SOUTHPORT. A Pier & A Pint.

Looking along the pier back towards the Promenade. The sun stayed out and the breezes were just the right side of boisterous. With a length of over 3,000 feet you can walk off lunch and work up an appetite for your tea. It did used to be longer at more than 4,000 feet. It’s also one of the oldest cast iron piers in the country.

I don’t quite know why but this last Saturday was a bit of a fag end of a day. I couldn’t settle on what to do with it and rather than end up at the end of a day with a fine selection of jobs and tasks half started and half finished, that I would probably have to pick apart and redo, I resorted to my favourite cure for this sort of indolence, I went out for a ride somewhere. Now it has to be a ride, driving obviously doesn’t allow me to go into that freewheeling, not thinking about much state of mind that has solved a lot of issues for me in the past. That mood you go into when you are just sat and the world outside is just passing by the window. Mobile meditation I suppose. The trains were on strike so it was the bus this time. I got myself a day ticket for one of the local bus companies and set off on a not very direct trip to Southport. The choice of destination was quite arbitrary, influenced a bit by the weather looking to be decent and the thought of some sea breezes to waken my brain up. The route was a roundabout one, there are shorter ones but like I said it was more the journey than the destination. Well I got there and I had my walk about along and around the pier and I celebrated with a pint before starting the journey back. I had a few ideas and I solved a couple of little things that had been niggling away, so if you find yourself in a similar situation give it a try, a pointless journey just staring out of the window.