Bills Posts

Gosport is flat, very flat. It makes it good for cycling. It’s also good for walking – as you well know if you read me on a regular basis I walk the local area.

As I walk around Gosport, I find things that interest me. Perhaps one of the biggest is history. Everywhere has its own history, and I am sure that every where is interesting. Gosport’s history isn’t perhaps as ancient as some places, but in Gosport’s short history, it has managed to cram a fair bit in.

I have been quite taken of late by the architecture. It appears that there are so many varieties in the high street alone. I’m actively looking for a book that gives a simple look at architecture across the ages (say from the 1800’s).

We spent a couple of hours working on the front of the house. It involved lopping some branched off a tree, and clearing up some bits growing out of the wall. In the past, I’ve talked about the kind of jobs I’m happy doing in the garden. Having finished that we had a bit of a break and then I decided that I wanted to go for a walk.

There’s always a decision to be made when I’m walking – where to go. A few weeks ago, I wanted to pay a visit to Gilkicker to see if anything was happening. I also wanted to walk down a footpath along Green Lane.

The GAFIRS Lifeboat was out, and the coastguard helicopter flew overhead, out towards Bembridge. I wonder they were responding to a call? If they were, I hope it went OK. I have to say though, that the view from the beach was just lovely.

I went along to Gilkicker – no change. So I continued my walk up to one of my favourite viewing spots – The Haslar Sea Wall. There was one of the big CMA CGM container ships coming in.

From there I went along Haslar Road. As usual, it was a hot and dry road to walk along.

but the walk along the Esplanade made up for it. Not that anything in particular happened to make it good. I made my way home from there. It was a very pleasant 6 miles. An enjoyable walk.

The header picture once again has nothing to do with the topic. This is a picture taken at low tide from the Haslar Marina Pier Wall. The rails and blocks you can see are the remains of the old chain ferries. It’s just an interesting picture.

We had a day in London today. We drove up to Croydon, taking a brief diversion to visit a sister-in-law. By the time we arrived in South London, we had 36% and 60 miles on the battery. Not enough to get home. That’s OK, we’ll plug in and see what we’ve got when we are ready to leave.

When we were ready to leave, we had 60% and 104 on the battery. Now, this might be enough to get us how just – but I’m not comfortable with the “just”. We used Zap-Maps to find a charging station nearby that looks OK, if only we can find it. Actually, finding it wasn’t a problem at all. A BP garage, only a couple of hundred yards off our route had a bank of four charging points. All four points were occupied as we approached but then a car pulled out – perfect timing.

Hooking up to the charger, paying and starting were both very simple. The charging worked fine. After only a very few minutes, we had more than enough to get home, so we were able to comfortably set off.

This is where the moan starts. As we were driving through even the outskirts of london, the satnav was showings us the number of charging points nearby. There were quite a few. It is very easy to gain the impression that the EV charging infrastructure in London is being very well looked after. Can the same be said of the rest of the country?

Recent reports indicate that there are a significant number of EV charging Points across the country that are out of service for one reason or another. Apparently, the figure is sufficient to act as a deterrent against buying an electric vehicle. Using ZapMaps and cat sites we have visited, we have encountered unserviceable EVCP’s. Really, for a CP to be out of service for any length of time (let’s say, more than 4 hours – my criteria) is really unacceptable. It’s all very well installing lots of points, but it’s no good if they aren’t being maintained.

It might get to the point where I would say that the government must be prepared to impose requirements for maintenance and ensure that standards are defined and maintained.

There, that’s what I think.

The picture has nothing to do with the topic, as is sometimes the case.

Today, we celebrated a birthday. We did so by going into an escape room. I have done one of these before. I have to say that I was not enthused by the prospect. But, with hindsight as is usually the case I thoroughly enjoyed it. The room that we did is one of a series of increasing complexity. We have agreed that we will do the next one some time in the future.

We went for a very nice meal afterwards. It was a very nice day.

This is an area behind Trinity church which looks like it should be a stage, but I’m not aware of this place ever having been used as such. I’ll have to put something on Facebook to find out if it has. Having said that I don’t really do theatre.

I find it difficult to explain why I don’t like the theatre, it’s a combination of the seating always being too cramped regardless of where you sit, through to the whole atmosphere of the play being “false” I can’t explain that, there is something about the atmosphere of a play that I just don’t like. Now, I’ve been to a few musicals. The Queen show, Bombay Dreams, both of which I thought were brilliant sadly in the same theatre, so there it is conditions.

Now, whilst I am quite happy to admit I don’t fully understand it but I don’t mind a bit shakespeare – somehow, that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. If they were to put Shakespeare on at that little stage, we could take our own chairs and a picnic. that would be alright.

The town at about ten past six in the morning. There was one person walking to work, and a couple of staff working in Greggs. There were also a few people waiting at the ferry. It was very quiet.

I went for a walk at lunchtime. I wanted to have a look at the footfall on the street at lunchtime on a non-market day. I didn’t count. I do have one of those click-counters, perhaps I should do a very unscientific survey? Why would I want to? What use would the information be? What would I do with it? I’m just curious really.

Having said all of that, there were quite a few people moving around the high street but once again, it was a very nice day. I was quite comfortable without a coat.

I have a chart app on my phone that gives the tide for all around the country. Obviously I have it set to the tide in Portsmouth. Up until yesterday, the charts have shown an even frequency wave, sometimes sinusoidal.

Yesterday, I noticed that the flood (incoming) tide has a step – the rate changes and then resumes its normal rate of increase. You can see it in the picture below.

This morning, on the #Brerakfastclub I asked G6RTE Jo what could be causing it. Jo is a former ships captain and knows the waters of the Solent very well. He explained that there is a collision between the dual flood and ebb tides of the solent.

What I hadn’t noticed is the little plateau on the ebb tide. This is also part of the tidal system that I hadn’t known. Jo told me that Chimet (Chichester Meteorology) https://www.chimet.co.uk/(S(jrduwlrkmad4gs55qooano45))/Default.aspx showed the updated waveform as well, and had only just done so. Chimet is a very interesting resource. Well worth having a look at. What an interesting morning that turned out to be.

When you pay a little more attention to a buildings facade, you start to wonder a bit about why it looks the way it does. Take this on me for example; what is it? 1920’s or 30’s art-deco? Thing is I don’t have an idea, but am now curious. I’ll have to do a bit of searching and will probably end up buying a book on British architectural styles through the ages. I am sure somebody will have written one like that.

Without becoming too boring (am I already? – boring that is) I think I will look at some of the buildings there are a few that have a very interesting shape & style. Something else to think about.

This evening we met up with dear friends whom we hadn’t seen since before the lockdown. We met up for a meal before their return to France. It was lovely to see them, and talk about good times. We will see them again soon, I’m sure.

I was laughing to myself as I walked past these three. They were totally engrossed in their phones, completely ignoring each other. I had the impression that they could be texting each each other, rather than talking.

I was just going to walk past, but then I thought no, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. So, I turned around and asked if I could take their picture. I explained why I wanted to. They were laughing. What I should have done was get them to go back in to the focussed on the phone view that I originally saw. I took the picture of them as they were laughing.

They explained that they had been on a boating trip and were just exchanging pictures. I had just caught them at that moment.

I was out on a walk, just having a look around after nearly a week away. To be honest, not a lot had changed. There was a couple walking around the Cockle Ponds, we had a chat about the Jelly Fish.

I saw one of the rough sleepers, lets call him JH. I hadn’t seen him for several weeks. We had a chat. He told me that he had been having problems and showed me his legs. They were quite ulcerated but not actively bleeding, He said that he would like some help with dressings, so I sent a message to street scene. I don’t know if they will do anything, but I don’t know what more I could do.

Why is it that as soon as the weather gets nice, men (and it is usually men) get the urge to chuck chunks of meat on an open fire and try to cook it without burning? Is it because it tastes nice? Or because it can be fun? Actually, both of those apply.

So we had a BBQ today. And it was nice. I had to go to the shop to get some things for the BBQ and I was talking to the lady behind the till. She asked me if I did the meal, and I explained that there was two parts to a BBQ, the cooking of the meat and the preparation of the salad and other food, and that both are equally important.

As for the meal, it was very nice, both parts.