Bills Posts

You get to the end of the day, and you look back and you realise that it is not just a case of writers block, but a day of such utter inconsequence that there is absolutely nothing inspiring to write about.

Ok, I did go for a bit of a walk, but that was only to the chemists and then Morrisons. This evening I went to my radio club. It’s really good to not be on the committee anymore. I think six years is enough.

I started writing this at about twenty five to midnight. I had to stop and publish to prevent the day count from resetting.

You can tell it is getting close to Christmas. For a start you can walk down the street and fine groups of people singing carols. Churches with their doors open offering coffee and mince pies. The smell of mulled whine wafting down the street and Storm Troopers boogying on down to the carol singers.

Stokes Road had a thing going on. All along the street there were different things going on. I went with a walk with Elayne and it was really nice. The carol singers sounded good. There were several music bands, all pretty good and quite a few people which was nice to see.

Crowds like this are good, because you can do street photography. The two storm troopers were enjoying themselves, as was everybody else.

I don’t like driving on Stokes Road. Parking is allowed at places on both sides, and the road is really too narrow for free flowing traffic in both directions. I watched an episode three drivers were clearly not thinking about what was coming towards them – two of the gosport busses. How they ever expected for both sets of traffics to pass at one of the constriction points I’ll never know. They ended up just sitting there and staring at each other, hoping that that thee busses can get past without scraping their cars. It was quite comical really, if only it hadn’t been so ridiculous.

I went home.

Don’t ask me to go all philosophical on you, because I can’t. I think somewhere in the last 800 odd posts I’ve written about this. Probably about Sophie’s World – an intriguing book about a young girl’s exploration of the topic. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I’d really recommend reading the book.

I’d first read it not that long after it was published in 1991, so clearly my interest in the topic goes back some years. I really don’t think like a philosopher though.

The subject is another one of those interests of mine that goes in waves, the last time it got really intense was about six months ago. I spent a fair bit of time studying, this time I downloaded the audio version of Sophie’s World and listened to it on my lunchtime walks. I enjoyed that.

I’m not really sure why I’m writing about it now, the topic isn’t surging within me at the moment. Give it a while though and it may re-surface. We’ll just have to wait and see. I have something else that is bubbling away at the moment.

Pretty much every day since the beginnings of lockdown in 2020 (March I think it was, so we aren’t that far off three years ago – unreal anyhow, back to facebook) I have been doing a post on Facebook. It would be a bit of a daily diary, what I saw on my morning walk, something silly about the cats or the birds, just little bits , the fantasy holiday. Like this blog, I tried to stay away from anything difficult or controversial – I don’t want to upset people or make them angry, for me both this blog andd my facebook timeline are happy places.

Well, I stopped going on my walks in the morning about three weeks ago. I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of people that have commented that they miss my posts, and saddened that I have let them down by not posting.

I have had a couple of false starts where i have started to do a couple of posts but they petered out – I’m really quite sorry about that. As daft as it sounds, I’m kind of running out of photographs – of course I’m not, but I like to keep ahead of my posts. Perhaps if I started my walks again, I would have morning pictures and content for my facebook posts. The trouble is, I am not yet ready to get out of bed at that time, although I did almost feel like it this morning.

Here’s another post that I’ve left too late in the evening to do a good post . I usually get stuck at this time of day and my brain goes blank. Today though, I at least had a partial idea.

I’d reached the point in the Hampshire history book where Gosport is “born” Even to the civil war, where Portsmouth no less was bombarded from Gosport’s Waterside – not one mention, no acknowledgement.

Gosport may not in its own right be very important, but in it’s role with the military, it is has had a vital role. I was very surprised that it bore no mention.

I’m just over halfway through the book. We still have things like Palmerston’s Follies. The book is fascinating in that it only goes to reinforce what I wrote a few posts ago; Hampshire does have an interesting history, but it is nowhere near as romantic as Dorset’s. I haven’t read anything yet to change my view.

I went for a walk today. Not too far, only a couple of miles just down to the waterfront. It was a bit rainy. Not very rainy, but enough that I was grateful for my proper raincoat.

There were a couple of things that kind of got me the first how busy was the high street. As it was a Sunday afternoon, I expected the high street to be much quieter than it was. There were more shops open than I expected. And there were quite a few people around.

I was pleasantly surprised to see people happy and laughing. There was a couple with a small dog. It was very bouncy, not in a nuisance kind of way, but a happy one. There was just something about the street that felt good.

Walking along the waterfront, there was a chap sat, talking on his phone, quite loudly, but he was putting food down for seagulls as well. There was quite a bunch. I apologised as I walked past, but he smiled and they’ll be back – I turned around a few yards later, and they were.

I was having look in Peter Martin’s shop. He normally has a good selection of Gosport related books, I usually take a look as I go past, but haven’t done for a while. There wasn’t anything today.

Overall, it was a pretty good walk.

There are three (possibly soon to be four) books, of which I am reading one page a day (don’t ask why, I couldn’t explain, I just am). They are;

• Everyday Nature by Andy Beer
• On this Day in Politics by Iain Dale
• The Journals of Gilbert White Edited by Walter Johnson

Tonights focus (for a little while at least) isgoing to be on Gilbert Whites Journals. On the his journal for the 26th of February 1769, Gilbert writes; Vast rain in the night. Vast Aurora Borealis.

Now, bear in mind that this is for Selborne (look at What3Words climate.chosen.provoking) – what an apt locator!

The thing that got me about the post was the report of the borealis, and that it was vast. Now, I have never seen the northern lights and it is an ambition to do so. I am very early on in Gilbert’s journals – Page 11. Now, I am wondering if he will mention any re-occurrences of borealis in the future.

If he does, then it will serve to reinforce my view that if it werenot for the light pollution of today’s world would we be seeing the Aurora Borealis this far south more frequently? I know there are a couple of places in the south classed as a dark skies reserve – one is Moores Reserve on the South Downs Way. Do observers see more Aurora from these locations? I haven’t asked the question – I should do so.

Should it turn out to be the case that if it were not for the pollution by light at night, we would all be experiencing the stunning glory of the Aurora Borealis on a regular basis, it will be the source of an immense frustration.

In the header picture, you can clearly see not only Orion, but the sword on the belt which is really combination of three stars and the Orion Nebula.

My brain can be incredibly stubborn sometimes. Every so often it lets me have glimpse, the merest glance of an idea, fleeting, popping in to my head and then hailing off to the left or the right laughing maniacally.

The idea? Well for a book of course, what else do I obsess about? It’s not helped by my not being able to find my journal. It’ll be about somewhere, I just need to put a bit more effort in to finding it. I find it useful to jot things down. There are still somethings for which I prefer pen and paper.

I think that my preference would be to write a non-fiction book, but just occasionally, I like the idea of fiction but then I get to thinking about plots and characters, of which I have no idea. Is it procrastination I ask myself, or am I just barren of ideas?

I wonder how many other frustrated authors there are out there? Perhaps I should start a club or society; The Society of Frustrated Authors, or The Frustrated Authors Club? I really must check if either those exist. I bet they do.

When I learned to read, I needed reading material. My sister’s book case served that need for a while. Famous Five mainly, but there was one other book as well. I can’t remember the title, I can’t remember the author. It was a science fiction.

I have been looking for this book for literally decades. I have spoken to second hand book people, people on science fiction websites. I have spent a bit of time searfching second hand book shops. It’s one of the reasons as to why I want to back to Hay-on-Wye. If I’m going to find it anywhere, I am sure it will be there.

The book may have had a dust jacket when new, but I never knew it with one. It was a green hardback.

The plot involved space travel, and the development of a Faster Than Light drive. The problem is that ships dissappear. A young man, a chemist becomes involved. At some point, he realises that the ships are dissappearing because as the ships approach the speed of light the aging process in people accelerates. He starts looking for a formula to counteract the acceleration, and at the last minute finds the formulae saving his and the crews life. Now, if you have ever read a book like that and can remember the details would you please let me know? Thank you.

Oh, and I still want to write a book.

I should have realised that something was wrong. The wordpress app was doing unusual things, being quite bouncy. Then I did do a reset and there were two entries (last nights) with the same name and time. But apart from the title, picture and two empty blocks no sign of the three paragraphs I had written about the historical differences between Hampshire and Dorset.

I had written them as I was nearing settling down for the night, and after things had gone wrong I really couldn’t summon the energy to try and re-write them. Besides, when I have to do that (luckily, not too often) I can never re-create the same level of passion.

I wrote about how the histories of the two counties had some similarities. But I have a perception that whilst Hampshire’s history is mostly straight politics; Kings and Queens, hunting in the New Forest. That kind of thing.

Dorsets history on the other hand is much more romantic; Geologically Lulworth cove, a ripple in the crust caused when the Alps were formed, Dinosaurs roaming the area leaving their remains in in the chalk and the clay, people from the Neolithic era, building Maiden Castle.

Don’t get me wrong, Hampshire’s history is interesting, but Dorset appeals to me in a different way.