Still Searching

Back to the present day. Yesterday I drove home it was a straight boring route, A roads and the motorway although I have to say that when I was looking for a service station I couldn’t see one for over half an hour but when I wasn’t I saw about four in quick succession.

Home was much as I’d left it and everything I’d set up to record seemed to be ok apart from the first two items, an old Heartbeat episode and the Drama Trails. There wasn’t anything on the Drama trails I wanted anyway, although I would like to know what interrupted the signal.

While I was away I bought Kid Rock’s album Rock N Roll Jesus. Today I’ve been listening to it non stop. I couldn’t listen to it with my Grandma in the car because of the occasional swearing. Anyway, it’s really good. I think Amen is still my favourite track but I like Blue Jeans and a Rosary a lot too along with the whole album really.

Today I didn’t really do anything, just had a morning to catch up on my sleep and spent the afternoon devouring a book. I was shocked when I reached the end because it was reasonably substantial and I’d read it in just a couple of hours. It was Deadline by Simon Kernick. I’ve read three of his books before and they’re always good. They’re set in the same world as each other but focus on a different main character each time. I didn’t like that so much at first because I wanted to know more about DI John Gallon who was the lead in the first book I read but I’ve got used to it now, it’s a different approach but interesting to read. I think the overall message is nobody is perfect and the past rarely stays there.

(Posted later at home. I decided to post all my back posts in one go to get back to the present)

On Monday morning we checked out of the Grand Hotel in Whitby two days early. Mum and I packed up the cars and then left my grandparents and drove down to the front in my car so I could buy some postcards as I like the pictures on them. We then went and got some hot doughnuts because I’d promised my mum she’d have one. After we’d had the doughnuts we drove to Whitby. It was a bit of a nightmare finding somewhere to park but because of the disabled badges we could park on a double yellow line. Miraculously Mr Chips had a table so we went into the restaurant. I had Cod and chips it was very tasty, I seem to say that a lot.

After lunch we drove to the hotel. It’s nice to look at, got a huge car park but is a bit quiet a night, I had trouble sleeping as it was too quiet and too dark. I ran all the batteries in my torch down having it on all night. The internet here is very cheap too. Just £15 for the whole time I’m here which is cheap compared to other hotels who charge something like that per hour or something. For dinner last night I had a hot beef baguette with gravy which was also very tasty.

Tuesday morning I had crunchy nut cornflakes for breakfast, I’d forgotten how much I liked them. My grandparent’s friends are coming to the hotel for lunch and mum says we’ll go ride on a local heritage train this afternoon. It’s not steam but it’s a pretty route apparently so it could be nice.

Speaking from a later point of view the train ride was actually not nice. It was just a regular train, nothing heritage about it really. The seats were very uncomfortable and it was raining a lot so it was difficult to see. Some other people, also old friends of my grandparents turned up as well and one of them, the wife of an old teacher colleague kissed me on my cheek. I’m pretty big on personal space and she just couldn’t take a hint. I was glad to leave to avoid her but apart from that the afternoon was a bit of a waste really. I feel a little guilty that I didn’t enjoy it more. Oh well home tomorrow, I’m rather looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

(Written about Sunday, posted Thursday at home)

Today we went to the Railway Museum in York. We got there and a short look around in the Great Hall but didn’t get very far before they said a short 20 minute play was on called ‘Wish you were here’ about holidaying by rail in the 1960’s. We went to watch it and it was very good. There were only two actors but they played a variety of roles of refreshment lady, porter, engine driver, husband and wife, young lady and lecherous young man, mother of young children etc. It was very entertaining.

We then looked around the Station Hall and had lunch (sausage and chips) until the performance of The Railway Children was on. This lasted two hours and was really well done. The area was like two platforms set either side of the central part which was on rails and where the action took place. There was a bridge at the end and there was rolling sets which bridged the gap and provided more space for the actors. There was also a real life huge steam engine which came in as part of the performance. It wasn’t really steaming even though it looked like it but pushed by a diesel, the driver must have had brilliant control. No photographs were allowed but I spotted some people who took them anyway.

After this we went and looked round the rest of the museum, I took so many photos my camera grew hot in my hand, the battery went down and I ran out of room on my 512mb SD card. Still I saw everything I wanted. We then came back to the hotel and got quite a shock. We’re staying at the Grand Hotel in Scarborough. Last Thursday we’d seen notices that they were going to be filming The Royal outside the hotel Wednesday morning 7.30-10.00 which would have been slightly inconvenient because that’s the day we were checking out but it would have been fine and I was quite looking forward to watching it happen. Even though I don’t watch the show anymore I find the process fascinating. Anyway, there were more notices saying the entire car park was going to be closed from 7am Tuesday until 11am Thursday.

Now this was really quite difficult because of having luggage and wheelchairs not to be able to bring the car anywhere near so we decided to leave early. I had thought we’d have to call it a day and go home but my grandparents really wanted to see some friends of theirs and so we decided to switch hotels. I can’t exactly remember where we’re staying but it’s about 50 miles from here inland closer to Middlesborough.

We had had plans for tomorrow to go and visit Goathland village itself but that isn’t possible now. Instead we’re going to go to the new hotel via Whitby and have takeaway fish and chips from Mr Chips. It’s regatta week so we have no hope of getting into the restaurant but I have fond memories of Mr Chips and Grandma is desperate for some real Whitby fish and chips – Scarborough might not be the same. Tuesday won’t be anything to blog about either really as they’ll be meeting their friends; mum too as she knew them when she was a child and they’ve kept in touch. I don’t know them that well but I’m sure it’ll be nice to see them.

Then on Wednesday it’ll be home time. I’m quite looking forward to it. I recorded a fair bit of TV while I was away so it’ll be good to catch up on that, the Heartbeat from Sunday and the CSI:NY which is on on Tuesday. They have to be reaching some sort of forward movement on Mac’s 333 stalker surely.