Fareham

The aftermath of two night duties is never pleasant. It involves piecing together lost sleep and the disruption of bodily functions. An aging body does not cope well with these things. The weather, although unsettled, did bring some sunshine and it seemed appropriate to take advantage if only to do routine shopping. We went to Fareham for Greg's bank and the town centre brought two surprises. The first was an opportunity to photograph one of the sculptures in the misleadingly named Henry Cort Sculpture Park. Far from being any kind of park in which viewing might be a pleasure the eponymous area is merely the pedestrian precinct along which, on both sides, some largely unremarkable pieces have been placed. Don't expect Moore or Hepworth; don't expect even to know you are there. In the rather prosaic context of T K Maxx and Iceland shop fronts, the sculptures lose much of any impact they might have had elsewhere. Today, 'Figurines' by Ryszard Mazur stood out enough to tempt photography. I even thought I might incorporate a shop front poster in the image but liked that result least of my three.



Rather more touchingly, if inexplicably, there was just down the road a travelling display of animals in the manner of a petting farm. Provided by http://www.kidsrome.co.uk/ it was, I suppose, simply part of the summer holiday attractions. The animals looked healthy if more sedated than sedate and I saw photographs. Anthropomorphism is usually misguided so I did not assume they were necessarily happy.



It was more difficult to be happy in Sainsbury's Broadcut building site nightmare. It was not unlike being in a pen albeit with a view of exposed ceiling and the intermittent clatter of drills. Their redevelopment is due to continue until December 1st and I wondered if the substantial discount voucher Sainsburys had provided precisely to encourage continued shopping was worth another visit.


Ironically and forbodingly, only a short distance away, clearance work has begun on what is meant to be the site of a new Tesco. This in turn is to be accompanied by substantial reorganisation of the surrounding road infrastructure. The effects of this are likely to be so severe that we shall probably leave our home area via Stubbington for all journeys including those to Havant and the east. The shine will long since have gone off the new Sainsburys before its rival opens its doors and the traffic generated by Tesco is unlikely to be managed effectively even by the revised roads. Perhaps I shall be proved wrong.