30 - Up around 8:30am after only a handfull of hours of dreadfully disturbed, dream laden sleep . . walked. . mowed the lawns. Amazing how fast everything is growing! . . It's the pirate festival this weekend (and more interestingly the big biker meet in Pgntn), with loads of events on the quayside from today onwards. That film company/website guy never got back to me about filming did he. Just as well - I was intending to apologise and say no. I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of going anywhere near town/people and subjecting myself to any of that! Absolutely NOT! . . ate Mum donated pilchards in tomato sauce with chopped spring onion this time in bread rolls and a little chocolate . . napped until around 6:30pm. . .drove to walk in a hint of rain . . TVd the night away. Guitarred just a touch . . did a little dish washing. Just enough so I had something to eat off! . . ate chicken and mushroom pastry slice with chips and some chocolate . . to bed around 1:11am.
29 - Woken around 7:55am by neighbours door slamming . . .walked in a bit of rain. Damn - the zip pull on the raincoat I recently scored in a charity shop, disintegrated in my hand! So - that was NOT a good deal on this occasion. :o( . with the recent lull in activity in the gdns, the litter situation has improved dramatically. I didn't even use a carrier bag this morning - managed to carry all I found in both hands. I even managed to remove some of the old poop bags hanging from branches that nutcases had thrown into the bushes! . . PCd a bit more of this. SO time consuming-I just can't keep up with it! Loads of 'unfinished' bits I STILL want to clear up. . ate Mum donated pilchards in tomato sauce with chopped onion in bread rolls and chocolate before having a nap . . woke with the alarm at 7:30pm . . skipped the evening walk . . TVd . . PCd a bit more of the 'unfinished' this for hours. Actually - I think that's gonna have to do. . TVd . . ate bananas and kipling tarts . .touched base with BB!!!! . . PCd, surfing until around 4am before eventually to bed. I've surfed a bunch of stuff recently. It's shockingly horrific to me how most of the (web=young) population seem to have almost zero empathy for others! A couple of things amongst the stuff I've bumped into made something of an impact on me:-
i) "It costs council tax payers £780 million a year to clean (litter from) the streets of England". (from Keep Britain Tidy Org) Just imagine what 'could' be done with that - year after year after year!
ii) "the word “litter” should not be used in teenage communications as it is not part of their vocabulary."
"Teenagers were very happy to admit they drop litter on an almost daily basis. This is in stark contrast to ENCAMS’ adult litter research, where dropping litter was accompanied by high levels of guilt, and often, total denial. When adults were persistently probed their littering transgressions emerged, but most felt less guilty about quite serious misdemeanours than their subversive littering behaviour. Teenagers appear to have a total lack of guilt regarding littering, and this cannot therefore form the basis of litter messages unlike ENCAMS’ adult campaigning." (from 2002 ENCAMS commissioned market research into teenagers’ littering behaviour. It was good to actually see "Teenagers appear to have a total lack of guilt regarding littering" in a 'research conclusion' like that. That's EXACTLY what I've been seeing in their behaviour - everywhere - and not only in respect of littering - AND not only in respect of teenagers!!!!! Can you imagine our future? Can you even begin to, really? Jeezzzzzze!!!!!!! :o(
28 - Up around 7:15am. A little flurry of e-mail replies concerning the mail I sent yesterday seems to confirm people ARE taking notice . . walked. Passed someone on the way to BGdns who said what had been going on down there of late was front page news on the local paper!!!!! Blimey. For the first time in ages, the gardens were quiet and largely unspoiled, with hardly any litter around to pick up at all. What a JOY! Didn't even manage to fully fill a carrier bag. I DID however end up taking home a big wet towl someone had left behind in the undergrowth. I'd spotted it last night but figured someone would be back to claim it. They hadn't so I figure after a wash it'll be useful for wiping down Sally. If not for a hole, it would have almost been useful for me! . HMS Daring was visible through the haze moored over by Tqy . . walked back via the local newsagents and bought a couple of copies of the local paper. Stopped in at Mums for a coffee while reading the article in the paper in her garden. Blimey - there's been even more going on down there than 'I' know about! B******s! At least now it's been given some SERIOUS publicity. Excellent. Can't tell you how pleased/relieved I am. (I DO try to be as accurate with my accounts here, as I can possibly be. It concerned me how the newspaper reports were in places less than 'entirely' concise or accurate. lol) . . received an e-mail from the Marine Conservation Society people re the seagull footage. "Just to let you know that your package arrived safe and sound this morning. I haven't actually viewed it, it was passed on quickly to our Technical Team who were very keen to get hold of it!" Excellent! . . PCd a bit of this - but feeling up-tight, sweaty and ready for sleep again already! . . .showered. I only mention this because I DO unfortunately seem to have involuntarily returned to the up-tight, under-seige, expecting-attack state of body and mind that I experienced in Bristol for so long. It affects every single thing you do. For instance - you find yourself debating in your mind at what time of day may it be 'safe' to have a shower, therby rendering yourself vulnerable and not so readily able to take whatever defensive or evacuating action may be necessary in the event of 'an incident'! You can't just 'turn that off'. It also kills the 'creative' part of my mind and makes touching the guitar out of the question. :o( . . my slightly more upbeat mood of earlier, quickly evaporated thanks to me reading the comments people had posted on the local newspaper website article. A couple of nutters with their own axe to grind had suggested the trouble had been caused by a group of 'young farmers' who had visited Tqy on mass over the weekend apparantly. They HAVE apparantly had big trouble with them in the past, but all the reports from this year indicated they were not 'quite' such a problem. They were almost certainly nothing to do with ANY of the incidents in BGdns. Foolishly I felt obliged to set that record straight by posting a comment: "I have personally witnessed 'some' of these incidents. Believe me - uncomfortable as it may seem, most if not all of this was down to the LOCAL 'youths'." This resulted in someone commenting thus: "I hope as a good citizen you told the police of what you witnessed...or did you you just observe? You knew they were local so why did you not report them?" Being obviously over emotionally involved in all this, what with my Bristol 'baggage' and all, that REALLY pissed me off. The second part of the sentence in particular seemed to be a statement of 'fact', openly accusing me of having done absolutely nothing. Ok - first of all - lets ignore the fact that with just one exception that I know of, EVERYONE else in Bgdns DOES turn the other way and totally ignore everything - I guess I have to accept that I have NOT called the police on occassions that I 'maybe' should have. There ARE several reasons for this. Amongst them there is of course all my Bristol 'baggage' and my sickening familiarity with how the police actually respond to such calls - i.e. they won't turn up for hours, if at all - so why bother calling if what you are seeing will likely be over by then? Also - there is my consistantly erronous assumption that the people causing all the problems are intelligent enough to perhaps be 'reasoned' with. Because Sally and I so often have no choice but walk past or through the groups of people involved, I have little choice but to engage them in some conversation and WILL challenge their behaviour if it is likely to be 'relatively' safe to do so! Repeatedly making that same mistake - it is then diifficult for me to call the police because it would be obvious to the yobs who had done so, thus making me the 'target' again. There IS more, but its hard for me to put it into words here. ON TOP of all of THAT and perhaps worst of all - particularly since moving down here, I really am in a TOTAL state of confusion about what is and is not acceptable behaviour nowadays!! Based on conversations I've had with many people, it appears to have been a tradition for generations, that the locals 'party' in BGdns and the beach and woods behind Churston Cove. Who the hell am I, the 'out of towner', to start calling the police every time they carry on that tradition? At what precise stage does an innocent bunch of (young) people having a bit of a fire and some beers and a 'smoke', become a police-notifiable incident of anti social behaviour? (The 'kids' on the motorbikes for instance - I had the nerve to make it clear they were 'in error' in their behaviour, I filmed 'evidence' - but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and walked away!) It's all been VERY difficult for me. I've tried to do the 'right' thing as best I could for 'the community' or society (an amusing paradoxical concept, coming from a people hating recluse who feels 'wronged' by that very same community/society!). I think I do and have done more than most!! Blah, blah, blah, f***ing blah! Anyway - suffice it to say, that guys stupid baiting comments REALLY brought me down and angered me. So much so - I was pathetic and fool enough to bite, and commented again: "Oh pious B, I am much offended. Why do you seek to infer it is 'I' who am somehow at fault in this? You have no idea what I may or may not have done. You have no idea the price I have ALREADY paid. Walk a mile in my shoes. I am MUCH offended!" Soon after he responded: "Pious me...think not. All I asked if you reported this to the police or other authorities as many good citizens would...a simple question but a strange answer from you. Sorry to offend, that was not the intention." Uhuh. He has NO IDEA! We both need to get a life don't we! :o( . . spotted rain was forecast tomorrow. Damn - I'd suggested to Mum I'd clear out all her full-of-moss etc rainwater gutters around her house in the next day or so. Guess I really should get up there and do that before it rains. . touched base with Mum then walked up with Sally and cleared out all the gutters. Good couple of buckets full. Refused money (after some argument) - accepted food donation . . drove to walk. Very quiet evening again. Spent much longer than I'd intended, sat on a seat having a chat with another dog walker, etc . . back home, the neighbour offered me some more eggs if I wanted them. Accepted a bunch and loaned him my 'only used once' ellectric router tool . . . TVd . . PCd and somehow managed to face doing an edit of the seagull footage, set to Edvard Grieg's 'The Death Of Ase' from the Peer Gynt Suite. Had to use a Youtube download of the music because my copy was from an old record and had a scratch/jump on it! Still find it oh SO painful to watch that. Much of the editing (mostly modifying the music to fit the required length) was done whilst kinda trying not to watch it!!?!! Eventually got there and uploaded it to Youtube. I'm uncomfortable doing 'duplicates', but I think I'm gonna have to leave both copies of the same video up there, because the first unedited one may have been linked-to, and just in case the music one ends up being censored for copyright . . ate two bananas and bowls of muesli before to bed around 2am. ds
27 - Up around 7:50am . . walked in the warm sun, without my winter layers. Actually got the 'wardrobe crisis' about right this morning. Big layer of sea mist sitting on the deck a little way out to sea and very slowly drifting across the bay, with ships appearing and disappearing in and out of it. Snapped a couple of shots of the results of last nights fire, etc. . feel just a little more 'in control' of myself today for some reason, rather than that awful panicky, crazy, 'waiting for the attack' feeling I've been suffering after the recent events? . . PCd and eventually started compiling a bunch of photos and drawing up a 'log' of the most recent BGdns events. Took hours! . PT (the Bgdns 'main man') phoned to update me about things. It didn't fully register with me when he said it, but apparantly he'd just been down there with a press photographer from the local paper. It does seem as though things have been stirred up a little as a result of recent events. Apparantly there is now an open police crime log, and any further vanadalism/damage-in-progress type events should be immediately reported via 999. (I was unaware but last night someone allegedly also broke at least one of the padlocks on the steel shutter door in the rear of the main battery - where I'd seen those guys breaking timber for the fire etc.) He also suggested he'd have the gas mask/bong off me because he was concerned it 'may' have actually somehow have been one of theirs stolen from the museum - the mask, not the bong I trust! lol I suggested they should start a whole new display with it, together with photos of how the place is constantly being trashed. He'd apparantly attempted to replace some of the stones in the retaining wall. .despite what he'd said, I decided to finish of my 'log' with pictures and eventually surfed to find a random bunch of e-mail addresses and then mailed it ('semi' anonymously) to anyone who I thought could be interested or should know (local government, town counil, local newspaper, etc, etc.). Not as easy as it sounds, since most websites these days seem to avoid e-mail addresses and have dedicated 'contact us' forms instead, which I presume you cannot attach photos to. I was sadly NOT able to e-mail the police a copy for example! Crazy . . .just the effort of doing that exhausted me and took all day - and had me all up-tight and anxious, sweating profusely from my armpits in particular!!?!! PTSD?. . ate a tin of baked beans, grated cheese and four pieces of bread and butter and chocolate. A news item today suggested a correlation between feeling depressed and high chocolate consumption. Uhuh. . .napped until around 7pm . . walked. All VERY quiet in the Gdns with notices affixed to lots of trees around about the place, informing it was a criminal offence to damage the place. :o) They won't be there long of course, but it certainly shows how things have been positively stirred up. Excellent. IP (responsible for having put up the signs) turned up actually checking on the place while I was sat there. Had a brief chat. :o) . . TVd the night away . . ate bacon chips and some chocolate around midnight . . to bed around 1:30am.
26 - Woke earlier then up around 8am. . walked picking up litter.
Once again, last night - since I was last
there, someone had partied near the newly vandalised seat in
front of No2 gun battery. They'd had another bonfire and this
time had used large rocks, torn from the old retaining wall next
to the path, to circle and retain their fire!! (Plenty of bits of
smashed glass beer bottle laying amongst the grass, but
suprisingly little debris otherwise? Had someone else already
picked up?) So - part of that old wall has now been destroyed. I
toyed with the idea of trying to 'repair' it, but the rocks were
pretty large and it wouldn't really have been possible to just
push them back in position - it'll take some digging and such to
do a half proper job, and make it safe from the likelihood of
increasing collapse. :o( . . One of the dog walkers told of how
yesterday mid afternoon, they were all in their house with an
aged aunt over for Sunday lunch sat in the bay window. A passing
group of kids had thrown a seagull's egg
at the window (presumably because they saw the old lady sat there)!
The force of the impact on the window was stated as being enough
to have potentially given her a heart attack at her age! (Oh yes
- I know all about THAT noise don't I! If you've not experienced
it, you really have no idea just how much of an impact that makes.
It WILL suprise you that the glass can take it!) According to the
story related to me, someone had run out and actually managed to
get hold of one of the youths! He immediately lied and denied any
involvement of course, as they always absurdly do these days,
even if you've just actually stood there and watched them do
something! The police were called but of course they didn't turn
up for almost a couple of hours, by which time they'd long since
had to let the youth go. (Boy - did they take an awful risk doing
that! Again - I know! They are decent people - I so, so hope it
IS different down here and they don't end up being a nightly
target for those little yobs. :o( ). . PCd checking mail etc and
was unhappily forced to confront the news headlines on Yahoo.
"Blaze mother had called police." When I first
saw reports of that fire, I suspected it probably was, but SO
hoped it wasn't. But sure enough - "A mother whose two
older children (aged five and two) died in a house fire
an hour after she reported noise and anti-social behaviour in her
back garden had called police several times in the past three
years. // Investigations were continuing into reports that Ms
Adams had experienced problems with anti-social behaviour. It was
reported that shortly before the blaze broke out she posted a
message on Facebook saying: "You can smash the windows and
the car but you'll never get me and the kids." How many
more of these stories need to be reported before society finally
gets its stupid head out of its pollitically correct ass and
wakes up to what is REALLY actually going on out there?!! Imagine
the REAL number of people across the country who are enduring
this daily torture - and for what? My heart bleeds for what
remains of that family. I just want to cry. . surfed and found
myself looking at property for sale in the outer hebrides, Skye
etc. Haven't done THAT for a while! :o( . . -//-
Walked my usual route in trepidation before
coming upon youths breaking up timber against the side of No1 gun
battery and building up another big bonfire by the seat. Two
other youths were atop No2 battery and had been unearthing more
rocks from up there and bouncing them down off the metal gun
cover to the ones below, to be added to the ring of stones around
the fire! Had to get Sally to come close and keep her safe nearby
away from the fire as I was forced to walk between the two groups.
Particularly uncomfortable having one group several feet above me
(with rocks) looking down from the top of the gun emplacement
like that. It occurred to me (probably wrongly, but how the hell
am I to tell!) , just walking on without acknowledging their
existance was absurd under the circumstances, and would have
displayed potentially dangerous 'weakness' . I attempted to
engage the two near the fire in conversation, and began as 'innocently'
as I could by asking if it was them who'd been there having a
fire last night. They immediately denied they had been. I then
unfortunately degenerated into something of a rant, about the
idiots who'd destroyed part of the retaining wall. I can't now
quite recall the actual few words that were exchanged between us,
but suffice it to say, the next thing one of the yobs said
actually revealed he'd just lied and confirmed he HAD been
amongst last nights destructive group! For goodness sake. Why IS
it that EVERY time you talk to young people these days, they
instinctively without hesitation, lie? You absolutely CANNOT
believe a SINGLE word ANY of them say! What sort of a basis is
THAT for a fulfilled life? (Actually - I take that back - I guess
they will all end up being happy, wealthy bankers, politicians
and the like! :o( ) The crazy thing about their lieing is - I'm
absolutely not a particularly intelligent person, and yet even 'I'
can usually trip them up in a short conversation and make them
expose their own lies! How dumb can they be? The yob who'd just
exposed his own lie realised his mistake and went on to assure me
that ok - he had been there but it wasn't him who'd destroyed the
wall. F***ing idiot. I can't recall what the other exchanges were,
but I DID threaten to call the police before I carried on walking
up (thankfully without any rocks being thrown down on me). I sat
under the roof for my cigarette as usual, fuming. A couple of
other people were already sat there, completely ignoring what was
going on right in front of them!!??? My (empty) threat about
calling the police DID suprisingly have an affect on the youths.
They all ended up sitting on the edge of the roof of the gun
battery, occasionally looking uncomfortably back at me, absurdly
acting as though they were compeletely innocent of having done
anything or having any connection with the fire below or large
rocks prised from the earth laying just behind them. (I secretly
snapped a photo or two - just in case!) When they weren't looking
in my direction, I hastily made my way back to the car and got
outta there! . . Back home I promptly threw up! . . TVd . .
touched base with Mum . . PCd and somehow ended up surfing all
manner of weird scientific stuff. I was attempting to examine the
possibilty of links between early cannabis use and aggression in
youths!!. .. ate a couple of bananas and kipling tarts before to
bed around 2am.
Oh myyyyy god!
The carrier bag contained a bong and a new looking gas mask with
the front respirator part removed. The bong fitted into the
resulting oriffice perfectly. I've never seen that done, but it
was obvious what it was for. That's a new one on me - and
actually finding it like that felt a bit weird and sinister kinda.
Jeeze - imagine walking into those woods at night and stumbling
across someone using it! Scare ya to death!!! The 'bowl' part of
the bong had been reduced to just the tube, without any gauze or
wire wool, so I'm guessing it was used for sticking a joint in,
rather than anything more class-A serious. With the excavation
scene already 'disturbed' by having removed the carrier bag, I
belatedly snapped a couple of photos, 'just for the record'. All
very weird. The battery Heritage guys HAVE been doing some
digging work in the not far off old WWII electrical generator
building of late, but I couldn't really believe this was anything
to do with them - and if it wasn't, then what on earth was it? If
it were up to me, I'd have the police keep digging DOWN in the
hole for a bit - um - just in case (although there wasn't any
noticeable odour and didn't really look
like - 'that')! . decided to remove and hang onto the carrier bag
of drug paraphernalia, so the 'evidence' would be retained, but
also mostly so T's young boy wouldn't go running around playing
with it - which of course he was absolutely bound to! Eventually
managed to clamber back up to the seats and shared the discovery
with the other dog walkers. What to do? I think the general
concessus was that the police should be informed, although there
seemed no great urgency. I dabbled with the idea of walking
straight down town to the police enquiry office, but since it is
only part time, sods law suggests it would probably be closed
today. (Later I confirmed it IS closed on a Saturday!) I decided
to hang onto the mask and bong probably until Monday - and in the
meantime (fearful of creating another 'wild goose chase' type
affair) would attempt to make contact with someone from the
Battery heritage museum group, just to establish first whether or
not the excavations were anything to do with them and were 'official'.
Detoured with K in attendance via the closed battery museum as we
started back, in order to establish from the signs when they'd
next be open. Turned out to be tomorrow at 2pm. There was however
a phone number on the notice, so I thought I'd give it a call on
my seldom used mobile, to try and get straight to the bottom of
things. Funny to hear the phone ringing - inside the closed
museum! lol. . . stopped off at Ks, who said he had a number for
one of the battery heritage group. No answer so he gave me a slip
of paper with the number on. . back home I fired up the PC and
started searching for heritage group contact numbers. Found a
number for the 'main man' but there was no answer, so I left what
must have been a bit of a bizarre message attempting to explain
things, and asking him to call me back. Eager to get this latest
nonsense off my back, I thought what the hell and rang every
other number I could find for other members of the group.
Eventually got through to a wife of one of the members and
managed to explain everything. She even confirmed she had a
computer so I obtained her e-mail address and as soon as I'd
finished the call, sent her a copy of the trio of images I've
included here (and shortly after, another of the satellite image
slightly larger, with the routes of how to get to the site marked
in red - because it really wasn't too easy to find/reach). She
said she'd get him to call me back shortly. . Mum called in for a
cuppa and chats etc. We were sat at the PC with me telling Mum
the tale when the guy called me back. The excavation was NOT
anything to do with them! Indeed, so tight are the restrictions
about what can be done to a scheduled monument, he indicated that
much smaller works which they HAVE done, have had to be done
under the strict supervision of an approved archeologist!!! There
was even some mention about a several hundered pounds fine for
something that was once done by them that shouldn't have been!
His wife had apparantly promptly e-mailed a copy of the photos I'd
sent her to the local police! Excellent. That'll do me - I've
suitably got things stirred up a little bit. Quite right too!
This isn't just some grotty little piece of open space on the
coast that the yobs should be allowed to trash and deny the rest
of us. It IS something special. It IS of REAL historical value.
IT IS something that should be fought for and retained for the
future! . . ate Mum donated bacon in bread rolls and chocolate .
.struggled to stay awake. The guy I'd left an ansaphone message
called me back and seemed by now to know all about the situation
and said the police had been made aware, so I guess that pretty
much drew a line under things for me (although I still have the
gas mask and bong laying around. Not sure what to do about that.
Hand it in to the local police enquiry office or just hang onto
it? I'm not sure I want it hanging around! I bet e-bay doesn't
allow the sale of such stuff. Charity shop? Naw - I'd probably
end up finding it in the gardens again! lol). .a rescue
helicopter swooped low over the town somewhere around mid
afternoon, and appeared to land up Berry Head way! . . really
wanted to nap, but decided instead to walk really early, and take
the camcorder and tripod and sit on my favourite gun emplacement
for a bit, in the hope of something pleasant/interesting to film,
and in order to get the walk over and done with before I would be
exposed to any more evening 'assaults' on the gardens. . . at
some point while I sat there, I became aware of noise and
movement in the trees up the slope behind me. An old guy
presumably from the battery group was making his way through the
woods, obviously going to examine the scene of the excavation.
Good. . .at one point, a couple of people with a little toddler
sat on one of the seats at the bottom of the big grassy area
enjoying the view. The parents breifly took their eye off the
child and he ran back across the grass, making a bee-line for the
big scar that was recently made in the middle of the area by one
of the partying youths bonfires. He jumped into the circle of ash
and started playing with it like it was a sand pit! (Actually -
perhaps just consider when reading this, all the bottles that are
always smashed around the place by the local youths, and the
shards of glass that always remain
afterwards, no matter how much one tries to pick up - never mind
all the dogs and other wildlife, and the people who go barefoot
on the grass on a sunny summers day!) The child ended up kneeling
in the ashes, picking up handsfull of the stuff and throwing it
up into the air, for it to drift around in the breeze like smoke.
He clearly got a fair bit in his eyes at one point. The whole
incident only lasted seconds before the parents realised what was
going on. Ignorant of the potential dangers of doing so, the
child was encouraged to wipe his blackened hands on the grass!!!
It's SUCH a shame you daren't innocently film things like that
these days. That would have been absolute GOLD DUST if captured
on film. :o( . . later a group of four young women (teenagers)
passed by on the path below me, and made thier way to the top of
the nearby search light bunker. I didn't see him arrive but a
young man joined their group at some point. He left them sat on
top of the searchlight bunker drinking their cartons of coffee
and Redbull and made his way around the fence and took to the
dangerously precarious litter strewn slope just below. That slope
is absolutely COVERED in all manner of bottles, cans, refuse,
litter and debris (many times more must have reached the rocks
and sea below) - casually added to by the girls as I occasionaly
watched out of the corner of my eye! Without a second thought or
twinge of conscience, upon finishing their drinks, they
immediately tossed the empty containers straight over the fence.
Although I've much wanted to every time I walk past, I've never
had the nerve to attempt to reach that area. It's fenced off for
a good reason. Nasty slope and deadly drop to the rocks below.
That didn't deter the young man. He picked his was across the 'debris
field' to an area of dried undergrowth and began tearing
handfulls of it out of the ground to throw up to the girls on the
bunker. They were making a fire. At some point he discovered in
the debris at his feet, a not yet empty aerosol of something or
other. He also threw that up to the girls befiore eventually
making his way back around the fencing to rejoining them as the
fire was made. 
I was NOT deliberately keeping watch on them
- but such was their loud behaviour, it was difficult to ignore
them. It would have been oh SO easy to have turned the camcorder
on the tripod and deliberately filmed them at length - but of
course I absolutely couldn't do that. All the more so considering
the appearance of one of the girls!!!!!!! 'Somewhat' ! overweight,
she appeared to have difficulty in finding clothes that covered
her assets - or more preciseley - her fat a**! Don't blame ME for
the image I AM going to include here which I DID dare to capture!
I didn't want to be presented with that sight - big buttocks
bissected by a piece of string looming out at me!!! Believe me -
with MY camcorder zoom - if I'd wanted to, I could have probably
made money out of the sights she continualy presented to every
poor passer-by! What may not be immediately evident in the photo
against the backdrop of a yacht moored just off the coast, is the
Redbull drink can, in mid air, which she has 'just' thrown over
the fence to add to the rubbish strewn clifftop! Grrr. What
angered me enough to incite me to point the camera at them here,
was the sight of the empty plastic carrier bag they'd brought
their drinks in, being allowed to just blow away across the grass
from where they were sat because they were done with it. .
shortly after this they began setting light to their fire, but I
was busy filming an incoming trawler and didn't see what was
going on. Having said that, I WAS aware from the shouts and
screams, that the aerosol can DID feature in whatever they were
doing to get the fire going. In the middle of setting up shots
for the incoming trawler footage, I heard a russle below and
became aware that seagulls had quickly descended and had grabbed
a bag of rubbish - litter that someone sat on one of the nearby
seats had simply walked off and left behind. We ALL know seagulls
do it in their desperate fight for survival - we've all seen it -
but you don't often get the chance to actually film them opening
up rubbish like that. Too good an opportunity to miss - I
sacrificed my trawler footage and quickly swung the camera round
and filmed as the seagull opened up the bag and emptied out the
contents, which turned out to be some rubbish, and at least one
other plastic bag containing some food remnants. What I hadn't at
all expected was what I actually ended up filming!!! After an
angonisingly long period of trying, the poor seagull ended up
actually swallowing the entire plastic bag before ultimately
flying off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Utterly horrific. 
(Picking
up all the debris the following morning, it appeared to me that
the aerosol had actually blown out the top seamed part of the
tube, rather than fragment like shrapnel.) . a short time after
this with more hollaring and shouting, the group ran across the
grass and all climbed up onto the roof of the yacht club hut, and
ended up continuing their 'fun' up there!!?? I have seen others do that. One of these
days, that roof is gonna collapse under such pressure!
Inconspicuously grabbed a couple of photos of them up there
before packing up and heading off, really still VERY upset about
what I'd filmed. It wasn't actually THEIR discarded carrier bag
which had killed THAT seagull - but it could have been, and
theirs may yet account for the death of something else - and they
couldn't give a s**t. I absolutely HATED
them and all their kind! . . ended up in a weird somber mood sat
on one of the seats higher up for quite a time, trying to avoid
seeing seagulls, before eventually heading home. . .very upset -
had to immediately go and try to nap. 'Eventually' to sleep for
almost a couple of hours . . TVd . . eventually mustered up the
courage to PC and review what footage I may have got of the
seagull. God that's hard to watch!! In fact SO painful, apart
from cutting out a small segment to reduce it to Youtube's 10
minute limit, I just uploaded the whole sequence as it was
without touching it, just so as not to have to go over it again!
(That piece at the very end, even includes a brief hint of the
language and behaviour of the unpleasant fire making group on top
of the search light bunker!) That is an important piece of
footage 'I' think - and should be compulsory viewing for EVERYONE,
especially the spoiled-rotten 'youngsters' round here! :o( If the
stupid and ignorant EVER needed any proof, that my outrage at the
allegedly 'petty crime' of littering IS, TOTALLY justified, then
this must SURELY be it! I have absolutely reached a point in my
life, where if there was any doubt when I was younger, there is
no longer - I HATE humanity. Loath the species. If we were all to
be wiped off the face of the planet by some swineflue type
pandemic or some such, I would heartily cheer with my dying
breath! . . . drank wine . . ate a banana and a Mum donated scone
type thing . . . very unhappy . . eventually to bed in the early
hours only to be unable to sleep until well gone 4am and plenty
of birdsong. d 
exactly as I'd
predicted, pallets, cardboard, bottles and debris had all been
left on top of the number 1 gun emplacement. I no longer clear up
anything. I've absolutely had enough! :o( . . the new steel I
beam in the Battery control bunker was all cemented in place and
was being painted over already. . .messed around with the old,
still 'just' about going lawn mower. Attempted to sharpen the
blunt battered ends of the blade and even actually deliberately
bent it just a little, in the hope it would give a slightly
shorter cut to the grass. It doesn't cut anywhere near short
enough and suprisingly has no means of adjusting the cut height.
As a result, whenever I mow the lawn, it looks as though it needs
another trim quite literally only a couple of days later!!
Whatever I did seemed to improve things, and I even got the bends
in the blade equally enough to improve the balance of the thing,
and reduce the awful noise it's been making since I last messed
with it. Trimmed both lawns, front and back. Definitely shorter -
definitely improved slightly. . pottered in the front garden.
Emptied a pot I inherited which has been sat next to the steps
near the front door. Despite constantly drying out because I
never water it, some miniature daffodil type flowers had appeared
from it recently. Seemed a far better idea to have those in the
ground somewhere, so I planted them in the bit of empty border
below the patio. .cut up and disposed of a badly mishapen ugly
hebe type plant in an adjacent border and tidied it up etc, etc.
. gave Mum a call and checked if it would be ok to pop round and
pick up the couple of pots of campanula diggings from her garden,
which she's had there waiting for me for months. Its incredible,
especially for around here, that my garden doesn't have any - and
I like it and want some - like I used to have everywhere back in
Bristol! (I 'need' some grape hyacinths too!) Left Sally at home
and walked to Mums to pick up the three pots in a large carrier
bag. In conversation Mum suggested I take the opportunity to have
a look at her neighbours roof. A company had recently done a 'blitz'
in the area, selling that painted-on roof treatment you often see
on cowboy builder type programs. I've always assumed it's a botch
type con, and more or less recommended Mum steer well clear of it,
when she showed me their advert and said her neighbour was having
it done. (Having said that, I imagine it IS good at keeping down
the moss growth, which IS quite a problem round here what with
the climate and all the bird droppings and such). . looking at
the front of that neighbours roof, I admit it DID at first sight
look ok and kinda new and nicely weatherproof looking (but then
of course it has only just been done). On closer examination I
quickly spotted a very noticeable large crack in the side render
beneath a couple of the tiles, and in JUST the right place to
enable rainwater to get blown in under the lower tile! Blimey -
if I'd just paid a company several hundred pounds to jet wash the
tiles, rectify bad pointing and coat MY roof, I'd have been
utterly horrified if they'd left it like that! As I was pointing
that area out to Mum - right then, just as she located the hole
and raised tile I was talking about, a pair of house sparrows
landed nearby and while the male sat on guard nearby, the female
darted INTO the hole! Oh my god! They've just spent hundreds of
pounds having their roof 'done' and lo and behold, they have
birds nesting beneath the tiles!!!!!! Well - I guess that
confirms my instinctive warnings about having that done were
accurate. Poor birds. Hope they manage to pull that off before
the owner notices. . got the campanula and planted it in the
front garden . . ate dog food beef and onion in gravy with chips
. . napped . . drove to walk. As I walked, in the distance a
little way off along the coast, I briefly spotted the silouette
of a wet dog stood on the rocks. That ended up worrying me and
had me sit for quite a while watching for further sight of it,
just to make sure it was ok. The thing is, the bit of the coast
it was on is as far as I'm concerned quite inaccessable. In the
past I'd climbed around on the rocks nearby where it was with
Sally, and had eventually withdrawn because it was too steep and
dangerous to continue. I failed to find a way down the cliffs to
where I'd just seen that dog. With no further sight of the dog, I
got increasingly concerned and ended up asking a passing walker
who was a local if they knew those rocks and if it was possible
to get down there. He didn't seeem to know either. To cut a long
story short, I ended up shouting out to a passing rubber dingy
with outboard motor that was aimlessly buzzing around, and the
occupants happily headed off along the coast in the direction I
indicated to check that everything was ok. Turned out it WAS all
ok - there was a guy happily amusing himself down on the rocks
with his dog! Ooops. lolol I think I need to start walking along
with my eyes closed and just mind my own bloody business! Wonder
how you DO get down to those rocks?. . back up along the paths, I
became aware of the outrageous noise of what was obviously a
couple of motorbikes being driven along the lower path as far as
they could before their way was blocked by all the steps!! Like a
moth drawn to a flame, I HAD to go and see what was going on. I
headed down the shortcut track through the trees to my favourite
vantage point on top of the lower gun emplacement. Sure enough, a
group of apparantly dope smoking youths were rampaging around the
grass and paths on a go-ped and a miniature motorbike (neither of
which had any form of silencer so it appeared. Absolutely
deafening noise!) The slope up over the top of the old
searchlight pill box was being used as a jumping ramp! It
unfortunately just so happened that I ended up sat at my vantage
point only feet from them, so there was no chance of being
unobserved! My face is perhaps a permanent scowl, but it must on
this occasion have looked worse than normal making my disapproval
very apparant to them. One of them called out at me and said
"Do you have a problem with what we're doing?" I said I
DID! Trying SO hard not to get bogged down in a direct
confrontation I suggested if they were gonna do that - then at
least do it down in the woods (trashing the woods being the
lesser of two evils, less likely to offend evening walkers and
not damaging to the scheduled monument?). They ignored my
suggestion, so I said they wouldn't mind being videoed then? Dumb
as dirt, (or supremely confident in their complete
invulnerability?) they seemed to like that suggestion and called
out that I should put it on Youtube!!!!!! I said if I did, they
wouldn't like the tile I';d give it. 'Brixham Yobs'. 
They carried on ranting around and rolling
and sharing their smokes, seemingly without a care in the world
that I WAS indeed filming a bit of their activities. Incredible!????
I fairly soon stopped filming. I mean - really - what the hell
was I actually gonna do with the footage? I certainly wasn't
about to put it on youtube (although, perhaps I should? Too many
people around here have rose tinted glasses and no idea what
REALLY goes on!). The other alternative would of course be to let
the police have it, but - been there, seen that, done that (in
Bristol) and look where it got me - much trauma, hardship,
permanent psychological damage, and now it would appear, right
back to square one, all for nothing!!! . . As I walked away and
made my way back up the slope, just below me a trio of well
dressed pensioners were slowly heading down the path having a
nice evening walk! Damn - wish I'd filmed for a bit longer. Would
have been just perfect to have got them on film having to
negotiate their way past the youths and bikes! . . I returned to
the car and headed home - kinda 'traumatised' and feeling utterly
overwhelmed by the last few days of deja vue. I do NOT apologise
for my emotional 'overreaction' to all this stuff, which I'm sure
most people somehow just shrug off and ignore! I have 'history'
with it. I have been permanently damaged
by it. I can neither ignore nor dismiss it. :o( . . I don't want
to be here any more. This is an EXACT carbon copy of how 'Bristol'
started. I can't stand it! I just can't bear it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:o( . . TVd , but don't ask me what the hell I sat in front of
all evening. My mind was desperately elsewhere. My plan of having
new windows put in and doing all that work on central heating and
such like on the house - well - under the circumstances, that's
all on hold isn't it. What's the point. :o( I think Mum called at
some point and I alluded in brief to what had been going on these
last few days, and tonight down at the Gdns. Her knee jerk
response was 'can't you find somewhere else to walk Sally.' Jesus
f***ing christ! Really? Is that what I'm supposed to do now? For
***** sake! Really, for ***** sake!!!!. . ate a Mum donated
battenburg cake and co co pops before to bed around 2am. s
walked in the warm sun. Repeated yesterdays
clear up of the rocks, PLUS picked up the dozen empty glass
bottles of Becks beer strewn around on the grass on top of the
lower search light emplacement! K ended up carrying them all home
to put in his recycling bin. The more of this I encounter, the
more and more absurd seems all the effort I put in, to sorting
out for recycling all the relatively small amount of waste I
produce. My entire recycling efforts for a year can be undone by
one small group of yobs in BGdns in a day - and regularly is!! To
be honest I think K took those bottles home because in disgust, I'd
not bothered to actually put the bulging carrier bag(s) of
bottles IN the bin (awkward narrow gap), but instead had left
them on the floor alongside. He recounted how he'd cleared up
bottles in the past, only to find the next day somene had taken
them back out of the bin and smashed them all around! . . I ended
up coming home with a full left-overs dog-food beef joint, + more.
. sat around all day, miserable, just not 'functioning' at all! :o(
. . drove to walk. As I walked up from the lower path, I came
upon a group of youths (somewhat older than the others of late)
who had a bonfire going, right on the roof of the number 1 gun
battery! Right on the roof! As I made eye contact, I asked if I
could make an observation. I went on to explain that of all the
places they could have had their bonfire, THAT just had to be the
craziest (or did I actually say 'f***ing stupid'? I'm afraid I 'may'
have!), because of the waterproof bitumen type layer that lines
the top of the concrete right there, an inch or so beneath the
burned grass. The heat from the fire would inevitably damage that
layer (as HAS happened on the top of my favourite gun emplacement
sitting position down below) and would inevitably lead to water
ingress and damage to the structure of the 'Scheduled Historical
Monument'. My observations were of course ignored. From the
roofed seats above, I watched as the fire was fed and built up
further. (The only redeeming part of this was - they did at least
burn a lot of the buddlea cuttings that litter the area!)
Incredibly, whoever these people were and wherever they'd come
from, they'd actually come fully equipped for their evening of
smoking dope and drinking next to their fire. They'd somehow
managed to carry several wooden pallets and stacks of flat packed
brand new cardboard boxes all the way up
there!!!???? Pallets and cardboard that weren't being used to
fuel the fire were being used as seats. . now let me say this -
in principal I must have little objection to such a gathering.
Sitting with your mates around a camp fire sharing a 'smoke' and
a tipple in such a picturesqe setting must surely be a really
cool way to spend an evening. The objection I have is the selfish
way in which they ALWAYS behave. Never mind the fact that on this
occasion they must surely have stolen the pallets and cardboard
boxes from the fish market or somewhere similar - what REALLY
kills me is how they consider their environment to be a personal
'consumable'. They haven't a thought for the mess or damage they
cause, or for the effect that has on others. Have your little
party by all means - just don't inflict any of it on others, and
when you are done, make it like you were never there! Don't 'use
the place up' and then just throw it away! . I had absolutely NO
DOUBT whatsoever, by morning there would be one hell of a mess
left behind by them - never mind the potential hidden damage to
the battery roof - but what could I do! Nothing. :o( As I was
getting in my car to leave, one of them was nearby on his mobile
phone letting others know where they were. "We're down
the battery. We've got a fire going and shit." That
really almost had me laugh out loud. It was JUST like the
Armstrong and Miller TV show where they take the p*ss out of
todays youth. The WWII airmen sketches. 'Random'! lol . . . drank
wine and TVD. Ate pizza and drank more wine. Enough. . To bed
before midnight. d
the rocks down
by the yacht hut were absolutely covered
in litter - YET again! Really is hard to believe that people
could create such a mess and just happily walk away from it - day
after day after day!!. Went the 'extra mile', yet again, and
clambered down over the rocks picking it all up. :o( Mostly crisp
packets, sweet rappers, plastic drinks bottles etc, etc, (little
trace of alcohol) indicating it was VERY likely the same group of
'youths' (kids) that I (perhaps wrongly) suspect have been
staying at the nearby holiday camp, and who HAVE been responsible
for several of the camp fires and much of the litter strewn about
the place this last week or so (and very likely the yacht hut
break-in). Despite the abscence of much alcohol-related debris,
what there WAS in considerable quantities were empty coin bags,
empty tobacco pouches, rizlas with the cardboard flaps torn off,
and more than one 'dummy' (like a babies dummy but with big red
plastic lips on the outside instead of a handle) all just waiting
to be blown into the sea and kill the wildlife etc etc. Pretty
obvious what was going on there then - and at that age!!!!! God
help us all. Filled an overflowing carrier bag and carried it all
up to the bin (itself not emptied by the council for at least
three days). What HAS my life been reduced to?! (This is all
starting to get a bit 'deja vue'! Have I actually said it here -
I've come to recognise that - 'I am scared'. I am scared ALL THE
F***ING TIME!!!!!!!!! I can NEVER relax no matter how hard I try!
I live every moment in a constant state of adrenalin fuelled fear!
No wonder I'm always SO, SO tired!) . work has FINALLY started on
the uppermost main Battery control bunker. The topmost part had
been chained off some time ago because of the allegedly unsafe
steel 'I' beam supporting the thick concrete roof structure. Some
poor guy was in there this morning amongst a collection of accro-props
with a hammer and chisel, starting to chisel away the concrete
around the steel - by hand! Hell of a job - but I hope they get
it all done and re-instated and opened back up! Having said that,
all that'll mean is it'll then be used, abused and trashed by the
urinating/drinking/graffitiing/fire building/bottle smashing yobs
again, and will return to being the unpleasant no-go zone that is
always presented to the unsuspecting visitors who dare to poke
their heads in there when exploring the WW2 heritage site! :o(
What the hell is it all for. :o( . . . sat in the garden for a
bit before PCing this. The full virus scan of my PC came back
clean and revealed no reported threats, so I'm hopeful that IS
the case. It'd be awful to think I invest all this time in doing
this, only for it to be blacklisted as a source of virus threat
and blocked everywhere! Maybe it HAS been? lol . . .fired up the
(independent) PC in the living room and after having had to
charge the keyboard batteries before I could use it, ran a slow
and lengthy, full virus scan on that too, before going online and
checking my site was ok and acted normally. . ate a tin of
sausages in baked beans with grated cheese and four pieces of
bread and butter followed by a little chocolate while the PC ran
its scan. Everything eventually came back as clean and clear and
all working normally. . did a quick reply to the mail to let them
know and suggest THEY had a problem . . .napped . . drove to walk.
Well - at least the bins have been emptied. . the local 'youth'
were all out in their small sailboats and I sat around for just a
bit having a poke with the camcorder - mostly because there just
wasn't any wind, and they were all driving their little boats
along by standing up, hanging on to the mast and leaning back and
forth. Actually seemed to me as a land-lubber, to be a
suprisingly effective way of getting the things moving! Sadly the
pleasant evening was utterly ruined by the big rowdy drinking
group of mostly girls (locals I believe)
who were all sat on the rocks, screaming, singing and shouting
out at whoever was in the boats. Horrible, horrible. Eventually
they all wandered noisily off, and sure enough, the litter I'd
cleared up from the rocks had been replenished - with interest!
Several carrier bags were blowing around on the breeze amongst it
all, and at least half a dozen glass bottles were floating around
the rocks in the sea! They must surely have been carefully and
deliberately put in the water, because they were all just bobbing
around half submerged with their open necks uppermost. Incredible
that locals - the very people who you'd think would be taught to
respect the place (especially considering the local economy
largely relies on holiday makers coming to see the natural beauty
of the area and wildlife and such) would so casually trash it all!!!!!
I confess I DID point the camera at the mess they'd left behind a
little, but what the hell for I don't know. It appears to be the
way of the world doesn't it - that just littering everything, everywhere
is now pretty much socially acceptable!???? The local news site
had a recent article which got my back up. Headlined "These
Gluttons have an appetite for rubbish" it lauded how the
local council has just spent £61,000 on four new electric-powered
street sweeping machines that act like giant vacuum cleaners,
which would NOT replace the current teams of street cleaners but
would work alongside them!!!! How on earth is that acceptable and
something to be pleased about? . As I messed around filming the
rubbish strewn rocks and bobbing bottles, I was amazed to see a
couple of people (foreign visitors I think?) move from their
previous seating position on a nearby seat, and go and sit on the
now vacated rocks - AMONGST all the rubbish and drifting carrier
bags, etc. You couldn't have paid me to sit there amongst all
that crap - and yet to them it appeared to be just part of the
usual landscape! Incredible. I despair. . . Chatted with a couple
of dog walkers who reported that they'd been sat there the other
night when the police AND fire brigade had turned up and had put
out a bonfire down below (actually by walking down a couple of
times with buckets of water! lol). Putting two and two together,
that MUST have been the evening of the 17th as a result of the
dog walkers phone call. Very suprised they bothered. . ended up
sitting around for ages more as darkness began to fall, watching
a small rubber dingy out in the bay not far from the end of the
breakwater, barely visible in the half light. What particularly
drew my attention on closer examination was the fact that it was
occupied by a guy on his own, and he had on a wetsuit!? Sure
enough, he eventually erected a small flag at the rear of his
boat, wetted some sort of bag, put on his scuba gear, and then
slipped overboard into the water and disappeared beneath the
waves! On his own - in increasing darkness (no lights on the
dingy - and actually too dark for my camcorder to film!) not far
from the main boat entrance to the outer harbour! I didn't see
him deploy any form of anchor, and yet the dingy appeared to
drift slightly in an unusual way, which suggested he may actually
have somehow been tied to it! I don't know much about these sorts
of things, but the whole set up seemed incredibly life-threatening
risky to me. No 'dive buddy', no lights, in the near dark, just
out of the main boating lane, etc, etc, etc. All very weird. I
HAD to stick around and keep watching, just to make sure he
resurfaced. He wasn't down for particularly very long before he'd
done whatever it was he was doing and somehow managed to climb
back into the boat - although by that time I could hardly see it
at all in the twilight. All very weird and incredibly risky. . .
TVd and watched a show called 'Blitz Street' where they'd built
an entire street, just so they could blow it up, to show what the
blitz would have actually been like-ish in respect of the effect
the dropped bombs would have had. The show WAS interesting and
was an intriguing concept (imagine the costs involved!!), but it
seemed to be ruined for me by its lack of attention to detail,
and most particularly their insistance that their test would
accurately duplicate the effects of the bombing. With the little
I know about such things, no way can I see how a controlled
explosion a couple of feet above ground, can in any way
accurately reflect the effect produced by a bomb dropped from a
high altitude aircraft! ANY amount of ground penetration WOULD
have caused FAR more of a damaging effect. Mum called to touch
base after the show to discuss it, and to recount some wartime
memories from her childhood. One tale was of how she once shared
a bed during an air raid with auntie Min. (I can barely remember
her. A strange colourful character - but endearing as I recall.)
Apparantly all the windows of the house were blown in by a bomb
blast. Auntie Min allegedly commented to my Mum that 'there would
be plenty of dead Germans in the garden the next morning'. Mum
said she found that to be a strange comment. I on the other hand
thought I understood it completely, and was rather moved, and
felt a greater respect for that funny old aunt. My take on it is
this - there she was laying in a bed with this little girl ( my
mum) when an air raid occurred, which could have meant imminent
death, for both of them. I have no doubt that her cuddling my
frightened Mum was not only about giving comfort, but was also
about actually sheilding her body from potential shrapnel, etc.
When all the windows were blown in, never mind her own fear of
death, she persisted in comforting my Mum by making up the
nonsense about dead Germans to look forward to in the garden the
next morning. In its own little way, that seemed like a selfless
act of some bravery. :o| . Mum also recounted how Auntie Min
never quite understood how to use makeup, and sadly always ended
up looking 'a little unusual' to say the least (THAT is what I DO
remember about her! lol) Prior to her retirement at the place she'd
worked for many years, 'young' staff were taken on who made sport
of mocking her appearance and humiliating her. On more than one
occasion Mum recalls her being deeply distressed and reduced to
tears by it! What shallow unfeeling bastards people SO often are.
:o( . . ate ham and mayo rolls, a banana and some chocolate . .
guitarred/TVd until bed around 1:30am. s
Oh NO!! A big
camp fire had been made on the grass right in front of the number
2 gun battery, next to one of the memorial seats - and the thick
top wooden slat of the back of the seat has been smashed into two!
F***ING BA******S!!! I can hardly contain the absolute HATRED I
feel for the yobs who do such things. It's a memorial seat for
gods sake! Insensitive, self centred, F***ING B*******S!!! That's
tantamount to desacrating a grave! :o( . (In fact - every square
foot of the place really IS pretty much that, given the amount of
cremation ashes that are regularly discretely deposited around
about!) . . deposited the rubbish and broken glass I'd collected
up, in the bin, before having a go at climbing down the steep
wooded, bottle and can strewn slope to satisfy my curiosity. I'd
noticed something different - something red, far below in the
undergrowth the other day. A precarious descent, particularly
considering all the valuable equipment I carry, but eventually I
reached it. Turned out to be a portable CD/radio player! Despite
having been 'moved' by someone recently, it'd obviously been down
there for a while (together with a dented stainless steel cheese
grater!?) Having finally got round to making the descent, I
thought I'd check out the tent and other belongings that had long
since been dumped/abandoned down there - just to satisfy myself
that there WAS no skeleton amongst the debris. (A recent local
news item from not far away was about exactly that - a sleeping
bag found in the woods with someones remains in from last year!)
Plenty of bits and pieces of someones belongings ( I did NOT
attempt to enter the remains of the still partially erected,
rotting tent), a sleeping bag and a duvet. I moved the sleeping
bag and duvet just enough to confirm there was no-one 'resident'
but left them there. Eventually managed to stay on my feet and
climb back up, and carried the stereo and cheese grater with me
to angrily re-locate to the bin! . . .filled a carrier bag with
glass bottles from a local grass verge on the way home and added
them to my recycling bin (NOT something I am prepared to make a
habit of!). . PCd a bit of this but stopped to actually call the
police non-emergency number to report the 'criminal damage' to
the seat, for no other reason than to perhaps keep the statistics
just slightly more accurate. I'm sick and tired of reading that
the local crime statistics suggest everything is constantly
getting better! . . received my latest quarterly electric bill.
Around £65. Actually, that's not as bad as I'd imagined it could
be - maybe I can afford to shower a bit more often. I'm sure
people I pass in the street would appreciate that! . . did
laundry and pottered around clearing up just a little until Mum
called in with food donations for chats and to watch the latest
videos, etc. . she'd had a call from Auntie B reporting that
Uncle TJs cancer has returned with a bit of a vengeance from the
sound of it. :o( From what she related, it does rather sound as
though it's time for him to 'get his affairs in order' pretty
quick!! :o( An unhappy reminder - I need to as well! I SO need to
get a will done! I keep putting it off and putting it off - but I'm
painfully aware (literally!) that my own smoking/brick-dust
inhaling related health problems are really starting to take
their toll on me. (Actually - my washing machine appears to be
working a bit better of late - which suggests the problems I was
having with suspected worn bearings were directly related to the
ingress of all the dust I made doing those sockets in the kitchen!!
Washing machine is doing better than my lungs at recovering!)
Trouble is, it means having to go out and get 'involved' with 'people'
to get it done, and just like the windows and heating etc (and my
rotten teeth, need for glasses, need to register with a vet, etc),
I keep 'avoiding' doing so, because I just can't face it (never
mind the expense). :o( How cool it must be to wake up one day
only to find you died peacefully in your sleep! . . . ate three
sausages in buttered bread rolls and a little chocolate . .
napped for maybe just a couple of hours. Dream laden sleep - like
tuning in to alternative channel transmissions all being
broadcast at the same time! . . walked. Much litter all around
the place yet again - especially on the rocks down by the yacht
club hut! Hang on - what on earth is that flag doing draped over
that railing??? 
Oh NO!!!!!! It
turned out that someone had broken into the side of the yacht
club hut. The wooden panels from one entire side had been torn
off and thrown down the rocks towards the sea - and the flag (and
who knows what else) had been removed from within. :o( . I ummd
and ahhd a bit before heading off on the long walk to the yacht
club to tell someone. . "Sorry, no dogs in here".
That's NOT why I'm here! I told whoever seemd to care what I'd
found and suggested they needed to get someone to go out and
secure it. They said they'd get someone along to look. . returned
to BGdns and headed up the path past the newly vandalised seat.
Would you believe it - a group of half a dozen or more youths
were all sat around a huge 'teepee'
shaped fire of tree branches and timber, built up right next to
the seat - and the broken back rail of the seat was no longer in
situ (presumably burning in the fire!). I was unbale to contain
my anger and let fly with some abuse including calling them 'F***ING
IDIOTS!' which they seemed to take exception to and absurdly
replied 'it wasn't us'. One of them suggested he knew who it was
who'd broken into the yacht hut! . I carried on up away from them
and sat on a usual seat, fuming - powerless - watching the smoke
drift into the air! . . eventually had to get away from the 'unpleasant'
view and headed back down to sit on top of my favourite gun
emplacement, incidentally overlooking the yacht hut. Sure enough,
some old guy from the yacht club eventually turned up with the
keys to inspect the damage. I introduced myself as the person who'd
just reported it to them, and then volunteered to climb down onto
the rocks to retrieve the smashed bits of plywood that'd been
removed. As I did so, I also found a small pushbike secreted on
the rocks just below the hut!??? I carried that up and dumped it
by the hut too. As far as I could tell without attempting to
engage in too much of a conversation, nothing much except that
one flag had actually been removed from inside the hut. I left
him (and someone else who turned up) to trying to put the plywood
and contents in the hut, back in such a position as to 'discourage'
further entries, preumably until such time as they could arrange
a more substantial repair to the side of the structure. (I DID
for what it was worth, encourage them in reporting it to the
police - for statistical purposes at least). . back on my gun
emplacement overlooking, the youths from above who were sat round
the big fire (who'd said it was nothing to do with them)
eventually appeared and it turned out one of them was the owner
of the push bike! Uh huh. A few words were exchanged between them
and the guys trying to fix up the damaged hut, and then off they
happily went. . .the more I sat there, the more groups of loud
swearing youths appeared around the place. Obviously party time
tonight! Unpleasant - uncomfortable - time to leave!!!!! Exited
with another dog walker, who was also suitably outraged about
everything that was going on down there of late. Up on the higher
path, the big fire was still blazing, and a whole new group of
drinking youths were sat on the broken seat next to it, with more
arriving to join them! . . . on the return walk, I once again
passed an expensive house which has recently been sold. I'd
noticed that a whole collection of Harley Davidson bikes (one a
half built chop) had recently appeared outside - without number
plates. Obviously someone (with an absurdly large collection of
motorcycles!?) had moved back to the country from somewhere else.
Whenever I see such bikes I can't help but have a good look. Just
past the house, a guy came jogging towards me asking if I was the
one who'd done a video on Youtube! Umm - I may have done one or
two. I ended up strolling back with him to have a look at his
bikes. Turns out it's what he does - build bikes. He's moved back
here from Arizona! He did introduce himself and I said my name in
return, but as is always the case with me in such (stressfull)
circumstances, I IMMEDIATELY forgot his name. I'm not sure I
quite understood the story, but the gist of it seemed to be, he
was at some sort of hippy style music festival in Arizona a while
ago and the people he was with had asked what Devon etc where he
was going to move to was like, so somehow they'd ended up all
watching (200 of them mind!) one of my videos on some big TV
screen or other! I think he said the 'woods walk with the guitar'
one. Oh MYYyyyy GOD! How weird (and embarassing - that guitar was
AWFUL!) is that! Weird hairs on the back of my neck type feeling
that gave me. How weird. . . glancing back as we headed off, it
looked to me as though a police car had just come out of a
junction and was heading off in the direction of BGdns. Just
passing in coincedence no doubt. (Only a day later did I discover
to my joy, that the other dog walker I'd been chatting to had
actually returned home and called the police). . . guitarred for
a couple of hours feeling pretty down and wanting to escape.
Escape it all! . . TVd . . chilly evening . .ate a pastry slice,
half a sponge and chocolate . . to bed around 2am. Wasn't in bed
long before noise outside had me peeking through the curtains (and
layer of condensation - cold out!). A young woman was lead in the
road nearby - with a couple of friends in attendance. Legless
drunk, she was eventually noisily helped inside. .there was a
local news item recently that got a lot of coverage, about a
locally produced Youtube video that's been going a bit 'viral'. I
even had to look it up again and let Mum see it earlier. "Lindsey
Collard has released a tongue-in-cheek version of Alicia Keys'
hit 'Empire State Of Mind', with the lyrics tweaked to reflect
something closer to home. A video showing Lindsey playing the
piano and singing in various local locations accompanies the song.
The 22-year-old, who lives near Torquay Harbour, has named the
song 'Torbados', and its fame has spread far and wide on the
Internet. Within three days of its release it had received 10,000
views online and the video sharing website YouTube was awash with
comments, praising the song and saying that the cheeky lyrics
about drunken late night antics summed up life in the Bay. // The
song's lyrics parody the late night booze culture of Torquay that
has seen it feature on TV shows like Booze Britain, and the
hordes of tourists, hen parties and stag nights that journey to
the English Riviera to have fun."