I really needed a peaceful weekend... and... that's almost what I got.
Friday night - a little later than originally planned - I went to the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia. This is advertised as the largest in Europe... I can not really imagine anywhere else doing anything bigger.
I was slightly annoyed that I had lost my membership to CAMRA as this would have saved me 10 minutes of queuing with the plebeians. I was slightly surprised at the amount of people there... I was seriously surprised they had already run out of drinking guides! How was I supposed to find the really good beer without a guide?
Misty had already got there and met up with
Dora, Andrew and Christian (who was already looking worse for wear). The evening was most enjoyable.Saturday Misty decided a trip to the coast was in order. I wasn't really in the mood for Southend so we headed for Shoeburyness. Although not technically on the coast - it does have a nice beach which we combed for "Sea glass."
We did head into the "town" but found it closed (at 4 o'clock on a Saturday!) with the exception of one newspaper shop.
Misty wanted seafood - so we headed to Leigh-On-Sea. Leigh-On-Sea is a bit of a misnomer as it is ever further from being on the sea than Shoesburyness is. The nice pub we found was a little more honest with it's "estuary views." We sat in the back of the pub, in a conservatory type affair, supping real ale and eating fish and chips. It was very pleasant.
On the way home we were attacked with eggs by a bunch of yobs on scooters. For a full account you can read Misty's journal for the day. Needless to say that put something of a downer on the day.
Sunday we had to get up by 10:00 as the police were coming to take our statements about that time. It's surprising how much you can get done if you get up before midday! I should try it again some time.
We got the washing done, the vacuuming, the ironing, and manage to weed the front garden! The weeding turned out to be bloody hard work as the ground had the consistency of set concrete! I noticed my hand was sore today and it's taken me until about now to realise it was the gardening that would have done it.
The police finally arrived at midday.
