One of the umpires I stood with last week told me a touching anecdote about the time a passer-by shouted 'Nigger!' at him, a black man, as he walked along the beach at Westcliff-on-Sea. I'll always remember it for that now.
It will have been one of the local Spice heads, of which there are many. Absolute shithole, Westcliff, the worst part of Southend, aside from Shoebury.
The seafront part is usually OK though.
I did see a woman crying whilst sitting on a wall with a group of people around her holding a bowl of water for her feet.
So it hasn't been completely fine.
Spent the day on site in full PPE, baking sunshine, 30 degrees. Get home, crack a can and the clouds roll in before I'm half way down.
A casual 33c in my sons room tonight. He's sleeping magnificently as you would expect. His room is north facing and the coolest in the house too.
I would argue that is no excuse.
Time to start keeping an eye on how the mid July forecasts look.
2 weeks away so unlikely to happen, but if it does I'm driving to Scotland for however long it takes to fuck off. 40c.
It's actually not even the "most likely" model run as far as I understand it, but "within the modelled possibilities", so with 2 weeks out it's unlikely. Seeing 43c over where I'm at in NL still gets me looking at possible escape routes.
Looks like utter shite.
Still, even on the hypothesis it looks like the Channel Islands are the place to be [they're not on the map].
Not a hope we get mid 20’s so no dice.
Torched to perfection
And get me some while you're at it.
It's probably not getting all the way to 40 but the London forecast now says 36 in a week.
God, I fucking love it.
Had a barbecue and a day in the paddling pool yesterday and a pub garden lunch and the afternoon at the beach today. What a weekend.
The London scummers don't make it to the beaches this far down either.
Definitely rather be back down south than Wales given the quality of beaches both offer.
Do UK beaches get better than Pembrokeshire?
It's no Cullercoats.
The best beaches seem to be in the worst places. The North East, Wales, the arse end of Northern Scotland.
St Ives is nice isn't it? Pretty much anywhere in the South West that isn't Bristol, actually.
St.Ives is lovely aye. Most of Cornwall is tbh.
Norfolk has great beaches.
Also been to Lowestoft which is on the border, but I think technically Suffolk. What a fucking shithole that place is. Even by Southend standards.
Is the quality of the sand more important than the quality of the sea?
Pebble beaches can get lost, but I think I’d prefer lovely sea and a beach littered with broken shells and condoms, over brown sea and lovely fine white sand.
I'm a twit
I've been to Caister too actually. I was a kid though and had no idea it was Norfolk. I had it near Clacton in my mind
Clacton is probably the peak of Mount ShitSeasideTown. I did an eviction there once and the tenant - a heroin addict - had booby trapped all the soft furnishings they left behind with used needles. Bless.
In Swansea you can see the steel mills in port Talbot pumping sewage into the sea from the beach for an extra bit of fun.
The weather is amazing at the moment, but this can fuck off.
I umpired 12-7.30 Saturday and 2-8.30 yesterday, must have lost about 6 stone in water weight. 35 degrees on Sunday will see me move into negative mass.
There's a mess at work which is air-conditioned. Might just move in there for the next week or so.
It was 32C in Dundee yesterday.
That seems unlikely.
Edit: Internet says 27/28. Not bad for you lot. Foe must be a crisp.
According to my car thermo whilst driving back from Edinburgh. So ambient temp less wind chill.