Simple pleasures

Neither of us can bomb around any more - we walk a while and then take a breather (and the painkillers for the back) - but it's lovely to enjoy a change of scene.

This morning we caught a bus into Southend and then strolled along the prom westwards, stopping in Westcliff for a lovely lunch - then inland to Westcliff station and along to Leigh-on-sea.

When we came out of the station at Leigh it was obvious which way to walk to the main part, but we were intrigued that there was a queue of cars going in the opposite direction. Curiosity got the better of us (well, me, rather than 'us') and we went to investigate, thinking there must be some 'event' on that we didn't know about. When we came to the head of the queue of cars, I could see that they were waiting to turn right - into the local 'dump' - I then realised that a lot of the cars had the back seats laden with rubbish.

So off we went in the right direction, stopping for a welcome cuppa at Sara's tea garden. On the way back to the station I couldn't resist a tub of cockles (well, it would have been rude to visit Leigh and not have some of their cockles).

We were so fortunate that when we got back to Leigh station there was a train just leaving - and when we got back to the bus station in Southend, a No. 9 was just about to leave - perfect timing.

Oh - and the sun came out as we got on the bus to come back to the hotel! Apart from that it's been overcast all day (as it is now again) and quite cold.