Away In Weymouth

Dawn from Weymouth Beach - Photo © Rob Jones

AMM: When was the last time that we went for a break? Must be at least two years?

RJ: All of that. I found it a bit scary to be honest. I’d forgotten about how disjointed travelling can be. Bangor to Weymouth - supposed to be 3 changes - but the train to Shrewsbury was curtailed at Chester for unforeseen circumstances (?), then a successful sprint to Newport, a brief trip to Filton Abbey Wood (where?) to pick up a train where only two of the three carriages were in operation. Passengers wafting back and fore like krill in a Jacques Cousteau episode. It was meant to go all the way to Weymouth, but stopped in Bristol Temple Meads, again for unspecified reasons. My next train was the one preferred by rugby supporters heading to Bath for the afternoon match. I asked the guard: ‘Is there a later train.’ ‘You need to get on this one with that ticket - good luck,’ he replied. Squeezed on, wearing a mask, but I was the only one. The train cleared at Bath and then it was a very pleasant journey through to Weymouth. Am I boring you?

AMM: Three slight journey mishaps for me but nothing on the Jones scale. Firstly, no driver or guard turned up for the 0703 from London Waterloo. I mean, I would have given train driving a go if someone could have talked me through it on headphones. Two folk eventually turned up saying that their journey into town had also been delayed. Just before we got underway one of those passive aggressive types planted her laptop on the table before asking: ‘Okay if I sit here?’ .. Finally, absolutely no catering on board which appears to be the norm for SW Trains.

B R E A T H E.

Glad to have seen you waiting for me 3 hours later at the end of platform 2. Then a hotel check in before a walk to the George Bar & Grill for a bottle of bubbles, both of us hopscotching topics like overexcited children. It was time for our first lunch together in a long, long, time at a place called Crustacean

Couple of starters for me - we shared the Calamari & then I plumped for the Cod Strips which I was nervous about it in case it turned out to be some sort of Weymouth speciality fish nightclub act.

You went for the linguini pasta?

Seafood Linguini - Crustacean - Photo © Rob Jones

And we should talk hotel breakfast.

RJ: Crustacean was a good call. I was looking enviously at your Cod Strips. It was a starter I think but that would have done me. Yes, the pasta. I do love pasta but also I find normal portions a bit filling. Just getting old. There was a time when … what? OK … moving on.

We’ve got form when it comes to hotel breakfasts. There’s always a conversation when we remember ‘Great Hotel Breakfasts of the Past.’ The ones I like are the ‘fill your boots’ buffet. I always feel a bit ‘Oliver-ish’ when someone comes over and says: ‘Do you want the cooked breakfast? Sausage is off, and the chef has run out of black pudding. I can give you another rasher if you like? You’re limited to one sachet of sauce. Help yourself to squash.’

The one at Best Western Rembrandt was quite nice. The bacon especially was lovely. I arrived a day before you at the weekend and the spread really did ‘spread’ but it seemed to reduce markedly for the mornings you were there. Maybe they ‘knew something.’ Anyhow … why Rembrandt I wonder? I can imagine Turner nipping down to Weymouth for a painting weekend. But Rembrandt?

AMM: Rembrandt never went abroad.

Finally, we should come clean about the evening grazing. In front of some TV drama which we picked holes in, judged & inevitably condemned. However, the snacks proved more entertaining. Bacon rasher things which we were all over like Tiny Tim on the festive ham. There were pretzels & posh crisps, too. Two nights of this plus fizz & Pinot Noir. I’ll let you explain about the filthy sausage roll. Filthy in a good way, obviously.

RJ: They were ‘Bad’ in that they were so ‘Good'.’ It’s one of those simple pleasures in life, isn’t it. I like a good sausage roll. I think the best ones I ever tasted were being sold in a motorway service station on the M5 in Gloucestershire. But these … from a high street retailer that’s not Greggs as well!

Do you realise we’ve hardly mentioned all the other things we did apart from eat. Like …

Surely we did something else?

Oh yes … walked to Chesil Beach (desperately trying to keep the Martha and the Muffins song ‘Echo Beach’ out of my mind.) And we walked back … and we wandered around a bit. Anything else?

AMM: We talked about everything & nothing. The world was put to rights. All done whilst enjoying good food & wine.

That’s how you & me roll.