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Wednesday 13th June 2018 – WHAT A MISERABLE …

… day this was.

Mind you, I think that I laid the foundations for it by not going to bed until 01:25 and that’s no good. I was so engrossed in the page that I was working on that I hardly noticed the time. But at least it’s all on line now, all [gulp] 4651 words of it, a new world record and by a country mile too, and you can read it at your leisure.

And at 4651 words, you’ll need a lot of leisure.

So it’s no surprise that leaving my bed this morning was rather difficult and it was a long hard crawl into the living room. And crawl too. I’d had a bad attack of cramp during the night and I could still feel it – in fact I felt it for all of the day.

Once I’d breakfasted and organised myself, I went out to attack Caliburn – or more correctly, the untidy mess that is within him. He’s been emptied out, given a good brushing out, vacuuming and a wash of his dashboard.

Not only that, he now has his new seat covers fitted, although they are too small and I’m not sure how that can be, seeing as they are described as “Universal”.

And I found the missing spring clip. It had sprung into the tool box. So now the window winder winds properly.

You have no idea of the amount of stuff that went into the bin. And all of the stuff that was in Caliburn that really needs bringing in here.

By the time that I had finished, no-one was more surprised that me to see that it was 13:30. I’d spent a short while chatting to a neighbour and another short while giving Gribouille a stroke, but not that much. So I came in, made my butties and then went to sit on the wall in the sun because it was beautiful.

The lizard was there waiting for me and he even climbed up my leg to try to reach the pear before I had finished it. He’s getting to be very friendly now.

Back here I made myself a coffee and sat down for a moment. Next thing that I knew, it was 16:30. I’d been totally out of it for over two hours and hardly felt a thing. That filled me with dismay.

It took me ages to come round too. I’ve been noticing that not only am I crashing out for longer and longer, it’s becoming more and more difficult to shake myself out of it.

summer crowds sunbathing on beach granville manche normandy franceAs a result of my indisposition my walk this afternoon was very late.

But I’m glad that I made it outside because the weather was really delicious. Even nicer than it had been at lunchtime. The sun was penetratingly warm, truly the First Day of Summer.

The crowds were out sunbathing on the beach for the first time this year after the long, wet and windy winter that we have had and I can’t say that I blamed them either

summer crowds swimming in the sea granville manche normandy franceThere were crowds of people splashing around in the water too. But sooner them than me. It wasn”t that warm – or, at least, warm enough to tempt me.

But you’ll notice the diving platform here. You’ll remember a couple of weeks ago I posted a photo of a couple of people swimming around in the sea by the diving platform and it was almost submerged by the tide.

This gives you some idea of just how much of a tide we have here in Granville. And it goes out much further than this too.

Once I’d returned for my walk I had to phone up the UK to pay for my clothing order. It’ll be here within a week they reckon, ceteris paribus. But as for the order from BUT and LeClerc, not a sign anywhere. And I noticed that prices are starting to rise slowly but surely over there.

reunion publique haute ville maire de granville manche normandy franceThere was a meeting of the inhabitants of the old town this evening, chaired by the mayor of Granville so I went along to see what was happening.

I learnt a few things about the future projects but most of the time was spent listening to certain people airing their petty grievances which was a waste of time. And not the kind of stuff that needs to be discussed in a public meeting anyway.

But one exciting scheme was a project concerning the refection old railway lines down on the quayside. Could it be that they are going to actually do something about reopening the lines?

It would be exciting if they did, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Tea was a frozen aubergine and kidney bean whatsit out of the freezer and now I really AM going to have an early night. I can’t last the pace these days.

But at least Caliburn is sorted and ready for the road.

Wednesday 10th November 2010 – GOOD GRIEF!

I’ve seen a few things today that have opened my eyes!

Actually, I knew that this kind of thing went on, like we all do, but I never expected to see it first-hand.

It started easily enough here at the Ambassador Motel and then I headed off across the border. There was the usual unpleasant scenario at Immigration – something that always drives me mad of course, and then off to find a Home Depot.

Having come off the free-way in Detroit, I did have to say that this is not the area where I would like to brandish a camera about.

And consequently I am not going to show you any photo of the car that’s parked up here on the left that looks like someone has pumped two bullets through the rear window.

Yes, The Lady Who Lives In The Sat-Nav ought to be an option for “salubrious area” and “insalubrious area”. This is not the area that I would have chosen to have driven.

armed police stop car detroit usaI arrived at the Home Depot for more stuff and stepped straight into a drama.

A car pulled into the car park, closely followed by a couple of cars containing some of Detroit’s finest.

The car stopped and the aforementioned in the vehicles behind leapt out brandishing firearms and the like and what happened is what I would euphemistically describe as a “police interaction”.

I went into the Home Depot and bought some stuff in the Ryobi sale – an alligator saw, a compressor and a flash-light.

detroit city centre usaI knew where the mail company offices were, because I’d looked for them whem I was here in early October.

I shot back into town and packed up all of my stuff for shipping across the Atlantic.

And how things have changed since the last time that I was in the USA shipping stuff abroad.

windsor ontario canadaPicking myself up off the floor, I headed off for a look around the north end of the city.

From over in Windsor – which is over there – I’d seen a little island in the middle of the river.

That’s on the USA side of the border so I went over there to have a look – and the view of Windsor was quite impressive

detroit michigan windsorThe view of Detroit isn’t too bad either, is it?

It looks quite an attractive modern city from here, but that really does belie its true appearance as you know.

That square mile of the city looks quite attractive, but the rest of the place – well, you’ve seen for yourself, haven’t you?

ambassador bridge windsor ontario canada detroit michigan usaThere’s also a good view of the Ambassador Bridge – or, at least, there would have been had the weather been better.

And make the most of the view too, because it won’t always look like this.

Plans are afoot – and have been since 2004 – to replace the bridge and by the time that you read this, the proposals will be well advanced and land is, even as we speak, being bought for its construction.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge may yet become a reality

Fuel was next, and I had the somewhat delightful privilege of seeing a petrol station attendant who was actually barricaded into his hut and his only access to the customers was via a CCTV camera.

Most unpleasant.

I tell you now – I wasn’t sorry to be back across the river in the comfort and safety of Canada. I could feel the stress and I’d only been there for five or six hours.