Bills Posts

Today’s walk took me through the grounds of the Explosion Museum. That’s where I spotted this rather spectacularly decorated lamp post. The museum is an interesting visit, giving an informative history of naval air power. We have been around the museum, but not today.

Carrying on with the walk, took me through Clarence yard. Literally the breadbasket of the Royal Navy. The ovens where the daily bread was cooked are still there, as a backdrop to a nice restaurant. It is entirely appropriate that the bakery that fed the nave through the 1800s is still associated with food.

The buildings of Clarence Yard are quite impressive, Gosport o rough Council is in the process of redeveloping the area in a sensitive way that retains its historic character. There’s the restaurant I mentioned above, there are several commercial units along the frontage, they have been empty for quite a while. That in itself demonstrates one of the problems with Gosport. With the growing number of empty shops on the high street, what would draw people back to that area, let alone entice them to an area a good walking distance from the town centre?

Our attitude toward high street shopping has changed dramatically over time and with the predominance of internet shopping, the role of the high street is very much in question. That means that any commercial activity that would successfully entice people to an area like Clarence yard has to be something special, over and above the historic attractions.

What those activities are, is a question to which I do not, unfortunately, have the answer, because if I did, I think I’d be quite well off.

I am sat at the keyboard, stuck as to what to write. I did write a paragraph about wanting to do some videos, and possibly putting them on YouTube, but I ended up deleting it as it sounded very pretentious, I didn’t like it.

I’ve been harping on about doing videos for many months. Like other projects that I’ve talked about, I’ve done nothing. Why is that? do you know, I’m not sure I can answer that. It kind of isn’t laziness, but perhaps a feeling that I don’t have time, or possibly it’s all too difficult to set up; lighting, position, scripting or not as the case is much more likely to be.

Procrastination, now there’s a thing, I sometimes do a fair bit of that, is there such a thing as targeted procrastination? Why can’t I do this? It’s like tidying my office, which is a tip, and I hate it being like this, but I seem unable to do anything about it. Why is that?

I shall ponder these and other important questions.

I got my bus pass today. I thought it would be inteeresting to see where I could go practically in a day? When we were travelling to Oxfordshire last week, we passed Highclere Castle, the home (to me, and I suspect several million other people) of Downton Abbey. Can I get to Highclere on the bus?

The answer to the question is yes. There is a bus, the Number 7 from Andover goes past Highclere, but it looks as though there might be a bit of a walk to get to the castle itself. from Andover, it looks like I need to get to Whoitechurch, the number 86, Whitechurch to Winchester on the 76, from there I’ve kind of almost given up. Google Maps tells me that it takes over 11 hours to travel in one direction. Is that right?

Shorter journeys perhaps? But where to go?

The ponds are empty. It happened over the weekend. Right in the middle of the bigger pond there is a puddle, it’s quite large so obviously there must still be something in there, for the last two mornings the heron has been there.

I presume that it is the council that has been working on the side, where part of it was crumbling quite badly, so that is good. I hope that sometime soon they will start filling the ponds.

I am hoping that this will bring in some life, the jelly fish would be really welcome. It’s difficult to tell whether or not the pond weed which had been proliferating has been removed. It will be interesting to see what happens.

One of the people I follow on FaceBook, goes by the name of The Dorset Rambler. He posts every so often (not every day). He takes some lovely photos whilst out on his walk, and has the right kit to get some lovely pictures of local birds as well as sunsets.

Now, I do have the opportunity to get some lovely sunrises, and if I was inclined to go out in the evening, I could get sunsets as well, but what I don’t get many chances of are pictures of small birds. I’d go so far as to hazard that this is not entirely because I don’t have the right kit. Mostly I think it is opportunity.

In order to get those chances, I think you have to make them. I have been sat at the waterfront and in particular starlings are not massively afraid of people, nervous and wary yes, but not afraid. I’ve had a couple of nice pictures.

What frustrates me are birds like sparrows. I like sparrows. There are several places around town where there are bushes, and and you know this because you can hear them. It’s like either a massive family argument or like a 1950’s housing estate with everybody leaning on their fences talking at the same time.

You know there must be dozens of them hiding in the bush, but can you see them? Do you think there’s any chance of getting a picture of them? And of course as soon as you get near them they fall silent, only to resume their shouting when you are walking away from them!

I must have done the route that I follow on my morning walk a few hundred times. Nearly every road I walk along has some history. At the beginning of this blog, I intended to write more about the history and I have done to a limited extent.

Part of my problem is that I haven’t done much research. Oh, I’ve read a few books and pamphlets, my write-ups haven’t followed any academic standard. And actually, I don’t want that. I’m happier with the lighter narrative.

What I would like to do is be a bit more disciplined in the structure of my writings. My blogs are very much of the night, I would like to have a plan of posts such that I would have an idea of what I will be writing next week, or even two weeks ahead. I’d also like to have a number of threads. I’d almost say that I would find it very difficult to apply academic discipline to the research on two or three different subjects and develop and maintain a blog list up to two weeks ahead.

It’s a nice idea though.

We have just had a really lovely weekend at Heythrop park. It’s been on the cards for a few weeks. There are some things that want to comment upon;

I phoned the hotel and asked about the charging points. I was confidently informed that they were Tesla chargers, and didn’t have type 2 sockets. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a whole bank of podpoints not Tesla at all. All I needed to do is download the app, top it up and we were good to go. It didn’t matter that they weren’t fast chargers. We weren’t going anywhere. It was impressive that there were a lot of them, and that they were always some free. Very nice.

We had a problem with the room, not the room itself, but the noisy fan outside, which would disturb our sleep. A quick word with Miles on reception and we were sorted out with a new room, and an upgrade no less. Delightful.

This is the second hotel in the last few months where there has been good wifi coverage in the rooms. This was excellent, no problem at all. Very nice to see.

The entertainment was very good. With the singers and musicians all of excellent standards. The selling point for the weekend was The Pink Floyd experience. Excellent.

It was seriously lovely to be with our friends Mark and Helen. We always have a good time when we get together. It really was a lovely weekend.

I didn’t explain the title. It was 100 miles from home to Heythrop. On the return journey we started with 100% on the battery and didn’t stop to recharge. On arrival home we had used 80% and had taken 124 miles.

We went for a walk today, not a long one, but it did involve a couple of steep-ish slopes. We got to the point, a gate where I had initially suggested we walk to, and as we were on it seemed reasonable to carry on to what we hoped might be the top of hill. Luckily it was.

At some point I think it was Mark or Helen had spoken to somebody who said there was a zoo a bit further along. The first encounter was with this slightly Eeyore-like cutie, that just stood and looked at us rather uninterested. Eeyores partner wandered over and showed a bit more interest.

It turns out that was a company that trains animals for parts in movies or appearances in photo-shoots.

Who’d have expected to a group of these in the middle of Oxfordshire? We certainly didn’t.

Anyway, it made for an interesting stroll, and I was very glad to get back for a cup of tea.

Nothing quite like it.

We went for a walk through the woods today. It was really quite pleasant. We saw a muntjac deer in the distance, was a fleeting glimpse of one or two seconds as it slipped into the undergrowth, and quite a few yards away, but it was quite distinctive. Lovely to see.

We had been on a solid path, but as we progressed it turned into a dirt track, then a wet dirt track. It wasn’t so bad that I though I would have to turn back, but it could so easily have done.

Because, I had wholly inadequate footwear to walking on a muddy path. Trainers no less. the annoying thing is, I so nearly brought me walking shoes with me, but didn’t in the end. Tomorrow, I have said that I will only walk on solid track. We’ll see how that goes.

The really frustrating things about ev charging revolve around when you do it away from home. Perhaps the biggest bugbear is whether the charger is working. My view is that it must be a legal requirement that who ever owns a publicly available charging point must have a response plan in place for when it goes out of service. Now the question then arises as to the service level requirement.

Now, I have seen charging points that have been reported on zap maps as being out of service for more than a day. Totally unacceptable. But, is that because they have not been reported as having come back into operation? I admit I have no idea what are the reliability requirements. It may be that actually, they are more stringent than i’ve already advocated. I think I need to do some research.

There is no doubt though, that whilst there are nowhere near enough charging points around, the situation is improving.

And the beer? I had two pints of lager tonight. I think it was Māori. It was very smooth, and not only did it go down very easily, it went straight to my brain. Need to be careful with that.