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Thursday 3 May 2012

Herne Bay in the rain

It has been some weeks since my wife and I visited my father-in-law's bungalow in Herne Bay, Kent. Because it is election day for the next Mayor of London and the members of the London Assembly, the school where my wife normally works on Thursdays was closed as it was being used as a polling station. We therefore decided to go to Herne Bay today, and to use the opportunity to see the solicitor who is dealing with my father-in-law's estate and the estate agent who is selling the bungalow.

The weather was not particularly good, and the drive to Herne Bay was punctuated by heavy rain showers. Once we were there it took us less than fifteen minutes to check that the bungalow was all right and to pick up the mail that had been delivered since our last visit. We then went to the seafront, where we parked close to the fish-and-chip restaurant where we usually eat lunch ... as we did today. The rain was by now falling quite steadily and the wind coming off the sea made the air temperature feel even lower than we had expected.

After an enjoyable lunch of cod and chips, our decision to visit the solicitor turned out to have been a very sensible one. The solicitor had been on the point of writing to my wife to request some information about the bungalow as well as her signature on the sales contract. By visiting the solicitor when we did, we probably speeded up the sales process by nearly a week.

The estate agent had nothing new to tell us, and having done everything we planned to do in Herne Bay, we drove home through the rain showers. The poor weather did nothing to improve the driving conditions, and when combined with the heavy traffic, it made for a less than perfect journey home. We got home late in the afternoon feeling tired and cold, but also feeling that we had made substantial progress.

10 comments:

  1. Could this be the end of jokes about the Scottish weather. I spent some time this afternoon in between cutting some acrylic sheet for roads, voting in the local elections and a bit of shopping for some more Really Useful Boxes with a spot of sunbathing.

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  2. Didn't realize they made fish and chips so far south???

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  3. We have fish and chips as far south as New South Wales.

    Can't get a decent cod and chips or haddock and chips though :)

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  4. But none of our chippies stay open after 9pm!

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  5. Jim Duncan,

    Surely this is a case of 'The World Turned Upside Down' (or if not the World, at least the UK!).

    Enjoy the good weather whilst you can ... especially if it gives you the opportunity to do things you might otherwise have not been able to do.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  6. Martin,

    It is supposed to be a 'well known fact' that the combination of fried fish and fried chipped potatoes was invented in London when Joseph Malin opened his fish-and-chip there in 1860 (a claim that is contested by the supporters of Mr Lees, who opened a chip shop in Mossley in 1863).

    Frankly I don't care where it was invented; good fish-and-chips are one of the best meals in the World!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  7. Kaptain Kobold,

    Getting hold of decent fish - especially cod and haddock - is a problem everywhere these days. I used to love what was called 'rock salmon' when I was a child (it is a species of dogfish and was cheaper than cod) but nowadays I prefer cod or haddock.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  8. Kaptain Kobold,

    There are parts of the UK that are like that.

    A couple of years ago I tried to book a meal in a restaurant in Norfolk. When I asked to eat at 8.30pm, the reply I got was, 'You'll be from London, them? Round here folks have usually eaten by then.'

    All the best,

    Bob

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  9. Most people in Norfolk are from London. Or Portugal. Or China. Or the Baltic. Plus the odd Geordie.

    Had to laugh once at the fish restaurant on Cephalonia that was advertising freshly caught cod on it's menu.

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  10. Xaltotun of Python,

    There still some real Norfolk people about ... but you have to look for them to find them.

    Obviously the cod was fresh at some point in its journey for sea to plate ... but possibly not by the time it reached Greece

    All the best,

    Bob

    PS. 'He yer fa got a dickey, bor?'
    'Yis, an' he want a fule ter roid 'im, will yew cum?'

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