Saturday, 3 June. Weymouth

 First stop this morning was the laundrette , where I met a bit of a sad old girl. She is in temporary digs and looking for a flat. Hair styled beautifully but rather down at heel despite the gold nail polish and once-stylish shoes. I think she is finding life a bit difficult these days and it made me so grateful that I am financially secure with a home of my own. Anyway it was quite social in the laundrette and there were some very professional clothes folders.

Then it was a walk into town. You wouldn’t drive as the roads are packed and there are people going in all directions. This was quite an experience… “The British at the beach”. The Esplanade is lined with hotels, many with Union flag bunting, which may or may not have been put up for the coronation. There were lots of families enjoying the beach, ice creams, rides and the water. Along the boardwalk were older people, many with walkers or wheelchairs, ambling along or just sitting enjoying the sun.

At the end of the Esplanade is the town centre, with more tourist shops and everyday shops. I found a little coffee shop with a nice feel to it and had a mid-morning break. The Dolphin Marching Band was playing outside, with a couple of little boys collecting donations in a bucket.

Then it was on to the end of the street and the harbour, where things were really jumping. Cafes and restaurants all along and people sitting outside with drinks or fish and chips. On the other side of the harbour, which is the mouth of the Wey River, there were two lots of Morris dancers and then some female Morris dancers - don’t know what they’re called. A number of dads and their kids were catching crabs and the kids were happy to show them to me and brag about how many they’d caught. When I asked if they were for dinner a nice little boy said they were going to throw them back in the sea.

Back in town I found the ee shop and got my phone sorted. My old English phone had had it but it still had the SIM card which I had put £15 onto online. We put it into my phone but couldn’t get it working and after much searching, discovered that because it hadn’t been used for so long they had given that number to someone else. So I had put £15 onto someone else’s phone. Bought another SIM and we had success at last. So you can’t ring on my phone number or text, but email and What’s Ap are fine.

By now it was a bit late for Plan A so I decided instead to visit the Osmington White Horse. This is a chalk horse and rider cut into a hillside and it represents George III, who loved Weymouth and really introduced the idea of seaside holidays. Unfortunately he wasn’t happy because the horse was carved facing away from the town, not heading towards it. The road past the hill in question is narrow, lined with hedges and has absolutely nowhere to stop and view the horse. I got a glimpse of it on my way back and it’s fantastic. The GPS took me down a tiny and very pretty lane and wanted me to drive up a walking trail. I had to back up and turn around but there wasn’t anywhere appropriate to park. I saw a couple of cars nearby and I think those people had walked to the trail so I’m thinking of trying again early tomorrow morning, after my shower.

Tried to have a shower this morning but couldn’t make it work. There were two knobs which I assumed were for hot and cold but nothing would come out of the hot tap and in the end I gave up. Later I got one of the staff to come up and show me. In his broad west country accent he finally got through to me that one knob was for water and the other for temperature. How stupid I thought it was and he thought I was. Tonight I looked again with my glasses on and there’s tiny writing there which tells you that!