Tag Archives: baguette

Wednesday 18th January 2017 – LAST NIGHT …

… was something a bit more like it too.

Although it took me ages to go off to sleep (I was reading Vaino Tanner’s notes on the Finnish expedition to Labrador until something silly in the morning) I ended up soundly asleep until the Eastern European workmen awoke me at 06:30. They were actually quite quiet during the night which was very a pleasant surprise.

On my own at breakfast, I came back down here and … errr … went back under the bedclothes to keep warm (it was minus 5°C outside). The next thing that I remembered was that it was 11:10. I’d slept for 3 hours without any difficulty at all.

Braving the freezing cold I nipped out to the supermarket on the corner for my baguette and an apple – I’ve run out of fruit in here. But making my butties at lunchtime, I was joined by a Far-Eastern woman and another man whom I don’t recall having seen before.

I pressed on with my expedition notes this afternoon in between crashing out somewhat. We’ve hit the anthropological stuff now, and he talks at great length about the Inuit. He’s tentatively identified a new race of Inuit round about the 15th Century that began to push aside the Thule Inuit, but fails to draw the obvious conclusion from his notes

Although now discredited by almost everyone despite the efforts of James Enterline in his book Viking America: The Norse Crossings and Their Legacy, the obvious conclusion has quite a logical ring to it – in that with the Little Ice Age descending on Greenland in the mid-14th Century and the Norse settlers being cut off from Iceland by the dramatic deterioration in weather, the only way for the Norse to escape the weather would be to head west and live off the ocean instead of the land.

Like many Europeans since then – in fact right up until the early 20th century, the quickest way for a new settler to assimilate traditional survival skills in a hostile environment is to take a native spouse who can teach you the necessary skills. Most of the population of Labrador are descendants of mixed unions of European men and Inuit women, and had the Norse assimilated (and there is no reason to suppose that they didn’t – they aren’t likely to have sat around and starved or frozen to death), there would be a completely mixed gene pool within just a couple of generations. And with their better technology and knowledge of iron, they would quickly have overwhelmed the less-developed Thule culture.

And the timescale fits too.

Liz and I had a good chat on the laptop later and then I went for tea. I was on my own for most of the time except for a young family with a baby (so we have this to deal with tonight).

Now I’m off for a shower and a change of clothes, and then I’ll be having an early night.

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Tuesday 17th January 2017 – THIS REALLY WAS …

vegan potato mushroom curry leuven belgium january janvier 2017… delicious tonight – and if the improvement overnight is anything to go by, it’s going to be magnificent by the time that I get to the last portion.

On a plate too – not out of a saucepan either. And because it looked so nice and the presentation was so good, I took a photo of it. Just imagine it with some fennel and coriander leaves sprinkled over the top.

And I wasn’t alone in the kitchen either. I have been invaded by a pile of Eastern European workmen. There are at least five of them and they were eating away in the kitchen when I went up there. They seem friendly enough inasmuch as we could understand each other, but I wonder how noisy they are going to be.

That’s quite a good point on which to ponder too, because for once, last night, I had my best sleep for ages. In bed early, crashed out quickly enough, awoke to switch off the laptop and then I remember nothing at all until the alarm clock went off.

Well, that’s not quite correct either because I’d been on a mega-ramble during the night. And a mega-ramble it was too. I was with the girl who has been described in these pages as “The One That Got Away”. We’d gone to buy a caravan from some kind of second-hand car sales place. We’d turned up as soon as the place opened, explained what we wanted, and were told to wait. And wait we did, for five hours at least until we lost patience. We then went off in search of a salesman but ended up with the female secretary again, the one whom we had seen as we arrived. She wouldn’t put us in touch with a salesman instead but came out with a variety of reasons why we couldn’t see one – all kinds of silly statements such as “if we moved he caravan what is going to happen about the bare, worn patch where the caravan is sitting?”. Despite the silliness of the questions and the ease with which we could answer the questions and solve the problem, she just came up with even more silly problems and we weren’t getting anywhere with this.

A little later I was with the father of Zero, a girl who sometimes accompanies me on my travels although she wasn’t out there tonight. We were driving somewhere in Canada at the back of Montreal.The road that we were taking was a road that I didn’t know but at a T-junction where we hit a main road, I suddenly recognised the road and where we were – we had just come a different way round. We were very low on fuel but it didn’t really matter because I knew that along this road was a big “Shell” service station where we could stop.

We haven’t finished yet either. I was back at school, and it was here that I had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It was just a case of getting on as best as I could – the same for a few other people who were having similar problems. One boy in particular was having a hard time coming to terms with his illness and I had to keep on telling him to pull himself together. But then he put in another appearance, moping around, and although I could only see him from behind I was convinced that it was him, so I snapped at him to “pull himself together”. He turned round and it wasn’t him but a good friend of mine whose wife was ill, and I immediately regretted having said what I had said. We ended up having a chat about our various problems but it wasn’t doing anyone any good.

Yes, with a night like that, I can do with another half-dozen

I was alone at breakfast, and then came back down here to carry on with my work. I’m still on the notes of that Finnish expedition and we are discussing vegetation right now. I’m up to page 424 and that’s about half-way. I can’t wait to get onto the history and anthropology bits, but whenever that might be, I really have no idea.

What is interesting though is that they haven’t actually gone into the interior – I suppose that in 1937-39 the interior of Labrador is pretty much unexplored. They are making interpretations of the interior based on other people’s published voyages and I note that the works of Mina Hubbard and Dillon Wallace are referred to quite often, as well as the notes of an explorer by the name of AP Low who went into the interior in the late 19th century in a canoe.

As an aside, it was Low’s badly-drawn maps that led Leonidas Hubbard up a creek without a paddle on his ill-fated voyage of 1903. Low only recorded one river at the end of Grand Lake when there are in fact three, the Beaver, the Susan and the Naskaupi, and Hubbard could only find one – but the wrong one.

I’ve had a play around with my 3D program too, as well as a good crash-out after lunch. So soon after lunch that I hadn’t even drunk my lunchtime coffee.

And I made it to the supermarket for my baguette today. There were also a couple of black plastic storage boxes in the rubbish, so I’ve liberated those too. I really do need to take some down to Caliburn as my room is filling up. At the last count there’s 11 of them in here.

photographer photograph new BMW kruisstraat belgium january janvier 2017Now here’s a thing.

Parked in the Kruisstraat this morning was an almost-new BMW saloon. And a short while after it pulled up and the owner disappeared, another car pulled up.

The driver was extremely interested in the vehicle and stopped, took out a camera, and snapped it about a dozen times from all angles, including a close-up of the rear number-plate and of the wheels.

photographer photograph new BMW kruisstraat belgium january janvier 2017And then he got back into his car and drove off.

Of course, I’m making no suggestion or allegation whatever. In fact, regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’m quite often pulling up at the side of the road to take photos of vehicles parked in the street or in people’s driveway.

But not of brand-new BMWs though, and it did look rather weird to me. But without any doubt he had a good reason for doing it.

So now, I’m going to try to have an early night again. Despite all of the new arrivals, I hope that my sleep will be as good as last night’s!

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Friday 13th January 2017 – I WOKE UP THIS MORNING …

… du deh du der deh … to find that the snows of winter have once more been covering our landduring the night.

Nothing like as impressive as the other morning (not that that was particularly impressive) but snow just the same. And just like me, it didn’t last all that long either.

And that’s right – I didn’t last long either. I’d had a bad night and had an awakening at about 03:15, but this time I don’t know why I awoke like that. At 04:15 I was still awake too and I didn’t feel at all like going back to sleep, but nevertheless I must have done because the alarm awoke me yet again.

I was alone at breakfast at first, but someone whom I didn’t recognise at all came to join me later. A new tenant because I had to show him around and show him how everything works in the kitchen.

Back down here I did some work, reading this paper that I talked about the other day, and then I had some real work to do. I didn’t mention it yesterday but I had made a start on defrosting the freezer compartments in the fridges here. I have spoken about the oven chips and how they come in big bags. There is in fact the space to put a bag like that although you might not think so seeing how the ice compartments are full to the brim with ice, the doors having been left open at some time. With my mini-wok and boiling water, I managed to defrost everything after a while and clean them out. Now we have room for all kinds of stuff and quite rightly so.

Just before lunch I went out to the supermarket for the baguette, and ended up having a good chat to the girl who seems to manage the place. We were there for about 10 minutes chatting, although I probably understood as much as one word in 20.

After lunch, I went down to Caliburn to bring back some more stuff and the laundry sop – braving the snow because by now the snow was teeming down quite heavily – although it didn’t stick at all.

The launderette was next and I washed a ton of stuff. And now I have all clean clothes, as well as three odd socks and I’ve no idea how I managed that. But it always happens, doesn’t it? There’s a sock goblin living even in launderette washing machines.

Back here I had a crash-out and then made tea. A quick tea out of a tin seeing as tomorrow I’m footballing and Sunday is pizza night.

The djervushka is still here too, but with a young boy in tow tonight. So I can cross her off my list, which is a shame. It also means that I won’t have much of a sleep as her room is directly above mine and we know how these beds creak.

I’m still going to try got an early night though. If the weather is reasonable tomorrow there’s a possibility of a day out. We shall see.

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Thursday 12th January 2017 – I’M STILL STRUGGLING …

… with these perishing sleep issues.

An early night, a film on the laptop and there I was, gone. Only to wake up a short while later and take an absolute age to go back to sleep again.

But I was on my travels too during the night. My niece Rachel was in Canada trying to work out some connections with associated companies and was phoning around. She asked me to help out too, and one of them that I called was a taxi company in … errr … Detroit, about 1,000 miles away. And when I did phone them up, the girl who answered the ‘phone had the air of being totally gormless, and I couldn’t understand why Rachel would – firstly – want to associate her business with a business so far away and – secondly – why she would want her business to be associated with a firm that was so clueless.

Alone again at breakfast, and then back down here to carry on with my research. I’ve been wading through this report from these Finnish geologists and found some more exciting stuff that might change a few of my – and other peoples’ – perceptions.

And that is that the Moravian missionaries in the north of Labrador kept very detailed records of day-to-day life in their mission stations for a period of more than 150 years. And you’ll see where this is leading.

In my writings, I’ve commented on several occasions about how certain places, such as the Norse landing sites, don’t look like the kind of places that I would choose for landing. But my opinions might have to change.

Labrador and Newfoundland were, in the Ice Age, covered with ice to a depth of at least 4,000 feet and that has an enormous weight. Since the end of the Ice Age and the melting of a lot of the ice, the land has slowly been rising. Obviously the weight of the ice had compressed the earth, the soil and the rock, and now the pressure is off the land, it’s springing slowly back into shape.

The Moravians kept records for this at some of their stations, and a change of level of a rise of 15 feet was recorded at one station “in one generation”. Extrapolate that out over 1,000 years and you are going to have a totally different shape of coastline, and the raised beaches that you see all along the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland give ample testimony for that.

Looking at the coastline today may give you a totally different idea of what the land might have been like in recent history.

At lunchtime I went out for my baguette and then at some point in the proceedings I crashed out for half an hour or so. A brief exchange of pleasantries with my djervushka and then the second half of my mega-meal which was just as delicious as last night.

I’ll try again to have a decent sleep and tomorrow I have work to do. I need to go to Caliburn for the washing soap, and then to the launderette to wash my clothes. I’m running out.

But winter is on its way. Snow is forecast for the next few days and the temperature is threatening to drop.

Minus 9°C might not be cold in Canadian, or even Auvergnat terms, but it’s cold enough for here.

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Wednesday 11th January 2017 – WHAT A BAD NIGHT!

Just as I said, I was in bed early last night, and was soon asleep. But then I awoke at about 00:45 when a noise on the radio awoke me, so I switched off the laptop and went back to sleep.

And then it all happened.

All I can say is that I must have had a nightmare, because I had one of those dreams that was extremely disturbing and which made me sit bolt upright. and it wasn’t just the fact of the dream either but the person who was the central character and all of the people who surrounded her. It was such a graphic, disturbing dream that I couldn’t go back to sleep and ended up typing it up on the laptop to make sure that I didn’t forget it.

But I must have gone back to sleep because the alarm awoke me at 07:00, and for some reason we had a most astonishing cacophony from the church bells and I’m not quite sure why. But never mind anyone else in the building, it probably would have awoken the dead too.

At breakfast I was on my own, and then I came back down here to carry on with my research. I started to read the report of that Finnish expedition to Labrador. And it’s come up with a couple of interesting facts.

  1. There’s a lengthy discussion of the Churchill Falls and the Bowdoin Canyon into which the Falls descends. A huge pile of statistics that will be of great interest when I start to write about my trip out in the Wilderness of Labrador to visit the Falls
  2. Even more interestingly, you need to remember that this is the period 1937-1939, long before the discovery of the Norse remains at L’Anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland. And yet there’s a map in the preface of this expedition’s report where they discuss the Norse settlement of Newfoundland, and as far as the small scale of the map can isolate, the expedition places Vinland in round about the same area that Helge Ingstad discovered the Norse remains (although Ingstad hesitates to identify them as “Vinland” and as you already know, I don’t think that it corresponds at all with the description given in the Norse Sagas). It’s a little-known fact that L’Anse aux Meadows was identified in 1914 as the location of “Vinland” by an insurance agent and amateur historian called William A Munn in his book “Wineland voyages;: Location of Helluland, Markland, and Vinland”, but Munn isn’t listed as a source by the Expedition, and so I’m now more intrigued than ever before about the source of this Expedition’s information about the location

Just before lunch I went out to the supermarket on the corner for a baguette and came back with a black plastic box as well – another one in the waste bin and I now have a dozen of them ready for packing, whenever that might be.
And I also had a major crash-out this afternoon too, but that’s hardly a surprise.

Tea was delicious – potatoes, carrots, broccoli, gravy and a vegan Linda McCartney pie. That was the best meal that I’ve had for quite a while. And my djervushka from the Ukraine was there too. I have to make the most of my time with her because she’s leaving on Friday, having found a studio for herself. I wonder if she needs a flatmate?

And there are more new people here too – but I’ve not had the pleasure of their company as yet.

Tonight I’m looking forward to my bed. As well as having a shower and a shave, I have a clean bedroom and fresh bedding. I’m all set up for a good night’s sleep but whether or not I’ll have one is another thing.

Who – or what – is going to interrupt me tonight then?

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Friday 6th January 2017 – I HAD ENOUGH …

… pasta left over and so tonight I made myself a big tomato dish for tea, with enough left over for the next two nights too.

Onions and garlic fried together, and then added a tin of kidney beans, a tin of Macedoine vegetables, a big handful of peanuts, assorted spices and herbs and then a big dollop of tomato sauce.

And do you know what?

It was absolutely delicious. And it should be even better over the next couple of days if it follows the usual plan.

You might remember that I was planning on an early night last night. But I couldn’t drop off to sleep early and ended up doing some work on the laptop. When I noticed the time, it was 00:45 and that was the end of my early night.

I slept right through too, and awoke about 5 minutes before the alarm went off. And if I had been anywhere during the night, I don’t remember. It was like that.

Later in the morning I went out for my baguette, just down to the supermarket on the corner, and came back with a couple more plastic crates too. I have quite a collection now – so all that I need is a Plan to inspire me to pack them with stuff. But that’s not going to happen until the Spring now at least and maybe not then either.

Apart from that, I’ve spent most of the day reading up on stuff. More stuff on North-West River. It’s the worst thesis that I’ve ever read, it has to be said, but much of the gossip that’s in it, that you don’t usually find in a thesis, has helped me answer a few questions that I’ve had running around in my mind, and also solved a problem that I’ve tried to resolve in the past about the “old road” between Goose Bay and Churchill Falls.

I’ve had a crash-out too, as you might expect, and then it was tea time. And now it’s bed-time. An early night I hope, and a good sleep I hope even more.

But before I go, I’ve found a beautiful epitaph about Labrador. It was written by Judge William Malone as he took his leave from Dillon Wallace after they had been into the Labrador wilderness in 1913 to find the final camp of Leonidas Hubbard on his disastrous expedition of 1903.

“I’m leaving the country though with a feeling of profound regret. I wish I were just going in with you instead of going home. I never had that feeling before on leaving the wilderness, but this country has exerted a peculiar fascination upon me. I understand what it was now that drew you and Hubbard on and would not let you turn back. I have learned what you meant when you called it “the lure of the Labrador wild.”

And that’s certainly how I feel each time I cross the border into Quebec. And the more that I read about Labrador, the more I realise just how much I miss it and how I want to go back there.

I’m getting all nostalgic, aren’t I?

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Tuesday 27th December 2016 – I’VE HAD A BAD …

… day today.

And I’ll tell you how bad my day was if I just mention that today I was invited to go for a good walk around the Ardennes with a quite attractive Canadian lady from Montreal- and I was obliged to decline the opportunity.

With having no neighbours, once I managed to drop off to sleep (which was not very easy) I was asleep until the alarm went off.

I’d been on my travels too – to the border country between England and Wales where I was to meet a businessman whom I know, but instead I fell in with his wife. We discussed all kinds of things that related to her husband’s business and I could easily identify an opening for my wife. After all, she had worked for the Tax office and the DHSS (which of course she hasn’t) and this opportunity was made for her. In fact, another opportunity raised its ugly head during the discussion which would have been ideal for a friend of mine – the one whom is often described on these pages as “The One That Got Away”. As a result, Nerina and I were on a bus heading into the centre of Oswestry and I pointed out to her where to alight – at the Adecco Employment Agency. The only slight problem with that though is that whoever I was wasn’t Nerina, and neither was it “The One That Got Away” either. No idea who it was, actually.

So after breakfast and my chat with my neighbour, I sat down with the new laptop and had a play with my 3D program. And I’m pleased to say that the speed and capacity of the new laptop mean that I can do so much more, and do it more quickly too, and that’s why I bought it in the first place.

I did make it out too – but only just to the supermarket on the corner for some bread for lunch. And now I’ve run out of lunchtime stuff (except the lettuce) so it’s a big shop tomorrow.

This afternoon I worked on my website and crashed out for well over an hour too. I was right out of it for about half an hour too when I awoke. i’m clearly not too well.

But by the time I went to make tea I was feeling much better. And we had a huge chick pea and potato curry. It was absolutely delicious and there’s enough for another three nights too. I followed it up with Christmas pudding and custard and that’s delicious too.

Now I’m going to have another early night – I hope that it’s yet another good one.

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Thursday 22nd December 2016 – I’VE HAD ONE OF THOSE DAYS …

… where I’ve been drifting in and out of wakefulness all day. For the most part, I was out of it completely.

I didn’t have too much of an early night last night, and to go with it, we had another door-slamming session, at 03:20 this morning. That made me sick as a parrot.

Although I managed to drop off to sleep, I was imagining that I was in a situation where people were talking in the distance. So much so that it awoke me and, sure enough, there were people talking in the distance in here, loud enough to keep me awake.

It was a struggle to go back to sleep after, but I did, and it was a real struggle to awaken when the alarm went off. And everywhere that I had been during the night, it immediately evaporated.

After breakfast I tried to catch up with the website and even though I made some progress, I couldn’t concentrate and eventually I crashed out. And that was how my day went today. Just in and out of sleep.

Later in the morning I managed to struggle down to Caliburn and I brought another load of stuff back up here. And at lunchtime I made it to the supermarket on the corner for my baguette.

Tonight, I made a big curry. Potato and mushroom, and there’s enough left over for the next txo days too. It really was delicious as well and while I didn’t put any bulghour in it, I threw in a handful of peanuts to give it an additional taste.

So let’s see how I get on with sleep tonight. I hope that no-one disturbs me for I really need a good sleep. I can’t go on like this.

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Friday 16th December 2016 – TODAY WAS A LITTLE …

… more exciting than yesterday.

What probably made a difference was that I was on my travels during the night. And not just upstairs to the bathroom either (I knew that I would have to do that, didn’t I?).

I was driving down the M1 to London in an E-type Jaguar and the range wasn’t enough to reach there so I had to pull off somewhere round by Luton or Dunstable to fuel up. I knew just the place but when I arrived, it was abandoned and all of the pumps were broken. I enquired of a yokel where there might be a fuel station, and he pointed me in the direction of the Motorway service station. But later on I had to go for food and this involved walking down a long corridor past various hatches to receive various items of the menu. Part of the route took us downstairs to a hatch and there I noticed that some people also had mugs of pea soup. I fancied a mug of that and so I made enquiries – to be told that the pea soup was at a hatch a few positions further back so if I wanted pea soup I would have to retrace my steps.

It was difficult to crawl out of bed this morning, but even so, I was all done and dusted and back down here before 08:00.

police barrage alcotest kruisstraat leuven belgium december decembre 2016We had yet more excitement in the Kruisstraat this morning after the police trap the other day.

It’s a police barrage, this time with the aim of issuing alcotests to the drivers. They can do random breath tests here in Belgium. And they caught a couple too.

They also caught a couple of motorists trying to drive the wrong way up the one-way street too

mini tractor moving pallets breeze blocks brusselsestraat leuven belgium october octobre 2016A little later I went outside. They are doing some work in the building opposite and this really caught my eye.

It’s a little mini-tractor like my Kubota B1220 and you can see how they are moving the breeze blocks – on a pallet being used as a skid hoisted up at one end on the tri-point lift. I’ll have to try this one day.

I went down the the bank around the corner and drew out the next month’s supply of money, and then down to Caliburn where I brought another pile of stuff back up here. Food mostly, but some clothes too.

Fetching the baguette was next, and then a coffee. I deserved it.

I was disturbed later by someone who wanted to check the plumbing again. But at least the shower room is now finished and we can use that again. Saves me staggering up the stairs at silly hours in the morning.

This afternoon I spent some time on the website again – and I’m still stuck in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. I hope that I can move on some day soon.

Tea tonight finished off the last of the kidney bean stuff that I made the other day, and now I’m going to try yet again for another early night. I had a little crash-out this afternoon but I’mstill quite tired.

Tomorrow it’s market day so I may well go for a little stroll up town.

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Thursday 15th December 2016 – JUST LIKE THE MATHEMATICIAN …

… called Hall, I’ve done three-fifths of five-eights of … err … nothing today.

I awoke yet again in the middle of the night to go off down the corridor, and was still asleep when the alarm went off this morning. But I was first up for breakfast and first back downstairs again. And then apart from a trip to the corner for my baguette, that was that.

We’ve had the builders in today. There’s been a leaky tap in the shower that’s been filtering into the bedroom at the side of it and today they came to sort it out.

They had to chisel off some of the tiles in the shower in order to access the leak, and they’ve repaired that. And then they chiselled off the damp plaster and put some tongue-and-grooving over it – with me giving some technical advice seeing that I’ve done rather a lot of this just recently.

But the plaster isn’t dry in the shower so we can’t use it and so that bathroom is closed off – which means that we have to go upstairs. That will be interesting at 03:00, that’s for sure.

I had a phone call today too – from the hospital. My appointment is on Monday at 11:10.

And i’m not looking forward to it.

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Monday 12th December 2016 – WHAT A GOOD …

… night’s sleep that was. I was off early – awoke to switch off the radio and there I was, gone until about 06:45. And gone on my travels too. I was in a relationship with one girl, a relationship with which I wasn’t happy and so I was trying to involve myself in a relationship with a second but somehow, beyond all my control, I was drifting towards a relationship with yet a third girl and it was all becoming very, very complicated.

I was alone at breakfast and then came back here and tidied up in my room, trying to put the stuff away seeing as I’m going to be here for quite a bit. But round about 10:30 I went down to Caliburn and sorted out a pile of stuff to bring back.

Including my halogen heater. The radiator in my room isn’t working properly and I sent a mail to the landlord about it, but I want to be on the safe side.

Narrowly avoiding being knocked down on a pedestrian crossing by a wayward cyclist, I came back here to drop off the stuff and then went to the supermarket on the corner for a baguette, a lettuce and some pears. Back here, I had a coffee to warm me up because it was freezing outside.

After lunch I was disturbed by the central heating man who bled my radiator and that’s much better. I didn’t need my halogen heater after all.

Once he’d gone, I cracked on with work. I’ve found a magazine from the International Grenfell Associaton, the charity that supplied health services to the Labrador coast in the days from the turn of the 20th Century until 1949 when Labrador was a forgotten British colony. All of the issues from 1903 until the 1970s are on line now and there are tons of stuff of interest in them.

Tea was a lentil curry, and I was joined by a British guy who is staying here. He proudly told me that he voted for the Brexit, but was here to work. The irony, if not absurdity of his position has clearly gone right over his head.

It was delicious, my lentil curry too, with more left for tomorrow too.

Now it’s an early night again. I hope that I have as good a sleep as I had last night.

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Sunday 4th December 2016 – I’VE HAD A FEW …

… twinges just recently but last night I had a major attack of cramp. Both calves too and I was in agony for half an hour. First time for absolutely months and months and months. I’d almost forgotten all about them.

But eventually the pain wore off and I could carry on with sleeping – until the alarm went off.

I’d been back to Labrador as well during the night. That seems to be a regular route these days. It’s all clearly playing on my mind.

First into breakfast this morning, and all alone too. and my 08:05 I’d finished, been to the boulanger for my baguette and rescued three plastic crates from the skip at the supermarket.

The morning was spent doing some tidying up (which is not like me, is it) and getting my room ready for being away for a week or so. I have to make an effort, I suppose. I did some stuff on the laptop too and an early lunch saw me down the road and at Cailburn by 14:00.

We hit the streets and fuelled up and then had a very uneventful drive down as far as Paris. One thing that I had forgotten is that Sunday late afternoon it’s “red” rates on the péage in the direction of Paris and I really was nailed for that. It wasn’t half painful

The Franciliènne was packed too – end-to-end traffic all the way around and it didn’t clear either. Things only eased off when i left and headed into Melun.

Plenty of room at the Première Classe on the edge of the city and the room was quite comfortable, even though some people in the room above seemed to be having a party. I had a really good pizza brought to me and then I crashed out for an hour or so.

Tomorrow after breakfast I’ll have part II of my journey, back to Montluçon at least. To do some shopping tomorrow evening and find a place to stay ready for part III.

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Tuesday 15th November 2016 – YOU MISSED …

… all of the excitement last night.

I was just about getting ready to go to bed when my bedroom door burst open and someone came in dragging a big suitcase behind him.

It turned out that due to a transcription error he had received an e-mail telling him to go to room 1302 instead of 1202. We soon sorted that problem out, but it wasn’t half exciting while it lasted. I keep on meaning to lock the door to my room when I’m in here and one day I’ll remember to do it.

During the night I went on my travels, both down the corridor and out on my travels. I ended up on the Coasts of Labrador again but why and who with I really have no idea now.

There were the usual crowds at breakfast and I shan’t be sorry to leave here tomorrow for some peace and quiet – always assuming that I can in fact leave. I really hope that I can and they don’t want me back in a week. That’s going to be pretty impossible. Even going home for two weeks only leaves me a week or so down there to sort myself out and I need much more than that.

After breakfast, I found to my dismay that the internet it down. I don’t know why but everyone came to me to complain. They must think that I own the place or something. It seems that, according to the message that I saw on the communal computer, that the bill hadn’t been paid for a while. The landlord needs to deal with that problem pretty quickly.

It gave me a good opportunity to crack on with my web pages about the Trans Labrador Highway. As a result, I have now finished my pages about the Coasts of Labrador and now I’m starting to climb up onto the Eagle Plateau. If I keep on like this, I’ll be finished before too long, and then I’ll have to find something else to do.

I had my baguette for lunch in the company of another new arrival. He’s the first foreign person whom I’ve ever met who approves of the Brexit, but then again he was rather weird. He complained at great length that he had been expelled from Belgium and had lost absolutely everything. Now he had moved out to Occupied Palestine and was living in one of these unlawful settlements. The irony of his position had gone right over his head.

In contrast to the last couple of days I’ve been out on several occasions today. Apart from the baguette, I went down to Caliburn twice. The first time was to take down there everything that I don’t need this evening or tomorrow at the hospital. And I went through all of the clothes in Caliburn and brought back all of the dirty clothes, as well asa change of clean clothes.

And when I returned I had a really good shower and shave and a change of clothes. Once I’d organised myself properly (which takes for ever of course) I went off to the launderette and washed all of the clothes and now everything is all ready for my next voyage.

There was a very nice girl in there doing a big load of washing too. Under normal circumstances I would have engaged her in conversation to see what happens, but then again any girl who can’t afford a washing machine isn’t likely to be able to keep me in the luxury to which I would like to be accustomed.

After tea, in which I wasn’t alone yet again, I went back to Caliburn to take back the now-clean clothes and everything else that I don’t need. All that remains here now is what I’ll need for the hospital tomorrow.

So now it’s an early night for me. Whatever will tomorrow bring?

I hope that it’s good news. I need it, I reckon.

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Sunday 13th November 2016 – I DIDN’T GO …

… very far at all today. I made it down to the boulangerie on the corner this morning for my baguette. That was a stroll of almost 150 yards there and back I suppose.

And at tea-time I went an extra 50 yards there and back to the take-away pizza place for a mushroom and onion pizza for tea.

And that was my lot, I’m afraid.

Nevertheless I did have some good luck while I was out this morning. There was another black plastic storage crate in the bin outside the supermarket – a big one this time – and so seeing as it was quite early and there was no-one about, I made sure that I liberated that. These are really nice and useful, these storage crates. Nice and lightweight and easy to carry.

And I didn’t go far during the night either. Dunno if I went on a ramble because I don’t remember anything at all. I do know that I had to leave my bed several times though, especially round about 01:00 when someone came back and made quite a racket.

I was there for breakfast at the usual time, and after the boulangerie, I had something of a repose. In fact I had something of a repose on and off throughout the day. I must really have had a bad night last night.

But I did crack on with the website somewhat, and made another good find on the internet. A kind of database that has been created to record events, happenings and documents about Labrador. And there were the sailing schedules for the “Alphabet ships” – the ships of the Newfoundland Railway that worked the coastal settlements once Labrador had been attached to Newfoundland in 1876.

And it makes poignant reading too. Never mind abandoned communities such as Battle Harbour, the “capital” of Labrador back in those days. That settlement has been abandoned as a permanent habitation for over 50 years under the Canadian Government’s controversial resettlement plans, and is now merely a summer fishing station. What is even more sad is that many of the mailboat ports haven’t simply been abandoned, they have long-since disappeared from the map and their names are no longer recorded.

Another surprise was that the owner came round to check up on the premises and we had a really good chat for a while. Who knows where our conversation will lead us,

But now, an early night again. I hope that I can have a good night’s sleep and an exciting travel.

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Saturday 12th November 2016 – I HAD A NICE …

… four hours out with Alison today.

She came round at about 11:00 and we went off to the good cafe down the street for a coffee and a chat. We were there for quite some time too.

Once we’d finished we went for a walk to look at a couple of shops and then went down the road to the ALDI where Alison did some of her shopping. And then over the road to Spit, the huge Charity Shop just there. And there was tons of good stuff in there too, much of which is at a decent price. I could quite happily furnish a small apartment from there.

There’s a Troc in the vicinity too, somewhere in between Leuven and Mechelen. The prices in there though are totally ridiculous, even though the stuff looks really good quality. But here’s something that you can buy me for Christmas if you can’t think of anything better – they had a late Medieval suit of armour in there. Wouldn’t that look nice standing up in the corner of my house? But €895 was a bit ridiculous really, although nothing like as ridiculous as the €12,500 they wanted for a bronze fountain that looked like a good well.

Alison took me later to the English shop. There’s a fish and chips van that parks up there a couple of days a week but that wasn’t what excited me. They had vegan pies which will go down nicely with some new potatoes and vegetables, but the highlight was definitely the vegan mince pies. I’ll be back there a few days before Christmas, that’s for sure.

On the way back I picked up a baguette at the Carrefour by the football ground and had lunch once I returned. following that I did some more research for my web pages on Labrador. I’ve found a couple of really good sites of interest on the internet – one that lists every known community in Labrador in about 1910 and the access port where appropriate (and there’s tons of interesting stuff on there) and secondly, an interactive map that shows the location of almost every known geographical feature in Labrador. I could really lose myself in those sites.

For tea it was pasta with a tin of chick peas and vegetables and tomato sauce. and then a nice relaxing evening.

This afternoon I’d crashed out for an hour or so but that is probably something to do with the disturbed night that I’d had. It took me ages to drop off to sleep and when I finally did, I was up and down several times too.

I’d been on my travels too, out to the Coasts of Labrador where there was a very narrow strip of land in bewteen the cliffs that narrowed even more just where I had to cross over the mouth of a small river. There was a young teenage girl with me too, rather like a girl with whom I’d had a lengthy discussion once when I was out on the North Shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence in May 2012. Although what she was doing suddenly making an appearance I have no idea.

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