Tag Archives: welsh cup

Friday 25th January 2019 – IT WASN’T QUITE …

… the early night that I was expecting.

I’m not quite sure what happened but it was certainly later than midnight when I went to bed. And even later when I went to sleep.

What was even more surprising was that I was up and about reasonably early too, not too long after the alarm went off.

I’d been on my travels too. Back on the Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour and I’m not now sure why. Although it has been in my thoughts just recently and on my live ship navigation feed, I noticed before going to bed that she’s currently in the Antarctic moored to an ice-floe about 300 yards offshore.

After breakfast, I had a shower and a change of clothes and a general clean-up. I need to look my best for I have things to do. These included tracking down Brigitte my neighbour. And I was extremely lucky in that I caught her just as she was on the point of going out.

Nevertheless she devoted 15 minutes to countersigning my passport application. It’s quite handy having a former Civil Servant in the building who can actually remember me from the past. As I have said before … “and you will say again” – ed … it’s a small world, and it’s getting smaller all the time.

I collected up all of the papers and headed off into town. I posted off the form to declare that I had lost my original, and then went into the Post Office to send off the application registered post, recorded delivery with receipt – all of that. I’ve no idea how long it might take to replace my passport but the way things are as they are, I imagine that this 6-week time limit is going to be considerably under pressure.

Picking up a baguette I headed for home, only to bump into Brigitte again. Every labour deserves its reward so I invited her for a coffee. This was at about 11:30. We had a chat too and much to my surprise it was 13:47 by the time we moved off. I’ll have to take my bed with me next time.

After a rather late lunch I started to catch up with the paperwork, with a brief interruption for a walk around the headland in the rain.

Back here I started to carry on but by 17:15 I was flat out on the bed and asleep. And I would probably still be there now had I not had another severe attack of cramp. But I wasn’t in the mood for any tea, but made a quick plate of pasta and veg.

night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy franceThe rain had gone this evening but the wind was blowing quite strongly.

With the tide being in, the waves were crashing up over the promenade again at the Plat Gousset. It was altogether quite an impressive sight.

And on the way back I nearly collided with a young girl walking the other way who loomed up out of the darkness around the corner.

Back round in the rue Notre Dame I met up with Minette the black cat who seems to have forgiven me for whatever I did to her because she let me stroke her.

Shopping tomorrow so I might have an early night. No football in the evening either except on the internet where the biggest match this century will take place. Bangor City and Caernarfon Town are separated by about 13 miles and so hate each other with a passion. Caernarfon have always been the underdogs but were promoted to the Welsh Premier League last season finally to meet Bangor, only to find that Bangor were expelled for financial irregularities. They meet up in the Welsh Cup tomorrow at Bangor and Caernarfon’s allocation of 1300 tickets was sold out ages ago.

This is going to be a corker.

night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy france
night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy france

night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy france
night storm plat gousset granville manche normandy france

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Saturday 8th December 2018 – JUST TYPICAL, ISN’T IT?

Ohh the decisions!

Do I go out in a howling gale and rainstorm to watch US Granville’s 2nd XI, or do I stay in in the comfort and warmth of my own living room and watch Y Fflint v Y Bala in the Welsh Cup?

After a great deal of deliberation, I decided to watch the latter. And I hadn’t even had time to sit down on the sofa before the floodlights failed and the ground was plunged into darkness. Match abandoned, and that was that.

That was almost that this morning too. Another mobile phone upgrade during the night and so despite being awake at 05:15, it was 06:45 when I realised that something was amiss.

That wasn’t all of the activity during the night either. I’d heard on the grapevine that there was a driving job on offer on a temporary basis at an engineering firm in the locality, so putting on a pair of overalls, off I trotted. When I arrived there they wouldn’t let me in so being fed up about being left hanging around like this, I just strode in, through the doors and into the machine room where I loudly asked to speak to the foreman. There was a guy who was sitting on a bench behind a table with several other people. He lifted up his head and announced himself. And I recognised him. He was one of my father’s former colleagues and naturally he would identify my overalls, as they were a pair of brown ones from may father’s place (they didn’t use brown, by the way) that had been liberated at one time. He wasn’t sure about this job but said that there was a pile of scaffolding behind the factory that needed moving. A manual job wasn’t quite what I had in mind due to my state of health and I visibly wilted, but it was a start I suppose.
A little later I received notice that my employer was sending me to work in London on a temporary basis. So I was no idea why I was looking up trains to Glasgow. But anyway I sorted something out ready for the early morning (it was very late in the evening) but then I suddenly realised that I didn’t have the address of where I was supposed to be going. I needed my papers out of my rucksack. On the way down tea was served for the group of people with whom I had been travelling. There was absolutely nothing that I could eat so I decided to try my luck with a cheese sandwich. But to my dismay, I found after I had taken a bite out of it that it had chicken on it. So there was nothing at all that I could eat. When I reached our bus, which was an elderly worn-out school bus rather like the one at Pond Inlet there were already people on board waiting to move on. I asked the driver if there was any food that I could eat so, after a great deal of thought, he reckoned that there might be some pasta somewhere. I could see that this particular trip was going to be extremely difficult. I went on down the bus to see if I could find my rucksack to find out the details of where I was expected to be tomorrow.

With a late breakfast there wasn’t all that much time to organise myself before it was time to shoot off to LIDL. And they still had one of the big slow cookers left. The small one that I have here was bought for travelling and hotel use, and is too small for cooking in here. When I make a mega-curry, it overflows. So a 3.5-litre one is a much better idea.

NOZ didn’t have anything special except some of the alcohol-free beer that I bought last year. So I bought a tray of it. They also had some real and proper Digestive biscuits and I can eat those.

bad parking leclerc granville manche normandy franceAt Leclerc there was nothing special.

We’re back on the bad parking though. Someone who can’t even park his vehicle between two white lines, and can’t manage to pull it off the public highway either.

It’s worse than Belgium around here at times, where people used to find their driving licences in packets of crisps, as the old story used to go.

They had some more of the coconut-flavoured soya dessert but there was also some almond-flavoured soya dessert with €0:30 off on special offer, so I thought that I would try one of those this week.

And just two of the gilets jaunes today on the roundabout – looking bemused and bewildered as the motorists drove past ignoring them.

Back here I crashed out for a while and then put away everything that I bought.

Lunch was indoors of course with some more of the home-made hummus – delicious it was too.

This afternoon I attacked the pile of images from the desktop computer and removed yet another pile of duplicates. It’s getting to be something of a habit. There won’t be any left at this rate.

storms waves fog granville manche normandy franceThe walk around the walls this afternoon was in the wind and rain.

The tide was out so no waves crashing over the sea walls, and not many people out there either which is hardly any surprise.

The waves were quite wild down there, rolling along the beach there like that. I didn’t fancy being out there myself

housebuilding rue du nord granville manche normandy franceIt gave me a good opportunity to have a look at the housebuilding that is (slowly) taking place along the rue du Nord.

I can’t remember now what was there before they originally started on the building, but whatever they are doing, they are taking their time doing it.

I imagine that we’ll be ending up sometime with a couple of apartments with a sea view or a single residence or something.

Tea was a stuffed pepper and spicy rice, all of which was a little more spicy that is good for me. I’ll have to put the toilet roll in the fridge for later.

And then the football – or lack thereof.

And a walk around the Pointe du Roc in a veritable hurricane – the storm had increased tenfold in velocity but strangely the wind had dropped. The waves were pounding over the sea wall by the harbour but there was nothing like enough light to capture it and I shall have to work on that.

night christmas lights rue du port de granville harbour manche normandy franceInstead, I had to make do with the Christmas lights that have been installed down on the rue du Port.

They don’t look all that impressive from up here, and I bet that they are even less impressive from down there.

I can’t help thinking that they need to make more of an effort to brighten up the place and make it much more attractive and artistic.

It’s Sunday tomorrow so I’m in no rush to go to bed. I can have a lie-in instead, but I bet that someone will come along to disturb me.

bad parking leclerc granville manche normandy france
bad parking leclerc granville manche normandy france

beach graffiti plat gousset granville manche normandy france
beach graffiti plat gousset granville manche normandy france

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Sunday 6th May 2018 – THIS ISN’T GOING …

… to work out very well either.

Toddled off in the heat down to the station this evening to enquire about the trains, only to be told “you need to come back tomorrow evening. We’ll only know the night before”
“So why did your colleague tell me to come back this evening then?”
“I dunno”.
And so the discussion went on.

In the end, the guy at the ticket office at the station made me aware that there was a bus from Avranches to Lille every day at lunchtime. He gave me the details and cancelled my outward journey. So that’s at least something.

Sure enough, there’s a bus at 12:04 on Tuesday lunchtime, and to Lille it’s only €39:99. Takes all day of course, but it’s better than nothing.

Now to check up on the local buses. Ahh yes – a bus at 10:05 – gets to Avranches at 10:57. That sounds ideal to me. An hour to have a coffee and to compose myself (rather than Beethoven, who spent 60 years composing and 400 years decomposing).

but wait a minute. “Does not run on school holiday dates” – and Tuesday in France is a Bank Holiday isn’t it?

At the limit I could go to Avranches in Caliburn, but then he would be stranded down there until I could go to fetch him back, whenever that might be.

Yes, this is not turning out too well right now is it?

Last night, I was in bed at a fairly respectable time, where I stayed until about 09:00 this morning.

I’d been on my travels though, being my usual obnoxious annoying self, and so a car came to pick me up – something to do with Hearts Football Club I believe. The driver invited me to go for a drive with him and we ended up at the local prison. The chief warden met me there and gave me a conducted tour of the premises, showing me all of the dark recesses and crooks and nannies of the place. We arrived at the communal area where some women, inmates I reckon, were washing the floor. He showed me where the buckets were, showed me where the hot water was, the soap and a mop, and invited me to help clean the floor. I was concerned about walking over the area where the women had already cleaned, but they told me to clean the chute in the wall where the cats come in. It seems that a pile of cats come in at night to keep the inmates company. “At least there’s some good news” I thought. I had to move a bed to get to this chute – a three-tier bunk bed with cheap, thin horrible mattresses, and with a young woman dressed very poorly in a sweater and yellowy-brown slacks sitting on the top. And behind the bed was the most indescribable filth and less. Clearly these women were only cleaning what they could see, and no-one cared about the rest.

After breakfast I vegetated around for quite a while without doing too much (it IS Sunday after all) and then just for a change I had some lunch. Afterwards, I tidied up a huge pile of the backlog of e-mails and, would you believe, found an e-mail from Plenty’s dad asking for copies of the photographs of his lorries that we saw parked up here back in March.

We then had the Welsh Cup Final where Connah’s Quay Nomads saw off Aberystwyth Town without too much effort, although it could well have been a different story had the far-side linesman’s guide-dog been paying proper attention.

From there, I went for my walk to the station and then back here where I made another pizza. The pizza base that I bought yesterday was a dsiaster by the way. Stuck to the greaseproof paper and wouldn’t come off. And when it did it went just about everywhere except where it was supposed to.

And then another walk this evening. And the camera lens, about which I have moaned on a regular basis, has now completely given up the ghost. I’ll be sending it back when I return from Belgium.

Final word is that I seem to be being attacked by ants. There’s a pile of them that have somehow found their way in here. Now I need to find them a way out.

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Sunday 8th April 2018 – WHAT KIND OF …

… time is 06:35 on a Sunday morning to be waking up?

That’s almost as depressing as falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon, isn’t it? You would think that with me being so tired these days and with the one day per week when I have no alarm and can sleep for 24 hours without the slightest pang of guilt, that I would make the most of it.

Mind you, I’d been on my travels during the night. Back to an apartment that I owned (which I didn’t but don’t let that worry anyone) in Brussels which was tenanted by the girl who was my tenant at Reyers. We were talking about something or other that involved food and when it came to storing it, the guy who was with her said “but that’s alright if you have a fridge that works”. I was surprised, and said to the girl “what about the fridge here?” to which she commented that “it doesn’t work any more”. I asked her why she hadn’t told me and she replied that she hadn’t wanted to bother me. “It’s not a case of that” I replied and went off into the kitchen to measure the unit where the fridge was fitted. It was so complicated that I was convinced that I was doing it incorrectly but just then Terry turned up, so I left it all to him.

07:47 was when I finally stirred, and I needn’t have bothered because one look out of the window told me everything. We really ARE back in winter. Cold, wet, grey and miserable.

But that’s enough about me – let’s talk about the weather too.

We had the usual morning performances and then, seeing as it was Sunday, I did nothing at all for the rest of the morning except some stuff on the laptop for my own amusement. It’s good to have that one day per week when you can do nothing and not feel guilty about it.

This afternoon, I had a choice of entertainment. US Granville’s 3rd XI were at home at the Cité des Sports whereas at the same time Aberystwyth Town were playing Newtown in the other Welsh Cup semi-final. I looked out of the window, made my butties and settled down on the sofa in front of the television.

This was a much better match than last night. Aberystwyth Town were the better team and won 2-1 against a Newtown team that battled away competitively without much success. And Aberystwyth’s opening goal was a peach. A breakaway down the wing, a pinpoint cross into the penalty area and a bullet header from the centre-forward right into the corner of the net. A proper 1970s striker’s goal that will be viewed time and time again on the internet media.

Once the match was over I did go for a walk despite the weather. It’s the Ideal Home Exhibition in town and I wanted to see what was going on. But as I expected, it was a complete and utter waste of time. Full of these airy-fairy luxury items and nothing whatever that would fit my budget.

Even worse, there was nothing – nothing whatever that inspired me or gave me any ideas. And that in itself is a tragedy from my point of view. Most things that I see usually get me thinking about how I can either use it or improve on it, but not here.

There wasn’t even any hospitality coffee on offer. Not a thing. And so I gave it up as a bad job and came home.

And, ashamed as I am to admit it, I crashed out for an hour too. Things aren’t going too well for me right now, are they?

Tonight’s pizza was another excellent one, and then I braved the rain for yet another walk this evening – this time, around the headland. Cold wet and miserable, and the weather was even worse.

Now I’m trying to warm up before going to bed. I’m really fed up of this weather.

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Saturday 7th April 2018 – SO THAT WAS …

… Summer then.

This morning we were back with the grey, miserable, depressing overcast weather that was threatening rain again.

I leapt from my bed with a spring in my step at the sound of the first alarm … "QUITE" – ed … and then went through the usual morning ritual followed by a shower and a turn of the washing machine. I need to have everything up-to-date here before I go.

The shops were pretty boring and I didn’t buy all that much – hardly surprising when I’m not going to be here for 10 days. LIDL was quite boring, except for the enormous queue at the one till that was open, but there were a couple of DVDs in NOZ that attracted my attention. Les Grandes Vacances starring Louis de Funès who, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, is my favourite French comedian, and also “Le Brigand Bien-Aimé”, or to give it its English title, The True Story of Jesse James – but unfortunately the 1950s remake, not the original, classic 1939 version.

There was also a nice imitation-copper tray too. Very heavy. Just the job for putting on the table to keep the condiments and so on handy whenever I carry out the additions to the kitchen.

It was exciting at LeClerc though. Some woman was insisting that they weighed her fruit and vegetables BEFORE she put them in the bag, despite the fact that the scales there are set to minus 0.5 grammes to take into account the weight of the bag. Just how petty can anyone be?

Back here, I had a coffee and a tidy up (just a little one) before lunch and then, seeing as I can now pick up 5-Live with the new hi-fi (with which I am almost as impressed as I was with my galvanised steel dustbin) I listened to the football on the radio.

As that finished, it was time for me to set off to the Stade Louis Dior and this evening’s football. US Granville’s 1st XI were playing Stade Briochin, the team from down the coast at St Brieuc.

And true to form, as the teams lined up for the kick-off, we had the downpour. 535 brave spectators witnessed a rather depressing football match.

Stade Briochin are second in the table and are challenging for promotion to the National League. And it was easy to see why. I’ve mentioned in the past that US Granville’s attack can be pretty aimless at times, especially when their centre-forward doesn’t feel much like it, and that was the case today. I’ve never seen then so ineffectual up front.

As for Stade Briochin, they were much more focused and dynamic, and played with a system, a shape and a plan. They scored two goals with some very good play and could have had even more had the Granville ‘keeper not been on top form.

Granville improved in the final quarter of an hour after a couple of substitutions but still didn’t seriously threaten the Stade Briochin goal and they are probably still out there now trying to launch an attack on the empty net.

And surprise, surprise. As soon as the referee blew for full-time the rain stopped and my trudge home was rather damp but dry.

Tea was out of a tin as is usual on a Saturday when I’m late home. Rice and veg with a tin of those champignons à la grecque. Not my favourite meal but at least it’s different and adds some variety to my diet.

It was very kind of the FAW to hold up the kick-off of tonight’s Welsh Cup semi-final until I was back home. And so thanks to the internet and my new television I was able to watch Connah’s Quay Nomads totally demolish some clueless rabble in blue that pretended to be Bangor City.

With Lord Lucan and Martin Bormann in central defence and a debut appearance for The Invisible Man at left-back, who had to be just about the worst defender that I have ever seen at this level of football, the Nomads rattled in 6 quick-fire goals and could have had half a dozen more except for a brave display by Matthew Hall in the Bangor goal.

Bangor’s reply – a penalty – was nothing more than some soft consideration or consolation for what had been the worst performance that I had ever seen.

I’ve mentioned in the past that Bangor’s inconsistency is costing them dear. Last week they took on TNS, who had just been crowned League Champions, and beat them 1-0. And earlier in the season they had beaten TNS 5-2. And then they go and turn out an embarrassing, humiliating performance like this?

So on that note, I’m storming off to bed. It’s been a bad day for the football.

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Saturday 27th January 2017 – I’VE BEEN SPENDING …

… my money again. And I won’t have any left at this rate, will I?

And it wasn’t on the usual Saturday shopping either. A visit to LIDL, LeClerc, Noz and the Foirfouille ran out at just about €33:00 which is reasonably normal – especially when you consider that I spent about €12:00 in the NOZ.

Where the money went was in the electrical section of LeClerc.

You know all about the smartphone issues that I’ve been having just recently, and the little old Samsung that has been helping me out isn’t really doing the job in the long-term. I’ve looked at second-hand ones and there’s nothing that seems reasonable, and as you know, I’ve been quoted some ludicrous prices for some new ones.

There were some cheap ones on eBay and Amazon but the reviews weren’t all that good, and when you buy from places like that, there’s no comeback.

But in LeClerc they had some cheap Chinese ones on offer – with Android operating system. Only 3G, but I’m not too bothered about that, but 16GB of memory and upgradeable with a 32GB micro SD card (and I just happen to have one) and Dual-SIM. They were going for €89:99 but today there was a €15:00 cash-back offer available.

The advantages of buying from LeClerc are that

  1. LeClerc wouldn’t deliberately set out to sell rubbish
  2. They have a cash-back offer if the article isn’t satisfactory
  3. There’s a two-year guarantee on parts and labour

I’m not entitled to a new phone for another year so if this keeps going until then I’ll be happy.

And it’s actually much better than I thought it might be, which is a surprise. The hardest part of configuring it was to fit the SIM card, because that is a complicated procedure. Everything works, and the internet access is quite rapid. So we’ll see how it goes.

There was also an exciting time with the new dash-cam. Configuring that wasn’t straightforward either, and the videos that it produced were rubbish. I must have spent an hour trying to make it record in a better quality, all to no avail.

But it did make a dramatic improvement later in the afternoon when I took the plastic protective coating off the camera lens.

D’ohhhh!

It was another miserable night where I didn’t have much sleep. I’d been on my travels too but I can’t remember too much about it except that we were in a café and there was this strange bar accessory. Some people might know of the machine that looks like a shower fitting with hose, with different buttons on the head that you select to dispense different soft drinks. There was one of those last night but it was dispensing different milks, such as soya milk and the like.

It was an effort to crawl out of bed and after having medicined and breakfasted, I had a shower and then set a load of clothes to wash while I was out.

And then we had the shops.

After lunch I had a play around with the new phone but ended up crashing well and truly out for a good half an hour. And then had the first of my two walks (all the local football tonight is postponed).

There was football on the internet which I watched on the TV – Llandudno v Rhuthun in the Welsh Cup. An exciting match that went into extra time before Llandudno ran out as winners. And while it was on, I carried on configuring the phone and now it seems to do what I want it to do.

Tinned curry for tea – only two of these tins left now which is a tragedy because there won’t be any more. I haven’t been to the UK for almost 5 years now and I’ve no intention of going again. So unless someone else brings me back a supply that will be my lot.

Tomorrow it’s a lie-in of course, and I do have to say that I need one too. So either I’ll still be flat out on my back at midday or I’ll be wide awake at 05:00.

It’s either one thing or the other right now.

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Saturday 28th January 2017 – PANIC AT THE SCOUT HUT!

Here I was, sitting in my little room this afternoon when I heard the sirens.

ambulance scout hut kruisstraat leuven belgium january janvier 2017Two emergency ambulances in fact, one a proper full-sized thing and the other was one of these rapid response estate car things. And they came roaring up the Kruisstraat, the wrong way of course as you might expect, and shuddered to a halt at the scout hut, which is at the rear of this building.

There was some kind of commotion there, and then the big ambulance departed in a hurry, with the little one following on behind with its lights and siren switched off.

The wrong way up the Kruisstraat, of course.

I didn’t have much of a sleep last night and although I was away on my travels everything evaporated as soon as I awoke, which was long before the alarm went off. In other words, I was whacked this morning.

My German housemates were in there for breakfast and it’s a fact that I couldn’t eat mine. Half of it ended up in the bin. I don’t know what’s the matter with me these days. Can’t sleep, can’t eat, can’t do anything.

Seeing as I’m out tomorrow, I hope, I went for a shower and a shave and a change of clothes. I may as well, even if they haven’t been this week to change my linen despite the promise that they made on Monday. Can’t say that I’m too impressed with the housekeeping. But then again, the price that I’m paying to stay here, I’m not complaining.

The Carrefour was on the agenda too. I walked down there via Caliburn, giving him a start and a little warm-up for five minutes. I bought a few bits and pieces for lunch and for Sunday tea. No hummus though as I have a pile of vegan cheese. I’ll go for cheese butties instead.

frozen fountain botanical garden kapucijnenvoer leuven belgium january janvier 2017My path down to the Carrefour took me past the Botanical Gardens in the Kapucijnenvoer. And I was arrested by this bizarre sight.

Although it is comparatively warm for the time of year right now, it’s been freezing for quite a few days. And the fountain by the entrance to the Botanic Gardens is still partly-frozen.

I should have come down to see it in the middle of the cold spell, I suppose, but it was still quite photogenic. I wasn’t the only person photographing it today.

This afternoon, in between a little snooze, someone “shared” a football match on their Social networking site. Caernarfon Town against Rhyl in the Welsh Cup. If they simply link to it, I can’t see it as there’s a block on transmission but “sharing” it means that I can watch it, which I did. That was a nice change.

For tea I had more of my kidney bean stuff with pasta. And it was just as delicious as Thursday too. It was followed by pineapple slices and sorbet, which was even nicer.

I’ll try now to have a good long sleep ready for tomorrow. I’m hoping to have an afternoon out tomorrow.

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