Tag Archives: tidying up

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.

Following 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.

On 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.

Although 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.

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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.

And 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.

And 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

fishermen zodiac granville manche normandy france

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

evening sunset jersey 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.

Many 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.

And 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.

That 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 …

… 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.

But 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.

Anyway, 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?

It 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.

No 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.

She’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?

It 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.

And 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

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.

There 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.

Later 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.

But 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.

And 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.

I 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.

Later 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.

It 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.

After 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.

That 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

After 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.

And 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.

Saturday 21st July 2018 – FOR THE FIRST TIME …

… in several weeks I actually managed three meals today. I’m not sure why, but this evening I could have eaten a scabby horse, and then gone back for the rider.

But overall, the day wasn’t quite so impressive. As I said yesterday, I was going back to my desk in the evening to carry on working. And I did too, and I certainly didn’t expect to be still hard at it at 03:35 either It is getting just like old times again, isn’t it?

The alarms went off at 06:20 and 06:30, and I did here them too. But it was round about 07:35 when something in the street really woke me up. And that was enough for me to crawl out of bed.

A friend of mine has had some devastating news this last week and is receiving no help – in fact quite the reverse – from her husband. We’ve been chatting on and off for the last few days and she was on-line again. But at least she’s cheered herself up a bit now and things don’t look quite so gloomy.

And then another friend was on-line too and decided to tell me all about her bowel disorder just as I was sitting down to breakfast. Thanks very much!

I had a shower and a general clean-up and then headed off to the shops, negotiating the new barrier to the car park now that they seem to have that working.

LIDL came up with nothing special, but then it was off to the dechetterie to unload the European Cardboard Box Mountain. Caliburn moves around quite quicker now.

NOZ came up with, apart from the usual stuff, a new rucksack. Mine is really good quality but it’s too small and awkwardly packed. There were some big 60-litre rucksacks in there today, waterproof too, at just €19:95. It doesn’t have the useful pockets that the other one has, but it’s the size that counts and how the stuff is prportioned. The rest I can invent.

LeClerc didn’t have too much special either, although I did buy a new decent set of nail scissors. The ones that I have are about 30 years old and slowly giving up the ghost. These new ones are great.

But the media centre there came up with the goods. They were selling 32gb micro-SD cards for just €11:99 so I bought another three. And a good computer mouse too so that the really good one can go into the office and I can use the new one in the laptop on the sofa.

I was so enthralled by the micro-SD cards that I totally forgot that I’d gone in there to buy a new SD card for the big Nikon. I’ll have to do that next week.

Back here I made mu butties and then went to sit on my wall in the sun, with my book and not one, not two but three lizards now for company. I’ll have my own herd by the end of the summer won’t I?

There was a load of excitement too in the port.

The company that runs the ferries to the Ile de Chausey has two ships, one of which sometimes goes off on tours of the bay.

And with it being summer, we have one going out on a voyage while the other one is on its way itno port.

And then some tidying up. And the place does look different too now after that. I shall have to press on next week and make even more improvements.

I started some work too but, shame as it is to admit it, it wasn’t long before I was laid out on the bed fast asleep. For a good couple of hours too, and I would probably still be there now had I not had two really wicked attacks of cramp.

But when I awoke I was starving, hence the meal. Stuffed pepper with spicy rice. And it’s nice to have some proper hot food for a change.

Now, I’ll go back to working again. But not until 03:35. At least – I hope not.

Thursday 19th July 2018 – IZZY WHIZZY …

… let’s get busy.

That’s been the motto of today anyway, just for a change.

Last night however, I was pretty exhausted and so I was in bed before 22:00 just for a change. But being wary of what normally happens when I try for an early night – that I end up tossing and turning for several hours – I resorted to the old stand-by of putting the laptop close to the bed and watching a film.

Never fails, does it? Didn’t even make 10 minutes.

So I was up early and organised the medication and all of that. And I wasn’t the only one up early either as a friend was waiting on line for me. Seems that she has had some disappointing news and wanted a chat.

And so I did. That’s what friends are for.

A late breakfast was the result, followed by a later shower and then I set the washing machine a-go.

The walk up to LIDL was painful, but I have to keep on doing it. I need to push myself onwards while I can.

But I had a surprise across the road from there in the Avenue des Vendéens.

Two guys were looking at an old scooter which, at first glance from a distance, looked like one of the old Zundapp prototypes, so I went over to have a look.

It wasn’t quite as rare as that – in fact it was a Peugeot scooter from the 1950s. I’d never seen one before which, the owner told me, was hardly surprising as there can’t be more than a handful still left.

And I’d been lucky to see this one as he had only just wheeled it out of his garage for 30 seconds.

In LIDL my eye was caught by the size of these tomatoes.

Not having a tape measure handy, the best guess that I could make was that these were about 4 inches in diameter. You can get some idea of the size by comparing them to the “normal” tomatoes to the right.

I was going to say that I’d spent nothing today in there. But that’s not really true. But if you compare today with what I’ve been spending this week, it is pretty minimal, But all the same …

First thing that I needed was some coffee. I’d run out of the ground stuff, as I said earlier, so I bought a couple of packets to see what it’s like. Had I known that supplies were so low, I would have stocked up on the coffee that I liked when I was in Belgium. It’s not sold in France.

Another thing is that with having guests arriving, I need some spare sheets. No-one wants to sleep in a sheet after I’ve been sleeping in it – washed or not – and I’d bought a new one at IKEA. But today at LIDL they had some blue ones (my bedroom is blue) on special offer so I added one of those to the guest bag.

It seemed to be my lucky day with old motorbikes too. On the way back, I came across an old guy cleaning a Solex – you know, the typical French moped of the 40s and 50s with the engine underneath the handlebars.

This one was a later one from the late 60s with a pressed-steel frame and so I got to talk to him about it. Regular readers of this rubbish in one of its long-gone guises will recall that I unearthed the remains of one of these in a field of brambles when I was doing a furniture removal back in 2002.

It seems that the guy collects bits and makes complete machines up out of the piles. So seeing as the Solex is doing nothing down on the farm and it’s not something that I’m likely to miss, I’ll bring it back whenever I’m next down there and donate it to the cause.

It pays to keep in with the locals.

We were having some more activity in the Bay as well.

Marité was out there having a little sail around the Baie de Mont St Michel, and she was in company with La Granvillaise.

One of these days I’ll have to take myself out and about on one of them, if they decide one day to go somewhere exciting. Quebec would be nice.

Back here I opened the window in the bedroom, put the clothes dryer thing in the window and hung up the washing. But this isn’t going to be easy with the new chest of drawers in the way. I need to have a think about this.

Liz was on line too and so we had a little chat. Strawberry Moose has his holidays to plan.

After lunch I tidied up Caliburn and got him looking much more like it. A pile of stuff went into the bin from there.

With that out of the way then I attacked the European Cardboard Box Mountain. And it’s now all gone down into the back of Caliburn. It’s amazing how uncomplicated it becomes when you have a ratchet strap handy.

But it was tiring work and I had to sit down halfway through and have a little … err … relax.

And if that wasn’t enough, I attacked the bedroom and did some tidying up in there too. And that looks much better, although there’s still tons to do. But it really is nice to be finally able to sit comfortably on a comfortable chair and do some work in a proper office environment.

The walk around the headland about finished me off, so now I’m going to bed. I deserve it too.

Tomorrow I need to make some more hummus seeing as I’ve run out of that kind of stuff for my butties and I don’t really want to attack the cheese as yet.

Mind you, with what I’ve done today I’ll probably be asleep for a week.

Wednesday 18th July 2018 – I’M WHACKED!

And it’s no surprise either. The last three pieces of furniture came up from Caliburn today, they are assembled, partly filled and now in place.

And what was funny was that when I was at IKEA and loading Caliburn with the two large cabinets, I couldn’t manage it and needed some help. But yet this morning I could pick one of them up with one hand and run up the stairs with it.

The big chest of drawers, well that was a different matter. That needed two trips as I expected. And at about 19:00 at the end of the day when I had to bring up the other large cabinet, it was something of a stagger.

Anyway, now they are all assembled and in position. The bedroom now actually looks like a bedroom-cum-office as it’s supposed to do. And not only that, I’ve even started to tidy up Caliburn.

Caliburn needs a good tidying out too because there needs to be room for the European Cardboard Box Mountain which is now totally out of control. All of that needs taking down and loading into Caliburn so that I can take it to the dechetterie when I’m out and about on my travels on Saturday.

And then I need to start to tidy up in here.

The problem with this illness is that I’m like a lithium battery in that I can work and work, and then just suddenly I hit the wall and all of my energy completely disappears and I’m fit for nothing. So there are paperwork, tools and everything around here and I’m too tired to put them away.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

I did go to bed and some kind of early-ish night. But I lay awake for hours tossing and turning anf trying to make myself comfortable.

And when I finally did go off to sleep I was awoken at 05:45 by the lorry emptying the bins.

So all in all I didn’t have much sleep.

To treat myself I made a nice fresh load of muesli and had a nice breakfast, and then there were a few things to be done.

Once I’d organised that, I started to attack the furniture. That took a while, especially as I was interrupted on a couple of occasions.

Remember me saying yesterday that I needed to telephone Belgium? Well, they telephoned me. And what I reckoned might have been a really complicated procedure was resolved in three minutes flat, entirely to my satisfaction, for which I’m extremely grateful.

I first dealt with this company back in – I think – 2001 and despite all of the issues that have arisen, they have never yet let me down or disappointed me. So Chapeau to them.

Lunch was very late, and one of the lizards came for a chat which was nice. He seems to be quite tame right now.

But yet again I’ve gone without tea. It must be doing me some good – I’m not forcing myself to eat as I have a few kilos to lose, but I’ll be intrigued to see what my weight will be right now.

Instead, I went for my evening walk around the headland.

The tide was quite far out and so we could see the marker light for entry to the harbour. We saw it the other day when the tide was right in, with just the red bands out of the water.

The Ile de Chausey ferries here will give you some idea of how high the red bands are, and this how high the tide is when it comes right in.

And even more interestingly, there was some kind of activity going on at the foot of the new harbour gates.

I’m not quite sure exactly what they are doing in those red boats but they seemed to be quite interested in something that was happening there.

And you can also see here too just how high the tide will rise here on the harbour wall.

But I can’t wait for that. I’ve not crashed out yet, much to my surprise but I’m going to have an early night. It’s LIDL tomorrow and then I have to start the tidying up.

My favourite occupation, I don’t think.

trawler ferry ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

EPIC HALL

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