Bills Posts

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.

I was out for my afternoon walk. In a busy part of town near Aldi’s I was walking along and I saw this little beauty ahead of me. Of course, I expected it to fly away as I got nearer. It didn’t.

As I came to a stop and just stood there, it was quite happy running around, trying things to see if it was edible, and having a drink. It was not in the least bit bothered by me, I think I could have picked it up, it was within inches (i.e. <6) of me. It wasn’t bothered by other people }(at least two) that walked past. I don’t think they even noticed it.

That was the wonderful thing, that it could do what it was doing without any fear of being attacked. It is so nice to see wild animals not being afraid of us. I have lost count of the number of times I have said that, and mean it.

The worrying thing is that where it had decided to settle was a busy place, and I was really surprised that the people who walked past did not stop and consider the wonder of an unworried wild animal in our midst, that was just doing what it was supposed to do. I found that surprising, and distressing, I don’t know of course whether they just did not see what I saw, thought that what I was seeing wasn’t wonderful or they just did not care. I really hope it wasn’t the last two.

At one point, the bird was in the road, and it was then it was that I thought this is not a safe area, and that it shouldn’t be doing it here, and that I wished that people cared as much as I did, and that it would go somewhere safe.

Am I mad to worry about such things?

I am once again stuck in the midst of a battle of wills. This is Rascal, our 18/19 year old cat. He is lovely, gentle, friendly, beautiful black cat. We absolutely love him to bits. But, he can be a persistent so-and-so.

For some reason (probably my smell). Rascal has decided that my office chair isn’t my chair at all. It’s his. Whenever he wants it. I get up for a comfort break, I come back, he’s in the chair I pick him up, to much grumbling and take him to his blanket. I get up and go for a cup of tea (blanket!), I come back, he’s in the chair. I go for a lunchtime stroll, I come back – you get the picture.

I hate disturbing him, but it’s my chair and it’s for work, and if I can’t sit there, I can’t work and he won’t get fed! Now, I do hate disturbing him, but I have to, and he has no hesitation in letting me know his displeasure.

It’s a guilt thing. He’ll come and sit at my feet, letting out the occasional pathetic sounding miaow and giving me those big black eyes (think Puss in boots from Shrek). I get up to take him downstairs to give him a treat, and before I can turn around to pick him up, he’s in the chair settling down to sleep.

Who do you think owns the chair?

The “Nearly There” refers to this being the 489th Post, nearly at 500. Five Hundred was a goal that I had set myself after reaching 366. Strangely, I haven’t felt the same exhilaration that was present as I approaching the end of 366. I am not saying that I am fed up with the blog, not one bit of it. Just that sometimes, I run out of things to write about. Tonight is not quite that, but the writing is a little bit waffly. Sorry about that.

That I am reaching towards 500, means that I now have to think about what to do next. Shall I set 750 or a 1,000 as my next goal? One is just under a year away, the other nearly two. That’s a bit ambitious. Also, I haven’t been very good at sticking to my posting topics at all, sometimes yes. Mostly no. Not to worry though, I was bound to dry up sometimes.

I’m going to keep going, and I will keep numbering. Until I stop. Which at the moment, I do not intend to do.

The What if? That relates to planning a fantasy holiday, which is my plan for the new year. The fantasy holiday is an exploration of the United Kingdom. I’m having difficulty planning it. When I did the US tour of the 48 mainland states, I had a book that I used as a basis for the trip. There is a book; I didn’t know that about England, but I need to be able to cover the other parts.

Sorting out a route is a bit of a problem, I’ve found starting in the south, in the area I know best, but not really that well is proving to be awkward. I’m tempted to start at the other end of the country. I’m going to do a bit of searching.

All of this talk of a fantasy holiday might seem a bit of a separation from reality. It’s a bit of fun, but I learned things. I’d heard of the Louisiana Purchase but not the Missouri compromise I had no idea what they were, I am more aware now.

On my lunchtime walk today, as I walked to the waterfront I saw a chap whom I’ve seen before. He puts a lot of food down, and gets absolutely hoards of birds, mostly pigeons and starlings. But that is fine. It’s the trust that the birds display in him that is (apart from the food) most endearing. There was a row of about 10 starlings that were just there, waiting for food.

Whilst the pigeons were just a mass, there was loads of food. It was lovely to see. This is one of the reasons I like walking during the day, as well as first thing in the morning. The Bird Feeder is a classic example of this. It’s just nice to see different things going on.

With the Christmas break coming up, I am hoping to do more daytime walks, of different areas. I may ease off the early morning walks for a while, but they will be back for the start of the new year.

Having had breakfast, I had a couple of things to do on the computer. Of course I got on with what I had to do, but had a YouTube video or two on the go in the background. When I’d finished doing what I’d needed, I was stuck there watching videos for probably another 30 minutes or so, it was a complete waste of time, entertaining, but that’s about it. Mind you, I couldn’t really be bothered to move, I felt shattered. No particular reason to do so. We’d been North yesterday, only just inside the M25, and I didn’t even drive (for most of the journey) and we had a lovely time. On getting home, I had a really good sleep until around 4AM, after which it was on-off snoozing until we got up. I just felt drained (all tested, all negative).

I didn’t want to spend all day sat at the computer, and the Station Manager wanted to get the Christmas decorations up so we got all of that out, and she has been pottering about doing that all day (it’s one of the few friction points we have – I offer the bare minimum assistance, doing everything asked – that sounds really bad doesn’t it, but we are used to it).

Anyhow, the station manager was happy pottering around and I decided to go for a walk. Nothing special, just a couple of miles, and a large chunk on a normal route that I follow, with just a little bit of variation. I thought I would take a picture of some of the historic areas of town, hence the railway station, a Victorian building opening in 1842. It is only a matter of yards from the outside of the ramparts forming one of the key defences of Gosport. I learned that it was built as a low laying building in order to not obstruct the field of fire for soldiers on the top of the ramparts.

There was a drizzly rain for much of the walk, but that was OK, I had on my raincoat. It was very pleasant walk.

Taken on one of my morning walks, this is one of those occasions where the header picture relates to the details the post of the day. I’ve had a fairly long, but extremely pleasant day, so I will apologise in advance should this post turn out to be a bit short.

As the title says, and the picture portrays this is the part of Gosport Hight street that I generally walk along on my morning walk. Admittedly, there is a couple of hundred metres of high street that I tend not to walk on whilst out on my morning walk. I don’t walk it now, as my goal is to get to the waterfront as quickly as possible

I walk ahead along the street toward the ferry. I’m always looking to see if anything inspires me photographically, sometimes, something catches my attention. I also tend to see the same people. There’s an elderly looking gentleman whom I pass, and always say good morning to, he always acknowledges. the occasional cyclist, and person who pass me, or I Pass them. I haven’t seen the smoking lady for quite a while now, I hope she is OK.

In 2019 I wrote about RAYNET, the Radio Amateurs Emergency Network, it was before the era of the 366. I didn’t go for a walk this morning, I overslept. I was trawling through my pictures looking for one that I could use for tonight’s post.

One of the events that the South East Hampshire Group has regularly been involved in is the Butser Hill Challenge. https://racebest.com/races/h7ue2. Members of RAYNET are stationed at various points along the course.

Butser Hill is both a site of special scientific interest, a nature reserve (understandably in the context of the SSSI), part of the South Downs National Park and part of the South Downs Way. The hill is 271m or 889 feet high.

As you drive along the A3, in any direction, the hill is very prominent. I can remember the first time I saw it. I thought to myself “I want to be on that hill, right at the top”. It was one of those things that you always intend to do, but never get round to (like visiting the home of the hellfire club which I lived very near to for two years, and drove past a fair bit after that – but that’s another story). Anyhow, I joined RAYNET.

With RAYNET, you become involved in public events, like the Butser Hill Challenge. This it turned out was to be the first event that I was to be involved in as a member. In fact whilst I wasn’t right at the top, we had to go past the wireless station at the top to reach our point slightly below the peak on the northern side, with a truly amazing view.

The cows? I was on my own at the 2018 event, by then I had done several RAYNET events, and was a bit of a “veteran”. We had come through the gates at the top, I drove to my observation point and was promptly surrounded by these beasties. The spent some time nosing around and licking the salt off the car and then wandered away just in time for me to get set up for the event. I always smile when I see this picture.