Seaside life

Today I went to meet with a couple of people in a seaside town about 40 miles down the coast. It was a lovely day and as I had chosen to use public transport I was 45 minutes early and so went for a nice walk along the seafront. It is amazing what you can see when you have the time to look!

The first thing I came across was this little boat with a notice advertising the sale of fish at 1pm! (I found out later that this is not a daily occurrence). All was suspiciously quiet except for the fluttering of the flags on some other boats. On closer inspection these bright 'flags' were made from bits of high visibility jackets and other work clothes!

I walked along the beach a bit more and as mid-day approached a few people began to gather by the blue boat. There were a couple of men, a few Koreans and eventually two elderly ladies in their matching motorised wheelchairs. About 20 minutes later I heard a creaking sound and saw an older fisherman hauling his small fishing boat up the shingles, using a motorised winch. The crowd began to clamour around the boat. "What has he got today? Any hake?" said one of the ladies. "No, just a few mackerel I think" came the reply. The fisherman went to his hut and set up his filleting knife and bucket and I looked into the boat. In the bottom was a pile of nets, with mackerel, still flapping around! A proper queue had formed by this time but the elderly ladies thought they were being left out so levered themselves out of their chairs and took their place! I mentioned it to he person I was meeting who said that the man and his fish were in deed very popular! Well, you can't get much fresher! Unfortunately I had several hours before I could get home and to the fridge and so had to forgo the pleasure of probably the freshest mackerel I am ever likely to get!