Tag Archives: baguette

Friday 16th March 2018 – AND SO, AFTER …

… all of my exertions, I was awake quite early this morning.

And although last night was still a tossy-turny affair, it wasn’t as bad as the previous one. And I was on my travels too – heading for home on the bus (the n°11 as it happened) from stoke on Trent, so work that one out. And I was going home to “sort out” a few things and a few people over my taxi business. There had been some considerable discussion about how inconvenient the buses were, but i’d insisted that they were more convenient than people think. As the bus turned from Ruskin Road into Gainsborough Road (good, these buses, aren’t they?) I saw TOTGA standing on the corner. I made a gesture indicating that I wanted her to follow on down, but she gave a blank look. Suddenly, it turned into a flash of recognition. The bus stopped right outside my front door (I’d explained to the driver where I had lived but he knew anyway) and the whole house was in darkness. That was weird for 19:30 on a Wednesday evening when we had the taxis and I’d certainly have words about this. But even with dropping me off at my front door I had a long walk home and it was a weary, tiring trudge, what with my illness, all down along Coppenhall Land towards The Playing Fields I was on the track through the woods and there hanging in the trees was a towel that looked very much like my old blue one, and as I followed the path I had to cross onto the road but someone had planted a hedge in the way and I had to climb over it. It took me two attempts too. But I was so tired and weary that I realised that I couldn’t go on and my business would have to go.

after the usual morning performance, I had a little … errr … relax on the armchair. I’m really not doing this, am I?

And it took me quite a while to come round as well. I must have been out. In fact it took me until about 11:00 before I was in any kind of state to leave the room.

Halfway down the road I realised that I had forgotten my prescriptions – so that meant that I would have to come out again this afternoon.

liptons iced tea ladeuzeplein leuven belgium mars march 2018My perambulations took me down and across the Ladeuzeplein, where my progress was arrested by these goings-on.

I’m not sure what it was that they were trying to do – except building a wall to presumably keep out illegal Mexicans, but they are using piles of crates that belong to that well-known manufacturer of iced tea, all of which had been brought to the Square by a large fleet of lorries.

So shrugging my shoulders, I continued on my way.

First stop was at Kruidvat, for a pile of gelatine-free sweets, and then to Wibra. I’d seen some good microwave steamers last time that I was here. Not very substantial and probably won’t last all that long. But that’s not going to be much of an issue because I probably won’t either.

But star of the show was in the FNAC. As you know, I’ve been having mobile phone issues since December and I ended up with a cheap Chinese import. And cheap was the appropriate word too. It does work but it was only ever going to be a stop-gap until I could find something better.

And so when they had some Samsung J3s on sale for a price less than I could have had one with a renewed contract, and when I negotiated another €20 off it too, I’ve now ended up with that. and the exciting thing about it is that with me having saved my settings on the old Samsung phone, this new phone simply downloaded everything as soon as I logged in, and it’s just like my old phone now.

Back here with a baguette and a tomato and some vegan cheese, I made myself some lunch. And then back out again.

And I was halfway down the road when I realised that I had forgotten my prescription yet again. I did a little wander around though, bought a tin of spicy beans from Delhaize for tea and then came back here.

Rounding up the prescription, I went back out and rounded up the medicaments.

Tea was baked spuds and spicy beans, and then I went for a little walk. And the temperature which had really been so nice today, had now plummeted. Snow is forecasted, but I might miss it.

Now it’s an early night. I have a train to catch back home in the morning.

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Tuesday 13th March 2018 – SHAME AS IT IS TO ADMIT IT …

… I couldn’t even last out the morning today.

And it’s not as if I’d had a late night or anything, and it’s not as if I’d been on an enormous voyage during the night either. Just into one of the rooms on this 3D site that I mentioned just recently.

But I had the medication and the breakfast etc, and a shower, shave and even a haircut today to get ready to go. And then I sat down with a mug of coffee.

Next thing that I remember was that it was 10:30 – I’d been well and truly out for a good 90 minutes. And in the morning too. This is certainly not like me. I could understand it a little if I had been out already to the railway station, but not at all.

You’ve no idea just how much this is dismaying me.

But anyway, in the bright sunlight (because it really was nice) I headed uptown to the railway station and picked up my tickets without a hitch. Mind you, there will be a hitch coming home on Saturday because works on the line are forecast. That’s not nice.

On the way back I called at that good boulangerie to pick up a couple of those tasty baguettes. One was for lunch today but the other one is for my butties for the road tomorrow. And nice the bread is too.

After lunch I hd a few things to do on the internet and to download a couple of things onto the laptop that I take with me on my travels. And then a bit (just a little bit) of packing ready for tomorrow.

And the usual session on the bass guitar – and trying to work out the bass line from “Wind Up” off the Aqualung album by Jethro Tull – one of the albums that has to be in the top 10 of anyone’s list. Everyone immediately thinks of the title track to that album, and good as it might be, in my opinion “Locomotive Breath” and “Wind Up” have to be two of the best rock tracks of all time. And I’m determined to work out the bass lines to both of them, even if Jeffrey Hammond is a hard act to follow.

Tea tonight was the rest of the home-made stuffing with a tin of kidney beans all filled into a couple of tortilla wraps with spicy rice. And delicious they were too of course. And then we had the walk in the beautiful evening. It really was nice outside considering the time of the year.

And so an early night tonight. I have to be on my way quite early – something like 07:45 – as my train is timed for 08:34.

I am not going to enjoy this one little bit.

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Tuesday 16th January 2018 – I HAVE MET THE WEIRDEST …

… mobile phone “repairer” the world has ever seen.

And it wasn’t easy either.

The bad night hadn’t helped much though. I was asleep quite quickly but awoke halfway through and counldn’t go back to sleep for ages. When I finally did, the alarm didn’t have the desired effect and it took me a good half-hour to haul myself out of bed.

Medication followed by breakfast, a shower, change of clothes and a good clean-up, and then I was ready for the town.

containers port de granville harbour manche normandy franceThe howling gale and driving rain was enough to dampen anyone’s ardour, and might have done mine too, except that I was distracted.

We seem to have acquired overnight a crane and a pile of containers down at the port. What does this mean?

We had all of this dredging just before Christmas to deepen the harbour, so are we going to have a small container ship coming in? Or is there something else happening about which I know nothing.

police barrage taking down christmas decorations granville manche normandy franceThat wasn’t the only excitement either.

The farces of law and order were out there blocking off the street while a cherry-picker went down there taking down all of the Christmas decorations now that the festive season is over.

No diversions signposted of course. The police were just waving away passing motorists who then had to find their own way around.

I found my way to the mobile phone repairer’s only to find, as regular readers of this rubbish will be expecting, a sign “open at 14:00”. It’s certainly not going to be, is it?

So I decamped to the Library for a duplicate card, only to find that that was closed too, with all of the people inside staring at me as if I had come from another planet.

ile de chausey mont st michel granville manche normandy franceI gave it up as a bad job and, picking up another baguette to freeze, came back home.

But as I climbed slowly and wearily back up the hill, I was once again distracted by activity in the harbour. The boat that does the pleasure trips out to the Ile de Chausey and round the Baie de Mont St Michel had just returned from somewhere.

And it doesn’t half make a racket as well. It nearly knocked me off my feet.

bad parking granville manche normandy franceAnd we can’t conclude our morning’s walk without once more discussing parking.

Here are some more fines example of total and utter selfishness. The little Nissan was there last night straddling two parking places, so this morning there’s a car parked in front of it likewise straddling two spaces, and a car behind it straddling a disabled parking bay.

It’s hard to imagine anything more selfish than this and it really annoys me.

Back here, I crashed out for half an hour. Gone with the wind, you might say. Yes, I’ve still not recovered from my illness.

For lunch I finished off the soup and then repaired the saucepan lid. I had to cut down a screw that was in the package that I had bought, but now the lid looks really good with the black plastic remains of the old handle carefully equalled off and a chrome drawer handle to match the chrome decoration.

I suppose that I should have taken a photo of it because it looked so good – but I can do that tomorrow.

After all of that it was back through the wind and rain again to the mobile phone place where I had my bizarre encounter.

He was actually open, and there too. But he may well not have been, for all the good that he was doing.

The lady in the queue in front of me wanted her charging port on her tablet repairing. “But it’s not worth the expense. You’ll be better off buying another”.
“But all of my data is on it”
Well, you’ll still be better off with a new one, sorry”.
I mean – what kind of talk is that?

Then it was my turn. And it wasn’t any better.
“It might be your screen. That will cost about €100 and if it isn’t I’ll have to ty a few other things, so you will have wasted your €100 then. And then even if I do get it to work it will have cost you a lot of money, and I won’t be able to guarantee the repair”.

So what kind of “repairer” is this? Turning away work because he doesn’t want to (or, more likely, isn’t able to) do it?

And intending to charge me for supplying and fitting a new screen even if that isn’t the fault? It’s all total nonsense. I’ll wait until I go to Belgium and have some back-street repairer in Brussels have a look at it.

While I was there, I sorted out my library card (the library is just across the road) and then staggered back home once again where I took it really easy for the rest of the afternoon. Climbing up the hill twice in one day is not good for me right now.

Tea was superb. Rice with fresh carrots and frozen peas, with a green pepper stuffed with bulghour, tomato, onion, garlic, curry powder and tarragon in olive oil and cooked in the microwave. All covered in gravy.

That was just soooooo nice – a real culinary delight.

Just a little walk tonight – the howling wind and rain would be enough to put everyone off.

So I’m off to bed. I’m hoping for a better night tonight, and a better day tomorrow. I shan’t be doing very much, except recovering from my efforts today and cursing this incompetent “repairer”.

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Monday 15th January 2018 – IT GOES …

… without saying that this morning didn’t go according to plan, doesn’t it?

In fact, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, I’m continually being confounded by issues not of my own making and I have to go to extraordinary lengths to circumvent them.

Just for a change, I was awake before the alarm went off, but that’s not quite the same as saying that I was ready to leave the bed. In fact it was something of a struggle to haul myself out of my stinking pit.

Fist thing though was the urine sample. Despite a thorough search this last few days I’ve not found the report from Leuven so I had to go through the procedure here. That’s what I call “taking the P155”. Then I could have my medication and once that worked, I could have my breakfast.

There was a form to fill in to take to the laboratory and that involved some tracking down of stuff too. But once I’d done that I could set off. Into the howling gale and driving rainstorm. After the couple of nice days that we have had, it goes without saying that as I’m out and about on foot we are going to have this kind of weather, doesn’t it?

First stop was the Mobile phone repairer. Having been told that he was back today I made this my first port of call. But as I really ought to have expected, it’s Monday today and many places are closed in France on a Monday – the mobile phone repairer included.

Next stop was the mairie. The doctor who is doing my medical examination told me that I could find some forms here. But according to the mairie, not any more. The forms are available to download on line.

But at least this means that I need to take some decisive action to resolve the cable issues that I’m having with my printer. The tag that holds the plug in place has broken off so the plug won’t stay connected. I shall have to invent a means of locking it in position, or even making a direct connection.

But it’s just typical of Hewlett Knackered. They can’t use standard infinity plugs like anyone else – they have to go for something really fancy and complicated that breaks under the slightest pressure and renders the machine unusable (unless you have a devious mind of course).

Hiking up to the laboratory (which is just on the station roundabout) I was running out of steam – I clearly haven’t recovered from my health. And the bad news is that the lack of this urine sample means that I’ve had to pay €6:80. no wonder I’m spending a fortune with being so unprepared.

On the way back I picked up a baguette and then staggered back up the hill to here – thoroughly exhausted and thoroughly soaked to the skin – to such an extent that I had to change my trousers.

And just for a change, I had a coffee. First one (apart from some warm brown liquid at the football the other week) since I’ve been back from Leuven. And it tasted awful.

Soup with pasta and bulghour for lunch again, with some of the fresh bread (the rest went into the freezer) and then I had a relaxing afternoon not doing very much, although I did have a good session on the bass guitar. To my surprise, some of the stuff that we used to play 40-odd years ago came back into my mind.

For tea tonight, I made a huge curry – the first one for a while. Mushrooms, peppers and because it didn’t make as much as I was hoping, a tin of sweet corn. One helping tonight and four more for the freezer.

My evening walk was a disappointment. Pouring with rain still and a howling gale. So I just did a short lap around the streets and came home. No sense in risking another attack of Bronchitis.

Anyway, tomorrow I’m off down to town again to see if this mobile phone repairer is finally going to make it back to his shop. He better had be because it’s getting my goat.

And the music?

For most of the day we’ve had Jethro Tull going round. If I really had to choose one group to be my favourite, it would have to be Jethro Tull. It takes me back to my school days and Benefit, Stand Up, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play – the latter two albums being so good that it took the critics 30 years to realise it.

Those five albums, and many others that they released subsequently, have been on my playlist for getting on for 50 years and won’t ever lose their place. Other bands and artists may come and go but Jethro Tull will always be there

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Thursday 21st December 2017 – I’VE FINALLY BITTEN …

… the bullet and I’ve arranged a doctor’s appointment for tomorrow morning.

After last night, I was feeling rather better this morning. But to tell you how bad things really are, it took almost 2.5 hours of film on the laptop before I managed to fall asleep. I’m clearly not well, am I?

I’d been on my travels too – down Coleridge Way in Crewe. And when I say “down”, I mean about 30 feet down because it was all under water. A couple of trips down there at various epochs, comparing the cars that were parked there – like “N” reg Marinas, that kind of thing.

No alarm, but I was still awake quite early. Not that this meant that I left the bed early of course. More like 08:30 in fact.

It took me ages to summon up the force to leave the sofa for my medication, and it goes without saying that I declined breakfast. I was back on the sofa again.

For lunch, I made a litre of packet soup and managed to drink a couple of mugs. But that’s left a horrible, metallic taste in my mouth that I can’t shift.

There was still the question of picking up my medication so round about 15:00 I crawled into town. A baguette from the bouangerie (to go in the freezer with the other one) and some little bits and pieces from the Coccinelle. And then the medication.

The walk back up here was a nightmare. I fet weak and dizzy and had to sop every couple of hundred yards. Definitely the worst trip that I’ve ever made back here. That was what made up my mind to see the doctor.
“Is it an emergency?” asked the receptionist
I explained the circumstances.
“I can’t fit you in before 10:15 tomorrow” she said.
Imagine that in the UK?

And then I crashed out on the sofa.

Rosemary rang later and we had a little chat. Only a little one, because I’m not feeling so well right now. But by 18:00 I had succumbed, and went to fect the pillow and quilt.

I managed to force down some dry biscuits later, but without any real enjoyment. And now I’m going back to bed.

I wonder what the doctor will have to say tomorrow.

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Tuesday 19th December 2017 – TODAY HAS BEEN …

… just about the worst day of my illness so far.

I’d managed something of a reasonable sleep too, and even been on my travels again. I was back in an office where I had worked at one time and I suddenly realised that I was now over retirement age and still working – and no-one had said anything. I therefore decided to hand in my notice, to take effect in 6 weeks time at the end of May. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that this is something of a recurring theme in my nocturnal rambles.

The alarms went off at the usual time but it was … errr … somewhat later that I crawled out of my stinking pit. I managed to take my medicaments but didn’t have breakfast. And if I’m off my food, you’ll know that things are serious.

Later in the morning I had a phone call. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that a few weeks ago the Bank Manager had told me that there was a form that needed signing. And so he phoned me to arrange an appointment.

I need to go to the Bank about my missing cards, and I also need to go to the pharmacie for some more medication. So I struggled into the bathroom and plucked up the courage to have a shower. And I felt a little better after that. But only a little.

And so I braved the outdoors. At least it was a bright, sunny day even if it was cold and I made it to the bank. And to the boulangerie, and to the pharmacie. And I have to go out tomorrow too becausehe didn’t have all of my medication and needed to order some.

Back here, I had a hot blackcurrant and lemon drink, and then I was stark out on the sofa until … errr … 20:00.

However, I had awoken at some point, and even managed to eat one of the sandwiches left over from yetserday. And later, I had a packet of crisps and some peanuts.

So things might slowly be improving. Mind you, we mustn’t count our chickens and, to be honest, they couldn’t be much worse.

I’m off to bed, and I hope that I can sleep, and I hope that tomorrow will be better.

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Tuesday 12th December 2017 – WHAT A DAY!

I’ve walked into town three times today. No wonder that I’m exhausted.

Mind you, the up side to this is that I managed my 100% daily exercise total without any difficulty at all and as I sit here on the sofa I’m at 110% – and that’s without going for a walk this evening either.

Last night was an early night and I slept right through to the alarm which was very nice. And I didn’t beat the second alarm out of bed either which was rather depressing.

And just for a change I remembered to eat breakfast. And I followed that by a shower and also SHOCK! HORROR! a lap of the washing machine with the pile of clothes that has built up over the last couple of weeks.

Once that was organised I hit the streets and headed for the office of my mobile phone supplier. And there, I was asked if I had my passport with me.

So, back to the apartment and the passport. You would have thought that after all of this time living here in France (2006 on a permanent basis and a considerable number of years previously as a temporary resident) I would have remembered that you can’t go anywhere or do anything without “vos papiers“.

Back at the mobile phone supplier, and a long wait to be served. But eventually I was issued with a new SIM card that I could fit into th old phone that I bought in 2014.

Following on that, I went to the POlice Station. I’d remembered to find the identity papers of the telephone that was “lost” and now that I have my phone back up and working, I could give them a contact number.

As I returned back here, the fire brigade were working on the building across the car park. I told you yetserday that the hurricane had loosened all of the zinc guttering and shuttering on the roof. They were busy making it all safe.

After lunch I hung up the washing over the radiator in the other end of the room and started to assemble a few things that I need to take with me tomorrow. I had to configure the phone too but the down side of this phone is that there’s not enough memory to run the Apps that I need to run. No idea how I can work around this. If only I could download them to un off tSD card that is in there.

But I did notice that the telephone wasn’t connecting to the network. It was recognising everyhing as was working from the WIFI modem, but not making a connection.

And so back into town again.

The girl had a fiddle around and despite her saying that it must be my phone, my SIM card didn’t work on her phone either and she did something on the computer there. Maybe they forgot to reconnect the line or something.

Picling up a baguette from the posh bakers to make my butties for the journey tomorrow, I returned home. I’ve done enough for today. A relax, and tea was out of a tin.

Instead of going for a walk I did a little tidying and cleaning. And now I’m having an early night. I have a train to catch tomorrow of course.

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Friday 20th October 2017 – I’VE BEEN FEELING …

… a little better today.

I managed to leave my bed a little earlier than yesterday and although I was off on my travels during the night, I can’t now remember where it was that I went.

And after breakfast and going for my baguette I did … errrr … precisely nothing all day.

It was a nice day today and so I made up my mind to go for a walk later in the day. However the weather changed dramatically and we ended up with a rainstorm and high winds. That put paid to any plans that I might have had.

And despite the … errr … earlier start, I still couldn’t go to bed early. It’s going to be another bad night I reckon. But despite the long day, I managed to go right the way through it without taking a little pause at some time during the day so I suppose that that is progress.

I hope that I feel better tomorrow.

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Thursday 19th October 2017 – ONE DAY …

.. I’ll settle back down into my normal routine. But it won’t be soon, I reckon, because I’ve had another miserable day.

It didn’t help that I had another late night last night, despite my efforts to go to be at some time that might be considered more reasonable. And although I missed out on being out of bed by the time that the second alarm went off, it was something much more approaching it than it has been just recently.

And I’d been on my travels too – wandering around some huge industrial or chemical plant near Chicago. And as for the apparel that I was wearing, the least said about that the better.

After breakfast I went for a shower, a shave, a change of clothes and a general tidy-up. And for the first tie this winter, I had the little halogen heater going in the bathroom. It won’t be long, I reckon, before I have the heating on in the apartment.

In fact, after I’d been out for my baguette this morning, I left my fleece on. THat’s a sign of approaching winter. I shall have to look out for a jumper or a pullover or something when I’m on my travels around.

Going out for my baguette was the only time that I went out today. Round by lunchtime the weather deteriorated and we had a rainstorm for the rest of the day. At times it was quite heavy too.

But maybe I ought to mention that while I was out I bumped into my neighbour who was chatting to a lady in the street. I was introduced to her, which was very pleasant, becauseit’s nice to meet new people now that I’m living in a new place.

This afternoon I had a little repose, which is definitely becoming a habit these days unfortunately. And that’s really the highlight of the day.

And if you have ever heard of the phrase “too tired to sleep” that was what it was like later. It was quite late (or early next morning, which is more appropriate) before I could find the strength to pull muself ut of my sofa and into my stinking pit.

Let’s hope for a better day tomorrow.

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Wednesday 18th October 2017 – I’VE HAD A …

… bad day today.

As you know, I have them occasionally. And with all that I’ve been doing just recently together with the jet-lag, it’s hardly surprisng. The late night didn’t help matters at all either.

But I did manage to get away during the night, although I’m not quite sure of where I was. It was, I reckon, back at a place where I used to work in Stoke on Trent many years ago. My name had been romantically linked with a young girl, the daughter of one of the women who worked there. While there was no truth in the rumour, I was in no rush to deny it because it was quite flattering. She was quite an attractive girl and I liked her dry, matter-of-fact sense of humour.

That took me nicely up to the alarm at 06:00. But as for the alarm at 06:15, I’ve no idea what happened to that because I certainly didn’t hear it. I was lying there in bed, trying desperately not to fall back asleep, and trying hard to haul myself out of bed.

I reckoned that it was about 07:00 when I set my feet on the ground, but I was surprised by the fact that it was light outside. That was easily explained because it was in fact … errr … 09:40 and that might well account for it.

And I had been on my travels too during that period. I was back in that group of people with whom I was hanging around when I first moved to Brussels. They were all planning to go off on holiday but someone had dropped out at the last moment so there was a spare seat. I decided that I would like to go on the holiday (which I found out was to Malta) and gave all my details. But by now it was Friday evening, we were departing the next afternoon and yet the people in charge of this trip hadn’t given my details to the travel agent. “We’ll do it in the morning” they replied, but I reckoned that this was cutting in extremely fine.

After a rather late breakfast I didn’t feel up to much and so I missed my baguette. I had a little snooze too. But I gathered my wits about me by 14:00 to go into town for a walk and buy a baguette. I picked up some olives and some salad dressing stuff too.

It was therefore a rather late lunch, and by the time that I had nad another little doze, that was the day effectively gone. Luckily tea didn’t take too much effort.

And so I’ll be in bed pretty soon. And I hope that I’ll feel better tomorrow.

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Tuesday 17th October 2017 – REGULAR READERS OF THIS RUBBISH …

… will recall that I’ve been having certain issues about music and entertainment here in my little apartment. But today I’ve made a great deal of progress which has gone a long way towards dealing with the issue on a temporary basis.

And as we know, there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.

You may recall that a couple of years ago I bought an “old, new laptop”. They were on sale at give-away prices because although they were new and in working order, they had various defects and were sold “as seen”.

I have one of these data readers for modern vehicles that you plug into the vehicle’s data port to read off the fault codes. It works with a CD-ROM, which I didn’t have on my notebook (it uses an external DVD reader that runs off the mains) and that’s no good for out in the yard, and so a laptop with a working DVD reader was an essential.

The rest of the laptop wasn’t important, so when I ended up with one in which the mouse didn’t work, I wasn’t all that bothered. But then, of course, my plans all changed.

Many years ago, when I lived in Belgium, I rigged up an office with an in-house entertainment system that had a really good speaker system – a huge deep-bass speaker with a couple of all-round stereo treble speakers. And the sound was excellent.

And so today, I rigged up the “old, new laptop” with the speaker system, and it works a treat. I can play all of the music, whether CD or *.mp3, and DVDs, And with the USB Cassette machine that I bought a few years ago, I can even play cassettes through it.

There’s also a USB record deck here, so I can play my LPs on it too.

I’ve dug out an old desktop monitor too – quite a large one, and when I obtain an HDM1 cable, I’ll have large-screen film facilities too.

So having had an early night last night, I managed to raise myself from my stinking pit at about 06:10. It’s my aim to be up and about in between the two alarms as you know.

I’d been on my travels too. Back in Brussels, I was selling my final apartment somewhere on the north side of the city. It was laid out somehow like the place at Hankelow but, obviously, in much better condition. I’d bought it a few years ago but never done too much with it. With me was a girl, something like Cecile, and my solicitor. I was far too ill to take part in the proceedings, being confined to bed, so the solicitor and this girl did everything. After the sale had been completed, the solicitor came in quietly laughing. He told me that the woman had been lamenting about her son, and how she’s just saddled him with a mortgage at the age of 36. I was meantime adding up th cash on hand after selling all of my three places, and how it came to something like half a million pounds, and how I was too ill to spend it all.

I went down for a baguette a little later on. There is still the depot de pain in the newsagents here and the owner remembered me, which was nice.

Back here, I pottered around for a while, and … errr … had a little relax too – which led to a somewhat late lunch. And did some of the unpacking too. But only “some”. I need to gather up my strength to do the rest because it really did take a lot out of me, going around North America like I did.

Tea though was another one of my aubergine and kidney bean whatsits – with no olives because I seem to have run out and I forgot to buy any yesterday. There’s enough left over for three more meals.

So now, despite my early start, my little repose during the morning means that I don’t actually feel tired right now. It will take me a while to readjust to my habitual way of life.

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Wednesday 9th August 2017 – I’M NOT QUITE …

… sure what happened there but after crashing out in mid-keystroke and hauling myself off to bed for an early night, I slept right through until the alarm went off. Totally dead to the world.

And it was difficult to haul myself out of my stinking pit too. It was probably the best night’s sleep that I’ve had for a while.

Better than the day however. We’ve had showers on and off all the time, particularly when I wanted to go outside. Soaked to the skin going for the baguette and if anyone thinks that I was going to brave the wall over the harbour at lunchtime then they are very much mistaken.

Just by way of a change I’ve done some tidying up and cleaning up in here. Not a lot (that’s Friday’s task) but I’ve made a start.

But most of the day I’ve been doing stuff with my 3D animation program.

You may remember from the other day that I was telling you about trying to add a morph from a previous generation of templates into the one that I use. Well, badger that for a game of soldiers, because I’ve done something different.

Having had a flash … "oohh errr, missus" – ed … of inspiration I’ve actually managed to transfer in a complete set of over 500 morphs designed for a completely different template.

The world is really my oyster now, as I’m sure that you can imagine.

But it’s complicated things a little because a few of the morphs are interacting with the original morphs in rather a strange way. I’ll have to look into this – it’s probably nothing more complicated than a duplication of names.

Another issue is that I’ve somehow managed to “activate” the illustrations and leave as dead links the “active keys for some of them (and I’m sure that I did them all the same way), so that will be a little confusing.

But it keeps me out of mischief.

Anyway, off for a walk braving the wind and rain, and yet another early night.

And I had a parcel delivery – but I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

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Sunday 6th August 2017 – THAT’S A NICE …

… way to spend an afternoon!

Sitting in my living room with the window wide open, listening to the music. It’s the Festival of the Upper Town today and they had a live band playing in the little square.

No need for me to go out and watch – I could hear them quite clearly from here!

This morning I had a little lie-in. Awake as late as 07:45, but it was 08:15 when I crawled out

I’d been on my travels too during the night, with The One That Got Away. Her daughter was a ballet star but TOTGA thought that she wasn’t receiving the attention that she was due. I thought that she should force the issue by saying that she had received offers from elsewhere and was seriously considering them. But TOTGA thought that that was a bad idea in case her bluff was called.

I was out early for my baguette before the tourists cleaned out the place.

jersey channel islands granville manche normandy franceThe skies were really clear this morning – no haze about at all and so I nipped in for the new camera and the new telephoto lens.

Jersey was there looking quite clear 30-odd miles away so I snapped off a quick photo.

The focal length isn’t as long as the one for the Nikon D5000 but it’s auto-focus and it’s come out reasonably clear for what it is.

Lunch on the wall as usual, in the bright warm sun, and then I went for a walk into the old town. The village fête wasn’t much to write home about, but there was some excitement.

place haute ville granville manche normandy france

They rigged up some kind of jousting machine where a member of the crowd was pushed down the hill in a wheelbarrow by a friend.

The person in the wheelbarrow had a long stick and the aim was to push the stick through the hole in the dolly.

It’s not so easy going down a hill at speed in a wheelbarrow, and if you miss the hole, you catch a soaking – just like these two girls.

Tonight was the best pizza yet – cooked to perfection. I did remember to take out the bottom baking tray and that certainly helped.

Now I’m off for a walk See if anything is still going on at the village fête. But I doubt it – it’s been quiet for the last hour.

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Saturday 5th August 2017 – AND IF YOU THOUGHT …

… that I had been having a few quiet days then this one takes some beating.

It all went wrong before I went to bed actually. A blasted firework display at bang on midnight that went on for hours.

In the end I was praying for one of those occasions that rings a bell in the back of my mind from London 2 or 3 centuries ago when a spark from the first firework fell into the bucket where all of the others had been stored.

Instead of a beautiful one-hour display observed by 10,000 people, you had a half-second of something that was heard by everyone across the whole south-east of England.

So that set the night off on a bad foot.

Struggle out of bed, but a shower soon revived me. Trip down the road for the baguette, and lunch on my wall in the high winds. Blasted uncomfortable too.

Apart from that, I’ve been doing something interesting on the laptop and following the football results too – the season has restarted today. Where did summer go?

Tomorrow there’s a fête up here in the walled city. Music, dancing and, of course, the buvette. Nothing whatever takes place in France without a buvette, and if there is none it’s a national scandal.

Must be on form for that!

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Thursday 3rd August 2017 – I HAD TO …

… turn on the light over the sink while I was washing up tonight. That’s a first. The nights are definitely getting shorter.

But then again, I was rather late – 21:15 in fact. Although it was just a quick tea (pasta and the last lot of the aubergine and kidney bean whatsit) I didn’t start to make it until late because I was preoccupied in some work that I was doing.

But more of this anon.

Although I was rather late going to bed, I was out like a light and off on my travels again straight away. Somewhere really exciting, so much so that I awoke at about 04:30 and dictated it into the dictaphone.

And it’s a good job that I did too because when I awoke at 07:00 with the alarm, I couldn’t remember a thing. So you’ll have to wait until I copy the notes off the thing before you can find out where I was.

And before I find out where I was too.

Crawling out of bed was difficult (to say the least) and then after breakfast I had to sit around. Expecting a parcel delivery.

By 12:00 it hadn’t arrived, and knowing full well that no-one works between 12:00 and 14:00, I nipped into town for a baguette and some tomatoes seeing as how I had run out.

Far too windy to sit on my wall so I ate in here, and I was dead right about the parcel delivery. 14:15 on the button he turned up, and the final piece of the jigsaw for my trip to Canada is all here.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I had a very good mega-suitcase from years ago that took everything that I needed (and more) to Canada. But in 2014 I broke the zip on it so it had to be abandoned.

I found a substitute in a junk shop over there that was the correct size, but everything else about it was wrong. It was completely out of balance and very difficult to control

so, totally fed up, I found exactly the one that I wanted on the internet. A “four-wheeler” pull-behind upright suitcase that is actually bigger in volume but the dimensions are much less (it’s actually fatter). Lightweight reinforced too.

Cost an arm and a leg but I’m not up to much these days and this should (I hope) be great to pull along behind me. Because I have miles to walk.

Strawberry Moose fits inside it perfectly and there’s plenty of room for other stuff too. Which is good news.

And I need it too. It’s been a long time since I’ve had any.

Now I’m off for my walk, and I’ll have another early night. Now that I have my suitcase I can start to pack tomorrow.

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