Bills Posts

What I would really like to do is to walk down Gosport’s High Street, but the key thing is – with a historian. Now this is the awkward bit, I’d like it to be someone quite well known, perhaps Prof. Alice Roberts (ok, not really a historian, but she is good), Lucy Worsley or Simon Schama.

What would it be all about? Well at the bottom end of the town, a time linne has been laid;

• 948 First reference to Alverstoke & Rowner
• 1204 Manor of Gosport created by the Bishop of Westminster
• 1348 The Plague devastates Gosport
• 1417 First fortifications built at Blockhouse
• 1540 Gosport described as a little village
• 1642 Roundhead bombardment of Portsmouth
• 1678 Gosport fortifications and ramparts started
• 1683 Charles II visits & tours unfinished fortifications
• 1696 Water piped to town from Forton
•  1717 Gosport granted two market days a week
• 1746-1762 Haslar Hospital constructed.
• 1776 Grand Magazine Priddy’s hard completed
• 1802 Ferry Service from Gosport to Le Havre
• 1840 Floating Bridge chain ferry to Portsmouth
• 1844 King Louis Philippe of France visited
• 1844 Queen Victorias railway station opens
• 1850’s Construction of Palmerston Forts
• 1917 Seaplane training established at future HMS Daedalus(TBC)
• 1922 Gosport Borough created
• 1944 D-Day embarkations from beach Stokes Bay(TBC?)

Some these would be interesting, because Gosport itself didn’t exist for a good part of the time line, so what would my historian be doing?

I’d have them describing what life was like here at that time. What was happening in history? How was Gosport established what was here before. And then, as God’s Port became a garrison town, with defences all around, what was life like inside the walls, and I’m willing to bet it was a bit salacious, I can imagine Lucy describing those times with relish. Where was the Mary Rose launched from? And what happened in the town when she went down?

I think I’d like Alice and Simon to be talking about life in the high street during the 18th & 19th century, whenn the navy really was at its height, the press gangs were in action, but there would also have been a fair bit of culture in town as well, having as it it did a renowned theatre. Then there were the pubs, The Indian Star I believe where you can read reports of auctions where ships were sold, quite openly to brigands, and for that purpose.

The construction of the Palmerston Forts was taking place well outside the towns bounndary of hte day, but I can’t imagine that the workforce didn’t come in to town to swell the population. Whgat was life like?

I’d like to think that it would be quite interesting.

There are plenty of online services that will take an audio file and transcribe it. Most of them are paying, but there might be some that are fre, probably though, with limitations. I don’t want to pay.

A good friend suggested using Siri on my iPhone to record a note. The mistake I made was to try it without any practice whilst out for my walk. It didn’t work. I could get Siri to open the app, but I had to unlock my phone myself. I could open the notes app from Siri, but I had to enable dictation. To be honest, I found it too fiddly. There’s probably an easier way to do this, but I need to practice.

One obvious route is pen and paper, which is fine (perhaps) if the weather is ok but just no good if raining (I don’t walk if it is already raining, but it sometimes start midwalk). Reporters pad or a small notebook? I’ll have to try that.

Does there have to be a technological solution to my problem? I have no problem if there is but I won’t discount a traditional method. I like the way my paper diary and I still have a Filofax which I have only recently stopped using.

There’s obviously some research needed here. I shall carry on and report back.

What I am after is a way of taking notes whilst I am out walking. Quite often I find myself in a poisition where I want to record an observation. It could be anything from something I’ve seen, a feeling I have, a comment made by somebody on the #Breakfastclub to which I want to respond.

I wonder if it would be more efficient if I had a method of making notes whilst out and about is there an app on the phone? Perhaps the notes app and dictation would work? On the other hand, I prefer written notes. But I need a way of doing it outdoors, perhaps wearing gloves? with a pen? anybody have a solution? I’m thinking of people like travel writers, surveyors, people who work outside. Bearing in mind, i’m walking and need to find the pen and notebook quickly, or habve it conveniently to hand – how do I do that?

I guess it should be obvious really. I’ll have to do a bit of thinking about that. It sometimes gets a bit frustrating. there will be an easy convenient way of doing it – I just haven’t found it.

Sorry about last nights post – it was pretty feeble. I don’t think this one is much better to be honest, but at least there’s more than one paragraph.

I’m really sorry for this but no time for a post today. We binge watched all the episodes on Netflix. Most entertaining.

Today wemade a decision that we would go to Southampton. Really, there are only two shops that I am interested in at West Quay, shopping Mall at the centre of town. That’s the Apple Store – and to be honest, there is little point of going there unless you are going to buy something. There is nothing that I really browse for. The other shop I almost always enjoy visiting is Waterstones (or any other similar type book shop, or large second hand) bookshops.

I think I spent about an hour in the shop, looking at the The various sections. I have to admit that I tend not to look at fiction – perhaps I should? The new politics section is always interesting to look at, but there was nothing that grabbed my interest today. I had a good look at the science section, and there were quite a few books that I had a bit of a browse through, but nothing inspired me.

Moving across to the writing section. The trouble is, I don’’t really know what I’m looking for here. Even before I started this blog, I wanted to write, but I haven’t been able to focus on a single thread or topic that could turn in to a book. Hence you’ve ended up with 950 fairly random posts. Nothing coherent. It’s almost like I’m looking the book entitled “How to write the right book for you”.

Perhaps the travel section might do it? I quite like the Bill Bryson. His books are both informative and funny. A really good read. I’ve also enjoyed reading Tom Fort’s Channel Shore book. I was talking a lot about Gilbert White’s book, a natural history of Selborne I have the book and have been reading it on and off. It’s a really interesting book, but my attention span hasn’t let me read it in one go. It’s like a number of books I have, I’m slowly working through them.

I’m finding that I am spending a fair bit of time looking at the history section. Back many years ago, when I was at school or college, History was one of my favourite subjects, but like most of the things I was interested I wasn’t very good at it. I’m still not. But that doesn’t stop me from being interested.

The picture has nothing to do with today’s post. Just to set a bit of context.

The Met Office got the forecast right. Rain & high winds. I didn’t go for a walk this morning. It was to put it mildly, chucking it down. I wasn’t complaining. Sometimes it’s nice to go back to bed. I didn’t feel guilty because I wouldn’t have gone anyway.

I did get out for a walk lunchtime. It was raining still, so I wore my proper raincoat. It was the normal walk, a quick dash down to the waterfront. I think the gust of wind that very nearly knocked me off my feet, was the one that knocked the plastic greenhouse over in the garden. It was certainly upright before I went out.

Last night, I went out to make sure the car was locked. It was windy, and a bit drizzly. Sometimes I get a real urge to go for a walk, but it was late and I was tired so I resisted. Perhaps the next time I feel like that.

Misty tends to jump on the bed at about 5AM, demanding attention. That’s usually the first opportunity to test the weather, is she cold, or perhaps wet? Some times she is drenched. I have to confess that very occasionally, I hope it is raining because then I can go back to bed.

If it isn’t raining, then it’s time for a walk. Even with the clocks changing, it’s dark when i leave the house. Every morning this week it has been grey, 8/8 cloud and it has been drizzly once or twice, and bit gusty.

We are in the midst of a weather warning. Winds of 70mph, and rain. Tomorrow being the last day of the month I can say that we have had just over 3 inches of rain. I wonder if we are heading for April showers.

I took this picture not realising how much it would appeal to me until I saw it on the iPad back at home. There’s something a bit ghostly about the way the top of the spinnaker is peeking out of the mist. I thought it looked really interesting.

I talked about one of the newsgroups I follow in my news app. It’s called working pictures. You’d think that the pictures the owner takes would be very plain, with nothing special. But quite a few of them are really quite nice. I thought I’d have a go, now, you might think what is he on? But I quite like this one;

I think it has to be the lighting. I think I’ll have to give it another go tomorrow. That’s assuming I walk of course. I’ve just been out to make sure the car is all locked up (it was). It is raining and if it is like that in the morning I won’t be.

Three of the monthlies have arrived; RCTS, B&W Photography and Country walking , the frustration is I am reading We are Bellingcat, the story of open source intelligence, and I’d rather read that than the magazines, but the mags look really interesting. B&W photog has been dipping a little bit into history, showing a picture of Queen Victoria, which she didn’t like so used her finger to rub out her face.

Country walking I haven’t opened yet, but the very colourful cover is enticing you to dive in and read about wildlife you may encounter on your trips out, and I have to say it looks very interesting. I think I am going to have to bite the bullet, and just get on with them.

I took very few pictures on todays walks. I couldn’t get out at lunchtime. Work stopped play. But I did go out at tea time. Elayne had been out all day and I was going for a slimming world meal at Iceland, not realising that closes at 1730, so that didn’t work. The walk itself was ok. It was just there really was nothing to inspire me.

I am thinking about two photographers, Teo Crawford (I think) and a news group called working pictures. Both of which produce some relatively mundane pictures, and both of which can actually be quite striking. Perhaps I should try and copy them to a degree. More on that tomorrow.

It is that first look out the window that does it. The clock ticks over to 0535. I’ve been watching it for the last five minutes, relishing the warmth and comfort of bed, with no likely hood of going back to sleep, I’ve been awake the last hour or sometimes more. It’s time to get up.

Looking out the window gives me the first chance to think about what the day is going to be like. Raining? how hard? If it’s barely detectable I might consider still going out for a walk in my raincoat. Windy? Definitely, the wind always gives a sense of the adventurous. Cold? As long as I can wrap up warm – I have a balaclava type thing, made of artificial fiber, it only cost me a fiver. It is very effective and keeps my ears and head lovely and warm. Although, my headphones do a pretty good job of keeping my ears warm if the balaclava is a bit too much.

The headphones? that’s for my two way radio, that I put into scanner mode, once I am out of earshot of the morning chorus, and then at 0613 I put on to channel 81, ready for the #Breakfastclub. That’s the group of radio amateur friends who just get together for a chat monday to friday, 0615-0700(ish). There are two groups, those on RF (Radio Frequency) and those on echolink. The latter group could literally be anywhere in the world. There’s many a time we’ll have some body from Australia or America (including South America). Most of those of us on RF (and a couple of the echolink users who are not too far away) have met face to fac, at radio ralleys, or more recently in Portsmouth for brerakfast at the Royal Maritime Club (we’ll definitely do that again).

Down the high street, along the esplanade out to the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall – where I’ll give a radio report on the conditions; tide, sea state in the harbour, temp, pressure, wind speed (wind chill). Of then to the cockle ponds, are the jelly fish there? I’ve been waiting all winter for them to come back. Up along South Street, past the Asda Turn, past the back of Waitrose, make the turn on to Bury & Stoke Road via Foster, down to my holding point at the end of Peel Road. I have to leave the breakfast club there. 73 (radio speak for best wishes) to everybody, and that is it. By the time I get home it’s usually around three miles. That gets me going for the day.