Bills Posts

THe morning has this hue when I arrive at the waterfront at this time of year. The frustrating thing is, that it is too early for a proper sunrise, which I can’t then stay to see as I need to get home to get ready for work.

A short post tonight, I have something I need to do.

From the Gosport High Street toward Trinity Church, one of several alleyways. I meant to take a picture down the alleyway that was used to press gang men I believe around 1850. Not sure if this allway was a used, as there is nowhere for the pressgang to hide away.

The lights are interesting, green and red – echoing ships lights. Port & Starboard. I could never remember which side was which as you look to the front of a ship, Port is to the left, and Starboard to the right. How did I learn to remember that? Port, the drink is red, red is politically left, therefore port is left.

Notice how the lights are laid though; with the port lights on the right hand side, this means you must be going out of town. To be correctly aligned, you must head in to town. Going out should make any sailor feel uncomfortable.

Yesterday, one of my favourite magazines; Black & White arrived. I always take time to read it, cover to cover and it usually inspires me to do a bit of B&W, This is today’s effort.

Most mornings, at this time (0615 or thereabouts, there are very few people about, perhaps a rough sleeper or two, and the lady whom I see every morning, but have never spoken to, on her way somewhere; to work? Or home from a night shift? Who knows?

I get passed by the occasional cyclist, presumably heading towards the ferry. When I get there, I usually see the same people, even say hello to a couple. Then, every so often somebody will pass a slightly more detailed greeting, such as “Lovely morning isn’t it?” To which I always give a jovial reply..

Then, on the way back, on a Tuesday in particular, the day starts to get busy quickly, There’s Greg’s, with Bob outside, having his breakfast. Tuesday’s are market day, not many stall holders setting up, usually two or three. There’s the shop keeper who sells flour (especially useful during the lockdown). It’s always interesting to see what is going on. Even when it’s quiet.

I had a bit of a dilemma, I took three or four pictures of contrails. They have all been a bit absent over the last few weeks. I must admit I’m a bit conflicted over contrails at the moment.

Perhaps it was a cargo flight, I should have looked it up on Flight Radar, Anyhow, I noticed the first contrail this morning, it was a striking pink. This photo doesn’t do it justice, and at the moment it is unusual for me to post two pictures, or even three.

And here’s another one;

We went out for walks both Saturday and Sunday, they were both very pleasant days, this morning continued in a similar vein; it was a very pleasant walk.

We were out for walk today. We were following a “Treasure Trail” around Gosport, there were 20 clues over a two mile trail. I took this picture at the end of the trail.

It was a lovely day, warm, wind free, very comfortable out walking in shorts. We thoroughly enjoyed doing the trail, which is one of many that can be bought through http://www.treasuretrails.co.uk. The trail is very well put together, and was a nice couple of hours out and about.

Being a Sunday, we tried to make it as relaxing as possible, and for the most part we were successful, except for a jam making session that has left me with a rather dirty cooker to clean. Oh well, the trials of life.

Still, it has been a very pleasant weekend over all.

Horndean & District Amateur Radio Club – my club. When the Covid-19 lockdown started, our twice monthly meetings stopped, that was March. August sees the meetings starting again, This being September I have resisted attending, until tonight. I must admit I felt uncomfortable. Everybody wore masks, nobody was obviously ill, I made a point of trying to stay away from people but I still felt very uncomfortable. I’m on the committee, so I have responsibilities to the club – how can I reconcile my responsibilities with my concerns?

It’s two weeks until the next meeting. But also, as we move towards the October that means an AGM, which means even more people. Which means increased nervousness on my part.

I hadn’t realised that although I had written an article yesterday it had remained as draft, and hadn’t been published. I have published it now. So, technically, I did do a submission yesterday.

The picture is nothing to do with the title. The radio appears to be broken, the aerial appears to be OK. I know this because I swapped radios. The other, a Leixen VV898 works fine. However, last night I mentioned an organisation RAYNET, tonight here’s a potted history;

During the 1950’s control of the activities of radio amateurs was much more rigidly applied than is the case today.

Anyhow, on the night of 31 January, 1953 the North Sea experienced an unprecedented swell, causing major floods in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. There were more than 230 deaths. On the night, and in the immediate aftermath, radio amateurs got together and assisted the emergency services. As a reward some of the restrictions were relaxed, and the Radio Amateurs Emergency Network, which later became RAYNET.

Today, RAYNET continues as a charity. Most counties has at least one group (I’m not aware of any that have none). Some, like Hampshire has four. We become involved in activities with the public for example next week I shall be on a point for the Clarendon walk, and the week after the New Forest Marathon. It’s an opportunity for us to use our radios helping the public, and I get to go to places that I normally wouldn’t such as the depths of the new forest, or the top of Butser Hill – absolutely lovely.

Walking to the waterfront I can see the sky above the dawning sun, this morning it was a very striking pink. I knew that it would be gone by the time I arrived at the halfway point, the Gosport promenade, and indeed it had. Although it had been replaced by some incredible, gentle shades, hence the pastels. It was a lovely view.

The problem? For those that don’t know, I’m a licensed radio ham. On a Wednesday night I take part in a “Net” where a group of amateurs have a chat over the radio. Tonight, I was supposed to chair the South East Hampshire RAYNET Wednesday Night Net (I’ll explain what RAYNET is later). Anyhow, I turned my radio on, and after a few seconds, it jumped from the programmed channel on to 144.000mhz. It didn’t matter how often I put it back on the RAYNET channel, after a few seconds it jumped away again, and I can’t stop it from happening. I’ll leave it tonight, and investigate a bit more tomorrow. Concerning, as I’m supposed to run the Isle of Wight Radio Society Thursday Night Net tomorrow.

I’ll have to see what happens.

Even if I say so myself, a very nice sky this morning. An artistic picture (a bit presumptuous of me, I know) allows me to talk about one of the books I’m about to start reading. Actually, it’s more about why I am reading it.

The Story of Art by E H Gombrich, published by Pahidon, purchased around 1995, never read, until this week. Let us go back to 1994, I was just getting to a point where accessing the internet became possible. Probably around 1994 I joined Demon, but before then I was with Compuserve. Do any of you remember it? It was clunky, and you had to use their software, but it did work. The structure was based on forums or groups.

Somehow, I found myself in the Fine Arts group, and become involved in talking about works of art. There were a number of key players in the discussions, a chap who called him Sungod, and was very strident about his art, Abigail, whom I believe is quite well known in the art world now and a few others. We had a few, sometimes quite angry arguments. It was quite entertaining. As you can probably imagine, I must have been (and was) infuriating to the likes of Sungod, and goodness knows what Abigail must of thought of me. Anyhow, it soon became very apparent that I had no knowledge on the topic at all, and was arguing on how I felt, rather than what I (didn’t) know. With that, Abigail recommended that I buy the story of art. I did so, but have never managed to read it. That’s going to change.

Slowly, but surely, the closed, highly managed community that was Compuserve faded away, it could not survive the vibrancy, activity, and sheer anarchy that was the internet. I did try several years ago to see if Compuserve was still about. It seems to be, but is it the same one? Clearly not. Sometimes, I hanker back to those days. I’d love to know who Sungod was (is).