The Longest Pier in the World

As I entered the pier, it stretched out before me into the distance. Usually I take the train to the end. What on earth possessed me to walk? I’d committed myself now. There was no going back. I had to keep going to the end, all 1.34 miles (or 2.16 km) of it.

I began to walk, leaving behind the screams from the theme park rides of Adventure Island. Below me, through the slits between the wooden planks, was mud. The tide was out. Those cracks of sea beneath had frightened me as a child.

It’s quite a narrow pier, just a railway track and footpath wide. There’s not much room to pass. I met a group of schoolchildren in their uniforms, chattering away and all holding worksheets. Their teachers were following behind. I was now over the water and had reached the first shelter. They are a welcome relief when it’s windy. It blows twice as strong away from the shore. But today it was gentle even out here. It was a good day for walking the pier. Lots of other people had the same idea. Families walking out, people walking back. We nodded to each other as we passed, or said hello.

I kept passing a family with a small child as we each stopped to take photos. A train trundled past. A seal popped his head up to say hello, then disappeared again. There’s a colony of them living on a sandbank in the middle of the river. If you have binoculars you can see them from the cliffs.

A sign fixed to the rail told me I was ½ mile from shore. Oh goodness. I’m not even halfway yet. Another shelter. This one had a fisherman casting his line. “They’re not biting today” he said. “There’s not enough wind to chop the water.” Another train went by, in the other direction this time. Further on more fishermen. Another sign. This one told me I was a mile from shore and I’m still not at the end. I’d forgotten how long this pier is.

Finally I got there. I needed a cup of coffee from the new cultural centre. There’s not a lot else at the end of the pier anymore, since the last major fire in 2005. “There have been five fires in the pier’s 184 year history”, the lady in the RNLI shop told me. “There’s a small museum at the shore end telling you all about it.” Based at the end of the world’s longest pier, Southend Lifeboat station is the busiest in England. The Thames Estuary is a busy waterway and treacherous to sail in. I always buy something from the shop. It feels important to support the Lifeboats.

I took the train back to shore. I was tired but I had enjoyed being a tourist in my own town.

Month 6 of the Trial

Not long after I returned from my big holiday, it was time for my Month 6 Assessment. I seemed to be on a mission that morning. I caught the train before the one I needed to and arrived at the Clinical Research Centre ahead of schedule. It was still half-an-hour after my appointment time before I went through. They seemed to be somewhat disorganised and less co-ordinated than usual. Yet another new nurse had taken over my care.

The consultant in charge flew in. He did a quick check of my skin, heart, felt my stomach, glands, whatever and listened to my lungs while I breathed in and out. Have I had any adverse effects, any new symptoms? No. Then we’ll continue the study. Then he flew out again.

Instead of going for my motorway vein when she took my blood, Ann went for a smaller one that seemed deeper. It protested, and she ended up in the motorway anyway. From my viewpoint that was much better and hurt much less.

I got myself in a right muddle with the maths test and kept losing track of the numbers. The pegs in the nine-hole peg test went flying across the room, although that was the doctor’s fault, not mine. I might be right-handed, but as usual my left hand was much steadier. Or should that be tremors less? In fact it was four seconds faster, which I’m sure was a bigger difference than last time.

And I’m sure he stabbed me harder than usual with the pin prick test. I yelled “Ouch!” a lot. Bizarrely, the places where I yelled “Ouch!” were the same places where I could feel nothing when the vibrating tuning fork was placed there.

My diary was photocopied and my remaining drug returned and exchanged for the next three month’s batch. I was all done. Or was I?

The next day, I received an email from the Clinical Research Centre. We forgot to do the 25ft timed walk test. Can you come back?

Flamingoes in Kowloon Park

It was a heavy downpour when I woke up, but after lunch it cleared enough to venture out. I wandered along to Kowloon Park. The concierge had told me it was wheelchair accessible. It was…very. Inside was a haven of peace from the city. If you listened carefully, you could hear the traffic, but only just. Dotted about were kiosks to buy coffee and lots of places to sit.

There was an “Avenue of Comedy” full of statues of the comical characters. In another square was a collection of odd shaped structures. There were three large swimming pools of different shapes and depths, all connected. Best of all, was a lake with flamingos. There were also swans with black necks and lots of ducks and fish. But it was the proud flamingos that caught my imagination.

I made it to the harbour this time. I didn’t take a trip around it because none of the boats were wheelchair accessible. Neither was there anywhere safe on the quay where I could leave my scooter. But it didn’t matter. The cloud was so low I probably wouldn’t have seen a lot anyway.

When it got dark, the Temple Street Night Market was buzzing. It was full of what my mother would delicately call “tat”. But I did find some purple ear-phones for my Ipod. There were outlets with buckets of live seafood, waiting to be freshly cooked. I declined to experiment, but every one of them was full of customers.

I thought I’d treat myself to a cocktail for my last night. While I was trying to decide whether I wanted a second, or should I go upstairs and pack. The waitress arrived with another glass. “I didn’t order another cocktail,” I said. “It’s happy hour,” she said. “It’s buy one, get one free.” How could I refuse?

My plane home got lost in Hong Kong airport. It had arrived early morning and had been parked at a distance gate, until its departure that evening. Only they seemed to have forgotten where they parked it.