Bills Posts

I learned something new today, something which should have been so obvious, but had never occurred to me. The idea of postal history. Elayne’s side of the family have some very keen philatelists, very knowledgable, to the extent that they make a living out of it. Today, I was introduced to Postal History.

We went Hampex, a Philately (market)? Event at Wickham. I’ve held letters that were sent by ordinary people even before stamps were introduced, I never thought things like this would still exist. Absolutely fascinating – but , don’t worry, I’m not going to start collecting things like this, but it is interesting, and there are some areas of postal history that I may investigate.

One of the thing of interest was a Red Cross Communication Card, addressed to a German PoW from a member of his family The PoW camp was in Scotland, and still exists as a heritage site. I’ve emailed them with the details of the PoW to find out if they can tell us anything. Absolutely fascinating

The Waverley is a paddle steamer that goes around the country giving pleasure rides. I’ve never seen her before but I did know about her.

This is the first time that I have ever seen her. She looked lovely, and she was moving surprisingly quickly.

I’m really sorry, but I am feeling exceptionally tired, so a brief post today.

It’s a bit like the shopping trolleys in the cockle ponds – why would somebody do that?

A Burger King cup discarded in the hedge between Trinity Church and the Millennium sundial at the waterfront.

The nearest Burger King is in Gun Wharf. If not from there, it’s either Fareham or Commercial Road in Portsmouth, they are too far away, but even the The Gun Wharf is a bit of a trek, being on the waterside of the shopping area.

Somebody bought that, and presumably a meal and then they carried this all the way to the ferry, and then from the ferry to here where they dumped it. The must have passed at least three waste bins on their way, and not only that, there was a bin, probably about 10 yards from where it had been placed.

Perhaps whoever left it did so on the basis that they were making sure that the street scene staff who do an excellent job in keeping the streets as clean as they can, had work to do to keep them occupied.

Not only that, but I also saw a person pushing a shopping trolley, nowhere near a supermarket, so one of those that gets abandoned, but in this case it was being either returned, or was going to be used again. Anyway, the person pushing was a lady, I reckon she was late 60’s early 70’s – pretty near my age really.

This isn’t going to be a very positive post. One thing that you can be assured of is that I do not intend to stop blogging.

No, my issue is that I can see why anybody who reads this blog regularly (the are a number of people who do follow me, I really do hope they actually read my mostly daily ramblings. I understand that you might not put the effort into reading the posts, even I think that I do put up some pretty boring stuff.

I’ve watched quite a few videos on YouTube about blogs, and whilst there appear to be very few (or at least I haven’t found them yet) bloggers from the UK, many that I’ve followed are from the USA, and are very business oriented, but that is fine, not a criticism at all, but my blog is not commercial, and I have no intention of making it so.

Now whilst that means I can write about whatever I wish, it also means that I’m not following the “give them what they want”, which apart from the fact I’m really not a very interesting writer probably is the reason I don’t have more followers, not sure how bothered about that, not a lot seeing as I’ve done no optimisation.

Purely from a writing point of view, I would like to have more of a thread running through at least some of my posts. Any ideas?

I went through a phase where I had the desire to run. I actually di couch to 5K, twice. Covid knocked it out of me, but in reality I should have kept it going. It definitely helped me lose weight. Most of which I have now put back on.

Why am I telling you this? Because I have a ridiculous story. I would run at lunchtime. I followed the same route. There was one point on the run where I had to move further out in to the road to avoid a wild plant growing at the road side. It was quite safe, the road is within a controlled area, and traffic is very light and very pedestrian aware.

Anyhow, I became quite attached to the plant, as marked a way point on my run, once I passed I knew I didn’t have far to go. Then some silly so-and-so sprayed it with weed killer and it died. To be honest, I was devastated – like I said how ridiculous was that growing attached to a wild plant.

I think on my next few walks I’m going to take pictures of wild plants on my route. No particular reason, just an urge.

One thing that happened very quickly when the Queen died was the Portsmouth Harbour Master, which I had known as The Queens Harbour Master (QHM) immediately became KHM, The King’s Harbour Master.

I subscribe to the email issued daily by The KHM, the email lists major ship movements through the harbour, in and out over the day. I was surprised to see that whilst Contentin is listed, so are Mon St Michel and Normandie. Just at times of day when I won’t see them.

We’ve been on the Mon St Michell, when we went to France, I think it was 2013. The journey back wasn’t brilliant, only in that (apart from other issues I won’t talk about) the cabin we had was stuffily hot, we were tired and couldn’t sleep. If it hadn’t been (hot and stuffy) it would have been nice. Actually, a nice end to a lovely holiday.

The ship is the Contentin. She’s been a regular visitor for quite a while now. I can’t help wondering when the other ferries will start returning in the mornings. Something to look out for.

The new bus stop on the crossways is still covered. It’s not going to come in to service until the new bus (halt, station, stop – what do i call it)? Is active. I think that is a couple of weeks away. The electronics, lighting and glass and some of the barriers are still to be installed. Some quite rapid changes happening. Something look out for.

Then, as soon as the new bus thing comes into service, the demolition of the old bus station will start. That’s also something to keep an eye out for.

Then there’s the high street, will anything be changing there? Perhaps a new shop opening? That would be nice. I’m not going to suggest the alternative. I’ll keep an eye out there.

Changes and things to watch for. Adding a little spice to the morning walk.

Today was one of those days when I really didn’t feel like do anything, but we did manage to give the house a quick clean to at least remove some of the dust from the previous two weeks. I am thinking that we have another two weeks to go – at least I hope it’s no longer than that. But then there is the decoration and restoration of furniture with the juggling that will involve. But then there is a new. TV to look forward to.

The frustration is unrelated to the construction that has been going on. It extends from the well known fact that the topics that I have to write about are, to a degree limited, and mainly based around what walks I have done that day. That becomes a bit of a problem when I don’t go for a walk – as was the case today.

I really do need to get my act together, for example, I have an amateur radio licence that at the moment is going mostly unused. All I have to do is pick up the mic. One thing I would love to do is organise another breakfast I can only do that by talking to people, good solid friends whom i have neglected for the last year or longer. Why should the respond?

Come on Bill, get your act together.

I quite like this picture, there’s something almost sad about it. A lone bird sailing away.

I think it could be improved though. I’m hoping the next time I go for a walk to have another go and see if I can improve on it.

A picture taken at sunset. Really, a grab shot which I didn’t expect, but the piece is mainly about my morning and afternoon walks. This was part of a rather spectacular sunset. The people are included deliberately, adding a sense of scale, and a degree of atmosphere.

Talking of atmosphere, that;s what’s my writing lacks, a sense of atmosphere. I’m really not very good at it, both through lack of practice and lack of imagination. I tried this morning to think about what my senses were feeling, I’m not going to write about this here. Not sure why, lack of confidence, and besides it would be false, really it should flow naturally which currently, it doesn’t.

I took the afternoon off, so that we visited the Institute of Naval Medicine, it was part of Gosport Heritage Week, Elayne had arranged the visit. It was fascinating, the amount of history there is incredible. Well worth a visit.