About Me

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Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it

Wednesday September 16th 2015 - Yarmouth again, and two new jackets

Another overcast morning arrived and with it came the wind, which had actually started during the night and got worse as daylight arrived, though the temperature was still quite warm for the time of year. The tent was doing an awful lot of billowing and flapping but there was nothing I could do about it; the guy lines were all double-pegged, with the pegs knocked so far into the ground they were invisible, so if they didn't hold it nothing would. A few days previously the weather forecasters had said this would happen so I'd been half-expecting it, though when I took the dogs for their first walk somehow it wasn't as windy down on the beach as it was on the camping field.

With no real photography plans in the pipeline I decided to risk leaving the tent to fight the wind on its own and use the day to go back into Yarmouth, get the right fuel in the van, and look for a jacket of some sort - the market was on in the town centre so hopefully I could find something there. And I did, though it wasn't really what I'd had in mind; it was plain black, quilted, almost three-quarter length, with a belt and two front pockets, simple but quite stylish, and would make a good 'chilly weather' dog walking jacket - and at only five quid it was a bargain. It wasn't 'sporty' though and certainly wouldn't look right with track suit bottoms or cycling shorts so it looked like a visit to the Sports Direct store was needed, though while I was in town I decided to have a quick look at a couple of places of interest close to the market place.

The first of these was the quadrangle of the old Fishermen's Hospital. Originally built in 1702 it wasn't actually a hospital as we know it but twenty small cottages which housed old and 'decaying' fishermen and their wives. Greatly refurbished and updated over the years, the last time being in the 1980s, there are now just nine cottages in the square with eight of them currently occupied. It was an attractive little place and worth a couple of photos, though it would have looked really pretty if the sun had been shining.



Just along the road from the Fishermen's Hospital was the small and slightly higgledy-piggledy looking cottage which was the birthplace of Anna Sewell, the author of Black Beauty. For many years it was set up as a museum, then in 2008 it became a theme restaurant; currently it's the home of Kirsty's Cakery, a cake shop and tea room - and no, I wasn't tempted to go in.



Next came a look round St. Nicholas Church, now known as Great Yarmouth Minster. I'd never been in there before, and from the minute I walked through the door I was seriously impressed - as churches go, this was just ' Wow!' Although the stained glass windows weren't as bright and eye-catching as in other churches I've been in the rest of the place was stunning. The organ, the ceilings, arches, pillars, woodwork and ornamental screens - everything in there was amazing and so beautiful, and I took so many nice photos it was difficult to choose which ones to put on here.



From the church I returned to Asda where I'd left the van, filled the tank with fuel (the right stuff this time) then headed for the local Sports Direct store, and after only a few minutes of looking I found just what I wanted - a zip-up track suit top, and for only £11. The single white stripe down the sleeves didn't exactly match the double stripes down my new track suit bottoms but it was close enough, and I came out of the store a very happy bunny.

Back at the camp site the wind was still blowing an absolute hooley but thankfully the tent was still standing and hadn't suffered any damage. It was late evening when I realised that the wind had finally dropped, and after the last dog walk of the day round the site I snuggled into bed to nothing more than the sound of the waves breaking on the beach down below.



2 comments:

  1. I echo your "Wow" about the Minster - it doesn't look anything special from the outside but inside is stunning and quite unusual. That organ! Liked the funny little house where Anna Sewell was born too, and glad you got the van and jacket problems sorted to your satisfaction.
    Anabel's Travel Blog

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  2. If ever you get down that way do go and have a look in the Minster, it really is lovely. I didn't spend as much time there as I would have liked as I needed to get back to the dogs, but I'll certainly be making a return visit at the next opportunity.

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