Christmas trees were sold, once again, for the 4th year, though this time at a *new* site in Richmond. Under the dappled shade of leaf-less trees, and the new found comfort of a portacabin we sold and talked-up trees until darkness fell and then beyond. Usefully, all of the local chains sold out early, which caused a cascade of customers which kept us busy and distracted from the huge job of raking up bales of muddy straw.

I worked in Northallerton (north Yorkshire) for a few weeks at the start of the Christmas Holiday, and it was cold. Not cold like we get in London. Proper, consistently in the negatives cold. I got snowed in, and spent one morning digging Mercedes drivers out of the snow in a small village with a few police men and women, and all the villagers. It was very rationing-time community spirited, and I for one loved it! Plus the vetting was fun too. I tried my hand at surgery for the first time, and managed to a reasonable job of cat castration and spaying, so hopefully all will be well.

London was also pretty cold, though nothing in comparison. Luckily, I managed to buy some leather (pimp) gloves for driving in after Christmas, which has staved off the frost bite. Luckily, it provided ample opportunity for some more seasonal photography, which included this tasty snap of a crow in Richmond Park a few days after Christmas. I love the colour of the sky.

Radio Shmadio

Last night I decided to take my minidisc player for a little outing (it has been neglected recently) across London to be used during my journey to Rahul's birthday thingie in London. Unfortunately, having exhausted my minidisc on the journey home, I found myself listening to London LBC Radio, for my old minidisc has an FM function. This LBC is a station of moaning. If you've had a particularly tough day, have read the paper (most likely the Express, or Mail) and despaired for the "way the country is going" a couple of times, then this is the station for you. I base this on 1 brief 15 minute listening on the bus on the way home at gone midnight, but it basically involved people ringing up moaning, and, more annoyingly, the DJ agreeing with everything they say, no matter how ridiculous and unfounded their ramblings. Particularly one fellow's argument , "I can't believe they're not giving out killer's names if they're under 18 to protect them. When I was under 18 I was in the army, and was trained to kill", annoyed me. I'm not entirely sure how he managed to link the two statements anyway, but the point I wish to raise is just what a good example of the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude such as that brought up by A Passage to India or Vernon God Little this is. The names of these "killers" are not given, because it is possible that they are, in fact, not killers, and if they are, we have a law system much better placed to deal with them than some vengeful member of the public who will be benefited by a name. In fact, I am often unsure of why the accused are named at all, regardless of age, unless, of course, they are on the run and may pose a risk to the public. I'm sure there will be someone reading this who will have a better idea of what I'm rambling on about - please leave a comment if you do!

In other news, Rahul's birthday was good fun. The food was pretty tasty (though I couldn't finish my main course - I blame the Tetleys Ally bought me) and the place was nice, if a little cramped and over-hot! A little shout out to Mr Todd, who has revealed his frequenting of this site to me. Keep on reading my man, and if you fancy it, leave me a comment to say hi! I hope you've recovered well from last night's shenanigans.

Cornwall - Train Japes.

And so Tom travelled to deepest Cornwall. The train journey was a long one (the longest I've ever made), and took me from Paddington to Truro (via Plymouth). I was surrounded by prepubescent school children who, between the sugar rushes that followed mad dashes to the buffet car, were trying to convince each other that as we rushed across the coastal rail, the large expanse of cool blue water outside the window was not the sea.
"It's not the sea you know, it's just a lake," one would say.
"It so is the sea," a small confused voice would reply.
"It's not! It's a lake"
"It's not! It's the sea"
"No, lake!"
"Mr BARKER!!" the little voice would exclaim. "Is that the sea?"
"Of course it is the sea," the much maligned Mr Barker would reply. Ah, if only we all had an authority figure like Mr Barker to make everything right.

I seemed to have been followed around by the smell of cheap bacon. I foolishly went to burger king at Paddington, and the kid opposite me bought a bacon bap... man it smelt bad. Plus, on the train from Paddington I was sat next to an old lady who also smelt like bacon. As I expected, when I saw Alex in Truro she put these "olfactory hallucinations" down to the only possible cause - brain tumour. Humm.. hopefully not! Thankfully the smell left later that afternoon! Phew!

Truro was lovely, we stopped for a quick cream tea in a little tea shop with incredibly high ceilings with hanging baskets with honed, pointed bases precariously dangling from it. Eep!

I wanna feel alive, gas up the 4-wheel drive.

Good evening all. I haven't posted ALL holiday - which is a bit lame really. First thing's first - there's a new Marillion album, so I'd better get a review out the way.

Marillion - Somewhere Else.
After the first few listens I was, how shall I put it... shocked... and somewhat apalled. H's voice has a real habit of sounding terrible when he's singing something you're not used to. His melodies seem random, and his voice seems droll. But after a few listens it sounds incredible! You realise why he's singing why he is, and how it sits with the rest of the song. Because they have a tendency to make such epic songs, you need to know what's coming to enjoy the rest of the song. That's why I love them so much - every minute of (almost) every song is building up to something big, small, poignant, whatever. Just magical music.
My hilights from the new album are the opening track (The Other Half), Most Toys (which has a radioheadesque guitar line running all the way through it), The Last Century for Man, which builds up beautifully similarly to King (if you know Marillion!) and has the best few seconds on the whole album ("I wanna feel alive, GAS UP THE 4-WHEEL DRIVE). Oh, and A Voice from the Past (which I hated at first), is perfect. Perfect guitar solo, perfect vocals. Glorious.

This album is probably the biggest grower since Marbles!

I've also recently bought the new Maximo Park album, and the new Bloc Party album, and both are pretty good. Somehow none of the songs hold me like Marillion though! I'm going to see them in Cambridge in June! Hurrah!

Pub Golf.. FORE!

Met Matt et al. in Surbiton for a number of people's birthday's (Matt and Matt infact!). We played Pub golf all the way to Kingston. Lalalalala. I got hole 1 (Guinness) in 2, that's 2- par. Oh yeah - hardcore me! Then I didn't play the next round, but lied to Dan (who was scoring), or the next round (but lied again)...

Then we all gave up cos everyone was FAR to drunk to carry on (though no hangover for Tom! I know my limit now. Woooo!) and spent an hour or so in The Mill (which had NO drinks. I had to get Gabriel his 4th choice. FOURTH! jeez!) and then went on to McCluskies, and danced to shite music till the night was done. Was pretty good fun all told!

Pic stolen from Natalie. Sorry, and Ta!

Alex's visit

Alex visited - we went into London to see Vicky, and had the classic Wagamama lunch, with the less classic Haagen Daas dessert - the service in that place is terrifyingly personal. Just give me my food and leave! We also ate LOADS of Pret (darling Pret) a mange, bought numerous textiles commodities in Kingston (for Alex is once-again making her own ball-dress!), had chinese takeaway, watched programs about GIANT SQUID. mmm... invertebratey, and generally enjoyed having a couple of days together and without work.

Little Red Car

Got up at 8am as I wasn't sure what time Mary was arriving, but it turned out she wasn't getting here until 12, so it meant I had plenty of time to get ready, and watch some Green Wing before she arrived. I crammed myself into her little Toyota Yaris, which was full of boaties and bags, and we started our way North. I managed to navigate to the M4 from memory - Huzzah. The journey was really enjoyable. Holly and Ed slept for the first two hours, so Mary and me just chatted on the way, and then we stopped at a service station, thus waking said boaties up, before making the final leg to Leeds. However, we realised it was 4pm on a Friday, and that getting into Leeds would be hell (let alone Mary getting out again), so we drove into Bradford (gulp), where Alex met me at the train station. There are two stations however, and we needed the other one, so a rapid trek across Bradford ensued. An odd Polish guy shouted at me, we were accosted for money while buying tickets, though we smartly refused. We eventually arrived at Alex's at about 6*, where tea was waiting. Eeexcellent.

Backdated from 11/01/07

Maps from the New World

Just bought a gigantic book from Borders about Maps from the New Worlds. It's full of loads of maps from the ages of discovery. You know you've reached a strange time in your life when the phrase "I've always had a bit of a thing for cartography" starts getting bandied around!

littlebluefiresprites

On Saturday morning I finished writing up my two practicals that I did last term. I have to hand in my book on the 18th of January, so they’ve been hanging over me, just like my essay, so it’s great to have got them done. I got some statistically significant results from them both, so I’m pleased. Dad introduced me to a new statistics programme called “prism”. It’s not as powerful as SPSS, but at about a millionth of the price, and a much smaller file, I don’t mind. Not that size matters to me now I have my 80GB WD drive!

Having done all the statistical analysis and written them up, I headed over to Worcester Park for an “old Westy” – a classic sleepover. It was great fun, and involved four grown men (including Westy’s dad) watching a kettle boiling… twice. But then if you saw an illumina kettle you’d probably do the same. It’s got a “stainless steel exterior” that magically turns clear when you turn it on thanks to the sexy blue light inside it, and as the water boils it looks like tiny little flames are bouncing up from the base of the kettle. We even got a cup of tea into the bargain. Great fun! Westy had also bought himself a Wii console just before Christmas, and we had great fun messing around with the incredible remote control powered games. We played bowling (I won once with a sassy score of 198 – Sean couldn’t beat it! Westy managed 237, but then he had played about 20 times before), tennis, baseball, and all the magnificent sports games. It’s so tempting to buy one as they provide such a greater “involved” experience for all the family. Even my Mum would love it!

Happy? Feet

I went to the cinema with Sean, Westy and Dan to see Happy Feet (possible spoiler warning) – that where-on-earth-did-this- obsession-with-penguins- come-from film starring Mumbo the penguin and his crazy dancing feet. We wanted to go to a 2.30 showing, but somehow it got fully booked, so we bought tickets for the 5.15 one. That resulted in us sitting in a pub nursing a single pint each for two hours chatting and wandering round HMV. Great fun! The film was actually fairly good – the first 30 minutes took a while getting over, but then a very vague story line began to emerge – Mumbo (with an immensely annoying accent – Robin Williams apparently. Jeez!) decided he had to find the “aliens”. Blah blah, queue exciting adventure, cool Mexican penguins, love interest lost and found. However, towards the end, it became incredibly dark – he swam and swam, and eventually ended up washed up on a beach somewhere, got put in a zoo. Queue manipulative anthropomorphisation on an unimaginable scale – was quite tear jerking. Go see it – just for the weird experience, and to see if my staccatoed review is correct.

Les Arbres, gay Paris, and Escargots.

It's been far too long since I last posted, but I've not really stopped since I got home from uni. I arrived back at home a Saturday that now feels far in the past, greeted by a slight nausea (from getting slightly lost in Staines) that was soon saved by a cup of tea and (surprisingly) a malteaser cake loving crafted by my sister. The following day, I started selling Xmas Trees, in my new post as assistant manager. A typical busy weekend, that had already been organised, so I just pitched in and did my bit! There are so many people, you just have to get people into a routine and it all goes well; I just ran round filling in all the gaps that started appearing! On Monday Alex arrived (in the evening, post-practical-purge), and the following day we donned to Eurostar and sped our way to Gard de Nord, Paris.

Excited vetscis (me saying everything in my typically awful franglais - I really couldn't help it!) met an excited Jen, and we jumped on a (shallow) metro train to her house, which was mini beyond all imagination! She'd warned us it was mini, but I wasn't expecting it to be as small as it was! Still, it's a good enough little home-from-home for her, even if she does get attacked by beans when she cooks, melts chopping boards that should be drying, and has to do a worm-dance to get out of bed - every little nook has been filled... some with a little bit of bad design! But, we bought a metro carnet each, and toddled off seeing all the things that people should see; Notre Dame, Crepe stall, The Seine, Crepes, Moufetard (hehe) The Eiffel Tower, The pompidou (PAMPLEMOUSE!) centre, the arc de triomphe, crepes, the Montmartre, Jen's Workplace, more crepes. All in all, a good couple of days were had, despite the fact that Alex was poisoned by an evil spaghetti bolognese of DEATH. Grr. And the fact that we nearly got blown to smithereens just standing by the Eiffel tower - it was so windy we didn't risk going up it. I got to try snails (mm. Taste like garlic), and a green Pistacio macaroon (amazing!) AND many crepes and croissants for breakfast, which I ordered myself! Huzzah!

En plus, we got home on Thursday night, and Alex went back Leedsward on Friday afternoon. On Saturday I began work selling trees again, and worked on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It is now Tuesday, my second day off! YAARGH! It's been hard work (did 53 hours last week), but enjoyable most of the time; it's much more interesting when you're vaguelly thinking about stock, staff etc. rather than just mindlessly selling. And the increase in pay is BON!

So, that's where I am. I'm going to scan in some paris photos soon and put them up, once I've done my Christmas shopping (which is my plan for today). First of all though, bacon must be eaten.

Much love,

Tom

Dogs and Views.

The holiday is nearly over; it's only one day until I go back to Cambridge, and I'm surprised. My second summer holiday has essentially flown by and now I'm starting my graduation year (yeah I have 3 more after that, but it still feels a little significant). My bedroom is a pit, owing to the first attempts at packing I tried yesterday. It's surprisingly hard to take only select stuff; when I pack to come home from Cambridge it's much easier as EVERYTHING needs packing! I have finally thrown away my filthy sauce pan (ruined in Castle End by some unidentifiable tomato burnage, and non-stick scrapage, perpetrator technically unknown), and have bought some shiny new ones from Ikea.

I arrived back from Leeds on Wednesday; I only went up for a few days to say hello (and to keep Alex and her brother entertained while their parents were away enjoying the sun, sea and sand of the Devon coast. We visited Mary, which was great fun - she showed us many photos of her amazing trip to Kenya - Giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, leopards, buffallo, antelope, impala... everything you'd expect! We also walked the dogs to the top of the hill and took stock of the amazing view. Just one of many discoverable in the foothills of the pennines. Both Alex (Yorks) and Mary (Lancs) have views everywhere - within a few steps of their front-doors, something that I miss in the Kingston Basin, and in the Cambridge pancake. They seemed confused at my almost constant "Wow! Another view!" as we walked round. I also discovered that I like walking dogs. Thus two things for me to attain when I grow up are dogs, and views. You can see the amazingness of the landscape, Alex and Mary and the Dogs in the three photos I have uploaded for your viewing pleasure.

We also had a bonfire with a load of paper shreddings. There's something about fire that just fascinates me, and if I think correctly, every other human being on this planet. Maybe it's hardwired into our brains so that we can actually cook our food (and thus enable us to have lazy digestive systems(?)). We toasted marshmallows in the papery flames, and were merry.

• Films watched: 2. Some like it hot (v.good), and This Boy's Life (a bit dull and drawn out, but it finished well).
• Books read: 1. The Blind Watchmaker. Read it on the trains, and well worth reading. Just ignore the chapter about taxonomy because it's dull.
• Miles Travelled: ~500 including Alex's first venture onto a motorway behind the wheel (and very well she did too).
• Packed: 60%
• Kisses from drunk 30something's on tube trains: 1. My hand I hasten to add.

Whizzzzzz

Went into Kingston with Geoff and Rasselhoff yesterday. The exciting adventures kicked off straight away. Rahul's attempted to get a Hip-Flask engraved with £52s worth of text, as clearly three initials is nowhere near enough - he required 200 letters (he decided against it in the end), and we tested "Shakeaway", a weird new milkshake "restaurant". You basically go in, and chose some form of confectionary for them to whizz with milk and ice-cream. I got a bounty shake, and it was actually really really tasty!

After all that walking, we decided that a cinema trip was in order, and Black Dahlia was the film of the day (chosen after much indecisive deliberation). It was ok, but the fact that it was Orange Wednesdays may have helped me like it even more than I actually did *mm...money*. Nothing special, and it became a little unnecessarily convuluted towards the end.

After the film, Geoff went home to cook for his family (bless), and me and Rahul went to Tolworth for a snooker showdown. We were awful, and two hours and only 4 frames later, we were still tied at 10-10. It's best of 25 so the decider is coming up! Snooker was followed by an amazing chinese meal over a bottle of wine. So civilised, and really good fun!

Played golf with Dad today. 22 over par for a 9 hole course. Sounds poo doesn't it. Well, no. It wasn't. Golf is hard, and I did actually get two pars on the way. I also went out of bounds 6 times... but that's cos I can't always hit straight. And my excuse for that is that I haven't played for ages. Look at me, I'm defending myself on my own blog. How odd! AAnyway. It was great fun, and I definitely want to do it a little more often. Must remember to pick it up again at the START of holidays, as opposed to under two weeks before I go back. Oops!

Cotwolds

Not long been back from the Cotswolds where we went on holiday for a few days. We drove up via Oxford and had a quick wander round the town before we got to the hotel. Admittedly, it is a very nice town, but, in my highly biased opinion, it's not quite Cambridge. It's much more open, which in some ways is nice, but in other ways loses the close-knit feeling of Cambridge. It was also nowhere near as clean, and the buildings are built of an extremely crumbly stone (they look like Wensleydale cheese). That was very critical, and there's no reason why Oxford should be compared to Cambridge, but.. well. It was nice, but not NICE.

The hotel was amazing - amazing rooms, each with their own front door on to a little courtyard, and the food was incredible. Small portions, but they tasted amazing. Plus breakfast with Terry Wogan, an experience in itself.

The next day we drove to Bourton on the Water, a cute little village, but the journey to it turned out to be the most eventful thing to happen. We drove about 50miles to make to 25 mile journey.. I enclose a map of our journey - including phantom section. The bit of road we never went down.(NB: on the map it says "to bourton on the water" - the actuall village is further along the A40... if you care! Just didn't want the Bourton village council onto me for deformation of location :))

It was a very quaint village with a model village (including a model of the model village in the model village), loads of tea shops and gift shops, the cute little Windrush river. We spent ages just wandering around looking at stuff.

Unfortunately my Dad managed to break a tooth (he'd been to the dentist before we went away but he'd failed to spot it), and so we had to leave early the following day to get him to the dentist. He came home a little less wise than he did before!
map taken from www.streetmap.co.uk, edited by me

Flapjacks, Football and Flying

1. I got a flapjack, infact, this week, my life has been full of flapjacks. It's been one of those weeks where the oats follow you round - you know what I'm talking about. Bloody oats. Well, not at all; I was followed in a good way. In a stomach-tinglingly good way. Hannah made flapjacks that were juicy, soft and scrumtious, and then Alex sent me a CHOCOLATE flapjack that was full of sweet cocoa goodness. Yay!
2. Football. Worcester Park Wonders won. We actually won. For the first time since 2 years ago we won. 2-2 after full time, and then 4-3 on penalties. Was great fun, but now my legs are melting. MELTING.
3. Flying. Flying... Birds fly. It does begin with F... and I did have a conversation with my dad about the perils of high-altitude flight should you have some sort of respiratory disorder. Seems to fit in with the title.

Booyakka!

Tom

UPDATE: The Land o' Lakes Flapjack Festival


Land o' Lakes Flapjack Festival. Take me there. In a tardis... whatever. Look! Americans dressed as Scotch Pancakes, and probably flapjacks too if their amazing oat-power had not melted the camera lens when the photos were being taken... i assume.

In 1976, community organizations of Land O'Lakes planned an event that all area citizens could partake. It began as a small festival produced by civic, church and business groups. The annual festival, which is themed around flapjacks, has grown each year with more entertainment, rides and activities.

The three-day event, produced by the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, begins on Friday afternoon with the tossing of the first flapjack. Free flapjacks were offered for the first time in 1983, and have since become an annual ritual for the Saturday morning breakfast. The Land O'Lakes Butter Company in Minnesota has supplied its namesake butter every year since the first free flapjack breakfast. Throughout the weekend thousands of residents and visitors enjoy free entertainment, parades, shows, carnival rides, and food. On Saturday evening, the Honorary Mayor of Land O'Lakes is "elected" with dollar votes. The "candidate" who raises the most funds wins the honorary mayor position. The fundraiser activity supports the chamber and the continued improvement of Land O'Lakes. Land O' Lakes is named for the many blue lakes in this community north of Tampa Bay. From this website

The things you find on Google.

The Kingston Look

Ah, have been back a week now, and am getting used to life in Kingston again. Yesterday I went out to the pub for Nick's birthday, and it was alright. I've had better nights, but then again I've had worse. I just don't find getting drunk for the fun of it in a nightclub fun, so I didn't go; much to the disgust of a few people. Still, I wouldn't have enjoyed it and it would have cost me a fortune.

Anyway, today has been trop productive, I have posted here, finished working through a pharmacology lecture series on the Pharmacology of Inflammation and Immunosuppression, and written an essay on "the modes of action and uses of anti-inflammatory drugs" and got to wax-lyrical about aspirin, paracetamol, and less obvious drugs with fab names like zafirlukast and cyclosporin. Hehe. I have to make it interesting somehow! There's just so much stuff to learn, and so little time. Less than 2 weeks of holiday left!!!!

I have also cleaned out my computer by giving it a complete wipe and re-install, re-done this blog, made my room tidy, made it filthy again, made it tidy, and then filthy again for a 2nd time. It's a crazy cycle. There's a picture of my dad with a package on his head. Just cos its funny. It's entitled "Royal Male". hehe. classic.

Tom
xx

London is a nice town. Big, fun and impossible to get lost in.

London

Alex and I went to London for our first anniversary on the weekend of the 11th/12th of Feb. We had booked a hotel in Hyde Park, just north of Kensington Gardens by Lancaster Gate a while back and wandered down to Cambridge train station early on Saturday after our repro lecture. After tea on the train, and a queue to end all queues outside Kings Cross station, we had tube tickets and were free to wander anywhere in zone 1. Huzzah! First stop - hotel. Lancaster Gate station smells. This picture does it far too much justice as it has been taken before they ripped all the posters off the walls, and forgets to point out that you have to climb 78 steps to get to ground level. No escalators... and who would risk the lifts :s crazy people.
Anyway, the hotel was beautiful, as can be seen from the photo I took in the rain on the second day, and our room was warm, had an en-suite bathroom and the bed was well comfy. We were in heaven.

So, after bunging our stuff, and getting very excited by the lockable safe (and locking our train tickets, keys and Alex's earrings in it), we went back out into London for an afternoon of discovery! We went to covent garden where we had doughnuts, cake and hot-chocolate, went to Tesco metro (strangely - needed change), and the London Transport shop, where alex bought a beautiful 1920s summer sale poster (nicer than the image suggests). We then had an insane work around trafalgar square, the strand, picadilly circus, the 'NPG darling' and everywhere basically :) Alex was worried we were getting lost until I pointed out that it is impossible to get lost in London. No matter where you are, you are always close to a tube station, and if you don't know which tube station that is, you can get a train to the next one that you do know the name of :) It's amaaaaazing. Anyway, we spent the evening trying to find somewhere for dinner - eventually coming to a lovely Italian place. I had garlic mushrooms (sorry Alex) and canelloni, and Alex had minestrone soup and beautiful spicy pasta thingie. We then had zabaglione for dessert - whipped egg whites with sugar and wine.... *drools*.Following dinner we had another little walk before going back home.

The next morning we woke up to rain :( - but, heads held high we went down to our complimentary (we paid for it :S) breakfast. Croissants, fruit, cereal, coffee... everything. Twas amazing! We then spent the day seeing the sights of London - it was really really lovely. We saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, (see bad mobile phone picture) which is less urinal like in real-life than it appears on telly when everyone is telling you how much it looks like a toilet. We also saw the Prince Albert memorial, the "Statue of Physical Energy" (weird) and Buckingham Palace, before having a yummy pub lunch and coming back home.

An amazing weekend, with an amazing girl :) yaaaaaay.
xxxxxxx

Au Brighton je me ne pas suis reste a la maison!

Today, My sister and I decided to take a say trip down to Brighton - we'd done it last year, so why not go again. We arrived in superquick time, leaving the house at 9.30am and being in Brigton just before 11. We wandered down to the promenade by the sea and spotted a cycle hire shop, and, on the spur of the moment hired a tandem! I asked the guy how likely we were to kill ourselves and he replied "not likely", though I'm sure he took one look at my face and wondered if he'd ever see his bike-for-two ever again. Fortunately we didn't crash... we wobbled, and I paniced whenever we went past someone coming in the opposite direction, but we survived! Hopefully I'll have some photos up - I forgot my digital camera so we had to buy a disposable so I'll have to wait for it to get developed.

And so we discovered just what a talking point a Tandem is - an old woman from south Wales came up to us and said "you don't see Tandems very much nowadays!", after which she continued for 10 minutes to tell us about her grand-daughter who lived in Hong-Kong for 2 years... each of the things she told us had the smallest relation to the tandem, so it all tied together, but her 10 minutes was 70ps worth of tandem time gone - still, we were polite young children and listened "interestedly" - I was more entertained by her husband who just stood there and mumbled a nod every now and then.

We also got fish and chips and ate them by the sea - classic seaside fare of course. We had an icecream, wandered about the pier and imagined what it would be like to go on one of the rollercoasters. Then we played crazy golf and came home!