{"id":12830,"date":"2019-11-26T00:34:06","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T00:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=12830"},"modified":"2019-11-26T00:34:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T00:34:10","slug":"monday-25th-november-2019-i-missed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=12830","title":{"rendered":"Monday 25th November 2019 &#8211; I MISSED &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; my evening walk this evening.<\/p>\n<p>There I was, sitting at the dining table (I&#8217;m all posh these days) round about 20:00 eating my rice pudding when the phone went.<\/p>\n<p>Fetching it back again, I discovered that Rosemary was on the end of the line and she wanted to chat.<\/p>\n<p>And chat we did. I had a lot of news to tell her, all about my weekend and people whom we both knew, and she had a lot of news to tell me. Really good, maybe even stunning news too, but there&#8217;s this old medieval saying about &#8220;never be sure of the bird on your plate until you have your fork stuck in it&#8221; so I&#8217;ll wait for a few weeks and see how things develop before I say anything.<\/p>\n<p>And while I was chatting on the phone to Rosemary, I was also having an internet discussion with TOTGA. Yes, two conversations, eating a bowl of rice pudding, ohh yes, I can do multi-tasking!<\/p>\n<p>By the time that Rosemary and I hung up it was well after 22:00. I did say that we had a lot to talk about!<\/p>\n<p>And indeed, there was a lot to say about today. It wasn&#8217;t a late night particularly and so being up and about before the last alarm wasn&#8217;t too much of a problem.<\/p>\n<p>No nocturnal ramble either which makes a change. So nothing much to do. While I was waiting for the medication to work I attacked some of the outstanding dictaphone notes.<\/p>\n<p>In fact I&#8217;ve been whittling away at those throughout the day and now there are just 83 left. They won&#8217;t be finished for the end of the month though, which was my target. That&#8217;s a disappointment but I&#8217;ve had so much going on just recently.<\/p>\n<p>After breakfast I had a shower and some clean clothes and then headed out up town in the rain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911305.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911305.jpg\" alt=\"neva old diesel bus new electric bus granville manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>There had been a report in the local newspaper that the town was taking a electric bus on trial to see how it would function on the bus routes here, bearing in mind how hilly the place is.<\/p>\n<p>And sure enough, as I was up the avenue LeClerc here was the new electric bus, being overtaken by one of the old diesels.<\/p>\n<p>Excuse the blurred photo but it was a fleeting glimpse in between two passing vehicles and I didn&#8217;t have time to focus properly.<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p>At the Centre Agora we had our weekly meeting. And I do have to say that I have never met so many people with a capacity for fitting the least amount of thought into the greatest amount of words.<\/p>\n<p>These are the kind of meetings that should be held outside &#8211; standing up &#8211; in the rain. They would be over in seconds with just as much decided.<\/p>\n<p>It also seems that the people are very jealous of their &#8220;babies&#8221; and guard their empires carefully. We were discussing the port and the subject of <em>Thora<\/em>, <em>Normandy Trader<\/em> and <em>Chausiais<\/em> came up.<\/p>\n<p>As I know the crew of the two British ships, I suggested that I could interview the skippers and see how the new rules and regulations affecting the commerce of the port post-Brexit is going to affect them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ohhh&#8221; piped up one of the guys. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been thinking about doing something about the port and the maritime commerce, but I&#8217;m not sure how to go about it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>So I sat on the edge of my chair waiting for him to ask for suggestions (of which I have more than a few, as regular readers of this rubbish might realise) but instead he moved on to another topic. It&#8217;s his baby, and he won&#8217;t let anyone else share it with him.<\/p>\n<p>Shame as it is to say it, I can see this project not lasting all that long with this kind of ego that seems to preclude teamwork and co-operation.<\/p>\n<p>And I was told that the transmitting quality of my broadcasts needs to be improved, and I was given some technical guidelines in this respect.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, after I&#8217;ve recorded four of them! Obviously no possibility of giving me the technical guidelines 4 or 5 weeks ago, before I recorded any at all, is there?<\/p>\n<p>So everything that I&#8217;ve spent the last few weeks downloading at 96kbs &#8211; all about 70 hours of it &#8211; now needs to be re-recorded at 192 kbs! That was a waste of my time and effort, wasn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n<p>One thing that always gets my goat is a lack of professionalism.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911307.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911307.jpg\" alt=\"old well allee des sycomores granville manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>Remember the other day when I was coming back from the Centre Agora and I saw what looked like an old well in the middle of the street in the Allee des Sycomores?<\/p>\n<p>On my way back I went for a butchers to see what it was. And I was right. It is a well.<\/p>\n<p>Not an old well though. Although it might be old, it&#8217;s still in use as you can see and a lady in a house nearby chatted to me about it for a while.<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911306.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911306.jpg\" alt=\"old well rue des ecoles granville manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>And that&#8217;s not all the excitement either.<\/p>\n<p>Walking down the main street &#8211;  the rue des Ecoles &#8211; I happened to notice another similar object in someone else&#8217;s garden.<\/p>\n<p>Just think! Ther emight be a third one somewhere else in the vicinity. Well, well, well!<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p>On the way back home I called in at LIDL. There wasn&#8217;t much that I needed but seeing as I was there I went in regardless. A couple of bananas, some soya milk and sparkling water.<\/p>\n<p>And I stopped at the boulangerie for another dejeunette &#8211; that last one in the shop.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d also been stopped by a man in one of these microcar-based van things. He wanted to know where a certain street was, but how would I know that?<\/p>\n<p>After lunch I made a start on the web page for the weekend&#8217;s events. And it was only meant to be a brief thing with photographs but, like Topsy, it &#8220;just growed&#8221; and at one point I found myself in mid-rant.<\/p>\n<p>I really do need to calm myself down sometimes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911308.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911308.jpg\" alt=\"fishing boat yacht english channel granville manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>This afternoon I went for my usual walk around the headland again in the wind and the rain.<\/p>\n<p>And it seems that I wasn&#8217;t the only one out there enjoying the weather either. There was a fishing boat coming back from the English Channel and also a yacht out there have an enormous amount of fun.<\/p>\n<p>And quite right too.<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911309.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911309.jpg\" alt=\"helicopter english channel granville manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>There was something else going on out there too.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever it was, it looked important because someone had had his chopper out again. The Air-Sea rescue one in fact and judging by the way that it was flying &#8211; quite slowly about 50 feet above the water, it was looking for something.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe there will be something in the news about it tomorrow.<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911313.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911313.jpg\" alt=\"spirit of conrad aztec lady omerta chantier navale port de granville harbour manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>My walk took me around past the <em>chantier navale<\/em> so as usual I had a peek down there to see who was about.<\/p>\n<p>Three of our boats from the other day &#8211; <em>Spirit of Conrad<\/em>, <em>Aztec Lady<\/em> and <em>Omerta<\/em> &#8211; are still in there up on blocks, as is the fishing boat over on the far side.<\/p>\n<p>And <em>Omerta<\/em> looks as if she&#8217;s receiving some serious attention out there too. They seem to be stripping off all of the paint, presumably to give her a respray.<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911311.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911311.jpg\" alt=\"pecheur de lys chantier navale port de granville harbour manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>All of that is all very well, but there was no sign of the old <em>Pecheur de Lys<\/em> who was with them the other day.<\/p>\n<p>She wasn&#8217;t back in the water either so I had a good look around, and there she is up on blocks right round at the back of the sheds.<\/p>\n<p>Her stay in the water didn&#8217;t last all that long and it looks as if she might be out for good. And that&#8217;s a shame.<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911310.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911310.jpg\" alt=\"fishing boat english channel granville manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>While I was standing there looking for <em>Pecheur de Lys<\/em>, I was interrupted in my reverie by a diesel engine coming from around the headland.<\/p>\n<p>And a matter of just a couple of seconds later, the fishing boat that we had seen earlier out in the English Channel came a-sailing &#8230; <em>&#8220;a-dieseling&#8221; &#8211; ed<\/em> &#8230; into view.<\/p>\n<p>She must have made some really good time to arrive here so qickly. Perhaps someone in the port has put the kettle on.<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911312.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911312.jpg\" alt=\"fishing boat joly france ile de chausey granville ferry manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>It was all go in the harbour too with the tide being in.<\/p>\n<p>Plenty of fishing boats unloading, and some must already have unloaded their catch because this one here has turned round and is on its way back out to sea.<\/p>\n<p>And <em>Joly France<\/em>, one of the ferries for the Ile De Chausey, must have been out on a crossing today because she&#8217;s tied up at the passenger terminal rather than in the inner harbour<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911314.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1911\/1911314.jpg\" alt=\"fishing boat unloading shellfish port de granville harbour manche normandy france\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\"><\/a>&#8220;Plenty of fishing boats unloading&#8221; I said. And &#8220;it was all go in the harbour today&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, I wasn&#8217;t wrong either. Here&#8217;s one of the fishing boats unloading its catch. And I don&#8217;t think that I have ever seen so many crates of mussels or whatever they are piled up on the quayside.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s enough on that trailer at the back of the tractor to keep anyone going for several days, I reckon.<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p>Back in the apartment I carried on with what I was doing until tea time. And seeing as there was some stuffing left I had another stuffed pepper. And then my rice pudding as I mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n<p>But now it&#8217;s about 01:30 and I&#8217;m off to bed. But not for long. Up at 06:00 and I have the tax Office to visit tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>That will probably be very taxing.<\/p>\n<div class='watch-action'><div class='watch-position align-left'><div class='action-like'><a class='lbg-style1 like-12830 jlk' href='javascript:void(0)' data-task='like' data-post_id='12830' data-nonce='33c4e809a2' rel='nofollow'><img class='wti-pixel' src='https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Like' \/><span class='lc-12830 lc'>0<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class='action-unlike'><a class='unlbg-style1 unlike-12830 jlk' href='javascript:void(0)' data-task='unlike' data-post_id='12830' data-nonce='33c4e809a2' rel='nofollow'><img class='wti-pixel' src='https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Unlike' \/><span class='unlc-12830 unlc'>0<\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <div class='status-12830 status align-left'><\/div><\/div><div class='wti-clear'><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; my evening walk this evening. There I was, sitting at the dining table (I&#8217;m all posh these days) round about 20:00 eating my rice pudding when the phone went. Fetching it back again, I discovered that Rosemary was on the end of the line and she wanted to chat. And chat we did. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12016,13131,4507,1616,8571,10941,13237,46,13223,12310,7876,12036],"tags":[13224,12025,12017,13133,13134,13169,1305,2548,2560,5565,8581,5456,8691,10942,13238,5286,3293,10715,1039,12313,7891,8915,288,13239,462,12037,9977,1049,11555],"class_list":["post-12830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aztec-lady","category-centre-agora","category-eric-hall-2","category-france","category-granville","category-joly-france","category-la-mie-caline","category-lidl","category-omerta","category-pecheur-de-lys","category-place-darmes","category-spirit-of-conrad","tag-allee-des-sycomores","tag-avenue-du-marechal-leclerc","tag-aztec-lady","tag-bouquet-granvillais","tag-centre-agora","tag-chausiaise","tag-dictaphone","tag-electric-car","tag-eric-hall","tag-france","tag-granville","tag-helicopter","tag-ile-de-chausey","tag-joly-france","tag-la-mie-caline","tag-lidl","tag-mandy_m","tag-normandy-trader","tag-omerta","tag-pecheur-de-lys","tag-place-darmes","tag-rice-pudding","tag-rosemary","tag-rue-des-ecoles","tag-shower","tag-spirit-of-conrad","tag-stuffed-peppers","tag-tax-office-2","tag-thora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12831,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12830\/revisions\/12831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}