Tag Archives: tidying up

Thursday 10th August 2017 – THE ONE THING …

… about spending all morning copying files from one computer onto a memory stick to load into the other one that you are taking with you, only to find that one is formated in NFTS and the other in FAT 64 so the second laptop can’t read the memory stick, is that it encourages you to set up a Home Network.

And that was excitement in itself because with no instructions to go by, it was a very hit-and-miss affair to say the least. Trial end error? It was certainly a trial – and there were plenty of errors!

And 5.3GB of data took 2 hours to read – never mind start to transfer over. And so I was not at all pleased to find that the data wouldn’t go!

It took me an hour to resolve the issue, having to delve deep into the bowels of both of the machines, but I’ve eventually managed to make it work. And, as I write this rubbish, that data is 7% completed with another … gulp … 7 hours to go!

strawberry moose granville manche normandy franceIn between all of this, I’ve managed to attack the packing, and you have to deal with the important things first.

His Nibs is preparing for the (af)fray of course – it’s the rutting season and he has all of his engagements lined up.

I’ve packed a few clothes, most of which I’m going to leave over there, and a few other bits and pieces. I’ve probably fofgotten tons of stuff that I need but I’ll just do what I always do

Most people usually make a list of things that they need and pack accordingly. I just pack and then make a list of the things that I’ve forgotten.

But I have His Nibs, my tickets, my passport, my cash and my bank cards. That’s the important stuff anyway.

Tidying up was on the agenda too. but not too much of that because I’ll only clutter up the place before I go. That’s a “tomorrow afternoon” job, as is a shower, the washing, going to the bank and so on.

And tea?

More of the curry stuff that I made earlier in the week. Just one more lot to go, which is fine because there’s just one more night here. Saturday morning, His Nibs and I are hitting the streets.

AIS beacon tracker granville manche normandy franceI did mention a parcel delivery that I received yesterday, and I promised that today I would tell you what it is.

This is it, although you can’t see it very clearly. It’s two small black boxes, a pile of cable and an antenna, and it needs to be erected properly – something that I’ll have to do later.

It’s an AIS beacon tracker, which is of extreme interest to me, not just for the machine itself but for the benefits that come with it.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I have a fascination for ships, and I regularly run a Ship of the Day” column on here. Every ship is fitted with an AIS beacon which transmits its position and some other information besides, all of which is of interest to me as you might expect.

There’s a project afoot to equip every port in the world with an AIS tracking device which will transmit the information to a central point to make up one of the biggest interactive databases in the world – an absolutely fascinating project for someone like me.

The port of Granville wasn’t covered in this project, but when I read that anyone who hosts an AIS tracker will have free, unlimited access to the database …well – say no more!

It’s up and working, and I can see it on the web site of the organisation. Once a few checks have been done, I’ll be having my free access account, which is good news for me.

It was a late night last night – about 03:00 in fact – but I was still up at 07:00. And I didn’t crash out either.

So I’ll brave the hurricane and go for a walk and then try for an early night. I have the cleaning to do, and then down into town, and I’ve been invited to a soirée later.

It’s all go here, isn’t it?

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.

Friday 4th August 2017 – WHAT A NICE …

… meal!

I was at the shops today and at LIDL they were selling a pack of three peppers for just €1:49. Couldn’t resist that so I grabbed a packet. That’s one for the curry next week and the other two – well, one today and one tomorrow with a few bits hived off for the pizza on Sunday.

I like stuffing, and mine is excellent. An improvement on last weeks because I boiled up some bulghour and added that to the chopped tomato, mushrooms, onions, garlic, olive oil, pepper and herbs.

But not as good as last week because I forgot the tomato sauce.

Anyway, there’s more than enough left over for tomorrow – the rest will go in the curry on Monday.

But I shan’t do that again though – leaving it late to go shopping. I’ve tried to be away by 08:30 and first in the supermarket but it was 10:30 when I arrived and the queues at the tills at LIDL were out of the door.

And the usual mayhem at LeClerc. I’m glad that this is my last shop of the holiday season. Next time that I shop, it will be in Montreal. But all in all today, I spent just €24:00 for food for the week – and nothing else. No little toys or anything.

Mind you – grapes were at €1:69 in LIDL …

I had a strange night last night – awake at 06:30 and it’s been a while since I last woke up before the alarm. Mind you, I crashed out for half an hour this afternoon and that’s been a while too.

Lunch on the wall in the wind, and I’ve done some cleaning up too – necessary as you could smell the bin from down the street.

But highlight of the day has been finding a batch of about 500 *.zip files from 2010 that relate to when I started with my 3D program. I couldn’t find them when I changed computer in 2011 and subsequently forgot all about them.

But rooting around in a miscellaneous folder on an old hard drive that I’d coupled up to an external caddy, there they were. I’ve been uploading a few (like 200 or so) to the laptop and I’ll do the rest another time.

See – I am still being busy even if my motivation has all gone for the moment.

Tuesday 25th July 2017 – I KNEW …

… that it was going to be a lot of hard work today when Terry offered me a slice of Liz’s home-made vegan ginger cake as I arrived.

And I wasn’t wrong either.

I’d had a bad night too. With crashing out so convincingly earlier, it was well after 01:00 when I went to bed. And it wasn’t half an ungainly stagger into the bathroom this morning when the alarm went off.

Having done a bit on the blog (I’m trying to update at least 2 entries every day no matter what) I hit the road. But it wasn’t so easy as it might have been as the telecommand for the barrier didn’t work. I had to rely on a helpful neighbour.

Calling at the Casino for some fuel and the boulagerie in Cérences for some bread, I arrived at Terry’s for coffee and cake.

A quick dismantle of the remote control showed that the battery wasn’t seating right. So I took 10 minutes to repair it properly and even made the warning light function – and that’s a first.

All morning was spent sanding down the walls that we had filled yesterday. Terry had the machines and I was doing it by hand in the corners where the machines wouldn’t reach – Terry couldn’t do that because of his shoulder.

By the time we stopped for lunch we were looking like snowmen.

This afternoon we finished off the sanding, and then we had the cleaning. And I’m not sure which took the longer either.

Final job was to sweep the chimney, which was blocked. This involved a trip around all of the neighbours until someone produced a brosse de ramonage – Terry had packed his so well when he had moved house that he had no idea where it might have been.

Terry was up on the roof and I was down below holding the ladder and checking the fire.

By 17:00 I was totally finished off (remember that I had given up all of this work) and came home. First thing that I did was to have a shower (I forgot yesterday) and rinse my clothes of the plaster dust.

Second thing was .. errr … have a snooze, and until 20:00.

I’d had the remains of Liz’s apple flan for lunch, but Terry had sent me home with the remains of Sunday’s hot-pot so that was tea quickly organised. And just as well too because I’ve seized up, aching everywhere and in far too much pain to move.

But I’ve freed off a little now so I’ll go for a short walk around outside, just to say that I’ve been.

And then an early night – I reckon that I’ve deserved it.

Wednesday 28th June 2017 – PHEW!

Just as I was going to bed last night, I had a message “how do you fancy a visitor tomorrow? I’m on the road”.

Well, since I’ve had my new place and can actually accommodate people these days, why not?

And so this morning, after a night of tossing and turning, I was up with the cock. And quite early too because it wasn’t long after 06:00 that I saw the light of day.

I’m not as fit as I used to be and so cleaning the apartment took all day. But then it was 20 minutes here and a sit-down for an hour to recover my strength, and then 20 minutes there and a sit-down etc etc.

The least that can be said about visitors is that their potential arrival shakes me out of my lethargy and obliges me to clean up the place. So the more visitors, the merrier.

I stopped for lunch but I wasn’t intending to go outside because we were having yet another rainstorm. The weather has indeed broken here. And then back into the cleaning routine. Followed by a shower, a shave and a change of clothes (I have to look my best) and a little … err … repose.

At 17:30 I had a phone call
“I think I’ve missed the turning and I’m not sure where I am now”
“What can you see around you?”
“I’m opposite the hospital”
“OK. Stay there. I’ll come and fetch you” (and I made a mental note that a dashcam video of the route might be a good idea)

What impressed me was that last night I’d asked for a rough ETA. And my visitor replied “between 17:00 and 18:00 I reckon”. It was now exactly 17:30. Spot on!

And so I arrived at the hospital and there was Rosemary in her new car. She was off for a quick aller-retour to the UK and there is more than one way to skin a cat. Going via Granville is as good a way as any. And she had brought the sun with her because it was now brightening up

Luckily there was plenty of curry left over from yesterday so rustling up a meal didn’t take me too long. And then we sat for a couple of hours and put the world to rights.

But my first overnight visitor! And I can accommodate someone here too – much more than ever could be said for back in the Auvergne.

Saturday 24th June 2017 – I WAS UP …

… a good 10 minutes before the alarm this morning. And had I been bothered to leave my stinking pit, I could have been up a good hour before it too.

I’d been on my travels too, not sure where, but I ended up dating one of the nurses (I wish that I could remember which one) who had treated me while I had been in hospital. She was considerably younger than me (well, let’s face it – almost everyone in the world is these days!) and this excited a great deal of comment from all sorts of people.

Which of course just goes to show – I can still chase after the women, even if I can’t remember why.

We had the usual trip for the baguette and the lunchtime sitting-on-the-wall-overlooking-the-harbour too. The weather wasn’t quite as warm as it has been, but still too hot to be out there for long. And the tide is now almost fully-out which means that we aren’t going to be having any ships passing by for a while.

Even the Marité is conspicuous by her absence. She seems to have departed into the ether – Ships That Pass In The Night and all of that.

Tea was another attack on the European Tinned Food Mountain and with the addition of a few herbs and spices it was quite tasty. Just goes to show the difference that a few simple things can make.

So what have I been doing today then?

Some tidying up. Not much, but if I do a little every day (or nearly every day) it will slowly all go together nicely. And some cleaning too. I need to make an effort.

I had a phone call too from the maintenance people about the fridge. So I told them that it was now back working again so they hung up. And now it’s stopped again, hasn’t it?

I’ve also had a very unwelcome letter from the Treasury of that hospital in Verdun. It seems that once again my insurers are dragging their heels about paying (which they usually do) and I’ve been lumbered yet again. I’ll need to sort them out properly in early course.

Ingrid was on the phone too and we had a lengthy chat. Her health issues are finally moving, although in which direction it’s hard to tell. She’ll know more in early course. But it’s a good job that she rang, because I was … errr … resting at the time.

But most of the day has been organising the blog. I’ve finished November, done a few of December, skipped the rest because there’s a lot in there that needs editing, and now I’m well into January 2012. Only 289 entries to go before this cycle of amendments is completed. And then I’ll need to go back over it again to bring the earlier entries up to the current standard as well as tackling some of the more complicated entries.

In that vein, we are going pretty well too. I’ve done some more ad-hoc editing, removing unwanted tags, editing a couple of others, merging one or two as well and it’s not been taking me as long as I thought, especially as I’ve found a quick way of doing it.

So now I’m having a relax before bed-time. And I reckon that I deserve it too. It’s hard work, this sitting around doing not very much.

Saturday 17th June 2017 – THIS VACUUM CLEANER …

… that I bought yesterday isn’t half the genoux de l’abeille as they might say around here.

It might be only small, and it might be only cheap but it has the kind of suction for which a Conservative MP would pay good money in a back street massage parlour in Soho.

Yes, I’ve been cleaning and tidying up – well, sort-of_ish anyway. Because I had a brainwave. Self-motivation is not my strongest point, as you all know, and seeing as how Liz is on her own right now, Terry having gone back to The Land That Time Forgot to sort out the health issues of his mother and his daughter, I’ve invited her round for lunch tomorrow.

That means that I shall have to have the place looking at least presentable by the time that she comes round, and that’s not a bad idea at all. And so I made a sort-of start.

If I do another hour or two tomorrow morning it won’t be too bad I suppose. But I do like this vacuum cleaner. In fact, you can say that I’m almost as impressed with it as I am with my galvanised steel dustbin.

The tidying up involved putting away a pile of papers too (and there’s still more to go) and also sorting out my Canadian travel bag. For those of you who are not regular readers of this rubbish, I have a small bag with all of my 120-volt equipment in it – such as an AA – AAA battery charger, a couple of leads for electrical appliances, and all of the ‘phone stuff.

And it’s a good job that I did too because the data/charging cable for the North American phone doesn’t work (I remember that I had this problem last year) and I broke the car charger. And so I am in difficulty here. I shall have to think of a cunning plan.

Another thing that Bane of Britain seems to have done is to mix up the clean clothes that he washed the other day with the dirty clothes that he’s been wearing ever since. And that’s fraught with danger, isn’t it?

We had another struggle to leave the stinking pit this morning, although I was early down at the magasin de presse for my baguette. And with the boss not being there, I ended up with a rather miserable baguette too.

Lunchtime saw me up on the cliff above the harbour with my butties and book. It was another beautiful afternoon. I was up there for quite a while too in the glorious weather, but was eventually burnt out of my position so I came back here instead.

Tea was more of the curry stuff, but I’ve also prepared a tofu marinade. Tofu is pretty tasteless so it needs to be soaked in stuff. Mine was cooked with garlic, onions, pepper and curry powder (I wish that I had remembered to buy some sage and rosemary) and it’ll sit in that until tomorrow evening. I’ll cook a handful of lentils in the slow cooker too tomorrow morning and that will be the filling for the pie that I’m going to make. I’ll be having the oven on for the pizza, and so I can bake the pie at the same time.

I hope that it will be nice.

Ohhh – and Rhys – talking of cunning plans, if you are on your trips around the Dollar Stores, keep your eyes open for a data cable and a car charger for a Samsung T746.

Wednesday 31st May 2017 – AFTER MY EXERTIONS …

… yesterday, I wasn’t feeling up to all that much today.

I was awake early and had an early breakfast too, and then the new, dynamic me took over.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that at one point I was amending the earlier blog entries. This actual blog dates from 2013 and is the nth incarnation thereof. The previous ons dates from 2009 and I managed to incorporate it into this one, but it dropped all of the tags and did something bizarre to the images. Consequently, at one time I had a rolling programme of updating it and correcting the errors.

And so this morning, I restarted. And one of the first ones that I found involved quite a little bit of research. And so that kept me out of mischief for quite a while.

Apart from that, we’ve had another tidying session. A pile of stuff went down to the waste bins and I’ve found a temporary home for all of the glass and china until I buy something that will serve as a dresser. And that jolted me into action too – I went about and measured everything that I need to measure ready for my next mega-shop at IKEA, which will take place sometime soon.

Somewhere during the course of the morning I found time to go out for my baguette – and how I wished that I hadn’t. There was a school trip to the old town this morning and I had 53 children in front of me all spending their €1:00 on the obligatory postcard to send back to their parents. We were there for hours.

Tea tonight was oven chips, and this was a little more successful. I had the oven stinking hot and the chips defrosted before they went in. And I sprinkled them with a little olive oil. That made all the difference and while it still isn’t right, it was much better than the other night. I’ll crack this oven before I die.

So tomorrow will the more-dynamic me still be here? or will he have departed in a puff of smoke during the night?

Watch this space!

Sunday 28th May 2017 – IT’S GOING TO BE A LONG …

… hard winter with this new oven.

As the cynic in me expected, the timing and the temperature is all wrong. You can basically add 50% on to the cooking time and 30° onto the cooking temperature and eventually you’ll be somewhere in the vicinity of where you want to be. I’ve had better-cooked pizzas than this, but at least it was my own so I can’t complain.

It was 02:00 when I went to bed last night what with one thing and another, and my delightfully long lie-in took me up until all of 08:05. After breakfast I headed off in search of a baguette but I didn’t get very far, and for two reasons too.

  1. the newsagents was open and he had some bread in today
  2. for some reason that I don’t understand, all the joints in my legs are aching as if I’ve been on a marathon hike and that’s certainly not the case

It’s Sunday today and that’s a Day of Rest. And that’s precisely what I have done today. I’ve not even been outside apart from the baguette because the weather has changed and we’ve had a rainstorm.

That’s not quite true – because I’ve taken the box that the oven came in down to Caliburn along with another pile of paper and cardboard rubbish. Next time that I’m passing the dechetterie I’ll heave it out. And I came back in with a couple of pairs of pliers to … errr … adjust the pizza tray so that it would fit in the oven. But that exhausted me so much that I crashed out for an hour or so.

Monday is when I’m intending to start work. There’s quite a bit of stuff that I’ve let lapse and it’s high time that I exerted myself.

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Friday 26th May 2017 – HOW LONG IS IT …

… since we featured a proper “Ship of the Day” on these pages?

When I was in Montreal or somewhere down the St Lawrence we could take our pick of dozens each day, but it’s usually pretty thin pickings whenever we are elsewhere.

victress port de granville harbour manche normandy franceBut not today though, because today our ship really has come in.

It’s another really high tide this week and it’s brought in the Victress, who has sailed in from Southampton to pick up a load of gravel. Built in 1992, she flies the flag of Barbados and displaces about 1500 tonnes.

Not the biggest ship we’ve seen, but the biggest that we’ve seen in recent times and the biggest that we are likely to see here in Granville. She’s not there now, though – the ground’s all flat. And she’s somewhere out in the Channel so it seems. And I’ve not been able to find out where she’s heading.

She was formerly known as Uranus but this was changed due to ribald remarks from captains of other ships – something along the line of “with my binoculars I can see Uranus from here”

After breakfast this morning I had a quick shower and shave and change of clothes and hit the streets in search of the bus stop. Of course I have a choice of two, and of course it was “the other one” but just €1:00 and pretty painlessly (and I’ll do this again) I was decanted at the top of town to rescue Caliburn. He’s had his service, and the strange noise seems to have gone, and he’s had his controle technique. That gives me two years motoring without any major worries, which is always a bonus.

And on the way back, I picked up my oven. That’s now installed and working – and I had to change round my kitchen a little to fit it on the shelves and things don’t fit as well as they did before, which is a shame. But tomorrow I’ll be tracking down a pizza tray, some bread-making stuff and some oven chips. THis is going to start to become interesting.

For lunch I headed off to my usual spot – the clifftop overlooking the port – and this was where I made the acquaintance of Victress. But not for too long because once more I was burnt out of my position and head to retreat to here where I promptly crashed out for an hour.

granville manche normandy franceAnd while we’re on the subject of photographs … "well, one of you is" – ed … it occurs to me that you have yet to see the view out of my living room windows.

It’s not very inspiring unfortunately (although I’ve seen much worse) but if I look over to the right-hand side I can in fact see the sea.

It’s not exactly the sea view that I was hoping to have, and I don’t have a terrace which would have been perfect, but here in Granville I can’t do much better than this. Especially as if I just step outside the front door of the building the view is stupendous as you know

Later on, I went out to Roncey. Liz’s grandchildren (whom you have seen many times on these pages) are coming to stay tomorrow and it’s important that Strawberry Moose is there to greet them. So now he’s playing hide-and-seek down the bed.

Back here, I had another dollop of the kidney bean stuff that I made yesterday and it was just as delicious too.

So tomorrow it’s a mega-shop again. So just you watch me forget something important.

Thursday 18th May 2017 – TODAY WAS ANOTHER …

… day when I didn’t do anything at all and I’ll have to get to grips with things pretty soon.

I’d had a late night what with one thing and another and I’d been on my travels too. I don’t remember very much about it now but it concerned a meal that I was cooking – something similar to the one that I made the other day.

Although I was awake early, it was the alarm at 07:00 that drove me out of bed. And there wasn’t really much incentive to leave my stinking pit either, with the rain teeming down outside.

Nevertheless, I had to brave the elements to go down and pick up my baguette. And despite my vow of yesterday to come home the scenic way, there was no chance of that in the driving rain. It also put paid to any idea that I might have had for going for a walk.

Instead, I did a little more tidying up in here and spent the rest of the day sorting out a pile of files on the computer that I had resurrected the other day. And there are still hundreds of files that need removing too – duplicates that have been stored in all kinds of places on the hard drive that somehow have escaped the filing system that I installed all those years ago.

Once I’ve done all of that, I can back it up. That’s another one of my long-term projects once I buy a desk and set up a little office in the bedroom. In fact, this place is taking on much of the configuration of how I had my apartment in the Avenue d’Exposition in Brussels, which I suppose isn’t very much of a surprise.

All of this was far too much effort for me and at about 18:00 I had a crash-out for half an hour or so.

Talking of tea last night inspired me to do something different. I fried up some onions and garlic in one of the saucepans. Once it was looking good, I added some bulghour, a tin of lentils and a tin of mixed vegetables and some curry powder to taste.

And here’s the thing. I’d bought a little cheap electric slow cooker ages ago and I’d never used it. But I could see the advantages of it which is why I brought it with me. I tipped all of the curry into it and let it simmer away. That way, I had the induction ring empty so I could cook a pan of rice.

There was enough curry made for three meals so two went into the fridge in the vacuum jars that I have, and the other one went down really nicely. And pudding was fruit salad with strawberry sorbet.

So it’s an early night tonight and I hope that I can have another good sleep. Tomorrow I’m measuring up for curtains ready for shopping on Saturday. But on Monday I’m going to have to start making an effort to do something, or my life will simply ebb away.

Wednesday 17th May 2017 – TODAY HAS BEEN ONE …

… of those days where, rather like the mathematician named Hall, I accomplished three-fifths of five-eights of … errr … nothing.

It all started to go wrong during the night – I kept on waking up, tossing and turning. And I’ve no idea why because the bed is quite comfortable and I’m very warm in there – or else that’s it and I’m too warm, but that’s not very likely now.

It was disturbed to such an extent that I was up and about by 06:30 and having breakfast when the alarm went off at 07:00. This is happening more and more often and it’s not like me at all in the past.

Apart from going down to the old town for my baguette (and coming back via the city walls) I’ve spent most of the day on the sofa. I can allow myself the odd day here and there to do this – after all, I am retired.

Liz and I had a chat on the internet, and I made a phone call. And I also did some tidying up. But most of the day was spent checking over the contents of an old computer that I’ve managed to fire up. 12.3GB of duplicate files on there, so I’ve been weeding them out. And the program that I use, although noted for its efficacy, is not noted for its rapidity. It also has a tendency to eat up all of the processing capacity of the machine so it very slowly grinds to a halt. So you have to switch off and start again.

In fact, I had such an exciting, stressful, exhausting day that I crashed out for half an hour too. Just for a change.

Not a day for going outside, because it started to pour down with rain this afternoon and it’s kept it up ever since. So it’s a good job that I had things indoors to amuse me. There haven’t been too many wet days since I’ve been here, have there?

Tea was more stuff out of the European Tinned Food Mountain. I’ve been slowly demolishing it for a couple of weeks and it doesn’t look any different. But one day it will all be gone – whenever that might be. If I had an oven, or some different pans that would work on the induction hob, I could perhaps be more adventurous. But that will come, one day or another.

And so will tomorrow, because I’m done for today. If the weather is better I might even go for a walk, but I’m not holding my breath.

Tuesday 16th May 2017 – TONIGHT’S TEA …

… was bangers, beans and baked potatoes. The rest of the sausages and the left-over half-tin of beans from Saturday night, and some potatoes from the pile that I bought the other week. A bit of pepper on the beans and some vegan margarine on the potatoes, and it was a meal fit for a King.

Last night I was tossing and turning again and I really don’t know why, and I was up long before the alarm went off.But I had a busy morning, even if it doesn’t seem that I accomplished much.

It was washday today and by that, I started off with me – a nice, long, hot shower and a shave, followed by some delicate clothing that needed hand-washing and which I’d been putting off for quite some time.

Once that was out of the way, I attacked all of the rest of the crockery and cutlery that I had brought from the Auvergne, which I had taken there from Brussels after I had sold Expo. And there were tons of it too. All of the cutlery I left soaking in boiling water for several hours to kill whatever might have been lurking on them.

As for the saucepans, they were almost new so I brought them with me (and two of them work on the induction hob too) so they were steam-cleaned – by the simple expedient of jamming the lids on and weighting them down while some water boiled away inside. Any germs that might have been loitering within them have certainly had their chips now.

This afternoon I had to go back down to the bank, so I took the final load of paper out to put in the recycling as I passed by. And I encountered the bus driver who was taking a short break at a bus stop.We had a chat and she filled me in about the bus service around the town. It’s about 20 minutes from here to the railway station and it costs €1:00 per trip. That will suit me just fine.

And as I was passing the library, with 10 minutes to spare (yes, there are still libraries in Mainland Europe) I popped in and joined. Cost me €10:00 but it’s an unlimited supply of books, CDs and DVDs as well as all kinds of exhibitions and debates.

The Bank hasn’t made much progress in transferring my accounts. And the girl whom I saw asked me for lots of information that I didn’t have (shame that she hadn’t asked me last time to bring it with me today) so this is going to grind on and on. And the amount of paper (in a paperless office) that she printed off for me to sign must run into a respectable forest.

It was hot on the way back so I treated myself to a sorbet – and nice it was too. And when I arrived, I crashed out for a while, to be awoken by Ingrid who wanted a chat. Always nice to talk to friends of course.

And Hannah and Liz chatted to me on the internet too after tea. That was nice too. Hannah has almost finished her course in Madrid now – hasn’t time flown by? She’ll be hitting the rails for a few weeks before flying back to Canada, and she might pass by here.

So now, it’s an early night again. I’ll need to choose another DVD to take with me.

Monday 15th May 2017 – BY ‘ECK!

vegan mushroom curry granville manche normandy franceThat was a gorgeous tea!

We started off with some boiling water with turmeric and some drops of lemon juice. And then heaved in a cup of rice.

While that was doing, I chopped up a couple of segments of garlic.

When the rice was cooked, I tipped it into the sieve and rinsed it through with some cold water. Then I added a knob of soya margarine (Alpro as it happens) into the pan and melted it. When it was up to temperature, I heaved in the garlic and the rest of the tinned mushrooms that I hadn’t used yesterday on my pizza. And then some curry powder to taste.

Once that was all frying away nicely, I tipped into the pot a small tin of mixed peas and carrots – water and all – from the European Tinned Food Mountain and left it there to simmer. And when it was well away, I added two teaspoons full of gravy browning. Meantime, the rice was rinsed with boiling water from the kettle, put on a plate (yes, a plate! I’m stopping being uncouth and eating out of saucepans!) and stuck in the microwave.

And here you are – one quick mushroom curry with rice. And it was gorgeous.

“But why use a saucepan for frying?” I hear you ask. Well, that’s because Bane of Britain has done it again. The little portable halogen hob that I am using (and with which i’m almost as impressed as with my galvanised steel dustbin, Rhys) isn’t a halogen hob at all but an induction hob. Apparently you need special pans for it and most of the new ones that I bought the other week aren’t suitable and won’t work with it.

So yet more expense! Anyone want a brand-new wok, frying pan and saucepan? Never been used!

Last night I had a good night’s sleep. Right up to the alarm which was nice. And I’d been off on my travels too. I was preparing the accounts for a well-known media personality (and I’ve forgotten who it was now). He had two cars, both of which were mark 3 Cortinas – one grey and one purple – and I had to figure out a way of working them into the accounts so that the Tax authorities would agree to the expenditure. There was something about having to change over the ownership of the two vehicles at precisely midnight at the end of the accounting year so that there would be a smooth, seamless change. Anyway, I took the purple one for a drive and slid off the road into a stream somewhere. I could lift up the front end of the vehicle and swivel it round but I was still unable to move it so I needed to seek help – which was something that, for some reason or other, I was very reluctant to do.

After breakfast, I had a good relax for a while and then set to and moved the European Cardboard Mountain down to Caliburn. It took me about 10 trips to move it all downstairs and I was pretty exhausted afterwards. I had a spectator too – my mate from next door – so I went over and gave him a stroke. His name is Gribouille apparently and he’s either 4 or 5 – hi mummy couldn’t remember. We had quite a chat and I told his owner that if ever she needed a babysitter for him when she goes away, I would be the first to volunteer.

Back here I had a coffee and put my feet up until lunchtime – it had taken a lot out of me. Cardboard is heavier than you might think.

I know that I said that I would go to the dechetterie this afternoon, but I decided against it. No point in making a special journey out when I have to go out shopping on Saturday, if not before. It can wait until then.

And so instead I sorted out all of the rest of the rubbish, put the waste in the communal bin downstairs and all of the recycling into the recycling bins across the road. While I was there, I brought up the coolbox from Caliburn and put the contents in the fridge. I’ll wash the coolbox tomorrow.

Talking of washing, I washed one load of china that had come with me from the Auvergne. There’s quite a bit to do and I’m having logistic issues until I can buy a dresser. So it’s “bit by bit”. And then some more tidying up. Piles more stuff for the bin but I’ve also found some medical receipts for which I can enter a claim.

My post has caught up with me too, so there was a mountain of that to go through. But it looks as if I’ve been told the wrong address for the apartment, judging by the postman’s scrawl on the envelopes. I’ll need to check with him when I see him and confirm it.

So I’ve had tea, so it’s a quiet rest and read a book for a while before another early night. I have the Bank Revisited tomorrow.

Thursday 11th May 2017 – I ENDED UP …

… not going to bed – or to sofa – very early at all. In fact, just as I was about to retire someone came on line and we ended up having a very long chat about all kinds of things – a chat that went on for a couple of hours. It was after 12:00 by the time that I retired, and that’s not something that’s happening too often these days as you know.

Nevertheless, I was awake quite early – long before the alarm – but it took me quite a while to summon up the energy to leave my stinking pit. It wasn’t easy, I promise you. and it took me ages to pluck up the courage to go down to the depot de pain for my baguette.

But once I was awake, I was off. And I’ve had another hard-working day today too. I now have two rather large bookcases, ready to bring some more books back from the Auvergne next time I’m there, whenever that might be, and I also now have another quite posh set of shelves.

And I bet that my LPs never ever thought that they would ever see the light of day again, but there they are on the shelves along with the DVDs and CDs that I brought with me (not all of them by a long way) and the Hi-Fi – first time that the Hi-Fi and the LPs, and the DVD and Video players, have seen the light of day since 2011 and how I have missed them … "you’ll need to improve your aim" – ed.

Although that might not sound like too much, what took the time was filling the shelves and rearranging everything. That was quite a work of art and now it can truly be said that the floor is quite reasonably tidy for me.

But it wasn’t like that at one point, because I was at a certain moment up to my knees in cardboard boxes. And I’m not joking either. But now, all of the cardboard has been gathered up from everywhere and there’s a big pile right by the side of the sofa. When the rest of the stuff is brought out of Caliburn (which might be tomorrow – you never know) I can move the empty cardboard down into Caliburn and head off to the dechetterie.

Rosemary rang me up later this afternoon for a chat – all of … errr … 1 hour and 11 minutes. I like talking to Rosemary and it’s good to talk to her, especially when we are putting the world to rights. And it seems to need it just now, doesn’t it?

So now, I’m going to have a shower. And there’s a good reason for this – namely that tonight I can finally go to sleep on my new bed. All new bedding, quilts and pillows too, and you have no idea just how much I’ve been looking forward to this. That’s why I’m going to pretty myself up and smell properly for a change.

It’s a shame to ruin the new bed, isn’t it?