Bills Posts

It’s Saturday, and we didn’t really want to do very much, but we did want to get out of the house for a bit. Elayne suggested that we go to a local Cafe, Dolly’s for Breakfast which was very nice. I think the Full English is probably my favourite meal. It pretty much lasted me until dinner time, so that was good.

We stopped off at the services Charity Shop and Elayne bought a couple of things and so, as we were close to home I went back to drop them off. On my way back into town to catch up with Elayne, I stopped to watch a cute cat that was absolutely determined to get into the rubbish Wheelie-bin of one of the houses I pass, it managed to get the lid up, and looked as though it was about to jump down into it. I confess I was concerned that if it did jump down it would get stuck, but I saw no point in interfering, as I knew it would come back as soon as I walked off, which I did.

From Dolly’s which is on Stoke Road, we walked into the town, Elayne met up with some of her WI friends and I had a chat with some of the blokes from the Gosport Men’s Shed. I told them about the Astronomy chair that I want, a weatherproof reclining chair that rotates and has a bracket that can hold a pair of binoculars. They were quite surprised about the idea of naked-eye or binocular observing.

We walked over to Trinity Church and along the side. As we were walking between the church and the Millennium Sundial, I was reminded by the straight line in the middle of the path about how I wanted to see if I could create a straight line in Gosport, that I could use to practice my vlogging and some research for the book.

Elayne sat down for a bit whilst I walked out to the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall, where I took today’s photo, and as I started walking back, it began to rain fairly heavily. I really appreciated my new waterproof coat, which I had bought in Dorchester earlier in the week. We sat for a few minutes under the umbrella, just enjoying being out and dry, sheltered from what was a really quite chilly wind.

We walked along the prom, and popped into the Tourist Information office to ask about Gosport Ferry Trips, we’ve done a few of these and they are usually quite good fun (although we sometimes get a bit bored with the “Grand Harbour Tour” they always have at the end. It seems there are only nine scheduled this year, we will have to see where we are with that.

We went to Cafe One, for a drink and a small piece of Tiffin, both of which were very nice. and then took a slow walk up the high street. I popped into CEX, I was looking at the videos, and found a copy of Fifth Element – I’ve seen it before, but wanted to watch it again, it was only £2.50, and I thought that was reasonable enough. I would also have had a look for Bridge of Spies, as I like that film as well, but couldn’t find it.

I was very surprised to see that the Charity Shop for the British Heart Foundation had closed down. This was a pity as for all of the charity shops in town, it had by far the best book section. Frustrating.

We carried on up to the Discovery Centre where Elayne had decided she had done enough walking so I left her in the cafe, and went home to get the car. As I was passing the house where I had earlier seen the cat trying to get into the wheelie-bit, I went and knocked on their door, and when they answered explained what I had seen and my concern, the lady was very pleasant and understanding and said it wasn’t her cat, but it had got into the bin before, and had been able to get out, but we checked anyway and of course, it was empty, so I did feel a bit of a fool, but the lady put some bricks on top to stop it trying again, so I was able to walk away comforted. I picked Elayne up and we wnt home.

I have to say it was a very pleasant few hours.

I was being very lazy, just sitting here browsing through my YouTube subscriptions looking to see if I wanted to watch anything in particular, and increasingly thinking that something was missing, but not really sure what.

Anyhow, I just happened to look at my watch, and seeing that it is getting very close to midnight, I realised that I hadn’t done a blog entry. So, here it is.

I apologise that it is a short one, but I did want to do something just to keep the count going.

I will try and do better tomorrow.

A few posts ago, I wrote about the Louisiana Purchase. The first time I came across this expression was when I was doing my Fantasy Holiday Mon Facebook in 2021.

I had started it all in 2020, just before the Covid Lockdowns we were preparing to go on the trip of a life time, the culmination of which would have been to see the Terracotta Army in China.

That came to a crashing halt, and we were stuck at home. So I thought what the heck, I’ll write about the holiday I’d really like to do. So, I did.

The thing was, that I enjoyed it so much that when I finished it, I wanted to do something else, so I wrote about something else that I would really like to do, a tour of all the mainland states of the USA.

I bought a book a short history of the USA, it was during this that I encountered the term The Louisiana Purchase – of course no idea what it was so I did a bit of research. It turns out that sometime in the 1800’s The thirteen states that were The United States bought a huge chunk of land that was in the centre of Continental North America massively increasing the size of the USA as it was then.

The thing is, that there is something about the phrase that appeals to me, but I can’t explain what – it’s just the phrase, not its meaning. Can you explain that? Because I can’t.

A news story this week that the troubled ferry that conveyed passengers between East and West Cowes. The current ferry installed in 2017 has, I think it fair to say, had a troubled history. I understand that for various reasons it hasn’t undertaken a significant amount of it’s scheduled journeys.

The irony is that the rusting hulk of the preceding ferry, No. 5 (the current is No. 6) languishes next to the Gosport Ferry Terminal. I see it every time I go to the harbour waterside.

The. old ferry can’t be brought back into service. Apparently, it wouldn’t meet the requirements for the change drives, apart from that it looks rusty and old. To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me to find it semi-submerged one morning. It also looks incredibly rusty.

A sad end to a service provider that was fast and respected – even if I had never travelled on it (except I may have done – once).

I was determined to get to the waterfront and shoot a bit of video. Well, I did after a fashion. Firstly, I’m not sure that the microphone is working – It wasn’t showing a flat battery, but I’m sure that it’s not right.

I got to the Falklands Gardens probably around 10 past 7, there were a couple of people in the area already which I kind of expected but was disappointed nonetheless. I clearly haven’t got over my inhibitions about having people around. This is unfortunate because I need to have the confidence to be able to speak in public. That, in its own right, is funny as I have no issues speaking to an organised group.

So, what am I bothered about? Is it that I am self-conscious about appearing to talk to myself? I suppose that could be it. Perhaps I should just get out there and do it. Part of it of course is not having anything prepared. I had an idea whilst out this morning.

I’ll give it a go.

We went for a short walk today. We drove down to Stokes Bay and parked up in the Pebbles car park. It was quite a blustery day, but we both had good wind proof coats on. We quite enjoyed the walk up towards the diving museum, and turned round after 20 minutes.

Coming back, the wind was behind us pushing us along a little bit. In the distance we could see a large ship making its way in, not taking long to be able to see that it was a container ship.

Elayne asked what ship it was, and where it had come from. It took a minute or so to log in to the Marine Traffic app, and only a few seconds to locate it and identify it as The Cosco Hope, 141,823 gross tons, she was built in 2012, 366m long and 48.32m wide. She had left Charleston on the third of March.

The Cosco Hope has a TEU of 13,092, meaning it can carry that number of twenty foot containers. As to what the cargo was, I wonder how many Amazon or wish packages were on board. At least that will always remain a mystery,

I only ask the question in the header because I felt in some respects having all that information (and I haven’t given you everything that Marine Traffic provides) takes away some of the mysteries in life. It’s like a lot of things, you only need an app on your phone and you can find out things.

Actually, I think I prefer it like that.

I apologise about last nights post, it was very uninspiring. Anyhow, we managed get to Romsey today.

On the edge of the New Forest, I haven’t quite worked out where it sits in history. Romsey itself is mentioned in the Domesday book, so it’s been about for quite a while. The Abbey, in the picture is big, to my untrained eyes it’s on the scale of a cathedral but it isn’t. We went inside. IT had a timeline set up on a board and people who have been associated were listed.

Fascinating names like; Edgar the Peaceful, Edward the Martyr (who was murdered at Corfe Castle) and Ethelred the Unready. I feel I should know a bit more about them.

We went back in to the town centre, which really felt like a centre An enclosed, round-ish…square, with four roads converging on it, but plenty of pedestrian space and obvious place for cafe-culture. If I’d had any choice in the matter I’d have banned cars completely. Making it completely pedestrian.

Oddly, particularly impressive was the bakery, It had a display of breads that made my mouth water, but it was the queue, it was there as we walked past one way, and even longer when we came back. If it had been shorter, I would have been tempted to join, but we were limited for time.

Anyhow, it was a very pleasant trip out.

Romsey could well be worth a visit. A market town since the 11th century. It seems there is a lot of history in the town.

It’s a place that Elayne wants to visit, as do I.

There isn’t much else that I can say at the moment.

Sorry this is a short post, just don’t have much to say today.

Last week, I emailed the Ordnance Survey. I was after a wall map with a particular level of detail and as it was very customised it wasn’t available even as a customised map. The response to the email said that it would take up to five working days for them to respond, which they did today.

The OS don’t do the kind of map that i want, but they sent me a bunch of links to companies that do, so perhaps over the weekend, I may get a chance to have a look at them.

So, what am I after and why? Well, I want two maps the first is a very localised one to the area that I am interested in, and the other a map of the whole of Dorset.

On both maps (I think I’d almost prefer them to be monochrome) I want, roads and town and place names, but not a lot of detail, but able to locate specific areas, but the main elements are churches and prehistoric sites.

Why would I want that? Well, it’s research for my book. I’m looking for Ley Lines. And I’m all excited about it.

I actually managed to get out for a walk this morning, only a quick stroll down to the waterfront. I was just going to visitor and then come straight back, except there were two tugs loitering. I checked Marine Traffic and there was a Brittany Ferry coming in. The tugs wouldn’t be for the ferry, all the masters have a ticket that allows them to navigate without escorts through the channel and in the harbour.

It was the Columbia Star. Unfortunately, she was too far out for me to wait for her, but I could wait for the Pont Aven which was only just outside the harbour, and I felt as though I had enough time to get to the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall, arriving at the end just as the Pont Aven came in.

It’s interesting at the moment half way down the high street efforts are well underway to turn a pedestrian area into a road suitable for vehicles, buses? Or busses and cars. What used to be the taxi rank and ferry drop off now looks like the lunar landscape as it is being turned into the new bus stop, and the bus station looks more dilapidated every day.

Even at 8AM, the high street looks sad.