Bills Posts

I went for a walk. Leaving home around 1100.

I had a bit of a dilemma, I wanted to go around the Cockle Ponds and see what is going on there but, I also wanted to walk the length of the high street in both directions. I solved that by making the ponds a loop, rejoining the high street at the discovery centre

The walk along the high street was nothing more than a slow amble, I was just people watching and looking to see what was going on. People going about their day. I reached the ferry terminal and continued on.

I reached the Haslar Marina Pier Wall, and thought to myself that I hadn’t walked out onto the boardwalk for quite a while. There were two fishermen on the wall, the first one, was just unhooking a fish which he then let drop back into the water. I commented that I couldn’t recall ever seeing any fish caught by anyone along the wall. He was fishing for fun, not food.

I noticed the clouds in the header picture. The grey clouds were quite striking along Portsdown hill. I wasn’t worried that I would get hit by rain. Clouds that are there, have been blown past us by the prevailing winds.

I stopped and had a chat with the second fisherman – he’d only been there 20 minutes, and wasn’t really expecting to get anything.

I wandered back up the high street. I was thinking about stopping and having a cup of tea, but I did need to get home for 1400, perhaps sometime next week.

Today, my wife informed me that I had upset all her daily routines. It has taken only two days to get to a position where I can officially class myself as “The useless Blob” – I was trying to help with our GrandDaughter, and whilst I hadn’t done anything technically wrong, mostly what I was doing was for one reason or another, not right.

I think what it boils down to is that whilst I was working, Elayne had developed a system for dealing with Aurora (our granddaughter). Now that I am available to assist and don’t have to say I have to go to a meeting, I can’t assume that whatever I do is being done at the right time, which means that Elayne now has to think of what I am doing as well as what she would normally do. i completely understand where she is coming from.

She would, of course, be horrified if she knew (she doesn’t read this blog, unless I show it to her) that I am currently referring to myself as “The useless Blob” but she does have my sympathy; from removing a bib before Aurora has had dessert, through to putting bags in the boot before they are ready. Almost everything I have done today has had to be corrected in someway, adding additional stress to Elayne.

Let me confess, tonights blog has been written very tongue-in-cheek. It’s not wholly inaccurate, possibly slightly exaggerated and whilst I have unintentionally been a bit of a nuisance, we have had a good laugh over it. I’m sure I will get better.

And no, she really doesn’t know about the useless blob thing.

I’ve left it a bit late tonight to do today justice.

Walking through town at around 9AM on a Wednesday was almost as quiet as doing so at 0700, or 0800. The high street seemed very quiet.

I was heading for Haslar. I was going to a Coffee Morning. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a coffee morning before. If I have, I. Don’t remember it. It was very nice though, and if I can I will go to the next one.

I walked back through town. I paused for a few minutes in the Falklands Gardens. I had a bit of a craving for some chips so I had some, even though I didn’t need to eat. It was just nice to do so.

I have to post this now, as it is close to midnight, and I don’t want to reset the counter again.

That I bought a book should be no surprise to any regular readers of this blog. This one, though, is a bit different. It’s a game; Can you run the economy? by Joe Mayes.

The premise of the book is that you are the chancellor, making decisions to run the economy. You start off with a budget surplus and a positive popularity rating.

The first decision you have to make is whether or not to save a company. Now, I’m not going to give you much more detail than that, and I am certainly not going to tell you which decision I made, because that could possibly label me politically, and I really don’t want that. But, what I will do for each decision is the nature, and my outcome – did I lose or gain money for the budget, and grow or decline in popularity.

The book is very interesting, and well worth having a go.

The one thing I will tell you is that I have already reached a point in the book where the decision I made led to my being fired by the Prime Minister! When that happens, the book takes you back to that decision point, so you can change your mind.

It’s quite entertaining and a bit thought-provoking. I’ll let you know how I get on.

I took the picture a few days ago. The main thing to notice is that the old Cowes chain ferry has gone. I understand not for scrap, but I think the council asked for the unsightly object to be moved elsewhere.

I really should have gone for a walk today, but the weather has been rather unpleasant – wind and rain.

We’ve been busy doing things around the house, most of them related to the buildup towards Christmas.

Just over 5 years ago, I committed myself to doing a blogpost every day for a year. If I am completely honest with myself, I failed in that mission. I missed days. Now, admittedly they were the odd day here and there for the most part, so whilst I didn’t strictly meet the target, it was close enough for me.

Now, I am beginning to wonder if I am heading for another commitment to myself; that of doing the walk1000 again, or at least going for a walk every day for a year. I think I may do that.

One good thing about doing a walk a day, now that I will soon be retired, is that I can do it at whatever time of day I wish. A benefit of this is that each walk gives me material for a blog and/or Facebook post. Plus, if I do it during the day time, I can stop of at a local haunt that I may wish to develop for a brew. Now, wouldn’t it be nice if the people’s park were up and running? Ideal for that.

There are, though, several ports that I can visit on the high street, so I may look to cultivate one of those – or indeed, a couple.

Apart from the lovely walk on Sunday, I really haven’t managed to get out of the house anywhere near as much as I would have liked. So, this evening’s quick pop to the shops was a very welcome moment.

It was getting dark of course, but that just added to the atmosphere. I can’t quite figure out at the moment what people’s feelings are about the time for year, is it Christmas time yet? The lights are up, and many houses are putting up their christmas lights (we’ll probably. Do ours this weekend).

I guess there is no point in denying it, well, I haven’t really been denying the fact that days until my retirement are getting fewer. I now have 2 and a bit days until I start a chunk of flexi-time and annual leave that will take me to 02 January, my official last day at work. I did ask if I am likely to be asked to come into work over the period. The person I asked just laughed.

One thing that would stop my being called in is that I have to return my laptop. I’ll be doing that this coming Tuesday. Obviously, it has to be before cease work, so I’ll probably do it early in the afternoon, then spend a bit of time walking around saying goodbye to people.

I do have a kind of a plan for retirement. It remains to be seen how well I get started with that.