2006 June archive at Tims Times

Archive for June, 2006

Pont de Normandie

Published June 10, 2006 in bridges, concrete, France and On the ship. 1 Comment

The Normandy Bridge or Pont de Normandie as the locals might say in the local parley, having passed under this bridge on ships dozens of times up and down to Rouen and Port Jerome and other scenic spots on the river Seine I got a chance to walk under it the other day and take a few shots. It is too big to catch in one shot from underneath unless you have some kid of super fish eye wide angle lens, so here are a few different angles.

The bridge was finished in 1995 and held the record as the worlds longest cable stayed bridge for 4 years until the Japs built a bigger one, which in turn was beaten by a Greek-Italian project which crosses the Gulf of Corinth, I think it won bridge of the year in 2005.

There is a shed load of statistics about height and width on the net if you are into numbers just Google away!

Bordeaux Pilot.

Published June 6, 2006 in Wine, Pilot, France and On the ship. 0 Comments

The pilot at Bordeaux was a friendly type and was very interested in wine, he was raving on about all the types of Medoc and Pauillac and you name it Bordeaux wines that he had in his modest collection of 250 bottles, he said this was small for a French person, he asked me if I had any wine, I said that I was in between collections at the moment, having not been to Denmark recently. He didn’t get it.

The bag in box was not discussed at all. He gave me a few tips on wines to get and advised that the best wine is what you like yourself, wise words. He also said that we had met before, or at least he thought so. I agreed although I am pretty sure I had never seen the guy before, but seeing as he was such a nice chap I humoured him and even suggested a previous visit which could have been when we had met, this seemed to coincide with his recollection. The next time I bump into him he might not recognize me at all, or I’ll never see him again, happens often in this game. You just say ” see you next time” and that could be “in the next life”.

French Coasting, the Germans and the Celts

Published June 4, 2006 in concrete, Germans, France and On the ship. 1 Comment

Greetings readers,

We find ourselves coasting up and down the Atlantic coast of France, one day Bordeaux the next St. Nazaire then Lorient and so on, it would be more interesting if I had time to go ashore and have a good look around but I am having to work so all other activities including blogging and going ashore take second place.

Above a fine example of Middle 20th century German architecture at Lorient, France. The things one can do with concrete, it took less than a year to build, things were done quick in them days.

A new day dawns over West France and we lie at anchor off St.Nazaire, birthplace of the Queen Mary 2 and also a serious monument to German concrete technology. The cruise ship to the right in the picture is not really so interesting, but the small concrete structure to the left that looks like a garage door is the lock for the u-boat pens, bomb proofed with 6 meters of concrete, it never got into full use according to the French pilot. The gerry’s surrendered here last, even when the red army was waving the hammer and sickle in Berlin, the boys here were not giving up the French Cafe lifestyle that easy. In the end they surrendered as we all know, the u-boat crews used to have severe party’s before and after each mission as the chances of returning were only 40%, they used to leave their accordions and guitars in the cafe or bar they were partying in before the mission, after the war the cafes were full of musical instruments, the owners were in Davy Jones locker.

Anyway enough about the War, or the mentioning of it.

Lorient was also interesting because of the Celtic heritage, our agent could speak Breton, Welsh and was asking me to help him with some Irish grammar, to my shame I was unable to help him with all of his translation. All the street signs are in French and Breton, the spirit of Asterix lives on here, the French central government is looked upon with the same disdain as the Romans before them.

Symbol of Breton independence movement, look familiar?

First blog on the new address

Published June 2, 2006 in blog. 2 Comments

Hello blogfans, and welcome to the new home of Tims Times.

We have a trainee onboard who knows more about computers than I do and I’m learning more from him than than the otherway around, so I have started a new blog. I have also fulfilled my duties as Chief Mate and sent him out with a paint brush and buckets of grease,we all have to learn to get well and truly shi’ted up to the eyebrows in our path for knowledge.

The old blog will be moving here also when I learn how……don’t hold your breath but it will get here.

Now in the forthcoming editions, there will be plenty vitriol and more of the same a few photographs and general comments on the state of things, probably not enough solutions forthcoming but food for thought and references to obscure music books, authors and the likes. All comments are welcome. All the best Tim.