Southend-on-Sea

Having passed my probation period at work, I am now able to work out of the office ('Smart Working') one day a week. In a fit of perfect timing, my second Wednesday of doing so co-oincided with Lucy having a day's training in Southend-on-Sea, a small town at the very Eastern end of the Thames and only one hour from London by train.

The weather in Southend was absolutely lovely, and it was very hard to drag myself into the first McDonalds I saw so I could take advantage of wireless internet and begin my projects. However, I shouted myself a silly breakfast and actually got lots of work done.

Southend has an unfortunate reputation as being full of unemployed people and pensioners. I think whomever first formed this rumour might have been visiting McDonalds on dole day, just like I was. From lunchtime onwards, the locals cram the town centre, mostly having flaming rows and ignoring their misbehaving children.

It made concentrating difficult, so I thought it a good time to see my first Southend sights. Reputation aside, the beach looks nice enough:


Naturally, there's also a funfair and pier to enjoy:


I thought it best to wait until Lucy's class finished before exploring those, so instead ate a pleasant sandwich in the little park overlooking the beaches. The sun was hot and it was fantastic.

After a nice hour of sunbathing, I got all responsible and decided to find somewhere new to set up shop. I took a gamble that Southend's libraries were probably quietly roomy, and it didn't take long to find one. Fortunately, I had guessed they wouldn't have wireless access, so had put all my work from McDonalds on a disk.

Another couple of very productive hours were spent in a corner with a warm breeze blowing through the open window. One strange lady told me off for asking for her help to watch my stuff whilst I visited the ladies' room, but apart from that, it was excellent.

In no time at all, 5:30 rolled around and I could meet Lucy for a swim. She had found her training interesting, and told me good stories about the locals as we wandered to the beach. Unfortunately, all the water had left!!!!:


Not having known Southend was on a tidal lagoon, we were both very disappointed. It was hot and we would have liked to get wet. Instead, we had to content ourselves with walking the longest pier on the mainland UK. I can't say it was on my 'Must Do' list for England, but was perversely satisfying in it's own way - especially since the 45 minute walk to the end led to a cafe with excellent icecreams.

Too hungry to walk the 2km back to the beach, we took the pier's electric tram (the pier has a tram!) for the ten minute drive. Once back in the town centre, it took a long time walking amongst every kind of takeaway-cum-amuseument arcade, to find somewhere serving non-chips-based meals. But, eventually, we found the Pipe of Port, a basement wine bar serving excellent French food.

The waiter was patient and knowledgeable, the menu was perfect and the food was divine. My dinner date was pretty happy:


Having made the excellent decision to linger over our meal, we didn't actually make it home until 11pm. Smart Working is very tiring!