Bills Posts

Once again. The picture bears no resemblance to the subject of this post.

Last nights post, which I won’t delete or change was born out of a sense of frustration. We arrived at a particular charging point wishing to do a top up. With the level of almost paranoid caution I am experiencing with our electric car, I we decided to top up even though we had more than enough charge to get back. That was a good thing, as one of the charging points was being used by someone who indicated that they would be quite a while, and the other was out of service.

Now, I admit I have no idea how long the point had been out of action, but I am hoping that the point’s failure is reported back to the providers control centre as soon as it stopped working, and that the provider has put in place steps to get an engineer out to it and that the charging point will be out of service for a very limited period of time. My concern is that (the maintenance that is) is not happening in anything like a reasonable timescale. Now to me, a charging point out of action for more than a couple of hours is way too long, but I don’t know how reasonable that is. One thing I am going to do is for the service providers that we are confident that will be using for the journeys we know we are going to want to use is to look at their websites to see if I can find out their Service Level Agreements are for charge point down time. Should be interesting

Yesterday’s post was a bit of a rant (I think that’s fairly obvious) and as such is very poorly researched and presented. Oh well. Such is life.

My wife and I have been saying for quite a while now that either our next car or the one after must be an E-Vehicle. Then we we received a letter from Nissan, suggesting a special offer. We’d had our car for four years, and thought we would go and have a look at what was on offer. But, we were definitely NOT going to buy a new car! Hah!

Of course, we walked out of the showroom having put a deposit down on a brand new Nissan Leaf. OOh My, what a journey we were about to embark upon. We had given no thought to this at all, Naive isn’t the word for it.

The first thing is getting our own charging point. Now, there is a story there, but I want to leave that until later I wish to focus on another matter – infrastructure.

We have now undertaken the three long journeys that over the course of a year we would expect to do to visit family and friends, and and I have to say that the Leaf has performed beyond my expectations. You may have heard of the term “Range Anxiety”. This comes from worries about the availability of charging points along our journey, and then there is “Petrol Envy” – there’s not a lot the government can do about that as it is really down to battery technology, and that is the ability to recharge a battery in the same time as it takes to fill a tank with petrol (I have no idea if that is even achievable) but I have a suggestion for that, which I will talk about later,

Since acquiring our electric car, I have been disappointed to learn about the issues with charging points. Particularly disappointing is the frequency with which they are out of service. Has the Government stipulated a minimum service requirement? What is the recovery time for returning a charging point back in to service?

Government involvement; I know there is a strategy paper, I have read it (I need to read it again) and it does say a lot of good things, such charging points in lamp posts. There really does need to be a lot more charging points, lay-bys. What would be Nice is, trains with carriages, holding car charging points, I put my car on the train from Portsmouth to Newcastle and get off at the other end fully charged and ready to go. No stressful driving, similar to the euro tunnel trains. There really does need to be a lot more done. OK. I know this is a bit rushed, and I haven’t really finished it, but I may continue tomorrow. Love Bill.

I assume that this is a scaffold pole, it’s the right size. It’s been in the water off the Haslar Marina Pier Wall for a long time. It was bedded in to the in to the seafloor but it was at an awkward angle. It could easily have been a danger, to anyone (illegally I think) diving off the pier wall, and definitely to any small ship that might come in close – even if they aren’t supposed to (I have no idea if that’s correct). But it makes for an interesting picture.

It was a little bit cooler this morning, for the first time in quite a few weeks I wore joggers, light ones, but I really appreciated them. It was the coolest morning of the week. But it felt like a good morning.

Just over a month ago we were talking on the #Breakfastclub about the absence of the jelly fish, and the lack of life bigger than insects. Jo, G6RTE just happened to ask about the salinity of the water. I had no idea how to measure that and so asked google the question. Turns out it’s a straight forward inexpensive device (£10 or thereabouts) called a Refractometer, so I bought one. Very simple to use. It’s easily calibrated using a solution of a known salinity level, using a very small sample of water, it works on the basis of refraction (hence the name) having been calibrated the more or less saline the sample being tested refracts the light against the scale. Very easy to use.

Just a few days later, another member of the #Breakfastclub suggested that nitrate levels might be affecting the viability of the ponds. This gets a little bit more complicated, but devices for measuring the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Electrical Conductivity (EC) and PH, now, my understanding of PH is a measure the acidity or alkalinity of something, but nobody seems able to say what PH stands for with any degree of certainty. Anyhow, it turns out that devices to measure these three parameters are even cheaper than a refractometer (as cheap as (£6). Anyhow, I bought them (there are two devices involved. I did my first full set of readings today;

• Salinity 38 – 39%
• PH 7.77
• TDS 2300 ppm
• EC7700

I have to do a little bit of research into what the last two mean, but I think the PH is pretty much normal. I think I’m going to have to report on this at least once a week now.

Out for my lunchtime walk following my usual route over Forton Lake bridge, up near the Explosion Museum, coming back I thought I’d try taking a picture of the end of the handrail, it’s one of those “let’s see if this works”. Is it the big white circle, the lines, the contrast with the blue sky? I don’t know. It’s a bit unusual, perhaps it’s that alone which is enough to trigger a like in me?

Back in 2010, we had a holiday in the South of France, Carcassonne – inspired by the Kate Moss Novel Labyrinth. Carcassonne is a fascinating place, well worth a visit. Anyhow, we paid a visit to the beech, where I took this photo;

Now this was one of my early introductions to minimalism. Now I know the header picture isn’t minimalist, but I do like it. The thing is to get out and take pictures.

As usual, the picture has no relationship with the content of the post.

The Book is; The Walker’s guide to outdoor Clues & Signs by Tristan Gooley. I was going to share a link with you, but it’s a long horrendous amazon link, that I don’t want here, possibly at the bottom of this post.

Anyhow, I I have been wanting to read this book for several weeks, but had three others that I was determined to finish before starting this one. Usually, I can’t do that, if I want to read a book regardless of how many others I have on the go. As it happens, I do have another book on the go. I’ll write about that one later. Back to Tristan. No less an August publication than the The Financial Times describes the book as “A charming and intelligent guide to exploring the local landscape”. Sounds right up my street, so having finished the other books I picked it up Monday Evening and started reading.

the introduction was OK (yes, that sounds a bit weak mom, intended to be) and the first few pages were of a similar vein, not making it sound very exciting am I? Anyhow, I get to page 22, where I encounter the piece on the different colour of soils, and the story of the early 20th century American, Albert Munsell, who developed a system of categorising soil by it’s colour. The scheme, you can google it, it will come up, is still used by scientists today, Indeed, the Munsell system would have been used by yourself, when you were selecting which colour paint you want to use in your lounge. Ok, that was interesting. So now my curiosity is peaked. What else is here that I’m going to find interesting? Now that might sound like a boring thing to get excited about, but it’s these little things I get interested in.

I’m a few pages further on now. talking about how to track animals. I honestly don’’t think I will be doing much of that, but it is interesting. I’m going to stick with the book.

The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues and signs Now, there you go. I’ve just learned something else about links in WordPress. How excellent is that?

Not strictly First Light seeing as the sun is behind clouds rather than coming over the horizon, but close enough.

The mornings are drawing in. Dawns early light is beginning to catch up with me. When I had to go the dentist on Monday, the hygienist was talking about Autumn starting next week. I must admit I didn’t think that was right. I’ve just done that usual thing of googling when does autumn start.

It turns out that Astronomical Autumn starts when I thought it did with the Autumnal Equinox, well the day after equinox is 22 Sep, with autumn starting on the 23rd. It turns out that Meteorological autumn begins a few weeks earlier on 01 September. Met Autumn always begins on that date.

I keep an eye on the temperature as long as it stays around 15C I’m not thinking of going into autumn clothes. This morning it was 13.4C, I think that’s close to the lower limit. I’m not sure what the lower limit is, but it’s when I don’t feel able to go out in my summer clothes. As of this morning, not quite there yet.

The Wilson Wisla on her way out of the harbour, heading towards Rotterdam. Don’t know what she’s carrying.

I value my weekends. I obviously have jobs to do around the house, but once these are done and we don’t have anything organised, then I have some time to do what I want. I could for example, join a golf club. I haven’t played for quite a long time and I am not very good, but I have enjoyed it. Quite recently, I had a go at sailing a model yacht. The Gosport model Yacht club is very active and has excellent facilities. I had indicated that I would be interested in buying a laser class model yacht. These cost about £600 brand new. 2nd hand boats are available, but can be difficult to find.

A radio amateur friend of mine indicated that he had a boat of the class that he was happy to loan to me with the possibility of sale. I said yes, and we were going set up the transfer – he lives on the Isle of Wight. Awkward, but definitely possible. But then he also said something else as well, about it taking up a lot of space. I hadn’t given that much thought. Now, that would definitely be a problem, And of course, I would need to use the boat. Perhaps not every weekend, but certainly regularly.

I think my problem really is commitment. I don’t want that. I don’t want to feel obliged to have to do something (golf, or model yachts). I know I don’t have to, but then I end up with something taking up space and not getting used, just going to waste. I had to explain all this to my friend, backing out of the arrangement. Luckily, he was very understanding. But then I realised that I was going to say that I am going to do something else, like for example go back to the library for research, or when the next opportunity arises, take a visit out to Rowner Church, and I need to spend some time working out what I am going to say about that.

It’s not that it feels like I’m fibbing about how I want to use my time, it’s more a case of giving the impression that I’m flighty and can’t make my mind up what I want to do. I felt very uncomfortable about that, but I think it is a more accurate reflection of me. Sometimes, I’m not very happy with myself. This morning was one of those times.

Why is historical research so interesting? Because you find out interesting things. Over the last couple of days I’ve found out about hundreds (they are an Anglo Saxon measure of land area) interesting because they are still used today in at least one very special case; it’s the only way a MP can resign by being assigned to the Chiltern Hundreds.

The Domesday book, it refers to Rowner, showing who owned the land where Rowner church was built in the 11th and 12th Centuries.

There’s not very much left of the original church. I learn’t that’s because the Victorians in their arrogance thought they new better than what came before, and subjected a lot of buildings to what they called restoration, which involved the reconfiguration of old buildings into what the Victorians thought was a new and better shape. I think we would have a better name for it; vandalism is probably a bit of a strong term, but it’s not far from it by the looks of it.

I haven’t done any research in to what impact the Second World War had on Gosport. Apart from really obvious stuff that a person would find out with minimal effort. I found out that Rowner church was damaged by a bomb. Luckily it appears minimal, damaged windows is about it.

I still have some avenues to explore, but it is surprising how quickly information can be gathered. Now I have to admit that I have never been to Rowner Church. I think that is one of the reasons I have been determined to devote a bit of time finding out about it. The research into the church has so far been fascinating. I’m looking forward to producing that part of my project. But, the first item in my list of historical places in Gosport is Gosport Railway Station. I walk or drive past it nearly every day. I know some basic stuff. I wonder what else I can find out?

I Haven’t been in to our local library (The Gosport Discovery Centre) for quite a while now. I decided to go in today, as I wanted to do a little bit of research on Rowner Church St Mary the Virgin. I had looked at the Wikipedia page, and that does give you some information, but I thought I might find out a bit more if I went to the library.

I knew that the library had a big section on local history, especially Naval. I must admit that I hadn’t expected to find such a well stocked item on Gosport & the surrounding area. Having said that I was looking for items on the Rowner St Mary’s but could only find two rather slim smaller than A5 pamphlets, but they were both very useful, containing lots of information, and they should provide more than enough for what I need, but they also gave a couple of pointers for just that little bit extra investigation. This is in contrast to the amount of information that was there about the Alverstoke St Mary’s of which there was quite simply books and books of it.

The whole point of this though, is that I thoroughly enjoyed the hour or so that I spent in the library. Of course, like the Internet, you get taken in different directions. To give you an example, this morning we went to a small but very nice art exhibition in the Gosport Gallery, featuring pictures of Gosport in times past (the 1970’s back). Some of the pictures were incredibly detailed and of scenes to locations that no longer exist. One example of which is Forton Prison – I didn’t know there’d been one.

So, back to the library, and one of the books I looked at was the story of the American Revolutionaries that were imprisoned in Forton Jail between 1777 and 1783. Would these be classed as POW’s? Or possibly traitors? Anyhow, that’ll be something to look in to a bit. It was a very pleasant hour, and I anticipate more of them.

I said last night that it would be a few weeks before I would be able to start doing this. But that doesn’t stop me from planning, I’m going to spend a few minutes each day researching the topic of the week. The aim is to be able to do a 3-5 minute video. The thing that is bugging me, is the order, for the most part I am OK with the sequence I have – it’s fairly logical, it forms an almost circular pattern.

The problem, that there is one place, actually, it’s position 9 Rowner Church. I know almost nothing about it, except I think it is one of the oldest churches in the area. Of course, it’s only a thought. Now, what I could do is the research and the visit, and then keep it until it’s the sequence.

In reality, I’ve already done this with the Motte & Bailey, which is at position 12. I’m not even sure that I took some pictures, but what I do know is that the video is dire – not the quality, the GoPro 9 is superb, but my presentation is very, very feeble. My presentation technique is, to put it mildly, pathetic.

Now, if you are on facebook, do a search for a page – GB3IW, don’t worry about what it is, unless you are a licensed radio amateur, if you are licensed and haven’t heard of GB3IW it’s probably the best repeater in the country. Every Thursday night, I run the Thursday Night Net for the Isle of Wight Radio Society. The thing is that I do a Facebook Live – you won’t be interested in the bulk of the video (there are almost literally hundreds of them). The reason I’m talking about it is because I use the first minute to have a chat. Now, I’m getting used to it, I feel relaxed when doing it. That’s the kind of feeling I want to have when doing my vlogs, relaxed and confident. Practice won’t hurt, and if I don’t like it, I have the chance to do it again.