… very busy day in the harbour today.
When I walked down to the town this morning, there in the harbour was Normandy Trader tied up to her berth.
She wasn’t in there last night, so she must have sneaked in on the early morning tide without my noticing her. and she looks pretty well loaded up too, so they must have been quick.
And the reason why they were so quick became evident when I returned from LIDL.
Normandy Trader had cleared off into the sunset and in her place we had Thora tied up there in her place.
And she had only just arrived, that’s for sure, because there were a couple of civilian-types busily scrambling up the ladder onto the quayside. And one of them was a lady of the female sex too.
Last night I wasn’t as early in bed as I was expecting and despite that, I was wide-awake yet again at 03:45.
It took ages for me to go back to sleep, but when I did, I certainly did. Although I heard the alarms go off, it wasn’t until about 07:45 that I actually came into the land of the living.
Plenty of time therefore to go off on a little voyage or two. last night I was driving a bus from Chester to Crewe. One of the people on board this bus was George Scane – and what on earth is he doing in my nocturnal rambles? I was dropping off people at places all around Crewe – dropping them off in all kinds of strange directions and strange places in some kind of strange order. Going past the end of McCorquodale’s Printers in Catherine Street in Crewe and everyone was coming out of work – hordes of them. I was surprised that it was 12:00 Saturday lunchtime knocking-off time already, for I had a doctor’s appointment at 12:00 and I had a few other things to pick up from there too. We had to hurry. I was talking to this guy about women, saying that the only women I seem to find these days are women in their 90s and there was no interest in sex. He replied that I should make the most of it while I can and while it’s still offered, allthis kind of thing. He said that he was 103 – or else it was someone else he know who was 103 but he was quite old as well. This was all quite strange. Eventually we reached the doctor’s and I had to go in to ask about what I needed.
Apart from that, I had a very difficult voyage involving my father, and I’ll spare you all the details as you are probably eating your tea right now.
And I was also involved in some football match – Wales were playing Spain and I was out there on the field. Right from the very first touch of the ball at the kick-off one of the Spanish players had to leave the field. We thought that he had broken his ankle and the bench made themselves ready with a bucket of cold water, but in fact it was his boot that had broken. This ended with our team playing the Italians. They had just three people on the field – two men and a blonde-haired boy of about three. And somehow we didn’t have the will or the courage to press home our game decisively like we should have done.
As a result of all of that I was rather late organising myself and I didn’t do anything at all. After breakfast I had a shower, put a load of clothes in the washing machine, and then headed out for LIDL.
The other day I mentioned that they were working on the city walls just around the corner from here.
They had a mini-digger with a breaker attached and it was breaking up all of the rock at the foot of the walls. Why, I’m not quite sure but if it was that well-fixed that they needed a breaker, there seemed no point in moving it.
But he was having a load of fun doing it.
At LIDL I didn’t buy anything at all special today. There was tons of stuff and had I been back on the farm I would have had loads of stuff. But not here though.
On the way back home, I was round by the port again.
It was a beautifully warm, sunny morning – really nice to be out. And I wasn’t the only one enjoying being out. A couple of trawlers were just setting out for the fishing grounds
It made actually a nice photograph
With the Normandy trader having left the harbour I went back up to the apartment and sorted out the big Nikon D5000
There was some movement out on the horizon, hidden in the mist so I took a speculative photo of it to see what it might be.
It’s actually a couple of trawlers though.
Some more movement a little closer to the shore had me taking a photo to see what it might be.
But this time I was in luck. It is indeed Normandy Trader, heading off out into the English Channel in the direction of Jersey.
It didn’t take her too long to come in, turn round and go out again. I reckon that I must have missed dozens of visits by the ships.
That wasn’t all either.
There were a few more ships out there doing something or other. One of them was La Grande Ancre and judging by the buoys out there around her, she looks as if she might have some kind of fishing net out there.
I’m not quite sure what she’ll be catching just there, but I’ve seen a couple of boats round about that spot. Perhaps it’s some sunken treasure.
Gribouille and his mum were out there too so we had a bit of a chat.
Back here, I made a start on the photos for the last few days. But I wasn’t there for long because it was pretty soon lunchtime.
After lunch I finished off the photos and now the last couple of days have their photos appended.
And then it was walk-time around the headland.
Thora has already gone back out, and that was really quick. And in the chantier navale we have a coat of heavy primer now added to the large boat that they have been preparing this last few days.
It should look really good when it’s finished.
A little further on we have a group of school children around the edge of the old, abandoned dry dock.
It’s round about the time that they have the classes découvertes where groups of children come to town and stay in the Youth Hostel, and then go round looking at the fishing industry – or, rather, what’s left of it after the collapse of the cod industry in 1992.
You can see the remains of the deep-sea fishing industry all over the place around here
And although Thora has now sailed away, we have yet another visitor in the harbour.
Not exactly a visitor but more of a permanent resident, because it’s Victor Hugo, the older of the two boats that do the Channel Islands ferry to Jersey.
Ironically, they bought a new boat to replace her, but she’s nothing like as reliable as Victor Hugo.
Back here, I spent some time with the dictaphone notes, and then attacked tea.
Main course was really easy.
There’s some of the leek and tofu pie left over from the other day so I fetched a slice out of the freezer. I bunged that in the oven along with a couple of potatoes.
Real potatoes baked in the oven, with pie, veg and gravy.
But why I had the oven on is because I’ve been baking again.
This week’s effort is an apple crumble and although it’s not turned out as well as I hoped, it’s still delicious
Apple, grated coconut, raisins, brown sugar, lemon juice, nutmeg and cinnamon. Topped with a mixture of flour, oats and vegan margarine.
On my evening walk there was no-one around so I wasn’t out for long.
Back here I had a good chat with Alison, then Sue and almost immediately after, another chat to Rosemary. I seem to be in demand right now.
So as a result, it’s later than I wanted it to be. But it’s always good to talk to friends.
