Bills Posts

During a conversation this evening, was reminded of a couple of visits to places that at various times I had always wanted to go. One of the first library books I took out of hte grownup section of Wareham Library was the story of the construction of Jodrell Bank, at the time, I think it was the largest sterrable radio telescope in the world. I had alwayus wanted to visit, but as it was up near Manchester I never thought I would have a chance. More on that in a bit.

First though, I spent a couple of years working in Newquay in Cornwall. That gave me a chance to visit Goonhilly, site of the ground station for the worlds first deep space communications network. I visited there in the mid 1980’s. I can remember being so impressed by the vast array of impressive dishes. It was fascinating to see, and of was still operational at that time. I am sad to see that it is , apart from very special occasions, completely closed down, a quick look at google makes it appear that the facilities are still in place.

Back then to Jodrell bank. In 2011 I was working in Warrington. Everythursday, I would drive back home to St Neots, this one particualr day I decided that I would make a diversion and visit this famous site and have a look at the telescope built by Bernard Lovell, starting in 1945, the large steerable dish became fully operational in 1957.

I am so pleased to have hadd the opportunity to visit both of these famous locations.

Just ten days short of two and a half years ago is how long since I started numbering this blog. I suppose to be strictly honest there will be a couple of days when things went a bit astray, but I think for the most part I have gone with the schedule.

I reckon if I were to go and look at the 500th post I would be talking about achieving 1000 not too far from that now and like any venture, I have had my rough patches; writers block, feeble posts. Please don’t think I am ever happy with those.

I don’t think that doing the blog has become such burden that I don’t want to continue doing it. But I must admit, that especially recently it has been difficult to keep going, but not because of a loss of desire to write. I think that is still there. It was worse, I think when I had that period where I stopped the morning walk. I seriously ran very low on inspiration.

I think that at least the walks give me some thoughts.

I think it was just before Christmas we bought a ninja foodie. We haven’t been using it much. The odd batch of chips here and there. Why bother?

I’ve been thinking about it, so tonight I did some pork steaks, with a breadcrumb coating, and actually, they came out not too bad, even if I say so myself. I’m going to have another go.

Whilst the moon itself is not very well exposed I wasnt expecting this picture. There’s something almost mystical about it. I caught it on this morning walk as I was walking down the High Street.

This mornings chorus was particularly tuneful as I was walking along Mumby Road. I didn’t use the app I have that identifies bird song. I’m not sure that I trust it, and you can’t export the list of identified birds, which I find a bit frustrating. I should really see if there is a better app, the one I have which is more than a couple of years old.

Partway down the high street there was a bit of a face off between a cat and a young fox. They were dancing around a waste bin. I left them to it.

I didn’t see anybody to say good morning to, but it was a nice walk nonetheless.

Yesterday wasn’t a lazy day. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to London, and would happily do another. There are a number of places in the city that I have never been to, one example of which is The Imperial War Museum. Although I saw the Cutty Sark, I didn’t go on board, that remains to be done.

The train tickets we bought were about £23 each. Relatively, that’s really quite cheap. The thing was though that you could only catch specific trains outbound was alright. But we finished doing everything by about 6PM with the return train at 7.30PM. We had some time to waste. An ideal bit of time for some people watching. A fascinating activity, and with it being Waterloo Station, there was plenty of people around to watch.

Elayne recorded some video, just peoples lower legs and feet walking past, fascinating to watch. I was watching the pigeons in addition to the people. They, the pigeons, were equally fascinating. Very skilled at getting out of people’s way. They are very graceful in the air but ungainly on the ground.

I finished the ironing off this morning, and then we had a very lazy day, even to the point of going out to the sailmaker for dinner, a very nice carvery. Just the right kind of day after yesterday.

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.