Tag Archives: neighbour

Monday 12th November 2018 – I’M FREEZING!

I’ve just spent half an hour standing on top of the cliff overlooking the Plat Gousset waiting for a decent wave to go crashing over the sea wall.

After all, there’s quite a wind blowing outside and it’s not too far off High Tide so I was hoping that I might have landed a good one. But no such luck. There were one or two that looked quite good, but nothing anything like as good as I was hoping.

In the end, I came back here to warm up, and I’ll try again another day.

This morning, it was a rather late awakening. All of 04:38 in fact. But I managed to go back to sleep again until the alarms went off.

I’d been on my travels last night too. We were fitting power points into the street – every shop had to provide a 4-socket extension lead plugged into their own power supply, and we were going round pinning up the leads out of the way so that no-one would trip over them. But then half-way through the exercise they came up with a new system, which meant that we then had to go round to undo and dismantle everything that we had done to date.

After breakfast there were a few bits and pieces to do and then, for the first time since I don’t know when, I had a good play around with the 3D program that I use. And rather bizarrely, something that I abandoned a good couple of years ago because I couldn’t make it work as I would like is now working even better than what it was I was doing before instead. And I don’t understand that at all.

Lunchtime was in here again, because it’s now almost certainly winter outside. Not snowing or raining, but windy and cold. Much warmer in here, especially as the heating is on.

This afternoon I booked my rooms for my visits to Leuven. For the one on 26th November, I’m going on the Sunday and coming back on the Wednesday as usual. But for the one on Christmas Eve (what a silly time to have a hospital appointment) I’m going off on the Friday morning and coming back on the following Thursday morning.

And I’ll be trying to find some interesting things to do while I’m there. It’s ages since I’ve been to Cologne for example.

Once that was out of the way, I made a start on Day Three of my trip to the High Arctic. That will keep me out of mischief for the next ever so long.

In between all of that, I went for my walk around the Pointe du Roc. No-one else was there which is hardly any surprise in the wind.

Out in the Baie de Mont St Michel over towards the Brittany coast there was a major storm brewing. Judging by the direction of the wind it looked as if it would be heading our way some time soon.

Not the kind of weather to be out in.

But Yves and Lili were out there right enough. Loading up a van with their valuable possessions.

I offered them some help but they reckoned that they could manage. I gave them a bottle of my special Chateau de Chasselas wine to thank them for how nice they have been to me, and for them to celebrate their new home.

Tea was a stuffed pepper with spicy rice, and I made far too much stuffing. No idea why. So it looks as if it will be taco rolls with kidney beans and stuffing for the next couple of days until it’s all gone.

The evening walk was to freeze around the walls as I said.

The tide was in and the harbour gates were open, and I was just in time to see a trawler come sailing … “dieseling” – ed … into the inner harbour.

I had a good view from up here on the top of the city walls and the new 50mm f1.8 lens had brought the image out really well. I’m quite pleased with this lens

Back here and now that I’m warmed up I’ll go for an early night.

Who knows? I might even have a decent night’s sleep one of these nights.

Waves on the Plat Gousset

Trawler tying up at the quay in the inner harbour at Granville

Thursday 8th November 2018 – I’VE FINISHED …

… the second day of my mega-voyage to the High Arctic and it’s now on line.

All you need to do is to go to this page and follow the link to Day Two. There are five pages in total and they should give you hours of endless fun.

Even more exciting is the fact that I’ve made a start on adding some photos to Day Three of the blog. That might even be finished if I have a good day, and then I can start on the web page that goes with it.

Or pages, probably, if it’s anything like Day Two.

In case you are wondering, I’ve had a good day today and done quite a few things. That early night that I had must have done me a world of good.

There was even time for me to go off on a ramble during the night. I was heading towards a boat, travelling down a valley, and we were to collect a group of kids to take skiing with us. They came running down the sides of the valley down to the bottom, screaming and squealing like young kids do. And what was surprising about all of this was that there was plenty of snow on the sides of the valley so it was difficult to understand, even during a nocturnal ramble, why they would need to go off somewhere else to ski.

After breakfast, I finished off the form that I’d been completing, but at this moment the printer decided to pack up yet again. It always seems to do this at a crucial moment, and it’s getting on my nerves.

But then again, I did pick it up in the Spring of 2013 and it was second-hand so I can’t complain too much. But I’ll be buying another one on Saturday. I hope that I’ll have more luck with this, but it never seems to work out between me and printers.

A shower and setting the washing machine going, and then into town, with Yves and Lily whom I encountered at the foot of the stairs. We had a good chat until we went our separate ways in the town centre. Me to the magasin de presse for the photocopying and then to the Post Office to send it all off.

On the way up to LIDL there was a cherry-picker working on one of the lamp-posts by the station.

It looks as if they might be starting to put up the Christmas decorations. It’s getting closer to that time of year already. And of course, I’m not going to be here to celebrate it, am I?

LIDL didn’t come up with anything special – in fact, the cupboard was pretty bare. But I did remember to buy 2kgs of carrots for freezing.

On the way back to town, I went past the private car park of the local Tax Office, and saw a sight that made me laugh.

There’s a demonstration due to take place soon against inter alia the amount of tax being charged on fuel.

People are expected to show their solidarity by putting their reflective chasubles on top of their dashboards.

I found it extremely ironic that a couple of people who apparently work in the Tax Office are demonstrating against the amount of taxes being charged.

In the town centre there was a big crowd around the War Memorial.

The local schoolkids had been learning about the Armistice as part of the school curriculum and so they were holding a commemoration service there for them.

There was a considerable number of adults who were passing by and were swept up in the emotion.

There was an enormous number of kids there listening to the service.

And there was also a film cameraman recording the event, presumably for the local television channel.

He was quite interested in filming the kids listening to the service, and so I couldn’t resist the opportunity of filming him doing it.

I have quite a few photos of this kind of thing, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall.

On the way back here, I had a strange encounter in the rue des Juifs.

In one of the art galleries there was a really nice painting of a tramp steamer. It looked quite nice so I was interested in having a closer look at it.

Just as I was about to go inside, the owner came out
“I’m just closing up because I’m going to an exhibition” he said. “I’ll be back in a week”
And he locked up the shop right in front of me.

The next person who complains that there’s a recession going on will get a smack in the mouth. People throwing customers out of their shop like this.

Up the hill again where I fell in once more with Yves and Lily who were on the way back home.

Lunch was inside again – far too windy to go outside and sit on my wall. And then I finished off the web pages that I mentioned earlier.

A cookery session followed next. I peeled, sliced and blanched the carrots and then prepared them for freezing. And 2kgs is too much to freeze at one go. 1kg at a time will do in future. But I should really have bought a bigger freezer.

There was a pile of mushrooms left over too so I prepared a mushroom and potato curry with the left-over potatoes from the previous batch, and added a giant tin of macedoine vegetables and a dollop of soya cream.

And now there’s no room in the freezer for it so I don’t know what I’m going to do.

What with all of that, I was rather late going out for my afternoon walk around the Pointe du Roc.

And that wasn’t as easy as it might have been either, due to the high winds that were still blowing a gale around in the Baie de Mont St Michel.

But the winds were making quite an impression on the waves, as well as blowing the seabirds around somewhat.

they couldn’t have found it very easy to move around, and neither did the pedestrians down there either.

A little further around the bend we came to a position where we could see the wind full-on with the waves, pushing them forward towards the port de plaisance.

They were making some really pretty patterns too and it looked quite impressive.

You can see what kind of a beautiful day that we were having too. It was rather a shame that the wind was cooling everything down.

With the time that was left before tea I started on Day Three of the blog, and sometime during the proceedings I had a little repose.

At tea time I went to try a helping of the curry with boiled rice and veg. Not my best, I have to say, but then I only made it to use up some of the food that was left and in danger of going off.

It was at that moment that I remembered that I had left the washing in the machine.

The high winds didn’t prevent me from going for my evening walk around the walls.

Even though the tide was well on its way out, the high winds were still catching the waves and smashing them down on the promenade at the Plat Gousset.

What was even more impressive was that the new f1.8 lens was working well enough to pick up the motion, and the crop of the image was sharp enough to bring it out.

So I carried on with my walk around the walls and back into the old medieval town.

And here at the Place Cambernon there was a hive of activity. Dozens of people at the bar, and the pizza van that comes here on a Thursday evening was doing a roaring trade.

One day I’ll take some of my cheese down to the van and try out one of their pizzas

Back home in the hallway I met Brigitte who was back from her holidays. We had a good chat for over an hour down there.

It’s definitely my day for being sociable with the neighbours.

However, it’s made me later than I intended to be and I won’t have a night as early as I would like.

But I’ll do my best.

Children’s Armistice Day commemoration

Children’s Armistice Day Commemoration

Storm, high winds and waves, Plat Gousset

The Pizza Van in the Place Cambernon, Granville

Monday 5th November 2018 – IT ALL WENT …

… rather haywire today.

The alarms at 06:00, 06:10 and 06:20 all went off. I know because I heard them and even switched them off. But it was more like 08:15 when I finally brought myself round well enough to crawl out of the stinking pit.

The fact that I had been on a voyage during the night is neither here nor there – and I won’t tell you about it because you are probably all eating your tea right now.

So a late start means a late breakfast of course. And a pile of things that I meant to do were rather shunted aside for now. The most important – a form that I must complete – I made a good start on it and it won’t take long to finish off.

Another thing that I carried on with is the project that involves a huge mound of photos going back to Time Immemorial. I’ve been gradually working my way through these here and there, and another huge pile have been classed as irrelevant and filed under CS

A session on the bass too. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good play around.

Lunchtime was indoors today. Autumn has definitely arrived and it’s no longer pleasant to sit outside. That’s how it’s going to be until the end of March, I reckon.

The High Arctic too. I’ve been pushing along with that too. And I’ve reworked two of the pages that I’ve been doing. The order runs better like this, but that’s not to say that it won’t be changed again in due course before it’s published.

What with one thing and another (and once you make a start you’ll ne surprised at how many other things there are) I was late going out for my afternoon walk today

But just in time to notice, away in the distance, a huge ship sailing … “dieseling” – ed … along out in the English Channel.

A little bit of crop, enlarge and enhance will be able to bring it out.

But in the meantime, there are a few things much closer to home that need attention.

Like the beach at the Pointe du Roc for example. I don’t recall having seen it properly from this angle before.

It looks very inviting but there’s no way down to it right now.

And out just off the coast is this little yacht.

I was going to say something about it sailing along in the breeze but if you notice carefully, there are no sails hoisted. So he’s dieseling along too.

It beats the purpose of having a yacht if you ask me – especially with all of this wind that we have around here.

Talking of the wind, we were having another windy day again today. It’s a mystery that our intrepid yachtsman isn’t taking advantage of it.

And the wind was pushing the tide well in. The tidal co-efficient isn’t very high today, but you would never have thought so with looking at this.

And it’s not high tide for another hour or so either.

The crowds down there on the Plat Gousset were certainly enjoying the weather this afternoon.

I cropped out a bit of the previous photograph and blew it up (which I can do these days despite modern anti-terrorist legislation) and you can see how powerful the winds are today.

Quite a few of those people will be having an unexpected shower if they aren’t careful.

Round the corner in the harbour we were having a couple of interesting shops to see.

I know the sailing ship that is there, but as usual these days I can’t remember her name. I’m going to have to prepare some kind of database of ships here so that I can bring them to my fingertips.

And I was admiring the paint job on the trawler too. We all know that the vital statistics of a mermaid are 36-24-£3:60 per kilo.

Bearing in mind the maritime traffic that I had seen earlier, I decided to change the habits of a lifetime.

And so I continued my walk by incorporating a promenade down to the end of the road and around the headland.

And found a suitable place to couple up the zoom/telephoto lens

I took several photos of the ship and cropped out the interesting bits.

Back here, I blew them up and enlarged them, because despite … “you said that just now” – ed.

And if you are wondering about the poor quality of the images just let me mention that the photos were taken of the ship as it sailed into the entrance road to the harbour at St Malo down the Brittany coast.

And that’s 38 kms – 22 miles – away, so you can’t really complain about the quality of the image at all

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a Ship of the Day, so let’s all say hello to Pont Aven, the flagship of the Brittany Ferries fleet.

She’s on her way into St Malo with the afternoon ferry from Portsmouth. Mind you, last week she was seen in Cobh in Ireland and also Santander in Spain, so she gets about a bit

This view of Pont Aven is cropped out and enlarged 200%, and while you admire it, I’ll tell you a little about her.

Built by Meyers in Germany, she displaces about 41,000 tonnes, was launched in 2004 and is powered by FOUR Caterpillar 12-cylinder engines.

185 metres long and 32 metres wide, she has a capacity of 650 cars and 2,400 passengers.

While I had the zoom/telephoto lens on the camera I took another photo of the Plat Gousset from the headland at the Pointe du Roc.

The wind seems to have died down during the half-hour or so that it had taken me to walk all the way down here.

No waves splashing up over the promenade soaking the passers-by right now. In fact, there are considerably fewer passers-by out there now.

From this viewpoint there’s a really good view of the beach at Donville-les-Bains too, including that building where I saw that depressing apartment 18 months ago.

The houses on the clifftop just there look quite interesting too. I wouldn’t mind trying to rent a room in one of those, as long as it overlooks the sea.

Back here, I encountered a neighbour and we had a good chat for a while. And then I came in here and finished off the grapes from Saturday.

Tea was a stuffed pepper and rice – and beautiful it was too. And then a walk around the headland in the dark.

Now I’m going to try to have an early night. And maybe I’ll be up in time to do some work tomorrow.

Sunday 4th November – SO THERE I WAS …

… standing in the foyer of this really impressive hotel. Big and magnificent, with as many luxury floors below ground as above. And how I was looking forward to the guided tour that I had been promised. And just as the guide appeared to see me and head my way, the blasted alarm went off and awoke me.

I’d forgotten that last Sunday I’d had the alarm working. So serve me right.

Anyway, no chance of me leaving my stinking pit at 06:00. I turned over and went back to sleep. 09:15 is much more like it for waking up.

And 09:50 is even better for leaving the bed of course, and 10:30 is much more like a decent time for a Sunday breakfast.

The temperature outside was 8°C and in here it was 10°C. A signal to put on the central heating. Can’t leave it too long without heating and then freeze to death.

With being up-to-date with the important stuff (but still plenty of less-important stuff to do) I had a whack at the trip to the High Arctic and did another 2000 words.

But the funny thing is that I don’t appear to be much further forward either. I don’t know where it all goes, this stuff that I write.

And talking of writing, I find that I’ve overlooked a couple of e-mails that I received while I was away with the fairies. I replied to one of them, and have another two to do tomorrow. As well as replying to a letter that I have forgotten.

I had a late lunch and then went out. Union Sportive des Mouettes de Donville were playing AS Gavray and as it was a beautiful afternoon, a spell at a football pitch right by the sea sounded ideal.

But when I got there, the cupboard was bare. No idea what had happened there.

But US St Pairaise were playing at home against EC Tessy Moyon Sports so I thrashed around the ring road to the Stade Croissant.

I was somewhat late arriving of course, about 7 minutes after kick-off. But according to some of the locals I hadn’t missed anything exciting.

So I settled down in the grandstand with a coffee out of the flask (because there’s no pie hut at Donville) and watched the game.

St Pair is the team in orange and black, and Tessy Moyon in the yellow and red.

US St Pairaise are second in the table and Tessy-Moyon are adrift at the foot, so I was expecting something of a comfortable passage for the home side.

But that wasn’t how it was turning out for the first thirty minutes. It’s true to say that St Pairaise were the better-disciplined and organised side, but Tessy-Moyon were in there slugging it out and defending quite well.

It looked as it St Pairaise was going to make hard work of it.

In fact, there was some very good and thoughtful football played out there.

It didn’t come off as often as the players would have liked, which isn’t really a surprise at this level of football, but it was impressive to see the players trying.

And it didn’t ‘arf look impressive when it worked out.

What changed things was a substitution that the St Pairaise trainer made after about 30 minutes.

He brought on a new attacker – the n°12 – and he immediately ignited the game.

And scored with probably his first real kick – a delightful scissor-kick volley from a corner, right into the top corner of the net.

I bet that he wouldn’t ever do that again in a million years.

And so we continued in the same vein for the second half.

An evenly-matched contest between the two teams with US St Pairaise having marginally the better of the game, but then the n°12 suddenly getting to grips with the game again.

And things then moved up a gear.

Sure enough, with about 10 minutes to go, US St Pairaise scored a second goal.

A good header from a cross – the keeper really had no chance with that.

And EC Tessy-Moyon can feel aggrieved with the result. They weren’t maybe as good as Us St Pairaise, but St Pairaise weren’t two goals better. It’s hard to see, on this performance, how it is that EC Tessy Moyon are adrift in the basement.

And interesting as it might seem, not a single yellow card today, never mind any red one. That’s something to celebrate.

On the way back, I had a real surprise in Granville. A 1960s Van Hool-bodied coach came driving round the town. Immaculate condition, clearly recently restored and very impressive.

When I finally returned to my apartment (which wasn’t easy seeing as I was stuck behind yet another grockle admiring the seagulls) I went off to see if I could find it.

No such luck though. It wasn’t on the coach park down the road, which was the obvious place to look.

But what I did see was a classic example of what can happen when you put some street furniture in the wrong place.

So “Bottoms Up” to the Town Council of Granville, hey?

On the way round, it did occur to me that I have never yet taken a photo of the sports ground just down the road here.

This is the Gymnase Jean Galfione, whoever he was when he was at home, if he ever had been … “he won the Olympic Gold in the pole vault for France in 1996” – ed.

There’s a running track there and a sports field, used by the school.

If the coach wasn’t on the coach park, it might well have been on the mobile home park, so I went for a look around there.

It wasn’t there either, but this interesting vehicle caught my eye.

With Polish plates it was bound to be different, and indeed it is. A “Laika” caravanette, named for the Russian dog that was the first living creature to orbit the earth in a spacecraft – 61 years ago to the day as it happens.

I’ve never seen one of these previously

So being totally unsuccessful, I headed back for home.

And the Eglise Notre Dame de Cap Lihou looking so interesting, I took a photo of that too. I’ve not taken a photo of it from this angle before.

Back here, Lili brought me back my dish from yesterday evening, and then I did the photographs from today.

Tea tonight was a vegan pizza, and very nice it was too. They are improving, although the oven still isn’t hot enough.

But now I’ve left it rather late for bed. I could have done with an early night for a change and I bet that I’ll regret this in the morning.

Saturday 3rd November 2018 – I SHOULD HAVE …

… gone to the football this evening. US Granville were playing the reserves of Paris St Germain at 18:00 and that was bound to be an occasion.

But instead I’d had a “communication” from one of the neighbours. Yves and Lili are moving out and a new tenant will be moving in shortly. They decided to have a farewell dinner, I was invited and the new tenant was there so I reckoned that I had better attend.

Not like me to be sociable but there are things that you have to do.

Last night I had a decent sleep and was up and about pretty smartly once the alarms had gone off.

And after breakfast I had a good shower and a clean-up. With the heater in the bathroom too. It’s definitely coming on to winter now.

On the way out to Caliburn I took the rubbish out to the skips, and then headed off to LIDL. As well as the usual stuff I bought another portable battery, seeing as they had some 3000mAh ones on offer at €12:99. The dashcam in Caliburn has a motion sensor that starts up the cam if Caliburn is knocked, but it needs a power supply to operate it when Caliburn’s ignition is turned off.

At NOZ they had some maps of France on special offer. Last year’s at just e4:99 so one of those is now in Caliburn for when I might go off on a voyage again. That replaces a map of 2002.

LeClerc came up with a crate of clementines. It must be getting close to Christmas. And a pile of coffee too seeing as I’m running out. The secret ingredient that I put in coffee makes all of the difference.

It took ages to return home, being stuck behind grockles and policemen holding up the traffic.

Lunch should have been on the wall in the sunshine but the wind blew me back in before I’d even sat down on the wall.

We had a cookery afternoon here, with me making some of my lentil, pepper and mushroom curries to take with me a-visiting.

It was a nice, quiet sociable evening but I came back here at 20:30 for the football. Bala Town v Cardiff Metro in the Welsh Premier League, and the home team ran out 3-0 victors in a rainstorm.

The big difference between the teams was Henry Jones. He’s several classes above the rest of the players in the Welsh Premier League – when he feels like it. Like much of the Welsh Premier League, there’s a big issue about consistency – they can do it now and again, but not all the time. Today though, he had one of the best games that I have ever seen him play.

In contrast, The Met’s principal playmaker, Eliot Evans, had something of an off-day and looked not even the shadow of the player he can be.

But now I have the halogen heater on in the bedroom. The outside temperature has dropped to 8°C right now and it’s only 11°C in here.

The central heating goes on tomorrow.

Wednesday 31st October 2018 – THE BODY CLOCK …

… is working well again to day.

Never mind the awakening at 01:30 – that’s the kind of thing that happens quite regularly these days, but the being wide-awake at 05:20 can only be good news, especially as I needed an early start.

The downside of all of this is despite being off on yet another nocturnal voyage during the night, all that I can remember is that I was shepherding around another group of young ladies. But as for why, I don’t have a clue now and isn’t that disappointing when I’ve spend the evening with a bunch of bouncing beauties?

06:10 I was out of bed and it took me just 2 minutes to pack the rest of my stuff.

But not all of it.

I’ve lost the top off one of my little water bottles – one of the ones that I use to bring soya milk and fruit juice with me when I come on a Sunday.

Well, when I say “lost it” what I mean is that I seem to have brought with me the top off one of the bottles that I didn’t need and so threw away. And I must have thrown away the good top with the bad bottle, if you see what I mean.

Anyway, by 06:30 I was on my way to the railway station and it’s a long time since I’ve been out and about this early.

And doesn’t the station look beautiful in the artificial lighting?

At the railway station, instead of catching the 07:09, the 06:36 was rather late so I hopped on that without having to wait around at all.

As a result I was early in Brussels, but the Carrefour in the station was open so that I could pick up some raisin buns and some fruit for breakfast.

I didn’t have to wait long – just long enough to eat my breakfast in fact, before we were ushered up onto the platform for our train.

And on there in the windswept weather the train soon put in its appearance and we could clamber aboard. And just for a change, I was first on board.

And then we had to wait.

dDe to the late arrival of the portion of the train that arrives from Amsterdam, the TGV was 12 minutes late leaving the station.

It was one of the same rather elderly TGVs but it was much cleaner and tidier inside than usual, although there was no water in the washrooms.

And the journey was so uneventful that I can’t remember a single thing about my seating companion

15 minutes late arriving in Paris Gare-du-Nord but the Metro was quite rapid and, for a change, half-empty.

And we were on the platform at Montparnasse-Vaugirard with 20 minutes to spare.

There wasn’t even enough time to have a look around. I’d only been there a couple of minutes before they called us up to the train. And I ended up sitting next to a nice young girl, but unfortunately she wasn’t interested in having a chat.

We set off on time too and for the first 30 minutes or so I caught up with my beauty sleep.

Once I’d woken up, I carried on with my “Voyages Of The Norsemen“.

Bearing in mind that the book was published 104 years ago, it’s a totally fascinating read.

For example, Hovgaard quote a beautiful story that “There is a tradition among the Eskimos in Labrador about a fierce race of men of gigantic size and strength, who delighted to kill people. But these men themselves could not be killed by either darts or arrows, which rebounded from their breast as from a rock”..

Can you think of a better description by isolated people of small stature when they talk about Europeans of the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries dressed in breastplates? It’s now accepted unequivocally that Martin Frobisher did in fact reach and explore Baffin Island in the 1570s and breastplates would have been in his wardrobe, but it’s interesting to speculate about who might have been there before and dressed in breastplates too.

It’s a similar kind of situation that I mentioned years ago about the old Mi’kmaq legend of Glooscap building a giant canoe and planting trees in it, which can, from the isolated mind, be no better description of the building of a European ship by European people on the coast of Nova Scotia long before the arrival of John Cabot.

The train pulled in on time at Granville station, which is always good news.

Here on the platform we were met by a couple of giant pumpkins. It’s nice to see the SNCF employees enter into the spirit of Halloween.

And that wasn’t all either. All the way down into town I was assailed by all kinds of demons and ghoulies. Someone whom I knew was chased into a pit by the demons, but was dragged out by the ghoulies.

On the way past the boulangerie I stopped to pick up a baguette for lunch. It’s been a long day and I’m hungry.

On the way up the hill, I looked over the wall into the harbour.

There was Victor Hugo moored up, all dressed in some kind of corporate advertising as if she had been hired to go off on a private excursion

I heard somewhere that one of the Channel Islands ferries had been broken down for a month during the holiday season and had cost the operators a great deal of money.

And regular readers of this rubbish will recall that back in the summer I did mention that I hadn’t seen her sister for quite some considerable time.

I had a very late lunch and then for the rest of the day I vegetated. I had a visit from the neighbours who invited me for a drink on Saturday, and I managed a walk around the headland later.

But it’s cold. 11°C in here and this would ordinarily be the signal to switch on the heating. Winter has arrived at last and it’s only going to get colder.

But I’m not. I’m going to be and I’m going to stay there. It’s a Bank Holiday so there’s no alarm tomorrow. I intend to have The Sleep Of The Dead, so just you watch someone come along and spoil it.

Saturday 27th October 2018 – START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON!

Absolutely, so it was rather later than maybe it ought to have been before I crawled out of bed this morning.

But it’s Saturday, and Saturday is shopping day, so I had my medication, had breakfast, and then had a shower.

Not that there was much breakfast to have because unfortunately we seem to have had an accident. During the night the muesli that I had made the other day somehow managed to fall off the shelf and scatter all over the floor. That was a waste.

on the way up to the shops I observed what might possibly be described as “an incident”. A crowd, including several ambulanciers together with their ambulance loitering on the edge of the quayside looking down towards the water.

I would have gone over to ask them what was happening, except for the fact that there was nowhere to park.

At LIDL there wasn’t much of any interest to tempt me – and even less than usual seeing as I’m not going to be here for a few days. But they did have a couple of things in the €1:00 bin – a wipe-off notice board, a set of A4 binders and a notepad with pen that will be much more use for taking notes around the house instead of on scraps of paper.

BUT was next on the agenda. About this broken shelf. But apparently shelves aren’t included in the guarantee, as, I suppose, so is nothing else that might break down.

But I’m rather disappointed that they had some really decent fridges and freezers on special offer at 30% off that would have been ideal for here. Much bigger and better value, but it’s too late now.

NOZ had the usual rubbish too. Wine at €1:79 a bottle so I bought a few. Not for me, but I never seem to have anything to hand when I’m invited round to people’s houses or I have people round, so it’s gone into store in the bathroom.

They also had a new delivery of maps too, including a new map of all of Europe. Much better quality, much larger scale, much more modern and much more handy to use than the one in Caliburn that dates from … errr … 1992.

I remember the issues that I had going around the Czech Republic in 2015 when I ended up navigating by the stars. High time that I updated everything.

LeClerc came up with the usual stuff, but no sprouts. Even the price tag has been taken off the freezer now. It looks as if the next time I have space in the freezer I’ll have to freeze a pile more.

But they did have frozen peas, and also frozen mushrooms, seeing as I somehow managed to leave the frozen mushrooms that I had bought the other day out on top of the freezer so they had all defrosted.

With no-one keen to commit suicide on the car park today, I made it home without incident, made my butties and then went out to sit on the wall.

But not for long. Even though it was a nice day, the savage wind was really too much for me. I came in and ate them in comfort.

This afternoon US Granville were playing at Avranches down the road in the Coupe de France. I had every intention of going, seeing as the kick-off was at 16:00, but at 15:00 when I should have set out for Avranches I was flat out on the bed, crashed out.

When I awoke, I cleared up the muesli and vacuumed the kitchen area. But that was all that I could manage today.

later on it was the birthday party of Nicole, the “mother” of Gribouille. I’d been invited and I’d bought a box of chocolates for her so I went round. It was raining outside by now. The weather had changed.

We all had a good chat and something to eat, even though there wasn’t much for me.

As is usual, I didn’t stay long. I can’t keep going like I used to do, so that was that. I managed a quick plate of pasta and veg tossed in olive oil.

And that was that. Off to bed and an early start in the morning. Despite it being Sunday, I have the alarm set. I’m off to Leuven tomorrow on the train.

Sunday 14th October 2018 – ALONE AGAIN

Yes, it’s very nice to have company because it drags me out of my shell and gets me off and about doing things, but it’s also nice to be back on my own again in my own little routine.

Last night was another bad night; Asleep at about midnight, awake at 01:00, working on the laptop because I couldn’t sleep, asleep again at 04:00, alarm at 06:00 (because Bane of Britain forgot to switch it off) and finally up and about at 08:30.

We had a leisurely breakfast and then Josée had a shower and packed up her things.

A visit to Yves and Lily’s was next to hand back the tool that Yves had lent us, and we were there chatting for over an hour. And then I drove Josée to the station for her train.

Back here, I made myself a couple of sandwiches for lunch and then I did the obvious thing. I crashed out. I need to catch up on my beauty sleep somehow.

As far as work today has gone, I haven’t done any. It IS a Sunday, after all. Instead, I’ve loitered around for pretty much all of the afternoon.

Tea was a vegan pizza of course, and it was another really good one.

My evening walk was around the headland of course. Only this time I took with me the new Nikon 50mm lens so that I could try it out in the dark and see what it’s like, like this photo of the College Andre Malraux in the Place d’Armes.

But that’s tomorrow’s job. Now I’m going to make the most of the possibilities of an early night. I’ve clean, tidy bedding too in which I can relax.

That’s something not to be missed.

The rue du Roc

the rue St Jean and the gate into the Old Town

The Place d’Armes – my building

The roundabout at the end of the rue du Roc, and the Pointe du Roc

The old Port, ferry terminal and quays

Rue du Port and the old port

Place d’Armes

rue St Jean and the archway into the Old Town

Friday 17th August 2018 – IT’S BEEN …

… a quiet day today, after all of the exertions of the last week or so.

Much to my own surprise, I was out of bed after the first alarm. And that’s not happened for a while, has it?

And then after breakfast there was more work to be done, and then I started to have a good think about my plans after my next hospital visit. And that reminded me that I hadn’t booked my train to Brussels. That was something that needed my attention, and now it’s completed.

That also reminded me that I needed to go for my blood test. A brisk walk took me to the laboratory and they attended to matters. And much to everyone’s surprise that was all done and dusted and paid for within a matter of a couple of minutes. Not like the UK where you have to wait for a week or so.

And over the road I picked up my railway tickets from the station.

On the way back I picked up a baguette for lunch, but I didn’t make it back home straight away.

My attention was drawn to some movement on the horizon over by the Brittany coast, so I quickly grabbed the zoom lens and went for a wander to see what it was.

Cropping and enlarging the image and then digitally enhancing it, I could see that it’s our old friend the Brittany Ferries ship Pont Aven off a-wandering again.

When I came back home I found that I had no hummus. I’d run out. And so I made another large batch. Chick peas, tahini, olive oil, chick pea water, olives, tomato, garlic and herbs. All whizzed up in the whizzer.

Some of it went into the freezer and some of it into the fridge. That’ll keep me out of mischief for a good while.

Lunch was taken outside on the wall with my butties, my book and my camera.

And while I was there, I was treated to the interesting sight of three lizards side-by-side eating from the same piece of pear.

It makes a change from fighting over it. They must be learning to trust each other after all of this time.

But that wasn’t the only excitement that was taking place.

There was a considerable amout of yachts and boats of all descriptions out there in the Baie de Mont St Michel, including our old friend La Granvillaise out there with a full load of passengers enjoying the sun.

Makes me wish that I was out there with them.

And it looks as if we might be having some entertainment in the Place Cambernon this evening too. A group of musicians were out there doing a sound check.

Seeing as it was nice weather I loitered for a while in the vicinity to see if they were going to do a warming up session too so that I could see what they might be about, but it was clear after a while that they weren’t going to oblige.

In the end I gave up the idea and left them to it.

This afternoon, apart from talking to another pile of neighbours, I attacked another piece of correspondence that had been hanging around here for a while. I’m going to have to keep myself up-to-date.

And I was on the phone to Rosemary for quite a while – so much so that I missed my tea and ended up with a packet of crisps.

No walk either this evening as I was watching football on the internet. Aberystwyth Town v Cardiff Metropolitan in the Welsh Premier League. Aber were really poor in the first half and were lucky to be only 3-0 down. They were much improved in the second half – although still some way off the pace – and the 4-1 final score was really rather flattering to them. Cardiff Met could have had half a dozen without too much effort.

So now it’s bed time. Shops tomorrow and I need to stock up as I’m having visitors. I hope that they’ve stocked up in NOZ – and that they have some staff to person the tills too.

boats baie de mont st michel port de granville harbour manche normandy france

beach hang gliders plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Thursday 16th August 2018 – YOU HAVE NO IDEA …

… how long it took me today to complete my Medical Expenses claim.

It’s quite true to say that I have let things build up and build up for the last … errr … eighteen months, but it still shouldn’t have taken as long as it did.

And it wasn’t down to a lack of sleep either because I had an early night and slept right the way through until the alarm went off, something that hasn’t happened for quite a while.

We had the usual morning performance and followed by a nice hot shower – the first for a while it has to be said – and cut my fingernails. And then I hit the streets.

First stop was the ferry office. It was closed, which should be no surprise to anyone who reads anything that I have ever written seeing that it’s midsummer and there are crowds of people about.

They did have some leaflets on display for the ferries to the Ile de Chausey but nothing for the Jersey ferries, so I wandered off to the Tourist Office. They had a leaflet but they also told me that the ferries are pretty much booked up for the next few days.

The laboratory was next. I had an e-mail from the hospital 10 days ago to say that there was a build-up of potassium in my body, to change the dose of my medication and to organise a blood test.

The people at the laboratory told me that all I need to do is to just turn up and to bring the e-mail with me, and they’ll do the test on the spot. So that’s tomorrow’s task.

LIDL was impressive today. As well as the usual stuff, they were selling hardware. They had some powerful cable crimpers and accessories, some heatsink tubing and some screw-in hooks so they found their way into the shopping bag. And had I been back in the Auvergne I would have had a lot more than just that.

On the way back I bumped into one of my neighbours and we had a chat in the street for a short while.

Back here, I needed to print out the e-mail from the hospital and that took longer than it might. The ink cartridge wasn’t seating properly and the nozzles needed cleaning and aligning.

By the time that I’d managed to print out the mail, it was lunchtime so I was off on the wall with my butties, my book and a lizard.

This afternoon I had to deal with my medical expenses claim. This involved scanning about 60 receipts, collating them, renaming then as appropriate and then logging into my insurance website and completing the on-line form. And seeing as there were only so many entries allowed on a form, it needed 5 forms in total.

What made things worse was that much of the laser printing from the earlier receipts were faded and it was very difficult for me to read the entries on some of them. I don’t know how they will manage at the Claims Office.

I missed my walk this afternoon with being involved in all of this. But seeing as we were having a torrential rainstorm at the time, it wasn’t much of a problem.

BY the time that I had finished and done a little tidying up, it was teatime. A plate of mixed steamed vegetables with vegan sausages and vegan cheese sauce.

On my walk tonight I met yet another neighbour who also goes for an evening walk. He goes the other way round so in fact we met up twice.

But the route was sodden with water following the rainstorm. Not very pleasant at all.

But at least I could admire all of the boats out there. They seem to be happy that the weather has cleared up and that they could go out to play.

Although the rain had stopped, the streets were still wet.

Down in the rue du Nord the vehicles were making some very interesting tracks on the damp surface.

Even though it’s late evening, the streets were crowded with people and cars. It’s the height of the summer season so we have tourists everywhere, of course.

Anyway, it’s bedtime. And I hope that I have a decent night’s sleep yet again. I need to build up my strength as I’m going to be busy.

yachts baie de mont st michel cancale brittany granville manche normandy france

Wednesday 15th August 2018 – THERE’S NOT MUCH POINT …

… these days in my switching off the alarms to have a lie in.

Going to bed early, I was nevertheless wide awake, having been awoken bolt-upright at about 01:20 this morning, although I don’t know why. And it took me ages to go back to sleep.

And then I was awake again at about 06:00 and that was that. So much for any lie-in that I was planning.

After breakfast, there was some paperwork to deal with – quite a pile of that in fact – and then I tried to contact the medical laboratory to try to sort out a blood test. But despite the place being advertised as opening at 08:00, there was no reply throughout the morning.

But I soon found out the reason for that.

Liz came on line later. “I’m in Coutances. I’ve just been to do a few errands and everywhere is closed. I’ve forgotten that it’s a Bank Holiday”.

I hadn’t forgotten – I hadn’t even realised. But that explains why the laboratory is not answering its telephone.

Lunch was taken inside today. It was cloudy, windy, grey and miserable outside so I wasn’t going to brave the weather out there.

As for the work today, I’ve been unloading Caliburn. Half of the stuff that I brought here is now in the apartment. The CDs have been cleaned (because the boxes were filthy), sorted, shelves fitted in the units and the Cds stacked properly. It looks quite impressive.

Most of the books are up here too. They’ve been cleaned too – or rather, what’s left of them after the mice have had a good nibble. I suppose that the mice will be continuing to nibble the hundreds of books that I left behind. Whatever will they be like when I go back there again?

Some of the paperwork is in here too. It’s had an initial sorting, and there will be a much deeper sorting in due course.

While I was out there giving Gribouille a stroke, Bridgitte came by and we had a good chat for half an hour.

Tea was a delcious meal of baked potatoes, burger, vegetables and gravy.

And then I went for my evening walk.

It was a really beautiful sunset this evening. I was lucky enough to catch the sun sliding out of the clouds and disappearing down below the horizon over the Ile de Chausey.

Just the kind of spectacle for which you might pay good money, and here I am, getting it all for free.

And surprisingly, there was also an exceptional view of Jersey and the Channel Islands this evening.

It’s not very often that you can see the island as clearly as this, especially in the evening, so I was particularly pleased with this.

There were lots of other things going on too, and quite a crowd out there watching it. But it isn’t half going dark early these days.

So I’ll see how I go with an early night again. I have the shops to visit tomorrow, as well as the laboratory and the shipping company offices. That will be quite a walk.

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

fishermen zodiac granville manche normandy france

sunset ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

evening sunset jersey granville manche normandy france

la grande ancre baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france

Tuesday 14th August 2018 – AFTER ALL …

… of my vicissitudes just recently, I am now back home. And quite right too. Despite liking as much as I do going off on my travels, it is, as Barry Hay once famously said, “good to be back home”.

Last night was a very bad night. I was so wound up and tense that I couldn’t go off to sleep and I certainly remember it being 04:40 and I was still wide awake.

But I must have gone to sleep at some moment because the alarm awoke me at 06:20.

Liz and Terry must have been tired too because it took a while for everyone else to begin stirring, but eventually we were all downstairs having breakfast and a cosy chat with plenty of coffee.

Terry unloaded his van and I loaded up Caliburn with the things that were coming with me, and I set off for home.

On the way back, I had a couple of stops to make. Firstly, there was some shopping to do at LeClerc. Not much, but it needs to be done.

Secondly, there was an address in the town that I had to visit.

Many years ago I helped a Swedish friend (I can’t remember her name now but her daughter was called Pernilla) move house to a place near Limoges. And in the undergrowth were the remains of a 1960s Solex moped.

I liberated it and brought it back to the farm but I never did anything much with it. And recently I met a man in Granville who restores them.

I have no plans whatever to do anything with it and it’s no use to me, so seeing as he can do some good with it, he may as well have it. It’s good to make friends and contacts.

Back here I had a good chat with Brigitte on the car park, and then came upstairs to make my butties. And then to sit on the wall with my butties. No lizards though because someone else was sitting in my usual space and I had to go elsewhere.

Back here, my exertions of the last few days caught up with me and I ended up crashing out for a couple of hours. And on the bed too. Flat out was hardly the word and I missed my afternoon walk.

Tea tonight was a pizza seeing as I had plenty of stuff lying around that needs eating. And I managed my walk this evening too, although it’s now getting dark quite early. It was dark when I went out at 21:00.

So now I’m still pretty tired so I’ll be having an early night. Tomorrow I’ll start unloading Caliburn and arranging things in here.

Tuesday 31st July 2018 – MISSION CONTROL …

… is finally up and running.

This morning I brought up the wooden shelves and the fittings from Caliburn and then had an exciting couple of hours screwing them in place.

Once all of that was organised I then moved everything around to where I wanted it, having to make something on an adjustment to the storage of the LPs because they were too heavy for the shelf supports.

But then, that’s only a temporary thing because I’ll be copying them all onto *.mp3 in due course and then they can be moved on.

But it’s all very impressive, even better than when I had my office at Expo.

When the alarm went off this morning I wasn’t in much of a mood to leave my bed. It was round about 07:30 when I finally sorted myself this morning.

After breakfast I had another session on the European Photo Mountain for a couple of hours and that’s being reduced down to manageable proportions. Still a long way to go though, and I’ll probably be there doing that for several years.

While I was working on the bedroom I had a visitor. My neighbour brought back my pyrex dish from Sunday evening. She had a bit of a look around and gave it all the seal of approval. She loved the wood in the living room, and so do I. That’s why I bought it.

For lunch, I went and sat on the wall with my butties and book, and was joined by one of my lizards.

And that wasn’t all of my companions either. Marité has returned from wherever she went to, and we have the return of Neptune, which I predicted the other day.

They were loading up Neptune with the roadstone and so I went for a walk down there for a closer look.

I had another session on the photos and then went for my afternoon walk.

The tide was right out as you can see. We’ve talked about the diving platform before and you’ve seen it almost submerged at high tide.

But here at low tide, you can see how far out the tide goes. Granville must have one of the highest tidal ranges in Western Europe.

Back here though, I had another disappointment.

There I was, working on the European Photo Mountain and a sudden wave of tiredness came over me. So I went for a lie down on the bed and the next thing that I remember, it was 19:45. I must have been flat out for over three hours.

As a result, I had a hurried tea of pasta and vegetables and then went out for my evening walk.

Gribouille was out there waiting for a stroke, but even more interesting was to see Neptune out there on her travels.

Here she is, silhouetted in the sunset against the Ile de Chausey as she steams … “diesels” – ed … off towards Ridham, a small port near Sittingbourne in Kent.

That’s a new destination for her. Makes a change from Whitstable or Littlehampton.

So I’ll now have an hour or so’s work before I think about going to bed. But whether I’ll sleep of not is another thing. Having had that big sleep this afternoon was really the last thing that I wanted.

But then, it can’t be helped, I suppose. It’s a sign of the times.

neptune port de granville harbour manche normandy france

low tide beach plat gousset granville manche normandy france

Sunday 29th July 2018 – I DIDN’T PUT …

… my sooty foot out of the building at all today.

And that’s not surprising, and for many reasons too.

Not the least of which being that after the exertions of yesterday I was feeling the strain. And so when I awoke (at 06:00, and on a Sunday too!) I turned over and went back to sleep – something that I would have done anyway even if I hadn’t heard the rain hammering down in the howling gale outside.

08:30 is a much more reasonable time to be up and about on a Sunday. And with a very late breakfast (and I almost forgot my fig bread again) I was ready for almost anything.

And almost anything turned out to be nothing at all. I had a very profitable day dealing with the European Photo Mountain instead.

Lunch was taken inside today, which is no surprise, and then I set to and made a lentil and mushroom whatsit. Odile is having an “at home” tonight and I’ve been invited, so I had to take something with me.

Not like me to be all civilised, is it?

We met at 18:30 and seeing as I don’t “do” socialising, I usually stay for just a couple of hours at the most. And so no-one was more surprised than me to find me still there at 22:30. THat’s not like me either.

And so I eventually came back and went to bed instead. Not a foot set outside the building.

Not many days like that, are there?

Saturday 28th July 2018 – A DAY AT THE SEASIDE!

Kate, Darren, Dylan and Robyn are spending a week with Liz and Terry. Today they were going to the beach at Agon-Coutainville and Liz asked me yesterday if I would like to join them.

I’d had another one of those nights where I was wide awake at 05:00. I did manage to go back to sleep again, but I was up and about as the alarm went off.

After breakfast I had a shower and then made my butties for lunch. Caliburn and I then went off to the shops, spending most of the trip through the town stuck behing a grockle doing about 20kph in a caravanette as the driver and his wife admired the seagulls.

At LIDL there had been a power failure and only half of the tills were working. A fine start for one of the busiest days of the year, especially as the place was heaving with tourists.

Having been stymied with my attempts to find some black-faced melamine, I went to Mr Bricolage and bought a couple of pine plank boards, one at 40cms and the other at 30cms width.

They are both 2m long so the narrower one I had cut in half so that there are two boards of 1m length which will make two shelves over the desk. The longer one will go across and bridge the gap between the two cupboards, one on either side of the desk.

At LeClerc I remembered the new memory card. But the difference between a 8gb card and a 16gb card was just €1:00, so I bought the larger card. I hope that it will work in the big Nikon.

But apart from that I bought nothing special at all. Not for want of trying, but the place was heaving today. It was almost impossible to move around in there. Mind you I ought to have had a clue with all of the traffic about on the roads. It was nose-to-tail from the ring road to the town centre.

It was a comparatively quick drive to Agon-Coutainville so I was there first before the others, and so that gave me a chance to have a good look around.

And I’m glad that I did because I came across one of the rarest of all mass-produced Western European cars of the late 1960s parked up on the car park.

And when I say “rarest” I really do mean that because in total there were only 14,400 of them ever built.

It’s a Simca 1200s coupé ans in my opinion it’s one of the most beautiful cars ever produced, but the chances of me ever finding one for sale would be about zero, I reckon.

Apart from being a Simca, and with all of the associated quality issues that it would have had, the steering was very … err … imprecise and the brakes had a reputation for being, well, “unmatched” to the performance of the vehicle.

With all of that and with the car being something of an icon amongst the well-heeled and reckless youth of that period, they had a tendency not to last very long.

All eight of us (because Robyn had brought Strawberry Moose with her) went off for a coffee and the little ones went to buy some cakes too.

And then we went for the highlight of the afternoon.

It’s Darren’s birthday today and so for a treat Liz had arranged a session on sand yachts for him. And Kate, Dylan and Terry went along as well.

Dylan was rather light though and his yacht wouldn’t move along so easily. But he soon got the hang of it with a little personal instruction. The others didn’t have the same problems and had a great time, enjoying it thoroughly.

Afterwards, we headed off to a quiet corner of the beach and set up our little camp for a picnic.

We chose a little sheltered spot out of the wind where we would watch the next session of sand yachting, and ate our butties in comfort.

Which was just as well because it was now about 16:00 and my stomach had been thinking that my throat had been cut.

Our neighbours were a French man, his English wife and their two daughters, aged about 11 and 7. At one point, the mother asked the youngest daughter, in English “where’s Ruby?” (presumably the elder daughter).
The younger girl replied, immediately without even a pause for thought “elle est partie chercher des crabes” in perfect French.
There’s a family and a couple of kids who have all of the right advantages and who will go far in life, that’s for sure.

After lunch I had a little bit of a snooze and later, being only half-awake, I had a very interesting conversation with Kate, thinking that she was Liz.

Kate took the kids down to the sea and they all had a good swim. The water was quite warm apparently but the sun had disappeared so they were frozen to the marrow when they came out.

So everyone had a good warm-up in woolly towels and then we all headed for home. It was 18:30 – amazing how quickly time flies when you are enjoying yourself.

I came back here, to discover that Brigitte had left the window of her car open so I had to ring her and tell her about it.

And during my evening walk I met another one of my neighbours who invited me around tomorrow evening for an aperitif.

But despite having had a good crash-out during the day, I was quite tired. So no tea and an early night.

It’s Sunday so I can have a lie in. And I need it too.

EPIC HALL

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