Vast tracks of sea

Looking back to land along the railway on Southend Pier

One of the big problems I have with film is that quite often I don’t get though a roll very quickly – which means photographs lay in the camera undeveloped or seen for literally years. Last year I cycled to Southend as part of the coast to coast training – around 35 miles which I did enjoy and it’s nice now having the photos to think back to that day!

Norfolk Holiday – Day 1

Got up a bit later than was really helpful. That’s pretty normal for me though. The alarm goes off, I snooze and a 10 minute blink later maybe I get up. Still, we did manage to make the train at Wood St. And it wasn’t too stressful, thought I’d forgotten that we’d have to push the bikes up a long steep flight of stairs onto the platform!

Our bikes at Wood St, loaded and ready to go

We got into the Liverpool St around 11AM – to a scene of chaos – more so than usual, because this was the Tuesday of the TSSA/RMT tube strike. I have to admit, I did feel a bit smug as I wandered into M&S to buy a picnic for lunch on the train… For getting the bike onto the train National Express East Anglia were a bit of a shambles. Both of us had tried in advance to reserve bike space and both been turned away. It was not to be 3rd time lucky as we were then told you have to reserve at least 3 hours in advance! But, it was OK to just show up an hope that there weren’t other cyclists travelling… We arrived at Sheringham around 3pm and rode the few hundred metres to the B&B. After a brew we rode down into town and had a cycle around to learn the centre.

Cycling on the promenade

There were a few hardy souls braving the wind – at least it wasn’t raining though! Seeing rain approaching from inland we raced back to the B&B to unpack and hide from the elements. It wasn’t long though before we were out again and down to the Windham Arms, probably the best pub in Sheringham. Food was pretty good and a great selection of beer was on offer. After tea there was time to wander about again and see the rest of the town.

The bright lights of the small town

Cycle reservation

Cycle reservation, originally uploaded by Alan Perryman.

We never managed to get a cycle reservation in the end, despite National Express’s website promising we could – this one was attached to a bike we shared the cycle space with between Norwich and Sheringham.

I was expecting taking the bikes on the train to be much more of a palaver than it was (aside the last journey, see: cycle rage!). I will get around to explaining the various facilities we found a little later…for now I have more work to attend to.

Lame.

Tracyan I love you

Tracyan I love you, originally uploaded by Alan Perryman.

London, being a big city seems to attract lots of tagging and graffiti of all sorts. However one place I didn’t expect to see graffiti was on the rails of tube!

I’ve forgotten where I saw this. Probably the central line as that’s where I spend my time shuttling backwards and forwards each day between home and the office.