Tag Archives: trans labrador highway

Tuesday 24th January 2012 – WE WERE RECORDING …

… again this morning. This time in Marcillat for Radio Tartasse.

We finished the “winter driving” features and started on a new topic, which is the “talking rubbish” bit – may as well try to keep the programmes in sync.

But in a startling piece of news, I’ve been asked by Radio Tartasse if I would present a Sunday-night rock music show. Now, that’s something interesting and I’ll have a go at working something out for this. It’s always been an ambition of mine to do something like this.

Back here I decided in view of the miserable and depressing weather that I would stay in and make headway on my Trans-Labrador Highway presentation.

But first I repaired the doorway into the attic room. The top hinge has pulled out of the door frame (which isn’t all that surprising because it’s only a 10mm piece of hardboard) and the door has been falling off.

But while I’ve been tidying up in the barn I found some 400mm strap hinges and so I screwed one of those to the top of the door – having first wedged it into position. Now it opens and closes perfectly.

Second task was when I went to clean the glass door to the stove, I noticed that part of the sealing gasket had fallen out. No wonder it’s not drawing properly and the room is filling slowly with smoke.

Luckily I have some fireproof mastic and so I sealed it with that, and it worked so much better after that.

I didn’t get much done at my presentation though, as I crashed out for a few hours. I’m getting over-tired again.

I did manage to wake up in time to cook tea, and I made myself a spicy aubergine and kidney bean casserole that will keep me going for three days. And it’s the best I’ve ever made, it really is.

But I’m off to have an early night. If anything, crashing out has made me even more tired.

-3

Sunday 22nd January 2012 – I’VE ALWAYS WANTED …

… to watch a 3rd Division football match in the Allier, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall.

This is the lowest tier in football in the Allier (the Puy-de-Dôme has four) but having seen matches higher up the pyramid and not been impressed at all, I wondered how bad an Allier 3rd Division match would be.

As luck would have it, with the Puy-de-Dome still being on the trève, or “winter break”, this afternoon Terjat (about 8 miles from here) were entertaining (if that is the right word to use) their near-neighbours Sainte Thérence in a cut-throat local derby down in the basement of the 3rd Division.

Obviously, with nothing better to do (there was no paint drying and no grass growing anywhere in the vicinity) a visit to Terjat was called for.

And I wasn’t disappointed either, for it was predictably awful.

There was only one player on the field who looked reasonably competent (I’m excluding the Sainte Thérence goalkeeper – what on earth was someone like him doing playing in a team as awful as his?) and that was the Terjat centre-half.

It was clear after the first five minutes that nothing was ever going to get past him as long as he was on the pitch, and it didn’t either.

The trainer of Sainte Thérence clearly had the same opinion as me, and the talk that he gave to his team at half-time was just so predictable.

30 seconds after the restart, with the Terjat centre-half taking off after a loose ball down the right flank, two Ste Thérence players came after him and put him firmly, fairly (well, the referee thought that it was fair – others might not) and squarely into the advertising hoardings with a thump that was heard all over the Allier.

That was his match over.

And so was AS Terjat’s, because the result was predictable after that.

Next stop was to Liz and Terry’s to rehearse our radio programmes for the next month and Liz very kindly cooked tea and made cake, some of which found its way in a doggy-bag back to my house, for which I am extremely grateful

So we are recording tomorrow morning, and then I have to crack on with the next outstanding task – my presentation on the Trans-Labrador Highway for the village discussion group.

It’s all go here.

-3

Saturday 7th January 2012 – I’VE BEEN SPENDING …

… my money again.

And it’s not as if I have too much to spend either, but there you go.

In Carrefour in St Eloy les Mines I spent a mere €12 or so, most of which went on a jar of coffee seeing as I seem to be rather down on that at the moment, and won’t that be a catastrophe if I run out?

In LIDL I spent €25 or something – with nothing much to show for it except some wire brushes for the angle grinder. I’ll always pick up a few packs of those when I see them.

But there I met a couple of people whom I knew – some friends of Bill’s whom I had met at one of his soirées, and Jasper and his mum (who have featured previously in these pages) were also there.

But then  went to Cheze – the hardware shop where the Intermarché used to be when I first came here.

The bread box was trashed in the hurricane so I need to make something new, and Cheze was the likeliest place to find some bits. I didn’t find what I wanted but I still spent €52 in there.

Yes, it was sale time there and even more importantly, a clearance sale. There was a big bucket of hardware like door knobs, adjustible feet, special bolts and so on, at 50 centimes a pack. I had tons of stuff out of there.

There was also a LED spotlight with a dusk-dawn sensor, powered by a solar panel, reduced to €8:00. That will make a handy work light or torch for when I’m down the garden late at night.

low wattage chop saw cheze st eloy les mines puy de dome francePride of place though went to this beautiful machine – a chop saw.

I’ve been after a low-powered one of those for ages and I’ve hunted high and low but without success. But here at Cheze were three or four end-of-range chop saws, quite small and all rated at 1200 watts, all for the price of €34 each.

At that price I just had to have one, especially as there’s a 1200-watt inverter winging its way to me in the post even as we speak. After all the time I spend chopping wood by hand, and how easy it was doing the tongue-and-grooving back at Expo when I had the battery-powered one.

The width of the blade and the instability of the machines means that they aren’t ideal for precision work, but where precision cutting isn’t 100% essential, this wil ldo just fine, so I hope that it does what it says that it will do.

BUt I didn’t stay out long. It’s rained non-stop today, all grey and drizzly and depressing. I took advantage of the morning by writing the additional text for the radio programmes we shall be recording at the end of the month, and I’ve watched the odd film or two.

Tomorrow I’m going to start my presentation for the Trans-Labrador Highway.

I have to do that on Feb 24th, so no time like the present to get going.

-1

Saturday 10th September 2011 – I’M OFF ON MY TRAVELS AGAIN

mars hill windfarm maine usa new brunswick canadaAnd not before time either because if I stay too long in one place I put down roots and that would never do, would it?

And that’s the view behind me – the plains of New Brunswick with the wind farm at Mars Hill over to the right of the photo. And my little share of Canada is on the very extreme right-hand edge of the photo, on the down slope of the mountain.

How happy am I?

highway 630 new brunswick canadaThe road beyond Woodstock is fairly uneventful until I turn off onto Highway 630 and then I’m presented with this road. 58 kilometres of it too and isn’t this just like old times on the Trans-Labrador Highway?

It’s so much better going this way than going by the motorway. I’m not in any particular rush and can take my time, and quite right too. But never mind what might be on the other side of the hill – I can’t even tell what might be just around the bend

highway 4 railway line USA new brunswick canadaI arrive at a junction with Highway 4 which is for some reason or other not on the SatNav. The turning to the left is signposted for the USA so I must be very close to the border, so I’m where I want to be;

As for the railway line, this is probably the line that runs from Saint John to Montreal via the USA and was used quite heavily in the winter when Montreal was frozen up in the days before icebreakers and all of the produce was shipped by rail to Saint John.

bayside ferry wharf terminal sant croix river new brunswick canadaThis is the Bayside wharf and ferry terminal judging by the sign. It’s private property but seeing as it’s open, I go for a wander around but there’s no-one about to ask any questions.

The drive down to the gates is quite secluded and so I’ve pencilled in a little place in the back of my mind in case I can’t find anywhere better to park up for the night. That gap in between those two trailers looks quite inviting

ile sainte croix river maine usaOver there is the Ile de Sainte Croix, Saint Croix Island. It’s significant in that as far as I can tell, it was the first coastal colony of the French, being settled in 1604 (all previous colonies were in the St Lawrence).

Of the 79 colonists, 35 died and so many others were close to death that they all moved away to Port Royal across the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.

Ironically, Champlain described an autopsy that had been performed upon one of the deceased, and when a cemetery was discovered here fairly recently, one of the bodies uncovered had suffered the “injuries” in the post-mortem that were so well-described by Champlain.

And modern scientist, on examining the remains, concluded that most, if not all of the deaths, were due to scurvy

st andrews by night new brunswick canadaNow that I’m within touching distance of St Andrews it won’t do any harm to go for a look around, even if it the sun is setting quite quickly. Still, I can always do my best to take a photo to give you an idea of how it looks.

And I’m pretty disappointed in that there’s a 1920s type of Ford, which is probably an A-type, parked up at the side of the road and it’s too dark to take a photo of it. I hope that it will be there tomorrow.

mysterious red light st andrews new brunswick canadaBut wait a minute – whatever is this?

There’s a red light here up in the sky – in the top right-hand corner of the photo is a steady red light (otherwise it would never have come out in the photo) rather than a flashing red light that you might see from an aeroplane.

I thought that it might be a radio mast – a Loran-C or something like that, but I came back here in the morning and there was nothing that could have been my red light. So it’s a mystery.

And in the absence of a better proposition, I’ve gone back to the wharf and that’s where I’ll be staying the night.

-1

Wednesday 31st August 2011 – HERE I AM…

comfort hotel aeroport charles de gaulle paris france… standing outside my hotel down on the end of the runway at Paris Charles de Gaulle, waiting for the shuttle bus to take me to the airport.

You can see how close we are to the airport here. Mind you – it’s a good 15 minutes on the bus as the terminal is on the other side of the runway.

The airport was as usual a thoroughly stressful experience and our plane was actually parked away from the airport on the concrete pan. We had to be bussed out there.

And it was like flying Transatlantic Ryanair with Ait Transat. We were crammed in like sardines and we were late taking off – there being a problem with a chemical toilet on board. In fact the most comfortable 5 minutes that I had on the ‘plane was when I had 5 minutes on the Elsan.

manic 5 dam trans labrador highway quebec canada We flew over some areas that I recognised, including the Manic 5 dam, and you can see the Trans Labrador Highway quite clearly down below. It was good to be back in familiar territory.

We were again parked up miles from the terminal at Pierre Trudeau Airport and had to be bussed to the terminal. And much to my surprise, the passage through Immigration was painless – I was “interrogated” by a girl who looked as if she was about 12. Shows you how old I am, doesn’t it?

dodge grand caravan pierre trudeau airport montreal canadaAnd look at my car! It’s a Dodge Grand Caravan that I’ve chosen especially for this journey, because the seats fold flat into the floor and that makes a nice big space to make up a bed.

I’m staying here for a while and I need to watch my budget, and hiring a vehicle like this is cheaper than staying in motels. I’ve rented a tiny storage unit too, so what I buy can be stored here for use on a subsequent occasion.

I found a Walmart where I found a camping stove and some food supplies. I couldn’t make IKEA though – stuck in road works and rush hour traffic, it was impossible to move. And so I made my way across town to my motel and I’ll go th IKEA tomorrow.

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Wednesday 17th August 2011 – My signs arrived today.

vistaprint magnetic signs eric hall renewable energy solar power wind turbines biofuel puy de dome franceYou can see one of them on the front wing of the Minerva. They are small but nevertheless they are pretty eye-catching. All I hope for now is that I’m not offered a white car. That would be unfortunate.

I also had a phone call this afternoon. Someone asking me if they could bring their car round for rustproofing.
“What number have you dialled?” I asked, somewhat bewildered.
“That number that’s in the directory – 982-2129”
The penny dropped
“Ahh – you’ve dialled the wrong number. This is 982-2199”
And so my Canadian number is not only up and working, the transfer to my French mobile phone works too and that’s exciting. And a beautiful sing-song Atlantic Canadian accent it was as well – made me homesick and I started to become all broody. I’m clearly out of place here in Europe.

In case you are wondering, the phone number quoted belongs to Portland Rust Check, 51 Williams Ave, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. And her car will need rustproofing if she drives it across the Atlantic to me. It reminds me of when I was talking to Colleen – this woman who I met in Labrador last year. She expressed surprise that I had travelled the Trans-Labrador Highway in Casey who, as you know, is a Chrysler PT-Cruiser.
“Most of the time it’s down to the driver” I told her. “You can take a motor vehicle almost anywhere if you have a decent driver. In fact, for my next voyage, I shall be crossing the Atlantic on a motor bike”.

So what with computing this morning, I spent some time making a collection of tools and so on to take to Canada with me. Not that I really need them because I can soon buy some more, but it’s just that I have a baggage allowance of 25kgs and so far I’ve managed to pack not even 10kgs. It’s pointless going with an empty suitcase when there’s stuff I can be taking with me. I’ve organised a “drop” in Montreal at about $8 (that’s about a fiver) a week where I can leave them for my next visit. I intend to leave all of my stuff there because there’s no point in dragging it back and forth across the Atlantic and I’ll be going back quite frequently.

pointing field stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis afternoon I was pointing again and now the ladder is up past the window. It’s quite high and fairly precarious so I’m doing my best not to look down but it really is a long way up. And don’t forget – the ladder is standing on the roof of the lean-to and that’s about 8 feet off the ground.

At about 18:15 the sun went in, and I noticed that the temperature in the solar shower was 38°:C. That called for a shower to wash all of the dust out of my eyes.

home grown potatoes les guis virlet puy de dome franceNo point in going back pointing the stonework after that, and so I dug up all of the new potatoes. There aren’t all that many of them, so what’s happening there? Has someone else been eating them? Anyway, I’ve left them outside to dry and tomorrow I’ll be cleaning them and storing them away.

But what’s the plant on the left-hand side? is it a Parsnip? What’s that doing there in the potato patch? It’s nothing that I’ve planted and prior to the potato patch, that land was part of the meadow so it’s not anything that anyone else has planted. How bizarre. For its size, it came out of the soil quite easily too.

Now that the new-potato patch is empty, tomorrow I’ll be planting chicory in it. Some nice big witloofs, I hope. I also have tomatoes and chilis too in the cloche and that’s all exciting.

In other news, my campaigning over the last few months seems to have paid dividends at last. I have someone from the New Brunswick Government wanting to see me – about the school house that’s on my land. As you know, I’m trying to find it a good home because it’s all pretty rare and historically important. He’s called Bill Hicks and so I’m half-ecpecting to find a Yankee comic shrouded in cigarette smoke.

Yes, it’s all starting to come together and I’m looking forward to being back on the North American road again.

-3

Friday 24th June 2011 – Dunno what’s the matter …

… with me just recently.

I can’t seem to get to sleep at all these days. It’s almost 05:00 and I’m still wide-awake, and it was 05:00 last night when I retired. But this morning I was up at 10:30 and it was just as well because at 11:00 Terry rang me up. He’d had a few issues with the digger and needed a hand.

And so off I toddled and Terry and I spent most of the day sorting it out. It’s quite a learning curve, this machine, that’s for sure.

art exhibition maison communale mairie marcillat en combraille allier franceAfterwards I went off to the opening of this art exhibition in Marcillat en Combraille where I met Marianne Contet again. Danielle from the Anglo-French group was also there and so were plenty of other people whom I knew.

There were dozens of other people too milling around at this exhibition – it seemed to be quite a popular event, especially as there were drinks and a buffet laid on.

view from donjon caliburn marcillat en combraille allier franceThere’s a donjon – a medieval tower – in the centre of Marcillat en Combraille and it’s recently undergone a refurbishment programme.

I managed to blag my way in and went up to the top to have a good look around. There are some beautiful views from the top, including this one of the centre of the town. And there’s a good view of Caliburn too, parked over the road in front of the florist’s.

dog with hat marianne contet art exhibition maison communale mairie marcillat en combraille allier franceSo I went back down to the exhibition and joined in once more with the socialising, but it’s really not my scene at all.

However, it’s just as well that I did because while I was down there, someone asked me “are you OK for tomorrow still?”. It seems that there is a meeting of English-speaking people in the Marcillat en Combraille area and I’m supposed to be speaking at it, but I had completely forgotten all about it.

So that’s another thing to fit into my schedule that it already bursting at the seams.

As well as that, it seems that the commune here (Virlet) has a vacant date in its social calendar and could I give a talk on the Trans-Labrador Highway? The date concerned is February 24th which, as astute readers will know, is my birthday and so how can I turn it down?

Back here I’ve been working on the computer again but now at 05:00 I’m going to be doing my best to sleep. I have a hectic day tomorrow.

-4

Monday 11th April 2011 – I made it …

… back home from the Maison Ducros-Maymat in the rue de la Poste without being hauled off to the local nick.

maison ducros maymat rue de la poste pionsat puy de dome franceIn fact it was all something of a disappointment. We didn’t need to break into this empty house because someone knew someone who knew someone else who knew someone else who knew someone who had the keys. That’s how things work here in rural France.

But to start at the very beginning, the story behind the Maison Ducros Maymat is that it’s one of these maisons de bourgeois that was built in the 1930s by one of the rich people whom, during the early 20th Century, infested Pionsat.

maison ducros maymat rue de la poste pionsat puy de dome franceThere are many of this type of house built in Pionsat during this period, built in the art-deco style with marble and all that kind of thing.

This one is considered to be special and for a very good reason – it has 12,000 square metres of ground that are laid out as parkland, orchards and a drive that connects the property upon which the new Intermarche supermarket was built earlier this year.

maison ducros maymat rue de la poste pionsat puy de dome franceIt’s been abandoned since the late 1990s and the town of Pionsat has just bought it for simply the price of the ground upon which the property sits.

The intention is, apparently, to demolish it, making a new salle de fetes, a town square, a medical centre, a new road through the back of the town, and a handful of building plots which will be sold to finance the cost of the enterprise.

maison ducros maymat rue de la poste pionsat puy de dome franceMarianne’s aim was to visit the property, make a description and an inventory, measure it all up and to photograph all of the important arty bits. I was roped in for the photography bit.

And there’s no doubt that the place is magnificent and it’s a credit to its designer and builder. But it’s huge, sprawling and unwieldy, totally unmodernised and in a really poor state.

maison ducros maymat rue de la poste pionsat puy de dome franceAnd hereby hangs a tale.

If people were to be totally honest, the only people who can really bear the responsibility for the events that have arisen must be, in my opinion, the people who have owned the building. I reckon that it’s had almost nothing spent upon it in the way or repairs, renovation and modernisation for probably 50 years and it’s this factor that has led to the lack of future for the property.

maison ducros maymat rue de la poste pionsat puy de dome franceThis is why I reckon that it’s been up for sale for so long and how come the town of Pionsat has been able to buy it for a pittance. This wealth of the early 20th Century is all very well, but there is not a soul in the whole of the region these days who has enough money to restore it to the days of its glory.

It makes you realise just how far these rural regions of France have fallen on hard times, and what the place must have been like in the belle epoch.

acoustic ballroom maison ducros maymat rue de la poste pionsat puy de dome franceBut I made an exciting discovery there.

There’s a ballroom there and we inspected it closely. And it’s been clearly designed and built by a real and proper architect who knows his job. The acoustics and sonorisation are such that it’s a totally perfect music room. It’s like being in the inside of a drum with everything vibrating in perfect pitch as you move around.

I’ve heard about places like this and so have you if you’ve read books such as those by PG Wodehouse, but this is the first time I’ve ever experienced one. It’s a shame that this is going to be demolished

In other news, I’ve now gone onto summer hours here. That means working on the computer from 10:00 until the battery goes flat, and then working on the house and garden until 19:00 instead of 18:00. Now that my web pages for the Trans-Labrador Highway are on line, I’ve started on the Newfoundland pages.

J’ai une centaine (au moins) d’images que j’ai prise en photo pendant ma visite aujourd’hui. Si vous avez envie d’en regarder, contacterez-moi via Facebook.

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Sunday 3rd April 2011 – ONE OF THE THINGS …

… about staying in a hotel, especially a cheapo hotel like this one, is that when everyone else is up, then so are you.

Consequently, at 8:30 (on a Sunday?) I was up and at work, finishing off the work that I needed to do on my book about the Trans-Labrador Highway, which I posted to the internet, if you would like to read it.

And so back to Brussels where I fetched Marianne and we went off to the apartment and spent a pleasant hour or two stuffing some of the contents into Caliburn until it was full to the gunwhales. At 16:30 the daughter of the owner of the garage that I rented came round and inspected it and I returned the key to her, so that was that and I’n now €49:97 per month richer.

Spend, spend, spend, hey?

Off to pick up the trailer and the Minerva next and we towed that back to Brussels. And then while we were eating tea (Sunday is pizza day of course) we worked out a programme for Marianne to come down and see the Auvergne during the Easter school break.

Armed with a big flask of coffee I then set out for home again and it all went fine with no problems at all until leaving Auxerre when there was a mighty crash from the back. One of the restraining straps (luckily the one that stops the load shifting forwards) had broken and the Minerva had rolled forward into the headboard of the trailer. This had the effect of slackening off the strap on the front which had then become detached and there was nothing then to stop the Minerva sliding backwards (and then off the trailer into the roadway).

And so for a couple of hours I had to free off the handbrake so that it would work, mess about with the gearbox to lock it in gear, and then hunt down some more straps (not easy when you have a van full of rubbish) and then fasten it down.

While all of this was going on, a tin of paint and a container of oil became dislodged during the struggle and so that’s another mess I’ll have to clean up when I’ve emptied Caliburn.

Finally, to the chirping of the early dawn chorus I had the Minerva strapped down properly, locked in place, and by some judicious manoeuvring of straps and fasteners I could get the tailboard of the trailer in position as well – so that the Minerva won’t fall off again.

caliburn ford transit ifor williams trailer belgian land rover minerva les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis is an excellent trailer and well-worth every penny that we spent on it, but it’s not a proper car transporter and its high centre of gravity makes for interesting cornering on mountain roads when you have a high-sided vehicle like a Minerva and there’s a cross-wind.

On a couple of occasions the trailer wanted to go in a different direction than I did and when you aren’t expecting it to happen it’s guaranteed to get the adrenalin flowing. If I’m going to be moving the Minerva – and other vehicles – about on a frequent basis (and that is the plan) I need a proper low-loader trailer.

The sooner that I have one, the better.

-1

Friday 18th March 2011 – I’m having another early night tonight.

Yes, I can’t last the pace these days.

I was awake again long before the alarm clock, and I was up, dressed, breakfasted and out working by 09:00. Caliburn is now emptied completely and everything is stacked in the lean-to. Some of those boxes were heavy and it wasn’t half a struggle as well. But there’s plenty of room in there ready for more stuff.

Once that had been done I had to pick up a pile of stuff that had fallen all over the floor in where the living room will be (so that’s what the crash was when I was in bed) and then I brought all of the clothes up here. And that wasn’t easy either.

I had a rest for a few hours after that and did more work on my web site. It won’t be long before the Trans-Labrador Highway pages go on line.

Finally I started to tidy up in the barn so that I can start to move the stuff that came from Brussels in February. You may recall that I had to come back twice and each time I brought a load of stuff back. I need to get that ready as soon as possible so that I can rescue the stuff round at Terry and Liz’s. And then go back to Brussels for the Minerva and some more stuff.

But it’s wearing me out, all of this. I dunno how many consecutive early nights this will be but I’m sure that it will be a record.

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Wednesday 9th March 2011 – The situation here now is …

 that Terry and I have started on the odd jobs. It seems that major tasks for the two of us have finished.

I didn’t paint my doors today for the simple reason that the paint that I bought is nothing like the correct colour and so we decided that just the one coat (that which I put on yesterday) would be enough. And so I spent all morning scrubbing the floor in the cupboard and then mopping it out.

This afternoon I scrubbed the wall at the back of the terrace at the back of the apartment. It’s come up really clean and ready for a nice coat of white stone paint. Just the thing to set off the black tiles that we put on the floor. To finish off the day, I sanded down the doorframe of the front door – outside in the hallway. That will have a coat of gleaming white gloss first thing tomorrow – it’ll be the first thing that prospective purchasers will see so it needs to look good.

Terry was busy too, doing all kinds of things around and about. He’s also hung the curtains in the living room, taken another huge pile of stuff down to the garage, and been moving stuff around in the living room.

Liz though has been extremely busy. She’s been scrubbing the parquet floor in the living room, sanding it down with an electric sander, spreading about some liquid wax that I found in the garage, and then polishing it up with Terry’s electric car polisher. And do you know what? The results are quite impressive. It’s flaming hard work though and she was exhausted afterwards and so to save everyone’s energy I took everyone to the fritkot for tea. The food there is really quite good and I thoroughly recommend it.

In other news, I’ve posted on the internet a trial page of my Trans-Labrador Highway tour from last autumn. It’s the page where I visit Red Bay, the site of the 16th Century Basque whaling station. Have a read of it and let me know what you think as I have a cunning plan involving this page and so it needs to be good.

-2

Sunday 6th March 2011 – Today was exciting.

Manure Knighted were well and truly stuffed by the Bin Dippers this afternoon. Seeing them have a good stuffing is something that always cheers me up and I always feel better afterwards. Even if it is Sunday and I’ve had a decent sleep for a change.

And so a leisurely morning listening to Terry cheering on the Barmy Army also made quite a change.

belgium brussels park chateau robinson ferryLater on Liz and I went round to Marianne’s and ended up going for a walk in the park. We took the ferry over to the island (cost €1:00 – no wonder the Flemish are good swimmers) where I had the coldest cup of coffee I have ever had in a restaurant while Marianne and Liz had the poorest excuse for a cappuccino that I have ever seen.

And all for €8:50 as well, plus the fare on the ferry to cross over to the island. It’s not been a very good afternoon from that point of view.

Marianne came back to the apartment where Liz cooked another one of her specialities – spicy Shepherd’s Pie (made with real shepherds, so I am assured) and then I ran Marianne home again.

In other news, in writing up my epic voyage around Canada I am just about to have my first glimpse of the sea and of Newfoundland. It’s getting to the climax and the tension is unbearable. I need to make quicker progress as the suspense is killing me. I must know what happens next.

-1

Sunday 27th February 2011 – Sunday today.

And I woke up at the comparatively early time of … errrr … 10:30. Definitely feeling the pressure, I am. I shall be glad when all of this is finished.

And so apart from helping Terry for 10 minutes with some wiring I’ve done nothing else of note.

I say nothing else but that’s not really true. One of the things that I have been doing while I’ve been in Belgium is to write up the story of my stay in Canada. There won’t be enough time for that and so I’ve restricted myself to the Trans-Labrador Highway. Over the past 5 weeks I’ve been doing this and at the moment I’m just pulling into Mary’s Harbour on the Labrador coast. Here I’ll be staying for my final night in Labrador prior to taking the ferry from Blanc Sablon over to Newfoundland.

There are lots more interesting things to encounter on the journey and I’m quite looking forward to finishing it and seeing it all in glorious technicolour. But it won’t be for a while though. Tomorrow night I’m off on my marathon drive back home.

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Sunday 6th February 2011 – Sunday is a day of rest …

 … as I have said many times before. And so with no alarm clock and no nothing at all I managed to stay in bed until as late as 09:15 which is something of a record.

With a leisurely morning, I carried on working on my website and in particular the pages on the Trans-Labrador Highway. And I’ve now managed to reach Mount Sterling, which is about 20 miles from Goose Bay. That means I’m almost half-way around on my travels. It’s quite a long road, you know.

After lunch, Liz and I decided to change my habits of a lifetime and work in the afternoon. After all, the quicker you start, the quicker you finish. And so now the bedroom door and ceiling are finished. Tomorrow we can put the first coat of paint on the walls.

Tonight though has been something of a major disappointment. It’s the Superbowl and the Packers, who I have followed faithfully for the last 20 years, have made it. But the US Government has gone berserk and every internet channel that I have found that might be carrying the game has either been suspended, usurped by, of all people, the Department of Homeland Security, or absorbed by the NFL.

But its the usurpation by the DHS that is the most frightening. Big business has all the legal guns at its disposal everywhere in the world, but as well as that, in Great Satan it can summon up the Government to do its dirty work for it at the taxpayers’ expense. Even websites in other countries have had their domain names taken over and closed down, with ICANN meekly folding up at the merest suggestion of US Government pressure. It seems that no-one is safe from the domination of Great Satan, no matter where they are. Free speech is an illusion these days.

I did manage to catch 5 minutes of the warm up, where they were interviewing a member of Great Satan’s Armed Farces. He said that they were in Afghanistan “to keep our country (that is – Great Satan) free”.  He’s living under an illusion as well.

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Saturday 4th December 2010 – IT TOOK ME WELL OVER AN HOUR …

… to dig Caliburn out of a snowdrift this morning. The weather broke and we had a glorious Alpine winter’s day for a change (at least until early afternoon) and seeing as supplies are getting low I decided to go into St Eloy and do some shopping.

But that useless whatever in the snowplough – he’s been down the lane and instead of coming down to me and clearing out, he drove past down the other lane to where there is absolutely no-one at all and left me with a big snowbank across the top of the hill.

So after chopping more wood and so on, clearing snow from the cloches, the heat exchanger, the solar water, the solar lights and the compost heater, I dug Caliburn out and he’s now mobile.

After a wash I limped gingerly into St Eloy (you have no idea how bad the roads are) and not only did I do my shopping I did a pile of washing too in the laundry. Quite a big stack had built up around here and there’s no possibility of doing it myself here in these conditions.

What with one thing and another, though, I was late getting to the shops and so I didn’t have much time to use the dryer there as I wanted to be back before dark and it starting to freeze again. So I have a huge pile of damp washing hanging up in the verandah and I don’t know when it will ever dry.

But back to this Alpine morning. I’ve noticed quite often that once a cloudy day ends and night falls, the weather front shifts by about 50 miles and we have a marvellous Alpine night with millions of stars. And as soon as it dawns the weather front shifts back down again and we are plunged back into doom and gloom.

This morning though the sky stayed clear enough for me to have a decent charge on the batteries for the first time since I don’t know when and tonight is clear again so who knows? We may even have a decent day tomorrow but I am not holding my breath.

In other news, I’ve had another letter from the car hire people. Having given up on the idea of trying to stick me for excess mileage they are now trying to charge me $110 for cleaning Casey, saying that I returned it in a dirty conditions.

casey chrysler PT cruiser trans labrador highway canadaI think that this is outrageous and I have a good mind to write and tell them so. Of course I would never ever hire a car and get in into an appalling state of (lack of) cleanliness. regular readers of these pages will of course be well aware that in matters of tidiness and cleanliness I am second to none.

Of course I’m several thousand miles away from being in a position to dispute the charge so I don’t know what I can do about it. It’s certainly not fair – as if I would ever get a hire car into such a condition.

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