Bills Posts

I’m sorry to go on about vlogging, but this weekend I have been driven a bit up the wall. I have found the various combinations of tech to not be performing as well as I had hoped or expected. Especially the dropping into slow motion mode without any intervention from me.

I made the decision this morning to have one more go, this time with just the iphone, external microphone and monopod. The results? Well, whilst not technically perfect, and my presentation not being very good at all, yes there is definitely stuff I can use. I will pull it together into a video and release it. I’m not even going to attempt to edit out what ever bloopers there are. It’ll be there warts and all.

The one frustration is I would like the monopod to be free standing, and I am disappointed that the lack of gimbal means the phone can’t track me should I want to move. At the moment, until I am able to rule out the problems.

I don’t want to carry a tripod, the one I have is very good, but it’s heavier than I am prepared to take. I would consider another monopod but with three feet. They are about, but I am uncertain just how safe and stable they are.

At least now though I have some video to work on.

My apologies, because in Post 1738 I promised that in post 1739 I would write about Creative Writing, and I didn’t. So, it’s a bit later than promised.

It seems that I can’t let the idea of creative writing go, even though in fiction terms my attempts have been beyond feeble. Several years ago I did a creative writing course at the local college. There were two sides to the course, one that I enjoyed, and one that I didn’t.

The side that I did enjoy was listening to the output from the other students on the course, there were some really quite talented short story writers. Even the tutor on the course, who was a quite successful author agreed that she would be making suggestions as to how they could get their stories published.

The other side, the one that at didn’t enjoy were my attempts to write fiction. I can only describe my efforts as abysmal. Not only were they bad, but I got quite stressed over writing them. And yet, I did that course twice in succession. There were students there who had repeated the course five or six times at least.

You’d think, wouldn’t you that having walked away from that course I would have given up. Certainly on the fiction side. Well, I pretty much have.

I said near the top that I can’t let the idea of creative writing go, so I’ve signed up for the Future Learn course “How to teach Creative Writing”. What’s that? Here’s you (well, me) moaning about pathetic creative writing attempts, and you’ve signed up to do a course on How to teach the subject? What form of madness is this?

Having signed up on the course, I have mad it quite clear that I won’t be writing fiction, that I will only write non-fiction, but I will take their exercises and adapt them for non-fiction. I still haven’t told you why.

Our local U3A does not have a creative writing group (the next town’s U3A does have such a group, but it’s too far away. So, when I join the local U3A, hopefully in January. I will at some point suggest starting such a group, and to support the case, it would be useful to have an understanding of what is involved with the teaching.

There is a logic there somewhere – I think.

Earlier in the week, I wrote about a building that I had not really paid much attention to previously. I only noticed it on that day as I had sat opposite it to do a little bit of videoing in a crowded place. It was No. 50 the High Street.

Asking ChatGPT about it told me that the brickwork probably indicated a 1920’s or 30’s build, and just out of interest I asked what shop had been there are the place was built – ChatGPT couldn’t answer that one, but did suggest that the local library may have copies of Kelly’s Directory. I’ve just this second googled when was Kelly’s first published, and was told that was 1836, and that it was actually the Post Office Directory (the forerunner of the telephone directory)?

Our local ibrary, The Gosport Discovery Centre, had some Kelly’s Directories on its shelf. I have to say, what an amazing publication it was giving details for just about everybody private or commercial in the town (to be honest, I think it must have been just home owners, as there was only one entry per row / address.

The earliest edition that I looked at was the 1934-35 issue and No. 50 The High Street was owned by Mr. Charles (Chas) Standhaft. The 1940 – 41 publication lists the same owner. However, with the 1955 and 58 issues show the ownership changing, but staying in the family to an E. G Standhaft. I understand that Kelly’s Directory continued to be published until the mid-1970s and was eventually replaced by the telephone directory and yellow pages.

I’m just quite glad that I was able to find out that information.

That’s what I am planning to do tomorrow. I have two things that I want to do.

One of them is produce a bit of video. The main difference this time, is that I know what I am going to video, and a pretty good idea of what I am going to say. An unusual situation for me to be in, but for once, a nice one.

The next thing that I want to do is spend a bit of time in the Discovery Centre doing some research. There’s a particular shop in the high street, and I want to try and find out a bit of history about it. I think I know where to look, but I am wondering if I might need to go to Portsmouth Library.

I’m really quite excited by it all. Of course, the video will go wrong, and It’ll be really bad, but that’s part of the fun.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

Gosport has a Mens Shed, at the back of St Vincents College. I’ve been up and had a look at it, and am planning to join probably in the new year. You’d think wouldn’t you, that given my aversion to anykind of DIY that joining the Men’s shed would be the last thing I’d do.

But the Shed really isn’t just about DIY. They have a whole range of activities from DIY to a ukulele band – not that I have any intention to join that. I think they have a uniform (it’s a t-shirt really, but that on its own is enough to put me off.

So, I’m going to join, it should be interesting.

Sorry that tonight’s post is a bit short. I am very tired.

I am fairly frustrated with Facebook at the moment. Perhaps I should clarify that statement; I am not actually frustrated with Facebook, I am annoyed with myself over the way I am using it. It is not working as I wanted it to.

That begs the question; how did I want it to work? Well, that’s an easy answer. I would like to do one post per day, preferably in the morning, and if possible over the weekend also, which I have never been very good at.

The follow up question then, is; What’s the problem then? Well, that’s also a fairly easy one to answer; At the moment, my regular readers (and I know there are a few of them) are only getting one post a week from me.

So, why is that, when I have been for three walks so far this week? To be honest, the issues are my morning routine and work. I tend to run out of time unless I juggle things, which I don’t always remember to do, and I can’t really do a facebook post whilst I’m at work (well, I could, but I would also be violating several things, not least of which is the code of ethics).

Sorry for banging on about it, but this will become a lot easier when I retire, which is a matter of weeks away, so I could put a bit more effort in to juggling things and try and get more posts out – which is what I really want to do.

I really did want to try and have a good day and to be honest, it went far better than I could have hoped. I’ll be honest and say that I resorted to ChatGPT to find us an unusual day out. I do do have to say; “Boy, did it deliver”.

Have a look at; https://thesculpturepark.com/. this is near Hindhead, a place called Churt. The sculpture park is on open air shop of sculpture. I’d say there are thousands of them. Every yard or so there was something else that was intriguing to look at. I really can’t put enough emphasis how worth a visit this place is.

It did get off to a slightly bumpy start. The car park we needed to be in had been blocked off by a fire engine, apparently a small fire a bit down the road. With a little bit of negotiation, Elayne got them to open the park to us.

Directly opposite, is a pub. The Bel & Dragon. We had lunch there. It was very nice.

On our way home, we stopped at B&Q to buy a fire.

We got to be confronted by Alex asking for help. It looks like he may have broken a bone in his foot. Unfortunately, we are unlikely. To get the full story until after the weekend. Plus we broke a jug, a small white

My main focus is Gosport’s High Street, that doesn’t mean that I can’t look at the other parts of town. Take, for example, the four blocks of flats on and near the waterfront there is a rumour (I’m not sure how accurate it is) that some councilloors in the 1960’s visited Moscow and were quite taken with the designs they saw there, and brought them back.

Yesterday, I put a picture up of a building along the high street. I hadn’t really looked at it before. Whilst its frontage is basic brisk with a bit of patterning – it was plain. And yet, it was distinctive.

I had started a project, to look at the high street. It was mainly the shops I was interested in, because they seem to change with some frequency. But, there is a lot of interest to be had. I just need to broaden my scope along there a bit more.

The last time I did a shop survey was towards the end of April. Gosh, that was only four months ago, and yet it seems like an age. The next time I do it, probably sometime in the new year. As I write that, another big project I have in mind pops in to my head. The Neighbourhood watch. I never expected to have time for that for a couple of years.

Plans are changing.