birds and worms and planes
On Bank Holiday Monday we went to Southend. The air show was on. Planes threw themselves about in the sky like birds buffeted by the wind. (There also were birds buffeted by the wind, which created some confusion). It rained intermittently but enthusiastically; despite this there was a carnival atmosphere. A lot of people in freakish costumes (their everyday wear, in fact). The people inside the costumes were pretty freakish too: the kind of folk who never get shown on TV, even nowadays.
We ate at a chip dispensing facility on the seafront, and even came up with a slogan for it: You’ve Had Worse! Southend is much the same as it was when I used to go there as a child. Only the names have been changed. We parked close to Bar Bluu, presumably named after the first few letters of the noise you make when you’re sick. Other trendy upgrades prove to be illusory: the Hotel Trance, written above one doorway, was merely ‘hotel entrance’ with a couple of letters eroded or stolen.
The purpose of our visit was to take photographs. Between the four of us we had about ten cameras, Chad, Dave and Mat all being serious photographers. Only when we moved down the coast a bit, however, did they come out in force. Nothing in Old Leigh was going to go unphotographed, it seemed: at one point the three of them rounded, cameras at the ready, on a (no doubt terrified) earthworm, like paparazzi who’ve just spotted Jordan.
A rainbow was provided (it’s a cliché, but then so is going to Southend on a Bank Holiday Monday), and even I couldn’t help but photograph that, so emotionally overwhelmed was I to step out of the toilet and see it. I was actually just glad to be able to get out of that toilet. It was an individual cubicle, with the telephone number of the manufacturer’s head office in Sweden written above the urinal, which raised the question of some kind of problem arising, even as it made you wonder how well placed they were to deal with it. A bit of a wait, possibly, if you got locked in. On the plus side, you’d be OK for the toilet.
We ate at a chip dispensing facility on the seafront, and even came up with a slogan for it: You’ve Had Worse! Southend is much the same as it was when I used to go there as a child. Only the names have been changed. We parked close to Bar Bluu, presumably named after the first few letters of the noise you make when you’re sick. Other trendy upgrades prove to be illusory: the Hotel Trance, written above one doorway, was merely ‘hotel entrance’ with a couple of letters eroded or stolen.
The purpose of our visit was to take photographs. Between the four of us we had about ten cameras, Chad, Dave and Mat all being serious photographers. Only when we moved down the coast a bit, however, did they come out in force. Nothing in Old Leigh was going to go unphotographed, it seemed: at one point the three of them rounded, cameras at the ready, on a (no doubt terrified) earthworm, like paparazzi who’ve just spotted Jordan.
A rainbow was provided (it’s a cliché, but then so is going to Southend on a Bank Holiday Monday), and even I couldn’t help but photograph that, so emotionally overwhelmed was I to step out of the toilet and see it. I was actually just glad to be able to get out of that toilet. It was an individual cubicle, with the telephone number of the manufacturer’s head office in Sweden written above the urinal, which raised the question of some kind of problem arising, even as it made you wonder how well placed they were to deal with it. A bit of a wait, possibly, if you got locked in. On the plus side, you’d be OK for the toilet.
posted by martin at 4:18 AM
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