Tag Archives: storm

Wednesday 28th March 2018 – I DIDN’T …

… go into town today either.

One look out of the window was enough to tell me all that I needed to know. It wasn’t quite as bad as yesterday but it was near enough.

Another reasonable sleep though – out like a light and slept right through to the alarms and then the usual morning performance.

Once the medication had done its job I started to attack the pile of photographs here. And I don’t want to tell you how many went into the bin because you probably wouldn’t believe that I even had that many. But I’m whittling this down – not necessarily into manageable proportions but at least disposing of unnecessary duplicates … "and triplicates and quadruplicates etc etc" – ed.

And it’s just as well that things are advancing because delivery 2 came today. A 4TB hard drive. The old 250GB one that has run for ever is now overflowing, the 750GB one I’m going to use just for backing up data and so the 2TB one is going to have its work cut out.

And to give you some kind of idea as to how things are shaping, I paid more for the 250GB one that I paid for the new 4TB one, and I do remember that thanks to its mammoth size I won’t ever need anything bigger than 250GB. But then, that was back in the days when a high-quality digital image was 25KB, never mind 25MB.

After lunch and the session on the guitar I went out to brave the howling gale, seeing as the rain had stopped.

And “howling gale” were definitely the correct words to use as, once gain, it was blowing a good ‘un. It is starting to depress me just a little this weather. It’s been a miserable, wet clingy winter that seems to have gone on for ever

Ready for a change, aren’t I?

The high winds and bad weather weren’t clearly upsetting too many other people though.

They have suddenly put quite a spurt on with this house that they are building, and have now started to put on the roof.

Not much of a pitch on that though. It’s a good job that they don’t have snow like in the Auvergne. We’ve seen roofs collapse under the weight of the snow that we can have down there.

It didn’t stop Normandy Trader from making her way into harbour either.

No idea what she brought in today, and when I took this photo she was fully-loaded and ready to depart.

And depart she did because when I was out and about this evening, she had left her berth and gone back to Jersey. She and Grima do seem to be keeping quite busy just now.

Back here, I had a coffee and really good chinwag with Rosemary on the ‘phone about this and that. She’s feeling a little miserable after her operation and needed cheering up.

And then tea. Tidying up the other day I had found a leftover pepper and so it was a case of “stuff that for a lark” – and I duly did. Delicious too, as were the strawberries and vegan cream for pudding.

When I went out for my walk is was still comparatively light, so I took a nice photo of some of the houses in the the Medieval town through the gateway at the back here.

20:46 in the evening, that was too. The nights are definitely getting shorter now. It was only a couple of months since it was pitch-black at 17:00.

This year is going just so quickly that I can’t keep up with it? Whatever happened to that six-weeks summer holiday that we had that used to last for ever?

JUst 15 minutes later though it was a totally different story.

By the time that I had gone round to the fortifications on the north-east edge looking over the Place Marechal Foch and the Casino it was pretty dark.

I had the 50mm lens with me too, but that has an issue with it, so it seems. The aperture ring isn’t locking, according to the camera, although I can tell that it is. I was going to take some photos with that tonight, but instead, tomorrow I’ll be looking at that to see what’s wrong.

And my mate the black cat was there again tonight. But he wasn’t in very much of a sociable mood, and neither really was I.

And just in case you were wondering, I’ve reached “Marillion” on the playlist. Can’t you tell?

Friday 9th February 2018 – HAVING REGAINED MY COMPOSURE …

… after the mail that I received from the Bank yesterday, I sent them a reply this afternoon. Carefully thought out, I’ve asked for a reply to five points that, for me, are quite important in my dealings with them.

And I received an answer from them as well- which basically didn’t answer any questions at all.

But I did learn one thing – and that is that the person with whom I have been dealing recently “is no longer with the Bank”. So that’s two employees of the Credit Agricole in Granville that I’ve seen off. Who’s next? The woman who is dealing with my affairs now is a Madame Rottier. And I bet that that’s a spelling mistake too.

And for another change I had the Sleep of the Dead yet again last night. And quite rightly so. It’s about time. And I was up and about when the second alarm went off, which is even better.

We had the usual arrangements this morning of course, and once the medication worked I went out and about to do my shopping. The idea was to do it this morning before they started to close off all of the roads for the Carnaval. The downside of this is that everyone else decided to do the same thing too, and so everywhere was crowded.

First port of call though was the Tax Office. I’ve had the bill for my stay in hospital over New Year so that needs to be paid. With me going to Leuven next week, I’m staying for a couple of days extra and I’ve arranged to go into Brussels on Friday where I can call in at my Health Insurance people and hand in all of the receipts.

But the queue there was quite something. I don’t know how long it takes to pay a bill – for me it’s about 30 seconds – but the woman on the cash desk was really making a performance of it all and everyone was quite frustrated by her “work to rule”.

LIDL came up with nothing at all spectacular, but all of the excitement was outside in the car park.

Liz told me the other day that they had had a heavy snowfall where she lives – just 15 miles or so from here – and that was hard to believe considering the weather that we have had.

But here in the car park at LIDL was a car with snow embedded under the wheel arches and with a large lump that had just fallen off.

After LIDL I went to a new shop. Liz had told me about a frozen food place called Picard that she had found and there is one in Granville. So I popped in for a look around. There’s tons more stuff than there is anywhere else, but at a price. Nevertheless, it’s handy to know if I need anything that isn’t mainstream.

Bureau Vallée was next, and they had restocked their 2GB memory sticks. So another two have now disappeared into my apartment.

After lunch and my little correspondence session, I braved the howling gale (it really was wicked) and went for a walk.

My route took me around the headland and it was well-worth the struggle against the wind because I was treated to a most spectacular sight of the waves being hurled over the sea wall into the tidal basin.

This is one of the reasons why I’ve come to live by the seaside. The power of the waves and the storms is quite impressive. You need to remember that I’m living right where the highest ever wind speed to hit the French coast was recorded – 220kph in 1987

Back here with a coffee and a … errr … relax, and then a session on the database followed by the usual half-hour on the guiter. And I suddenly found myself playing the bass line to Budgie’s “Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman”. That brings back memories from when I met Ray Phillips, the former Budgie drummer who had played on that album and was looking for a bassist for a gig he was playing with an ad-hoc band at a pub in Nantwich one night in 1977.

After tea (the rest of the oven chips, beans and falafel) I went into town to see what was happening with the carnaval.

The funfair was all closed up and in darkness, but there were quite a few people around in the streets. So much so that a fast-food outlet had opened its doors to serve them.

I can’t say that I was tempted very much – the smell of roasted flesh is disgusting if you ask me.

Everyone was heading into the square so I followed them to see what was going on.

Almost everyone was in fancy-dress, and that’s because there was a carnaval-eve ball taking place, with a rock band and everything. But far too “young” for me. Never mind the Phyllosan to fortify the over-40s – what do they have to sixtify the over-60s?

But it did remind me of the noise that I once heard from the village hall in Byley a good few years ago.
“What’s all that noise going on in there?”
“They are holding a Young Farmer’s Ball”
“And what’s the matter? Can’t he get them to let go?”

Not feeling in the least bit tired (but rather fatigued nevertheless) I went for a walk to the Place Maréchal Foch and the Casino.

I’d not really been for a good wander around there in the dark before, so now seemed to be as good a time as any.

There were cars parked all over the place, as you might expect with it being carnaval and half of the streets closed off, and it rather spoilt the view unfortunately.

We’ve seen plenty of photographs of the casino in the past but we have never seen it quite like this.

There’s definitely something about the effects of artificial lighting at night-time to bring out the best of a building, and that’s exactly what we have here. It really does look good.

In the corner to the left of the casino we have the little theatre. I’ve not yet been there – but that’s basically because there’s nothing that ever goes on there that is of interest to me.

Instead, I continued with my walk around the Place Marechal Foch, and passed by the Hotel des Bains.

This has been described as “delightfully chic” in some travel guides, which means that it isn’t the kind of place that you are ever likely to find Yours Truly spending a night these days.

But nevertheless, the building is quite impressive. It’s fairly modern but it’s been built with some kind of tasteful eye on the history of the town which is always nice to see. It’s a shame that more people can’t make an effort.

With still 12%of my daily activity to do, I carried on with my walk. and I’m glad I did because I spotted this way in the distance.

And when was the last time that you saw a Bedford CF on the road anywhere? I haven’t seen one for years. The last British “Vauxhall” vehicle, they wer emade from 1969 to compete with the Ford Transit but came on the scene far too late.

The Transit was already well-established by then, with the previous CA Bedford putting up no resistance, and the CF didn’t last long. It disappeared with hardly a whimper in 1987 when the “Cevel” vans of Peugeot and Citroen flooded into the UK.

And I for one never expected to see one again.

No shopping tomorrow, but there’s a carnaval procession. I mustn’t miss that, so I’ll have to be in the Town Centre at 13:30.

No peace for the wicked.

Friday 15th December 2017 – WHAT AN EXCITING …

… football match that was!

OH Leuven were playing SK Lierse, the team at the top of the table. It was a freezing night but everyone who entered the ground was given a Santa hat and a free glass of glühwein (I declined mine) so we were all in the festive spirit.

OHL played the best that I had seen them play for quite some considerable time and were a deserved 2-0 up at half-time. Their left-winger, this guy Storm who they signed from KV Oostende, was tearing them to shreds down the left flank. He didn’t know what to do with the ball when he got to the bye-line but at least he was keeping the SK Lierse defence busy.

But the result was inevitable. He received one kick too many and after 75 minutes he hobbled from the field. A few minutes later OH Leuven were effectively down to 10 men. Casagolda, the centre-forward, had also been the vistil of a few heavy challenges and he received one too many. With no more substitutes, he had to hobble on but was clearly out of the game.

This took the presssure off the Lierse defence and they could push much further forward. They inevitably scored a goal late in the game but Leuven hung on to win.

Last night, I settled down to watch a Boris karloff “Mr Wong” film – and that had the desired effect. Out in 30 seconds. And off to Gresty Road outside the Alexandra Social Club where I was with a couple of people watching this young boy and young girl looking for a place where they could get up to no good. “It’s a shame about there being no tress to hide behind here in the Arctic” said one of the people – and only anyone who has ever stood on the windswept car park between the Social Club and Jail House on the corner will ever understand the connection.

After breakfast I headed up to the bus station for the bus to Everberg and the English shop. I wanted my mince pies and Christmas pudding.

The bus ws jam-packed with kids – I’ve no idea where they were going. Nor had I any real idea where I was going but once I saw somewhere tha I realised, I alighted and walked the rest of the way, only to find that there was a bus stop right outside.

I found what i wanted (no Dandelion and Burdock though – I’ll have to make do with fiery Ginger – but the woman in front of me spent over €170 on things like sliced bread, jams and so on-everything typically British. It rather defeats the point of living abroad if you do that.

On the way back I picked up some bread and tomatoes and made myself a butty with the cheese from yesterday, and that was followed by a little doze.

Later, I headed into town to look at the Christmas lights at this end of town and to visit the Christmas market now that I worked out where it was.

And also down to Hema. I want a very small saucepan for doing sauces and the like and they had one to match another saucepan that i bought from there. €11:00 reduced to €8:80 so I’m very happy with that.

Later on I was off to the football, and found another fritkot across the road from the nick. Their fritjes were excellent and I’ll go there again.

But forst i’m going to bed. I’ve had a very hectic day.

Friday 8th December 2017 – PHEW!

This weather is getting worse and worse.

Tonight, going out for my evening walk around the walls, I was the only one out. And that’s no surprise because I nearly wasn’t. There’s a little sally-port out onto the cliffs onto a footpath that I follow, and I had extreme difficulty in forcing myself through the aperture with the wind blowing full in my face.

It’s a long time since I’ve seen a wind quite like this.

Mind you it’s a shame that the tide wasn’t in. Watching the waves crashing onto the sea wall would have been impressive.

It took a while to go off to sleep last night but once I’d gone I’d really gone until the alarm went off. And I know that I was out and about during the night, but as soon as I awoke it all disappeared in a puff.

I’d switched the heat off in here before going to bed last night so it was cold this morning. And it took a while for the place to heat up>. And while it was doing it I was cracking on with my photos. I’ve searched through about half of them and deleted a huge pile of duplicates, some triplicates and even, shame as it is to say it, some quadruplicates.

Another thing that I’ve done is to make a huge back-up. Having freed off plenty of space on this external drive, I have the space to move things about. And a back-up is important. I haven’t done this for a while and I ned to keep it up to date.

This means that the photos that I took recently ae now saved onto the external drive, and as I have an old laptop with an *.ftp program on it, I can now upload them to the web. But having had a good search around on the internet, I am not the only one by any means who is dismayed by my web browser’s decision to discontinue the *.ftp extension.

Despite the weather I went out for my afternoon walk. Just three other people out there being tossed around in the gale. But it was so clear out there that Jersey was the clearest that I have ever seen it.

And there was a famous storm raging out in the bay, and with the sun streaming through some small gaps in the clouds it was all looking quite beautiful.

There had been a change of shipping too. Normandy Trader had gone but Grima was back.

Tea was a frozen curry out of the freezer, with vegetables and rice. And good it was too.

And here’s some disappointing news. As a reward for beating Vitré in the Cup the other day, US Granville have drawn Bordeaux – one of the best teams in the whole of France. And it’s at home too, but being played on a weekend when I’m not here.

how desperate is that?

Thursday 7th December 2017 – WE HAVE …

… a new visitor in the harbour today.

Thrashing her way into harbour today came Normandy Trader. She’s not a sister ship to Shetland Trader and Islay Trader but she is in fact a converted landing craft of the type that we have seen on several occasions in different places around the world.

She’s not by any means new to Granville – in fact she works a shuttle to here from Jersey on a regular basis just like Grima, and so I’m surprised that I’ve never seen here here before.

But here you can see her smashing her way through the storm into the harbour. It really is wicked outside and the spray is flying everywhere as the waves crash into the concrete sea walls.

The wind has turned round and is now blowing from the north-west, and that’s right into the harbour mouth. No wonder that Normandy Trader is making heavy weather of it. Landing craft aren’t designed for conditions like this, especially with a gross tonnage of just 73 tonnes. She was being tossed around like a cork out there.

Last night was a reasonable night for me. Although it took me a while to go off to sleep, I was well away. I somehow missed the first alarm, although I must have responded as the phone was in my hand when I awoke, not under the pillow where it usually is.

But anyway, the second alarm of Billy Cotton and his “Wakey waaaaaaa ….KEYYYYYY” took me completely by surprise.

After breakfast and a little rest, I had a shower and then braved the wind and rain up to LIDL.

Had I still been living on the farm, I would have bought quite a bit of stuff from their special offers this week. But with having changed my lifestyle considerably, there’s nothing that I really need.

But had I been Rhys, I would have been spending my money there. He’s trying to organise some interior lighting for his bus, and they had the rows of 12-volt LED striplights that I like so much. 212 lumens, which is the equivalent of about 18 watts of incandescent power, but drawing 0.1 watt. And you can link them together to give you a running strip light.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I bought a pile back down on the farm and use them as work lights over the work benches. And they are great.

I walked back here in the rain and was almost trampled to death in the rush of a pile of little kids descending from a school bus. And back here, I had a coffee and a … errr … relax.

After lunch I braved the wind and gales and went for a walk around the headland. And I was the only person out there. And that’s no surprise given the weather.

Tonight I went out for my other walk around the walls – and I’ve done 105% of my day’s target according to the fitbit.

The wind has changed further round now and so I stood for hours on the headland watching the waves down below crash over the sea wall and onto the promenade. It’s an amazing spectacle, the power of nature out there.

Rosemary rang up and we put the world to rights for an hour, and I booked my trip to Leuven for next week too. I’ll be staying at the flathotel at the back of the prison.

Tea was steaeed vegetables and vegan sausages in vegan cheese sauce – and delicious it was too.

So seeing that I have no plans for tomorrow, I’m going to have a nice quiet day of relaxing and organising myself for Leuven

Tuesday 6th June 2017 – THIS HURRICANE …

… hasn’t blown itself out at all yet. In fact during the night the wind dramatically changed direction and instead of blowing from the south it’s now blowing from the north.

Rather ironically, it’s 73 years today since D-Day and there were major storms on or about this day back then. In fact, it was only a brief pause in the storm that enabled the Allies to launch the invasion when they did, and when the storm sprang up again it blew away several of the temporary harbour installations.

Anyway, as a result of the storm I was awake until all hours with the noise keeping me awake.

And so I decided to nip outside early and take a photo or two of the waves. It was pretty sheltered on this side of the headland yesterday with a southerly wind blowing, but today with a nor’wester I was hoping for much better luck.

Still not as impressive as I would like to see. I’m hoping for at least some spray to come crashing up onto the car park at some time or other.

But I must have dropped off to sleep at some point because the alarm dramatically snatched me out of the arms of Morpheus.

And I’d been on my travels too. But I’ll spare you the details so as not to put you off your supper or something – it was another one of those. However, Zero made her first appearance for a while. Fancy being decanted into a story like this.

Leaving the bed this morning was probably the most difficult occasion that I have had since I’ve been here, but I was soon sitting down and working.

And at 09:00 or thereabouts I started to assemble the stuff that I needed take with me into town, and then off I set. At the Health Insurance people I managed to change my address, but cancelling my policy was something else completely. It’s one of these things that I can only do at the annual renewal date. Of course I don’t need it now that my treatments are being reimbursed at 100%.

The Bank was next, and sure enough, as I suspected, the monthly rent on this apartment has been paid. So I dunno what the Estate Agents have done with it, but to be on the safe side the bank gave me a copy of the payment and I took it round to the Estate Agents and dropped it on the desk of the clerk there. She can sort it out at her leisure.

Having picked up a baguette, I walked back up the hill, running part of the way to chase after my hat that had blown off in the gale.

This afternoon I’ve been carrying on with the blog updating as well as a few other bits and pieces, and sorting out the washing from yesterday. I’ve made all of my arrangements for Leuven too – leaving on Sunday and coming back on Tuesday. That probably means that they will keep me in for a month.

For tea I’ve finished off the last of the lentil curry. Tomorrow it’s sausages, beans and chips. I shall simply add my output to the hurricane outside.

Monday 5th June 2017 – NO CHANCE …

… English bed-wetting types, of anyone sleeping around here tonight.

Not with this howling gale that’s right now lashing the rock on which I stand, which will slowly sink into the sand, just as Barclay James Harvest predicted, if it keeps on going like this.

In fact, the day started off quite nicely. I was asleep until the alarm went off and, leaping out of bed, I grabbed an early breakfast.

An hour or so later I was down in the town in the glorious sunshine with my huge bag full of dirty washing. The idea was to arrive before the crowds did and before the shops opened, and find a parking place as close as possible to the launderette. In fact, I managed to find a free space right outside the door.

But the launderette isn’t much good. It didn’t clean my clothes too well at all and I had to send them through a second time. I shall have to think long and hard about this and about what I’m going to do in this respect.

While the washing was doing I nipped around the corner for a baguette and some tomatoes, and then headed back to the launderette sort out the clothes.

Next plan was to go to the Bank, the Estate Agent and the Insurance place, but Bane of Britain has struck again. It’s a Bank Holiday here today, so I discovered. So forget all of that.

Back here, I ran into (well, not literally) my neighbour who formerly lived in my apartment. We had a little chat – so little that it went on for over an hour and a half and it was midday before I ended up back in here with a coffee.

By lunchtime the weather had changed and I ate my butties indoors. The storm broke at about 15:00 and it was howling around. I dunno what it was that crashed to the ground up the road from here, but it wasn’t half impressive.

I braved the tempest and walked with the camera across to the cliff overlooking the harbour in the hope and eager expectation of seeing the waves lashing over the jetties and crashing on the rocks and all of that. But how disappointed was I?

The bay is quite sheltered from the winds and as a result what was going on down there was nothing like as impressive as I was hoping it might have been. The sea was barely stirring. I’ve had rougher waves in my bath after a plate of baked beans on toast.

Back here I had a few things to do to keep me out of mischief, but as the tempo of the wind increased I couldn’t resist the temptation to fit the zoom lens to the camera and stick it out of the window to see if the waves were any more impressive.

The answer was “some, not much”. I can see that living here is going to be a big disappointment. I was really looking forward to watching the waves come crashing up over the headland in the darkest depths of winter.

So having had tea, I’m feeling pretty tired but I suspect that it’s going to be a long night for me with all of this going on.

Sunday 26th February 2017 – IT WAS HARD THIS MORNING …

… to get out of bed, what with my very late finish and my usual early (like 07:00) start – how my habits have changed since I’ve been living in digs.

I was alone at breakfast too, which is just as well because as you all know, I don’t do “company” first thing in the morning. Anyone who tries to chat to me just receives a collection of unintelligible grunts in reply.

Back down here, I had a brief (and only a brief) relax while I drank my coffee, and then I set to work.

And by 10:00 I had another couple of bags packed to take down to Caliburn. Now my room is looking much more like TS Eliot’s Wasteland..

Having done all of that, I came back and had a shower, and the last of my clean clothes (in fact, I didn’t have a clean T-shirt). So this obviously meant a visit to the launderette in the Ridderstraat. There were so many clothes that some of them didn’t make it into the machine and so they will have to go into the next load, whenever that might be. I’ve clearly not been keeping on top of things like I should and I’ll have to organise myself much more than this.

Once all of that was done, it was lunchtime. I had a packet onion soup hanging around and two of these half-cooked half-baguettes. One of those was for my garlic bread tonight, and so I cooked them both and had the other one with my soup. Followed, of course, by some fruit.

Plenty of time left yet, and so I loaded up another big pile of stuff, and by 15:00 I was ready to hit the streets. I dropped off everything at Caliburn yet again, and then carried on my little walk

Today is the last match of the regular season for OH Leuven. Long-since condemned to a place in the relegation play-offs with no escape, due to a few insipid results, they were playing for pride.

Union St Gilles are a couple of places above them and if other results go their way, a victory for them could haul themselves out of the relegation dog-fight and into safety. It’s therefore vital for Union St Gilles to win today

All of the matches in the Second Division are kicking off simultaneously at 16:00 this afternoon so that no-one can be assured of their place until the final whistle.

It seems that this mascot craze is spreading to all football clubs in Belgium right now. OH Leuven looks as if they have managed to acquire one too.

Somehow I thought it appropriate to take a photograph of him behind a sturdy wire-mesh fence – almost as if he was in a cage.

But never mind acquiring mascots – when is the club going to acquire some cheerleaders? That’s what I want to know.

The “away” end was heaving with fans. So packed out wasit in there that they had to open a second bay behind the goal. They were a noisy lot too, and kept the noise going for the whole 90 minutes more or less.

There was a huge crowd in here for the match too (for Leuven, that is). 4,263 spectators and that’s the largest crowd that I’ve witnessed for a match here at the Den Dreef Stadion, and it’s not ALL accounted for by the huge away support. Everyone else must feel the urgency too.

As the teams took to the field the away fans started some kind of synchronised sign-boarding display. I’ve absolutely no idea what it was supposed to signify, but they were clearly quite happy to do it.

But anyway, the teams took to the field with OH leuven in their usual all-white strip, and Union St Gilles in their usual yellow shirts and blue shorts.

And as the match kicked off, the first question that I asked myself was “how much longer can they keep on going at this pace?” because they shot off like rockets.

And one thing that I’ve noticed about Belgian Second Division football is that wingers are very popular. We know all about the wingers that OH Leuven have, and Union St Gilles were well-supplied too.

The big difference today though is that OH Leuven had Casagolda up front instead of Kostovski. Casagolda is technically a far better player, but he has his “days”. Kostovski is like a big battering ram, a bit short on technical skill but plays at 100% for every match and the kind of player I would like to have up front when the team has two wingers.

But as I said, Casagolda has his “days”, and luckily enough, today was one of them, even putting in a ferocious performance in the centre of defence at set pieces, and this made a great deal of difference.

As the game progressed, despite the barrage of noise from the Union St Gilles supporters, it was clear that OH Leuven had the “up”, not that it means very much in football because I’ve seen superior teams well on top in a game be undone by one single moment of magic, and OH Leuven can have some notoriously fragile moments. And when they missed a penalty, I really did fear the worst.

In the first half, they had hit the post twice, had about four shots on goal kicked off the line, and the keeper had made two outstanding saves. And much to my surprise, they were 2-0 up too. Both of them breakaways from out of defence, wingers racing off down the field, and crosses into the centre. And Casagolda had scored one of them.

As for Union St Gilles, they pressed well down the flanks and their n°20, Aguemon, particularly impressed me. But their problem was that they lacked a centre-forward who would throw himself about in where it hurts – someone like Kostovski for example.

I reckoned that whoever scored the first goal in the second half would decide where this match was going to end, but the players, clearly exhausted, played at a much slower tempo. Storm, this new winger that they had signed who had such a good game the last time that I saw him, he fell away quite rapidly – clearly not match-fit for this level – and I reckoned that he’d be one of the first to leave the field – which he was.

Casagolda had the ball in the net, sure enough, but was given offside – a decision with which I agreed, by the way – and the Union St Gilles keeper made a couple of other full-length saves to keep the ball out.

But Union St Gilles couldn’t find a way back into the game, even though this new keeper, Henkinet, made a brilliant one-handed save from a point-blank header that had “goal” written all over it.

And that was that – a huge sigh of relief at the final whistle as Leuven finally register a win. And if only they had played like this in a couple of other matches, they wouldn’t have to be pitting their wits against clubs like Dessel Sports and Deinze in the relegation play-offs. In fact, either of these clubs could have taken on KSC Lokeren and KAS Eupen from last night in the Premier League and disposed of them quite comfortably

On the way back I found a new short-cut that I hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t that short, in fact, but it was certainly a prettier way to come home.

This by the way isn’t a medieval building, but it’s fairly modern and is actually a hotel, the Begijnhof Leuven Hotel. And if modern architects in Belgium can come up with buildings like this, then there’s no reason whatever why they can’t do this anywhere else either.

I’m going to make further enquiries …

Back here, I hadn’t been sitting down long before I was overwhelmed with hunger. It might have been only 19:00, long before tea-time, but nevertheless there was nothing for it – I went and made my pizza. And for once, everything was cooked perfectly and it was thoroughly delicious.

Now, it’s 21:00 or so and I can’t keep my eyes open. I have a lot to do over the course of the next few days, so I’m planning on going to bed.

Saturday 1st March 2014 – IT’S CARNAVAL …

… in San Sebastian today. That’s about half an hour down the coast in Spain, and Yours Truly having made enquiries, off he went.

There’s a train that runs from Hendaye to San Sebastian and places beyond, and you have to look for it in a corner of the car park of the SNCF railway station.

Apparently it’s not welcome within the main station, even though it is the only rail passenger service that runs across the border. I’m not quite sure why, as there were endless streams of people dragging suitcases and the like across the car park from one to the other.

A nice modern train as you can see, clean, tidy and airy and for all of that distance it cost just €2:40, which has to be a bargain in anyone’s money.

Eat your heart out, British rail passengers. No wonder I didn’t take Caliburn with me. It would have cost more than that for the diesel. He can have a day off.

But, in the kind of thing that can only happen to me, we had the wettest day in Spain so far this year. This only ever happens when I want to go there. The last time I went to Spain – in 1998 I think – was the first time that they had had snow for over 50 years.

We had storms as well, if you peer through the raindrops on the lens of the camera.

Another wild windy day and I spent a good few minutes watching the waves dashing a few huge pieces of timber and tree trunks against the promenade. Anyone who wonders just how the sea can break up a huge ship would have had the enigma solved for them this afternoon in this comparatively sheltered bay, watching the waves play about with this wood.

But there are also loads of morons about in the world, and not a few of them here in this bay.

It’s all very well surfing in a storm, if that’s really what you want to do, but looking at how the waves were treating the wood that was being washed into the bay, anyone being hit by a lump of wood (of which there were plenty) or a tree trunk would know about it – and so would his friends.

But the carnaval was a wash-out as you might expect. There were loads of people all dressed up to entertain, and several floats disceetly parked up in side streets, but no-one on the streets to watch.

And that was hardly surprising. I wouldn’t put a dog outside in the weather that we were having. Never mind the plain and the down the drain, the rain in Spain fell mainly down the back of my neck.

So I caught an early train home, but not before I had had something to eat.

And that was pretty easy too in San Sebastian. That’s an extract from the menu from one mainstream restaurant just next to the cathedral, and the restaurant next door had vegan options too. Not only that, I found two others without even trying. Puts much of Europe and almost all of North America to shame.

And the hummus? Delicious!

But another thing too – I’m collecting pics of football grounds while I’m on my travels, and Real Sociedad play here in San Sebastian. Furthermore, the club’s ground is just outside one of the railway stations along the route.

This calls for a photo opportunity of course, and there’s a handy hill right by the ground from which a good viewpoint might be had.

But count the number of gates that you can see at the ground. It gives the lie to the club putting all their Basques in One Exit.

I’ll get my coat.

-3

Friday 28th February 2014 – I’VE ARRIVED …

… at my destination for this weekend. I’m in Hendaye, which is at the extreme south-east of France and just across the river is the Basque coast of Northern Spain. And here I’ll be until Sunday night.

This was my hotel from last night – the Hotel Belle Vue. I was in the annexe in the foreground – that’s where the cheaper rooms are and, of course, I’m on the budget plan. But nevertheless, I’m not faulting for a minute the value for money. I was quite happy with this.

No complaints about the breakfast either, and with the kettle in the room I was even able to make a flask of coffee.

While I was on my travels last night, prowling around the town, I came across this sign. I had to return to photograph it this morning before I left.

If it shows anything at all, it shows that money spent on a good native-speaking translator is never wasted, no matter how good you think that your on translation might be. Although, I must admit that if the boot were on the other foot I would be happy with a sign like this.

I was in Hossegor later this morning to carry out an errand. My friend Marianne wrote a book on Pionsat and this was illustrated with photos from a bygone age.

One photo shows a man leaving the Pionsat Post Office and someone who saw the photo said “that’s Richardy, a garage proprietor from Hossegor who had a summer home in Pionsat”.

It was always on Marianne’s list to go to Hossegor and see if she could find the garage but seeing as how I was in the area I went instead. And after multiple enquiries at the Town Hall, the Police Station, the Tourist Information and the Pensioners’ Club, people think that this supermarket might have been it.

It’ll be confirmed for me on Monday.

From there, I followed the coast down to Hendaye and the weather deteriorated as I drove south. Sitting having my lunch at the port of Bayonne watching the Arklow Fortune, newly arrived from Ijmuiden, something of a storm had sprung up.

The Arklow Fortune is a rare breed of vessel by the way – she’s a freighter flying the Irish flag so it seems, and that’s not something that you see every day.

By the time I reached St Jean de Luz near Biarritz, the weather had turned decidedly nasty as you can see. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen it as bad as this. Violent was not the word.

Here in Hendaye, the seafront is closed off as they are expecting the weather to deteriorate further over the weekend with a climax on Monday evening.

But I have a hotel 10 minutes from the seafront overlooking the river that separates Hendaye from Spain. It’s basic and in the throes of being renovated, but they’ve done me a good deal on the price of a room and including breakfast, even if there is no heating yet and the room needs finishing. As I said, I’m on the budget package.

So after my excellent vegetable risotto, I’m off to bed for an early night.

-1

Monday 2nd September 2013 – AT FIRST, I WROTE …

… “Monday 2nd December” for the title of today’s posting. Not an error, as you might think, but a Freudian slip because it is winter here today. Black skies, lashing down of rain, hurricane force winds (trees uprooted and all that kind of thing in Montreal) – so much so that it wasn’t until 16:30 or thereabouts that I took to the road, all heaters in the Dodge blazing away.

It wasn’t like that at first though. Dawn came early to my little spec on the bluff above the Riviere Ste Anne and it looked as if it might be a lovely day – and I know that the dawn came early because I sa it, having somehow managed to park in the middle of a moquito nest and having been bitten to pieces during the night. I didn’t even cook a meal for fear of disturbing them.

Anyway, as the morning drew on, the day clouded over and as I was fuelling uo the Dodge, the heavens opened and that was that. I found a convenient motorway service area and parked up. With a coffee and an internet connection, I attacked a pile of paperwork and read a book.

By about 16:30 the weather improved a little in the sense that it stopped raining and we just had occasional showers. I hit the road and went off to the village of Deschambault.

This was an important stage on the Chemin du Roy and although the village has altered considerably over the last 275 years, it is said that much of the traces of the original 1734 road are still said to be there if you know where to look.

Judging by the alignment of the church and the presbytery, and the site of the old fort that Champlain had built against the Iroquois (you can see part of the wall as the boundary wall of the cemetery) I reckon that this might be a good-enough bet.

It continues along the headland from here to the new road, but about 400 metres behind me is a sudden stop. Coastal erosion, particularly along the clay cliffs, was always a serious problem and one of the main reasons for some serious alignment of the road.

Another place on the route is a town called Portneuf, about 10kms further along. Someone shored up a river bank and this led to dramatic changes in the action of the river and created a fine port for the goélettes, the little ships that plied up and down the St Lawrence, of which you can see long-since abandoned here. Gradually, the port was expanded until there is now a quay that stretches more than one kilometre into the St Lawrence, and even the biggest ships can tie up here, although not that they ever do these days.

The quay is actually situated right at the apex of one of the sharpest meanders in the whole of the river and there are some delightful optical illusions with a long-range telephoto lens as you capture photos of ships such as the Canadian Shipping Line’s Atlantic Erie fighting the current and the meander and having to make a hard-over turn to port to round the headland without colliding with the quay.

And look at the waves – you can see what I mean about the howling wind and the storm that we were having.

Dusk came pretty quickly after this, which was no surprise, and so finding myself back on Highway 40 I retraced my steps to the Motorway Service Area to batten down the hatches for tonight. I’m not going to be doing anything else.

-2

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality