A Not So Grand Day Out or How A Full Day Can Still Be Boring. Pt 2

When Dad returned with Bess we had our lunch but I think that Dad was beginning to realise how fed up Mum and I were so we packed up the car and headed off into Mablethorpe.

I loved Mablethorpe and have spent many a happy day there when I was younger, on the beach or wandering around the 'sell everything' stores so typical of the English seaside town, or in the little arcades trying to win something on the penny-falls machines.

But as we walked into the town I could have cried.  The Mablethorpe of my youth was no more.  The little town was now a mass of huge arcades and factory outlet shops.  Even the people walking round were different and seem to have changed to suit the new facilities, I will leave it to your imagination to work out what I mean.

We walked up onto the Prom and along the sea front.  Bess decided to have a wee right in the middle of the pavement, but frankly, it did not seem out of place.

There had been some attempts to brighten up the front, several brightly coloured changing huts had been erected.

We made it to the Queen's Park end of the Prom and had a coffee at the cafe there.  It felt much nicer at that end of the town.

We then set off home, stopping on the way to have another sandwich and a drink.  It was a very long day, and one that I will not be repeating!

Is Death stalking me, or is there another reason why I always seem to identify with Susan Sto Helit.

I was talking to my Mum the other day and the subject of death came up and we were discussing how death seems to follow us when we go on holiday.

It started years ago when Mum went on holiday with Gran and Grandad, they were in Benidorm (this was the late 50s, early 60s when it was still relatively unknown with only about 4 hotels) and had to be evacuated inland as a sea mine had broken loose of its moorings and had drifted into the beach.  After the detonation, which they all heard and felt, they were allowed back into the hotels.

When I started travelling to Spain by myself I used to go by coach, this was before the advent of budget airlines and I couldn't afford package holidays, especially with the single supplement on top.  I used a particular holiday company based in Wales as they were much cheaper than the local companies, but almost every trip, one of the people who was on my coach did not come back.

Since then, I have been in Blackpool when a jet fighter crashed, luckily no-one was hurt but it was fascinating, and someone was stabbed in a bar where I had been drinking only minutes earlier.

Mum has also been in Blackpool when two bodies, on two separate occasions, have been found.  And Mum and Dad were in Mablethorpe when a body was found a short walk away from their hotel.

In Barcelona I saw a dead tramp, she actually looked quite peaceful.  Another year in Spain there was an incident where 12 people were killed and 14 injured not too far away from where I was staying.  They were on their way to a music festival to celebrate San Juan.

At home too, Mum and I were having a coffee in the shopping centre in town, and there was a young man wandering around acting a little strangely, as this was not an unusual occurrence in our city we didn't take much more notice.  Shortly after we left, he threw himself off the balcony.

I was on my way to work one morning, and walked past one of the multi storeys in the city centre to see a pair of legs poking out from under a blanket with Police and Ambulance crews standing around, he had jumped from the top of the car park.

So there we have it, am I safe to be around?

Oh, if you are wondering who Susan Sto Helit is, she is Death's grand-daughter on the Discworld.  She occasionally stood in for him, and the Tooth Fairy, and could dispatch monsters and ne'er-do-wells by doing 'the voice'.