In between celebrating birthdays in Scotland, and going to Whitby, ChrisC and I jaunted briefly around Northumberland. We stopped in Alnwick, and managed not to go to Alnwick Castle (it was slightly closed and largely overrun with schoolkids), but we did manage lots of other castles. And Alnwick Gardens. And, of course, Barter Books.

( It's lovely up north )

Yesterday evening I was sitting on the sea-front at Ramsgate, eating fish and chips. They were pretty good fish and chips, actually. However, the menu bewildered me...

( A pickled wally? )

I'm heading to Whitby folk week, and this evening have staged as far as my parents' house in Darlington. Normally, when driving north, my route goes M1->M18->A1 but today I made a special detour.

I stayed on the M1 and went the slightly longer route over Tinsley Viaduct, to wave goodbye to my twin towers. The Tinsley cooling towers, guardian giants of the gateway to the north, and beloved landmarks:



By the time I drive south again they will have been demolished.

It's interesting to note that (according to a spokesman from E.On whom I heard on radio 4) the energy company was keen to take into account the wishes of the local people. So they petitioned those who lived in the area whether the towers should be demolished or preserved. The answers came back almost exactly fifty-fifty.

I'll miss them, though.