Category: Local (To Me !!!)

Nuisance Telephone Calls


For the last couple of days we have been receiving nuisance calls to our landline. Always around the same time of day and when you answer the line is dead, sounding  like the pause you get before an automated message starts. But it never does.

So the initial nuisance is that having hauled yourself out of  your chair, away from your work or even worse, away from your meal,  it is all for nothing.

The additional irritation is that when you try to initiate a call back (1471 in the UK) to find out who called you receive the message

” You were called…..blah … blah…. blah. We do not have the callers number”

Why Not ? Isn’t it your telephone network ?Why is this allowed ?

Why is the caller allowed to disturb your peace, allowed to invade your privacy but you are not allowed to respond. The caller obviously wanted to speak to someone at your number so why are they being so secretive.

I think the rules should be changed. If you call someone then they have the right to know who you are.

Hedge Choppers Anonymous


On Sunday morning my neighbour decided to trim back the hedge that separates our properties. That in and of its self is not a problem. However, nary a word did she say to either me or my wife before coming on to our property and starting this hatchet job. The hedge doesn’t belong to us, is not on our property but we have grown used to its presence. I did go out and talked with her about her plans. I asked her not to take it down any lower and agreed that I would cut down the thicker trunks that she couldn’t handle.

Hedge Choppers Anonymous
Hedge Choppers Anonymous

I also warned her that she shouldn’t cut back the sides of the hedge too much as it won’t grow back. Our side has only just about recovered after a severe trim by a “professional”.  We still have a brown section after 2-3 years of regrowth. To be honest this photo is after I have taken down some of the thicker trunks that she couldn’t handle. So it’s looking a lot tidier than she left it and I’ve yet to attack the last few trunks.

She has totally trashed a perfectly good hedge. It is higher on our side than on hers and she has trimmed back the face of the hedge, on her side, way too much. She had started on our side when I advised her not to remove any more due to the reluctance of conifers to grow back.

My view is that she has basically killed the hedge and that it will probably never recover. On that basis I believe that it should be taken out completely.

That will be a shame as, for many years, we have enjoyed the privacy provided by that hedge.  As she is only a tenant, doesn’t own the property, I am considering contacting the agents to express my dissatisfaction with this situation. I don’t want to fall out with her but this is tantamount to vandalism.

View From The Conservatory


Well today the view is not good as its been raining all day. I probably won’t be nipping outside to have a quiet coffee sat at the table.

A Miserable Day
A Miserable Day

Haven’t seen any  squirrels.  Mind you the local squirrel population is decreasing thanks to my neighbours cats. They have had two in the last few weeks. The only positive thing I can say about that is that they don’t just kill for sport. The little black devils actually eat what they kill. It’s not as if they are hungry, I know that they are well fed. Seems like they have gotten a taste for fresh meat.

As well as a lack of squirrels I also haven’t seen many birds today. The ever-present Robin is about, protecting his territory, but no sign of the usual tits and finches.

I guess they are all doing the sensible thing and staying home and watching day time television.

As for me well I’m working from home with Lovers Touch, by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, streaming off the internet from Radio Paradise.

Oh well back to work.

Posted this over 2 hours ago. Suddenly the sun has come out. Do you suppose my post was read by the big fella ?

Barbara (Janet) Mayhew


My Auntie Barbara passed away on December 12th, 2010, after a long battle with cancer.

I attended her funeral just before Christmas on Thursday 23rd.  My thoughts are with Peter and family.

Once again  I  have become aware of what a huge family I belong to and also how little I know about it. Many of the folks I haven’t seen since the Sims family get together held at Henfield, June 2003.

I think it is very sad that we only meet to pay our respects to those that have passed away. It seems a terrible waste that we have not socialised with our relatives and that we are becoming strangers. Our family ties are becoming more tenuous it seems with the passing of my Mums brothers and sisters.

I would like to think that we can undo some of this in the new year.

That’s my new years resolution for 2011.

Get Juggernauts Off Residential Roads


Before we go any further I don’t really want to get them off the roads completely. There is a place for them but it certainly isn’t delivering to our local Tesco Express.

To be precise, the WATERLOOVILLE LAVENDER ROAD EXPRESS.

Lavender Road is a residential road leading off Frendstaple Road. It is the main access to a number of private homes, an old folks home and the local doctors surgery as well as being the address for the aforementioned Tesco store which has a car park capable of taking nearly 20 vehicles.

This road is regularly compromised by the parking up of  articulated lorries which are waiting their turn to deliver goods to the store.  They are usually waiting because there is already an articulated lorry offloading.

Any vehicle parked in this spot would be causing a hazard but an articulated lorry is well over 40 feet long. If a car was parked in this spot you do have some chance of seeing around it and even some visibility through the windows. An articulated lorry doesn’t give you any visibility through the vehicle, it is significantly wider than a car and also higher.

  1. Quite often lorries parked here do so facing the wrong way. That is to say it is parked on the right hand side of the road, facing the oncoming traffic who, if they are turning left  into Lavender Road, cannot see if there is anything coming towards them until they are already exposed.
    I guess the direction they are facing doesn’t really matter since the obstruction is the same either way.
  2. The folks who were lucky enough to have safely made it into the car park and now wish to leave cannot see round the back end of the trailer (or front) to see those vehicles that are also playing Russian Roulette and about to make the dash along the far side of the trailer.
  3. At peak times in the morning i.e. during the school run this road at its junction with Frendstaple Road becomes very busy. With an articulated lorry parked just short of the junction to say this road becomes congested is an understatement

If there hasn’t already been an accident caused by these trucks I will be very surprised.

The current weather / road conditions has exacerbated the situation.  I was witness to latest milk delivery when the truck driver was struggling to turn his vehicle around so that he could reverse up to the Tesco loading dock. Needless to say his 40ft trailer did not want to go where he wanted it to go as it skated from side to side on the ice. During his many attempts access to the doctor’s surgery, the old folks home and a number of private houses was completely blocked.

Come on Tesco. This is dangerous. Its time for you to rethink the delivery options to your local stores before you cause the death of one of your customers.

Hastings Fishing Fleet Flagged


Great news,  the Hastings fishing fleet is to receive a cash boost from the EU.

It is one of six coastal communities whose Fisheries Local Action Group (FLAG) will share a £4.6 million fund set aside to help areas where fishing is a key industry.

The fleet is one of the few using traditional methods in this the age of high-efficiency technology. It is the largest beach based fishing fleet in the country and fishermen have operated from this area, The Stade, for over a thousand years. The fleet has diminished over the years and it would be sad to see it disappear altogether which is why the cash injection is such good news.

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Do You Feel Exposed ? – You Should


Yesterday, Friday December 3rd 2010, HMS Ark Royal slipped through the mists of The Solent and  into history as she headed into Portsmouth to be decommissioned three years early due to swingeing government cuts. Decommissioned is a euphemism for “scrapped”.

If my memory serves me right it was as we were decimating our armed forces that the Argentines decided to reclaim the Falkland Islands as their own. At that time we pulled out all the stops to show that we were not to be messed with.

But, and its a big but, the only way we managed to do anything about the Argentine action was by using a carrier based force. The carriers were then supported by standard Royal Navy ships and co-opted Merchant Navy craft.

With the decommissioning of the Ark we are left with Illustrious to provide us with far distant cover. For the Falklands action we have Invincible and Hermes. Which brings me to another point. Both of those carriers were operating Sea Harrier. The Sea Harrier is also being scrapped.

So I ask, Do you feel exposed ?.
Because behind the emotion of the return of the Ark to Portsmouth I feel an immense disquiet. Successive governments have cut back on funding for our forces. Note I don’t place all the blame on our current government. They are doing the best they can with what they have inherited. But is this the way.
England and the Royal Navy have a fabulous history but we are rapidly becoming a featherweight in international terms.

Frozen Weather = Frozen Brains


Despite the snow based chaos that is going on all over this country we, in the Portsmouth area, have managed to get off quite lightly. Not much snow but there is a bit of ice around.

We might not have much snow but we still have more than our quota of idiots on the roads.

Take the praTT in the Audi TT that I was following. At the best of times the visibility from the TT is little better than that of a crash helmet. I’m speaking from experience here, my granddaughter had one for a while and I had cause to drive it. Anyway, this praTT had not bothered to clear any of the snow off the car. The rear screen was totally obscured, as were the side windows. The front screen was partially cleared. Every time he managed to get over 30 mph a great cloud of powdery snow erupted of his bonnet obscuring his vision and diminishing mine at the same time.

Even my neighbour couldn’t be bothered to clear her screens before setting off this morning. Just a little port-hole to peep out of.
And then there are those who obviously feel nice and safe and warm cocooned inside their cars such that they feel they can drive like lunatics. Never mind that the temperatures are still sub-zero and that there is ice on most of the side roads. I lost count of how many idiots came sliding up to junctions with all four wheels locked. Obviously praying that the laws of friction would cut in….SOON.

Why can’t these people take a few minutes to boost their safety and mine too. So what if they are a few minutes late but we would all have a few less grey hairs and suffer a little less stress in our lives.

Update 2/12/2010 Apparently if you drive around without clearing the snow off your car you can be ticketed by the police for dangerous driving. On the basis that when the snow flies off your car it could cause problems for both you and other motorists.

Latest Black Market Product ???


Apparently there must be a lucrative black market in Sun Tan Lotion.

Least ways that’s what John Davison seems to think after he was caught stealing £140 worth of Nivea sun cream from a pharmacy in Portsmouth.

Either that or he was anticipating some serious sunshine.

Has anyone been approached recently by shady characters with long coats lurking in dark alley ways. “ere guv…….wanna by some cheap sun cream…..?”

With what he is having to pay in costs he should have just bought the stuff.