Bills Posts

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.

It just goes to show how easy it is to lose track of time. I was surprised to discover that it was two weeks ago that I wrote the similarly named piece, where I mapped out the posts for the week ahead.

The trick is to come up with original posts. Unless something happens during the day, it can be difficult to come up with something to write about. When anything like that doesn’t happen, more often than not, then it’s convenient to have basic stuff to fall back on. So quite often you’ll see posts about; the magazine or book that is on my bedside usually on a Monday.

During the rest of the week I’m likely to write about photography – I tend to take a lot of photos. I’ll admit that most of them are fairly mundane, but just occasionally I get one where I think I really like that one. The subject could be anything from a spectacular sunrise to a shopping trolley in the cockle ponds. I become really quite annoyed when I see that and always report it to Streetscene, Gosport Borough Councils facilities team. They are pretty good at sorting that.

I’m as likely to write about the weather. I tend not to walk when it’s raining but there has been times when I am out and get caught in it. Hopefully I’ll have my waterproof coat on. I have ended up getting home drenched.

Quite often when I’m out walking I’ll see people whom I see regularly and get to exchange pleasantries which is really nice. So let’s see what the coming week brings.

I apologise about last nights post. We’d sat down and had watched a couple of episodes of Bones, the latest boxset we are binging. The last episode we watched I missed 90% because I was sleeping.

We were in bed quite early, and I managed to put together last nights post. Today, I was determined to do a little better. With our trip to Chichester, I had the opportunity.

We had two good reasons to visit the city, but except the we failed in both they are irrelevant. I like Chichester it’s a very pleasant place to have a wander. In particular, there’s the canal;

Then of course there are two good bookshops, Kim’s the 2nd hand shop which is over three levels, today, I bought a book about Dorset. It was published in 1925, it’s called Dorset by H.O. Lock. It’s one of those books, that when you pick it up and read a random page you know you want to read the rest of the book.

The other shop is Waterstones. It’s always nice to have a browse through. I didn’t buy anything though. With regard to one of the two failures, not completely so. We do have a couple of options.

The only reason you are doing this post is to keep the count going.

Sorry, goodnight.

I went out for my usual lunchtime walk. It’s usually just over two miles. I normally end up on the Haslar Marina Pier Wall. I saw an unusual view as I approached the ferry terminal. To reach the ferry terminal would involve walking up a slope.

I don’t think I have ever seen the ramp slope up. I have to admit, I found that a bit disconcerting. I looked at the tidal app on my phone , the tide was hitting 4.61m. It looked like the tide was only about eighteen inches below the the bottom of the sea wall which has holes in it.

Could the town really have been that close to flooding? I don’t know. It was quite breezy as well. It was a nice walk though.