I’ve left it a bit late tonight to do today justice.
Walking through town at around 9AM on a Wednesday was almost as quiet as doing so at 0700, or 0800. The high street seemed very quiet.
I was heading for Haslar. I was going to a Coffee Morning. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a coffee morning before. If I have, I. Don’t remember it. It was very nice though, and if I can I will go to the next one.
I walked back through town. I paused for a few minutes in the Falklands Gardens. I had a bit of a craving for some chips so I had some, even though I didn’t need to eat. It was just nice to do so.
I have to post this now, as it is close to midnight, and I don’t want to reset the counter again.
I’ll tell you about the photograph towards the bottom of this post.
Today, was one of those signpost days that most people experience – I retired.
I went to work this morning, but it really wasn’t a normal day. I had a chat with my boss, and wished him goodbye. I had already had similar conversations with several people that I work with. It felt very much like my RAF days when I was at the point of “posting” moving from one duty station to another, leaving one group of people and meeting up with another. Except this time it’s a little bit different, and the analogy really doesn’t hold up. I don’t have to get up to go to work any more (unless I choose to of course, not at all sure how likely that is.
Also, on my desk, there is a gaping hole where my corporate laptop used to be. That’s something else I won’t have to worry about. I know that most people experience feeling like this, but it is a unique experience for me.
Ah yes, the photo. Tonight, being Tuesday, was Camera Club night. It was a net set up for portraiture. Now, I have a problem with portraiture. I don’t like it at all, I don’t enjoy it, and any output I generate from a portrait session tends to be rubbish. But, I think I’ve found a fix, and ended up quite enjoying the evening.
The lady in the picture is one of two models invited in for club members to photograph. I didn’t take any pictures whilst they were posing, but when they finished I went and had a chat with them, explained my problem and then said that I much prefer photographing people like them when they are engaging normally with people. It just feels natural to me, and they were quite happy for me to take a few pictures.
That I bought a book should be no surprise to any regular readers of this blog. This one, though, is a bit different. It’s a game; Can you run the economy? by Joe Mayes.
The premise of the book is that you are the chancellor, making decisions to run the economy. You start off with a budget surplus and a positive popularity rating.
The first decision you have to make is whether or not to save a company. Now, I’m not going to give you much more detail than that, and I am certainly not going to tell you which decision I made, because that could possibly label me politically, and I really don’t want that. But, what I will do for each decision is the nature, and my outcome – did I lose or gain money for the budget, and grow or decline in popularity.
The book is very interesting, and well worth having a go.
The one thing I will tell you is that I have already reached a point in the book where the decision I made led to my being fired by the Prime Minister! When that happens, the book takes you back to that decision point, so you can change your mind.
It’s quite entertaining and a bit thought-provoking. I’ll let you know how I get on.
I took the picture a few days ago. The main thing to notice is that the old Cowes chain ferry has gone. I understand not for scrap, but I think the council asked for the unsightly object to be moved elsewhere.
I really should have gone for a walk today, but the weather has been rather unpleasant – wind and rain.
We’ve been busy doing things around the house, most of them related to the buildup towards Christmas.
Today, there was a display held in St Mary’s Church in Alverstoke, of Christmas trees that had been put together by various parts of the community. There more than 70 trees on show from groups as varied as infant schools and estate agents.
It was quite a delight wandering around the church, admiring all the different trees and how, in a lot of cases, the baubles on the tree (many, perhaps mostly, handmade reflected the function of the organisation. One that made me chuckle was The Shed, which had a rotating shed instead of a fairy.
We had a good wander around, and then afterwards, we headed over to the community centre for a piece of cake and a cup of tea. I had lemon cake with cream in the middle. I was quite a large piece, and was very nice indeed.
I know timing-wise it’s out of order, but I wanted to do the Christmas tree bit first. In the morning, I had an Amazon return to complete, so I had to go into town for the post office.
After doing what I needed at the Post Office, I headed toward the waterfront. I did pause and look in a couple of shops, but didn’t buy anything.
At the waterfront, my attention was drawn to the fountain in the middle of The Falklands Park;
The fountain is in a bit of a sorry state; It hasn’t worked for at least 18 months, possibly quite a bit longer. That has come to the attention of the Town Council (well, it probably had, but they had not managed to do anything about it.
I think their attention has now been captured well and truly.
I was reading the agenda pack of the upcoming Council Meeting, which I won’t be able to go to, but I am quite happy to read about what they will be discussing, and the fountain is one of the topics.
A variety of options are under discussion, from re-engineering the fountain – apparently, one reason why it failed was that it couldn’t cope with the wind. Another option is to do away with the fountain and turn it into a raised flower bed.
If I were to be honest, the council’s gardeners are pretty good (ok, excellent) at their flower beds and consistently make them look lovely. So, turning the fountain into a flower bed would be fine with me.
I didn’t take any pictures of the bus station. No change. I think they are waiting for reports on things like drainage and soil quality. I’m sure they will come along soon
Just over 5 years ago, I committed myself to doing a blogpost every day for a year. If I am completely honest with myself, I failed in that mission. I missed days. Now, admittedly they were the odd day here and there for the most part, so whilst I didn’t strictly meet the target, it was close enough for me.
Now, I am beginning to wonder if I am heading for another commitment to myself; that of doing the walk1000 again, or at least going for a walk every day for a year. I think I may do that.
One good thing about doing a walk a day, now that I will soon be retired, is that I can do it at whatever time of day I wish. A benefit of this is that each walk gives me material for a blog and/or Facebook post. Plus, if I do it during the day time, I can stop of at a local haunt that I may wish to develop for a brew. Now, wouldn’t it be nice if the people’s park were up and running? Ideal for that.
There are, though, several ports that I can visit on the high street, so I may look to cultivate one of those – or indeed, a couple.
Apart from the lovely walk on Sunday, I really haven’t managed to get out of the house anywhere near as much as I would have liked. So, this evening’s quick pop to the shops was a very welcome moment.
It was getting dark of course, but that just added to the atmosphere. I can’t quite figure out at the moment what people’s feelings are about the time for year, is it Christmas time yet? The lights are up, and many houses are putting up their christmas lights (we’ll probably. Do ours this weekend).
I guess there is no point in denying it, well, I haven’t really been denying the fact that days until my retirement are getting fewer. I now have 2 and a bit days until I start a chunk of flexi-time and annual leave that will take me to 02 January, my official last day at work. I did ask if I am likely to be asked to come into work over the period. The person I asked just laughed.
One thing that would stop my being called in is that I have to return my laptop. I’ll be doing that this coming Tuesday. Obviously, it has to be before cease work, so I’ll probably do it early in the afternoon, then spend a bit of time walking around saying goodbye to people.
I do have a kind of a plan for retirement. It remains to be seen how well I get started with that.
Tonight we had a competition in the Camera Club. Competition rules allow us to enter up to 3 images, and we both entered the maximum amount. The header picture is my best result. It was held back but eventually ended up getting 9.5 which to be honest, I was more than happy with. My two other PDI’s both got 7.5, which again I was quite happy with. In my mind, the judge had been generous. They weren’t really quality images.
Elayne was in a similar position. She also had an image held back that ended up a 9.5 and two images that were both 8.5. She also picked up her award of third place in the previous print competition.
The next competition isn’t until February, and is prints – our topic is Architecture.
It was a very pleasant evening, we both enjoyed it.
Rain & wind have been big features of today. Because the wind is blowing from the south, opening our front door can be a bit hazardous. A failure to control could result in being thumped is the wind pushes at it.
I wanted to get to the waterfront. The separation at the port entrance gives you a good idea as to what the water would be like outside the harbour – rough.
There is something about being out in rough weather, especially if you have the right clothing. My main waterproof coat has served me very well sinnce 2012 – £200 well spent (I wasn’t confident at the time. We were in the Lake District, I needed a coat, and it was the only one that fit me. Wearing the right coat helps feel comfortable, handy when it comes to taking photographs.
The coast may make you feel comfortable, but I didn’t have my monopod with me, and the wind was buffeting, so I wasn’t confident about taking a long-lens shot of the harbour entrance, to show just how rough it looked out in the Solent.
I really relished being out in the fresh air, even if it was rough.
Hi! my name is Sebastian (You can call me Seb!) ...welcome to my Blog. I'm a photographer from Worcester, Worcestershire, England. Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy my work.
I'm here to work on fiction. Occasionally I'll blog but that's certainly not my focus. You have a specific fiction genre or format you can't find enough of? Ask me. Maybe I got it. I migh share it with you. Otherwise, leave me alone; I'm toiling away at my workbench.
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