Tag Archives: tidying up

Friday 24th August 2018 – I’VE BEEN SEARCHING …

… through the fridge today looking for stuff that needs eating.

It’s something that I should have done a few days ago because there’s piles of stuff there that should have been cooked, but what with one thing and another I haven’t got round to it.

Two and a half peppers were probably the most important thing, and the garlic too. There were too many onions and potatoes. Some of them will be wasted unfortunately but I fetched some of them out.

There was also a roll of pastry and so I had an idea.

First thing was to put a load of lentils in the slow cooker for an hour. And when they were heated, to rinse them, add fresh water and a pile of potatoes – all that I could add to fill the pot.

After about an hour I fried a few of the onions with all of the garlic that was left. And while they were frying I added some cumin, turmeric, chili pepper and coriander.

Slicing up the peppers and a tomato, I added them to the wok and stirred them around. Finally I took the stuff out of the slow cooker, rinsed it all and added that to the pile.

After about 10 minutes of frying, a stock cube, a carton of soya cream and some water was added and it was all left to simmer.

home made pasty granville manche normandy franceI unrolled the pie wrap and cut it into quarters.

I added a couple of spoons of the stuff out of the wok into the quarters of pastry and made myself some pasties.

They went into a warm oven at 220°C for 40 minutes until they were done and they look absolutely delicious. They are going into the freezer tonight when they have cooled, ready for when I come back from my voyage.

As for the rest of the mixture, I ladled it all into individual containers and they will be in the freezer too for when I come back.

It’s a shame about the food that’s left but there isn’t much that I can do about this.

This morning I was asleep again until the alarm went off, and I was up fairly early too. And after the usual morning procedure, I started to sort out my clothes and to pack my suitcase.

Like I said, I don’t know what I need to take with me, so it’s a case of a lot of things just in case. The suitcase isn’t all that full though, even though Strawberry Moose takes up a lot of room. He’s coming this time too for a holiday.

He missed out in Africa.

exposition des voiliers granville manche normandy franceLater this morning I had to go into town for the fruit and so on.

There’s a kind of fair or exhibition going on at the harbour. It’s to celebrate the working sailing ships that worked out of here.

But first I had to stock up with the fruit of course and then while I was here, to buy a baguette.

house prices solicitors granville manche normandy franceOn the way back to the harbour I went past the solicitor’s office where they put in the window the details of the houses that they sell.

And they are at it again. Just look at the price of this house. Never mind being calculated to the nearest round thousand Euros, it’s calculated down to the nearest centime.

Just how tight can you be? It’s the kind of thing that leads the legal profession into disrepute, advertising prices like these.

exposition des voiliers du travail granville manche normandy franceHaving done that, I went down to the harbour to have a good look around at the marquees.

There wasn’t much going on that interested me. Lots of shops selling stuff and exhibitions of photographs that didn’t take too long to see.

There were a few stalls selling paintings too, but most of them didn’t have prices exhibited. That’s the kind of thing that really gets my goat. If they are ashamed of their prices they shouldn’t be selling them.

exposition des voiliers du travail granville manche normandy franceON the other hand, of course, it could be that, as in most of these kind of places, the price depends upon the moment and the prospective purchaser. And that’s just as bad.

But there were some people promoting an association of sailing ships. Some of them are small ones, but some are quite big and occasionally go on voyages across the Atlantic.

I shall have to make further enquiries about this, because a trip across the Atlantic on board a three-master would certainly do me good.

seagulls goelands granville manche normandy franceAt lunchtime I made my butties and went out on the wall with my book.

No lizards today though. And that’s not surprising because I was joined by a seagull which was taking her baby for a walk. The poor little thing was quite nervous and crying for much of the time, and mummy was teaching it to jump up and down on the wall.

But talking of nervous and crying, you can just about see some other people on the left-hand edge of the photo. They were Dutch and pulled up to park there. The little girl opened her door and the window hit the mirror of a van parked next door and shattered into a thousand pieces.

The poor girl was so frightened and let out a yell. It took quite a while for her to calm down.

This afternoon was spent cooking and doing some tidying and the rest will be done tomorrow. After tea – a burger and vegetables – I watched the football. Llanelli v Barry Town in the Welsh Premier League.

Llanelli scored a goal after just two minutes, and after that, Barry laid siege to the Llanelli goal. There were four or five shots that were kicked off the line.

When Barry had a player sent off it looked as if it was curtains but with the last kick of the game, Barry scored a header from a free kick.

It was a good match, but from what I’ve seen so far there’s quite a gulf between the top and the bottom of the table and these two clubs are not going to find it easy.

So tomorrow I’ll finish packing and do some tidying up ready to leave on Sunday morning.

And who knows where I’m going to end up.

exposition des voiliers du travail granville manche normandy france
exposition des voiliers du travail granville manche normandy france

exposition des voiliers du travail granville manche normandy france
exposition des voiliers du travail granville manche normandy france

exposition des voiliers du travail granville manche normandy france
exposition des voiliers du travail granville manche normandy france

Thursday 23rd August 2018 – HAVING HAD …

… a much-more realistic early night last night, no-one was more surprised than I was to find that I slept right the way through until just before the alarm went off at 06:20.

Even more surprisingly, I was out of bed before 07:00 too. I must be changing my habits here.

We had the usual morning performance and then I had breakfast. Rather later than I might otherwise have had it because I was sidetracked by not very much at all, but sidetracked nevertheless.

It was shower time too and then I would ordinarily have gone to LIDL for shopping. But seeing as I’m off on my travels on Sunday and, apart from fruit, I have enough food here until then, I decided not to bother. I can go down into town to the little supermarket tomorrow for a bit of fruit to keep me going.

Instead, there was an important task to carry out on the internet to prepare me for my voyage. I’ve had issues with this before, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, and so I can’t put it off just in case I need it. And much to my surprise, despite it being a lengthy process, it all seemed to go quite straightforwardly.

What isn’t quite straightforward are the issues with the Fortis Bank. You may remember that they asked me to send them a letter from another bank (not the Fortis) with my name and address on it. And so I did, from the bank here.

And this morning I had a mail back telling me that it needs to be from the same country that issued my identity document (passport) – something that is not mentioned at all in their correspondence.

Their letter contained the phrase “I understand how you are feeling ….” to which I replied “no you don’t, because politeness prevents me from using the words that I would like to use”.

There were about a hundred photos from the last week that needed editing, and I sat down and attended to that too. They are all done and on-line now.

Lunch was on the wall with my book and two lizards, in the clouds and wind. It was something of a depressing day today.

This afternoon I did another pile of tidying up, and then sat down and started to pack what I need for going away. It would have been much easier had I had an idea of where I might be going. In the absence of any idea I need to take all kinds of stuff with me just in case

But I’m surprised because there is a pile of stuff that seems to be missing from my travel bag and I’ve no idea where it might be. The battery charger and the mobile phone are two items that are evidently missing, and I’ve no idea about the rest.

Tea was some of the stuffing that was left over the other day and put in the two wraps that were left, along with some spicy rice. And delicious it was too.

victor hugo channel islands ferry granville manche normandy franceAnd for my walk in the wind tonight I noticed Victor Hugo.

She was off out for a trip, presumably to the Channel Islands and that is something that I don’t understand because she doesn’t usually go out as late as this. She won’t arrive in Jersey until after dark.

I tried to take a photo that would give the effect of speed, but it wasn’t easy out there with the wind buffeting the camera around like this.

While I was admiring the ship I bumped into one of my neighbours running around the walls of the town.


So tonight I’ll try for another early night. If I can keep this up until Sunday morning I’ll feel so much better.

Wednesday 22th August 2018 – JUST FOR A CHANGE …

… last night, I had a decent sleep. Right the way through until the alarm went off. And even more surprisingly I managed to haul myself out of my stinking pit on the sofa at a reasonable time.

Having dealt with the usual morning rituals, I set out the table, and when Hans hauled himself out of his bed we had breakfast, together with a little more reminiscences of the past.

Hans is due to hit the road this morning so he packed up all of his things and loaded up his motorbike. And then I led him through the town, put him on the right road and wished him a pleasant journey back to Munich.

Back here, I unwound for a while and then decided to catch up on a few things that had been building up while I’d been occupied. This involved sorting out a pile of photos and dealing with a downloading project that I’ve had on the go for a while.

This took me up to a rather late lunchtime, but there was no point in going out onto the wall because it was windy, grey and miserable outside. My lizards will have to go for yet another day without their pear leavings.

After lunch, I did some tidying up. Things have been getting out of hand just now and I need to reset the bed. Everything needed a good airing too because I haven’t had the windows open for a few days either.

And then I ended up having a chat on the internet to someone in Canada, which took up a lot of my time.

For tea tonight, I started on the leftovers. And there was plenty of them too. Vegetables and a left-over burger. Tasty it was too.

After tea I finally managed to make it outside for a walk.

jersey granville manche normandy franceAnd although it was grey and overcast, you could see for miles.

Jersey stood out clearly on the horizon. It’s a long time since I’ve seen it so clearly. I haven’t actually done anything to enhance or enlarge this photograph – it’s just as it came out of the telephoto lens so you can see what I mean.

And you could even see the lights on the hotels away down at the base of the bay at the Mont St Michel.

brittany coast franceBut highlight of the evening was seeing, away on the horizon, the coast of Brittany all the way around maybe as far as Paimpol.

I’ve never seen that before from here. After all, it has to be about 80 kms away as far as I can tell, but cropping and enhancing the photograph manages to bring it out so that we can see it.

It was so impressive. And what was even more impressive was the fact that the telephoto lens ran out of light immediately after I had taken this photo and I couldn’t take another one.

So now I’ll have an early night and settle back down. Tomorrow I need to start packing ready for my voyage next week.

I wish that I knew where I was going.

brittany coast normandy france
brittany coast normandy france

ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

Sunday 19th August 2018 – WE ARE NOT ALONE – AGAIN!

There I was, this afternoon at about 14:30, just about to stuff a pie with pie filling, when the ‘phone rang.
“I’m here”.
“Okay – see you in about 15 minutes”.

With it being a Sunday I’d tried my best to have a decent lie-in but it didn’t quite work out like that. I was awake at about 07:00 but I wasn’t going to get out of bed at that time. Even though 08:30 still wasn’t what I wanted, I couldn’t stay in bed any longer.

After the usual morning procedures, I started work. You’ll remember that I had my day off yesterday so that I could work here instead. I stripped the bed and put the guest bedding on, and then did a washing machine with the bedding that I’d taken off, and a few other bits and pieces that were lying around.

Another thing that I did was to make some pie filling. I’d had some lentils cooking in the slow cooker since breakfast, but now I fried an onion with some garlic, and then added some leets. A tin of green flageolet beans and the aforementioned cooked lentils, with tarragon, black pepper and a cube of soya cream.

That took half an hour or so to cook, and then I left it to cool. It needs to cool before it goes into the pastry, and this is where I’ve been going wrong.

It was now lunchtime so I took my butties out onto the wall with my books and lizards, and then came back to make the pie. Put the oven on to warm at 210°C, grease a pie dish, put the rolled pastry in the bottom, added the pie filling, folded the excess pastry over the top and bung it into the oven for 40 minutes. And then into town to rescue the perishing.

And that wasn’t easy either. There was the Sunday market today so the streets were heaving with people and there were diversions everywhere. That made it all complicated.

Hans and I have been friends since our first day at Grammar School in 1965. I’ve stayed at Hans’s in Munich on several occasions, and it was my turn to repay the compliment. Hans has recently bought a new motor bike – a Royal Enfield 500cc that although modern, is a design from the 1950s. He has hit the road on a two-weeks expedition and is spending a few days here.

We had a coffee and a good chat to catch up on our news.

jaguar xk140 granville manche normandy franceFollowing that, we went for a really long walk around the headland and down to the harbour and into town. It was such a nice evening.

Down on the docks was this beautiful vehicle, which I reckon is a Jaguar XK140. The XK120 had the sidelights on top of the wings, and the XK150 had a one-piece windscreen

But whatever it was, it would be coming home with me given half a chance.

The pie was delicious. With mixed vegetables and gravy I really was proud of it. I wasn’t so proud of slicing open my finger with the vegetable knife though. And don’t I bleed so easily these days?

So tomorrow we’re off for an exploration. Hans is here for a few days so I’ll take him to see some of the sights.

Thursday 16th August 2018 – YOU HAVE NO IDEA …

… how long it took me today to complete my Medical Expenses claim.

It’s quite true to say that I have let things build up and build up for the last … errr … eighteen months, but it still shouldn’t have taken as long as it did.

And it wasn’t down to a lack of sleep either because I had an early night and slept right the way through until the alarm went off, something that hasn’t happened for quite a while.

We had the usual morning performance and followed by a nice hot shower – the first for a while it has to be said – and cut my fingernails. And then I hit the streets.

First stop was the ferry office. It was closed, which should be no surprise to anyone who reads anything that I have ever written seeing that it’s midsummer and there are crowds of people about.

They did have some leaflets on display for the ferries to the Ile de Chausey but nothing for the Jersey ferries, so I wandered off to the Tourist Office. They had a leaflet but they also told me that the ferries are pretty much booked up for the next few days.

The laboratory was next. I had an e-mail from the hospital 10 days ago to say that there was a build-up of potassium in my body, to change the dose of my medication and to organise a blood test.

The people at the laboratory told me that all I need to do is to just turn up and to bring the e-mail with me, and they’ll do the test on the spot. So that’s tomorrow’s task.

LIDL was impressive today. As well as the usual stuff, they were selling hardware. They had some powerful cable crimpers and accessories, some heatsink tubing and some screw-in hooks so they found their way into the shopping bag. And had I been back in the Auvergne I would have had a lot more than just that.

On the way back I bumped into one of my neighbours and we had a chat in the street for a short while.

Back here, I needed to print out the e-mail from the hospital and that took longer than it might. The ink cartridge wasn’t seating properly and the nozzles needed cleaning and aligning.

By the time that I’d managed to print out the mail, it was lunchtime so I was off on the wall with my butties, my book and a lizard.

This afternoon I had to deal with my medical expenses claim. This involved scanning about 60 receipts, collating them, renaming then as appropriate and then logging into my insurance website and completing the on-line form. And seeing as there were only so many entries allowed on a form, it needed 5 forms in total.

What made things worse was that much of the laser printing from the earlier receipts were faded and it was very difficult for me to read the entries on some of them. I don’t know how they will manage at the Claims Office.

I missed my walk this afternoon with being involved in all of this. But seeing as we were having a torrential rainstorm at the time, it wasn’t much of a problem.

BY the time that I had finished and done a little tidying up, it was teatime. A plate of mixed steamed vegetables with vegan sausages and vegan cheese sauce.

yachts baie de mont st michel st malo granville manche normandy franceOn my walk tonight I met yet another neighbour who also goes for an evening walk. He goes the other way round so in fact we met up twice.

But the route was sodden with water following the rainstorm. Not very pleasant at all.

But at least I could admire all of the boats out there. They seem to be happy that the weather has cleared up and that they could go out to play.

rue du port granville manche normandy franceAlthough the rain had stopped, the streets were still wet.

Down in the rue du Nord the vehicles were making some very interesting tracks on the damp surface.

Even though it’s late evening, the streets were crowded with people and cars. It’s the height of the summer season so we have tourists everywhere, of course.

Anyway, it’s bedtime. And I hope that I have a decent night’s sleep yet again. I need to build up my strength as I’m going to be busy.

yachts baie de mont st michel cancale brittany granville manche normandy france
yachts baie de mont st michel cancale brittany granville manche normandy france

Wednesday 15th August 2018 – THERE’S NOT MUCH POINT …

… these days in my switching off the alarms to have a lie in.

Going to bed early, I was nevertheless wide awake, having been awoken bolt-upright at about 01:20 this morning, although I don’t know why. And it took me ages to go back to sleep.

And then I was awake again at about 06:00 and that was that. So much for any lie-in that I was planning.

After breakfast, there was some paperwork to deal with – quite a pile of that in fact – and then I tried to contact the medical laboratory to try to sort out a blood test. But despite the place being advertised as opening at 08:00, there was no reply throughout the morning.

But I soon found out the reason for that.

Liz came on line later. “I’m in Coutances. I’ve just been to do a few errands and everywhere is closed. I’ve forgotten that it’s a Bank Holiday”.

I hadn’t forgotten – I hadn’t even realised. But that explains why the laboratory is not answering its telephone.

Lunch was taken inside today. It was cloudy, windy, grey and miserable outside so I wasn’t going to brave the weather out there.

As for the work today, I’ve been unloading Caliburn. Half of the stuff that I brought here is now in the apartment. The CDs have been cleaned (because the boxes were filthy), sorted, shelves fitted in the units and the Cds stacked properly. It looks quite impressive.

Most of the books are up here too. They’ve been cleaned too – or rather, what’s left of them after the mice have had a good nibble. I suppose that the mice will be continuing to nibble the hundreds of books that I left behind. Whatever will they be like when I go back there again?

Some of the paperwork is in here too. It’s had an initial sorting, and there will be a much deeper sorting in due course.

While I was out there giving Gribouille a stroke, Bridgitte came by and we had a good chat for half an hour.

Tea was a delcious meal of baked potatoes, burger, vegetables and gravy.

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy franceAnd then I went for my evening walk.

It was a really beautiful sunset this evening. I was lucky enough to catch the sun sliding out of the clouds and disappearing down below the horizon over the Ile de Chausey.

Just the kind of spectacle for which you might pay good money, and here I am, getting it all for free.

evening sunset jersey granville manche normandy franceAnd surprisingly, there was also an exceptional view of Jersey and the Channel Islands this evening.

It’s not very often that you can see the island as clearly as this, especially in the evening, so I was particularly pleased with this.

There were lots of other things going on too, and quite a crowd out there watching it. But it isn’t half going dark early these days.

So I’ll see how I go with an early night again. I have the shops to visit tomorrow, as well as the laboratory and the shipping company offices. That will be quite a walk.

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

fishermen zodiac granville manche normandy france
fishermen zodiac granville manche normandy france

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france
sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

evening sunset jersey granville manche normandy france
evening sunset jersey granville manche normandy france

la grande ancre baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france
la grande ancre baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france

Tuesday 14th August 2018 – AFTER ALL …

… of my vicissitudes just recently, I am now back home. And quite right too. Despite liking as much as I do going off on my travels, it is, as Barry Hay once famously said, “good to be back home”.

Last night was a very bad night. I was so wound up and tense that I couldn’t go off to sleep and I certainly remember it being 04:40 and I was still wide awake.

But I must have gone to sleep at some moment because the alarm awoke me at 06:20.

Liz and Terry must have been tired too because it took a while for everyone else to begin stirring, but eventually we were all downstairs having breakfast and a cosy chat with plenty of coffee.

Terry unloaded his van and I loaded up Caliburn with the things that were coming with me, and I set off for home.

On the way back, I had a couple of stops to make. Firstly, there was some shopping to do at LeClerc. Not much, but it needs to be done.

Secondly, there was an address in the town that I had to visit.

solex moped granville manche normandy franceMany years ago I helped a Swedish friend (I can’t remember her name now but her daughter was called Pernilla) move house to a place near Limoges. And in the undergrowth were the remains of a 1960s Solex moped.

I liberated it and brought it back to the farm but I never did anything much with it. And recently I met a man in Granville who restores them.

I have no plans whatever to do anything with it and it’s no use to me, so seeing as he can do some good with it, he may as well have it. It’s good to make friends and contacts.

Back here I had a good chat with Brigitte on the car park, and then came upstairs to make my butties. And then to sit on the wall with my butties. No lizards though because someone else was sitting in my usual space and I had to go elsewhere.

Back here, my exertions of the last few days caught up with me and I ended up crashing out for a couple of hours. And on the bed too. Flat out was hardly the word and I missed my afternoon walk.

Tea tonight was a pizza seeing as I had plenty of stuff lying around that needs eating. And I managed my walk this evening too, although it’s now getting dark quite early. It was dark when I went out at 21:00.

So now I’m still pretty tired so I’ll be having an early night. Tomorrow I’ll start unloading Caliburn and arranging things in here.

Monday 13th August 2018 – YOU HAVE TO LAUGH!

A few weeks ago Hans and I were in a restaurant in Liège in Belgium surrounded by beautiful young girls who would surely have attracted our attention 10 years ago, but instead we were talking about our medication and bathroom visits.

This morning, Terry, Ingrid and I were sitting around the breakfast table discussing Old-Age Pensions.

We’re getting old, aren’t we?

Ingrid’s spare bed was quite comfortable, and I was joined during the night by one of her cats. And wasn’t the cat surprised when it discovered that it wasn’t Ingrid stroking it, but a stranger?

Once we’d organised ourselves, we headed off back to my house and began to search for objects that I needed and which I should have fetched when I was here last time. I discovered most of them, but one thing – the most important – has eluded me and I’ve no idea now where it might be.

With the piles of plastic crates that I brought with me, I started to pack up the books, CDs and DVDs that are still down there. But I did say that this was going to be emotional and I was quite right – especially when I discovered the mouse nests, complete with baby mice, in amongst all of the books.

It’s amazing just how much nature has taken over since November 2015 when I was carted off to hospital. To come back and live here, what with all of the weeds and all of the livestock, would be very difficult indeed for me.

In the end, I abandoned the project and locked up the house. I’ll have to come back and do some more when I’m feeling much more like it, whenever that might be.

We went round to say goodbye and thank you to Lisette, and also round to say hello and goodbye to Rob and Nicolette. They have always been very good to me and they were very supportive when I was here a few weeks ago.

We said goodbye to Ingrid too and I arranged with her that once my October session at the hospital is over, she might come to visit me for a while. She starts a training course in October so we’ll have to see how it fits in with her timetable.

Terry’s van is much more powerful than Caliburn but it has a low-ratio gearbox for more torque (which is just as well when you see what it usually pulls around behind it) and so it’s not so quick as Caliburn when it has a load on.

But it went really well on the way back and even though we stopped for half an hour for lunch, it took us a total of 7 hours from door to door on the motorway, and that’s impressive. Having left at 13:15, we were back at 20:15 on the dot despite having planned to be back by 21:00.

We had a quick snack when we returned, and then I went to bed for an early night. I was thoroughly exhausted and I’ve no idea how Terry must have felt.

Friday 10th August 2018 – IT’S NICE …

… to have visitors.

Not the least reason being that it encourages me to tidy up and do some cleaning in here. And so I was glad when Liz said that she was going to come round and inspect the premises.

It was something of a late night last night. 01:00 and I was still up and about. But I’d had a really good sleep, such as it was, all the way through until the alarm went off at 06:20.

Even more surprisingly I was up pretty smartly too, and that makes a change for just recently. And after the usual morning procedure and breakfast, I tidied up the place, took out all of the rubbish and did some cleaning too.

But all of this tired me out, as you might expect, and it’s no surprise to anyone that I ended up crashed out for a quick 20 minutes sometime later.

Liz came round at 10:30, had an inspection and gave the place her seal of approval, and we then had a coffee and a chat.

With it being a beautiful day, we went for a walk around the town walls and to see the photos that are on display – the ones that I posted on here a few weeks ago – featuring different places here in Normandy.

Liz doesn’t eat bread so we made a big salad for lunch, followed by the melon that I had bought the other day. Another coffee and a good chat to put the world to rights.

After Liz left, I had another little relax. And when I thought about going for my afternoon walk it was pelting down. That put paid to that idea.

Later on, I made tea. The rest of the curry that I had made yesterday along with more rice and vegetables. And a bit more melon for pudding.

The football season has restarted and so tonight we had Bala Town v Carmarthen. And although the score was 2-1 in favour of Bala, it rather flattered Carmarthen and it looks as if it’s going to be another long, hard season down in West Wales.

It was nice sitting on the sofa watching the football on the TV via the computer. Really nice and comfortable, even if it did mean that I missed my evening walk too.

In between all of this, I’ve been having to make a series of phone calls half-way across Europe, and it looks as if tomorrow afternoon I’ll be off on my travels for a few days.

It’s all go, isn’t it?

Wednesday 8th August 2018 – WORKS EVERY TIME!

Yes, last night I had an early night and settled down to watch a film on the laptop. And I managed about 5 minutes of it before I dropped off.

Not quite like when I was in Canada and had the film and laptop running all through the night, but it was near enough.

And despite not having an alarm clock set for the morning, I was still awake at 06:00. Seems that I’m never going to have a decent sleep. But no danger of me leaving my stinking pit at that time. 08:00 is much more like it, isn’t it?

After the usual morning performance I settled down to do some work and as a result totally forgot about breakfast until it was far too late.

Just for a change, I haven’t been idle today. I’ve had a huge pile of e-mails that needed to be sent off, and following that there was a lot of stuff to print out.

I seem to have run out of coloured ink so everything had to be printed in greyscale. That was an issue that took quite a while to resolve, although I don’t know why. I never seem to have too much luck with printers. And I need to order some new cartridges before I forget.

It led to a rather late lunch – although it was rather cold sitting out there on the wall now that the weather has cooled down. One of my lizards was there waiting for me too.

And all of this meant that I missed my afternoon walk. Instead I was unpacking from my little trip, sorting out my stuff, and then going through a pile of paperwork. I need to deal with all of my medical expenses.

And I …errr … closed my eyes, but for just five minutes.

Another thing was to configure my on-line banking for my account in Belgium. That took longer than it might have done too. And once I was organised, I could see a memo from them dated 10th July saying that my identity documents have expired and I need to submit new ones.

That’s something that defeats me – it’s the same passport as five years ago, with the same number and anything. And although French passports expire after five years, mine is good for all of 10 years.

And so I rang up the head office and after hanging on for half an hour, I was told that it was a branch issue. And so I need to go to my branch. When I told the guy that I had no intention of going, seeing as I live in France, he took my number and said that he would have someone from the branch phone me back.

And we’ve heard all of that before, haven’t we?

Tea was a stuffed pepper and pasta, and then i finally did manage to go for a walk. And I was the only one out there tonight, now that the weather has turned.

The alarm will be back on tonight, so I’ll have an early night. I might even watch a film – or, at least, try to. One way of making sure that I fall asleep.

Saturday 3rd August 2018 – WE ARE NOT ALONE

Yes, at 17:00 I was at the railway station waiting for the Paris train to arrive and once it was properly parked at the platform Alison alighted.

I’d been up quite early this morning, after another poor night’s sleep (it’s becoming too much of a habit). And after the usual start to the day I started to tidy up the bathroom.

A little later, I loaded up the washing machine and then headed off to the shops and yet more encounters with miserable grockles.

At LIDL I didn’t buy anything exciting, but Noz once again did the business. They were having a clearance sale of gluten-free food today, and as Alison eats gluten-free food I stocked up with it so that she would have a choice of food to eat.

It was the same old stuff in LeClerc too but with more gluten-free stuff as well so that Alison would have an even better choice of food. Nothing like a bit of variety, is there?

Back here, I hung up the washing in the window and set the fan on it to blow it dry.

la granvillaise baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy franceAnd then I made my butties and went to sit on the wall with the book and two of the lizards.

It was quite busy out there in the Baie de Mont St Michel at lunchtime.

Amongst the sailing boats out there was la Granvillaise with a good load of passengers, with Le Grande Ancre in the foregound.

yacht sailing club baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy franceThat wasn’t all either.

The local sailing club seems to be in full swing too. All of their yachts were out there this lunchtime in the Baie de Mont St Michel.

There was probably quite a lot more going on there too, but I didn’t stay out too long. The heat really was overwhelming and I was glad to retreat into my apartment afterwards.

However, I didn’t have much time to waste. I cleaned the bathroom and toilet, changed the bedding in the bedroom for the new stuff that I had bought the other day (after all, no-one wants to sleep in any bedding that has had me in it, no matter how many times it has subsequently been washed) and then vacuumed everywhere again.

Final taSk was to wash all of the floors. That took me nicely up to about 16:15, time to hit the streets. And the heat.

At the station I was early so I was able to pick up my tickets without any problems, and then Alison and I came back into town.

We visited a few shops and then stopped off at one of the bars on the harbour for a nice long, cold drink. Totally necessary in this kind of heat.

During our walk back up the hill we had a little deviation to visit the medieval walls, and then came back here for a rest and for Alison to sort herself out in the bedroom.

We weren’t particularly hungry at that stage so we went off for a walk around the headland amongst the madding crowds, because there were quite a few people around. We went a different, more energetic way too – to such an extent that I found that I had done 123% of my activity for today which is always nice.

The pies that I made the other evening went down a treat too – with potatoes, mixed vegetables and a vegan cheese sauce. Lactose and gluten-free, every drop of it.

So after putting the world to rights for a considerable amount of time, Alison went off to bed. And I settled down for the night too. I need my sleep for it’s going to be a long, hot day tomorrow.

Thursday 2nd August 2018 – NOW HERE’S …

thora granville manche normandy france… a thing.

Not so many days ago I was saying that we hadn’t seen Grima for quite some considerable time. So when I walked into town later this morning, I was surprised to see this boat moored up to the quayside.

At first glance I thought that it was Grima, albiet having had a major refit because, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, she was looking rather tired after almost 45 years of service.

thora granville manche normandy franceBut on closer examination she isn’t Grima at all but another former Shetland ferry called Thora.

She’s not quite a sister of Grima because she’s slightly larger and has a different superstructure.

But she also worked around the Shetland Islands and the last information that I have was that she was laid up as a reserve in 2011.

thora port de granville harbour manche normandy franceAnyway, here she is in all her glory. A rather blurred photograph unfortunately but it was taken rather late at night on a very slow exposure.

And I would have liked to have found out much more about her, but there was no-one around to ask.

On eof these days I’ll have to go down there when there are people around, and see if I can talk my way into having a guided tour.

It was another bad night last night. I spent most of it tossing and turning. It wasn’t until light that I started to drift off to sleep. And so I rather ignored the alarm when it went off.

With having a late start and a late breakfast, it was getting rather late to walk up to LIDL. And then Ingrid appeared on the internet so we had a really good chat for over an hour.

No chance of going shopping now so I just popped into town for a baguette, when I encountered Thora.

I don’t understand these lizards.

For my lunch I went and sat on the wall as usual. Two lizards came to keep me company, and although I dropped three pieces of pear on the floor, they spent most of the time fighting over just one of the pieces, totally ignoring the other two.

Back here I had a shower and cut my hair, and then started to tidy up. Everywhere is vacuumed and I just need to wash the bathroom and the floors, which I can do tomorrow before I go to the station.

I also did a lot more tidying up, and there’s not all that much more to do now.

Tea was one of the pies out of the freezer, and that reminded me of something. I have some gluten-free pastry here so I made a couple of green bean and mushroom pies for tea tomorrow night. No sense in wasting the pastry, is there?

channel islands ferry granville manche normandy franceIt was another beautiful evening when I went for a walk around the headland.

There were crowds of people out there tonight picnicking in the lovely weather, and while I was looking out to sea I noticed a movement right way in the distance.

And one of the advantages of having a really decent telephoto lens and image editor is that you can crop and enlarge the image to see what’s going on.

channel islands ferry granville manche normandy franceNo prizes for guessing what it is of course.

It’s the Channel Islands ferry, the old one (I’ve not seen the new one for quite a while, thinking on – maybe she’s up at Barneville) coming back from the last run of the day from St Helier.

The tide is on its way in right now so it’s the right time for the ferry to come back and moor up. And then, I imagine, she’ll be going off into the inner harbour for the night.

marite port de granville harbour manche normandy franceShe’s not the only one who’s back in port right now.

As well as Thora who is still where I saw her at lunchtime, Marité has also returned from her latest voyage and is moored up here at her quayside this evening.

She doesn’t appear on any port call list that I can find so it looks as if she has just been on a trip around the bay. But not, presumably, at five bob a head.

So now that I’m back, I’m going to have an early night. I’ve managed to go for a whole day without crashing out, and I’m going to be busy for the next few days, so I need to make sure I’m in good form.

Not quite sure how I’m going to manage that though.

Wednesday 1st August 2018 – TODAY’S TASK …

… was to start to clean up and tidy up.

And having had something like a reasonable sleep last night, I was probably feeling more like it this morning.

But first, there was a little task to perform. Last night I did a duplicate file search on a few of the directories that I had been sorting. But my file eliminator wasn’t able to handle the 3.1gb of files and stalled. And I wasn’t in the mood last night to restart it.

So this morning I set it off again. And it took a good couple of hours to work its way through the files that I had found. As a result it was a rather late breakfast this morning.

When I was eventually ready, the first job was to attack the fridge. I emptied it out and put the contents on the worktop, and then stuck the fridge in the bath for it to defrost.

While we were defrosting, I washed the fridge shelves and containers. Now they are nice and clean.

It was then the turn of the vacuum cleaner, and the living room and kitchen area had a good going-over, followed by a wash of the kitchen floor with a mixture of bleach, disinfectant and detergent.

That all took me up to lunch so it was off to the wall with my book and my butties. And my lizard too. He was there to meet me and have his pear bits.

Back here I cleaned out the fridge and then put it back where it belongs. It’s had a rearrangement of things too and all of this has made a little more room inside.

But all of this was a little too much for me and I was out like a light for an hour or so. These crashings-out seem to be getting longer and longer, don’t they?

Tea wasn’t very much because I wasn’t all that hungry. A few veg and a vegan burger in gravy. And while it was cooking I did some tidying up in the living room. Aren’t I getting all civilised?

wind farm barneville carteret manche normandy franceIt was a beautiful evening to go for a walk. You could see for miles and miles.

Right away in the distance is the wind farm out near Barneville-Carteret and you could see it quite clearly this evening, even though it’s 70-odd kilometres away by my estimation.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to see it so clearly.

baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy franceAnd that wasn’t all either.

The view across the Baie de Mont St Michel was impressive too. You could see right down past St Malo all the way down to Cap Fréhel – about 50 or 60 kms away – this evening too.

What was sad though was that there were so few people out there enjoying it. They really did all miss something splendid.

Tomorrow I shall have to do some shopping. So a shower and a walk up to LIDL is called for. I hope that I’ll be in the mood for it because I’ve been feeling the strain just recently.

But the 1st of August already. I wonder where I’ll be at the end of the month?

wind turbines barneville carteret granville manche normandy france
wind turbines barneville carteret granville manche normandy france

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

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

And for a couple of good reasons too.

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

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

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

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

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

However, I haven’t been idle at all.

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

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

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

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

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

normandy trader la grande ancre port de granville harbour manche normandy franceThere seemed to be a lot of activity in the harbour too.

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

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

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

crowds swimming pointe du roc granville manche normandy franceLater on, I went for my afternoon walk around the medieval walls.

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

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

crowds swimming granville manche normandy franceBut that was just a small sample of the people who were out there enjoying themselves in the sea.

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

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

crowds casino beach granville manche normandy franceAnd you might also remember the tiny sliver of beach that we saw on our walk the other day as the tide was almost fully in.

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

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

But I do have a cunning plan.

normandy trader roadstone gravel port de granville harbour manche normandy franceI carried on with my walk around the walls and ended up overlooking the harbour.

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

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

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

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

yacht port de granville harbour manche normandy franceLater on I went for a walk around the headland.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

channel islands ferry jersey granville manche normandy franceIt was a late lunch in the beautiful sunny summer afternoon sitting on my wall with my book and the herd of lizards.

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

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

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

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

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

crowds at diving platform beach granville manche normandy franceThat wasn’t all that was going on down there either.

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

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

gates open port de granville harbour manche normandy franceAfter spending my time admiring the crowds on the beach and in the sea I carried on with my trip around the walls.

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

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

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

baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy franceAnd then a walk around the headland in the evening sun. With a beautiful view right down towards the bottom of the Baie de Mont St Michel.

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

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

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

But not until some silly time in the morning either.