Tag Archives: crash out

Friday 2nd June 2017 – HAVING A RIDE …

… on Rosie the Crocodile – and just look at those big scary teeth!

While I was out doing my shopping his morning I had a phone call from Liz. “We’re all going down to the beach at Montmartin sur Mer this afternoon after lunch. Would you like to come with us?”

Do bears go for picnics in the woods?

Last night was a really bad night for me. I was still wide awake at 04:35 and wasn’t sure that I would ever go off to sleep. But I must have done, and crawling out of bed at 07:00 wasn’t very easy either as you might expect.

A shower brought me round somewhat, and then I noticed a little calamity – something along the lines of the fact that I seem to have run out of clothes again. I had a good rummage around and managed to find a few clean things but I really shall have to go to the launderette next week. I have actually found one in the town by the harbour.

Once I’d organised myself I headed off to the shops. Going on a Saturday morning, is, as we know, a waste of time. I went to the Bio shop for some vegan sausages (I fancy sausages, beans and chips), to Mr Bricolage for some fittings for the curtain rail in the bedroom, and to LeClerc for the groceries and some diesel.

But I’m going to have to think again about the bio shop. The stuff in there is quite expensive, the choice isn’t up to much and the staff is quite surly in there. I shall have to see what I can find in the way of mail-order outlets once my bank account is FINALLY organised.

And we weren’t alone on the streets either. By one of the roundabouts was a police motorcycle patrol who was interested in vehicles entering the town. Not quite sure why, but he took a note of Caliburn’s registration number.

After lunch I headed for the beach at Montmartin sur Mer.

While I was on my way up the coast I was overflown by a flight of four aeroplanes. Big four-engines French Army transport planes of some description – I’ve no idea at all what they might be.

But when I was walking down onto the beach after parking up Caliburn they flew back again, directly overhead. This gave me a good opportunity to take a close-up photograph of them as they roared by. They were certainly impressive – and noisy. Just imagine what 500 Avro Lancasters going by overhead must have sounded like. No wonder you needed an intercom

At the end of the beach, away in the distance, they performed a U-turn and flew back off at a tangent somewhere inland. They were clearly up to something, that’s for sure.

As an aside, it was explained to me later that there’s to be a drop of parachutists over the Invasion Beaches to commemmorate D-Day in a couple of days time. I reckon that these would be just the type of aircraft to carry paratroopers and so maybe they are having a quiet rehearsal of low-flying over the beach.

While I had the camera out – do you see that lighthouse across there? That’s the lighthouse on the Pointe d’Agon where we were the other day. We’re actually at the mouth of the River Sienne (not the Seine) and the currents offshore are gradually shifting the mouth southwards by that huge sand bar over there.

Built in 1856 on the site of an old fortress washed away in 1776 by an exceptionally high tide, the lighthouse is now a good kilometre from the mouth of the river today.

We had fun building Rosie the Crocodile and then the lack of sleep last night took hold. I can’t think of any finer way to spend a sunny afternoon out at the beach than by having a good crash-out for a couple of hours. I was well away. And everyone was laughing because I’d put my cap on my face to protect my face from the sun, and as I was breathing in and out, my cap was going up and down like in one of these cartoon films.

Liz and Terry very kindly invited me back for tea and we all had a really good chat, as Kate, Darren and the kids are going home tomorrow. And then , I came home.

It had been a long day and so it wasn’t any longer that I hung about before going to bed. I have no plans for tomorrow so we’ll see what that day brings.

Sunday 28th May 2017 – IT’S GOING TO BE A LONG …

… hard winter with this new oven.

As the cynic in me expected, the timing and the temperature is all wrong. You can basically add 50% on to the cooking time and 30° onto the cooking temperature and eventually you’ll be somewhere in the vicinity of where you want to be. I’ve had better-cooked pizzas than this, but at least it was my own so I can’t complain.

It was 02:00 when I went to bed last night what with one thing and another, and my delightfully long lie-in took me up until all of 08:05. After breakfast I headed off in search of a baguette but I didn’t get very far, and for two reasons too.

the newsagents was open and he had some bread in today
for some reason that I don’t understand, all the joints in my legs are aching as if I’ve been on a marathon hike and that’s certainly not the case

It’s Sunday today and that’s a Day of Rest. And that’s precisely what I have done today. I’ve not even been outside apart from the baguette because the weather has changed and we’ve had a rainstorm.

That’s not quite true – because I’ve taken the box that the oven came in down to Caliburn along with another pile of paper and cardboard rubbish. Next time that I’m passing the dechetterie I’ll heave it out. And I came back in with a couple of pairs of pliers to … errr … adjust the pizza tray so that it would fit in the oven. But that exhausted me so much that I crashed out for an hour or so.

Monday is when I’m intending to start work. There’s quite a bit of stuff that I’ve let lapse and it’s high time that I exerted myself.

Friday 26th May 2017 – HOW LONG IS IT …

… since we featured a proper “Ship of the Day” on these pages?

When I was in Montreal or somewhere down the St Lawrence we could take our pick of dozens each day, but it’s usually pretty thin pickings whenever we are elsewhere.

But not today though, because today our ship really has come in.

It’s another really high tide this week and it’s brought in the Victress, who has sailed in from Southampton to pick up a load of gravel. Built in 1992, she flies the flag of Barbados and displaces about 1500 tonnes.

Not the biggest ship we’ve seen, but the biggest that we’ve seen in recent times and the biggest that we are likely to see here in Granville. She’s not there now, though – the ground’s all flat. And she’s somewhere out in the Channel so it seems. And I’ve not been able to find out where she’s heading.

She was formerly known as Uranus but this was changed due to ribald remarks from captains of other ships – something along the line of “with my binoculars I can see Uranus from here”

After breakfast this morning I had a quick shower and shave and change of clothes and hit the streets in search of the bus stop. Of course I have a choice of two, and of course it was “the other one” but just €1:00 and pretty painlessly (and I’ll do this again) I was decanted at the top of town to rescue Caliburn. He’s had his service, and the strange noise seems to have gone, and he’s had his controle technique. That gives me two years motoring without any major worries, which is always a bonus.

And on the way back, I picked up my oven. That’s now installed and working – and I had to change round my kitchen a little to fit it on the shelves and things don’t fit as well as they did before, which is a shame. But tomorrow I’ll be tracking down a pizza tray, some bread-making stuff and some oven chips. THis is going to start to become interesting.

For lunch I headed off to my usual spot – the clifftop overlooking the port – and this was where I made the acquaintance of Victress. But not for too long because once more I was burnt out of my position and head to retreat to here where I promptly crashed out for an hour.

And while we’re on the subject of photographs … "well, one of you is" – ed … it occurs to me that you have yet to see the view out of my living room windows.

It’s not very inspiring unfortunately (although I’ve seen much worse) but if I look over to the right-hand side I can in fact see the sea.

It’s not exactly the sea view that I was hoping to have, and I don’t have a terrace which would have been perfect, but here in Granville I can’t do much better than this. Especially as if I just step outside the front door of the building the view is stupendous as you know

Later on, I went out to Roncey. Liz’s grandchildren (whom you have seen many times on these pages) are coming to stay tomorrow and it’s important that Strawberry Moose is there to greet them. So now he’s playing hide-and-seek down the bed.

Back here, I had another dollop of the kidney bean stuff that I made yesterday and it was just as delicious too.

So tomorrow it’s a mega-shop again. So just you watch me forget something important.

Tuesday 23rd May 2017 – AS I PREDICTED …

… last night, I am completely and thoroughly exhausted. To such an extent that I had one of these very deep and total crash-outs this afternoon for about an hour or so where a bomb could have gone off in here and it wouldn’t have awakened me.

It was a late night last night after all, and something of a struggle to rise up and leave my stinking pit. But nevertheless, there I was eventually, having breakfast.

After the usual relax, Caliburn and I hit the streets and headed off for the garage. It’s right out on the edge of town, near the by-pass about 1km further on from LeClerc and round the back of the industrial estate. And that’s where Caliburn might be found right now (hopefully) – having his annual health check ready for the controle technique on Friday.

I’ve no idea how far away it might be from here, but as you know from yesterday I resolved to walk back if I could. And so I set out.

And that was something of a mistake because I ended up going past the BUT – a household furnishing shop something like a small downmarket IKEA. They have a good electrical section however and that’s where I went for a mooch around. And there they had one of these table-top ovens – one that works on a 13-amp plug. It’s quite big, and has all of the controls such as a thermostat, timer, and (more importantly) a diffusion fan for spreading the heat around. It’s an ex-display model and reduced for a quick sale to just … errr … €59.

Of course, I couldn’t resist it at that price, especially as it means that I can get back to baking and making pizzas properly, and so there we are. I don’t have it yet because I was on foot. But it’s all paid for now and I can pick it up when I go to recover Caliburn.

You’re probably wondering why I’m buying all of this really cheap electrical rubbish instead of some decent stuff. There are in fact a couple of good reasons for this

Most importantly, I need a lot of stuff (more than I anticipated in fact) so the idea is to buy it as quickly as possible. If it doesn’t last long and breaks down, it’s no big deal and I can replace it with decent stuff. But bit by bit of course, which will spread the expense out better. It won’t all break down at once (remember that I said that).
You’re probably thinking that this cheap stuff won’t last all that long. But the truth is, neither will I. You know my medical prognosis, so there’s no point in me buying expensive stuff that will last 20 years, because the probability is that I won’t

So having spent yet more money, I set off slowly home. And despite my comments yesterday about there being plenty of cafés along the route, I only stopped twice – once to check the train times and the railway station and the second time to buy a baguette. And it was a very weary me that finally crawled up the stairs to crash down on the sofa.

It took me just under 2 hours to make it back (including my time in the BUT) and I knew that I had done it too. IT was a good half-hour before I could summon up the effort to make a coffee.

At lunchtime I went out with my butties to sit on the wall overlooking the harbour in the beautiful sunshine. I had a book and the idea was that I would sit out there for a couple of hours. But it wasn’t to be because I could feel myself dropping off (to sleep, not the wall, although that would naturally have followed). And so I came back here to crash out.

Tonight’s tea was excellent. Not baked of course, but microwaved spuds, microwaved peas and carrots (out of a tin) and a microwaved vegan millet-and-bulghour burger smothered in vegan margarine. That was fit for a King.

Now it’s an early night and I’mm go and watch an episode or two of the Saint in memory of Roger Moore who died today.

And tomorrow? It’s going to be a difficult day. I’ll seize up overnight and that’ll set me back for a couple of days. But at least I now have an over, which is a big sign of progress.

Friday 19th May 2015 – I FINALLY MANAGED …

… to go out for a walk this afternoon. Mind you, it was a bit touch-and-go.

Last night was another difficult night as far as sleep went, but I was still asleep when the alarm went off so it must have done some good. And it was a nicer morning too – I enjoyed my walk down for my baguette. And I did come back via the scenic route too seeing as how the weather was so nice.

I treated myself to another coffee when I returned, and then spent most of the morning sorting out the confusion on this old laptop. So far, I’ve cleaned out about 30GB of duplicate or unnecessary files and I’m sure that there’s more to come.

Once it’s tidied up, I’ll be moving most of them onto a portable drive and then I can “retire” this laptop. It has a smashed screen (I’m using an external screen off Marianne’s old desktop computer) and a keyboard that has some keys stuck and some other keys missing (I’ve plugged in an old keyboard) and it dates from 2011 yet it still soldiers along, which is more than can be said for the two that I have bought to replace it. One of them ground to a halt in Germany two years ago, and the current one hasn’t ever worked right since the first day that I bought it.

In fact, I’m half-tempted to salvage the keyboard and the screen from the one that failed and use it to rebuild the smashed one. Shame that I’ve left all of my tools and equipment back in the Auvergne.

After lunch, I carried on with what I was doing, as well as doing a little tidying up around here. Strangely enough, the place doesn’t look any tidier no matter how much time I spend on it.

I don’t know what it is about doing nothing much but it makes me more tired than when I’m working hard. I was away with the fairies for a good half an hour this afternoon. But I awoke round about 17:00 and decided that with the sun shining and the sky nice and blue, I really ought to go out and about.

From up on the city walls at the back of my apartment, there’s a beautiful view of the building where I live these days.

If you look at the tree in the centre of the photograph, the window directly above it is my bedroom window. The two windows – one of which is partly obscured by the tree – round the corner are the windows in my living room.

And if you look carefully, you can see Caliburn parked round the front of the building.

I’d taken the big telephoto lens with me up onto the walls, because it was another one of these marvellous days, ideal for photography.

And with the telephoto lens there was an excellent view of Jersey out there in the English Channel. It’s very difficult to believe that it’s at least 59 kilometres – 36 miles – away out there.

From this position, there’s an even better view of Jersey, and you can even see some of the superstructure and buildings on the island. I’m quite determined that one day in the not-too-distant future I’ll be out there on a day trip.

Especially if it means negotiating the buoy and the seagull that the telephoto lens has picked up.

And that reminds me. Michael Jackson had once applied to join the navy, but withdrew his application after he was told that no matter how it was pronounced, the objects that you find in each port are called B-O-U-Y-S.

While we are on the subject of going out to the Channel Islands, there in the harbour this afternoon was the ferry that I would take when I go there. It’s not a vehicular ferry and you can tell by looking at it that it won’t take long to go there.

And that’s the reason why I’m here in Granville. Being a Pisces I always feel the call of the sea and here,
I can pop on a boat whenever I feel like it.

But it’s really a bad idea, because it doesn’t do my humour very much good. Every time I see a ferry, it makes me cross.

Meanwhile, back at the ran… err … on the city walls, there’s an excellent view right out along the coast. Right out there in the background on the horizon is the coast around Barneville-Carteret where I went to see those apartments a while ago, and that’s over 80 kilometres – 50 miles – away.

On the left-hand edge of the photograph is the lighthouse that warns of the rocks that are out there half-way between the coast and the Channel Islands. I do know it’s name, but it’s temporarily slipped my mind.

And on the right of the photograph is the big buoy that marks the entrance to the shipping channel into one of the rivers up there. This telephoto lens is magnificent, isn’t it?

That’s the main road into and out of the town. Right at the top of the hill is a roundabout – straight on is the road that leads eventually to Caen. The football stadium, the big shops and the hotel where I stayed the first night that I was here are along there.

To the right is the road that heads south along the coast to Avranches and eventually to Rennes and it’s how we would arrive here from the South.

Half-way up the hill at the roundabout that you can see there is where the railway station is – just to the left.

That down there is the road that leads from the harbour to the centre of the town.

The yellow building in the centre is the tourist information Office, and the light-coloured building next to it is the Mairie.

On the street corner to the right is the street where you find all of the normal town shops, and to the left is that nice little studio where I stayed for 12 days
.

I showed you a photo of this the other day, but that was taken with the standard lens. Seeing as I had the telephoto lens with me, I reckoned that I’d retake the photo.

It is of course the headland out at Carolles-Plage and you’ll remember that we walked out there a few weeks ago.

In the background is the coast of Brittany on the other side of the Baie de Mont St Michel

Here’s another view of a photo that I took a few days ago but I’ve retaken it with the telephoto lens.

It’s Jullouville of course. That’s another place of the many that has had my company for for a couple of days, and it’s where I had that strange encounter with that weird estate agent.

The hotel where I stayed is behind the big building that you can see to the right of centre.

Just across there is the Eglise St Paul – St Paul’s Church. Despite it looking like a typical Byzantine basilica, it’s actually reasonably-modern, construction having started in 1891 and it’s still unfinished (and it’s very unlikely that it ever will be).

The dome by the way is not made of stone as you might expect, but is one of the early examples of the use of reinforced concrete. And because salty sea-sand was used in the construction, it’s quickly crumbling away and demolition of the entire building has not been ruled out.

And in the background, you can see the floodlights of the football stadium.

Turning round a little more, my lens now focuses on my nice little building – the one with the turrets that we saw from down below the walls the other day when we were walking about.

I still reckon that the turret would be an interesting place to live, if ever it were to come on the market – not that it would be likely I suppose. The view across the harbour and the bay would be tremendous.

In fact, that’s the view that you would have from the front window of the turret. We have the fishing port just there, with the mechanical grab for speedy unloading and the storage sheds right behind.

And then a little further back we have the town beach with that nice apartment block behind it.

In between the two, to the left, you can see the masts of the yachts parked up on the quayside

Meanwhile, behind me, there’s the end of the headland around which we walked the other day and where we took some photographs.

Our pirate friend is over there on his plinth, to the left of the mobile home that you can see disappearing into the distance towards the car and coach park.

In the background on the horizon to the right you can see the Ile de Chausey

You’ve seen several photographs showing bits of the church that is here in the old walled city, but this is the first decent view that you have had of all of it.

It’s the Eglise de Notre Dame de Cap Lihou and its claim to fame is that it’s built on the site of a chapel that was constructed by the English when they occupied the site during the Hundred Years War.

The church here today though dates from 1628 and took almost 50 years to construct. It was registered as a Historic Monument in 1930.

The medieval aspect of the old city is apparent in photographs like this. While the buildings themselves might not be the originals, it’s very likely that the street layout has been preserved.

There are little alleys like that one down there all over the town and it gives the place quite a mystical air. The kind of place where it would be nice and quiet to live, but not very practical if you are the owner of a motor vehicle.

If we continue our walk around the city walls we’ll come to an area where they are undertaking some renovation work.

Part of the walls is fenced off while they repair it, and they are taking the opportunity to transform some of the vacant land at the foot into a public garden.

It’s not finished yet, and won’t be for a while, but it will be nice when it’s all done.

And so we end up at the eastern end of town where there’s a car park and an orientation table. The pyramid shape that you can see in the photo is the roof of the tower of the casino, and then we have the Casino Beach and the promenade, with Donville-les-Bains in the background.

There’s the tidal swimming pool too. The idea is that it fills when the tide is in, and when the tide goes out, the water is retained. But these days there must be a leak in it

The final photograph, for now anyway, shows you a little more of the fortifications of the old city.

If you can clamber up the rock – which is not all that easy – then you have a ditch to negotiate before you arrive at the fortifications proper.

You can see how the shape of the fortifications permits the ditch to be overlooked from all points, so any attacking army trying to scale the walls would be trapped like rats in a barrel.

So from here, I headed off slowly back to the flat. That’s enough walking for today and it’s almost tea-time. And I have another helping of last night’s curry to attend to.

And then it’s an early night. I’ve done quite enough today, and I’ll leave you with another 1950 words to read. That will keep you lot out of mischief too.

Thursday 18th May 2017 – TODAY WAS ANOTHER …

… day when I didn’t do anything at all and I’ll have to get to grips with things pretty soon.

I’d had a late night what with one thing and another and I’d been on my travels too. I don’t remember very much about it now but it concerned a meal that I was cooking – something similar to the one that I made the other day.

Although I was awake early, it was the alarm at 07:00 that drove me out of bed. And there wasn’t really much incentive to leave my stinking pit either, with the rain teeming down outside.

Nevertheless, I had to brave the elements to go down and pick up my baguette. And despite my vow of yesterday to come home the scenic way, there was no chance of that in the driving rain. It also put paid to any idea that I might have had for going for a walk.

Instead, I did a little more tidying up in here and spent the rest of the day sorting out a pile of files on the computer that I had resurrected the other day. And there are still hundreds of files that need removing too – duplicates that have been stored in all kinds of places on the hard drive that somehow have escaped the filing system that I installed all those years ago.

Once I’ve done all of that, I can back it up. That’s another one of my long-term projects once I buy a desk and set up a little office in the bedroom. In fact, this place is taking on much of the configuration of how I had my apartment in the Avenue d’Exposition in Brussels, which I suppose isn’t very much of a surprise.

All of this was far too much effort for me and at about 18:00 I had a crash-out for half an hour or so.

Talking of tea last night inspired me to do something different. I fried up some onions and garlic in one of the saucepans. Once it was looking good, I added some bulghour, a tin of lentils and a tin of mixed vegetables and some curry powder to taste.

And here’s the thing. I’d bought a little cheap electric slow cooker ages ago and I’d never used it. But I could see the advantages of it which is why I brought it with me. I tipped all of the curry into it and let it simmer away. That way, I had the induction ring empty so I could cook a pan of rice.

There was enough curry made for three meals so two went into the fridge in the vacuum jars that I have, and the other one went down really nicely. And pudding was fruit salad with strawberry sorbet.

So it’s an early night tonight and I hope that I can have another good sleep. Tomorrow I’m measuring up for curtains ready for shopping on Saturday. But on Monday I’m going to have to start making an effort to do something, or my life will simply ebb away.

Wednesday 17th May 2017 – TODAY HAS BEEN ONE …

… of those days where, rather like the mathematician named Hall, I accomplished three-fifths of five-eights of … errr … nothing.

It all started to go wrong during the night – I kept on waking up, tossing and turning. And I’ve no idea why because the bed is quite comfortable and I’m very warm in there – or else that’s it and I’m too warm, but that’s not very likely now.

It was disturbed to such an extent that I was up and about by 06:30 and having breakfast when the alarm went off at 07:00. This is happening more and more often and it’s not like me at all in the past.

Apart from going down to the old town for my baguette (and coming back via the city walls) I’ve spent most of the day on the sofa. I can allow myself the odd day here and there to do this – after all, I am retired.

Liz and I had a chat on the internet, and I made a phone call. And I also did some tidying up. But most of the day was spent checking over the contents of an old computer that I’ve managed to fire up. 12.3GB of duplicate files on there, so I’ve been weeding them out. And the program that I use, although noted for its efficacy, is not noted for its rapidity. It also has a tendency to eat up all of the processing capacity of the machine so it very slowly grinds to a halt. So you have to switch off and start again.

In fact, I had such an exciting, stressful, exhausting day that I crashed out for half an hour too. Just for a change.

Not a day for going outside, because it started to pour down with rain this afternoon and it’s kept it up ever since. So it’s a good job that I had things indoors to amuse me. There haven’t been too many wet days since I’ve been here, have there?

Tea was more stuff out of the European Tinned Food Mountain. I’ve been slowly demolishing it for a couple of weeks and it doesn’t look any different. But one day it will all be gone – whenever that might be. If I had an oven, or some different pans that would work on the induction hob, I could perhaps be more adventurous. But that will come, one day or another.

And so will tomorrow, because I’m done for today. If the weather is better I might even go for a walk, but I’m not holding my breath.

Tuesday 16th May 2017 – TONIGHT’S TEA …

… was bangers, beans and baked potatoes. The rest of the sausages and the left-over half-tin of beans from Saturday night, and some potatoes from the pile that I bought the other week. A bit of pepper on the beans and some vegan margarine on the potatoes, and it was a meal fit for a King.

Last night I was tossing and turning again and I really don’t know why, and I was up long before the alarm went off.But I had a busy morning, even if it doesn’t seem that I accomplished much.

It was washday today and by that, I started off with me – a nice, long, hot shower and a shave, followed by some delicate clothing that needed hand-washing and which I’d been putting off for quite some time.

Once that was out of the way, I attacked all of the rest of the crockery and cutlery that I had brought from the Auvergne, which I had taken there from Brussels after I had sold Expo. And there were tons of it too. All of the cutlery I left soaking in boiling water for several hours to kill whatever might have been lurking on them.

As for the saucepans, they were almost new so I brought them with me (and two of them work on the induction hob too) so they were steam-cleaned – by the simple expedient of jamming the lids on and weighting them down while some water boiled away inside. Any germs that might have been loitering within them have certainly had their chips now.

This afternoon I had to go back down to the bank, so I took the final load of paper out to put in the recycling as I passed by. And I encountered the bus driver who was taking a short break at a bus stop.We had a chat and she filled me in about the bus service around the town. It’s about 20 minutes from here to the railway station and it costs €1:00 per trip. That will suit me just fine.

And as I was passing the library, with 10 minutes to spare (yes, there are still libraries in Mainland Europe) I popped in and joined. Cost me €10:00 but it’s an unlimited supply of books, CDs and DVDs as well as all kinds of exhibitions and debates.

The Bank hasn’t made much progress in transferring my accounts. And the girl whom I saw asked me for lots of information that I didn’t have (shame that she hadn’t asked me last time to bring it with me today) so this is going to grind on and on. And the amount of paper (in a paperless office) that she printed off for me to sign must run into a respectable forest.

It was hot on the way back so I treated myself to a sorbet – and nice it was too. And when I arrived, I crashed out for a while, to be awoken by Ingrid who wanted a chat. Always nice to talk to friends of course.

And Hannah and Liz chatted to me on the internet too after tea. That was nice too. Hannah has almost finished her course in Madrid now – hasn’t time flown by? She’ll be hitting the rails for a few weeks before flying back to Canada, and she might pass by here.

So now, it’s an early night again. I’ll need to choose another DVD to take with me.

Wednesday 10th May 2017 – I’M WHACKED YET AGAIN …

… but at least I have more furniture and the place is a little more tidy.

Once again, I fell asleep watching my film. And once again I was off on my travels – with a welcome return of Zero, who has accompanied me on many of my nocturnal voyages in the past. I was in Stoke on Trent at the house of someone I once knew, and it was a total mess with rubbish and filth absolutely everywhere – the kind of conditions in which not even I could live, and that’s saying something. I’d been looking after Zero and after she had gone to bed I’d washed my socks and undies in the sink and left them on the draining board to dry. But then the couple came back and the woman expressed surprise, if not anger, at seeing my washing there. I did explain that I didn’t expect them back until long after I had awoken, but that cut no ice. So then it was a case of looking for the bread. But in every cupboard that I opened, it was full of cake – a kind of yellowy raisin cake – and as you opened a cupboard door, the action caused a pile of cake to fall out on the floor, so they just picked it up off the disgusting floor and put it back.

This morning I was awake long before the alarm went off and breakfast was yet again early. I had a good relax but at 08:30 nipped out to the depot de pain to pick up my baguette.

And so to work.

It took three trips to bring up the shelving for the kitchen. And much longer than I expected to assemble it. But what took even longer was to fill it with everything. I never realised just how much tinned food I had. It’s going to take me a year to eat all of it. But the pile of stuff that you saw on the floor nearest the camera in the photo from a couple of weeks ago – that is no more. It’s all on the shelves and there’s room to move about.

After lunch I attacked the kitchen table. That was an expensive piece of kit and weighs a ton. I had to open all of the packets and bring it up bit by bit. It took ages to assemble and I needed a crane to move it, but it’s a really good size (160×70 with two drop-down leaves) and has 6 drawers built in. As you know, storage is a big issue here.

It needs an oilcloth on it but that’s for Saturday when I’m out and about. In the meantime it is covered by the plastic sheet from off the mattress. That should protect it.

And that’s not all either. There was still time before knocking off to assemble a couple of chairs. I’ve bought four to go with my table and there are two now assembled – one in the kitchen area and the other in the bedroom for now.

Talking of the bedroom, I’m having another night on the sofa. I found a label for the mattress and this told me that the waiting period for sleeping on it is 72 hours. I want it to be the best possible, so another day won’t hurt. But I am looking forward to sleeping on it.

But as for sleeping, I did have a little … errr … relax after I finished the table and before I attacked the chairs.

With the kitchen table I’ve arranged it so that it’s by the sink and I can use it as a worktop. It was nice to have a place where I could properly fix a meal.

So now it’s an early night yet again. And hope that I might be able to watch a film all the way through.

Monday 1st May 2017 – HAPPY BELTANE

Or Happy May Day. Or Calan Mai Hapus, or Happy whatever else it is that you have celebrated today. Here in France it’s the fête de travail, the Festival of Work, and everyone celebrates that by having a day off work.

Not that anyone ever would be going anywhere because it’s been pouring down with rain today. I actually set foot outside – for all of 30 seconds when I went to fetch something from Caliburn. And that was that.

What with all of my exertions yesterday, I was in bed by 22:00. and despite trying yet again to watch the same film that I’ve been trying to watch for the last 100 years, I fell asleep more-or-less straight away. Mind you, I can’t have been asleep for very long because the film was still going when something awoke me.

After that, it took me a while to go back to sleep, despite how warm and comfortable the bed was, but once I was gone, I was gone until about 06:30 when the most terrific storm rattled me awake.

It must have been a good sleep though, because I’d been on my travels again. I’d moved house into a new apartment – and I do mean new because the building was definitely the latest thing. It wasn’t quite 09:00 and so there were people queueing up to enter it (it was doubling as an office block too) and there were security guards checking people’s bags and the like. I thought that this was going to bode well for my new abode if I could only enter it during office hours and then at the risk of being searched. But even though I had a blue IKEA bag full of shopping, somehow I managed to pass the security check without being bothered too much.
From there I found myself in an underground multi-storey car park, one that I’ve been in on many occasions during my nocturnal rambles over the years. But this time, I couldn’t really remember what I was doing in there.

Although I was awake early, I couldn’t hear anyone else moving about in the house so seeing as it’s a Bank Holiday today I disregarded the alarms and had a lie-in until 08:30. About time I took it easy, I reckon.

I’ve spent all of the day either reading a book, reading stuff off the internet, catching up with some work on the laptop or watching the cricket. And having a little … errr … relax too. That’s been about my lot really.

Liz made a nice vegan curry for tea and furthermore there’s enough left over for tomorrow too, which is very nice. It’s nice to have some decent food for a change.

Now I’m going to try for yet another early night. I wonder if I’ll manage to stay awake long enough to finish my film.

Saturday 29th April 2017 – CALIBURN IS RUNNING MUCH BETTER …

… now that he’s empty. This morning I went up to the Place d’Armes and carried on emptying him of everything that was in there.

I’m not sure exactly how I managed to put some of the boxes into Caliburn, but I had a struggle to get them out and for three of them, I had to divide the load in half before I could move them up into the apartment.

But it’s all done now, Caliburn is empty and the apartment is full. It’s amazing just how much stuff was in there, and with all of that Caliburn was only half-full too.

And that’s not all of it that was in there either because there’s stuff in the bedroom and in the bathroom too.

What remains now is the difficult bit – to go off to IKEA and buy some furniture. I’ve seen what I want and so for the next week or two I’ll be selling my body around the streets of Granville.

I was awake early this morning – like 05:00 early. and couldn’t go back to sleep again. And so I was more than ready for breakfast. Afterwards I headed into Granville to do some shopping.

While I was driving down the hill, I noticed a place that gives music lessons, so I stopped there to see if anyone wanted a bass guitarist. I wasn’t surprised to receive a negative answer but at least I’m making myself known around the community and that’s the point.

There’s a football match this evening too – US Granville’s Ist XI at home to Vendée Fontenay Foot in the Championnat France Amateur and tickets were on sale in the Leclerc. I may as well go along and see what they are up to.

At lunchtime I stopped work and went with my butties to sit in the wind on top of the cliffs overlooking the bay.

I was disturbed by a loud-hailer out to sea and it turned out to be a cruise boat thing with loads of tourists being given a guided tour of the bay. Giving a guided tour to half of the Department as well judging by the volume of the boat’s PA system.

Mind you, he didn’t hang about long and disappeared back to where he came from on the other side of the headland. Which was just as well, because he was getting on my nerves and I hope that this isn’t a regular thing.

I carried on with the unloading and then crashed out for half an hour. and finished off the day by sitting quietly and reading a book. I reckon that I had deserved it.

The crowd at the football tonight was a bit dismal – just 560 people. and they missed an exciting match. US Granville went 1-0 up after about 10 minutes, and that after their keeper had pulled off two or three stunning saves (I’m quite impressed with this US Granville keeper).

But the goal was one of those that I have been predicting for years, as regular readers of this rubbish will remember. A back-pass to the keeper and instead of the keeper belting it upfield or out into touch, he hangs on to it and tries to be clever, with a couple of Granville forwards closing down on him. When he finally does decide to clear it, he miskicks and the ball hits a Granville forward in the stomach and bounces back into the net. And serve him right too.

The second goal that US Granville scored was a peach, and a candidate for “goal of the month” in any league you like. A ball won in the air by the big Granville centre forward who plays it out to the right winger (who was having a good game). He fizzes a cross along the ground right into the penalty area and a most audacious step-over from the centre-forward wrong-foots the entire Vendée Fontenay Foot defence. The left-winger running in from the far side has the simplest of tasks to side-foot the ball into the empty net.

So 2-0 up at half-time and going at a canter. I remember musing to myself “still 45 minutes to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” – and how I was to come to regret those words.

As seems to be the usual procedure these days in French football, US Granville were so far ahead that they imagined that they had the game won already, and in the second half they had switched right off and Vendée Fontenay Foot were pushing forward.

A free kick about 25 yards out to Vendée Fontenay Foot and a magnificent curling shot around the wall found the net right by the near post. And about a minute later, a goalmouth scramble in the US Granville penalty area saw a foot prod the ball into the net through a crowd of players.

panic stations after that and Vendée Fontenay Foot could easily have scored a third – and a fourth – and would have done with some better luck too. But US Granville hung on and almost scored a winner themselves in the dying minutes. Nevertheless, I bet that they were glad that the final whistle went when it did.

As for the football, this is CFA – Championnat France Amateur, part-time players playing what is about Conference North or Conference South equivalent. And I do have to say that the standard is pretty good for all that. The US Granville keeper and their centre-half could easily slot into a League 2 side in the UK and I would sign the keeper in a heartbeat. He reads the game well, is a good shot-stopper and has good distribution skills.

On the way home I found a pizza van, and I still have some vegan cheese left. So that was tea organised. It was a good pizza too and the guy was quite garrulous.

So now it’s bed-time. My last night here and I can’t say that I’m too sorry. It was the cheapest place in Normandy and you can’t win a coconut every time.

Thursday 27th April 2017 – I HAD A …

… day off house-hunting today. I wasn’t in the mood.

In fact, I’ve not had a very good day at all today.

Just by way of a change I managed to watch all of a film last night and even stayed awake for a while afterwards. But I did eventually go off to sleep and despite some fitful tossing and turning, slept until the alarm went off.

After breakfast I had a shower and a good clean-up, and herein lay a minor tragedy. I had had a jar of jam in my suitcase since Belgium the other week, and it’s somehow managed to be smashed. As a result there was jam everywhere and all over everything.

This led to an impromptu tidying up and sorting out session, and to a good wash of the suitcase with plenty of soap and hot water, before rinsing it off with the hosepipe. Luckily it was a reasonably sunny but very windy day so it had dried by the time that I returned.

Having done a few things on the laptop I set out for the shops. Bent Tin Ci … errr … Netto at Brehal was the port of call, where I bought my baguette and some salad stuff as well as a few other bits and pieces that I might need. and then off to Coudeville-Plage to pass the rest of the day.

Just for a very rare change, weather and lighting conditions at midday were absolutely ideal for photography.

Not only that but I managed (having tidied up Caliburn quite a lot recently) to put my hands on the big telephoto lens so I was able to take a few shots out across the water.

There, many miles away, right out in the far distance on a rock is what I reckon might be a lighthouse. And I love the way that the haze on the water makes it look as if the lighthouse is floating in the air above the sea.

And with the light being so good, I was finally able to take a decent shot of the Ile de Chausey out there, with the colours actually being a little more true to life.

Once I’m actually settled (whenever that might or might not be) I’m determined to take a little trip out there to see what the island is really like, and I hope that I’m not going to be disappointed.

But me disappointed with a sailing across the ocean? Not on your life!

While I was making my butties (I stayed inside Caliburn with this wicked wind today) this strange machine pedalled past.

We’ve seen loads of things similar to this along the Costa Stella in Belgium, but this particular multi-person pedal machine is quite different in that it appears to be articulated. That’s a first for me anyway.

I bet that the kids would have loads of fun sitting in the front of it though.

I wasn’t feeling good today, as I may already have mentioned, and I crashed out for a couple of hours. When I came to, all of the car parks were jam-packed with people.

Today is apparently what they call the marée. One of the days when the tide is at its lowest and so everyone has the right to go down to the low water mark and scratch around for cockles and mussels alive, alive-oh!

The beach was crowded with people, each havng his own little patch. And there were people carrying buckets that were pretty well filled with them. It must have been a good catch today.

And I do hope that they remember to share them with all of their friends and neighbours. For as I have said before … "and you’ll certainly say again" – ed … you mustn’t be selfish with your shellfish.

It was a struggle to come home from the beach but I made it in the end, and I sat in the verandah to drink my coffee and read my book seeing as how it was really windy outside.

Tea was once again made in the kitchen in the garage, I’ve had a good chat with Rosemary and now I’m ready for bed.

And quite right too. I have a couple more ruins to see tomorrow.

Friday 2&st April 2017 – HAVING FALLEN …

… asleep early last night in the middle of the film that I was watching, I was wide-awake at 05:30 and up and about drinking a coffee at 06:20, long before breakfast.

Breakfast was another one of those discussion mornings and I’m really not up to that at all so early in the morning. I cleared off rather quickly into my little room where I had a few things to do, including to write a letter (and I’ll have to hope that the printer that I have brought with me in Caliburn is up to the job).

What with one thing and another, it was almost midday when I managed to leave here, and by the time I reached Bent-Tin Ci … errr … Netto at Brehal, all of the bread had gone.

But never mind. The Super U was around the corner and I bought a baguette there. 2 minutes to choose my baguette and about an hour to pay for it. And I’d probably still be there now had a woman not let me pass in front of her at the check-out queue.

Having organised lunch, I headed off for the tidal road and the sand dunes at les Salines by Bricqueville sur Mer where I went the other day.

There were quite a few people there today and several children, all of whom were having loads of fun in the sun and wind. I made my butties and I can now understand why they are called SANDwiches.

at least I had some more vegan cheese that I had bought in Leuven. Spreading paste or hummus here would have been interesting.

Having eaten my butties and fruit I lay down out of the wind as much as I could to have a nice doze in the sun, because it really was a warm day.

However, my little doze didn’t last too long, and it wasn’t the kids who awoke me either. We had a big tractor that turned up on the slipway in mid-afternoon, and it was towing a rather large cabin-cruiser-type of boat

And that wasn’t the only excitement either.

Coming up from the southern direction from Saint-Martin-le-Vieux was another tractor that was towing another boat.

This wasn’t a cabin cruiser or anything like that but it seemed to be a small fishing boat. We’ve seen plenty of them out there fishing but I wouldn’t have expected them to have gone into the water at a place like this

The larger cabin cruiser was however first in the queue to be launched, and the procedure gathered quite a crowd because it was really was quite a complicated procedure.

If you look very closely at the image, you’ll notice that the tractor that pulled the boat down the slipway has cleared off and we’ve acquired another, different type, something like the tractors that have big wheels and are high off the ground for working in the vinyards.

And so eventually the trailer with the cabin cruiser was shunted into the water and the cabin cruiser floated free and cleared off.

It really looked as if the fishing boat was to be next, but the tractor pulled it up the slipway and they cleared off into the sunset.

It wasn’t long before I cleared off in the sunset too. The sun started to go lower in the sky and the wind was going colder and colder. You can only stick it out for so long, as the bishop said to the actress, and I came back here.

It’s hard to read a book and drink a coffee when a cat wants to sit on your knee, and it goes without saying that the cat won in the end. But then I came back in here.

Tea was the last of the stuff that I had made the other night, lengthened with a tin of green beans. And now I’m ready for yet another early night.

And it goes without saying that the two phone calls from estate agents that I was expecting today – not one of them called me back.

What a shower!

Wednesday 19th April 2017 – I HAD A …

… spectator while I was making my tea tonight.

Old, creaking, grey around the edges and more than just a little mangy.

But that’s enough about me – let’s talk about the cat. He’s seen better days of course (but then, haven’t we all) but he is friendly and enjoys his little cuddles. It takes a lot to move him from his comfy seat in the verandah, but then any kind of activity in the kitchen usually works for any animal.

Last night I was asleep long before the end of the film that I was watching (I can’t even remember what it was now … "it was Fantomas Contre Scotland Yard with Louis de Funes" – ed …) and slept right through without awakening until about 06:30.

Breakfast was quite a simple affair – exactly what I had specified – but I couldn’t do with the landlady insisting on engaging me with conversation at some silly time of the morning. I don’t do mornings, as you know.

This morning I cracked on with a few things that needed doing and then I wandered off to buy a baguette for lunch. And good luck in Bent Tin City … errrr … I mean Netto. Not only was the baguette cooked properly, I managed to find some vegan salad dressing. I forgot to mention yesterday that every salad dressing in the LeClerc yesterday had milk in it, and I just don’t understand that at all. Mind you, Netto is renowned for catering to the … errr … budget-conscious, so that’s where you’ll find the basest products.

And the basest customers too – especially after this morning.

It was pretty windy on the seafront at Bricqueville sur Mer and so I headed off down the coast. Eventually, I ended up at St martin le Vieux.

Here on the promenade, I managed to find a little spec out of the wind where I could sit on a bench and make my butties, as well as read my book for a while.

I know that I’m supposed to be working but I’m not as young (or as fit) as I used to be and I need to take things carefully

All in all, I was there for an hour or so and I would have been there even now, except that the sun went in and it started to become quite cold. I didn’t fancy staying out there much longer.

But at least there’s a good view of the rock of Granville away down there, and you can see Donville le Bains in at the head of the bay down there. I’m still lamenting on that dreadful studio that I saw there, with one foot in the sea, but I do have my pride and I haven’t come here to live in a slum.

I headed back up the coast to the seafront at Bricqueville but was interrupted by a herd of sheep moving about. It’s a tidal road like the one that we encountered in New Brunswick in 2011 and apparently the sheep know when the tide is turning, for they head off to the high ground.

Once they had cleared off I drove down to the parking area where I … errr … closed my eyes for a short while. This is getting to be rather too much of a habit, isn’t it?

When I awoke, the wind had dropped and so I went off to sit on the beach amongst the dunes for a while – with my book. No-one was more surprised than me to see that I was still there at 16:40. I was quite comfortable there.

Back here, I had a good search through Caliburn for some papers. I didn’t find the ones that I wanted but I found some others of equal importance which is just as well. And I found some stuff for tea too. Lentils and veg in a tomato sauce with pasta – and piles of it too, enough for the next few days. My spectator enjoyed the scene anyway.

So I’ll have another early night, and try to watch the rest of my film tonight. See how far I get, hey?

Tuesday 18th April 2017 – IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME …

… since we’ve featured an old car in this rubbish, so here’s one to be going on with.

Parked on the car park of the LeClerc supermarket at Granville at lunchtime is this rather nice Morris 1000 Traveller. It’s a left-hand drive one too, so how rare is that? (Not quite as rare as my left-hand drive Vanden Plas of course) but it’s still a beautiful vehicle.

And thinking about it, I never owned a Morris 1000, or even a Morris Minor come to that. I must have been slipping.

So despite everything that I said last night, I didn’t have a very good night. Not only did I manage to watch the film all the way through, I had a great deal of difficulty dropping off to sleep afterwards. At one point I did remember it being 00:45.

And I was awake early too – at 06:30 to be precise. That gave me plenty of time to have a good shower, a shave and a tidy up of my room. Then at 09:30 I cleared off.

It’s market day in Jullouville today so I went for a prowl around. And while the market might be better than that at Pionsat, that’s about all that cam be said for it. Rather disappointing.

I went to see an Estate Agent about the possibility of buying a place. Let’s assume for the sake of this discussion that my budget is €70,000 (which it isn’t, but it will do). So I told him that – and he immediately sorted out the properties at €68,000, €70,000 and (of course) €75,000.

“What about that one?” I said, pointing to one at €45,000.
“Do you want to see that one too?” he asked.

Yes, I knew exactly what I was going to get with this estate agent. They are all the same, the whole world over.

So he showed me various photos of various piles of ruins, one with damp clearly visible streaming down the wall underneath the window.

“There’s nothing here that really tempts me” I said.
“You won’t find many where you want at your price range” he said
“I don’t want many” I answered. “I only want one”.

I had a pile of phone calls to make after that, and so I headed off to Granville. Apart from those, I needed some stuff for butties for lunch too. That’s where I saw the Morris 1000.

I found the Centrakor which cheered me up. For the benefit of UK readers, it’s rather like a Wilkinsons but slightly better quality. Lots of nice stuff in there for when I (eventually) find somewhere to live.

Now here’s a sight that should gladden your hearts. Here we are, the day after Easter Monday, and there’s Christmas items already in the shops.

Actually, this is rather a cheat. There’s also a NOZ here in the town. Not as big as the one in Montlucon but it’s here just the same and worth noting. Stuff in here is, well, end of lines, end of series, all of that, and hence the Christmas items, left over from last year I suppose.

Still, it’s a good photo to cheer you up. Only 250 days to go, you know.

I went up on the headland above the harbour to eat my butties this afternoon. It was beautiful up there, even if the wind was blowing a gale, and I … errr … had a relax for a couple of hours.

Later on, I drove out to where I’m staying for the next two weeks. There’s an old saying that “you can’t win a coconut every time” and given the good luck that I’ve had when I’ve been hotel-hunting, I’m bound to come a cropper every now and again.

I’m in a place called Bricqueville sur Mer which, despite its name, is about 4 miles from the coast, one of two bedrooms and I share a kitchen and bathroom with the people in the other room (it’s empty at the moment). It’s a farmhouse-type of place and it could be so nice if they tried, but it’s furnished in the worst of the 1950s bad taste and it has that horrible, damp, musty, unaired smell that I hate so much.

Still, it’s the cheapest place that had a vacancy for all of that time (so I’m not really complaining), breakfast is included and there is a cat. Old, creaking and grey around the edges and loves his cuddles – but that’s enough about me for now, let’s talk about the cat.

So I’ll have an early night, watch a film and see how I feel in the morning. I hope that I can cheer myself up.

EPIC HALL

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