Bills Posts

You might have noticed that my posts tend to be non-controversial. That is quite deliberate. The last thing I want is to get stressed over my writing, and stressed about the effect it has upon my readers, I don’t want your blood boiling. It’s all about relaxation.

Having said that I do mention some issues that could be the source of discussion. For example, I find myself distressed about people who sleep rough. The really frustrating thing is that the authorities paint a picture such there is no need for people to sleep out of doors.

But, I speak to people, there are two or three that I see on a regular basis; I’ve bought food for them, and on one occasion (even though I disagree with it) I bought a pouch of tobacco for one after I’d seen him picking stubs up to smoke. Doubtless he is still doing that, but it distressed me to see it. I acknowledge the hypocrisy in my actions. If I am that concerned about it, should I be doing more to ensure that they get support. that is assuming of course that they want that support. In some cases, they most definitely don’t and become offended when you offer.

What to do?

I have a sense that my blog entries of late have been posted only to maintain the running count. Whilst you see the thee sequential numbering in the posts, and that I am at 670 is personally amazing, there is also another count, which is internal to WordPress. If you post each day then the count increments, but if you miss a day, the count resets to zero.

I really don’t like it when that happens and it has done so at least three times. I don’t think I have actually achieved a count of 365. Which as you can imagine is immensely frustrating.

I haven’t lost my desire to write, it is very much still there and reasonably often I produce a post which is of a number of paragraphs, and so a reasonable length. But quite a few of the more recent posts have been just a few lines, as I say just to maintain the count.

As you can imagine, I am not very happy with this. It seems that during the early days of the blog, which I was bubbling with ideas. I think I need to revisit some of those posts and revitalise the ideas. I very much want to keep the blog going, and have no intention of stopping.

OK, this post is a little bit inward looking, but I’m OK with that. It really is my intention to get back on track, and produce some more reasonable posts, heading toward 1,000 (and a 365 internal count)!

There was something about today’s lunchtime walk. The high street was busy with the Tuesday market, the wonderful weather gave people an excellent excuse to get out and just enjoy being outside.

It was nice, I enjoyed the walk, but as I was walking along Gosport’s Esplanade I was very taken by the people relaxing and just having a quiet time away from the high street and the smell of the seawater took me back to the time I spent in Swanage. Admittedly the Gosport waterfront isn’t the same as the beach at Swanage, you have to go to Alverstoke to get anywhere near that. But then, you don’t normally get sights like this in Swanage Bay;

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary Mounts Bay turning in the channel. I thoroughly enjoyed both of today’s walks.

Every year, this running event for ladies is run for the Rowan Hospice in Purbrook near Waterlooville. For the last three times that the event was run I have made a point of getting up extra early so that I can walk the circuit. A nice bit of exercise to start the day.

I do like to see a nice pylon run, so it’s a pleasure to walk under this one twice, once for the outward part, and the second for the inward track – each a couple of miles apart. As much as I like pylon runs,m I finically, I don’t feel the same about solar farms;

This image shows only a very small part of what is a very large farm. As you progress along the walk, your eyes catch things like this;

With pauses for pictures and contemplations, it took me just under two hours to walk the five and a half miles, I’m quite pleased with that. I shot this brief piece of video not far from the start of my walk. Very nice sounds.

It was a lovely morning.

The magazine turned up a day or so ago. It didn’t take me long to find an article that touch me. Here’s a link the photographer that is a subject of the article, including some pictures that are in the magazine; http://www.ianbeesley.com/

I admit that I have only lived in Gosport for a few years, and don’t come from the town, but everyone is aware that the departure of the Navy has had a bad economic effect on the town.

I went out for a walk. I though I would look for pictures that illustrate the run down industry in the town. I knew that there were a number of areas in the town that could be worth exploring.

Well, I have to admit I was a bit surprised. Yes, there were areas that did look a bit run down. But pretty much everywhere I went was absolutely bustling with activity, apart from the couple of older blokes who were sat on a trailer having a snack nearly everybody I saw were busily working.

Things may look a bit run down, but actually, it is an absolute hive of activity. That this is happening on a saturday afternoon, makes it all the more surprising, and pleasing.

Two real books; writing non-fiction and the train spotters diary have attracted my attention. The writing none fiction by Joanna Penn is about what the title is. I bought the book, because I’d quite like to write one, don’t think I have a fiction book in me, and wanted to know a little bit more about what was involved.

The other book is upstairs, I can’t remember the correct title or the author, but it’s a book about a boy who gets addicted to trains, becomes a trainspotter and ends up working in the industry.

Both are fascinating reads] and yet they are on hold for a couple of days as the latest edition of Black and White photography has arrived. As I promised, I read these cover to cover. If I am going to spend this much on a magazine, I’m going to read it.

When I go for my lunchtime walk, I usually listen to an audio book. I have recently finished the The Expanse Series, and then listened to Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space, which was pretty good. I am also listening to Science Fiction and Philosophy. I want to do a piece on that one in a bit.

The Queen Galadriel is a Baltic trader, built in 1937 in Denmark. She is a lovely looking old ship, used for sail training. She has berthed here, next to the Mighty Mouse Lightship several times in recent years. Gosport is obviously a regular port of call. At the time I took this picture, and others in the past I thought that it would be interesting and nice to see her under sail.

I went out for my lunchtime walk and as I got near to the ferry terminal I could see an unusual set of sails;

Now, I am not 100% sure but I am fairly certain that this is the Queen Galadriel – just a bit too far away for my liking. But even so, still very nice to see.

The light in the evening is different by 180 degrees in the evening. It was lovely to see the Commodore Goodwill heading out, I think towards the Channel Islands. The quality of the light was lovely.

I’d had a busy day and the two opportunities I had to go for a walk were scuppered because on both occasions it was absolutely chucking it down. I didn’t have to go for a walk but I just fancied it.

At one point today, it suddenly occured to me that I Hadn’t done a post last night this is frustrating for two reasons; The consecutive posting count gets reset back to zero and I had been thinking about the content for a post, but I just didn’t get around to doing it. It’s frustrating when the count gets reset.

There’s a circus in town;

I don’t think it’s an animal circus, it features stunt motorcycle rides. Either way, I don’t think it’s something that would appeal to me. I do have to say though that the circus was in full swing as I walked past this evening. I could hear loud music, motorbikes and the appreciative cries of amazement of what sounded like a big audience. It sounded like it was doing well.

It was very pleasant to get out for an evening walk, and I would like to do it more often, but there are things that I want / need to do in the evening. So for the time being it will remain the occasional event.

If you had a problem at sea, you would definitely be pleased to see this team and their boat turn up.

This is a piece about bad news. Which we had yesterday. The problem is I do like to keep these and my facebook posts cheerful and pleasant. When there is bad news, it’s not that I don’t want to write about it, I do but I feel very awkward writing in a happy way, when I know people are not being inclined to feel that way. So I kind of dry up. Which is what happened yesterday.

But then I remember that, although people sympathise, our experience and pain isn’t yours. So is it right to deprive you of my daily post? I don’t think it is. So, I apologise for last nights very brief post, I know this one isn’t much longer, but I did feel the need to write something.

I’m not going to write much today. I’m sorry about that.