’t it?

And it seems as if I have photographed a fishing boat, an island and part of another island with a church thereupon. And not a ship at all, which is something of a disappointment.

I shall have to go back with a compass and take a bearing so that I can work out exactly where it all might be situated.

An early night tonight too. Caliburn has his controle technique tomorrow morning so both of us need to be on form.

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Thursday 24th May 2018 – OUCH! THAT HURT!

Yes it did too. Dead to the world for an hour and a half this afternoon, and still a little unsteady on my feet even now.

Something of a late-ish night last night. And dead to the world until the alarm went off. And then it was something of a struggle to leave my stinking pit.

But after the usual morning routine I had a shower and a clean-up and then phoned the garage. Caliburn is ready so I could go to pick him up.

It’s a long walk – almost 6kms to the garage and no point in hanging around, so off I set.

There was quite a bit going on in the town today. There’s a cycle race taking place at weekend so the local council was out putting up all of the bunting and other street decorations ready for the (af)fray.

And I’m glad that I went early because the sun didn’t start to heat up for a while. The first half of the journey was quite pleasant.

Not so the second half once the sun was full out, and I had to stop a few times to get my breath.

First stop was at the motorcycle shop just for a nosy around. There wasn’t anything of interest – not that I expected there might be, but worth a look all the same.

Second port of call was a new Bio shop that I hadn’t noticed before. It’s pretty much like the Amaranthe in Montlucon but with only a quarter of the stock. And as for the vegan selection, well, they needn’t have bothered. That was a waste of time too.

Third port of call was the cheap electric shop that had done the business for me before. And yet again, I didn’t leave empty-handed. Tomorrow, I’ll take a photo of what I bought and you can see it for yourselves. But I never expected to see one of these in a shop like this.

Ironically, last year when I was wandering around on foot with Caliburn’s service last year, I stumbled upon an oven. That’s rather a strange coincidence.

Biggest surprise was at the garage. Caliburn has his controle technique on Saturday morning so he needs a service and a check-over before he goes. And for all of that, the bill came to all of €110. That’s the cheapest service and pre-controle technique that Caliburn would ever have.

All they found wrong was a numberplate light bulb not working and nothing else. I asked them to check the steering and front suspension but they found nothing wrong there.

Seeing as I was up at that end of the town I did my mid-week shopping at Leclerc and then came home for a coffee and a chat on line with Liz. After that, it was outside for my butties.

There was a lot going on there too. Not much in the way of people but they had a guy on a sky jack pressure-washing the building behind me. And every so often the spray would drift over to where I was sitting.

He had to stop every time a car or a pedestrian went past so it took him longer than it might otherwise have done.

Butvery so often the spray would drift over to where I was sitting and it was actually quite pleasant and cooling in the sunshine.

There was also quite a lot of activity going on down below in the port.

The tide was on its way in and so were all the fishing boats. They were queueing up several deep at the wharf by the fish processing plant waiting to unload their catch, with a few more on their way in to the harbour as I watched.

Still, it keeps them out of mischief, I suppose.

Now that Caliburn is organised (or he will be on Saturday morning) I had some plans to make, and I spent a while up to no good and chatting to a couple of friends on line. And then that was that.

I missed my afternoon walk yet again, but I still managed to have the session on the guitar.

Tea was a burger in a bap with a potato and veg done in the microwave with some vegan margarine spread.

And I managed to make it outside for the evening walk, which was just as well because it really was a beautiful night.

Instead of going around the walls I went around the headland instead and there was a beautiful view across the bay towards Jullouville and Carolles although there was a sea mist that was obscuring the far coast itself.

Nevertheless, the colours came out really well in this photo. You would never imagine that it’s almost 21:00.

And so 108% of my daily total today, and it feels more like 1008%. I feel dreadful but I have to keep going. One thing for sure though – I won’t be doing much tomorrow.

Wednesday 23rd May 2018 – SO CARRYING ON …

… from where I left off last night, I ended up taking out the waste paper to the recycling bin. Such is the exciting life that I lead around here these days.

But at least it brought my day’s efforts to 101% of my target so that I could go to bed quite happily – albeit rather later than I had planned.

And during the night, I was off on yet another mega-ramble. One that was well-worth remembering, but unfortunately I can’t remember anything about it now. But all is not lost, because I recorded it for posterity on the dictaphone.

However, it comes to my mind that I have forgotten to copy it onto the laptop and transcribe it, so you’ll have to wait for another time before you can read all about it.

To be honest, I don’t know what I do with my days. Anyone would think that I was really busy, but that’s not the case. I’m just old, tired and ill.

But not so old, tired and ill that I couldn’t deal with the masses of photos that have built up over the last while. Including the ones that I mentioned yesterday. This one and this one were taken with the current lens on the big Nikon.

On the other hand, keeping to exactly the same settings, this one and this one were taken with the lens that I borrowed from Happy Cash.

I wish now that I had brought the spare lens with me instead of leaving it back in Virlet. I shall have to bite the bullet and buy another. This one is the one that I would really like, but I’m already selling my body on Boots Corner for the next 20 years so it will have to wait for a while. Does that place you know have anything cheaper, Rhys?

Lunch was spent sitting on the wall overlooking the harbour where I could gaze upon the activity.

And Normandy Trader sneaked in during the morning at some time. Here she sits, not yet loaded. Presumably waiting for a delivery.

The lizard that loiters at the foot of tha wall now seems to have become quite tame. He knows that I’m going to eat a pear, and he knows that some of it will fall to the floor. He’s a big fan of pears and at first he’d hide in the long grass and dash out for a quick bite and dash back in.

Now though, he comes out and hangs around waiting, even climbing over my foot to reach the piece that falls.

This afternoon I crashed out again and then carried on with the photos and a session on the guitar.

I went for my walk too, and they must have been flaming quick with Normandy Trader because she had badgered off. Slung her hook, you might say.

But they aren’t being flaming quick with Caliburn. He’s still at the garage and there’s been no phone call. Still, he’s out of mischief there.

Tea was a delicious mixed vegetables steamed in the microwave, vegan sausages and a nice thick creamy vegan cheese sauce. The freezer and the grated vegan cheese from the Loving Hut in Leuven haven’t half improved my diet. But I’ve run out of strawberries now.

Another walk this evening and now I’m ready for bed. And I need it too. I must remember to download my dictaphone notes tomorrow.

Tuesday 22nd May 2018 – I WAS RIGHT …

… about the long walk home at lunchtime. Five and a half kilometres back from where I left Caliburn having his service, in the sun and the heat.

I did it all in one go too, although I did stop for a baguette and also at the place that does iced sorbets – I deserved a treat, I reckon.

But when I returned here, I crashed right out. And for a good while too. A very late lunch therefore, and then I came back – and crashed out yet again. Ruined my day and all of my plans, but that’s just how it’s going to be for the future so I may as well get used to it.

I’d had an early start too – out of bed before the second alarm went off at 06:60, even though I didn’t feel much like it. And then after the usual morning performance I had a good shower and a clean-up. Have to look my best if I’m going out.

First stop was at the second-hand shop where they allowed me to try out the lens that I mentioned, for which I was grateful. I’ll have to examine closely the results and see if there is any difference between the images taken with their lens compared to mine. This will tell me once and for all whether it’s the lens or the camera.

As for the other camera with the useless lens, I’ll have to organise sending that off for examination sometime soon.

Next stop was the car wash where I gave Caliburn his annual bath. And with all of the dirt that fell off him, you wouldn’t think that I’ve only done a mere 1800 kms since last March. There were times, as we all know, when I could do 1800 kms in a weekend, never mind in 15 months or so.

So he’s now at the garage, I walked home and I’ve been pretty useless … "so what’s new?" – ed … for the rest of the day. Even missed my afternoon walk. But I’ve had to get myself into gear because I ended up having two simultaneous conversations on the internet, both of which might involve lengthy journeys on the road and for which a great deal of preparation will be required.

And not only that, I’ve seen a little trip that is tempting me. But for that I’ll have to start selling my body on Boots Corner. It’s a little expensive.

Tea was a frozen curry out of the freezer, and then I managed an evening walk. But I’ll have to go back out again in a minute because I forgot to look at the fitbit when I was out just now. And when I did remember, I was on 97% Being so close, I’ll have to push it over the 100%

And then bed. I’m absolutely whacked, and I have to do it again tomorrow but in reverse when I go to pick up Caliburn.

I’m clearly not as young as I was.

Monday 21st May 2018 – I’VE GOT ONE …

… of these special spray-on cream tin things.

The one that tells you that it “contains the equivalent of 800 ml of fresh soya cream” – but doesn’t tell you that it only contains enougb propellant to eject about a quarter of it. That’s not very good and I’m not impressed.

In theory, I could puncture the can to liberate the contents but knowing my luck, there will be just enough propellant trapped inside to whitewash the whole apartment and everything in it.

Something else with which I’m not impressed is that the alarm went off at 06:20 as usual and again at 06:30 and I was out of bed something like. Only to read later on that morning that one of my friends is off on his annual Pentecost walk. Yes, it’s a flaming Bank Holiday here, isn’t it? Another day when I can lie in bed without feeling a pang of guilt. And I missed it.

And so I had a glass of Dandelion and Burdock instead. A bottle left over from Christmas 18 months ago. High time that I had a little treat.

I was going to say that I had done badger all today, but that’s not quite true. I’ve done a little tidying up of the crockery and cooking stuff. I’ve been looking for some glass mixing bowls for ages and as luck would have it, I found some in NOZ at the weekend so I bought two. Cooker, dishwasher, microwave safe too,, and at €1:99 each.

However, I have nowhere to put them, so I needed to have a sot-out of stuff. Didn’t take me long but it’s definitely working and it’s definitely tidying up. I ought to award myself a medal.

A beautiful afternoon so a long sit on the wall with my butties and my book, watching the heaving multitudes go straggling past.

And not so “straggling” either on some occasions.

The tide was right for the day trippers (or afternoon trippers in this case) to take the Joly France out to the Ile de Chausey – or were they going just for a lap or two around the bay?

But anyway, there was more than enough of them. The boat was pretty full.

And it’s rather ironic really. There was an article in the local paper about “Are there too many tourists going over there?” And I’ll tell you something else for nothing, and that is that if the tourists stopped going over there would be another article in the local papers about the islanders complaining that their economy has collapsed because there aren’t enough tourists going over.

Like many places, the inhabitants would be quite happy for the tourists to stay at home and just post their money over to the island.

That wasn’t all of the excitement either.

There’s another boat – the La Granvillaise – that does tours around the bay too. And that was setting off on a jaunt too. She looks quite an elderly boat too but in fact was built in 1990, albeit as a replica of a fishing boat – the Rose Marie – of 1897 that was a typical fishing boat of the bay at that time – a bisquine.

She has 410 square metres of canvas sail – the largest amount of any boat of her class in France – and so that’s much more like my style of voyaging

And I was there for ages sitting on my wall, totally engrossed in the Hundred Years War.

We British people think of the Hundred Years War as just being Crécy and Agincourt and not much else in between. For the French though, it was almost 120 years of complete and utter terror. In the past I’d been hunting high and low for a book that gives a detailed French perspective on the war and I finally found one a couple of years ago.

It’s certainly a right riveting read and it’s easy now for me to understand why the French hated the English so much after reading the stories of the atrocities that were committed by the English and their allies. “l’Albion Perfide” indeed.

With the weather being so nice, I had my two walks too, even though the place is heaving with people. And for tea tonight I had vegetables with a burger and some delicious gravy. It was really nice too.

So tomorrow I must take Caliburn to the menders for his service. And it’s a loooooooonnnnnnnng walk home from there. I’m not too keen on that idea. I’ll probably be ill for a week afterwards.

Sunday 20th May 2018 – WHAT A NICE SURPRISE!

Yes, I had a video call from Alison this evening. Only the second that I think that I’ve ever had. So as well as a very long chat, she also had a conducted tour of the apartment.

Mind you, it would have been more interesting had I tidied up the place first because it hasn’t been tidied since before I went to Belgium. I really must try to organise myself better.

But it’s not likely to happen today. It’s Sunday and so on Sunday we don’t do any work at all – just sit around and vegetate. There’s not even an alarm to awaken us, so being awake and up and about at 08:20 is rather disappointing.

But tha hadn’t stopped me from being off on my travels during the night. I was wandering around the ring road in Leuven looking for a bus to take me to my hospital appointment in Brussels (exactly!) but I was carrying a big orange fuel container (in fact, one that I have back on the farm) full of petrol – about 20 litres of it in fact – and it was flaming heavy. And so then I thought to myself “what don’t I take it to the place where I have left my red Cortina estate XCL 465 X (actually, the parking spot that I have for Caliburn), fuel her up with it, and then run for the bus? An hour and a half is plenty of time”. And so I decided to do that. But even in the middle of a nocturnal ramble I was able to assure myself that I was going to look pretty foolish when I arrived there because the Cortina was elsewhere – as in the Auvergne. So what would I be doing with 20 litres of petrol for it in Leuven?
A little later I was having coffee with an Arab at some kind of harbourside café. We were watching hordes of people swarm aboard a ferry boat of some description and he was telling me that he had to board it shortly. I told him that I thought that he should be on it already because it was looking very full to me and he might not find a place. He replied that admission to the ferry was by ticket only, he already had his and that it had been stamped as valid and accepted for the voyage. So whatever happened, he could just walk down onto the boat and take his place. It all sounded rather nebulous to me.

And in keeping with my new mode of eating, I didn’t have breakfast this morning. I’m only going to eat when I’m hungry, not when the clock strikes. So I had a brunch – at 12:21 to be precise.

This afternoon was the most important game in the Welsh Premier League’s calendar. The European play-off final. The less-successful teams in the league have been competing in a knock-out tournament with the winner taking the final place in European competition with its guaranteed minimum prize of £220,000 and which could rise to as much as £3,000,000 depending upon success in the Europa League.

Cefn Druids from Cefn Mawr in the outskirts of Wrexham lined up against Cardiff Metro – 5th v 6th in the League. And the match was rather less than exciting unfortunately. But that’s hardly surprising considering what was at stake. It was decided by just one goal from the Druids during a scramble in the goalmouth.

But it could have been a totally different story had the Mets attacker sidefooted the ball into the net right on half-time instead of blazing over an open goal from 5 yards out. Hang his head in shame – that must be one of the most expensive misses in history.

We’ve had the usual walks, the usual vegan pizza and the chat with Alison.

And now we’re going to have an early night. It’s Monday tomorrow so I suppose that I’d better show some willing and start to tidy up the place a little.

Saturday 20th May 2018 – LAST MATCH …

… of the season this evening at the Stade Louis Dior for the US Granville’s 1st XI.

And it was free admission too – what you might call an “Open Dior” evening, I suppose. And not only that, I was given an invitation to sit in the stand which was very nice. Even nicer was the fact that it was a beautiful evening.

Tonight’s opponents were Sologne Olympic Romorantin, a name that is bound to cause confusion. The club was formerly known as Stade Olympic Romorantin and the name change caught many people off-balance. The famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright (regular readers of this rubbish will recall that we visited Graycliff, one of his houses) asked everyone he knew for confirmation of the name change, to which the famous singer Paul Simon answered “Sologne, Frank Lloyd Wright” … "are you sure about this?" – ed.

As for the match itself, it was a pulsating, thrilling encounter that finished 2-2. But this was two points thrown away by Granville, not one point gained.

Granville had half a dozen other really good chances to score that many other teams would have buried in the back of the net, including a free header from three yards out that somehow went over the bar.

As for the two goals conceded, one was a defensive mix-up where the keeper and two defenders waited around for one of the three to clear the ball, and the second was the Granville keeper coming miles off his line for a ball that he was never ever going to reach. In fact, the Granville keeper didn’t look his usual confident self throughout the match.

With having another reasonably early night, the alarm didn’t come as much of a shock that it normally did too. Although it did snap me out of one of my nocturnal rambles. Unfortunately the batteries in the dictaphone went flat so I don’t remember much of it. But somewhere along the line I was walking along a main road carrying a brown grip-kind of luggage thing almost identical to one that I was given for a birthday in 1977. I was supposed to be heading home but it was a long way and I was hoping that someone would stop to pick me up, although I wasn’t actively hitch-hiking. It was taking place on the edge of a town just where the houses start to give way to countryside and where the footpath ends. And it must have been on the mainland of Europe as I was on the right-hand side of the road. I wasn’t alone either, because here and there were a few other individuals loitering in the vicinity. Suddenly someone shouted that there was to be a train leaving the station so people started to flood off up a side street. I asked if that wa the way to the station and someone replied that it was so I followed the stream of people, even though my pride wanted me to stay on the road and walk home. At the station there was a railway official directing the people to the train. I seemed to recall that I’d been here before under similar circumstances and that the official had given us all temporary railway tickets, but this time he was just waving us to the train with no tickets being issued. So I was wondering exactly what was the scam that he was working over the passenger tickets and fares.

We had the usual morning routine, including a shower and a setting off of the washing machine (there was a backlog of laundry again) and then the shops.

The usual round of LIDL, NOZ and Leclerc. The former and the latter didn’t come up with anything special but at NOZ there were all kinds of bits and pieces. Nothing exciting though, except a cheap air mattress. It comes to my mind that I might be going off on my travels in a few weeks and of course, I don’t have my travelling mattress for Caliburn, do I?

It shouldn’t make any difference really because I’m not well enough these days to sleep in Caliburn as I used to, but it’s one of those things that you might always need it if you don’t have it.

But I called in at the Second Hand shop on the way back – the one from whence the new hi-fi came. They did indeed have a Nikon lens that will fit on the big Nikon. So when I go past there on Tuesday I’ll take the camera there and try it out. See whether it’s the lens or the camera itself that is faulty.

Back here, I crashed out yet again for half an hour, and then took myself off for a very late lunch on my little wall with my book. Beautiful weather it was too.

There wasn’t much of the afternoon left by the time I returned, so I didn’t do much before going off across town for the football.

Back here though later in the evening, there was a guided tour of the old medieval town here, with flaming torches (and perishing lamps and blasted lights too).

I went out and tagged myself on to one of the groups of wanderers to listen to what the guide had to say. It always helps to know about where you are living.

And it was quite interesting. He pointed out many things that I hadn’t noticed on my travels around on my own and gave us all quite an interesting tour.

But my heart isn’t in it, I’m afraid.

It’s not like the olden days when I could wander around like this for hours. By the time that we were heading back to the Église Notre-Dame du Cap Lihou I was tired and exhausted.

There was a whole raft of entertainment organised for for us all through the night, but it wasn’t to be for me. I came home and went to bed instead.

All of this is rather depressing, isn’t it?

Friday 18th May 2018 – I WAS RIGHT …

… about me paying today for my exertions of yesterday. This afternoon, on coming back from lunch, I was gome completely for a good 45 minutes.

It wasn’t as if I’d had a late night either – well, not for me anyway. In bed not long after midnight and that was that until the alarm went off. And I wasn’t in a hurry to leave my bed.

This, morning with having a “me” day, I didn’t do too much. I was playing around with the 3D program that I used and, purely by accident, I discovered a trick I didn’t know before and which doesn’t seem to be published anywhere as far as I can tell. So now, having had a good morning’s work with this, I can make the hair, some props and some clothing interchange neatly between all of the characters regardless of the base character for which they were designed.

The only issue is exchanging clothes of more modern base characters to the earlier ones. The more modern ones have more separate body zones than the earlier ones, so when you try to fit some modern clothing over a zone that is missing on an earlier character, the settings that would cover the part of the clothing in the missing zone default to “zero” and so the shape of the whole outfit all goes haywire.

To explain what I mean, the torso on an earlier character is divided into two horizontal zones. On a more modern character it’s divided into three. And so a tee-shirt designed for a modern character will have these three zones. But putting it on a character with two zones means that the settings for the missing zone on the tee-shirt default to zero, so your tee-shirt then looks like an hour glass.

Lunch was outside on the wall again in the sunshine, where I was joined by a lizard that ate greedily the piece of pear that I dropped. First lizard that I had seen this year had been on Monday, but this was the first that had actually appeared in the open.

So then we crashed out and it really knocked me for six – quite a struggle to rouse myself to go for my afternoon walk and I felt dreadful. But I’m glad that I did because Gribouille the ginger cat was by the door. He let me pick him up again for a stroke ad that’s always good for the stress.

Lunch wasn’t all that much today so I could manage some tea. A baked potato with a vegan burger in a bap and some vegetables followed by more strawberries and spray-on vegan cream.

Delicious.

Shopping tomorrow and then the football. Last match of the season for Granville’s 1st XI. I need to be on form for all of that but this fatigue issue is killing me.

Thursday 17th May 2018 – JUST FOR A CHANGE …

… seeing how things have been going just recently, I had tea tonight.

And not before time either because one of the two peppers that were left from the last weekend has gone off and ended up in the bin. The other one was just about edible so I made a pile of my patent vegan stuffing and had stuffed pepper with spicy rice and vegetables for tea.

But that wasn’t the main reason why. Being at LIDL this morning, they had yet more of the cheap strawberries. And, of course, seeing as I was in Belgium last week and went shopping at the Loving Hut, I have some vegan spray-on cream, don’t I? And I’m not going to let nature beat me to them like it did last time.

Despite a reasonably early (for me) night last night, I didn’t fel much like it this morning and it took me a while to haul myself out of bed. After the usual performance and breakfast I had a shower too. Must make myself pretty for the shops.

But I nearly didn’t make it to the shops this morning. I sat down on the settee after my shower and promptly fell asleep. And it was a rather panic-stricken me that staggered awake at 09:35.

It was a nice day too as I headed through town and out the other side. And Normandy Trader was in the harbour loading up. So I reckoned on passing back that way on the way back to take a couple of pics.

Dodging my way through the roadworks which have now restarted but on the other side of the street so we still have the previous amount of chaos, I made it to LIDL.

As well as the strawberries and the bread that I needed, they had some of the packet spices so I bought a packet of cumin and of ginger. I don’t need them quite yet but they never seem to have them in stock when I need them.

They also had some insulated gourds on offer. They were quite cheap too so I bought one – the idea being that when I’m out and about on a hot day (if we ever have one) I can make a cold drink and put some ice cubes in it, and hopefully it will keep cold for a while.

But all the fun at LIDL seems to be taking place outside on the car park these days. Poor parking is a regular feature of this blog, and here’s yet another example.

They had closed off part of the car park with all of the trolleys as there will very shortly be a marquee on here, but this hasn’t stopped someone deciding to find a way to park right where they will be working.

It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?

On the way back I went to the harbour to see Normandy Trader. But as you might expect, she had p155ed off already. That p155ed me off, I’ll tell you.

Back here I had a coffee and then I had things to do until lunchtime.

It was even nicer later on although the wind was a nuisance. But I still took my butties and my book and went to sit on my wall for an hour, thinking to myself that this would have been a good opportunity to try out the gourd.

This afternoon I had more things to do, a guitar session and a walk too. And I didn’t crash out at all, which is certainly good news. But what with my evening walk I’m at 114% of my daily activity so I’ll probably pay for all of this tomorrow.

And a nice tea too. Things are looking up.

NO plans for anything tomorrow so it looks like a “me” day instead. You just watch someone come along and spoil it.

Wednesday 16th May 2018 – I HAVE BEEN FEELING …

… a bit better today.

It was probably something to do with the (comparatively) early night that I had last night, coupled with the fact that I was in no hurry to leave the bed this morning after the alarm went off.

So with a slightly later start this morning, I had a slightly later breakfast and a little relax before getting round to attack today’s task.

I’m not going to say too much about that at the moment because it will be the subject of considerable correspondence elsewhere, but it involved the Board of Trade, the UK Government, Companies House and the High Court in Manchester, with considerable reference to the various Insolvency Acts. And the plums that I have been pulling out of all of this are certainly eye-opening.

Still, it keeps me out of mischief.

All of this took me up to a rather late lunch, which I spent eating my butties on the wall overlooking the harbour. And I seem now to have run out of bread. It’s a good job that it’s a shopping day tomorrow.

I’m not quite sure what I did this afternoon because the time seemed to pass so quickly; But one thing that I didn’t do was to crash out. I managed to keep going for all of the afternoon, and that’s certainly some kind of progress.

We did however have our afternoon walk in the wind and our session on the guitar.

But no tea again. No idea where my appetite has gone. But not to worry. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that it seems to come and go. We’ve had this kind of thing before and it always ended up by coming back.

And so it will this time too. It’s not as if I don’t have some surplus kilos to shed, is it?

After not having tea and not doing the washing up, I still went for my evening walk around the walls of the medieval city.

And there sitting on her windowsill waiting for me again was Minette the black cat – or, rather, tortoiseshell cat as you can see quite clearly in this photo.

So she had a good stroke for 10 minutes as you might expect. As I have said before … "and you’ll say again" – ed … it’s all very therapeutic and good for the stress to stroke a cat.

Later on I ended up chatting with Ingrid and Alison. I certainly seem to be popular right now. Do I owe anyone any money?

So another early night. Let’s hope that it’s a good one and I have a decent sleep.

But I’m walking up to LIDL tomorrow so I’ll probably be flat on my back again tomorrow afternoon.

Tuesday 15th May 2018 – REGULAR READERS …

… of this rubbish will recall that on Saturday, while looking for something completely different, I found the mobile phone that I had lost back in December.

Today in the post was a letter to the effect of “could I contact the Prefecture of Police in the Arondissement 15 of Paris, quoting reference …” – and for those of you who don’t know it, Arondissement 15 is just round the corner (well, sort-of) from the Montparnasse-Vaugirard railway station, the terminus of my train from Granville.

So, what have I been up to now? I contacted them to find out.

“You reported a wallet lost or stolen on December … last year. A wallet containing documentation with your details thereupon has come into the possession of the Police. Would you like to come and pick it up?”

Well, badger me? That was most unexpected, wasn’t it?

I tell you what though. At this rate, by the end of the week I’ll have found Lord Lucan, Martin Bormann, the Lost Tribes of Israel and the Loch Ness Monster.

But I wish that I could find my appetite. I’ve had no tea tonight because I couldn’t stomach it. Mind you, I can’t say that I need it. I need to shed a few kilos these days as you know so a few days without tea will do me good. But it’s depressing all the same.

Mind you, it all stems from the rotten night that I had last night. The perils of crashing out good and proper during the afternoon are that by the time that it’s bedtime, you’re still wide awake. 02:25 whe I finally went to bed and as a precaution, I switched off the alarms. I didn’t want to make myself any worse.

And so it was 09:05 when I crawled out of bed. A late morning, and with a late breakfast that followed it too. I’d missed the best part of the day. But there was a stack of e-mails that needed attention and so this morning I sorted out all of those.

And there was one from Nikon’s Customer Service people about my lens. “We are sorry that you have had trouble with your lens. Other people have reported the same error so please return your lens for our attention ….. The repair time will be between two and four weeks”.

It goes without saying that this has dismayed me more than most other things just recently.

Another thing that has dismayed me is (yet again) my useless load of bankers. I received a text message the other day “your account has gone into deficit. Please regularise the situation …”

Deficit? How is this possible?

So I went into town to look. And sure enough, my account is in deficit by all of €12:57. It seems that when the bank transferred my money from Pionsat to here, they transferred it into the wrong account.

I despair.

But it wasn’t a totally wasted trip into town.

I was able to see where they had reached with the fibre-optic cable laying that they were going. It’s not at the roundabout on the edge of the port so they seem to be making some good progress which is always useful.

And while I was down there I bought a baguette in the town because I like the bread from that boulanger on the corner, and came back here to make my butties

And having done that, I went to sit on the wall in the wind for lunch.

Back here, I was gone again. For a good hour or so too. I’m really fed up of this right now and I wish that I could do something about it. it was a real ache to haul myself off outside for my afternoon walk in the wind.

I managed some kind of session on the guitar but I’m not up to that too much either. I couldn’t stand up for more than about 15 minutes. I had to sit down.

No tea of course as I said, but I did crawl off outside yet again for my evening walk.

The wind was strong at lunchtime but this evening it seems to be worse. And with it being high tide at walkies time, we were treated to the glorious spectacle of some mega-waves and tons of spray crashing over the sea wall onto the promenade.

And as I have said before … "and you’ll say again" – ed … this is why I’m here

And that wasn’t all of the excitement either.

We’ve been having some beautiful sunsets just recently and while the one tonight wasn’t quite up there with the best, it was still quite impressive nevertheless.

And I was surprised about how quickly the sun goes down. I almost missed it tonight and that will never do.

Back here now and I’m going to have to think of a plan to get to Paris to pick up my wallet. How am I going to manage that?

EPIC HALL

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