Bills Posts

There’s a film. I’m pretty sure it’s Charles Dickens Great Expectations I think it may be a 1930’s film. There’s a scene with a young lad in a very bleak industrial landscape (which apparently is actually Chatham), but for some reason has really stuck in my mind.

I mention the film (and have done so before) because when I am down at the waterfront and there is a bit of a breeze blowing, as there was today, for some reason I am reminded of the film, the wind blowing through the cables, which are clanking against the mast sounds a bit wistful and mournful. It’s almost depressing.

Stood out at the end of the Haslar Marina wave guard / pier wall you can feel the wind blowing, and the moaning as it crosses the many boats of the marina. Especially when it is a grey day, and rain is threatening, it just adds to that sense of bleakness. The effect is even more noticeable if the light is low, such as early in the morning.

I have no idea why the film has stayed with me so strongly, I do know that I saw at quite a young, and therefore likely impressionable age. As I write this, at nearly half past ten in the evening a strong gust of wind has blown against the window. It almost makes me want to go for a walk. I won’t of course, it’s time for bed.

For the first time in quite a while, I was a bit reluctant to sit down to tonight’s blog. But, here we are and only 134 to go before we hit 1000. I would be a bit daft to give up now. I never thought when I started I would get this far.

What a world it has been over the last 800 or so days. I started this blog during the first lockdown, and yet the possibility of yet more are on the horizon. Is that really likely?

Luckily, I have been doing the walk1000 thing so at least I get out of the house for a bit during the week. I must admit, when I started doing this, it was because I wanted to write. That I’m here, 866 days later means that must have been a pretty big urge. Now, I by no means say that my writings are good. Perhaps the odd one has been mildly interesting.

So, I shall continue to commit my meanderings to this blog.

I wanted to go for a morning walk, I woke just after 4AM, stayed awake long enough to push Rascal off my chest and then fell back to sleep.

I did manage to get out for a lunchtime walk, I had a drop off and a couple of pickups to do, and luckily enough time to do that. I would have liked to have made it to the waterfront, but I wanted to get back.

It wasn’t a gale blowing, but there were a few gusts that really did make it difficult to walk, actually, it was fun. It made me think about what I had been missing from my morning walks and for the first time in several weeks I really wanted to go out at that time.

Two of the most stressful (for whom?) events that we can be involved in are weddings and house moves. The planning for one is well underway. The prospect of a move is increasing. There are a couple of hurdles still, the chances of our being in a different house for next Christmas are increasingly likely.

I have to confess that I’m not massively looking forward to the move itself, I hate disruption. But I am very excited by what is coming.

As a licensed radio ham, one of my greatest frustrations has been lack of access to the High Frequency bands. Something in my area is generating a lot of electronic noise. I am really hoping that the move will help with that.

The wedding is something to really look forward to, and I wish them well.

You might reasonably ask if I have made any resolutions? I think two; to lose weight and to procrastinate less. Let’s see how both of those develop.

What did you do today? Starting with last night. We didn’t go out, we didn’t have anybody around, it was just us. We watched many episodes of 9-1-1 Lone Star. We have very much enjoyed both this and the original 9-1-1. Very powerful characters. We’ll be very sad when it comes to an end.

We were planning to go to Bournemouth today. We wanted to visit the pier. Timing became a bit of an issue. We changed our minds. Instead we went to Clarence Pier in Southsea.

Of course we went in to the Penny Arcades, as usual. This is why we go to piers on New Year’s Day. It’s only once a year we go in, spend a few pounds, come out with some (I’m sorry, I’m going to say it) rubbishy toys with which Elayne is absolutely delighted. This year, thanks to Alex, Elayne walked with a prize from the crane game.

We had a lovely meal in a local Italian restaurant and went home. It was a most successful and enjoyable day.

We’ve just watched 2023 burst upon in a cacophony of noise and light, and I realised that I had not posted a piece in the 4 hours prior. So, the counter is reset to zero for 01 Jan 23. Shall we see how far we can get through this year?

This is going to be short post as I need to go to bed. But before I go, I would very much like to wish you a prosperous and happy New Year.

Ignore the RAYNET signs and the stuff on the bonnet. Not relelvant to this post. Today we made another London trip. We left home with a 100% battery. Road conditions were atrocious, it was cold so we had to use the heater a fair bit to demist – the heater really eats the battery. When we first got the EV, we would stop at Cobham services to do a recharge, and then we would charge via the 13 amp unit (at 5% per hour approx) it worked fine but it was slow.

We found out that there was a charging station quite near us. We were quite impressed with it. Taking our car from 23% to 81% in about 40 minutes – relatively speaking, not bad ignoring the feelings of petrol envy. I wanted to talk about the infrastructure supporting electric vehicles. When we first got the EV, I was pretty appalled at the lack of infrastructure supporting users. The number of charging stations and those stations being out of service for any extended period of time. I recognise that it cannot be guaranteed that we would turn up at a charging station not have to queue. The quantity and distribution of stations was inadequate. I had read through the Governments strategy for electric vehicles and I have to say it is pretty good. What they need to do is deliver to it.

There are three longish journeys that we undertake – usually, at least once a year – more frequently in some cases. Certainly, in two of these cases the situation has improved dramatically. in one case the number of charging stations that we could use has trebbled, and doubled in another.

We really aren’t fully there yet. But, the situation has improved.

We went for a walk into town today. We took a slightly roundabout tour past the cockle ponds. It was very nice to see members of the model yatch club out racing. I’m not sure what class it was, but there was a bit of a breeze and the boats were moving at a fair clip.

We reached the water front and the most obvioust thing was that the Mary Mouse was back. Looking very strange as all of it’s superstructure had gone. Presumably stripped down because of the move. It will be interesting to see if the owners intend to restore to its former glory or they are going to do something different. I’m quite looking forward to eating there again, the food was lovely.

We walked up the high street. I had cause to stand and wait whilst Elayne had to visit a particular shop. I just stood in the street and watched people. There was a decided chill to the air, so people were well wraped up.

We are nearing the end of the Christmas Fayre, the Turkey has lasted quite a few meals, and along with the ham the last efforts are a very nice Turkey and Ham pie. Just a bit of chocolate to go. We do it every year, over indulge. I seem to have very little self control at this time of year – or any other come to that.

One of the things that I am trying to get in to the habit of doing is my daily one-off collection of weather data from the devices I have set up in the garden. Here are today’s figures (changes in the previous 24 hours);

Date	Pressure Hpa	Temp	Max	Min	RH	Rain mm
28 Dec 22	998	11	13	8	74	15

The next thing I do is check the hanging feeders. It seems that the main users, the sparrows are using them, but not at a high rate, both feeders are at least three quarters full. No need to top up at the moment.

Normally, I put a couple of sets of cable ties around the birdtable to stop the pigeons getting at the food as they will sit there and devour it. I prefer that the starlings get at least some. I topped the table up with seed and mealworms.

I was washing my hands when I saw the two Magpies bouncing along the patio, stopping at the base of the table to have a feast of the seed being discarded by the nearly a dozen starlings that were now acting as a bit of a rabble on the table, taking off in different directions when they realised I was watching them. then sitting on the fence, watching before diving back on to the table.

The Sparrows had arrived at the feeders first, more sparrows that there were feeding slots. They are impatient little so and so’s buzzing their friends trying to push them off the perches. Luckily there was more than enough for them all.

When we went to see the first Avatar film in 2009 we were absolutely blown away by the story, the imagery, and the quality of the 3D photography. It has remained until today by far the best 3D film that I have seen. I don’t know how many 3D films have been made since then, but I haven’t seen many.

Today, we went to the cinema again. This was to see the sequel to the the 2009 Avatar; Avatar The way of the water. You certainly get your money’s worth with this film with it running to over three hours in length.

I have to say that as a family we all thoroughly enjoyed the film. All of the characteristics of the original were to be found. If you are of a mind to go and see the film, I definitely recommend it.