There is a particular group that I want to attend. The thing about the U3A groups, is that they all happen during the working day, and as I work this is really awkward. Luckily, I have a very understanding boss, and as the group only meets once a month, I am sure that I will be able to re-arrange my lunch hour to accommodate this.
I had intended to join U3A when I retire, I have just brought it forward by a bit. There are definitely more groups that I would like to join, but they are not in scope for the time being. I think I can manage one.
Not unreasonable to ask which group – it’s Philosophy. And, why would I bother with that? I’ve signed up to do the A-Level. I have no idea if “I can pass this, but I am interested and I’ll give it a go.
The skies went a bit mad this morning. It has been at least two years since I last saw this many contrails. I managed to do about 4 miles over the course of the day. I was pleased with that, but I was disappointed that I didn’t feel able to complete my normal route.
Talking of normal, I almost feel it now. It’s surprising how much even just a cold can take out of you. It has been going round though, and has been touted as a bad one.
It’s the time at the moment when the sunrises can be quite a sight;
But I’ll only get possibly a couple of weeks of that. Having had the Spring Equinox almost a month ago now the nights are really starting to shorten.
One of the things that came out of last year were the salinity checks of the Cockle Ponds. Of course we were talking about the Jelly Fish and how they were thriving. Then one of the #Breakfastclub queried whether the salinity of the Cockle Ponds was affecting life in the ponds? Salinity? I hadn’t ever thought of that and besides how do you measure it?
I did a search and it turns out that there is a device called a “Refractometer” that is used for that purpose. Searching for the Refractometer on Amazon I expected them to cost thousands or even hundreds of pounds, in fact I would be surprised if it were even listed. You can imagine my surprise that they are listed, and my delight at the cost of a mere £10 (Some were less, I went for a mid-range).
I went through a thing of making, but not recording the measurements over a period of weeks, and for the most part they did not change. It was only the fading morning light that caused me to stop the readings. That light is now returning, and I search on every walk for signs of the Jelly Fish. I know that last years occurrence was not a one off, they have been there before.
I was very sad when, last year the ponds were flushed out. It almost felt like several thousand of my pets had been let loose upon the world.
Soon, I will resume the readings, and I really hope that I will detect signs of my pets returning to their home.
It’s just over twenty years since I did any really serious studying. A few years ago I did GCSE Maths – I quite enjoyed that. My locality project means learning, but it’s not formal and is unstructured.
I’d quite like to do something. There are couple of A’levels I’d quite like to do. Back in my Open University days, I did a module THD204, Technology in Society. This was one the modules that required discussion between students, one of the questions was; Is it society that causes changes in technology, or is it technology that triggers changes in society?
It was a course that involved sociologists and technologists. As you can imagine it was a fiery mix, but in a very friendly way. It was without doubt one of my favourite modules, I really enjoyed it. If the OU were still running that course, I’d happily do it again. Because of the way the course worked, it was text based, not face to face, so debates were conducted in relatively slow time, which gave me a chance to ponder responses.
My brain can cope with debating at that speed. I’d really like to find a similar course, perhaps not technology related. I’d be seriously interested.
My main problems are social occasions, and my lack of love for televised sport – although I do like to watch a bit of golf sometimes. Put me in a room full of people with a love of football and general chit chat and I clam up. I can tell that other people are in full flow and that I have nothing to add. I have never been good at making small talk.
I think that to go through the other fourteen points would be…boring. Looking at it positively (which according to criteria 12 I’m not supposed to be able to do) with me meeting only 6 of the measures makes me less than half boring. Actually, I think I am…boring that is.
For two days now, I haven’t been out for a walk. I came down with a bit of cold Thursday morning and have been feeling a bit grotty. It’s frustrating. I’m hoping tomorrow I will be able to get at least down to the waterfront tomorrow. I’m hoping to be back to normal Monday morning. Of course, that’s fifteen miles (I’ve been averaging five a day the last few weeks). That I’m not likely to catch up with. That’ll put me quite a bit behind on the current #Walk1000 project (they call it a mission|).
It’s not that it is cold, it is that I have one. It’s not Covid – Elayne has had it all week and has been waiting for me to come down with it. Well I have. It is frustrating, but there you go.
I haven’t been out today, I’ve particularly missed the walk down the high street, can’t wondering what a Friday is like. Of course next Friday being a bank holiday, that won’t be valid as a normal Friday.
I was going to write something about people sleeping rough. Looking at the local charities. I’m just interested to know what’s going on. I had thought about volunteering, but the timeline might make that impractical. Still curious though.
For a long time, I had aspirations to be a town councillor. I’ve avoided talking about politics because it never turns out the way I want it to – I’m not particularly adept at debate. I’ve more or less given that idea up. I think the whole experience would probably be too stressful.
I then thought, that although I won’t go down the councillor route, I haven’t lost my interest. So, I thought perhaps I could do an Angry of Tunbridge Wells type of thing. The problem with that is I’m not really angry. Take here in Gosport for example, all of my interactions with them have been positive, plus when I go out for my walks I see the efforts of the workers, the street cleaners, the Gardners, the chaps who look after the hanging baskets actually do a very good job.
Could I be a gossip columnist? No, I don’t think so. I think gossip generally tends to be negative. It’s not often I read positive gossip. That, positive gossip, does exist, but from what I can tell it’s almost corporate speak, contrived positivity. What I did read didn’t feel right, it felt artificial. I’m saying this, because I’m thinking about what I want to do.
Of course there is the locality thing, learning about the history of the area, learn about the natural history. Perhaps I don’t need to gossip. Just thoughts.
The round Tower, across the water in Portsmouth, I wanted to get a picture of it being battered by the white water, but timing is difficult to judge. From that, you’ll gather that it was quite windy today.
The wind blowing gustily for my morning walk and hadn’t let up at lunch time. The thing that really got me though was the noise through the Marina. The wind flowing through the sail cables (they probably have a proper name) the metallic clanking from several hundred yachts was generating a lot of noise, persistent chink, chink, clank. When you couple that with the wind which was moaning as it blew, and the moans were of different frequencies.
I think I could put up with the wind, well really we don’t have much choice with the wind. We do though have a choice as to where we live (many of us do anyway), and I don’t think I would ever choose to live near to a Marina. I don’t deny that a marina is a lovely sight, and they are well worth a visit, and during the day, the hustle and bustle make for a seriously interesting experience.
But the ceaseless unending clanking at 3 AM when you are trying sleep? No, that’s not for me. I really do enjoy my visits though. There is always something to see.
It’s really unfortunate, that a trip down to the waterfront at low tide reveals this unfortunate sight. Of course it disappears when the tide comes back up. I reported one trolley to Street scene – they told me that anything on the seaward side of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall is the responsibility of QHM, and it appears that they are not a large priority – kind of understandable really. As annoying as it is, they aren’t in the way of anything.
The frustration from my point of view, is that whenever I write about the waterfront, or anything come to that, you get a picture that is stilted, because that is how I write. I’ve just finished reading the latest issue of Country Walking. Eighty odd pages of descriptive, well written, vivid, entertaining prose. Words that flowed, and built a picture that gave you a feeling for the subject. The trouble for me, is that I know the words, but it seems my brain doesn’t think shall we say descriptively without some effort on my part. Is it flowery words or something else?
At lunchtime today, I didn’t know that I was going to write about the high street, and so I didn’t take a picture. I’ve decided that for the time being I’m going to walk done the high street every day that I go out for a lunchtime walk.
I’m doing this because I want to get a feel for the heartbeat of the town centre. I walked it over the weekend , and even now I am seeing regulars and not just staff.
It’s very nice to see what for me is a busy street at lunchtime (there’s an argument to be had – is it really busy – but in comparison to 0600, oh yes it is). To start with most of the shops are open, of course there are the thirteen or so closed units which I must admit don’t really detract from the activity, perhaps that is because they are spread over the length of the street.
Of course there are the people, and I do enjoy people watching. Coupled really with my desire to do street photography. with a bit of luck it won’t take long for me to get on nodding terms with some people. I speak to a couple of the homeless people. I haven’t mustered the courage to ask if I can take their picture to blog, and I’d be quite interested in videoing them, but I don’t think that will happen somehow. But you never know.
It will also be interesting to see how the weather affects things, I certainly intend to continue to walk if the weather is bad – perhaps not every time, but certainly on a few occasions. Let’s see how things go.
It has been an interesting week for walking. I managed ego clock up just over 36 miles, so I’m quite pleased with that. I’ve changed my route a couple of times to include the high street at different times. For example, I generally walk down the half of the high street at around ten past six in the morning. Unsurprisingly, at that time of the morning, there is not a lot happening. Usually, it’s just Greggs that is open, and they even have their table and chair sets out for use.
I didn’t want to miss the Cockle Ponds, so I still go past them, but then, instead of carrying on up South Street, I went back the western end of the high street and walked it’s length – twice, turning around at the ferry terminal and returning adding a little bit more to ensure that I got my morning’s 3 miles.
The second time along the high street was a bit more fruitful, with the window cleaner working away. He was quite happy for me to take his picture, which was nice. But even that thirty or so minutes later really didn’t find much more activity. I think it is much more likely that the period between 0730 and 0900 would see much more activity. Unfortunately, unless I’m on holiday, I’m not likely to be up at those times.
I can compensate for this a little bit by walking along the high street during my lunchtime walk, I had been trying to avoid doing that because every time I walked that route I would end up going in to the bakery and buying food that I really don’t need to eat, not helping my weight. This week though, I have walked the route at least twice and have avoided the bakery and can do it. It’s getting to the point where I need to do the research about the old buildings and shops that feature in the books I have, so that I can approach the shop owners explain what I want to do and hopefully, get a positive response.
This coming week then, I intend to make as many passes along the high street as I can. Certainly looking out for activities, and things going on, just generally observing. It’ll be interesting to see how things develop.
The picture? Nothing to do with the high street, I just like getting pictures of ships to show you.
Hi! my name is Sebastian (You can call me Seb!) ...welcome to my Blog. I'm a photographer from Worcester, Worcestershire, England. Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy my work.
I'm here to work on fiction. Occasionally I'll blog but that's certainly not my focus. You have a specific fiction genre or format you can't find enough of? Ask me. Maybe I got it. I migh share it with you. Otherwise, leave me alone; I'm toiling away at my workbench.
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