Monday, November 24, 2008

Alternating Travel, Right Left Right...

Either leaving your house or starting at a random point take the first left then the next right then the next left then the next right and keep alternating directions until you end up somewhere you can't carry on or you die.

Sunday 23rd November 2008, Great Yarmouth (Right - Left Alternating)
(1.25 miles, 2km)



Today Great Yarmouth awoke under a blanket of snow. Although it was all very picturesque and lovely the snow was still pelting down so I delayed my first experimental journey until the afternoon. Just after midday I popped my head out and, though the snow had reached a peaceful pace, decided to give it another half an hour so the local kids had got bored / already killed each other with snowball fights. In the mean time I took some pictures of my back garden.




After another quick check that the snow was slow and the kids were bored, I left my house




and turned RIGHT on to Collingwood Road. At the end of the road I turned LEFT on to Howe Road and was faced with my first obstacle - the nearest thing in Great Yarmouth to a hill! *scary music*



of course its not really a hill, its more of a mound created to support the old railway bridge but it was my next RIGHT turn and I hadn't brought my crampons with me. Corageously, I slalomed through the bars that are meant to slow cyclists down and began my ascent.



At the peak, I turned LEFT on to Barnard Avenue and over the bridge. From the bridge, on the other side of the road I looked down on to "The Barnard" playing fields where I used to terrorise opponents (by being good at football - not just with my face) for Yarmouth Boys FC.



I remember that there were a lot of stories about paedophilles getting arrested for loitering around this field so decide not to hang around taking more photos. I carry on down the other side of the bridge before I turn RIGHT on to Beatty Road



After taking this picture I looked around to see a youth suddenly right behind my shoulder with a snowball in his hand and a mischievious look in his eye. I gave him "don't you dare" eyebrows and he slid away. Then, after a very hesitant cross of the road (I'd seen cars' wheel spinning all over the place already and this road was suprisingly busy) I turned LEFT on to Beresford Road. Walking past several local shops for local people, the street was busy with kids slamming each other with snow. I managed to avoid them before turning RIGHT on to Perebrown Avenue. On my left was the pitch I used to play on for the 8th Great Yarmouth Cubs Football Team with the cub hut behind it. Really great memories of that place, I don't think I've ever been back since leaving the cubs 17 or 18 years ago.



I followed the pitch around its outer railings turning LEFT on to Fisher Avenue, then walking alongside a childrens playground before turning RIGHT on to Seymour Avenue. Having a quick look at the slightly decrepid looking cub hut before I turn, I remember the cub meetings there and randomly the time that I broke up with my first ever girlfriend at the gates because I wanted to go and play football (I was 9 or 10, she was Jessie Klass - sister of Myleene).



I took the next LEFT on to Cradock Avenue where I spotted a skip covered with stuff that was in turn covered with snow. It reminded me of my old friend Russell Brown who, after a particularly nasty fight with me on the beach, ordered a skip for my house as a strangely surreal revenge. I wonder who has pissed him off this time?



I chuckle to myself as I see some of the locals look at me strangely - Why am I walking around taking pictures of skips in the snow? Why not? I shrug before turning RIGHT on to Jellicoe Road. I cross another busy road hesitantly before seeing that my next left should be in to the racecourse. Unfortunately its not racing season and even if it was I get the feeling there would be no races today with the snow and all.



I pop my head in anyway and take a few pictures




but then I carry on along Jellicoe Road and over yet another hill equivalent / bridge where I get my first glimpse of the North Sea. If you can't tell where the sea ends and the sky starts, the sea is that brown bit.



On my left is yet more childhood football memories as I look over North Denes Middle Schools' playing fields where the might of Yarmouth Boys FC used to train and where the annual 5-a-side tournaments were held.



I turned LEFT on to North Drive and the seafront, with the "Iron Duke" (where we'd get picked up for Yarmouth Boys away games) on the corner.





I carried on along North Drive past the Haven Holiday camp where I once had a very surreal birthday weekend with a load of my friends from Uni



Just as I was wondering where the next right would be or if there was one, there was a very strange looking "door to nowhere" on my RIGHT, so I "entered" the beach and headed straight towards the sea.






When I got to the sea, I could have really turned left but then I would have had to keep walking around the coast of Great Britain and I didn't really fancy that, or, I suppose, I could have just carried on going straight, gone for a quick cross channel swim, and carried on my alternating in Bergen aan Zee, Holland but it was a tad cold*. So I took a few more photos and headed back home to a nice coal fire and a cup of tea.








* - though I'm not ruling out carrying on from Bergen aan Zee in the future

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Introduction

Almost a month ago I returned from a 7 month round the world trip and it already seems like a lifetime away. Yesterday in cold, windy and hailing Great Yarmouth I left the office where I was temping (I literally was being paid to read books) and cycled in to town for a chip butty and a restock of my reading collection. At the library a book caught my eye, "Teach yourself tantric sex", so of course I plucked it from the shelf. However this blog isn't about that. It is about the second book that caught my eye "The Lonely Planet guide to Experimental Travel".


When I returned to "work" I didn't think it would be entirely appropriate to tuck into my sex book (I was on reception) so made a start on experimental travel. By that evening I'd finished it and was really excited about trying some of the ideas and coming up with my own to make my time here in Yarmouth a little bit more fun and exciting.

So that's what this is going to be, accounts of my experimental travels around the Great Yarmouth area, in other words a travel blog of my time staying at home.