… happened – or didn’t happen, as the case may be – yesterday, today was marginally better.
I say “marginally” because I managed to keep going until 18:00 before I crashed out, but I needn’t have bothered to stay awake because it wasn’t as it I did anything during the day. Staying awake was enough of a struggle on its own without adding any work into the equation.
So while you admire a few photos of the aerial activity that was taking place today, I’ll tell you about my travels during the night.
And there were plenty of those again because once more I had quite a mobile night.
We were talking about cars with this old lady. She was thinking of changing hers and was wondering what to buy. I said that as hers was running OK then keep it but she was insistent. We were talking about the merits of different cars and how in 1882 Ford introduced the turbodiesel small car etc. They had a Fiesta van from 1982 that was a turbodiesel on sale at this garage but they had loads of other vehicles as well including strange-looking tricycle-type machines. One was a “W” registration and I remember saying to everyone there that this was bound to be cheap because of the engine in it and what it is these days. We had a look and it had been reduced from €2800 to just €480, something like that. They had knocked over €2400 off the price. There were a couple of people who were eager to talk to a salesman about it. Someone asked me if I thought that it was a good deal. I said it was as well and if I’d been in the market I’d have been there harassing the salesman about it as well. Someone tried to say that it was a typo but I was sure that it wasn’t. It was just a case of disposing of these obsolete vehicles at any kind of price.
And then I was at this chaotic road junction in Surrey somewhere near the Thames. It was a roundabout with loads of other roads feeding into it. There was a strict priority as you might expect but no-one was taking any notice of it. There were a couple of vehicles that we noticed – 2 were motorbikes where they had a flasher out so they were indicating but of course you couldn’t see it from the street. They were weaving in and out of the traffic as it suited them to go the way that they wanted to go regardless of any priority. It was causing all kinds of confusion and there were all kinds of argument that I was doing my best to stoke. What really caught my eye that I found extremely funny was that while there were cars parked in this queue waiting for it to clear the drivers would pop out and go to the coffee shop on the corner to buy a cup of coffee and come back. Sometimes the traffic had moved on but his car had been stuck there while he was away getting himself a coffee. He’d get into his car and drive on. There was one woman with a black enamel tea container thing that she had been to have filled and was taking back to her car. A group of us was having quite a laugh about that, talking about times that we’d had issues about getting tea. I mentioned the time that I was home on my birthday and everyone prepared a special coffee for me but I’d come in, I couldn’t find my normal coffee so I’d simply made myself a cup of tea and hadn’t even noticed this special coffee at all.
Later on we stopped right back into that dream, back somewhere else down in South London this time watching the traffic at 04:00 or 05:00, becoming light. There were a lot of vehicles around. There was a taxi that had parked up blocking a road junction and vehicles were having to negotiate around him on the kerb while I was out fetching a coffee. I was with someone and we were admiring the spectacle. In the end we decided that we would go and have a coffee. He looked at me and winked. “Back door?”. I said “yes!” like the other taxi drivers were doing. We walked across the street carefully trying to dodge the vehicles that were manoeuvring around this taxi and went into this café that seemed to be doing quite a good trade. I was having trouble walking and he ended up being way ahead of me. I was thinking “I hope he’s going to slow down and let me catch up with him before he goes along and orders something at the bar of this café otherwise we’ll find ourselves in a few difficulties here”.
Much of the day was spent stirring papers around here, not doing very much at all. I had my breakfast of course, rather later than usual, and my lunchtime fruit too. And at some point I managed to find the time to have a good play on the guitar.
And having crowed yesterday about how my playing has improved and how I don’t need to change key these days, I ended up changing key on David Bowie’s “Lady Stardust” and Paul Peña’s “Jet Airliner”, but primarily to suit my voice.
Having struggled to my feet later, I went out for my afternoon walk around the headland.
As usual I wandered off across the car park to the wall at the end in order to look down on the beach to see what was happening.
And I could see that there was at least one person in tent on being down on the beach today. And it must have been exciting to watch the occupier move it when the tide came in. He wouldn’t have much time to pack it up.
Plenty of other people down there too and there were even a few of them having a swim in the water. Not surprising because it was a nice afternoon.
But while we’re on the subject of the tents, I once had a very cheap tent that blew away in a gale. “An Act of God” said some of my friends but I thought that it was a portent.
Before I left the viewpoint over the beach I had a good look out at sea.
There were some sails away in the distance and at first I thought that it might have been Marité or even Le Renard going out for a run around, but when I had a closer look at the photo on returning home I found that it was a yacht, nothing more, nothing less.
There wasn’t anything else out there at all this afternoon. No other pleasure boats, no fishing boats, no freighters and no ferries either. It was surprisingly quiet out at sea this afternoon.
Nothing else happening out at the end of the headland. No-one fishing and no-one on the bench by the cabanon vauban.
With nothing much happening here I headed off down the path on the other side of the headland towards the port.
And it’s all systems go in the chantier naval this afternoon. La Confiance II is still there along with the boat that came to join her yesterday but we have two others that have come in there today.
The one to the right of La Confiance II is unidentified because I can”t read the registration number, but the green and white one on the extreme right is Chant des Sirenes. You don’t need to see the registration number to work that out. Just a quick glance at the image of the mermaid on her bow will tell you that.
And while we’re on the subject of ships, we’re back to playing “Musical Ships” again.
Over there moored up at the wharf underneath the Fish Processing Plant is L’Omerta in her usual place. And on her own too. There isn’t even one of the port lighters to keep her company over there.
A little earlier I mentioned the fact that Marité might be out and about this afternoon. She certainly wasn’t at her mooring in the inner harbour when I walked past.
When I checked the radar tonight she was back in port, having spent the day doing a lap around the Ile de Chausey.
While I was wandering around there was plenty of noise and music along with a running commentary.
Eventually I was able to pin down the source of the noise when a pickup went past down below in the Boulevard des Terreneuviers and turned into the Rue du Port.
It looks as if the circus is coming to town quite soon, and I wonder how the people who live in the new block of flats at the port who seem to be objecting to just about everything will cope with having a circus just down the road.
You can picture the scene of the locals in the flats trying to play bridge, and every time someone plays an ace an elephant would trumpet.
Back here I made myself an almond milk drink and then summoned up the energy to transcribe the dictaphone notes, which you have read already. And there I was, stepping back into a dream yet again. It’s becoming a habit.
Tea tonight was a burger with pasta and vegetables in a spicy tomato sauce and it was delicious. One of the better ones that I have made, thanks to the chili powder and the garlic salt that I added to it.
And hopefully there will be an early night tonight and a decent sleep. As I’m on the road next week I don’t want much in the way of shopping but I’ll go to Lidl tomorrow for some bits and pieces. I need a little bit of stock in the store here to keep me going.
