Bills Posts

The plan then is to get to 1000 posts. Let’s just see how things go. Yesterday was the day of over-indulgence that it should have been. I hope that it went as well for you, as it did for us.

We had a bit of a problem with the bread machine, which two goes to produce two not quite right loaves. We aren’t sure what wen wrong with them, but they didn’t go to waist as you can see the birds at the cockle ponds thoroughly enjoyed them.

today’s walk wasn’t very long, but it did get us out for 40 minutes or so, and I have managed to get my 10,000 steps in – just. It was a strange walk, a fair bit of the conversation was around the chimney stacks on the houses that we passed. I should have taken a picture, there was one house which seemed to have an inordinately high stack. When I think of it, I’ll do that. It was very pleasant to get out for a bit.

Christmas Day 2021 is coming to an end. We have had a lovely day, and were very fortunate to be able to get together with family. I sincerely hope that you have had a lovely day, and that the coming year is good for you.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas, have a good day tomorrow. We certainly intend to try. We’ve just done a LFT that both came back a strong negative. Which is good, as I’ve had a fairly persistent headache for a fair portion of the day.

I have to confess, I am a little conflicted. You can’t have avoided noticing that today’s post is Number 499. I had no idea on the date that I started 366, which is where all this began, and when I started it on the 14th of August 2020 |I had no way of knowing that I would complete the 366 project, let alone that I would go onto complete 500 posts.

When I decided at the 366 point that I wanted to continue, I had not worked out that I would complete my 500th post tomorrow, Christmas Day.

Since starting “The Project” I think it fair to say that I don’t think there has been a day when I really have not wanted to write something – even if only a paragraph, there have been times when I have struggled to write something, It’s not so much writers block, it’s just thinking about something that I need or want to say. I stay away from sensitive subjects. I simply don’t want to get involved in the arguments or discussions they entail. But beyond that I am only left with innocent things that I am interested in. How much of a message is that?

Many days ago I asked myself (and have done so on numerous occasions) why I am doing this, writing on the internet, when I could do a private diary. I guess it’s the technology and the environment, accompanied by my desire to write. So that’s why I am carrying on with it. I’m not intending to change anything, I may add to the topics that I write about, and I my run a sequence of blogs about a particular topic, but my plan is to write. I think my next target is going to be 1,000 posts.

No, this isn’t the Abbey. We had every intention of going there today, just to get out and have a look around the derelict abbey. At about the time we were ready to go, it was raining. Deciding that it was a bit of a fair weather thing to do, we decided to put it off, so I went for a short walk a while later, when the rain had eased up.

A lot of the time, depending on where I go, I will walk past this place, the Guardroom for St George Barracks. This is in front on the remnants of the railway track that went from Gosport Railway Station to the pier in Clarence Yard for Queen Victoria to go across to Osborne House. It’s possible to look through the tunnel but you can’t go through the tunnel unfortunately. I think there is a project in place to get that part of the walls opened up as a footpath which would be really good.

I am thinking about a walk out to the Alver Hotel, just off the water front at Stokes Bay. I was very surprised to learn of the role this area had in the establishment of the Royal Air Force. Grange Airfield was one of the first, and had a significant role the training side of the RAF – but that is the subject of a future post.

We went for a stroll today, along Gosport’s Golden Mile. This stretches from the cafeteria at the diving museum at the western end of Stokes Bay, along to the Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service (GAFIRS).

It was grey and cold, with a gusting wind from the East, but no rain. For the first half of the walk from GAFIRS up to the diving museum, we were walking with the wind. The promenade wasn’t busy, but there were a few people. Usually they are with their dogs.

The dogs are always an opportunity for a conversation. But beyond have it a laugh at a couple dachshunds that were romping around, we didn’t really speak to anybody.

The sea wall along the prom has taken a real battering and is falling to bits in places. Gosport Borough Council are spending money doing a temporary fix, but I think it is the minimum to ensure the integrity of the defences. I think they are doing the correct thing, blocking off areas as they become damaged and are planning a long term fix. This does make sense to me as long as they start the project as soon as they can and don’t let it linger. It is unsightly, and they will not be getting the best out of the area.

But they were working busily today, doing some buttressing.

The walk back was in to the wind, It really was quite bracing. But, it was very nice to get out for a walk.

This monuments was erected at the 70th Anniversary of D-Day in 2014. It is at the Hardway in Gosport, commemorating the departure of some of the thousands of men to Normandy.

It’s just over a mile from us, and to get to it I have to pass a number of historically very important areas in the town. Clarence Yard was the centre for the re supply of ships with food, St Georges Barracks accommodated marines for the defence of the town. Nowadays these have been converted in to some very nice flats, their original purpose now moving into the annals of history.

The Explosion Museum is open, and it is possible to walk through the centre which is open, there are some of the many exhibits on display, exposed to the elements. Like the other museums in the town, it is well worth a visit.

At the hard itself, apart from the memorial, there is nothing obvious to me to indicate that the area played a role in one of the most significant events of the twentieth Century.

Today, we celebrated a birthday by going across to Southsea. They went to the amusement arcades, I paid a visit to the D-Day Museum. I didn’t have enough time to go in to the museum, but I did have a browse of the shop. I was looking at the books. I bought a Haines Manual – the D-Day Operations Manual. An interest is what happened in Gosport in preparation for that moment.

Mulberry Harbour Caissons were built in Stokes Bay. troops and equipment were amassing in Gosport. Some streets had been especially widened to accommodate that. Measures were put in place to accommodate the boarding of the troops and equipment on the beaches, just doing it on the stoney beach would not be practical.

Just on this one topic alone, Gosport was one town of many which played a critical role in enabling D-Day, there is so much history here. I want to explore just a little bit of it. Not to produce a book or a website that I highlighted to you last night (#494), but just to express my views about what I am seeing and the occasional comment on the facts.

I bought another book on e-Bay, this one is specifically about Gosport’s role in the events leading up to e-bay. The book was due to be delivered during the first week in January but I realised that the seller is in Portsmouth, so I asked if were practical and possible to pick the book up, and it was. So I did get the book today,m which is excellent.

I have written quite a few posts where I have discussed that I have an interest in history. I really would like to write something about the history of Gosport. And then you go and find a website like this;

http://www.mygosport.org/gosport_history.htm

Now this is an excellent site, and produces the level of detail that I would like to write. But the question has to be asked; if this chap has done this that well, what is the point of me doing it? I don’t want to end up continually referring to it, because I would only repeat the historic detail he alreadyprovides. To be honest, I see little point in doing that.

Now clearly there are a lot of things that I don’t know and as I research I will find things out, and I delight in that, for example I’m reading a book about Wareham, Dorset, and found out that Lady Elizabeth de Clare founded Clare’s College Cambridge, she was living in Wareham in the 14th Century when she did so – lovely.

So, before embarking on the project I was writing about last night. I need to come up with a different view on this. I recall a time about thirty years ago, where as a part of my job I was asked to do a presentation. When I saw what the topic was, I thought well, how am I going to do this as pretty much everybody I will be talking to will know it all anyway. So I changed tack and went right back to the very beginning and talked about the very early history of the topic. That strategy worked very well. So, I need to think a little bit about the approach I’m going to take.

Planning for Fantasy Holiday 2022 is progressing. I have two of the four books I’ve asked for, and the most recent book means that I can start FH22 at the location I want to. Don’t forget, FH22 will be on Facebook.

I had this map of Gosport specially printed some months ago. It has been sat rolled up in a cardboard tube waiting for the end of Fantasy Holiday 21 and for me to make up my mind what I am going to do with it. I’ve made a decision.

Today, I ordered a bunch of numbered sticky dots with each sheet a different colour (well, really multiple sheets of each colour). I thought I would focus on three things; one is D-Day, 6 June 1944, another is the (are the?) blue plaques and thirdly, any very particular, rather than general point of history that may pique my interest.

I’d use blue numbered dots for the plaques, and red ones for D-Day points of interest. There seems to be a number of internet pages related to D-Day in Gosport (no surprise there). The thing is, that as I put a dot on the map, I want to visit the place. It’s kind of a bit of an expansion to, but not abandonment of the Gosport walk that I proposed quite a while ago, Incentive to walk and to write.

Have you noticed how I plan things and then don’t always follow through on them? Sometimes I do though.

Whilst I am taking a few days holiday over the Christmas period, I am taking the opportunity to have a walk in some different areas of Gosport than where I normally walk.

Today I took a walk through part of Priddys Hard. This area played an important role in the preparations and the departure of troops for the D-Day invasion 6 June 1944. There are still many signs of the preparations all over Gosport.

Yesterday’s and today’s walks were a bit random, but I’m hoping over the next few days (well, perhaps not tomorrow) to take the opportunity to explore some of the streets that I don’t normally walk. Should be an interesting exercise.