Virginia's grandmother used to run a Tufty Club (a long gone organisation for teaching children to cross the road safely, Tufty was a squirrel.) This Tufty Club had an annual outing to the seaside which kept happening even after the Club itself became moribund. Virginia's mother has kept the outing going, and I felt I should go once to experience the experience.

The outing goes to Walton on the Naze (typical English seaside town.) Decent gently sloping beach (no treacherous undercurrents but the tide comes in surprisingly quickly.) A pier that's seen better days with an amusement arcade of dodgems and old style roller coasters. Stalls where you can buy cheap kites and postcards and inflatables and buckets and spades. We walked to the Naze Tower and tried our hand at flying kites, but the wind was spasmodic. It had been gusty enough to blow Virginia's straw hat into the sea which didn't do it any good! We had a pleasant enough lunch in a pub which wasn't as crowded as I feared.

Took two hours each way travelling which wasn't so nice, it was a crawl reaching Walton itself. Also on the downside was getting the windscreen cracked on the motorway (as the crack is spreading better get that seen to!)