Bills Posts

A few weeks ago, Elayne had a day booked in London to meet up with friends. I decided that I would go to London with her, my first visit to the city since pre-covid times, probably around 2019. I decided that I was going to do a few things that I hadn’t done before.

We had pre-booked trained tickets that were quite cheap but it meant that we were committed to specific trains that we couldn’t change unless we paid a fair bit extra. So, we were on the 0815 out, arriving at around 0950. Elayne headed in to town, I got on the jubilee line, and headed for Canary Wharf. Now, I am not used to using the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) so my first frustration was realising that the DLR do not install a lot of pay points at stations. Twice I had to retrace steps to find the one pay point, but it did get me down to the Cutty Sark Station.

I didn’t visit the Cutty Sark today, that’s a future visit. Instead, I headed for the Royal Greenwich Observatory, mainly because I wanted to see the exhibition of the Astronomy Photographer of the year. When I arrived at the RGO, I was told that the exhibition had moved but since I was there I decided to have a look around the observatory.

I did the usual thing of straddling the Greenwich meridian, which meant that I was in both the East and West hemispheres at the same time. it was a fascinating place where a lot of science was done, and history made. After walking away I even managed to see the 1PM (1300hrs) time ball fall. I didn’t know they still did that.

From there I went to that astrophotography exhibition, which was nothing short of amazing many of the pictures were taken by amateurs using basic equipment. Every picture was extremely. High quality and stunning imagery. Well worth a visit.

From there I made my way back to The Tate Modern for a bit of art appreciation. Trouble was my feet were aching and I needed a cup of tea, so my viewing of art was somewhat limited. It did make me wonder though; how much time do you need to decide whether you like a piece of art? And then analyse why you like it, or otherwise of course. I need another visit to Tate Modern, and I need to go there first.

The time to think about the train home was coming but not quite here. I had enough time to get to Foyles and do some browsing. Of course, I bought a couple of books.

On the 1930 out of Waterloo, behind us were a group of five or six young ladies. Let’s just say their antics (hand stands in the aisle and pull-ups on the luggage rack along with lots of shouting and laughing and very ripe language) certainly gave us some entertainment, but I think a few of us were relieved when they de-trained.

It was an extremely pleasant if a bit tiring time.

There is a fair bit of work going on in and around Haslar Marina. The lightship dissappeared for several months whilst there was a lot of dredging work going on. The lightship is back now. It looked a bit barren on its return, but it is now being returned to its state as a restaurant.

The walkway has been extended past the ship. At one point it looked like they were connstructing a platform with a canvas room, I thought it might be a function room, but it has now beeen moved away so I’ m not too sure.

On today’s walk I noticed this group of workmen operating under the platform of the waveguard There’s a fairly complex platform, which doesn’t look as though it is on a floating platform ,so I can’t help wondering what is going to happen when the tide is rising.

I kind of have it that they are going to extend the wave guard, I like the sond of htet, but I don’t think it is going to happen, because the lightship would be in the way. We’ll just have to wait to see what is going on.

I quite enjoyed the visit to the Newlands House Gallery, where we saw the Lee Miller photographic exhibition. It was fascinating. Now the quality of the pictures was extremley good, but there is no doubt that Lee had the subjects. Mainly Picasso.

During the lockdowns, I spent a fair bit of time reading one particular book Gomach’s the Story of Art, which covered the gamit of Art from cave drawings, through how Egyptians depicted people, and onward to recent times.

My interest in art began only recently, when we had a visit to Goodwood House, where many of the pictures related to the house or the family that had lived there over the centuries. It certinly helped that the guide we had gave us an excellent account. It was the first time, I think, that I had moved beyond ‘Oh, that’s an interesting picture” or “I’m bored”.

Then there was Grayson Perry’s art club, where he brought an excellent TV show to the screen. I want to understand art and appreciate the story (perhaps I should say the narrative) behind the art. I want to visit a proper gallery and have a good look around.

I am really hoping that I can stop beating myself up over not getting up and going for a walk in the morning. For the last two mornings, I have managed to get up go for my normal walk and join in on the #Breakfastclub, it has actually been really nice. Plus I have decided that if I want to stay in bed of a morning, we’ll..that’s ok.

I had stopped doing facebook, but I did it yesterday and this morning. My morning post tends to flow, it’s not really very good writing, but I find it easier and quite pleasant. A little about the walk, any wildlife I see, this morning I saw a Brittany Ferry that I hadn’t seen before, The Contentin, which was nice.

The wildlife stories can come from either what I see in town or the bird table, which includes squirrels, which we know are pests, but are cute and we like them. Of course the wagtail is there as well, which is really lovely.

This morning was a bit of moment. For the first time in several months, I managed to get up and go for a walk. Now, I did have a bit of an argument with myself. But I had reached a point where I knew that the situation couldn’t carry on like it had. Now I have enjoyed staying in bed these last weeks, but I have not been getting enough exercise, I have missed the #Breakfastclub, and have been missing my morning photos and facebooks posts (as have some other people by all accounts).

To be honest, not a lot has changed in the three months since I last went for a morning walk. The flower bed near the railway station has been cleared of all flowers. I put some empty printer carriages in the post box near St Georges barracks, I walked down Clarence Road without really noticing it. There were perhaps a couple more people on the high street than I remember. It was really nice to see the Mon St Michell come in.

Even the Cockle ponds, the last time I tried to walk around them during the day where the water had splashed up on to the path and had frozen, the path around the ponds was an ice rink. I decided that it would be better to not walk there.

Now, I’m not promising to walk every morning, but the fear & loathing of getting up has gone. I will go again, probably tomorrow, but perhaps not every day.

Every day (well, mostly every day) as I settle in the office chair I am trying to develop a routine involving looking at three books; Ian Dale’s On this day in politics, Andy Beer’s Every Day Nature and finaly, The journals of Gilbert White. The great things about all three of these books is that they are not a linear narrative. They run day by day. Ian’s is one page per day, Andy’s is just a couple of paragraphs per day. Gilbert’s is just one sentence per day – I’m not reading just one sentence – a double page. All this doesn’t take long, just a few minutes.

Gilbert was born in 1720, and lived in Selborn. He was an amateur naturalist. He makes very simple observations; Woodpecker Laughs, Flights of snow, Wild geese appear in a flock – that kind of thing.

I bought a small A5 week to a view diary. I record pressure, relative humidity, temperature (min, current and max) and rain. Just occasionally I see or hear something. I want to write it in the book (journal!), but I also input the data in to a spreadsheet, and chart all the measurements. Even though only the first month is coming to an end, I am building up some interesting charts, here’s the pressure chart – yes, I was eager to get going, hence th incvclusion of half of December.

I’m sure that there is more that I could record. Part of it becomming a bit more observant.

Just a brief comment about last nights post. It looks like we are planning to do the walk next year, not 2023. Stand by whilst things are sorted.

I’ve titled today’s posts Projects as a bit of a reflection of activities. Why, for example, have i done nothing with the model railway? or why I have done nothing about vlogging? and numerous other activities that I have lovingly thought about and even done some planning, but activities there are none. I acknowledge it is a bit frustrating. Not so long ago, I came up with a couple of ideas I’m not going to describe them here, but I think they are viable and I really should get on and stop procrastinating about them. As they say, just do it.

The photography side of things ahave been flagging – not through lack of interest, more than lack of walking. I really do need to do something about that. Microscopy, I have two quite good amateur microscopes which I had lots of plans for. They have sat on my desk barely used. Part of the problem here is my crammed, untidy office that offers very little available desk space. It’s really annoying, but I don’t know what to do aboujt it.

The Serpent trail is a winding, twisting 64 mile walk that covers three counties, starting in Haslemere and ending at Petersfield. Alex has suggested we should do the walk later in the year. I’ve said yes.

To be honest, I really do want to do it. I’m not at all bothered by the prospect. There are a couple of issues that needs to be addressed; I don’t do wild camping, or camping of any kind come to that. Every evening we will either be in proper beds in hotels, or the walk is close enough for us to get home each night. A pain for whoever taxi’s us backwards and forwards. The second part is training. I have to show a steady programme of walks slowly building up to a daily target which may be either fifteen or twenty miles a day.

Last Sunday, I did a walk it was eight miles. I felt pretty shattered afterwards. Admittedly, I’m used to doing two milers, I jumped in to an opportunity to do a longer walk. Two miles is, to be honest easy. Three miles not that much harder. Time is a problem. I can fit in two and three miles each day, but not much more than that. Weekends are slightly different. I could go for a longer walk, and Elayne would support me with that.

I will research training programs for walking longer distances. I guess I am going to have to keep you informed as to how I get on.

I had left last nights post far too late, hence its feebleness. Sorry about that.

I thought I would write a little bit about audio books. I have an account with audible, I pay about £7 a month for which I get a credit. The credit buys a book, which could if bought independently could cost as much as £25 or £30.

Are audio books real? Of course they are, but they are different to paper books, in that there is no tangible object beyond the playback device. In my case this is the phone.

I have just finished a series of books that I have listened to before – James P Hogans inherit the stars. He writes what reads like quite hard science fiction (that is there is a lot of tech) it is a very good series, and I enjoy Mr. Hogans books – I have a couple of others lined up. In the meantime though, I have back to Larry Niven. He’s written a series books based around his universe, a sphere of space within which human events (mostly) take place. The book of the moment isn’t of his known space universe. This time it is alien invasion – Footfall.

I repeated the bird food experiment today. It did not go well. The birds and the squirrels got their food. I didn’t get out to check the table to see what was left. Not to worry, I don’t think the birds are complaining – they are being fed.