… I call “courageous”.

The weather looks really beautiful in this photo, but in fact there was a cold wind blowing and you could certainly feel it. So much so that I had my fleece on while I was sitting out there.

There was certainly no way that I was going to go for a dip in the Northumberland Strait and so hats off to those (and there were quite a few people in the water today) who had braved the sea.

And so last night, having finally dozed off to sleep, I only had to leave the bed once during the night. And then, there I was, gone, right up to when the alarm went off at 06:00. That was a good sleep.

And once more, I’d been away with the fairies during the night. I’d had a really exciting time although I forgot most of it as soon as I awoke. What I do remember though is that I was on the docks at Liverpool, climbing over a wire fence into an area where there was a line of half a dozen or so derelict steam locomotives parked in a parallel fashion on railway sidings, with an overhead traversing crane carrying a large, heavy object, passing overhead.

For an hour or so I caught up with a few things that I needed to do and then I left the comfort of my stinking pit to go for breakfast.

Once breakfast was out of the way I had things to do and they took up my time for a while. Subesequently, with it being Saturday, I was following the football results on the internet. It was a fairly good day for the results except for Bangor City who struggled for a hard-earned draw out at Carmarthen in the Welsh Premier League.

I made my butties and then headed for the beach, having an interesting encounter down at the entrance to the park. It’s one of these four-way stops where everyone has to stop when they arrive, and depart in the order in which they arrived. And I arrived at the same time as a taxi, so we both stopped at the same time – both started at the same time and so both had to stop again. In the end, to avoid any misunderstanding, I waved him on.

At the car park I gathered up my coolbox with the butties and drink in it, my bag with my books and camers and my folding chair, and hit the beach.

It was much busier than yesterday and there were dozens of kids there, all of them having a really good time which was really nice to see. It was hard for me to concentrate on my book in fact, watching some kids of about three or four running round chasing the seagulls. I was exhausted just watching them.

By the time that 17:30 came around, I was ready to leave. The wind was getting me down and it was clouding over.

I went for a walk down to the far end of the park, which wasn’t as far as I was expecting it to be. There were still quite a few people out on the beach having a good time.

For me though, I went a-looking for the gentleman’s restroom and found one in a complex of buildings down at the far end but, as you might expect at this time of the year, was closed.

But there were also some public showers and changing rooms too, and that can’t be bad for the people who visit the beach.


There was also a cantine, which, presumably, as Canadian for a fritkot. And as you might expect at this time of the year, this was closed for the out-of-season too. I really wasn’t having much luck.

And so in the end I walked back to Strider where I noticed, with dismay, that somehow, presumably on the car park last night, someone had put a dent in the driver’s side door with their door. And judging by the height, it was the door of a full-size pick-up.

Back in Strider, I went down to Sobey’s for more sandwich stuff, bottled water and the like for the next few days. And I found some grated vegan mozzarella cheese. Yes, now I can have pizza tomorrow night. But somewhere along the line I seem to have lost the hummus that I bought. No idea how I managed to do that.

Tea was oven chips with Heinz beans and burgers followed by the ice cream stuff and fruit salad.

Now I’m off to bed – early again, but I’m going to make the most of it. This bed here is really comfortable.