Tag Archives: long day

Monday 4th April 2011 – Well, I’m back home again …

… after a working day of a mere 28 hours and 16 minutes – for the benefit of many of my readers.

After my exertions fastening down the Minerva back onto the trailer after we nearly left it behind, I set off through the dawn and carried on towards home. And things were, just for a change, going so well until I arrived onto the dual carriageway between Moulins and Montmarault.

Not far from Montmarault I was cut up by an artic that decided that 400 metres was sufficient to try to overtake me with just 2kph different but I got my own back on a dual carriageway bit when I ran him up behind a farm trailer and stuck him there for 8 kilometres.

Then we had yet another police barrage at Montmarault where I had an interesting 20 minutes with a group of gendarmes (30-odd years in driving in France and I’ve only ever been stopped once before – and now twice in a weekend. Time I was moving on, methinks). And when I arrived back here, there was the news of the sudden cancellation of one of the events that forms a major part of our radio programmes – and we had just recorded 5 weeks-worth of programmes advertising them too.

However, I didn’t take to much notice of anything as I cleared off to bed and quite right too. I deserved a really good sleep. But did I get it? Did I ‘eck as like because once I had dropped off, the phone rang again. Mind you, I’m not going to complain too much because the news that came down the telephone was good news indeed – but more of this anon.

belgian land rover minerva les guis virlet puy de dome franceTerry and Liz were on their travels about and they came by chez moi later this afternoon. That was rather fortunate because they were able to give me a hand to take the Minerva off the trailer.

The Minerva is now parked prettily on the hard-standing (isn’t that a good bit of work, that?) and Terry could then take his trailer home with him. That’s the quickest that I’ve ever tidied up after a trip away from home like this.

So now I’m going back to bed again ready for an early start tomorrow. I need to push on as I have some cunning plans to put into operation.

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Saturday 2nd April 2011 – BACK IN BELGIUM

After my vicissitudes on the road yesterday, I finally came to rest on the service area at Nivelles at about 03:00 – a 19-hour day (teachers, please take note).

At least it gave me the opportunity to have one of the best nights’ sleeps that I’ve had on the road for quite some time so next morning I was up and about and ready for anything.

loading belgian land rover minerva onto ifor williams trailer brussels belgiumNext morning I went round to Bernards to load up the Minerva. It’s not that heavy and we managed to push it onto the trailer without even the hint of a winch – really!

I’ve left the trailer parked up at Bernard’s house now waiting for me to go back to pick it up tomorrow late afternoon. I have plenty to do (like shopping and the like) and I don’t want to drag all of this around behind me through the streets of Brussels and anywhere else.

After spending 2 hours discussing solar panels with 2 guys from the Congo (it’s better than Nigeria I suppose) whom I met outside Carrefour, I did some shopping and then went to the flat where I half-loaded the van.

But you all missed the excitement there as well – and Terry would have loved this.

  1. A van pulls into the private parking space of someone while it unloads some stuff
  2. the owner of the private parking space pulls up behind and blocks them in – and then walks away
  3. the owner of the van goes to fetch the President of the Conseil de Gerance
  4. the President of the Conseil de Gerance accuses me of parking my van there (it’s a small white Volkswagen we are talking about here by the way) so we have “a frank exchange of views” about this and he won’t be coming to talk to me again.
  5. the owner of the car says that he is going to leave his car parked blocking this van in – and obstructing the passageway – all night
  6. The President tells the owner of the car “yes, you do that – it’ll serve these bastards in this van right”
  7. The President and the car driver wander off arm-in-arm more or less, to the accompaniment of some ribald commentary from Yours Truly.
  8. The woman from the next garage can’t get her car into her garage
  9. The man in the previous garage can’t get his car out of his garage
  10. The police are called.
  11. Having stirred the pot by coming out with my usual round of … errr … helpful comments, I wander away.

Isn’t life exciting in Brussels?

And now just for a change, I’m in a small hoted in Ghent. I’ve been for a walk around and I’ve had some chips and a vegetable kebab and I’m okay. Here I’ll be staying until the morning.

It’s a departure from the usual procedure, I know, but I just fancied doing something a little different. And why not?

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