… aerial day today. After having gone several weeks without being overflown, I seem to have hit the jackpot today.
The first aeroplane to oveflow me as I passed along the path on the south side of the headland was this one, registration number F-PAIA.
She’s a French Henri Nicollier HN 700 Ménestrel II aeroplane, the “II” representing the fact that she’s a 2-seater craft. They are designed for home building and this particular model was first built in 1969. She’s powered by a 60 kW (80 hp) Limbach L2000 flat four engine.
The second object to flying by overhead is one of our old favourites.
As I was perched with my elbows on the wall taking a photo of the port area I could hear the familiar sound heading my way from the direction of the Mont St Michel and the only thing that I needed to know was its colour.
So today we have the yellow powered hang-glider going past overhead on its way presumably to the airport with a passenger on board. It’s nice to see a familiar face after all of this time.
The French have a saying “jamais deux sans trois” – “never two without a third” – and sure enough, there was something else in the air heading my way as I headed for home.
This time it’s one of the Birdmen of Alcatraz aboard his Nazgul going out for a quiet flap in the afternoon’s wind. Although the storms of earlier in the week have died out, it’s still fairly windy outside.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’d had another absolutely dreadful night. And this time I suppose that I ought to blame all of the coffee that I drank while I was out radioing yesterday evening. It doesn’t usually affect me that much from a “lack of sleep” point of view but it must have done last night.
However I forgot to set the alarm this morning so it was 08:05 when I finally crawled out of bed and the extra time in bed must have done me some good.
After the medication I had to check the mails and messages and that took some time because there is plenty going on right now and there were several mails to deal with. And then I had to attend to yesterday’s journal entry. It was 23:30 when I came home yesterday evening and that’s far too late to start work.
My work was interrupted by a phone call. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I wrote a couple of blistering letters to a couple of people a couple of weeks ago. It’s now provoked a response and I have … errr … accepted a cash settlement.
But then I noticed that the glass bottle that exploded several months ago has cracked the screen on the TV. Not that I use it very much at all but it just goes to show that what comes in with one hand goes out with the other.
More stuff on the dictaphone too. Some bossy woman was organising a party. Crowds of people were there and a lot of my family were there. We were waiting and waiting, then the person with me said that we had to go as we couldn’t wait any longer. Regrettably I went to get myself ready but just then everyone turned up. People came in and more people came in. Everyone started to talk to me and mentioned that they would come along to my wedding in the morning. I thought that at this rate it was so late this this wedding was just not going to take place, is it? A baby had disappeared a couple of years ago and there was something else that went missing and we had to look in the barn for it. The barn was even worse and more untidy than mine. We entered the barn and started to look for it and found this mummified cadaver of this baby while we were doing it. There was something about the clothes that it was wearing. What we found with this baby was that it seemed to be wearing different clothes so we wondered if in fact it was the same baby or a different one. Everyone came to see how we were and some woman, this bossy woman came in and started talking to me. I said to her “do you know that we’ve found this baby?”. She said “really?”. I said “yes. You’re standing on it” which she actually was. She just went “eeww! I hate babies” and going on like that, not really concerned by the fact that this was a dead baby at all.
And later we were somewhere watching Boris Johnson or Donald Trump, I can’t remember now, ruining a grant. When I looked round, the person standing next to me shaking her head was Angela Merkel. We had a bit of a discussion about it but I can’t remember anything else now.
After lunch, I had my medical expense claims to deal with and you have no idea how many there were. In fact by the time I knocked off I still hadn’t done them all. But I’m going to have to finish them tomorrow because a couple will be timed out if I’m not careful.
And look for the expense receipts from October last year that seem to have gone missing.
This afternoon I was only a few minutes late in going for my afternoon walk around the headland.
First stop is of course the wall at the end of the car park so off I trotted to peer over and down onto the beach.
Right now there is plenty of beach to be on, with the tide being so far out. And there were quite a few people taking advantage of it as well.
It’s also interesting to see that many of the rough ripples that were created by the storm earlier in the week have been smoothed out by the subsequent action of the tide.
There wasn’t anything at all going on out at sea – not a single boat anywhere.
However there was something moving about on a pretty inaccessible part of the beach amongst all of the rocks so I took a photo.
What we have here is someone who has been at the pèche à pied, armed with a bucket and a scratching stick. And by the look of his bucket from here, I would say that he has a fair old load of shellfish in there.
That’s what they call “flexing your mussels”.
There ere only half a dozen other people out there on the path this afternoon so I had a comfortable walk along the path to the end of the headland.
The sun is sinking quite low now over there to the west and the town of Cancale was looking really splendid silhouetted against the sky and the setting sun.
One of these days, when I can summon up the courage, I’ll carry on with my task of writing about my adventures on board the Spirit of Conrad while we were over there and I’ll show you all of the photos so that you can see exactly what it is that you are supposed to be able to see from here.
While I was at the end of the headland, I looked down onto the bench by the Cabanon Vauban
There wasn’t anyone sitting there this afternoon but there were a couple of people scrambling around on the rocks with their equipment for the pèche à pied.
Having seen the ripples on the beach the other day, what I imagine is going through the minds of these people is that all kinds of shellfish has been torn from the sea bed and thrown up onto the rocks so they are going about scavening to see what they can find for themselves.
And although I don’t know for sure, I suspect that this is storm damage just here.
It looks as if the wind has torn a couple of branches off the tree here at the side of the Boulevard Vaufleury and they have been busy cutting it up ready to take it away.
had this been the Auvergne, there would have been none of that wood left there by now. It would have all disappeared off into someone’s woodshed drying out ready for next winter.
Wood is a pretty valuable commodity over there and people seize every possible opportunity to lay their hands on as much as they can obtain.
So I continued on my walk around the headland and down the path towards the port.
And there has been a change of occupant in the chantier naval since we drove past there yesterday. The big yacht and the Government boat (well, I assume that it’s a Government boat) Les Epiettes have gone back into the water.
Instead, there’s a trawler come in to take its turn in there. Although I can’t see her name anywhere, I can tell from her registration number that she’s the Yann Frederic and she sails out of this port.
We’ve seen her before – about 6 weeks ago when she spent a week or so in the chantier naval.
While I was here I had a look over at the ferry terminal to see what was happening.
There’s just one boat in there this afternoon – one of the Joly France ferries that go over to the Ile de Chausey. We can see that there’s no step in the stern so she would be the older one of the two boats.
And for once, they have folded up the crane correctly, just as it’s supposed to. And I suppose that the hydraulic seals are very grateful for the rest that they are having right now.
Just one more item caught my attention while I was out this afternoon.
We’ve talked a lot about boats being parked in the NAABSA (Not Always Afloat But Safely Aground) position, and here’s one in a position that we don’t see very often.
She’s Jade III and why she’s parked there I don’t know. usually it’s to carry out some simple repair or to empty some of the contents out of the boat into a waiting vehicle.
But what I’m imagining is the strength that must be in those ropes to hold her there like that. It’s a good job that she’s a catamaran.
Back here at the apartment I had a coffee and carried on with my medical expenses until teatime.
There was some stuffing left over from my stuffed peppers earlier in the week so I finished that off with some taco rolls. And now I’m listening to MY LIVE MUSIC FESTIVAL.
Don’t worry if you missed it, by the way. It’s repeated on Saturday night too – 21:00 CET, 20:00 UK Time and 15:00 Toronto time. Enjoy!
