… much more productive day today, even though it might not seem like it.

For a change I’ve been hard at at for most of the day, what with one thing or another. The pile of outstanding dictaphone notes has now gone down to a mere 11, after I’ve spent most of the day bashing away.

And that’s not all of it. I had a reasonably early night and stayed in bed until 09:30 and I must have spent all of that time on the road. There was a ton of stuff that had accumulated on the dictaphone overnight that needed transcribing.

I started off the night going through the Arctic on a ship that might have been the Ocean Endeavour and were having to break our way through some of the ice there. There was a question of which port we were going to dock into. We had a choice of 3 and supplies were being moved to 3 different ports to await us. I had to go to these ports to check them out and make sure that all of the stuff was appearing in the right kind of position. I was amazed at some of the stuff that was being sent on shipment. There we were, been struggling in the ice and supplies were getting low I suppose etc, and they thought strange things like pairs of tights were among the most important supplies that we needed.
Later on, we were into motor racing and preparing a car, a Mark II Cortina for racing. We had to modify the exhaust so I was busy making the modifications out of bits of pipe and tin can. Of course it didn’t have to be very solid, for one race then rebuilt for another. Someone was helping me and they had assembled it all up and came to fit the rear part. They said that it went on the inside of the front pipe but I replied “no, the outside”. They couldn’t see why they would dispute with me but then they tried it and it actually DID go on the outside. They could push it all the way up until the front pipe ground out on the baffles inside. But the thing was that this back box was made of glass. We had to fit it and seal it by by getting it hot and moulding the glass, a glass-blower technique or something. They were going “this is great. We can make 50 of these and sell them on” but I was thinking “hang on! We haven’t got this one to work yet”. Someone asked me when I thought that it might be working. I replied that it might even be working tomorrow night because there’s only this exhaust to fit now. It needs some tempering and reshaping, joints and gaskets but I’m sure that that won’t take me all day. There was some certain music going off in the background, martial music with marching movements
From then on we had a new girl come to work in our office although she was an entertainer. We were the administration staff and it was our job to organise people like this and I came in – we were on flexible hours and 10:00 was the latest start. It was 09:29 when I arrived and someone, one of the girls, said something about “ohh Eric you’re early this morning”. I said that I’m not that early, but they said “earlier than normal”. The girl who was manning my post until I arrived asked “are you ready to take over now Eric?” I said “just give me a minute to get myself organised”. I took my coat off and hung it on my chair and went to open my briefcase for my paperwork. I found that the lock had jammed. There was much more than this but I can’t remember it now. This woman had fallen apparently and someone from the section had picked her up and sat her down
later still I was in an office and my work was hopelessly in arrears and I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. I had tons of stuff. I was supposed to tell switchboard that I was in but I had forgotten. People were ringing me up ordering battleships and brochures and I didn’t know where to get the brochures from. It was quite a mess. I went to look for some brochures in the storeroom but found myself outside. So I walked up into town out of the mud and who should I bump into but Margaret Stockton who was coming out of our other office. She was limping, just been involved in an accident. We had a chat and she told me about the accident, how it had happened. I found myself in the indoor market in Crewe looking at the cheese stalls. I thought that I would buy something and go back – cheer myself up. But while I was rummaging around in my pocket I found some bits of old cheese fallen out of a sandwich that I had had in there. They were all musty, covered in fluff but I ate them nevertheless. I noticed that at the side of the wall there were loads of off-cuts of cheese, the bad bits going mouldy had been trimmed off and dumped in this corner by all the stalls, ready to be moved by someone or other.
Finally, I was packing last night ready to leave, folding up a long-sleeved dress shirt (and I’ve no idea why), but I couldn’t find my light-tan shoes. I had my comfortable boots of course but not the others. And I was panicking around looking for them and whoever I was with was making a few suggestions. But then I realised that I did have my deck shoes so it wouldn’t be so bad. However I still was keen on finding them. Nevertheless, I ended up being ready and was about to set off when I suddenly glanced across to the bed and discovered that not only had I left the Sat-nav behind but also Strawberry Moose, and wouldn’t that have been a catastrophe?

It’s hardly a surprise that I awoke in yet another feverish sweat.

After a rather late breakfast, I cracked on with the dictaphone notes, with a brief pause for lunch. And by the time my eyes went all blurry and I could no longer see straight, it was about 17:00.

That was the cue to go off on my rather late afternoon walk.

There wasn’t anything like as much shipping out there in the English Channel or the Baie de Mont St Michel as there was yesterday.

Nothing in the way of trawlers or yachts, just a couple of small boats and rafts with people either fishing or diving from them

But that’s not really quite all.

Right out in the English Channel off the coast near St Malo was some kind of large vessel. I couldn’t quite make it out so I took a long-distance photograph in the hope that I could crop and enlarge it at a later date.

And although I managed to create something out of it, I’m still none the wiser. Judging by the way that it’s rigged though, it could be Lys NoirLa Granvillaisn but that is pure conjecture.

while I was admiring the view, I was overflown by a light aircraft. And with the new Nikon D500 I was able to grab a shot of it for further examination at home.

It turns out that she’s F-GBAI, a Robin DR-400-140B Major presumably on its way to Donville les Bains.

She set out from St Nazaire on the afternoon of 21st June and wasn’t recorded as landing anywhere else in between. But then again , the smaller airfields don’t have data loggers as yet

They were back working at the bunker on the Atlantic Wall today.

And they had a visitor too. An ex-Army 6×4 heavy lorry of the type that ran the “Red Ball Express” from the Normandy landings to the front-line troops.

I meant to go round for a closer look but as it happens I forgot. I’m clearly not feeling myself these days

Back here I made some more of that dessert stuff. A Coffee-flavoured one this time with pineapple rings. And it goes without saying that that too was quite delicious when I tried it for tea.

First though, I did some more of last Monday’s blog, which I will finish one of these days and then I made myself a vegan pizza. And it wasn’t half delicious too.

Back outside again for my evening walk, and the sky had now clouded over.

There was another Tora Tora Tora evening as well, with the rays of the sun breaking through small gaps in the clouds.

We’ve seen quite a few evenings like this over the last couple of years since I’ve been living here. I don’t recall seeing anything like as many as this when I lived elsewhere.

And just for a change, I wasn’t alone out there enjoying the scenery and the sunset;

There were quite a few people out there on the beach enjoying the evening sun.

And that’s hardly surprising because it really was warm despite the late hour. I’d even taken off my jumper and was walking around in my shirt-sleeves. It’s not very often this year that I’ve been able to do that.

Now it’s time for an early night. I need to be up and about early because I have the Doctor’s tomorrow at 08:45.

Then I’ll find out exactly where I stand.

square maurice marland granville manche normandy france

men in zodiac ile de chausey granville manche normandy france

men on raft donville les bains granville manche normandy france