Well, last Sunday, I got back from a week's holiday in Swanage, Dorset with my wife. It was good to get away from all the stresses of work and ignore the news (which is ever-present in a news-dominated working enviornment).
We were in an excellent guesthouse, Robertsbrook, which was one minute from the local church, one minute from the bus and train station, one minutes from the local Conservative club (though we were not patrons of it) and opposite the local Co-op, with the beach only a few minutes walk away.
On our first night there, we strolled along the new pier (that extends next to the protruding, stubby legs of the old's remains), noticing many brass plaques fashioned into the wooden planks. Many were to remember a loved one yet there were commemorations of wedding anniversaries and even an apology from a failed relationship. It was 40p per adult to stroll along it though we only noticd that the next day; however, there was no attendant around when we had previously perambulated. We paid on our next visit on our last full day in Swanage. At the end of the pier that first evening was a man in a wheelchair enjoying a spot of fishing. What we couldn't fathom was how he navaigated the robust stairs that are the only access to this upper part of the end of the pier (or indeed how he was going to get back).
John Mowlem, the first of two great benefactors of Swanage (the other being his nephew), moved to London with little more than the tools on his back as he put it (a literal aphorism since he was a stonesmason). He found an appropriate firm where he was put in charge "of men old enough to be my father." He wrote of his youthful employment that "I knew little, but still I moved upwards." It seems not much has changed in the capital city in 200 years.
I was last in Swanage something like 17 years ago. I remembered the old tram lines leading into an arcade amusements. 17 years of computer development may be considered 'progress' but cannot compensate for the arcade game experience of 'Ocean Raider'. So many things are retro in our uninspired current times, there should be a comeback for this.
The Swanage Conservative Club was founded in 1911 and on the wall has a picture of the 'Dear Leader', plus another photogrpah displaying the prospective parliamentary candidate for the area. Considering the locale, I cannot imagine it voting Labour, so it must be Lib Dem-held. Given the rise in Tory fortunes, maybe that Conservative will no longer merely be a prospective parliamentary candidate this time next year. The club flew a flag of three white interlocking dolphins (they can be occasionally seen off the coast) on a blue background, but from a short distance it looked like a bio-hazard sign fluttering from the flagpole.
More to follow tomorrow.