an ironically foul day

A few weeks ago, Bo and I woke up to some really miserable weather. While bad weather is kind of par for the course here, this day was particularly horrible .

Standing in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil the water for the tea, I was staring out the window with my face all scrunched up (to convey to the weather exactly how I felt about it) when Bo commented that the weather was really grim. Then his face lit up with a massive smile, and he said "actually, the weather is foul, isn't it? I've just had an idea."

So it was we decided to take a day trip to Foulness Island, and revel in all the horrible aspects of the day. I decided it would be an ironically foul day, so I wore a pair of 3D movie glasses with the lenses popped out and called them my hipster glasses.

We looked at the map and took off into the foggy rain, stopping along the way for an absolutely terrible cup of coffee.

We got lost. We wandered around through Southend-on-sea looking for signs to Shoeburyness, then got trapped in the loopy maze of a drizzle-shrouded housing development before finally breaking free and reaching Greater Wacking. Look at google maps, I'm not making these names up. Finally, propped up ominously in front of a cemetery, we saw the sign for Foulness.

It was like being in a horror movie. We drove slowly down the horribly-maintained road, passing houses barely visible in the mist, and a tattered flag writhing balefully in the wind. Finally, we reached the island. A military defence research and development base. But the gate was open and the signs indicated that while we weren't allowed to take pictures (oops) or use firearms, we could actually proceed. A ways down the road, a pair of pheasants stood squarely in the way.

"Do you think they're warning us?" We agreed on the ominous portent of the pheasants, especially when they refused to move out of the road. The island must have been so horrible they were resorting to suicide. Better than becoming dinner for a radiation-mutated deranged killer! Or being used as target practice by suspicious robotic military technology! Yeah, we were going to town with the horror movie suspicions.

Really, can you blame us?

On the way back we stopped at the shabby, run-down sea-side arcade boardwalk of Southend-on-sea, with a funpark and lots of colorful tiny beach huts (because, I assume, one needs a nice warm little place to have a cup of tea when coming to the tiny, pebbly, cold beach). At that point the clouds had let up enough to let the descending sun peek through a bit.

 

Looking at this view while eating fish and chips in the car and licking ketchup off your fingers... well, it was pretty much a perfect end to the day. A deliciously, beautifully foul day.