under another sun

To London spending the day in the Chiswick office with Matty and Stephen. Lunch with them in Andy's Kebabs, purveyors of fine kebabs I have visited with Anton among others. This time sat down and had some sort of chicken wrap with fries, salad, and a glass of wine. Lots of laughing as well as discussions about work. Matt off to Uganda, for discussions, on Saturday for a few days with the charity. Also talking about Chad. I suggested I might be able to get a girdle on expenses, as the current Kenny ventripotence must surely be in bad taste at the very least. Found out that I have to renew my passport as it expires in five months. Made an appointment for Friday to get urgent new one. Bucketloads of rain by home time. Decided to hop on a bus  to Chiswick station, and got stuck in traffic with a torrent falling from the sky, and remembering when Septembers where quite summery. Made it home and Beth and Lorraine both out. Had fish and chips from Jenny's round the corner. Not up to...

Hosing it down this morning. A proper English bank holiday Monday. Getting up, we all went off to do various things in town this morning, Lorraine and I drifting about, laughing at how dreary it was. But it was good to see Whitby in gritty mood. It is still a really picturesque place, and the townspeople and visitors seemed to stride around with undiminished enthusiasm. Wiry northerners in shorts and wet tops, not using their hoods in the rain. We all met up again for a final drink together, before Lorraine, John and I walked the others off to the bus station. Betty staying with Sam for a couple of days.  Fond farewells. It had been a really fun few days. Then Lorraine, John and I had a last inevitable plate of fish and chips in a small backstreet chippy. The fish was excellent here too. Then off to the car and Lorraine started the epic drive down to Brighton. We stopped off in the North Moors for a bit, looking down at a big hole in the ground, the Hole of Horcum, which legend...

A heroic breakfast in our pleasant appartments, then after birthdaycard and present opening for Sam (plus a couple of late ones for Jade) whose birthday it was, and phoning Pat whose birthday it also is much showering (the water is all connected so washing a few plates or pulling a toilet chain resulted in ghastly yelpings from whoever was showering). Then we surged out into what was a surprisingly gorgeous day. Big heavy rainclouds that somehow missed us apart from the lightest sprinkle at first. There is a big beach below the West Cliff and we headed down to this after looking across at the ruined Abby. Wrong side of the Pennines, but like a Lowry picture nevertheless, due in part to the large number of dogs about. What was different was the utterly gorgeous light there. This really is a picturesque place. After this we all wandered onto the pier, where Lorraine and I walked to the end, over quite widely spaced boards with the sea below at one point that had Lorraine slightly unner...

Up and a big breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon and toast with Mum and Mas, who was in BC mode (before coffee). Nice to catch up with them albeit briefly before heading off early to Whitby. Journey took most of the day, with a three motorway stops. One place somewhere north of Grantham appeared to be the scene of a nasty conflict between Northerners and Wasps. Once we were deep into Yorkshire and on the smaller roads, the journey became very beautiful, despite driving near places with Gothic names such as Drax and Goole. In the last half an hour we were up driving beside the North Yorkshire moors. Breathtaking scenes of heather purpled moorland. Then down to Whitby, which looked sunlit and lovely with the Abbey. Almost there and Lorraine drove us down a street which the satnav called 'backstreet Hilda's passage', rather graphic images came into my head at this point, until we saw the road sign for Back St. Hilda's Passage . Our rooms are on Skinner Street and are...