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Monday 10th July 2017 – AND AS FOR TODAY …

… this was one of the quietest days yet;

I was up and about as soon as the alarm went off, down to the magasin de presse for my baguette, and sitting on the wall at lunchtime with my butties.

Thrilling, isn’t it?

I’ve spent a lot of time doing hair washing too.

Not mine, I hasten to add, and not Randy Raquel’s either before you ask, Rhys. But it was something that I’ve been meaning to do for a couple of weeks now and each time something has come up to prevent me. This morning I was finally able to accomplish it.

For the rest of the day, I’ve been on the blog (that’s with an “L”, Rhys)

With something like a new record, I’ve done 23 pages today. My “7 pages per day” target being well-exceeded.

It’s quite interesting to read just how much I was being frustrated over the lean-to. The period that I’ve been doing covers my return from Canada in October 2011 and making a start on rebuilding the lean-to that collapsed in 2002.

I’m at the stage now, end of September 2012, where I finished it all amidst frustrations, cancelled holidays, bad weather, interruptions of all kinds. And personally, I reckon that I did pretty well.

I’d never touched a stone wall before October 2011 but by the time that the end of September 2012 came round, I’d not only completely rebuilt a stone building but I’d roofed it too – and all on my own.

How proud was I of that?

Tea tonight was something that I haven’t done in ages. I made myself a huge wok full of aubergine and kidney-bean whatsit. And it was totally delicious. Enough for another three nights too.

But when I buy my freezer later this year, I’ll be making stuff like this and then freezing it so I can rotate the diet around. That’s what I did when I lived in Expo – and it was bags of Aubergine and kidney-bean, chick pea and mushroom, lentil and green pepper.

Sometimes I’d do a potato curry, and of course I’d rotate the ingredients around too. And pies! I can do pies too, as we know. Every night would be a different meal instead of the same thing consecutively (not that I’m complaining too much, of course).

I can’t wait for a return those good old days.

But one thing that I have learnt is that the vegetable steamer is no good for cooking pasta. At least not in the 20 minutes that I allowed it. I had to finish it off in the saucepan;

That’s something else that I shall need to investigate

So tomorrow I’ll find myself in October 2012. Winter 2012 will be approaching and I have just 130 pages to go and a couple of personal tragedies to handle before it’s all brought up to date.

Sunday 9th July 2017 – GRIBOUILLE …

… is one very unhappy moggy this morning. And who can blame him?

He went out at first light for his usual early-morning constitutional, but upon his return home for breakfast, started to scratch. And scratch. And scratch. So cue the flea-powder.

Consequently when I went out for my baguette this morning, there he was sitting sulking on the path outside his home, having abandoned his perch on the windowsill in a fit of pique.

He wasn’t the only one having a fit of pique this morning either. Having made a point of having a late-ish night last night in preparation for a major lie-in for a change, I was up and about at … errr … 06:40. And it wasn’t with fleas either.

But the early start meant an early breakfast, and it also meant an early start on the blog. And with great effect too, because not only have I finished the modernisation to the modernisation, I’ve started on the modernisation to the modernisation to the modernisation.

Yes, it seems that even recently, I’ve not been keeping to the standards that I intended to set.

And the bringing up to date of the pre-July 2013 stuff is proceeding apace. I’d done three entries before I went out for my baguette and all in all today, I’ve done … errrr … 20 or so.

Including a couple of rather lengthy entries. Not as long as the marathon entry that I amended yesterday, but nevertheless, enough to keep me out of mischief for a while. I’m now well into September 2012.

I enjoyed my trip out for the baguette this morning. It gave me a chance to see who and what was about on the streets.

Such as this gorgeous Peugeot 403. You used to see these by the thousand all over the streets of France and even now there are still plenty about being used as everyday drivers.

Well over a million of these were built between 1955 and 1966, replacing my beloved Peugeot 203, and so well-made were they that they seem to have long-outlived the “Farina” 404 that replaced them.

Back here and pressing onrelentlessly with the blog, I did manage to pause for lunch.

That was taken once again up on the wall overlooking the harbour. And what a busy harbour it was too today.

Pluto had left on the morning tide and by the time that you read this she will probably be in her next port of call, which will be Whitstable in Kent.

But there were plenty of other ships floating around out there making the most of the beautiful weather. Grockles clearly out in force.

As for me, I came back in here to escape the heat and have a little … errr … relax before cracking on again.

Tonight’s pizza was the best yet. Still took too long to cook, but delicious all the same. It would be nice to have the perfect oven that does exactly what I want but I need to be realistic and admit that that is never going to happen.

And so we’ll have an early night tonight. And a good sleep too, I hope.

Saturday 8th July 2017 – WE HAVE ANOTHER …

… Ship of the Day today.

A regular feature when we are up and down the various waterways of the Northern Hemisphere, but it doesn’t happen quite so often here.

Well, at least, not as often as I would like it to.

It must have been a very high tide today because it brought into harbour the Pluto. She’s a bulk carrier of 1762 tonnes and was built as far back as 1984 – which is an impressive age for an ocean-going ship.

She’s come to Granville from Felixstowe, via London and Ramsgate.

We’re also having issues with grockles, as exclusively forecast on these pages only yesterday.

The holiday season has started and even at 09:30 this morning as I was on my way for my baguette the streets of the old town were littered with them, blocking the roads as they heave piles of suitcases out of the boot and into the little cottages that they have rented for the season.

And loads of caravanettes parkeed everywhere too. When I went for my butty on the wall overlooking the harbour, there was even one parked up on the lawn.

Still, it’s my choice to come here. I shall just have to put up with it.

Other issues have reared their ugly head too.

Photos that I’ve been taking with the Nikon have been coming out horribly over-exposed and everything that I’ve done this last few weeks has been ruined (these photos here are taken with the phone cam).

I’ve tried it with another lens, and it seems to be that my 17-105 “standard” lens has handed in its notice. At least, I think so. It’s been on its last legs for quite a while so it looks as if I shall have to replace it.

It’s something that I shall have to do quite quickly, because if the new lens doesn’t fix the issue, I’ll need a new camera body, and I’ll need it quickly. I go away in 5 weeks time.

Having had another decent sleep, I was off on my travels during the night – alone, unfortunately. I went to a motorcycle shop to discuss the kind of bike that I need – something like a 175cc “all weather” motorbike that’s good for around town but can keep up with the traffic on the motorway – when I was distracted. On the shelf in a dirty plastic bag was a single-cylinder barrel, cylinder head and very rusty piston of a DBD34 – a 500cc BSA “Gold Star” high compression racing motorcycle of the 1940s and 1950s. But “ohh no it wasn’t” said the guy in the shop – it’s off a Triumph. But Triumph haven’t made a single-cylinder bike over 350cc since Edward Turner joined them in the mid-30s and you could tell by the shape of the barrel and piston exactly what it was (and if I can do that on a nocturnal ramble then I’m clearly pleased with myself).

The alarm awoke me at 07:00 (and again at … errr … 07:15) as a cue to start the day.

It’s been another day on th blog, and another day working just three or four lengthy pages, including this page with 1200 words, which had just 170 when I left it back in August 2012. That kept me out of mischief all afternoon.

Tomorrow is a Day of Rest with no alarm, seeing as it’s Sunday. And I’ll need it too I recko, seeing as how I’ve managed to keep going all day without a little … errr … pause for reflection.

So watch me wake up at something silly like 06:30.

Friday 7th July 2017 – WHAT A NICE …

… tea!

Mashed potatoes, frozen peas and carrots done in the vegetable steamer, and a vegan burger and gravy done in the wok.

At least, it would have been nice, but 7 minutes in the steamer isn’t anything like long enough. The spuds take 15 minutes or so and when I cook frozen veg next time, I’ll cook them right from the beginning of the cycle.

Still, you live and learn.

Pudding was pear halves and blackcurrant sorbet and that all went down nicely too.

Last night’s sleep was better than the previous, but still not as good as the one from the night before. I was rather hoping that The One That Got Away would come back to continue where we left off last night, but no such luck. You can’t win a coconut every time, unfortunately, not even in the astral sphere.

After breakfast and a shower and shave (I need to look my best) Caliburn and I hit the streets. It’s Friday – shopping today. No point in doing it tomorrow – first day of the school holidays so we’ll be hemmed in with grockles.

I spent a fair bit of money today too – not an extravagent amount, but far more than usual. And I can’t think what cost all of the money. Highlight was in LDL – a set of electronic digital scales for the kitchen at €7:99. That’s not going to rock the boat.

But nothing special in NOZ and nothing special in LeClerc, and nothing at all in BUT. I can see that my plans for a mini-hifi for here are all going to come to nought, which is a shame.

Lunch again was on the wall overlooking the harbour, until the heat drove me in. And then I had an afternoon where … err … my concentration was not at its peak.

But I’ve cracked along with the blog entries, and a couple of those today were quite lengthy and involved. This one of La Roche d’Agoux was one of three that took ages to straighten out. I can see why I abandoned July and August 2012 when I was doing it last time. It wasn’t easy.

So another early night beckons. I doubt very much that The One That Got Away shall put in an appearance tonight – even though we were chatting on the internet for about an hour or so earlier this evening.

But it’s a sad state of affairs and a sad sign of the times that what goes on while I’m on a nocturnal voyage into the unknown is more exciting than what I’m up to in daylight hours anyway.

Thursday 6th July 2017 – I DIDN’T FORGET …

… to have my 17:00 melon this evening. Which was just as well, because it went down a treat. And in this heat, it was beautiful.

It was hot even when I awoke this morning, and as I was sitting doing nothing very much just after breakfast I could see the temperature on the thermometer rise and rise.

I’d had a bad night last night though. Took ages to go to sleep, and woke up in the middle of the night feeling really uncomfortable. It took ages to go back off to sleep again, but when I did, I was away with the fairies.

It was the turn of the person who has been described in this rubbish on many previous occasions as “The One That Got Away” to accompany me on my travels. And she didn’t get away last night – not ‘arf she didn’t! I was back in Crewe (heaven alone knows why!) and going to Hunter’s Lodge – along a road that bore absolutely no resemblance to the road to there, which wasn’t a problem because Hunters Lodge wasn’t anything like it is either. Anyway, there I fell in with the aforementioned and ended up commuting to work across the Channel every day.

So I was flat out when the alarm went off. And … errr … flat out when the reminder went off too. But then again, if you were in an amorous clinch with The One That Got Away during a nocturnal ramble, you wouldn’t want to wake up either.

At 09:15, I went for my little walk into town. Down the hill, down the ramp, and, something that I hadn’t yet done, a good stroll around the harbour. Lots of boats and quite a bit of activity too, and I fell in with a fisherman who told me about all of the fish that one catches here. Mind you, he wasn’t doing so well. In fact, he was doing pretty badly.

And it was around here that I fell in with one of my co-habitees. She had gone for a walk too. And so we chatted for quite a while about nothing in particular, and I went about my business.

That involved a trip to the bank. And sure enough, the payments that I wanted to check had been made, which is good news. The bad news is that my accounts from Pionsat STILL haven’t been transferred over.

This is … errr … unsettling me somewhat. When I go shopping tomorrow I shall go to see if I can find a pickaxe handle anywhere. Giving someone a message by tapping it into their thick skulls in Morse Code with a pickaxe handle usually works wonders.

Back here, thoroughly exhausted and boiling hot by 11:05. That was a nice walk.

And then I spent the rest of the day on the blog. I’ve done tons of it too, although much of my time was spent on just one particular day – another one of these ones that I briefly sketched out and then moved on.

Lunch on my little wall, a little doze in the afternoon too. I’m getting into something of a routine – and isn’t that uncomfortable?

Last of the curry for tea tonight. I shall have to be more adventurous tomorrow.

But with the shops, let’s see what’s on offer.

Wednesday 5th July 2017 – I FORGOT …

… to eat my 17:00 slice of melon!

Not having a very good time of it right now, am I? But at least I remembered to close the fridge door and to turn ff the tap. You can’t have everything I suppose.

Once more it took me a while to go off to sleep. But when I did I was really away and didn’t feel a thing. Mind you, having been tossing and turning for a while I decided to arise, and it was only 06:45.

I’d been on my travels too, but I’ll spare you the details. You are probably eating your tea right now.

After breakfast and the baguette, I cracked on with the blog. And much of the morning was spent doing another mega-page that had only received the brief treatment in July 2012. You can see now why I said that this will become more and more difficult the closer I get to the end.

And closer to the end is right. Only 182 entries to go – about 5 or 6 weeks work I reckon – before the hard stuff begins.

Lunch was as usual on the wall overlooking the habour with my butties and my book, and I was there for nearly two hours. But it suddenly warmed up and the heat drove me in to the comfort and safety of the fan, and a little … errr … repose.

But the ‘phone snapped me out of my reverie. It was Ingrid wanting a chat. And I’m all in favour of chats, especially with people like Ingrid. 45 minutes we were on the phone together, and that’s where I lay the blame for overlooking the slice of melon.

Not that I’m complaining, of course.

Tea was the third instalment of the curry, and just as nice as the other two it was as well. One more to go and then I’ll have to think of something else. That shouldn’t be difficult.

So a quiet day today – but tomorrow I have to go for a walk into town. I hope that it isn’t too hot.

Tuesday 4th July 2017 – I WONDERED …

… what the noise was that I could hear as I awoke this morning.

After a couple of minutes, having had my curiosity aroused to fever-pitch, I staggered out of bed into the bathroom to find that I had left the bathroom tap running all night. That’s going to be expensive, isn’t it? I have to pay for the water here.

That’s twice that I’ve left the tap running. And also twice that I’ve left the fridge door open. I would say that I’m slowly losing my mind, but as regular readers of this rubbish already know, that went years ago.

Early to bed last night might have been one thing – early to sleep was something else completely. But once I dropped off, I was gone for good until the alarm went off.

I was in Northampton during the night too – don’t ask me why because I reckon that in the whole of my life I haven’t been there half a dozen times. I was in charge of an urban rgeneration project which was so weird – I could grab the ground like you would grab the corners of a tablecloth, give it a shake, and the old Victorian buildings there would immediately disappear and a whole new 21st-Century brick and glass urban landscape would appear – to the horror of the local residents. Then I would shake it again, and they would disappear and the old Victorian stuff would reappear, to the horror of the Planning Committee. I did this a few times until the leader of the planners told me to stop messing about and be serious for once (as if that is ever likely to happen, really!).

Breakfast and then a shower and shave – must look my best. and then off for the baguette.

And the guy in the magasin de presse was having quite a whinge. His brother, who lives in South-West UK is coming over and has just been to collect his Euros. 25% less than what he received the last time he applied. I made a New Years Resolution about 5 or 6 years ago to keep politics out of this blog but sometimes I’m overwhelmed – overwhelmed by the total and utter stupidity of the people with whom I once – for a great many years – shared what is rapidly becoming an insignificant offshore island.

Another thing that I’ve done is bitten the bullet and bought another copy of Paint Shop Pro.

That’s been my graphics editing program for over 20 years but regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I … errr … mislaid it. I’ve hunted high and low for it for a couple of years with no luck and now that I’m here I don’t suppose that I’ll ever find it again.

Anyway, to cut a long story short … "hooray" – ed … there was a later version than mine on sale on eBay. I’d noticed a few shortcomings with the version that I had, and most of them seem to be resolved in this upgrade.

But then we had a problem – with changing bank accounts, my Paypal account is out of date. Luckily Terry was on line at that moment so he did the business for me. It’ll be nice to get back to some serious photo-editing again.

Lunch on the wall overlooking the harbour – and some people had pinched my comfy spec. I had to find another place to sit and that annoyed me. I was enjoying the company of the lizards there, just as the lizards doubtless enjoyed the crumbs that I dropped.

As for the tea, just as nice as yesterday.

The blog amending is coming along in leaps and bounds – quicker than I anticipated. Except when I run agound, that it.

Today I ran aground on a page that I had written in June 2012 about Chateau-sur-Cher. All of about 120 words in haste. and then forgot it. Today I decided that I would attack it with gusto and it’s ended up as almost 1200 words.

Still, if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly, isn’t it? I’m now in July 2012. Only a few more months to go.

Monday 3rd July 2017 – IF THE CURRY …

… that I made tonight tastes any better in 3 days time than it did tonight, it will be something worth eating!

Onions fried to perfection (I love my new wok) with garlic, mushrooms and chick peas. All fried up with cumin, coriander and paprika. Add a tin of mixed vegetables, boulhgour, peanuts and gravy browning, and there you are. Delicious! I was really impressed with that!

But apart from that, it’s been a very mixed day today. Lots of good things and a few things not so good.

We started off with a really good sleep. I remember nothing whatever until the alarm went off. Dead to the world, I was.

After breakfast, I sat down for five minutes to relax and drifted right away with the fairies for a good 45 minutes again – the first of MANY such departures during the day.

And impressive departures they were too. Not a subconscious dozing but a proper full-blooded sleep. I’m clearly sickening for something again.

But I did manage the baguette and in between the waves of sleep I cracked on with the blog. I was doing really well too until I suddenly hit “the wall”. I don’t mean the kind of physical tiredness wall thing, but a much more substantial thing than that.

Yes, I can’t think why but for some reason, I’d lost a huge stack of photos from June 2012. 37 for a summer month just didn’t seem right to me.

Luckily I have all of my external hard drives here and so after sifting through ever so many of them I did actually find the one with the back-up images. Took me ages to do it, mind you – you have no idea how many images that I have, and how many external drives that I have either – but there they were.

That took me to lunch when I went and sat on my wall overlooking the harbour. And as it was such a nice day – not too hot and not too windy – I sat out there for quite a while admiring the fishing boats coming in to unload their catch. Plenty of them too!

This afternoon I attacked the issue that I mentioned briefly yesterday. Not much hope from my insurers – “we’ll let you have our reply within 15 working days” – thanks very much – so I sent off a delaying letter to the Tax Office to give them something to think about meantime.

And then I turned my attention to my journey in August. Eat your hearts out, you British rail travellers. From Here to Eterni … errr … Brussels – 650 kms of which half is done on a new Multiple Unit and the other half on a TGV – costs me just €73:00!

Three nights in the Hotel Midi-Zuid – the one near the station where I stayed with Hannah in March. Excellent value for money and a sale on so I’m there for €150. How about that?

And then three nights in the Hotel Bon Accueil – the cathouse at the back of the bus station in the centre of Montreal near the Berri-UQAM metro station where I stayed last year. That’s setting me back €180 which, for the centre of Montreal is a steal.

I’ve declined the Comfort Inn at the end of the runway at Dorval. Much as I love the hotel and the atmosphere of standing waiting for the bus 202 at the side of the motorway, I have to be practical these days with my health.

One thing that I have decided to do however, so as to still have my fix on the bus 202 is to catch it at Ducollege metro station like I used to do, but do the entire route to see where it goes after the airport hotels.

So now I’m going to try for another early night. And if it’s as good as the last one I shan’t complain at all.

Sunday 2nd July 2017 – I MIGHT HAVE SOLVED …

… one of the issues with this oven.

And it’s so simple that I could kick myself.

You may remember now that for the last two weeks I’ve been cooking other things in the oven – a pie two weeks ago and a rice pudding last week. But the tray at the bottom hasn’t been strong enough to support the casserole dish that I’ve been using and we’ve nearly had a couple of accidents.

So if it’s not there to use as another baking shelf, then what’s it for? If in doubt, take it out!

And so I did – and in 20 minutes (instead of the usual half an hour) my pizza wasn’t just cooked but overcooked.

So you learn something new every day. The trouble that I have though is that each time that I learn something new, it pushes something old out.

So how was my night last night? I’m sure that you want to know because, for the first time that I’ve been here, I have a curtain in the bedroom and it was nice and dark.

I was asleep early enough and with no alarm I was hoping for a decent lie in too. But after a while tossing and turning in the new dark, I hauled myself out of bed to find that it was a mere 06:50. Even earlier than the alarm.

Mind you, I’d been on my travels though. I was out shopping – shopping for shoes as it happens (and this is something that I need to do before I go to Canada) and ended up at a cheap market type of place (not where I’m likely to find what I want). However I did find a pair of shoes that I liked and as I went to pay for them I noticed something else that I liked too (and I can’t remember now what it was) so I picked that up too. On my way to the cash desk I noticed a third thing – and I immediatle recognised this as the power pack for my laptop (which it isn’t, but never mind) and which was just €4:99. So I asked the girl about it to make sure and she confirmed it so I added that to the pile too. She made some kind of remark – something like “you’re certainly finding some good stuff here!” and I thought that I was too, a power pack at just €4:99.

After breakfast and a little repose for half an hour I cracked on with the blog. I’ve had a really good day and reached early June 2012 (I’ve left off May though because this needs a good clear out seeing as it’s the period when I was in Canada.

Just another 202 entrie to do now and it will be up-to-date – a far cry from the well-over 350 that there were when I restarted this. When i’s done I can continue with the updating of the earlier stuff – which is likewise proceeding apace.

I had the baguette for lunch but ate in here because it was grey and miserable outside.

This afternoon I had a … errr … little repose – the strain of being awake so early is telling on me, and then I did the last of the washing. Now it’s all up-to-date for the next fortnight and that’s fine by me. I pushed on with a little more of the blog too.

So with the pizza out of the way, it’s another early night in the dark again tonight. Tomorrow I have a lot to do. Like booking some more stuff for my trip to Canada and deaing with an item of correspondence that has reared its ugly head.

Saturday 1st July 2017 – I NOW HAVE …

… not only a washing machine but an installed washing machine and a working washing machine too.

And also a pile of clean clothes.

Terry and Liz came round this morning and Terry helped me carry it up the stairs into here. We plugged it in and connected up the water, and Robert is your father’s brother.

Last night was a better night. Still not as good as I would like but an improvement on just recently. And it must have been good too because I was away with the fairies for quite a while.

I was living in a commune type of place with loads of people whom I knew – it was round about the station approach in Sandbach somewhere. And at bedtime we all clambered into a variety of big beds – half a dozen or so to each bed. I was lucky in that in my bed everyone else was a female, including Miss Norgain, the lesbian headmistress of Crewe Girls Grammar School. This all worked fine until one of my bed mates started to become very … err … frisky. Not that I minded of course, but I did wonder what Miss Norgain would have to say about it.
Later on, I was taking the short cut into Crewe. For those of you who don’t know the approach into Crewe from the south, it’s rather tortuous around the Gresty area but there is a shortcut down an ancient bridleway that passes under the railway lines by a bridge known locally as “the mucky bridge” for reasons that are self-evident to anyone who tries to take that lane in the wet. So off I went, but instead of being the lane that I have used on many occasions, it became that mountain pass over which we have climbed or skied on many a nocturnal ramble and which regular readers of this rubbish will recall. But halfway down there my way was blocked by a huge shiny metal fence that had been erected right across the pathway. There was a house and office right by the gate and so I enquired. I had to waith in there until the other two or three customers ahead of me were dealt with and had left the room and then I enquired of the woman there to find out what was going on. She replied that they had bought all of the land and had fenced it off, as was their right now that they owned it. I explained that you can’t simply close or fence off a public footpath – a whole process needs to be undertaken and consent is rarely given, but she told me to take it up with the council. I wasn’t allowed to phone but a young girl was, so she relayed the message for me. It had been 20 years since I’d been to Crewe and things hadn’t changed there. The solicitor of Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council (with whom I had many a tangle back in the old days) was doing his best to fob off this girl with meaningless statements and so I told her to tell him that it was Mr Hall who was enquiring. And so she did. You could actually hear the conversation come to a dead stop – if you want to know the meaning of a “pregnant pause” there wouldn’t be any better way of describing it than this – and after about 10 seconds I could hear an “ohhh – Mr Hall. I remember him!” which of course, he most certainly would.

After breakfast I carried on updating the blog and then went out for my baguette. My return saw me start to arrange things around ready for the washing machine, and I’ve still no idea where I’m going to put everything.

We had the machine installed quite rapidly and then drilled holes in the granite to fit the supports for the curtain rails – Terry had remembered to bring his big drill.

As a reward I took everyone off to the bar in the square down the road for a coffee and we stayed there to chat.

The subject of lunch came up, so I nipped to the magasin de presse next door to the bar for another baguette and we came back to make a huge salad. Good job that I bought that sweetcorn yesterday, wasn’t it?

To walk off our lunch we went for a good long stroll around the city walls and then they went home. A job well done.

Standing for a while in the damp hadn’t done the washing machine too much good so I ended up dismantling it and giving it a really good clean as best as I could. And then I set it to work.

I’d been warned about the noise that it makes, which may well be worn bearings, so they reckon. But it made no noise that would cause me any concern. Mind you, I reckon that the bits of metal, screwdriver bits, coins and washers that I retrieved from the innards might be some kind of explanation for all of that.

And so what if it only works on one programme? How many do you need when you are a man?

For tea, I finished off the rest of the salad with a veggie burger and now I’m ready for anything.

Probably bed.

Friday 30th June 2017 – I DIDN’T …

… buy myself a mini hi-fi today like I promised.

I stopped at BUT to have a good look around at all of the equipment that they had on offer, but there was nothing there that really tempted me all that much. And so I went on to LeClerc where I had seen some stuff before.

But having had a really good nosy around, I came away empty-handed.

My criteria are very simple –

CD player
USD port for data sticks
AM Radio (no point in having the live British football coverage on 5 Live from Jersey if I can’t pick it up
external data input (jack or RCA socket)
headphone socket
decent volume

And could I find one?

Not on your nelly I could.

So I went back to BUT to have a closer look, but it was now lunchtime and anyone who knows anything at all about France knows about the 2-hour lunch when the whole country grinds to a halt.

I’ve had a good browse on Amazon but with about 2,000 to choose from I’m pretty bogged down in a morass and my eyes have glazed over.

Last night was the worst night that I have had for a while. I was fidgeting for ages trying to find a comfortable position where I wouldn’t itch or womething, and it kept me awake for ever.

I must have dozed off though because it was the alarm that woke me up – and then I dozed off again until the repeater went off.

In that little fifteen-minute interval I went on a travel, to visit some kind of huge exhibition hall where there were just about half a dozen small stalls dotted here and there – rather like that famous supermarket in Poprad in Czechosolvakia (now Slovakia) when I took a coach out there when I worked for Shearings Holidays.

After breakfast I went, for the frst time, to LIDL here in Granville. No different than any LIDL anywhere else in the world, and the clientèle is the same too.

BUT was next, and then NOZ where I met the same clientèle that I’d left in LIDL. I bought some more spices (mainly for the jars that they come in) and a few other bits and pieces.

And here I struck gold.

Last time that I was in there they were selling some clothes airers. I’d seem them at €9:99 (which is an excellent price anyway) a while back and the last time they were reduced by 30%. I went to find them today (hopefully I’ll have my washing machine installed tomorrow) and there was just one left – reduced to a mere €2:00.

No prizes for guessing where that might now be found.

You’re probably thinking that at that price it might not be much good and that surely I’d be better off buying stuff to last. While I don’t necessarily disagree with you, I would say

decent stuff might well last, but my medical prognosis is that I might not
With setting up a new house, I need so much stuff that I can’t afford to go out and buy everything at top quality. Buying a pile of cheap stuff just to set me off on the road means that I will have it all fairly quickly, and as it wears out or breaks down, I can replace it bit by bit

Shopping in the food part of LeClerc came next, and then we had the abortive return journey to BUT

After lunch – spent indoors because it was now raining – I crashed out for quite a while. I blame the sleepless night on that. And I cracked on with the blog too.

Tea was the final instalment of the curry and now it’s an early night.

Washing machine tomorrow, with a bit of luck.

Thursday 29th June 2017 – I’VE JUST DROPPED …

… half of my tea all over the floor.

Well, half of the curry anyway. So never mind – I have a couple of small tins of mushrooms and so one of them went into what was left and it didn’t end up too bad.

Mind you – I’m not surprised that that happened. I’ve been half-asleep all afternoon what with one thing and another.

Sleeping on the sofa might be comfortable, but it’s regrettably not as comfortable as my big new bed and while Rosemary said that she had the best sleep that she’s had for ages (so much so that she’s going to buy a new bed as soon as she returns home) I was tossing and turning for much of the night.

The alarm was programmed to go off at 06:00 and I was up and about long before then. But women take their time of course and it was 06:55 before we hit the road. Rosemary has a long way yet to go and not much time to do it either, and this wasn’t really the time to be hanging about.

I led her out to the edge of town and from there she was off on her own. I stopped to pick up a baguette and then came back for breakfast.

For most of the morning I was working on the blog. I’m into March 2012 right now, and the modernisations to the earlier modernisations are proceeding apace too. But the more that I do, the harder it’s going to become because I’ve been doing the easy stuff first.

After lunch on my wall, I went into town again. The Bank had told me that my bank cards are ready to be picked up and so I went to fetch them. I need them for shopping tomorrow.

I went to look at the Marité (she’s back) and to make a few enquiries about potential voyages. The girl at the reception desk didn’t know too much about the voyages so she referred me to the website.

One thing is for sure, though. And that is that they don’t go to anywhere exciting. I was hoping for a trip to the Roaring Forties and maybe a lap o two around Cape Horn. But I’m told that I would be lucky if I had a trip around the bay here.

Somehow it’s not the same.

One thing that did catch my eye on the quayside was a huge pile of scrap metal. All old cookers, fridges, a few engines and – an Iveco lorry that had been cut into bits.

The writing on the fridges was in English – and then I noticed that the lorry was a right-hand drive vehicle. So this pile of scrap has come in from a British possession somewhere, and I seemed to have missed the ship that brought it in.

That is, unless it was the load brought in by the Whatsit the other week and has yet to be moved.

Armed with the bank cards – and a citron sorbet fom the ice-cream shop I walked back up here for a rest – and, as I said earlier, a kind-of drift in between sleeping and waking.

And then I dropped my curry.

So a good sleep tonight (I hope) back in my bed and then shopping tomorrow. Now that I have access to my cash I’m going to buy a little hi-fi. I know that I said that I wouldn’t spend very much before I went to Canada, but I’m missing my music.

Tuesday 27th June 2017 – THIS NEW WOK …

… is absolutely superb. The genoux d’abeille as they say around here

This evening I cooked a mega curry, with onions, garlic, green peppers, chick pies, a tin of mixed vegetables and spices (and the ground coriander that I bought at the weekend added a new zip to my cooking).

And not only was the meat excellent (and there’s enough for three more days so it will become even better) the new wok handled it splendidly.

In the past, ‘ve had new saucpans and new woks and the like, and they may have started well but their performance (and the non-stick coating) has always fallen off after a while. But I have a good presntiment about this one. I’ve never had anything that seemed to be as good as thins.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that I’m almost as impressed with it as I am with my galvanised steel dustbin.

I was flat out this morning when the alarm went off and it was something of a disorganised stagger into the bathroom. But sticking my head under the cold tap restored my sanity (such as it is) and I was able to attack breakfast in a reasonable state of mind.

A trip to pick up my baguette was the highlight of my day beacuse that’s the only time that I’ve set foot off the premises. I was intending to go out and sit on the wall above the harbour to have lunch, but it started to rain at about midday – the first rain that we have had since I can’t remember when.

And apart from a crash-out at about 16:00, I’ve spent the rest of the day on the blog, ipdating it. I’m well into February 2012 right now, but I’ll shortly be running aground as there is a spell of 6 weeks at the end of April where a whole raft of work needs to be done before I can prepare anything. This might be another period to skip and to add to the waiting list, along with a few other periods that are far too complicated to handle “off the hoof”.

Just 250 pages that need to be brought up to date before the hard work begins.

But it won’t be done tomorrow as I have a mammoth cleaning session to perform. My calm, tranquil quiet life is about to undergo a major upheaval.

Monday 26th June 2017 – I SEEM TO HAVE ACQUIRED …

… a washing machine. And it’s sitting in the back of Caliburn right now.

Terry rang me up – and at 08:30 too. “Doing anything? I can’t get the dumper to start”

Actually, I wasn’t in the mood right then and there. If you had been through what I had been through during the night you would not have been either.

I had had a dreadful night, and there was a time round about 02:00 where I thought that I would never ever go to sleep. So much for the early night that I promised myself.
But I must have done at some time or other because I had a visitor during the night.

I’m not sure why Nerina came to visit me but, as this little girl who was in my room at the time remarked, she was wearing a black cloak – and there were various references to all kinds of famous fictional characters. The meeting at first was quite acrimonious but after quite some time it mellowed and in the end we finally agreed to a division of our assets. But not our physical assets – agreement was reached over that years ago – but all of the paperwork. And there we were, during the night, dividing up all of the paperwork sheet by sheet, regardless of whether the division made any logical sense for the accounts or the correspondence that were involved.

Ohhh, how I didn’t want to get out of bed, but I did, and managed some breakfast -and while I was vegetating over a hot mug of coffee the telephone went. Fetching it back, I answered it and it was Terry.

I had a few things to do – like updating a couple of entries on the blog (I am determined to do some of it every day) and having a shave and a shower – and then I hit the road to Roncey.

Terry was right – the dumper wouldn’t start. But I made it start by pouring some drops of neat petrol down the air filter. Fired up a treat but it wouldn’t run on.

So knowing that it fired up, then it can’t have been an electrical or mechanical fault – must be fuel. Plenty of fuel in it and it was going down the fuel lines into the carburettor and the float chamber was full.

Here we were interrupted.

Liz has an old washing machine that only works on one programme and which rattles about the floor of the bathroom like a jive dancer on sherbet dabs. But having had a good month at work, she’s bought herself a new super-duper mega-washing machine and it came today. We signed for it and spent an hour mauling it into the laundry room and installing it.

What a beast.

And the washing machine is awesome too.

“Right, let’s sling the old one into the trailer. I’ll run it down to the dechetterie this afternoon”
“Why?” I asked. “Has it finally handed in its chips?”
“Ohh no” said Terry. “It still works like it always did – maybe more rattly these days – but it’s no use to anyone now we have this one”.
“I can think of someone who will have a use for it” I said. “Let’s sling it in the back of Caliburn”

I know that I decided that I would only have new things here in this apartment, and a new washing machine is high on my list of things to purchase, but you’ll remember that the other day I told you that I wasn’t going to spend any more money for a while and go to have a good time in Canada instead.

So it’s the launderette for me then for the rest of the year and that’s extremely inconvenient for all kinds of reasons. So any old washing machine that will keep running for 6 months or so will be a big bonus for me. It’ll save me €50:00 down at the launderette as long as it keeps on going.

Back to the dumper, and with fuel getting into the float chamber, it was time to take off the carburettor.

The carburettor is held on by just two bolts. But if I were to tell you the performance that we went through in order to gain access to the two bolts, and then to disconnect all of the throttle and choke linkages, you wouldn’t believe me. It was like that stupid Hyundai Trajet that I did two years ago – all assembled onto a subframe on a bench and then fitted into the framework, so you can’t get at anything.

That took us to lunchtime.

After lunch with the carburettor in my sweaty little mitt I went to take out the jets – but they are fixed in – can’t be dismantled. So I had to work out where all of the air passages were and use a compressor to blow them out backwards.

Sure enough, I eventually discovered a passage that was blocked and so with a fine wire I probed the orifice and eventually cleaned it out. And then a few more blasts of air to make sure.

I checked the float to make sure that it wasn’t holed, and then reassembled the carburettor. And then, I had to stick it back on the engine – which was even more interesting than taking it off.

The good news was that with the first pull (it’s a recoil starter) of the starter it fired up correctly. And Terry and Liz (who was by now back from work) reckoned that it was running better than it had for quite a while.

Liz made a gorgeous tea and afterwards we sat around in the beautiful evening sunshine chatting about this and that.

And now I’m home. And with a washing machine too. Terry and Liz think that they might be on their travels at the weekend so they will pop by and help me bring it upstairs and install it. So this weekend I might even be able to do my own washing. And isn’t that progress?

It’s looking more like home every minute.

Sunday 25th June 2017 – WITH IT BEING …

… Sunday, that calls for a lie-in.

And quite right, too.

So having had a rather late-ish night to ensure that I would be well away with the fairies, and having lain in bed until I couldn’t possibly lie there any longer, it was all of … errr … 08:05 when I finally arose.

Some lie-in, hey?

So after breakfast I vegetated for a short while and then hit the streets. The depot de pain here is closed today and the boulangerie down at the bottom of the hill is closed for holidays, and so this meant something of a trek. And it was a nice day for it too – not too warm and not too sunny either.

First of all though, I had to find some salad dressing. In the LeClerc, it all has milk in it. The Carrefour does not, but there’s another supermarket called Coccinelle. That was open and they came up with the business. Cheap and basic, but with no milk, and I can add herbs and spices and some mustard to it. I’m sure that I can make something of it if I try.

And the guy in the shop said how much he liked my accent. While that’s a compliment, it’s no good in my scheme to passer inaperçu – “pass by unnoticed”.

I’d bought a lovely baguette or two last Sunday from the big boulangerie near the Tourist Information place and the queue outside the door showed me that I was not the only one to like their bread. So I queued.

it was the right choice too, because sitting on the wall overlooking the harbour at lunchtime, I remarked to myself just how nice this baguette was. It’s a shame that it’s such a hike down to fetch it, otherwise I would be down there every day.

As for tea tonight, it’s pizza night of course. And with the oven, while I might not have a pie to bake I went for the rice pudding option. I’ve tasted better, which is no surprise as you can’t buy dessert rice around here, but I’ve also tasted worse too. And there’s enough for another two nights.

I want to get the most that I possibly can out of this oven while it’s running.

And what’s been the plan for today then?

Not a lot, seeing as it’s Sunday. We’ve had the usual crash-out this afternoon, which is a shame, but we’ve had a really good session on the blog. Just a few more days and January 2012 will be complete. And with this new speed-editing facility that I discovered, attacking the modernisation of what I modernised when I first started the modernisation procedure has proceeded apace too.

But tomorrow I have one or two urgent things to do so I need to be on top form.

Early night, anyone?

EPIC HALL

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