wowee, one of them proper, normal updates from me with the progress of the clan. no doubt friends and family will rejoice at this one, whilst oddly those that come here for my musings on whatever crosses my mind may well be disappointed.
the weekend past brought with it that most welcome of commodities; the sun. it was a most pleasant, hinting at Spring (in a non-Chaucer way) sort of day on both days one conventionally refers to as being "the weekend". on one of those days, then, it was off to ride the coast for a bit.
some will look at the above picture, add to it the title of this post and subsequently require no further clarification or call on where we went. for those of such requirements, our tour of nearby coastal towns took us to the delights of Redcar. we are working our way through as many seaside towns as we can, as some of you may well have clocked, and now it was the turn of one of them that was the closest.
as i trust the above picture bears out, it was indeed a magnificent and sunny day. it did by the end turn a touch cold, something accentuated by the wind carrying cold breezes into our faces. i mention the end of the day now partially because a friend recently mentioned Memento, but mostly because blogger has done that thing again and "upped" the pictures in a non-chronological order.
to that end, here are pictures of when we stopped off, happily, at a branch of Subway on the way home.
indeed, it seems no seaside trip we take can be truly completed until the boys have found one of them display things that you can stick you head through for the benefit of a picture. this one i suppose it a touch of a "cheat" since it wasn't at the seaside, but it is the same thing.
i would trust you, dear reader, without doing that smarmy, borderline offensive and quite expensive to get someone to do it for you "i put it to you" line, can work out what this "shove your head in and have a picture taken" display is all about. nope, we have not seen the new Muppets film it promotes, but as a consequence of this the boys have insisted we watch Muppets From Space a couple of times in the last couple of days. class film, it is.
i can tell you, in confidence, that my (considerably) better half and i were delighted to get some Subway. we have not had for quite a while. well, not since July 2 2012, when we had some for breakfast in the magnificent surroundings of Manchester. it for the moment escapes me what we did the day before.
Subway was for a while available in SA, but then it went. Much like Chick-Fil-A, as i think they called themselves. two places that we really, really liked which apparently few others did, and so they vanished. hey ho, we can now have as much Subway as we can afford. which, granted, at this stage is not much, but still it is lovely to have the option.
also, as far as i am aware, unavailable in either SA or in many other places in the world would be Redcar's gift to the world of cuisine. behold, ladies and gents, as my (considerably) better half indulges one of them cheeky, oh-so-nice lemon tops.
yes, those of you in the know who cannot get one are welcome to look upon it with jealousy and remembrance. for those of you who do not know yet care, it is pretty much one of them soft-serve ice creams with a lemon sorbet on top of it. simple, yet effective. and they just do not make them to taste quite as good as they do anywhere in the world beyond Redcar.
i did not, i confess, have one. i got all excited and interested when i saw that they offered a "strawberry top". i decided to place an experimental order for one and discovered that it was.....vanilla soft serve with some strawberry soft serve shoved on top. oh well, it was lovely.
and lovely indeed it was to take a stroll by, or indeed for some in, the sea. those of you who earlier this year enjoyed assorted images of my (considerably) better half struggling in the colder weather may well delight to see her trip merrily through the warmer weather. if not warmer water.
did i put my feet into the North Sea? no i did not. why not? are you familiar with Billy Connolly? he wisely pointed out that just around the corner the North Sea becomes the Arctic. thanks, but very much indeed no thanks.
still, my (considerably) better half and the boys did very much enjoy the waters and waves. as the boys sometimes get rather more ambitious than their regular swimming talents tend to allow i was on standby to bomb in and rescue, but rather thankfully - since i do not look all that good in a red swimsuit - i was not called upon to do so.
i for some reason took a picture of a map of the terrain. if for some reason you are looking one and will accept nothing less than a version of the map from this blog, here you go.
right, that's quite enough of that, back to the ways and the waves of the sea. if you stood on the beach at Redcar and walked (somehow) in a straight line across the sea, you would hit land in a place called, i believe, Denmark. if you were wondering about that, then, wonder no more.
oh yes, i got a bit distracted there, did i not. here's the further picture in/by the sea.
i quite like the pictures i managed to take; they are most pleasant and happy ones, somewhat belying the fact that they were taken on my blueberry thing. a blueberry thing that, as regular readers will be all too aware, does not always like to take pictures.
unlike the scenario in Saltburn, where we had an entirely random stranger approach us and follow us about a bit, we had no one with us to take a picture of the four of us. i opted, then, to try and go for a "fancy selfie" as they mucked about with the sea.
i do not think it worked out as well as the one that Samsung paid to have done at the Oscars.
well, i got the four of us in. sort of. and i got the sea too.
i did manage to get a slightly more successful selfie, though. alas it was a "pure" selfie, as only i featured in it. well, me and some people in the background, but you know what i mean. i did, however, manage to get something of interest - and apparent frequent discussion - in the picture.
the bigger structure (behind me, not me you cheeky, cheeky bastards) that you can see is the "controversial" structure that they call the 'vertical pier'. the people of Redcar, understandably, called for a regular, conventional pier to be reintroduced to the world of the town. those in power in Redcar, inexplicably, decided that this vertical pier business was a much better way to go.
i don't recall all the press and comments from the time, but i seem to remember there was a lot of kicking off, claiming that this 'vertical pier', or 'tower' if you like, was going to be a failure, a disgrace, a waste of money and so on.
we did not go up the vertical pier / tower, but i can tell you some did. actually, a lot. the whole structure looked packed with people. and whilst i am no architect, to my eyes and in my mind it all looks rather smart, it does. one day i would very much like to "walk it".
speaking of things heard, i have not heard much of Redcar, prior to us going, that was not on the whole negative. i was told of how it was all run down, unpleasant and "not what it was" from people who live, lived or visited the town.
far be it from me to correct anyone on the basis of one day out, for it is only a fool that presumes to speak on behalf of others, but that was not mine or our experience at all. it is an ace place - clean, lovely, friendly. it saddens me that some, with obviously longer times in the place, feel different, but there you go hope they are happy with wherever they are now.
another walking by the sea pic? ok.
apologies for the quality of comments dropping off a bit (which is saying something, yeah i know), i am feeling rather tired, if not shagged, out.
and, oh, go on then, one of the youngling William having a go on one of them shiny flashing light ride thingies. this was actually quite early on in our trip, but blogger opted to "up" this picture last.
oh yes, he really does love these rides. which is how it all should be, that is what it is to be young and at the seaside - go on these ride thingies!
and that's that! which seaside town will we visit next? no idea. the boys are very eager, on the whole, to as it were "hit" Whitby once more, but i think we may got to get more new places first.
for now, though, i think i am off to bed.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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