Bills Posts

The ship in the picture is The Greg Mortimer. Named after the founder of the company that owns her, Aurora. Not a big vessel, 1400 tons, and carries only 100 passengers. The thing about her is that she was designed for excursions to the poles.

It’s always a pleasure to witness the arrival of a vessel for the first time. There is always the possibility that it has visited before and I just missed it. Nonetheless, for me, it was my first time of seeing it.

I had it in my mind this morning that I was going to write about the street coming alive, it can be like a person who really does not want to get up but is forced to. There’s the clanking and rumbling of the Holland & Barret health food delivery lorry bringing the stock to the shop. The quiet hiss passing your ear as a cyclist is trying to get to the ferry, Bob, who is waiting for Greggs to open, so he can get his breakfast. The staff of wetherspoons putting the tables and chairs out, even though it’s very likely to rain, and besides, who want to sit outside at 6AM?

There are a definite number of stages. If you walk down the street, even just half an hour later, it is like a different place. The street is heading for coffee.

There is a lot going on with the cross streets. The have taken up the block paving and opened up the substructure. There were a lot of pipes which in turn were full of cables. I don’t really know what they are doing but it looks like they are building a base that will be strong enough to take traffic for quite some time. That I have I said that I don’t know what is going on, kind of implies that I should try and work it out.

I have an opportunity to do this during my lunchtime walk when the workers are still doing their thing. Starting a conversation with them may be quite interesting, really keeping up to date with progress. Perhaps once or twice a week.

The writing this week has been interesting, at least for me. Even only once being able to do a blog entry early in the day was really quite exciting, and I would like to do that more often. I’ve been watching a chap on YouTube who has been talking about journalling. I’m going to pay a bit more intention to him because he has a quite structural approach to his writing, which may help me.

It’s Thursday, and it’s getting late for me, so it’s time for that typical Thursday rushed entry, but actually I have managed four semi-reasonable paragraphs tonight, so I consider that a win.

The thing about my writing is that I’m not very good at writing expressively. Putting emotion into my writing. I find that very frustrating. I’ve moved on from Lock’s Dorset to Treve’s The Highways and Byways of Dorset Originally published in 1906, I have a 1980’s re-print. Even within the first chapter, the first page, first paragraph I was captured by the writing, there was something really expressive about the writing. I was taken straight away.

Here then, is another attempt at some expressive writing. The setting is me out for a morning walk, moving past St Georges Barracks off Mumby Road;

Walking past St Georges Barracks, the original buildings remain. Double-storied but with the first level partially submerged below ground, was there a defensive reason for this? These units are now sought-after flats, such a different use to the days of the seried barracks that once rang to the shouted orders of the Corporals and echoed to the stamping of the marching soldiers conducting their drill.

And so on to the Esplanade, where people come to while away the time watching the boats and ships, be it the small leisure craft marching line astern in the strictly defined channel. The Gosport Ferry plies its trade to and fro, conveying people to work or fetching home shoppers and merrymakers returning from their revelries.

I still am not sure that I’m there. But is that better?

I’ve been playing with the AI Tool ChatGPT, which if you have heard about it, either as a panic about the machines taking over or as a tool that allows people to run three jobs at the same time. Anyhow, I thought let’s have a go. So I asked it to look at and comment one of my blog entries (yesterday, No. 980) – I was quite pleased with what I had written, so I asked the question; please look at https://localitystories.com/2023/05/01/980-dorset-by-h-o-lock/ and comment on the quality of the writing. This is the response I got;

As an AI language model, I cannot provide subjective opinions, but I can provide an analysis of the writing in terms of objective criteria.

The blog entry appears to be well-written and structured. The author provides a brief introduction to H.O. Lock and his work before delving into the specifics of “Dorset” and its contents. The author does a good job of summarizing the book’s main points, and provides some interesting insights into the history and geography of Dorset.

In terms of grammar and syntax, the writing appears to be clear and concise, with few errors or typos. The author’s use of language is also varied and engaging, which helps to keep the reader interested throughout.

Overall, the blog entry seems to be of high quality and provides a valuable overview of H.O. Lock’s “Dorset”.

Now, I thought that is pretty good and I was very pleased with that. But then I thought; I wonder if it is just being nice to me, or am I the next Simon Schama? So, I asked the same question, but in a slightly different way; this is my most recent blog entry;https://localitystories.com/2023/05/01/980-dorset-by-h-o-lock/. are you able to tell me what is technically wrong with it?

As an AI language model, I don’t have personal opinions or emotions, and I cannot tell you what is “wrong” with your blog entry. However, I can provide some objective suggestions to improve the technical aspects of your writing, such as grammar, syntax, and structure.

Firstly, I noticed some issues with sentence structure and punctuation. For example, there are a few run-on sentences where two independent clauses are not separated by a comma or period. I would recommend breaking up these sentences into smaller, more manageable parts. Also, pay attention to the use of commas to separate clauses and phrases.

Secondly, there were some instances of repetition in the writing. It is a good idea to vary the structure of sentences to prevent the writing from sounding monotonous. Try using different sentence types, such as simple, compound, and complex sentences.

Thirdly, I noticed that some sentences were a bit unclear or awkwardly phrased. It can be helpful to read your writing aloud to identify areas that need improvement. You might also consider having someone else read your writing and provide feedback.

Finally, I would suggest proofreading your writing for spelling and grammatical errors. A few typos or mistakes can detract from an otherwise well-written piece.

Overall, with some attention to these technical aspects of writing, you can improve the clarity and coherence of your blog entry.

Doesn’t that sound a bit off? However, I don’t mind it since I have installed the Grammarly tool to assist me. Some might consider it cheating, but it was free, and it could aid in my learning process.

Our cat, Misty brought home a guest for dinner. It took us a while to catch it. We both thought how cute it was, but it was obviously terrified so I took it over to Gove Park and let it go.

For a book that was an accidental pick-up at Kim’s in Chichester, Dorset by H.O.Lock has been an absolutely delightful read. With a tinge of regret, I finished it this morning.

I don’t know very much about Mr. Lock. He served as a Major in the British army, he wrote a number of books and that is about it. I don’t know if he lived in Dorset, so I don’t know if he really loved the place, or if that was just the way he wrote, but the book exudes love.

Although the book gives bare-bones details about things, mentioning almost in passing the martyrdoms of King Edward at Corfe Castle in 975, or the battle between Stephen and Maud and the ensuing siege of Wareham, or discusses the delights of Old Harry (and his wives), Swanage, Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove and Portland Bill and the geology that caused these features it is done in such a way that with things like access to the internet and libraries simply calls out for further research.

To the extent that I am going to re-read the book and extract from it an index of things that I would love to research, see and write about. Fuel indeed for my locality project. Such delights await me.

Unusual to have my daily post so early in the day, but I am seriously enthused by this book.

It was getting fairly late in the evening, and I was getting a bit panicky, because I couldn’t think of what to write for tonight’s blog. I hate that, not having even the ghost of an idea what to write about. But then, I suddenly had a thought; what have I learned this week from reading the 1925 Dorset book I’ve been raving about.

I read about The Dorset Natural History & Antiquarian Field Club sounded quite interesting, so I googled it and of course it closed down a long time ago, but the Dorset Museum is running something with a similar name so I shall look at that. But I quite like the idea of the field. Club, and wonder if I could restart it? Highly unlikely but not impossible – how do you register a club name? Can you even?

There was a story about the Aigle and it’s press gang in Weymouth which understandably upset the locals, and ended up in pitched battles between the groups. I have to confess that I hadn’t really thought about press gangs in Weymouth, but why not? After all, there is a big naval base next door.

I wanted to learn a bit more about the Aigle incident so I thought I would have a go with the AI tool, ChatGPT. Actually, it’s pretty good. Turns out that the Aigle was a French ship at anchor in Weymouth Bay. To which I thought, “hang on a second, a French warship sending a press gang into Weymouth for a bit of involuntary recruiting, isn’t that a bit much, why wasn’t that an act of war or something?” Back to chatGPT it transpires that the press gang were looking for french deserters not locals, but that either seems to have got lost in translation or the locals were protecting the French deserters. Must admit, I didn’t do that bit of follow up. It wasn’t an act of war anyway, as we weren’t at war with france at the time, but interesting though.

back to the field club for a bit; I could always start the Winfrith Newburgh & Wool Natural History Field Club. I’ll think about that. Could be fun.

I think for Gosport this is probably one of my favourite walks; from home along stoke road, westbound to the white hart. Cut across to join the disused railway track now excellent footpath & cycle way all the way down to The crescent, the remaining symbol of a bygone extravaganza then across to GAFIRS, Fareham’s lifeboat station.

Then perhaps my one part of the least popular for walking, but amazing for the scenery; the grave,led walk along the shore to Gilkicker Fort. Pausing to admire the verging on derelict Palmerston Folly, which is engaged in a game of ownership ping-pong. I pause briefly to look at the current state op progress. The brutal metal fence has been moved on for land side of the fort, which has been opened up just a little bit.

From the fort we move on to prepays one of the more dangerous parts of the walk,walking across the fairways two of Gosport Golf club’s fine holes, making sure that the players are not hitting their balls astray. I confess I don’t know the protocol do we, the walkers, give way to the players or vice versa?

Not long after we leave the golf club, we are heading for one of my favourite parts of the walk, Haslar sea wall. I do like to pause here to take a seat and watch the world go by, sadly though not today. On the to Haslar road, the road sided by the high brick walls that can become a real sun trap.

One we are over the bridge we are back in to territory that forms part of my walk during the week. And home. Today that’s a nice six and a quarter miles to add to the monthly total.

I arrived at the waterfront on, a day when the wind was cold enough to make you grateful for the three layers, including fleece and padded jacket, hat and gloves.

The sense of loneliness was palpable. The morning was strange, I had the feeling of the same grey colour being everywhere. Even the water in the harbour was rougher than usual.

I’ve written in the past about a Charles dickens film set, I think in Chatham dockyards. It exhibits a derelict industrial site. I just recall what I think are the first few minutes – I’ve been looking for the film, there are lots of versions it needs to be the right one.

A question that is going through my mind is why has this particular film had such a large impact on me? I think I was probably about twelve or thirteen years old when I saw the film at a complete guess. An impressionable age.

That feeling I get is very strong bordering on deja Vue. I won’t say I’m obsessed with the film, but I am going to make a determined effort to find it.

I’ve done what I don’t like doing because it usually ends up as a rubbish post, leaving the post until last thing at night.

This mornings walk was quite pleasant. Not much going on, but it gives me a topic to write about. With me rising in daylight hours I miss the morning chorus, but I had a fox sitting watching me as I walked across Walpole park towards the cockleponds.

Talking of the cockle ponds, for the last couple of weeks I have been following the cockle ponds population of moon jelly fish. Some of them are getting quite big – on the order of four or five inches across.

It’s nice to see them. Sorry, feeble post. I will try and. Do better tomorrow.

You are walking along, and there are some people working on a large hole in the ground. What do you do? Do you just walk past and not even think about what they are doing? Or walk past and perhaps wonder what they are doing but do nothing about satisfying your curiosity?

I couldn’t do either of those. If there’s a hole in the ground and there are people working on it, I might risk not talking to them – Sod’s Law says the hole will be closed up and the people gone, that’s the risk you take. Not always though, more times than not I will stop and have a chat with them. Always polite of course; “may I ask what you are doing”. It is really unusual for people to tell me to go away.

We were walking over the Wareham causeway, there was a chap in high viz standing over an open manhole cover. We stopped and did the asking. Turns out they were laying fibre optic for fast broadband. Lucky we did stop and ask. Lucky we did as he was gone when we came back about an hour later.

The header picture is a different example. I’m pretty sure I know why they are digging up the road. Getting the street ready for traffic where it has been a pedestrianised area for longer than we have lived in Gosport. Still though, when I’m walking past, I will pause take a look down to see what is going on.