… a most astonishing football match.

When I tell you that the score was USM Donville 0 US Sainte-Croix St_Lô 4, you’re probably thinking that it was a really one-sided match.

But nothing could be further from the truth. It took about 25 or 30 minutes for the teams to find their feet but then we were treated to a thrilling, pulsating match where the game flowed in waves from one end of the pitch to the other.

We had several misses from open positions in front of goal, superb saves by the two goalkeepers, a good half-dozen desperate last-minute tackles and goal-line clearances and the intervention of the woodwork.

US Sainte-Croix St-Lô were marginally the better side and had the match finished 1-0 in their favour, then no-one could complain about the result. But to lose a match like this by 4 goals to nil is extremely flattering for the victors and extremely depressing for the losers.

Last night was rather a late night, and we had a really strange thing happen this morning. There are three alarms that go off in the morning – at 06:00, 06:10 and 06:20. I definitely heard two of them and I dozed off waiting for the third one.

But either I slept right through it or else it didn’t go off because the next thing that I remember was that it was 07:25.

But at least there was plenty of time to go a-wandering. I’d been doing something with music, playing in groups and I’d been trying to write a song but al my songs ended up being the same. I reckoned that I would work on one while I was away with Alvin and Ann, because we had a skiing holiday arranged. We’d arranged to meet at the airport. I went with Ann and we were waiting to get all of my stuff off the conveyor belt, she had got some of hers, and Strawberry Moose was there of course. Alvin turned up and he was asking about our things and we replid that we hadn’t received them all yet. They were coming round and people were asking me questions about Strawberry Moose, was he coming skiing and all of this kind of thing. But then the phone ringtone sounded in my pocket. But it wasn’t the phone that was ringing but the dictaphone. I’ve no idea why that should be. We met up with our tour guide – there was 6 of us. She took us into this shopping complex that was like an Indian temple, all done out in green and brown tiles. All different shops and I was wondering how anyone could afford to rent a place in here but yet more and more shops were being let out all the time. She took us through a discreet side door and down some stairs. I said that I hadn’t realised that there was another way around this building to which she replied that her husband was a football agent and had an office in this building. We ended up in his office, that was even more like an Indian temple and much more luxurious, said hello to everyone and took us outside. She started to talk to us about the holiday and our ship, and pointed it out. It was across a valley and on top of a hill. She said it’s called the “(I forget) but don’t worry about it being brown – the colour has nothing to do with it. These names are fleet names. She said that it was time to go – her watch said 11:00 but I looked at mine and said it was 08:50 – that tells you how efficient I am. Where we were standing was at the side of a road that ran along the bottom of this slope and there was a big coach depot just a little further along on the other side. There were half a dozen coaches there, all Plaxton Elites from the late 1960s that they had in this yard but with central doors rather than front doors as usual. There were also two brick pllars with a beam across which was uses I suppose for lifting engines and the like. But now I was worried about my blog entry – I hadn’t done it yet (I hadn’t as it happened, last night before going to bed). But there was so much going on that I would be squeezed back all of the time and there would be all kinds of things that would be left out of my usual daily routine
A little later I was with a group of soldiers. We’d been captured on this island and held in a kind of detention cell. One of our party had escaped and was hiding about this building site somewhere. A couple more of our people had been never been arrested. I managed to talk my way out so I thought that I would walk around. I was standing on the roof of this bunker but someone told me to come down. I stayed up there in defiance so he was making all kinds of threats about me. In the end I picked up a flare gun that was lying around and loosed off a couple of flares. He dashed up onto the roof and in the confusion I grabbed hold of his rifle and pushed him so he fell off the roof, fell on his back and broke his back. By now I had alerted all of my friends so I climbed down. The guy who escaped was hiding in a plastic box with a cement mixer and polystyrene tiles. The people who had evaded capture had seen the flare and come back. We took over this island and this building site, imprisoned all of our enemy. Right at the very end this girl came running out and ran up to one of my partners and threw her arms around him. I asked “is this the comic relief then?”. He replied “no – this is … and we are going to get married soon”

There was the usual morning procedure and then I had a shower and a general clean-up ready to hit the streets quite early. But a message on the phone stopped me in my tracks. “Your delivery will be made this morning between 09:00 and 11:00”.

And so I waited, and at 10:05 the package turned up. Or, should I say, one of the packages. Now I’m the proud possessor of at 57-inch telescopic monopod.

Tripods are quite clumsy things to carry around, especially when you are on foot with luggage, but in many circumstances, particularly with the high winds that we have round here and with long exposure times in the dark, you need lots of stability.

There isn’t always a handy wall to lean on or lean against. And so a nice telescopic monopod that will collapse into a corner of your rucksack for just €12:99 is a good deal in anyone’s language.

The rest of the package will follow (hopefully) on Monday and then I’ll tell you all about it.

But I’ve spent even more money today.

Despite its issues I’m still persevering with the mirrorless Nikon 1 J5 because it fits nicely in the pocket when I’m walking and under normal conditions it doesn’t let me down at all. I’ve had some good photos with it.

Its difficulties come under abnormal conditions like very low-light or high-speed situations.

Now that these cameras are gaining wider acceptance there’s moe stuff on the market, so every now and again I’ll keep my eye open on the camera sales to see what second-hand lenses are available.

And much to my surprise one of these popped up on the second-hand market for less than a third of the price that is listed here for a new one.

The price seems to be too good to be true but an f1.8 lens working at 12800ISO should give some incredible low-light photos, so it has to be worth a try and to see what I can make of it. I’m not holding my breath though – if it does turn up and works it will be something, I suppose.

Once the lens had come, I nipped out to the shops, in my new trainers from last weekend. LIDL coughed up a couple of little extras but there was nothing in NOZ worth talking about, except for one of these vacuum storage things that compress your clothing. I’m going to give it a try to see if I can do something about the clothing that I take on holiday with me.

LeClerc had nothing exciting at all, although I bought a spare pair of bootlaces to keep in my rucksack in case I need them on my travels.

Back here, I’ve run out of hummus, so I made another batch. I forgot the garlic unfortunately, but it still tasted really good.

This afternoon, I sat down to work, but by 14:40 I couldn’t go on. I ended up back in bed where I stayed until about 16:30. Dead to the world in fact.

Later on, in the rain I wandered off in the rain and my new boots to the football at the Cité des Sports.

Eems Sea was still down there at the quayside. And in the daylight I can say that it looks so much better than it does in the half-light and I really can believe that it was built comparatively recently.

And furthermore, it looks as if all of the gravel has been loaded and the hatches are all battened down.

While I was walking through the town centre Rosemary telephoned me, so we arranged to speak later.

While I was on the phone, I was admiring the roundabout that has appeared just recently in the Place Charles de Gaulle opposite the Mairie

It looks quite bright and cheerful over there and there were a couple of kids on there having a whale of a time. And why not?

Further on along the road to the Cité des Sports I happened to glance down the driveway of a house and found an old car parked at the end of it.

It’s a Citroen Acadiane and regular readers of this rubbish in one of its many previous guises will recall that I owned one of these for a short while.

I bought it as a D-i-Y project from one of the Ixelles Council’s abandoned vehicle sales but I “lost” it when the garage in which I stored it was cleared out when the site was redeveloped.

After the football I came back home, passing by the empty berth where Eems Sea was moored just three hours ago (that was a quick turnaround) and had a very long chat with Rosemary again.

So now it’s another late night, without any tea too. But I can have a lie-in tomorrow because it’s a Sunday and there’s no alarm.

And then I can try to get back into the rhythm of things.

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