It’s almost like there was a hiatus – Wetherspoons is now open and working, after what was a £1Million refurbishment, Bon Marche will have opened today and things are happening with McDonalds I can see through the screen, but nothing is visible on the high street.
It’s fairly obvious that the bus station won’t be there for much longer. Pretty much confirmed by the Ticket Office person I spoke to on Wednesday that they start demolition probably sometime in the next two months. I’ll track that.
There were three vans from a company parked on the high street I didn’t think to get a picture of them, so I can’t remember the company. I was going to ask them what they had been doing but they drove off before I had the chance.
What i’m trying to say is that after the high pitched excitement of a day or so ago, things are settling down to a bit of stability. It is kind of a bit of a lull before an interesting storm, but relaxing.
Tonight was a Bar night, which is always good because it gives us a chance to get to have a chat with people and get to know them a bit better. These bar nights happen every other week at the moment, although it looks like that will be changing in the next season. We will be moving to 4 nights a month in a reserved room. Which in a way is nice, but it also means we may lose that opportunity for informal contact unless they are carefully arranged.
We had a very pleasant evening.
I took this picture on my morning walk yesterday. I need to do a little bit of research, but I get the impression this is a very old building. It looks a bit worn, but I can’t help imagining what people who used to live there would see when they looked out on the high street. This is what ChatGPT told me about the window;
This is a great example of late Victorian or possibly Edwardian architecture—definitely something from the late 19th to early 20th century. Here’s what stands out:
Key Features:
Bay Window: The projecting bay window with three facets (center and angled sides) was very popular in the Victorian period, especially in shopfronts with residential accommodation above.
Decorative Corbels and Columns: The vertical decorative elements flanking the window mimic classical columns—another Victorian trait.
Pediment and Gable Ornament: The triangular pediment at the top, along with the shaped gable detail, is consistent with neoclassical influence popular in that era.
Carved Panel Above Window: That green-patinated section with scrollwork and foliage motifs is a decorative panel, possibly made of pressed tin or terracotta. This was typical embellishment in urban commercial buildings of the period.
Condition: The peeling paint and general wear suggest it hasn’t been maintained in decades, which makes it all the more historically intriguing.
Historical Context for Gosport:
Gosport High Street saw major development during the 19th century, especially as the town grew in importance thanks to its naval connections. Many buildings from this era remain, especially above modernised shopfronts. This window likely belonged to a late Victorian shop-residence combo.
The light during the last few morning walks has been a glorious gold. I thought these red flowers get a hint that gold. As time marches on the mornings are rapidly becoming normal daylight.
I’ll freely admit that it isn’t always easy to get up for my morning walks, but one of the delights is looking out of the window to see what the light is like. There are times of course when it’s not worth checking, because it’s dark or daylight. But these in between times can produce some special light. It just adds to the pleasure of the walk.
I will be brutally honest. The title of today’s post does not reflect that accurate state of my office, it is without putting to fine a point on it a tip. Please don’t think I like it like this, I very much do not.
So, what can I do about it? Well every time I start to do something about it, I end up getting stuck. I’ll give you an example. One of the things I did today was to look at what books there are in the office that are not on a bookshelf.
I ended up with a pile of twelve non-fiction books, and a similar pile of fiction, perhaps not quite so high. Now I am going to focus on the non-fiction pile. There some there which will purely be reference books, I am unlikely to read them cover to cover. There’s a book about the Internet’s early days – I’d like to read that. There’s another about how share traders became successful.
The one that I am really waiting to read is the abouth the Civil War, but that will have to wait until I finish the current book about James VI of Scotland and I of England. Even that book is temporarily on hold until I finish the book on TED Talks, which I had started reading whilst on a bus trip, and am finding quite enjoyable. It’s also a bit of a break after a very heavy historical session.
Anyway, the office is still untidy, and I am no better off, except perhaps there’s a bit more rubbish in the bin.
Not to the city centre, a different part of the city to attend a special birthday party. We drove up a trip of roughly 70 miles. We left home with a full charge, and arrived at our destination after roughly two hours, and having consumed a third of the batteries capacity. More than enough to get home.
We had a lovely day, the party went very well, everybody enjoyed themselves and we all had a really good time. Then came time to go home.
Well, the way that’s written makes it sound like something bad is going to happen, but it doesn’t only what’s amounts to a minor inconvenience really, for us at least.
Just as we were leaving, we got told that the police had closed the Hindhead Tunnel on the A3, our main route home. That would certainly mean a diversion, but where would it take us?
The diversion kicked in just after Guildford, we were directed of the A3 onto the A31, heading towards Winchester, that was fine, we were ok with that, depending on which way it sent us we could follow a different route. Just before Alton, we were slightly confused as the instructions for the diversion were to follow the black triangle on the yellow background. At the point of confusion the diversion went in two different directions.
We ended going to different route than that expected. Getting near Four Marks and Medstead, we took a known road to Fareham. Why am I telling you this?
At the end of the journey, I looked at the stats that the car offered.. I noted on the journey up that we were averaging 2.9 miles per kilowatt hour, now admittedly, we were doing quite good speed wise but I’m not sure what the average for the journey was.
On the way back, we travelled about 77 miles. Actually, that surprised me, the diversion really did seem a lot longer, over the journey we had averaged 32 miles per hour, quite a bit slower. But we arrived home having used 24% of the battery, and hadn’t arrived that much later (half an hour) than if we had followed the un-diverted route.
I suggested to Elayne that we should travel everywhere at 30mph. The response was equivalent to lead balloons sinking – not popular at all, but that is effectively what we had done, and actually we had both quite enjoyed the journey.
Monday to Friday I usually get out for a walk. When I get home I like to do a facebook post. Whilst I’m on the walk I like to look at what is happening on the walk. When I went through the phase of note getting up, which lasted I reckon 15 months, I was always humbled by the number of people that said that they missed my posts. People would in the most unusual circumstances pop and ask when I was going to start posting again. I was upset that I had stopped, but now I am walking again, I have restarted the facebook posts, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing them.
On the walk, I am looking for anything that is changing, changes to shop fronts, building work pretty much anything really. One thing though, was what I was doing boring? Well. That was pretty much dispelled by one of my friends who lives in California who said that he had enjoyed my following of the construnction of the new Gosport Interchange (Bus Station).
What I would like to do is find out if there are any other public or commercial construction projects underway elsewhere in town and I could report on those. It wouldn’t be as often as the town centre, perhaps once a week. I’m still looking in to that.
Nature as well, what’s happening there. Now the other thought that occured to me was that although I do the facebook thing Monday to Friday, could I use that text as a basis for contributing to vlogging. I’ve had a lot of thoughts on that.
I needed to break out of the serious focus on the vlogging, which has been a bit of an obsession for me recently, mainly because it’s fun, I enjoy doing it, and it is frustrating because of the talking to the camera thing, which I think is improving, but it’s a slow process – for me at least.
I went out this morning with the intention of recording a number of video segments and then, sometime over the next few days, putting some effort into bringing them together into a single production of 5 – 6 minutes and putting it on YouTube. I’ve been reviewing what I recorded and I still sound a little bit presenter-ish, but I am getting better, and nowhere near freezing as much when there are people around. That’s also helping when I’m doing the amateur radio thing.
I really quite enjoyed this morning, and I do get quite a bit of encouragement from my friends, which is really nice. It makes me want to do it more. Fridays though is radio day, so that’s fine. I will try and spend a bit of time editing things together.
One thing that I do want to get to grips with, though, is getting the YouTube channel as discoverable as possible – SEO, Search Engine Optimisation. Making the site easily discoverable. That’ll open up another learning curve.
The blog that is. More and more more recently, I have found myself thinking about the content of my posts, and whether or not they bore any readers (I think there are about 70 of you the last time I checked). You don’t have to answer these questions but why do you follow me (don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that you do) – If I know you personally, and there are at least two, and family don’t reply, but if you just found my blog, I am genuinely curious. I probably shouldn’t be asking these questions, so I’m sorry if it disturbs you.
Where I have been thinking about my audience, I have to a degree, well, several degrees actually, bee limiting what I write. At the moment for example my current obsession is vlogging. I could very easily have gone on for a couple of weeks about it.
My plans are reasonably well developed in some respects, for example I have got the format laid out quite clearly in my mind. There are a couple of things I need to practice, so I may put together a few clips.
Tuesday night was camera club night we each had 3 images in competition number 8, the last full competition for the season. There’s one more thing to do and that is the exhibition, where photos go on public display in the discovery centre (the library).
I really didn’t do well, my lowest score, a 6, but. I also got a 9. I was ok with that.
Elayne did better than I did. Getting her 3rd third place, we were both very pleased. I’ll see if Elayne will let me share her successful picture.
I’ve taken a bit of a kind of imposed break in the reading of my history book, Rebellion, which covers the Stuarts from the time of Jame’s coronation of James VI of Scotland as James I of England in 1567. Through to the start of the English Civil War.
We’ve been having some decorating done, and our bed doesn’t currently have a headboard,so I can’t prop up my pillows. Laying pretty much flat on my back trying to read what is a quite heavy book has not been very practical. Hence, I’ve had to stop.
Instead, I am reading a paperback, much more manageable this one is about TED Talks, how to do them – really it’s about how to do public speaking. I bought it because I like the style of the writing, it is very easy to read, apart from being very informative.
I managed to get out for a walk this morning, even though I was really quite tired. Not having a rough night, just waking up and Elayne wanting and making a cup of tea. I did get back to sleep, but managed to wake up in good enough time that I felt able to get out.
I’m glad I did, the light down at the waterfront really was lovely, even if the air was cold.
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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