Bills Posts

So my apologies for a short post today, I’ve spent most of it in bed, as I’m haven’t been feeling too good. Really just a bad head cold (man-flu) luckiluy Elayne has been very sympathetic (tolerant) and I’ve not had much ribbing from her.

frustrating day. We had intended to drive around to Southsea, spend a bit of time (and money) and probably have a meal out. Which, of course, hasn’t happened.

As you might guess, the picture has nothing to do with thse shop in question. I thought I had a picture of all of the shops on Stoke Road, apparently not.

There’s a particular shop that sells second hand and antique items and I have to be honest, based upon what I see in the window, the odd bit of junk. But please do not let that deter you from visiting, if you are in the area.

Run by a Polish gentleman, hw collects all sorts of memorabilia and strange objects. It’s that latter that I was interested in. We had a really interesting and helpful conversation. I have to say that he has motivated me somewhat,

A couple of nights ago, I wrote about the talking to the camera challenge. Today, I started it. I did my first video down at the waterfront on the Haslar Marina Pier Wall. I may post it, but there is another small issue that I have to sort. More about that later.

I was though, quite pleased with today. I thought it was very positive.

I’m reading a book about Queen Elizabeth I. I’m not that far in to the book, but I have been thinking about who and what comes next, so here’s a brief timeline and rough dates;

• Elizabeth Died 1603
• James VI & I – 1603 – 1625
• Charles I – 1625 – 1660

I’m not sure what I am going to do when I reach the end of Charles I reign, but I know that I am very likely to read Samuel Pepys diary in parallel with any book I might be reading about Charles I. There’s a slight problem with that plan. The problem is called “The English Civil War” – I have a book specifically for that, a thick book.

I think I’ve probably defined my reading list for at least the next 4 – 6 months. Trouble with that, is that there are so many other books I’m interested in reading.

I’ve just done a quick, rough count through my blog, and there are over 100 posts where I mention vlogging in one context or another. Now if I do that again in the future, obviously just by including the term “Vlog” here, it will show up in any future search.

So the question I am asking, is am I being silly for going on about this? Why don’t I just do it? I have fairly consistently had one big issue, that is talking to the camera. I’m not at all confident doing it, and every time I do, it just does not sound right.

I picked up on YouTube a series of videos about a challenge that is going around, it’s pretty straightforward; for thirty consecutive days, just talk to the camera for 5 to 10 minutes. I’m going to do this, but there is no way I am going to make these videos public, for a start I will be discussing some personal detail – not too much, but more than I have done in this blog.

I miight post some where I’m not bothered about the content, and a lot of my filming will be done in a public place, so that will be another of my fears that I will need to face. Why am I bothering with this, and am I silly to do so? Well, I do have a plan.

I’ll talk more about that in a future post.

In a way, a lazy day. I don’t think we unlocked the front door until this afternoon. I have spent much of the day either in front of the computer or reading a book.

I learned about the Harris Matrix, this is a method documenting on a timeline how an archaeological site was built, used and changed, very interesting stuff. Until yesterday, I had never heard of the Harris Matrix.

I spent a bit of time reading about Elizabeth I and the problems she was having being an unmarried monarch. I think what amazes me, is the amount of detail that was recorded.

The politics comes from British Political Ideologies. This is not being read at any great speed because of the other things that are going on.

I’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos on talking to the camera, there is a project or a strategy that I’d like to try – more on that later.

There’s no particular link with this picture.

Because of my desire to vlog, quite a while ago I started experimenting with microphones external to the iphone. Lapel Mics, known as lavalier mics are small and easy to use, but they are a bit frustrating because the clips on them are a bit frail, and I keep knocking them off.

Then there is the thing that they all need to have a receiver unit, which is in turn frustrating because they are small and light. I’ve already lost one through the gaps in the Haslar Marina Pier Wall.

I bought a slightly more expensive set up, but do you think I can get that to work? No.

I’ve gone back to the small mic that I don’t really like, but does work. I think I am just going to have to be a bit more careful with it.

I’ve written several times since I started this blog, about my little project I call “Locality”. What it does is bring various hobbies and interests of mine together to be be applied to a study of the local area, hence Locality.

If there is one thing that Locality is about it is landscapes, not just how an area looks, but what goes on there and if not equally as important, in some cases definitely more so, what went on in the past.

There some locations where a feature may not be understood. A reasonable example might be shown in the header picture. The feature is a ha-ha. The National Trust describes it as a a type of sunken fence, designed to give the viewer, usually from a grand house, a continuous view whilst providing a boundary for livestock.

The thing is if I want to get full benefit out of Locality, I should put a little bit of effort in to learning how to read a landscape, to recognise less obvious features, that can give us a clue as to how the land was used.

I suspect to that comprehensively would require a lot of effort, I guess a book will teach me a bit, but then, I would need to go out and put it into practice. A lovely idea, but I do need the time to do that.

I’ve just looked back at what I wrote for Christmas 2023. The joy of this year is the addition of our GrandDaughter. Elayne once again produced a delicious meal, and we are mostly tidied after a bit of a chaotic day, which I have to say was enjoyed by all.

I hope you had a similarly delightful day..

So, it has happened again. On the book front. I ordered a book; The making of the English Landscape by WG Hoskins, it arrived earlier than Amazon was saying it would, I wouldn’t complain about that.

We were sat at the breakfast table when I opened the package, it was a hazard back version of the book, and it had cost me about £3 as a used but in good condition version. As soon as she saw the book, Elayne said “I’ve got that book”, and went straight to the paperback version on the shelf.

I checked the publication date of both books, in both cases it is 1988, but because paperback versions are released after hardback, Elaynes book had been printed in 1992 – no difference in content though.

And that is the thing. It’s another one of those books that I want to read straight away. It is on my reading list, and it will get read. But first I have to finish Elizabeth (I’m on page 42 of what looks like a 400 page book, and the diary of a bookseller which I am wanting to read, and of course, I am still working on British Political Ideologies. As you can imagine then, my brain is jumping all over the place (normal, I guess).

One annoying technical problem that I can’t seem to fix at the moment. Getting an external mic to work with the iphone. Totally unrelated to the post, but I thought I would just mention it here.

I post 1488 I wrote the actions of the current and previous councils. I got somethings wrong, and so it’s good to do a little fact checking. I had said that the previous council had turned off CCTV in the town. This is incorrect. They had removed monitoring by people. Recordings continued, so could be reviewed post-incident.

It looks like it was the current council turned it off, and it appears they did so outside committee, so there was nothing publicly formal about it. I believe there was a confidential paper that had not been made public, but has now been disclosed by a councillor and that may be mentioned in the minutes that will be presented at the next full council meeting in February (I intend to go).

We went in to town today, we had a couple of little tasks to do, and went for a coffee/tea in Cafe #1. The high street was busy with Christmas shoppers. I had to go to Argos to pick up some stuff, and in Argos terms it was absolutely rammed (probably about 10-15 people).

We binge watched the latest series of Strike on iplayer which was good. I have to go out for a couple of small things, but apart from that we are just about ready for Christmas – all bar preparing the food.

I meant to comment on Post 1500, well chuffed and somewhat amazed to have got here. I guess the next target is obvious.