Bills Posts

The crossways all marked up ready to go, but the bus stop is still covered. I don’t think it will be long now, the main bus halt is still being prepared. I reckon the end of the month. Then the demolition of the old bus station will start.

In the mean time, there was a real atmosphere at the waterfront. I honestly think that under the right conditions, there is nothing more bleak than a seaside town that in that time just before it wakes up. The Contentin slid slowly and gently in to harbour. I am guessing from her style that she carries mainly freight traffic.

When I left the house the first time I had a cardigan on to keep out the morning chill. I soon went back inside to get a fleece, the wind really did cut in to me. There weren’t many people around. If they were staying in Bed because it was cold I cant say as I blame them.

Ok, I agree not the best picture, but really surprised to see this on our lawn after I had gone out to shut up the shed tonight. It definitely hopped as it moved, so I think it’s a frog, but wouldn’t swear to it.

Really lovely to see it though. It has been raining and the ground is wet. I wonder if it’s that which has brought the wildlife out. There were quite a few snails and a huge slug down by the shed, snails are fascinating, and I hate it when I tread on them, feeling to guilty. Slugs on the other hand are gross, so I avoid treading on them for that reason.

Fascinating to see it all though. I didn’t think we would have a frog or a toad in the garden. I wonder where it is living?

It can’t be just the wind? If it were, wouldn’t the smoke be blown as soon as it left the stack? So yes, I think this picture of one of the Virgin cruise ships at berth in Portsmouth Harbour give a good example of a temperature inversion.

The ship was in berth on Sunday. I don’t know if this is a point in the cruise, or turnover. If it is turnover then a couple of thousand people off and on will be causing a bit of chaos in the city.

If it is a mid-point, then Portsmouth is quite a good stop, with plenty to do just within the local area. Just in the harbour there is the boat yard and the museum, along with Victory, The Mary Rose, and Warrior. People could have a ferry ride to Gosport and within easy walking distance are the Explosion and Submarine Museums.

Plus of course not that far from things like Stonehenge, several old house worth a visit, not least of which are Ampnor and Petworth. Both worth a visit. I really can see why this and other cruise lines stop here. Well worth it in my view.

I took this photo today whilst out on a bit of a walk. I think that the hut at the end of a dilapidated pier is full of character, but I’m not satisfied with it, because I would like the background to be out of focus. I may have another go at it, but this will do for this evening.

It was quite a pleasant walk just under four miles. But I confess I was a bit naughty- twice. The first time was when I reached Fort Brockhurst at about 0930. I’d timed it deliberately, The Premier inn just a litte bit further towards Fareham would still be serving breakfast – and very nice it was as well, and it has pretty much lasted me all day.

Then, when I came out, I noted that the time was very close to when it was due to start raining. I’d walked past two bus stops, but there was a queue at the third, so I just kind of loitered and a bus turned up within about five minutes.

IT did start raining. But not at the time it said it would, so I could have walked, but that’s OK – I felt I had done reasonably.

On the bus. I wanted to give my bus pass a run, so I took the X5, which runs from The Hard in Portsmouth, via Fareham and a few other places ending up at Central Station. I wanted to visit a particular shop which is about a mile further on, and was easy to find.

The day went quite well, the journey took nearly two hours end to end, and I achieved what I wanted to at the shop. After which I walked back to West Quay, had a bit of a browse, mainly in Waterstones, which in the main was a bit frustrating but did give me an idea about something, so not a total loss.

It’s always a bit difficult to resist the draw to visit the Apple shop, but I managed to. I didn’t feel the need as I don’t need to upgrade any of my hardware at the moment.

I managed to find the bus stop for the return journey and had to wait about half an hour for the bus. But the journey back went OK. The transition from the portsmouth to the Gosport bus was very smooth, no waiting so that went well, and got home around four-ish.

It was, I think a successful day.

Not a recent picture.

I am in conflict with myself as to what to write about. I’ll think of a possible topic, and another part of my brain will say; “You can’t talk about that”. What I can mention is my ridiculous inability to get up on four out the five days of past working week.

It’s not doing any good, it doesn’t help, but I have been in that annoying condition of just not being able to get up in the morning. Deeply frustrating.

Next week I must somehow find away of walking at least three miles per day.

Sometimes I get the urge to write with a pen. I do my best to make sure that the lovely cartridge pen that Alex gave me at his and Sian’s wedding, I love using it. I had to cliean nib the other day. I was changing from blue to black cartridges. I was surprised how much ink was flushed out. Anyhow, I have box of black to work through, then I may go back to blue.

I have an A5 type journal, I try and write in it every day, even if it is only a sentence or two. I did about two thirds of a page earlier today. Not about anything particularly interesting, but there you go. I have also decided to have another go at learning to touch type. I’m reasonably proficient at about 15 words a minute (pathetic I know against a real touch typist), but I my worry is that I have such a bad habit in the way I type that it will be difficult to unlearn. The system I am using says in about two weeks I should be able to do it, but it will take me about six months to become anywhere near proficient. That’s a bit daunting, but I’ll give it a go.

The NHW for the road where we live is something I set up several years ago now. I think it has pretty much fallen by the wayside. I don’t interact with the neighbours in the capacity of NHW Coordinator. It started going down hill as the move away became a prospect.

For some reason I was reluctant to knock on peoples doors, but I made myself do it, very much with Elayne’s support. There was one instance where I wrote down the email addresss of one family who was interested, but I obviously did it wrong, because the address never worked, it was always knocked back by the broadband supplier.

I was talking to someone who lives on the road adjacent to ours. He was telling me that he used to be the coordinator for that street, but had to stop doing it when he became heavily involved in another aspect of the town.

I would like to revive the fortunes of our NHW scheme, but I have plans, much bigger plans. I’m not going to talk about them now, but I am working out a strategy to achieve what I want. I did ask the chap if he would become involved again. Sadly, he said no, but I understand why.

Tonight we went to HEDCA, one of the local community centres. It’s where the Gosport Camera Club meets. It was the first night of the 24/25 season. We are both going to join. Here is an outside activity that we can both share and enjoy.

GCC seems to be an active club with a membership somewhere between 30 – 50, I’m not at all sure of the figure. One of the things that strikes me about the club is its very full programme of activities. Some of which are quite inspiring. I definitely want to have a go.

Now here is one thing that I haven’t done much of and that is to write about my sadly neglected friends in the amateur radio community. For neglected they have been over the last year or so. It was just something that went badly wrong within me that took me away from one the proudest activities that I have ever done – becoming a licensed amateur, and yet I didn’t think I have touched a radio for over a year. Why? I really can’t answer that question, but I do know that I regret being in this position. Yet I am now almost afraid to thumb the PTT. I am sorry that I’ve got myself in this state. I need to do something about it.

Do the two hobbies conflict? I don’t think so, if anything they can complement the other.

This is the back of the bus station or the side that faces on to the waterfront. I read today that the bus station was built in 1972. I was a bit surprised by that, I would have said the mid ‘60’s.

I have to say that wearing the spectacles of 2024, this is souless. Mind you, I don’t know what the waterfront looked like back then. I can imagine that it wasn’t as sociable as it is now, but I really don’t know without some research.

Anyhow, I think that the new bus station will come in to service by the end of September. Which, according to what I read, means that by the end of November, the 1972 carbuncle will be a pile of rubble.

What comes next? I’ve seen some conjecture as to what that will be and it will be quite acceptable. Including cafe, and band stand (possibly a bit old hat) and what else? We’ll have to wait and find out.

But, this will be an interesting project to follow.