Wednesday 3 June

Another beautiful day.

Tina does one school visit and then stays at Dave and Kate’s waiting for me.

I leave Ufford Park in Surry and drive north to Tina. TomTom takes me the quickest route, not the shortest, so I end up driving in the opposite direction for a short while ie going south to go north! . An easy drive with a long stop at a truck drivers restaurant – I was the only one there without a truck. HUGE meals at cheap prices. I just had a bacon buttie and an enormous cup of tea. I just ordered normally – all the truckies added “luv” to their order. I’m so repressed. There was a newspaper on every table. Do my usual thing I started reading from the back (why do I read newspapers and magazines backwards?) so imagine my shock when I got to page 3! A well endowed topless young woman. And I thought the truckies were reading the paper to increase their intellectual level! Just to show you I read the words and didn’t just study the photos here are some excerpts from an article on Big Brother quotes (there were some in the paper I would never think of repeating):
- Do they speak Portuganese in Portugal?
- I hate spiders buy I wonder if I'd be scared of them if they were pink
- If there were less people in here it would be less crowded
- They were trying to use me as an escape goat
- Is there chicken in chick peas?
- How much is 360 degrees?
- I went to the tooilet; I strained too hard and I've given myself a migraine
- Posh and Becks named their baby Brooklyn because he was conceived there. What am I going to call my baby? Jacuzzi?
- WHen you delete a phone number from your phone; where does it go?
- I'm so angry. I'm fuming. I'm fumigating!

I arrived mid afternoon and Tina and Dave were at home (Dave on line marking GCSE exams – very interesting to see how it was done). Tina grabs my dirty washing, I have a guided tour and we organise a place to stay on Friday night. Kate gets home and after an excellent meal (little Yorkshire puds this time) and watching Coro Street (they are a year ahead – just think how much Tina can mess with people’s minds when she gets back home!) we go for a walk to 0º longitude (the Prime Meridian). We walk through a nice park with miniature railway tracks and alongside a wetland/salt marsh until we arrive at the boundary between east and west. Along the way we pass by small chalets. Cleethorpes is known as a seaside area where holidaymakers come to the beach. These chalets are about half the size of a single garage, have no electricity, are used by people who come for the day, put their food inside while they sit outside. They can cost £8,000! The twilight lasts until late in the evening.