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<\/a>I think that I left you at Washington Services the last night, and from there I went on to Whitburn to spend the night by the seaside.<\/p>\nUnfortunately my little hidey-hole there was otherwise occupied so I had to search elsewhere.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a nice cul-de-sac just across the road from the promenade that is a useful place to park up.
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But I’m not complaining at all about where I ended up. It was nice and quiet – much better than I anticipated.<\/p>\n This an area that I know very well from when I used to spend a lot of time up there in a different life, and so I took the opportunity to go for a wander round. A little dull at first but the sun soon came out and I had a lovely walk along the promenade.<\/p>\n And I was swamped with telephone calls too \u2013 it seems that word has spread about that I\u2019m over here right now and I seem to be in great demand. Sunderland is a port at the mouth of the River Wear and the entrance – the Roker Pier – is protected by a beautiful Victorian construction that despite everything that the modern world can chuck at it, still retains most of its contemporary charm.<\/p>\n No ships though. It’s been … ohhh … a whole week since I’ve seen a ship! That’s no good! He was born sometime around 672 just down the road in the town of Wearmouth and died in 732.<\/p>\n He was a monk at the Abbeys of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow and his claim to fame is that he wrote a book An Ecclesiastical History of the English People<\/a> of which several copies survive today.<\/p>\n This is the book which provides most of the History of England from the departure of the Romans until his death. Here, Strawberry Moose<\/a> met up with his sister and her friend Natasha and they had quite a chat about their adventures and what had happened to them since they last met.<\/p>\n While we were there I took the opportunity to return to her her coat and another one or two things that be had brought back with him<\/p>\n Another opportunity that I took was to have a little wander around the shop. Amongst the exciting things that I found were some 75-watt inverters for just \u00a37:99. They had three in the shop. <\/p>\n After I left, there were none. Handy little things, those. It’s not finished yet – not by a long chalk.<\/p>\n Later in the evening saw me in Hexham, round at at Dave\u2019s. He needed his Detective Agency website bringing up-to-date and so that was another task that had been on my list of things to do.<\/p>\n We had a really good chat about this and that for quite a while.<\/p>\n And despite the lateness of the hour, I still had things to do. I have to be on my way to Edinburgh.<\/p>\n Well, Rosslyn actually. Something about my trip to Canada in 2010<\/a> had come up.<\/p>\n<\/a>And that’s where I should have been last night – somewhere out by that headland over there near Whitburn. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>It’s what early mornings are for, isn’t it? Especially when those early mornings are as nice as this one.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>I walked down almost as far as Sunderland – only about a mile or so, it has to be said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>This statue here is known as Bede’s Cross. It commemorates the life of the aforementioned and was designed by Charles Clement Hodges and erected in 1904.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>This afternoon I drove down to the big ASDA on the old Boldon Colliery site.<\/p>\n
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