Tuesday we travelled to Leigh-on-Sea to stay with Mary and to visit more friends. It took us a long time to get from Putney and wasn’t straight-forward, much to Glen’s annoyance. We caught National Rail from Putney to Waterloo, the Northern Line up to Embankment, the District Line across to Tower Hill and then walked out to Fenchurch St to catch the train to Leigh-on-Sea. To make the journey even longer, we caught the long train which goes via a loop to places I’d never been to before. What is normally a 40 minute trip, took an hour. Mary had to wait an extra half an hour for us.
It was lovely to see her again, and I was incredibly indebted to her for organising a dinner for us and various people for Wednesday night. We went back to her place, had lunch, chilled out for a bit, then went to one of her neighbour’s to look at his garden, which was open for a garden open-day. It rained but we got a nice view of their lovely garden – and Glen’s brain ticked over various ideas for our garden for when we get home.
In the evening, Glen and I walked down to Sheila’s place to meet her and Ian, and then went for dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Dinner was typically hilarious, with Sheila joking with the Italian waiters. Dinner was lovely. We chatted. After about three hours, we headed home.
On Wednesday morning, Glen, Mary and I went for a walk down Southend Pier, ‘The Longest Pleasure Pier in the World’. For all the times I’ve been to Southend, I’ve never walked down the pier (this is not surprising I suppose as it did burn down a couple of times). It took us about 25 minutes to walk to the end, which we’re sure is shorter than Busselton Jetty (that one seems to go forever). The pier doesn’t have much on it but it’s used for deploying rescue boats for the estuary. We had cake and coffee down the end while we waited for the train. (We decided we needed to get the full pier experience and walk down but train it back.)
Mary dropped us at Sheila’s studio and we checked out her latest artwork. There were some pieces that I recognise from previous visits that are now coming out for the Art Trail, and others I hadn’t seen before. Some from the 60s, some more recent.
We then met Ellen at the pub over the road. She and her husband Dan moved to Chelmsford (north of Leigh-on-Sea) a few years ago, and last year had their first child, a gorgeous girl called Freya (and she’s the spitting image of Dan). We had a good catch up, though it’s interesting to see how the conversation has now changed to be so focused on children. And it’s not just Ellen, but us too. I think it’s because we’re trying to get everyone’s opinions on having children so we can make an informed decision for ourselves.
We left at about 5 and headed home (seeing Ian and his vintage car on the way). I had a nap. All this travel and visiting and eating had really taken it out of me. Mary, Glen and I then went to the Boatyard for dinner with Mary (who’d driven an hour and a half to come along), Ian and Sheila. Dinner was nice, though the table a little to big and the guitarist/singer too loud to have a conversation across the table. We chatted more with the people on either side of us. Nearly four hours flew by before we said our goodbyes and went home.
Thursday morning Glen and I walked down to visit with Sheila for a little while before she went to work (we walked her down) and we said a ‘goodbye until next time’ rather than a farewell. And then back up to Mary’s. From there we visited Mary and Eric’s allotment, a rather large expanse of ground, which is on the verge of producing a whole bunch of produce, but right now it’s the lean time. Back to their place for lunch of pumpkin soup, cheese and tomato toasties, and homemade rhubarb crumble (with rhubarb from the allotment).
They then drove us to the station and stood on the wall waving goodbye until the train came. This time we went a slightly different route, which required fewer train changes. We caught the train to West Ham, then the Jubilee line to Waterloo and the National Rail to Putney. It still took nearly two hours but was much less hassle.
We got home just before Jackie who’d been babysitting Amy’s daughter, Elia. We played with Elia for a bit, caught up with Jackie and then Glen went to bed for a while. Amy came to collect Elia and we chatted, then she left at about 7. I pushed Glen out of bed and we went for dinner down the road with Jackie and her other daughter, Laura. Glen had noodles and duck. He was craving them I think. We ate a lot, then returned home and went to bed.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?