Sunday 11th October 2009

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site
Disappointingly, the weather forecast is wrong, instead of being another sunny day like yesterday, it is raining.

Fortunately the rain stops before it is time for Kathleen to go to church, but is does not reach the dizzy heights of the sun shinning on the righteous.

I do my usual and find a newsagents, buy a paper and settle down outside of the church for a good read. I just get started on how Alex Ferguson is about to get fined a few minutes earnings for criticising a referee, when someone turns up and starts talking to me. I must have one of those faces which makes people think I really want to talk to them, when in fact I just want to read the paper. My new Irish friend, Liam, is obviously here for the duration, so I reluctantly put my newspaper back in my bag and move into listening mode.

I am entertained for the next 45 minutes by Liam, who I learn:

is a builder

owns a few properties which he rents out

is a keen cyclist, having cycled 700 miles across the Pyrenees at 100 miles per day, and usually does the London to Brighton cycle ride

plays in a band, including gigs in Germany

I for my part give away that I am from Newcastle, which he could probably have deduced for himself.

Just before the end of mass, a fellow Irish man emerges from the church and the pair of them head off.

Kathleen appears and given that the weather is still not too good, we return to the van for coffee.

Shortly after 13:00, we head for the Six Bells pub, which has been highly recommended to us for its food, and where I have booked a table for 13:30.

The meal and wine are excellent, as usual I pig out on all three courses, while Kathleen settles for a main and a sweet.

What is left of the afternoon is spent lying about stuffed full and reading the Sunday paper, what bliss.