Gate movement

At Portsmouth this morning there was a lot of activity around the gate into the naval base. The reason for the activity is because they are moving the gate. The reason they are moving the gate is in order for people visiting the library not to have to go through security. It makes a lot of sense and would mean a lot more freedom for the volunteers and researchers. Not to mention making it easier for Heather.

Today, however, it was the same old, same old. I went to the Bubble, as it’s called among the security personnel, where the ever cheerful Bonnie furnished me with a pass and called Heather to come and fetch me. It was then a long walk around the buildings rather than straight through the gate…because it was being moved.

There was a marvellous opportunity to catch a view of the Warrior not normally seen by the public but, of course, I couldn’t take a photo so here’s one I took earlier, just to show the blue sky.

Funnily enough, just after I took this photo and was walking towards the dockyard, I was passing a family group when one of them just asked “When was Warrior built?” Naturally, as I walked by, I answered “1860.” He was a bit surprised but thanked me profusely. I have no idea if anyone in his party would have known. Just a bit of perfect timing, really.

In the library, I collected the next set of books for entry and set to entering. Most of the books today concerned the process, rules and regulations around the employment of Boys in the Royal Navy. These days they would be called Cadets and be of both sexes.

Some of the books were dry old tomes full of regulations that I’m certain no human has ever bothered reading since they were originally written. Others, however, were quite interesting.

As well as these sort of books I also worked on a lot of Naval Term Dictionaries. These comprise various languages into English for naval terms used around the globe. There were French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, and the rest. These books were used by the Ministry of Defence in order to keep up with what other navies were calling things. New versions would supersede old ones which were then destroyed.

I also entered a few dictionaries that just had English Naval Terms. I rather liked this entry for AVAST-HEAVING:

I can just imagine someone getting a foot stuck in a cable and yelling out “Avast-heaving!” rather than “Stop please!” or the more obvious “HELLLLLLLLLLLP!” Still rules are rules and, to be exact, if you are carrying out your duties when you foot gets caught, you aren’t supposed to make any noise anyway (see Rule IV above).

Heather was enjoying a half day today so she escorted me off the premises at 2:45. In passing she mentioned how happy she is with my work, saying it made a big difference having someone who actually knew what he was doing. With head held a little higher, I walked off and caught the trains and bus home.

Back in Farnham, when I picked the girls up, Sue informed me that Emma was in season…which is just one of those things. It will mean a more restrained walk for her for a few days given I’ll have to put her on a lead whenever we see another dog approaching. And, as Mirinda said, she’ll not get taken to Frensham this weekend. I also missed seeing Pip as she was visiting the New Forest for the day.

I’m including this short video of my trip from Guildford to Aldershot this afternoon. The voices belong to the hordes of school kids on the train. It is in direct contrast to my morning train that is full of sleeping adults. And for train spotters…this is the section of track that joins the line to Waterloo.