Bills Posts

Here we are then, back to a semblance of normality. By which we are home, it’s Friday, Elayne and I are doing a bit of binge watching of London Kills, a police series. It’s not bad.

Mist was picked up from the cattery this morning. She really didn’t appreciate being stuffed into the carrier and she let me know her displeasure in no uncertain terms. But once home, she has been quite clingy and is currently asleep in the chair.

We managed to get the grass cut and Elayne did a bit of tidying up in the garden.

I didn’t get out for a walk today, but I did get to drive past the ends of the high street. Enough to see that demolition of the (old) bus station has not started.

We are back home, too late unfortunately to pick up Misty, so she is in the cat hotel until it opens for pick-up. I shall be there. I feel really bad not having her at home.

Hastings, the town known for 1066 and all that, and the location for scenes from Foyle’s War. We done a bit of exploring and sight seeing, and it was really very nice.

We also managed tro return to a couple of places that we had been to fairly recently. That was very nice.

All in all a very successful few days.

Oh, the picture? We initially thought that they were buildings where fish was dried. It turns out that they are called “Net Hotels”. This is where the nets and other kit is stored from the fishing boats. They are three stories tall. True location is the Stade on Hastings waterfront.

When I first saw the building in this picture, I thought it was part of Hastings Castle, but it isn’t. It’s the gatehouse to the east cliff railway, that brings you up to open fields, with some lovely walks that we didn’t have time to do.

We’ve been out and about a bit, heading first to Camber Sands, an old family haunt from many years ago for Elayne. A proper sandy beach. We didn’t stay long there though. The weather has become properly autumnal, by which I mean wind and rain.

We came back in to Hastings, and just had a slow walk around the old town area, looking in a few rummage or antique shops. I didn’t buy anything, but Elayne bought a few compacts.

We were walking down one old street and when we got to the end, we were at the foot of the West cliff railway, so we thought, well seeing as we are here, we might as well go up this one as well. We did start out to look at the castle, but time was becoming a bit tight. So we headed back.

The end result is that we had seen a few things and done a few things and done a bit of retail therapy. All in all, it was, despite the weather, a really pleasant day.

We visited Battle today. The location of the 1066 Battle of Hastings. A battle which was won by the invading William the Conqueror. It was one of those events that resulted in significant cultural change in the country.

As a result of his victory, William caused an abbey to be built that became one of the richest and most influential in the country. At least, until Henry VIII triggered the dissolution resulting in the destruction of it and many others.

Today, amongst some rather spectacular ruins and a country park that appeared to be as well visited by the French as it was by the British, is what appears to be a thriving school.

We climbed to the top of the gate tower. The view around the town and surrounding countryside was most impressive, showing the town layout that had grown in support of the abbey during its heyday.

From there we moved on, passing through Bodiam, pausing to look at the castle from afar, then on to Tenterden, where we spent some time at the K&ES (Kent & East Sussex) Heritage railway. We didn’t go on the train.

We returned to the hotel via Rye. It was a lovely, interesting and educational day.

I should perhaps say that the picture is only related to Foyles War in that it is taken in Hastings, where the TV series was mostly filmed.

We both wanted to visit the town, because it is one of those places steeped in history, and its relationship to the series.

We found the Church that Foyle would have attended, St Clemente’s, and the house where he would have lived, St Just’s. We were both quite pleased. We even spoke to a local resident. She said filming had been quite disruptive, involving street closures.

We had a meal in a lovely little italian restaurant, at the bottom the street, near Foyles home.

A really quite enjoyable day.

We were in Bognor Regis today. We went for a look around. Elayne has spent a fair bit of her life here.

I’ve been a few times now and have become reasonably familiar with the town centre. The high street isn’t bad. Even on a sunday it’s fairly busy but there again it is still summer.

I can’t help wondering what it is like in winter. I remember Swanage, in the depths of winter, the high street can be a bit like a ghost town. But almost any evening, go into any pub and it will almost invariably be heaving with locals.

I can imagine Bognor would be a bit like that.

One frustration, the book shop; in the Bognor railway station forecourt there is a second hand bookshop. It’s one of those that I like to go to because it always has something interesting and it is rare that I don’t buy something. Sadly, today being Sunday, it was closed.

I had a bit of a wander along the high street. The only thing I bought was a DVD boxset – Lord of the Rings. We have the extended addition but it is on blue ray so I can’t play it on my computer. It only cost £1.50, so I thought it quite reasonable,

Between 2020 and today, we have owned (and still own) two 100% electric vehicles. The car we have is an absolute delight to drive and we love it. Any frustration we have is something other that the vehicle itself, I’ll give you one guess as to what it is (pausing)…

Did you get it\?

Yes, it’s the battery.

So, what would ease my frustrations, lets see;

A battery that;

• Delivers at least a 500 mile (actual distance travelled rather than “Battery miles”).
• Can be re-charged in the same length of time that it takes to fill a 50L Petrol or diesel tank from empty, at a standard rate of delivery (i.e., you drive onto any forecourt and use any relevant pump).
• Has a life of twenty years, or the cost of replacement is negligible. I must admit, I’m not confidently able to quantify negligible but let’s say a cost of less than £1000 over the same period.

Battery technology, is not there yet.

Doesn’t stop us from having an EV, but even now, our second vehicle has almost double the range of the first one. This means of the three long journeys we normally make over the course of a year, two of them we can do as returns without recharging, and the third we usually stay for a couple of nights so can recharge.

There is one journey though, that we would like to do, which I have no confidence about doing, and that involves going to France. It think it’s quite likely that the infrastructure is there, but I just don’t know and that gives me the serious jitters. It’s a bit more than range anxiety, it’s a fear of poor infrastructure.

Infrastructure is another issue. I have a few thoughts on that – but that’s a later story.

Yes, I did get out for a walk. It was quite late. I think it was quite near seven, that I left the house. I have to confess that I walked down the high street to McDonalds and bought a breakfast wrap.

I then walked down to the waterfront and was going to sit in one of the seats, but I hadn’t taken into consideration how much water there would be on the seat. So, I sat on the wall, set up the camera, and filmed myself eating the wrap and talking to the camera.

The whole premise of the video was quite interesting and might work. I’ll try it again, but properly this time. I was just glad to get out for a walk.

I suppose there is the possibility that I may get out tomorrow. As usual, I’ve had an idea for a vlog series, that I am keen to explore and would really like to get out tomorrow to try a couple of aspects of it out.

It is now a week since I was last in town, I know that the Erasmus Wolfe has opened. Have they started pulling down the bus station? Is there anything else going on in town or the waterfront?

If the weather is OK, I am hoping to go for a walk.

When I was poorly over the weekend, I made some short posts just to keep the post-count going. I’d reached 52 on Monday evening, 52 posts//days since the last time the count reset.

Something went wrong last night. I don’t know what it was, but somehow I managed to forget to do a post, and now the count has been reset.

I can’t tell you how frustrated and annoyed I felt with myself when I realised what I had done.

I really should have gone for a walk this morning. I had an idea for a bit of filming, which when reviewed would probably have been absolute rubbish, but I think I would have enjoyed doing it. But I missed the window because we were having a delivery that was due to arrive at 0700, and usually on a Wednesday, if I do go for a walk, I am back a good few minutes after that. Well, as it happens the delivery turned up right on time, so it’s a good thing I didn’t go. The bit of filming will have to wait a while.

I’ve only done one facebook post this week. For various reasons I may not do one tomorrow we’ll have to see how it goes.

In some respects, a frustrating day really. But there you go, they do happen.