Tag Archives: sports centre

Tuesday 31st March 2020 – REGULAR READERS …

trawler baie de mont st michel granville manche normandy france eric hall… of this rubbish will recall that the other day I mentioned that people have been posting saying that small fishing boats are prevented from going out to sea, whereas the larger ones are being given free rein.

At the time, I mentioned that that wasn’t the case here. And here is a case in point. One of the little fishing boats that goes out for the shellfish is coming in tonight with a full load.

And I watched it go up to the cranes by the fish processing plant to unload. So there’s no doubt in my mind that they are working here.

And while we’re on the subject of working, my plan for an early night last night wasn’t working at all unfortunately. Some good music came up on the playlist, as you might expect, and while that was playing itself out to a conclusion an interesting debate started up in one of the social networking groups that I follow, on a subject upon which I have a lot to say.

What should have been about 23:00 or so ended up being 00:45 and that kind of thing is no good at all.

This morning I missed the third alarm – but only by a handful of seconds but missed it nevertheless.

There was the usual morning procedure – first the medication and then the dictaphone. And no wonder that I had a hard time leaving the bed. I must have travelled miles during the night.

There was something going on during the night about a girl in Nantwich in one of the houses up by the Grammar School. She had put a note on Facebook that she was on her own in her house with a couple of friends and and so a party from Sartilly of all places, a group of kids hired a minibus and turned up at the house and created mayhem. As it happens, I was actually by the house and saw all of this happen so I was telling a few people all about it, describing the events.
A little later on my mother was involved in something or other although I can’t remember now what that was either. It was something to do with going to pick her up from a place in Catherine Street where she was working. I had to get all ready, get in my car, drive across to there. As I got there everyone was leaving and they were locking up the place. She saw me “you haven’t come to pick me up, have you?”. I said “wasn’t that what you wanted when you sent me that mail?” to which everyone burst out laughing. We had to climb up these steps to get out of this building which was in the basement. I got her umbrella and it was getting in the way, hitting everyone and so on. That’s all that I remember.
Then we were having people around and then news about this virus outbreak came up and everyone was told to go home. There were these people sitting in an album cover (?!?!?) waiting for a person to move their album but of course they were there so they were having to be isolated on the spot where they were, never mind having to go home and be isolated in comfort.
Somewhat later I was walking somewhere with these two people, official-looking type people. I can’t remember what was going on here, they wanted me to do something and I wasn’t going to do it and I told them that they couldn’t make me do it anyway. But one of them picked up a great big rock and started hitting me with this great big rock, not that it made the slightest bit of difference at all because he was a big guy but he didn’t have any force at all behind it – just swinging this rock at me and hitting me with it. It wasn’t hurting me at all – I just carried on walking and all the time this guy was swinging this rock at me and hitting me with it. In the end I became fed up and called the police. They saw me phone and cleared off. A woman and her child had been watching all of this so I buttonholed them and said that they would need to tell the Police what they had seen, but they were most reluctant to become involved.

Yes, I covered some ground last night.

After breakfast it was the turn of the digitalising, and another four albums have bitten the dust, including one about which I had completely forgotten and yet would ordinarily be another on my list of top 20 albums.

The pile is slowly reducing.

While I was doing it, I was dealing with the photos from July last year in Iceland but not very effectively because there were plenty of distractions with one thing and another. I ended up, not paying attention, downloading a few *.mkv files and I came to regret that.

What with one thing and another (and once you make a start, you’ll be surprised just how many other things there are) it was about midday when I was ready to make a move.

trawlers english channel granville manche normandy france eric hallNo bread in the house (well, there is some, but it’s in the freezer) so it was a good excuse to go for my daily exercise.

Not that I got very far because out at sea there was something rather large moving about. So I took a photo of it to blow up (the photo, not the object) when I returned to the apartment.

And it’s merely a couple of fishing boats of some description, and one of them has just hit a really wild wave and sent spray flying everywhere. It was windy, but not that windy, I thought.

trawlers fishing boats unloading fish processing plant port de granville harbour manche normandy france eric hallJust as I said earlier, there doesn’t seem to be a restriction on the smaller boats going out to sea here.

That’s the fish-processing plant over there and there are several boats lined up, some using the cranes to winch it up to the plant above, and others unloading straight into their vehicles on the lower level.

So I’ve no idea at all where this story has come from.

normandy trader port de granville harbour manche normandy france eric hallRegular readers of this rubbish will recall that the other day we saw Thora here in port doing a turn-round to Jersey.

Today, it’s the turn of the other Jersey freighter, Normandy Trader, to come into port and turn round. A quick turn-round too, by the way, because when I was out later on, she had been and gone and disappeared

But what won’t be disappearing is the Channel Island ferry Granville, here in port, and her partner Victor Hugo, wherever she might be. The story is that the ferries have now been grounded until the end of April.

That was bad news for a couple in a Jersey-registered mobile home who came into town, presumably looking for a way out.

trawler fishing boat english channel granville manche normandy france eric hallhaving picked up my baguette, just for a change I climbed back all the way up the steps – all 148 of them – for the Escalier du Moulin A Vent.

In the distance I’d seen something moving and I wondered what it might be. We’ve seen plenty of little fishing boats out and about doing their bit, and I was wondering about the large ones. And that’s certainly one of the large ones heading to port.

There was no-one around so I had a run along the north side of the walls. And to my surprise I ran on – and on – and on. Not sure how far but it was much further than what I normally do.

After lunch, I made a start on finding the tracks for the Project 36. I want to have two done this week, the music chosen and then I can do the writing and the dictation all in one go.

And it was a productive day as far as it went because I’d almost finished when Laurent came back with his ideas about our project. That meant that I had to drop everything and do some important work on that, including, would you believe, some seagull sound effects.

When I’d done that, I had to send it back to Laurent with a proposed batting order

At 18:00 I knocked off and had an hour on the guitars. I’d come across a couple more tracks on my travels that I was interested in having a go at, and I’m glad that I did because one of them, I’d been playing from memory but in a totally incorrect fashion.

Tea was a burger on a bun with potatoes and veg, followed by apple pie and coconut soya dessert stuff. And it was delicious as usual.

sports centre gymnase jean galfione athletics track college malraux granville manche normandy france eric hallEarlier in the day, I’d seen a couple of people leap over the fence into the athletics ground of the College Malraux behind the Gymnase Jean Galfione.

It seemed to me to be a good idea – it’s nice and flat and a good running surface and it might do me good to have a go around it. However there were a couple of people around overlooking the place so it probably wasn’t a good idea right now.

But anyway, I’d run down here and it’s further than I would usually run, so that would probably do for now.

trawlers english channel sunset granville manche normandy france eric hallIt was still fairly light this evening when I was outside.

A lovely evening, and it was a shame that I couldn’t enjoy more of it. But there were more fishing boats out there heading to harbour, and I was impressed that the NIKON 1 J5 and the f1.8 18.5mm lens could pick them up at that distance.

The photo came out rather well, considering, and I enjoyed the effect that it produced. I’ve had better, but I’ve also had a lot worse.

chausiais joly france port de granville harbour manche normandy france eric hallRound on the other side of the headland there were a couple of things of interest to see.

Still out two trawlers up on blocks in the Chantier navale, but more important is the fact that Joly France and Chausiais have changed position.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’ve been wondering about how the people on the Ile de Chausey are managing right now. With the two ships having changed position, I wonder if this means that Chausiais has taken a load of supplies out to the island. It’s what she’s here for, apparently, although it’s a lot of money invested in what is never going to be a lucrative trade on its own.

Having finished the photos, I ran back to the apartment. I started my run about 30 yards earlier than usual, but even so, still overran at the end and made a few steps up the hill. I’m definitely improving, although how long that will last I really have no idea.

There’s been a little change round in here now too. Having had difficulties with my sound system, I’ve managed – sort of – to have two speakers (of different sets) working after a fashion so there is something like stereo sound in here.

But it’s going to have to be replaced. A small pre-amp that plugs into the headphone speaker and then two decent speakers. For what I do, I need it.

So it’s bedtime now. Later than I wanted, but much earlier than last night. A good sleep will do me good and then I’m ready for a hard day tomorrow.

I don’t think.

Sunday 28th January 2018 – I WAS SOMEWHAT …

… premature yesterday with my comments about my new smartphone. We’re back with this “inability to message” again.

I know that I am receiving SMS messages because I set a special tone for them. But where they are going, I have no idea, because they aren’t coming up on the screen.

And then I’m not able to message out. The “Messenger” program that I downloaded simply won’t send them, and when I try with the default message program, I have an error message “no SIM card is allocated to SMS messages”. And in settings, it shows one SIM card in my phone – the “second SIM card” is greyed out because of course it’s empty, and the “change SIM” option is likewise greyed out.

So it looks like a visit to the service provider yet again tomorrow.

GRRRRR!

And I was right about the night last night – well, almost. It wasn’t 05:00 when I awoke but 05:25 instead. But leave my stinking pit at that time of the morning? Not on your nellus secundus. 09:35, that’s much more like it on a Sunday.

And I’d been on my travels too. Sitting in a sloping field close to a stone wall reading a book, and a group of children led by some old woman came past and started to chat to me. And a surprisingly intellectual chat it was too for a bunch of kids of that age.
Later, I was back home again and our eight cats (yes, eight) were feeding. And feeding with Tuppence (and anyone who remembers Tuppence will see just how impossible that might have been) was a big black-and-white cat, which certainly wasn’t one of mine. And so I asked my partner what it was doing here, and just received an enigmatic smile.

After breakfast, I vegetated around for a while (well, it IS Sunday), chatting to TOTGA who came on the air.

And once lunch was out of the way I set off on foot in the light drizzle.

rugby cité des sports granville manche normandy franceAll the way out to the Sports Centre on the edge of town.

It was another agonising climb up the hill, and then the long walk along the plateau to the Sports Centre. Three pitches there are here, and one was set up for rugby, with the rugby team warming up prior to a match.

Not that it interests me at all – I have no time for games played by men with odd-shaped balls.

football us granville uc bricquebec cité des sports granville manche normandy franceUS GRanville’s second XI was playing, and the match had been transferred to the artificial surface here so at least we had some live football this weekend.

US Granville, who were third in the table and in white, were playing UC Bricquebec who were propping up the rest of the clubs in the table. And for the first half of the match, that’s exactly how it went.

Granville’s wingers, one of whom (the n°7) was called Alexis apparently, were tearing the defenders to shreds down the flanks and the score after 45 minutes of 4-0 was not an exaggeration either. I don’t recall Granville’s keeper having anything serious to do

But at half-time UC Bricuebec made three substitutions which, while not improving the team to the slightest degree, seemed to unsettle US GRanville and they looked as if they had lost their composure.

It took ages for them to get back up to steam before they scored a fifth, and then, unbelievably, they missed a penalty. And that seemed to knock the fight out of them. And even more astonishingly the trainer took off the n°7 after an hour, and with that, US Granville’s attack melted away.

UC Briquebec looked much more like it after that and gave the US Granville defence a few dodgy moments – even scoring from a penalty.

But the scoreline of 5-1 is good enough, although it could have been so much more.

rainstorm jullouville granville manche normandy franceThe light drizzle seemed to ease off on the way home, but I noticed that away in the distance over Jullouville they were having a pasting again. This weather really is miserable.

I came back and had a coffee and a little play on the guitar. I’d been listening to Aqualung – one of the finest rock albums ever made, and I had worked out in my head the bass line to the title track.

So I tracked down a copy on the laptop and played along to it for a while. Brought back many happy memories, that did.

And if I keep going like this, I shall have to start looking for a band.

Vegan pizza again for tea (and I forgot the olives) and then another walk. I’m at 114% of my daily activity which is good news of course.

And now bed-time. We’ll see if this alarm on the new phone works as well as the last one.

Saturday 18th November 2017 – I WAS WELL …

… away last night.

Although it took a while for me to go off to sleep, once I’d gone I was well-and-truly gone and I remember nothing until the alarm went off.

That’s not quite true though. I’d been on my travels last night too. I started off in a businessand the local workhouse was parcelling off the orphan children into apprenticeships (I’ll have to stop reading these Old Bailey cases from the 1750s). I was allocated a young girl and I wasn’t sure of how I could best employ her to make the most of her apprenticeship.
From here I was with someone – who might even have been Nerina, and we were n an aeroplane. But the pilot, for some reason, lost control and the aeroplane crashed, right on the main road that rus from Brussels out to the Airport. Everyone survived the crash and managed to escape, but even though there was aviation fiel all over the place I had to go back into the aeroplane to rescue Strawberry Moose.

After the usual breakfast and a little relax, I went and had a good shower, a shave and a change of clothes too. And my little halogen heater works quite nicely in the bathroom too. And deciding to make the fullest opportunity of a nice clean me, I changed the bedding too and I’ll have a nice comfortable bed to sleep in tonight. And just as well too, because it’s Sunday and a lie-in.

Once I’d gathered my wits (which doesn’t take long these days) Caliburn and I went to the shops.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that just recently I’ve been walking up to LIDL and back, and so I decided to drive up the way that I came back on foot the other day. And much to my surprise, I was there in half the time without any queues and hold-ups at all. I’ll have to try this way again.

I didn’t spend anything special in there, but I made up for that later.

I called in at GIFI on the way out. It’s winter and with no pie huts at the football matches I’m freezing to death. And so I bought myself a thermos flask so that I could have some coffee to warm me up. And I bought a few other things too – but nothing exciting.

At the biocoop I bought some more vegan sausages and some sunflower seeds for the muesli, And next stop was NOZ. A few bits and pieces there too, including some sea salt. Not necessarily for the salt, but for the jars. They were those nice hexagonal ones that I like.

In the Auchan I didn’t spend anything special yet for some reason that I don’t understand my bill there came to almost €25:00 I’m not sure what I spent it on.

pisse dru beaujolais nouveau auchan granville manche normandy franceBut I did have a laugh as I was leaving. the Beaujolais Nouveau is now arriving in the supermarkets. The story behind the race to the market is that one year the crop was so awful that it didn’t last more than a couple of weeks so there was a rush to gt it to market and sell it before it spoiled on the shelves.

Here at Auchan my favourite beaujolais Nouveau was on offer and I consider its name to be extremely apt.

I couldn’t have called it anything better myself.

By the time I returned home it was 13:30, and by the time I’d unpacked, it was lunchtime.

After lunch I crashed out for a while – I’m clearly not doing very well these days, and then at 16:00 I hit the streets again – but on foot this time.

It took me ages to climb the hill up ast the railway station and I had to stop a couple of times to get my breath. Nevetheless, it was a mere 16:35 wwhenI arrived at the Stade Louis Dior.

stade louis dior us granville agneaux fc manche  normandy franceGranville’s 2nd XI, in blac, were taking on Agneaux FC, two places above them in Regional Lzague 2.

This was one of the most exciting matches that I have seen for quite some considerable time.

Granville took the lead after just 3 minutes. A ball upfield, the keeper shouting “leave it” and he ran out of his goal to kick it … right into the back of one of his own players

The ball bounced clear, right onto the path of an attacking Granville forward and with the keeper stranded, the attacker had the simplest of chances.

And then the match went in pells. We would have 10 minutes of Granville pressure followed by 10 minutes of Agneaux pressure, and then it would swing round again. Three good (if lucky) saves by the Granville keeper, Granville thumped the Agneaux woodwork twice, but the score didn’t increase.

We did have a minor interruption when there was a major car acident in the street outside.

The two clubs have changed position in the table after this result and that’s good news.

cite des sports us granville co sourdeval manche normandy franceAt the final whistle, a brisk walk took me round the corner and down the street to the Sports Centre, where US Granville’s 3rd XI was taling on CO Sourdeval. Granville are third bottom and Co Sourdeval are second from top, so I wasn’t expecting much.

The final result was 3-2 to Sourdeval and the only mystery about this match was how Sourdeval scored only three. Because Granville were pretty poor, clueless and totally disorganised.

Granville’s two goals were a free kick that confused everyone at the back post and a solo run from the halfway line by the centre-forward. But apart from that, they didn’t offer bery much.

I walked back here via the fritkot for a bag of chips, and then went straight to bed. I think that today has taken an awful lot out of me. At least my new flask played dividends.