Another day in Boulogne, but a more outgoing one with a trip to the local produce market this morning, some polishing of Lady Martina this afternoon and then the yacht club for some dancing in the evening, as Tuesday’s forecast better weather slowly approaches and I read all about Norwich City’s quite satisfactory pre-Season moves and matches. Russia expel 755 US diplomatic staff in retaliation for sanctions, our Royal Family join he King of Belgium in commemorating our dead at Passchendaele
We have fallen into a pattern of staying up late and laying in even later but I keep telling myself that we are on holiday and so can do it. I was not awake until woken by my weather station around 8.30am and then worked from 9am until 10.30am by which time I had to wake Kathleen if we were to make anything of the day at all. I was reading all about Norwich City’ home draw 1-1 against newly-promoted Brighton as the last match in a very satisfactory pre-Season but injuries are restricting the options of our new Head Coach ahead of the first game of the new season away to Fulham next Saturday. I also uploaded all of the latest days of historic journal that Kathleen had typed for me and so I should be up to date until we return home from this extended boating holiday.
Once we were up, dressed and active, I noted that there was quite a lot of activity across the other side of the harbour and, upon taking a walk over there as Kathleen washed and treated her hair, I discovered that it was not just a few of the fish stalls open but a full-scale Sunday local produce market. I called her and she joined me and we toured the market and made some very good purchases. The only problem was that I shed a crown from my upper right teeth whilst eating a croissant but at least I retrieved it and hope that my dentist can glue it back I again for me as he has done in the past! We carried our prized purchase home and were eating them for the rest of the day. The weather had cheered up greatly during the day and so I started polishing the boat later on, listening to the music being played from the yacht club opposite. By the end of the session I had completed the saloon roof and much of the sides and it was already looking much better. This evening, after dinner on board, I took Kathleen across to the yacht club, where they had that party last night and where they were still socialising this evening and we found some merry people there that included some eccentric dancers and we joined in for the rest of the night until they locked up and had some good fun. They were rather in awe of our dancing, kept praising and congratulating us and gave us some free drinks and a share of their pizza as part of just being very friendly. Late on, we returned to Lady Martina and I just cleared up and closed up the bridge and had sealed it from the elements when it started raining quite heavily again. I stayed up until about midnight writing up my journal and Kathleen kept pestering me; wanting me to read her the section of my journal that covered our lovemaking last night and then she became angry and upset when I would not do so. I stayed up and carried on writing regardless and then had my customary shower and retired to bed and to sleep. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that 755 staff must leave US diplomatic missions, in retaliation for new US sanctions against Moscow. The decision to expel staff was made on Friday, but Mr Putin has now confirmed the number who must go by 1 September. It brings staff levels to 455, the same as Russia's complement in Washington. This is thought to be the largest expulsion of diplomats from any country in modern history, says the BBC's Laura Bicker in Washington. The number includes Russian employees of the US diplomatic missions across Russia, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow adds. Staff in the embassy in Moscow as well as the consulates in Ekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St Petersburg are affected, she says. Mr Putin did strike a conciliatory note, saying he did not want to impose more measures, but also said he could not see ties changing "anytime soon". Mr Putin told Russian television: "More than 1,000 people were working and are still working" at the US embassy and consulates, and that "755 people must stop their activities in Russia." The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have joined Prime Minister Theresa May in Belgium to mark the centenary of the start of the Battle of Passchendaele - one of the bloodiest of World War One. Half a million Allied and German soldiers were killed, wounded or went missing in three months of fighting. Prince William said Britain and Belgium "stand together... in remembrance of that sacrifice". He joined the King of Belgium in laying wreaths at the Menin Gate in Ypres. The gate - which stands where British troops marched when heading to the battlefields - is covered with the names of 54,391 British dead who have no known grave, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.