Tag: travel

I do like to be beside the seaside

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Now back off holiday (moan, moan, grumble, grumble), but we did have a lovely time.  We were staying in a caravan park on the coast, in a little seaside town called Cayton Bay.

On the day we arrived, it had been raining so hard that we were sinking into the mud getting to the caravan and I think our hearts were sinking a bit with our shoes.  It was actually a lovely day when we arrived, but the ground got better after that!  This photo is of the beach at Cayton Bay.  It’s a bit of an incline to get down to it, so I only went once (I have a bad back), but Barry went back to “fish” later in the week.  He is 65% certain that he got the hook in the water at some point.  I bought him a beach casting kit for Christmas and it’s the first time he’s tried it.

We went into Scarborough quite a few times (including to see the Avengers movie – go see it, it’s excellent!  4.5/5!).  I ate more fish and chips than I’ve ever eaten before, some of it very good, some of it not so good.

We visited Whitby as well – this photo doesn’t do it much justice, but it’s very picturesque and cute, just what you imagine a seaside town to look like.

In between all this, we picked up a channel that I’ve never seen before (Pick TV, anyone?), and I watched a few episodes of the Biggest Loser USA, which I could quickly imagine myself getting hooked on.

We were supposed to be going Monday – Friday, but we booked a cheeky extra night at The Grand Hotel in Scarborough, which is a really impressive-looking building that you can see from the sea, and can take a tram up to for 75p (which was the best bit).

We got a really good deal, and I’m so glad I didn’t Wikipedia it before staying there, but having read what they’ve got to say, don’t think I dare again!  We were supposed to have dinner and a bottle of wine in with our deal, but it just so happened one of my school friends who I haven’t seen in 10 years happened to be coming to Scarborough for the weekend.  We met up for “a” drink, and ended up getting very drunk indeed (we hadn’t eaten so got drunk very quickly), ate with them, and ended up in Scarborough’s only Irish pub until they wouldn’t serve us any more.  Good last night to the holiday!

Home is where…?

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According to the adage, home is where the heart is. But can your heart be in more than one place at once?

I was born in Aldershot, but only have hazy memories of the place. After moving around the area for a few years (my parents had various pubs), we moved to Howden for good when I was five. Howden’s a village in East Yorkshire where my mum grew up and my maternal grandparents still live. Although we moved to the neighbouring town of Goole on my tenth birthday, my heart stayed in Howden, and it’s always where I tell people I’m originally from.

Barry’s from Northern Ireland, and if we’re going back there, he says he’s going home (but then he also says we’re going home on the way back!).

Does it have something to do with the house in which you grew up? I was studying abroad when my parents sold the house in Goole, and felt untethered since then really: it’s no longer my home. I suppose when you have children, you truly make a home of your own and hope that they always regard it as such.

Now we live in a village in the suburbs of Bradford, but if we’re abroad we say “near Leeds”. Naughty, I know, but we’re between the two cities so I think we get away with it. I took this photo of Bradford city hall last week, and it actually looks great.

But is it where my heart is? I can’t imagine growing old here. If work wasn’t an issue (i.e., if we won the lottery), I’d move straight back to East Yorkshire – Howden if possible! Barry can come too, if he wants.