A day in Paignton, mostly

This is the new, just opened today, children's play park in Paignton. work started last August and it is cirtainly a hit. Thousands turned up, slight shame the weather wasn't as bright as it has been.

If your child gets fed up with the play park then right next door there are 5 donkeys just waiting to give some child a ride.

This shop in Torbay Rd is the only one I have seen so far to mention that HRH The Queen has been Queen for 60 yrs. Come on the rest of you shop keepers, make a bit of a show for Liz.

And the new Steam Train Station is now open. From here you can buy a ticket for an open top bus ride to Totnes, a trip down the River Dart to Dartmouth and a steam train ride back to Paignton.

 But if you end up in Torquay please try not to leave a mess on our flower gardens.

Today's temperatures
Max 13C
Min 8C
Dull, cloudy.

Day Out in Lyme Regis

Max 19C
Min 7C
Sunny
It was such a nice, sunny, warm day yesterday that I decided to have a day out and went, courtesy of my wonderful concessionary bus pass, to Lyme Regis. I never been there before and I had heard it was a small but very nice sea side resort with a big cob. Actually it's spelt with capital letters and two bs; The Cobb. It's a breakwater to protect the harbour and basically has been there for hundreds of years though the present structure dates from the mid 19th century. It's a pleasant walk out to the end, in good weather but Meryl Streep managed to get to the end of the Cobb in the film The French Lieutenant's Woman in bad weather so it can be done. It's nowhere as long as the breakwater in Brixham and I feel, a little local pride coming in here, that the views of Brixham are much better than Lyme Regis. You can fish at Brixham as well so if you are coming here and you like fishing then bring your tackle. Bring a camera in any case.
The trip from Torquay took about two and a half hours, first the X46 at 09:30 to Exeter, arrived at 10:32, then FirstBus Dorset X53 Jurassic CoastLynx which if you have the stamina will take you all the way to Poole. (About 5hours). It runs every 2 hours so make sure you don't miss the returning bus.
Also I went past a few petrol stations, everyone must have filled up already because though they were busy none had queues out into the road as was reported elsewhere yesterday. And DON'T even think about stockpiling petrol in plastic jerry cans. They are for emergency and short term use only.

Hot Weather, Cold Pasties.

Sunny, dry, Min 9C Max 20C

Max temperature in my back garden today was 20.5C which isn't bad for the end of March. It's nice but should we be worried that the weather is getting weirder. In other words is the rise in global temperature causing the climate to do strange, extreme things or is this just a nice start to the year. Has it rained recently where you live for instance? Should all those people who, according to the newspapers today, where buying jerry cans to stock pile petrol be filling them with water instead for the coming drought?
Actually, on my travels through The Bay today I went past 4 petrol stations. None of them had the vast queues of motorists desperate to buy petrol before the strike ( I should say possible strike) by the tanker drivers causes the pumps to run dry. This could be because of one of three possible reasons. One, people here in Torquay don't panic. Two, we'd sooner spend our money on Cornish pasties that have gone up by 20% for some strange reason or three, we're all too skint, coming from the unemployment capital of the UK, to buy petrol at 1.45 a litre. (£6.58 a gallon) Note; if your car does 40 miles per gallon it will now cost 1 pound to drive 6.07 miles.
Talking of pasties, I'm thinking of setting up a stall in Fleet Street out side one of the pasty shops. People can go and buy a cold take-away pasty, no VAT, and for a small fee I'll put it in a microwave oven and heat it up. I wonder how long it would take Mr Obscene, sorry Osborne to plug that lope hole. A lot quicker, I expect, than it will take him to plug even one tax avoidance scheme that keeps the filthy rich, well, filthy rich.

Road Works in Fleet St

On Saturday afternoon I was walking up Fleet St here in Torquay when I noticed some road works. There were right where the number 12 north bound stop is and were causing something of a problem. The stop is on a bit of a bend and traffic coming up Fleet St can not see if there is anything coming down. Stagecoach had the situation covered though. A controller in a high vis jacket was there directing the buses so not too much of a problem.

This afternoon, Monday, I was again in Fleet St and so were the road works, and the buses, and the controller directing traffic, and passengers a little confused as to where to wait for their bus. There was also someone from the council who had no idea there were road works going on in Fleet St. What weren't there, absolutely no where to be seen, were any workmen filling in the hole they had dug. Anyone know why exactly? Have they been abducted by extra terrestrial for sexual probing? Had they all gone to the beach, is was a nice sunny day? Had they forgotten about the hole in Fleet St, after all one hole in the road looks just like any other hole in the road? Or were they working else where on a more important job? I don't suppose we will ever find out.

Mind you, it's sort of what you expect really.

Torquay Has Many Tourist Attractions; including this one

Just turn up and play. Have fun before the council find  out people are enjoying themselves  and put a stop it.