SANDBLASTED. (03/11/13)

Today we went to Redcar. Please feel free to mock if you wish but I like the run from Darlington, past Stockton-on-Tees, skirting Middlesbrough and on to Redcar. The place is not noted for it’s scenery or buildings but it has some fine views, good architecture and the people are wonderful. They have smartened the place up considerably since I was last here it’s coming on a treat.

The steel works or what remains of it are laying off eight hundred workers. It’s the way of things in the North East. They are paid precious little in the boom times and dumped in the bad times. They still remain cheerful and full of humour. It’s a great area.

There are few pictures to show as I was wandering in company today, chatting and laughing. It was a perfect November day. Strolling arm in arm, barefoot along miles of golden sands with a gale blasting sand around my feet and stripping the skin from my ankles. I have indulged in a little poetic licence here but the wind and sand were fact as were the chatting and laughing. I am back to happy; it did me a power of good.   Pebbles on the beach. I adopted a recumbent posture for this and got on my feet without any undignified rolling about, puffing or cursing. Amazing what I can achieve when I'm trying to impress or daring myself to walk arm in arm.

   It’s a few years since I’ve been here and yet another useless wind farm has emerged. I hate the things. A couple of Nuclear Power Stations in the Home Counties would be cheaper and more efficient. Chipping Norton would be a perfect site. No locals and anyone with the countries future in his hands and heart wouldn’t mind gazing out and seeing technology. Cutting edge technology at that.

   Sand Blowing over Sand. Now this would have made a good timelapse movie. I wasn’t going to push my luck, lunch was waiting at The Ship Saltburn. They let dogs into the scruffy end which hasn’t seen much change in fifty years. The posh end is….well….posh.

The food is the same in either end and I came out full of Roast Beef, Yorkshire Puddings and overcooked vegetables all washed down with a pint of Tetley’s Imperial, it’s a proper dark beer with a hint of dog tiddle and dead fish. It’s just beer. Perfect! It’s good for the soul to eat proper food now and again. I had almost forgotten the luxury of eating melt in the mouth carrots and drinking ale that wasn’t brewed by some pretentious twat with a few grand to spend on a microbrewery.

If this weather holds I’ll pop back with the van and take the pictures I should have taken. If not then I’ll head for Derbyshire.

Either way I have no regrets. That’s all for today. Have a great week.