Yesterday, in a change from the past few years, I didn't go and celebrate James and Stef's birthday in Uxbridge, instead I went and celebrated Si's birthday in Hythe. I wound up offering a lift and driving three passengers through pouring rain on the motorway (another first) and discovering how much harder the car finds hills when there are that many people in the passenger seats. It was a bit of a squash getting everyone in but I didn't kill anyone and if they get ill I'm blaming Dan as he's far more likely to be contagious than me, now.
We went and rode the tiny trains, visited a little museum with a vast trainset (Enjoy the attempts at realism in the landscape, marvel over the detail given with scenes such as the boy with his head stuck in railings being attended to by the policemen. Worry slightly at the mind the conjoured up the car wrecks teetering dangerously on a bridge above the train line and boggle as you reach the section full of dinosaurs and a troll being attended to by Dr Who!) and went to look at the bleak landscape of Dungeness where the beach has no sand, the lighthouse staff discourage visitors and the horizon is punctuated by structures such as power stations and sheds built on top of each other by people clearly lacking the instruction sheet. We also rode dodgems, a ghost train and some went on the least inspiring log flume ever. I won't say it wasn't marred by the poor weather, but it was a good day out all the same. I got back home for somewhere around 7pm I think, and I was in bed, exhausted, before 10.
