Yesterday was our annual day out in Southend-on-Sea. P goes to check out the matches at the Southend Chess Congress (held every Easter weekend), and I go for a wander around the charity shops.
On Easter Saturday last year the weather was glorious, we walked along the beach, had a Rossi ice cream each (totally delicious and unique to south Essex), had a fish and chip lunch at a rather down-market eatery on the front, and came home with faces red from the sun.
This Easter what a difference!! P, as usual, went to have a look at the games being played in the Chess Congree. I, as usual, had a good trawl around the charity shops (netting a few books for re-sale, a rather nice hooded fleece for myself for only 99p, and a T-towel with a gorgeous floral pattern for 50p - which when I got back home I discovered was by Cath Kidston, nice). There the comparison with last Easter ended. I, rather foolishly, decided to walk down to the sea front in between heavy showers to take a few photos, and was almost blown off my feet by the force 10 gale coming directly from the arctic. Now I'm a heftily built person but the wind did literally almost blow me over it was so strong!!
When P and I met up for lunch we decided to avoid anything on the sea front for fear of frostbite, and settled for a rather chi-chi French restaurant in one of the side streets. The food here was gorgeous, although a bit nouvelle cuisine in portion size, and the ambiance and decor was excellent. Having enjoyed ourselves thoroughly over lunch we headed back out into the frozen wastes, intent on picking up a few tasty treats from the French market which is also an annual Easter feature at Southend. Sadly, the cold and wet had proved too much for the French traders and we arrived just as they were packing up!! That was a bit of a bummer as P was really looking forward to some dried meat delicacy (it looks like dried Reindeer to me, but P assures me it's not!), and I was looking forward to some delicious French cheeses!!
After a quick look into Gades knitting shop (fabulous selection of wool and other sewing bits and bobs, I'd highly recommend a trip here if you're ever in Southend) where P treated me to a ball of Noro Kureyon as a small Easter gift, we made our way back to the station and were delighted to find that the train was just about the depart. On we got and settled back for the 25 minute journey home, smugly congratulating ourselves on a lovely day out despite the weather. The train got about half way to our destination when we were all turfed off at a small station as there was a 'mechanical fault' with the train. P and I decided to walk to the high street and see if we could find a cafe open (we couldn't) before heading back to the station and catching the next train. When we got back to the station we found that we had to go to the 'down' platform to catch the 'up' train which seemed a bit odd but we followed directions, and the train was due in 5 minutes. Half an hour, one blizzard, and a quick jaunt back to the usual 'up' platform and we finally got back onto a warm train. To make matters worse the station we had been abandoned at was totally locked over the weekend with no loos, or waiting rooms available, and no member of staff to have a go at (and, believe me, I would have liked to have had a go at somebody!!) So this Easter we arrived back from Southend-on-Sea with red faces yet again, only this time it was from being stuck outside in a blizzard and not the sun. Ahh, the joys of a great British bank holiday!!
PS We did have a lovely day out despite the moaning above.
PPS Sorry for lack of photos, not sure I'd ever be able to upload them using ye olde dial-up connection!
I remember last Easter very well as we went to Southend for the day too,the weather was gorgeous and we caught the sun after sitting on the beach for a couple of hours. And I had a browse around the charity shops, I remember there were quite a few. What a difference this year, we might venture out tomorrow as we fancy some sea air, but maybe the south coast this time.
Gill x
Posted by: Gill | 03/23/2008 at 11:36 PM
It was a freezing day wasn't it! Hope you have thawed out now! The weather really does vary greatly from one Easter to another, our daughter was born on Maundy thursday 24 years ago in a heatwave! Hope you get your broadband sorted out soon.
Posted by: Heather | 03/25/2008 at 03:31 PM