{"id":21850,"date":"2026-10-12T22:09:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=21850"},"modified":"2026-10-13T16:50:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:50:41","slug":"live-monday-12th-october-2026-my-cottage-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=21850","title":{"rendered":"
LIVE: Monday 12th October 2026 – MY COTTAGE PIE … <\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"

… is delicious, even if it isn’t made with real cottages. That was an excellent recipe that my chatbot found for me, and if he knows any others as good as this one, I shall pick his brains again.<\/p>\n

However, no matter how nice it was, I hope that it makes me sleep better than last night. I ended up in bed much later than I had intended, and although I was asleep quite quickly, it wasn’t for long enough. I awoke quite early on – I’ve no idea of the time because I didn’t look – and after that, despite everything that I tried, I couldn’t go back to sleep again.<\/p>\n

When the alarm went off at 06:29, I was still awake, but even so, it still took me a good few minutes to leave the bed and stand up.<\/p>\n

The first port of call was at the front door to unlock it ready for when Isabelle the Nurse arrives, and after that, I went into the bathroom to sort myself out and to have a good scrub up. And even a shave too, in case Emilie the Cute Consultant comes to see me at dialysis this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Back in here, I checked the dictaphone to see what was on there, but there was nothing much, so I found a few other things to do until Isabelle the Nurse breezed in.<\/p>\n

Today, we talked about my cottage pie, or Hachis Parmontier<\/em> as they say around here, and a few other things too before she parted off on her week’s break, where planning the installation of her Halloween decorations seems to be Priority Number One.<\/p>\n

After she left, I made my breakfast, and as I was eating, I was reading some more of THE REPORT OF THE WOOLHOPE NATURALISTS CLUB 1870<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The commissioner is talking today about the Bower Oak close to Croft Ambrey. He tells us that "It should be called ”The Lovers\u2019 Oak,\u201d from the romantic scenes that have occurred there. Few trees have left more indelible impressions on young memories."<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It beats me how he knows about “the romantic scenes that have occurred there”. Surely he hasn’t been spying on what goes on there in a dirty raincoat and binoculars? Perish the thought, hey?<\/p>\n

After I’d finished my breakfast, I came in here to carry on working for a while.<\/p>\n

The first task was to review the radio programme that will be broadcast this weekend and make sure that it’s good. And it is, too. There are one or two new groups and musicians featuring in it this week to give it an air of something different.<\/p>\n

And that reminds me. If you don’t know how to listen to my programme, it’s broadcast HERE ON FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS<\/a> at 21:00 CET (20:00 UK Time and 15:00 in Montr\u00e9al and Toronto). And if you miss the broadcasts, there are PODCASTS HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

After the radio, it was the Welsh homework. We had to write an essay about the plans of a new supermarket to be built in a small rural town, write about the background, the arguments for, the arguments against and what we think. And as usual, whenever I have to write an essay, I fall foul of the word count before I’ve really got going. That has been my bane ever since primary school and, let’s be honest, I’m not likely to change now at my age.<\/p>\n

This all took me up to midday when it was time to drop everything and head into the kitchen for my disgusting drink and my midday medication, after which I began to prepare for going to dialysis. My faithful cleaner turned up too, to apply the anaesthetic to my arm, not that it does much good really.<\/p>\n

After she’d left to go and have her butties before going back out to work, I took the cottage pie out of the oven … "something that our hero had forgotten to do this morning" – ed<\/em> … covered it with clingfilm and made some space for it in the fridge. It smelt just as nice and delicious as it did while it was cooking.<\/p>\n

Yes, tonight I’ll give it a try and see what it’s like, but I’m going to have to work out a way of freezing some of it because there’s far too much to eat in one or two meals. You can’t just slop it into a plastic bag like you can do with a curry or a chilli. Answers on a postcard to …<\/p>\n

While I was waiting for the taxi, I adopted the usual position of folding up over the table with my head resting on my arms, but I was rudely interrupted by the doorbell announcing the arrival of the taxi, ten minutes early. And it was “rudely” too. It took me a minute or two to work out where I was and what was going on.<\/p>\n

Once I was in the taxi, we had to go to Sartilly for someone else. With the road closed at La Havaudi\u00e8re, we usually go down the road between St. Pair sur Mer and Champeaux, and turn off at Lezeaux Le Carri\u00e8re to rejoin the main road. However, this driver took me along the coast as far as Carolles and then cut across country to Sartilly. It’s a much nicer road than the Champeaux road, that’s for sure, but it’s a much longer way around, and as a result, I was late for dialysis.<\/p>\n

Arriving after 14:00 is one thing, but my nurse, the new young girl with the pet rabbit, was already waiting. There was a lot of preparatory work to do at first, but I was up and running by 14:30, and there are times when it’s been later than that when I’ve arrived early.<\/p>\n

And bizarrely, the first puncture hurt a little, but the second didn’t hurt at all, and that’s the one that usually causes all the problems.<\/p>\n

Once I was up and running, I had a footfest again. I watched the rest of the Hwlffordd v Caernarfon game, spending most of the time wondering what had happened to the technical skills of both teams as they slugged it out in a midfield maul. <\/p>\n

However, I do know why Hwlffordd are stuck low down the table even if they have one of the meanest defences in the league. Whereas TNS have scored 44 goals, Caernarfon 37 and even Trefynnon, propping up the table by a mile, have scored 12, Hwlffordd have scored just 8 and that is simply not good enough.<\/p>\n

Mind you, they added one goal to the total at the weekend against Caernarfon, but Caernarfon scored two and that was that, although the penalty awarded for the first goal was … errr … rather dubious, even though it was verified on VAR.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, we had Penybont v Y Barri down at Bridgend in front of a big four-figure crowd, the sixth biggest of the season. However, I didn’t finish it all, and so you’ll have to wait for Thursday night for a report on that.<\/p>\n

But it’s really strange. Five, ten, fifteen and more years ago, the league was struggling to have one four-figure crowd per season. These days, it’s having at least one four-figure crowd per week somewhere \u2013 usually at Caernarfon, Colwyn Bay and Penybont \u2013 and it’s rumoured that Connah’s Quay Nomads are pushing the boat out to drag in a four-figure crowd for the local derby at Y Fflint shortly. <\/p>\n

And Bangor City in the second division have had two crowds of over four figures, and there was a third at Holyhead when Bangor were the visitors. Things are definitely looking up.<\/p>\n

My foot fest was interrupted by the arrival of a doctor \u2013 not, unfortunately, Emilie the Cute Consultant. He asked me how I was feeling and I replied moyen<\/em>, or “average”, so he asked me what I meant, so I replied “not good but not bad”. So he asked me “is there anything else I can do for you?” but I replied “no”. That was the depth of his examination. <\/p>\n

As I have said before … "and on many occasions too" – ed<\/em> … he doesn’t seem to be interested in his job, and I often get the impression that he’d much rather be elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The snacks have changed at dialysis today too. I no longer have my coffee and orange juice. The coffee is still there, but the only other thing that I can have is a fruit pur\u00e9e. I suppose that I’ll have to make the best of that. Still, it’s all free, so I have no grounds to complain or to moan about it.<\/p>\n

When the session was ended, which made a change to arrive at this point and not have the session cut short, the young nurse with the rabbit unplugged me quite quickly, but I had to wait for the taxi driver. But it didn’t matter. It was one of my favourite drivers and she’s taken me to Paris a few times. Travelling with her is “exciting” to say the least, so I know that we wouldn’t take long to be home.<\/p>\n

There were two other people from another place nearby who needed collecting, and start as we mean to go on – at the roundabout at the end of the road, she shot round it, cutting up another couple of cars while she was at it, and I was home by 18:40, which makes a nice change.<\/p>\n

My faithful cleaner helped me back into the apartment and stuck a disgusting drink into my hand when I sat down. After she left, I helped myself to a small plateful of my cottage pie, made with real cottages, and it really is delicious. There’s no doubt at all about that. I shall definitely make a permanent note of that recipe.<\/p>\n

Back in here, I came to write out the notes for today, but before I’d made much progress, I’d fallen asleep. When I awoke, I took myself off the bed after I’d posted on line what I’d written, and I’ll finish the rest tomorrow. What kind of failure am I?<\/p>\n

But before I go, seeing as we have been talking about word counts for essays … "well, one of us has" – ed<\/em> … it reminds me of a very old limerick that had done the rounds long before I every heard it –
\n"There was a young man from Japan
\nWho could never make limericks scan.
\nHe said ‘my old bean
\nI know just what you mean
\nBut I always try to fit as many words into the last line as I possibly can."<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

0<\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div>
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… is delicious, even if it isn’t made with real cottages. That was an excellent recipe that my chatbot found for me, and if he knows any others as good as this one, I shall pick his brains again. However, no matter how nice it was, I hope that it makes me sleep better than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10849,1710,12054,4507,1616,8571,3173,16665,16250,12057,16023],"tags":[3501,8612,4788,14777,829,13133,8292,15347,5577,13274,16554,1302,5180,2560,5287,5565,8581,13915,10116,5911,1217,16618,12058,12717,16676,13920,8583,1029,8309],"class_list":["post-21850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avranches","category-cleaner","category-doctor","category-eric-hall-2","category-france","category-granville","category-hospital","category-liveblogs","category-n6","category-nurse","category-sartilly","tag-archive-org","tag-avranches","tag-bad-night","tag-bangor-1876","tag-barry-town","tag-bouquet-granvillais","tag-caernarfon-town","tag-champeaux","tag-cleaner","tag-colwyn-bay","tag-cottage-pie","tag-crash-out","tag-doctor","tag-eric-hall","tag-football","tag-france","tag-granville","tag-haverfordwest-county","tag-holyhead","tag-hospital","tag-jd-cymru-premier-league","tag-la-havaudiere","tag-nurse","tag-penybont","tag-report-of-the-woolhope-naturalists-1870","tag-sartilly","tag-st-pair-sur-mer","tag-taxi","tag-welsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21850","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=21850"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21859,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21850\/revisions\/21859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}