Bills Posts

Is not finished. I reckon it could be another month before it and the new station become operational. What you can’t really see from here is the large amount of groundwork at the other end that needs to be done.

Either way, it’s beginning to look as though Gosportians don‘t like it, the main complaint being “it’s too small”. I will confess that statement of opinion is based on a very non-scientific sample size – that is two people. Well, one really. The other has merely commented that is small, and has not said “too small”.

On a different matter, you would have thought that the council would have published the minutes of the main council meeting held on 17 July by now. I understand that the briefing pack for the next council meeting in October after the next round of boards & committees have finished their deliberations, but the minutes aren’t affected by that. Unless they do something with them that I haven’t worked out yet.

On Sunday we actually managed to get out of Gosport for a few hours. We went to The Thursley Moat, a nature park. There is a lovely walk around the moat, which is really a lake. It’s a haven for Dragonflies, which i love to watch, but they are a difficult subject to to photograph.

There were loads of them, and whilst I don’t know the species, I was able to see three or four different types. fascinating to watch. I reckon we walked a couple of miles at a very slow pace. It was really nice. But it was good to get back to the car.

We had lunch out, at The Three Horseshoes in Thursley. I had roast pork. It was delicious, and a good helping. Well worth it.

I knew I had missed a post last night. But it appears that I’d missed two others well – I’m not sure how that happened. I’m sorrry about that – I will make sure to try and do better this week.

I’ve promised myself,a ndd kind of to Dave as well that I would at least listen in to the Thursday night Net this week, so I must make sure I do that. I’ve also ordered one of the Xeigu G106’s seems to be a bit of a bargain, reduced from £350 to £174, I really must make an effort to use it. I’m sure I can get up on the hill with it – I have pretty much everything I need I think.

There were three days last week when I didn’t go for a walk. Anxietry played a role in two of those days. The anxiety was irrational. I will try and overcome it.

I looked out the window this morning and although it wasn’t raining, it was a bit windy and the clouds looked like they wanted to let rip plus the breeze coming in through the window was cold.

I just decided to go back to bed.

Sorry it’s a short post tonight.

If you are of a sensitive nature, I recommend you don’t read this paragraph. That’s because the boat in the header picture it it’s topic. I think this the night ferry. It runs roughly between midnight and 5AM the period when the normal ferries are having a rest. It has a name which is, I think for fairly obvious reasons “The Vomit Comet”. Sorry about that.

I’ve only used it once. Can’t remember why.

Onto something more routine; I didn’t go for a walk this morning. For some unfathomable reason I felt very anxious when I woke up. Just making the decision to not go for a walk removed it pretty much instantly. Why is that? Annoying as I was looking forward to seeing the first instalment of the bus shelter.

Hopefully, in the morning.

When I wrote yesterday that I thought the bus stop might have arrived. I was right.

The various parts of the bus stop were parked all over the new bus pan or apron or hard – what do they call it?

Anyhow, it looks like the support structure is here, what’s missing is the roof and the glass. I’m assuming that if I got for a walk tomorrow, I will see at least a partial construction.

The rest of the walk went OK. I bought a book about the diary of a nobody, which apparently was a series in Punch that became famous and loved. Why have I never heard of it? Anyhow, I think I will talk a break from late medieval history when I finish the Plantagenets. Next after the diary will be the Tudors. All good, interesting stuff.

No, I can’t think of a link between them. Perhaps the pilots use them to get to and from work?

Managed catch the pilot cutter coming in to the harbour. The first one in quite a while.

I saw a lorry today, heading towards the ferry. It looked it might have the components for a structure. I wonder if it was the bus shelter?

Sorry a short post today.

That’s what it seems like I have been doing for a long time. And yet, what a nice weekend we’ve had. We walked in to town yesterday morning, There were quite a few people out and about as the weather was a quite pleasant,

We called in to the Discovery Centre (our local library) because Gosport Camera Club had their annual exhibition on display. I have to say that there were some very impressive pictures on display. It’s really nice that this is something that Elayne and I can do together, so we will be joining in September.

We walked down the high street, there were only two or three stalls out for the Saturday market. We called in on the various charity shops. This really had me thinking about how inadequate our access to a decent book area is, but not to worry. We called in at Cafe #1 for a drink and then took a slow walk home.

There are Waterstones in whitely, Fareham and Portsmouth and I think there may also be an oxfam bookshop in fareham there also rather good 2nd hand bookshops in Ryde on the Isle of Wight and in Chichester. We are then locally, quite well served.

But not in Gosport, there is a Works and each of the charity shops does have a small selection but it is like they are afterthoughts. Now, if I were in a position to volunteer at any of the charity shops it would be on the understanding that I’m allowed to significantly increase the book selection, which I would catalogue and seek to sell online.

Would that be allowed? I really don’t know, and I’m not in a position to do anything about it. Just me thinking out loud.

I really didn’t want to get up this morning. But, somehow I managed it. It’s usually the case, when I feel like that, that once I get out of the house I feel OK. That was the case this morning.

The sun was already throwing its heat about, walking towards it was almost painful, I kept my head down until I was able to get into shade.

I spent the time I was walking down the high street taking pictures of the shop units on the south side of the high street. I’ve spent a few minutes working through the pictures. A lot of the shops don’t have street numbers, but I have a list from 2019, I’m trying to match shop units to street numbers.

I’m wondering if the new bus shelter will go up next week. The opening up of the new station can’t be far away.

The Cockle Ponds were mill-pond like still. Not much sign of life apart from the small shell-fish things, the occasional crab, and gulls. No sign of the jellyfish.