Oh we do like to be beside the seaside

Where is this idyllic spot - beautiful sunset, calm sea, sandy beach, waves gently lapping the shoreline, seagulls wheeling, swooping, soaring on the thermals? It's Blackpool of course! Caught in its twilight by Hannah. Having lived there a total of some 25 years between us we've, naturally, accumulated many friends in the area so have been visiting this weekend.

We didn't buy any rock - gone beyond the touristy stage now - but here's another of Hannah's compositions. She enrolled on a photography course, entered a competition for Blackpool Tourism and won a prize for these three images -

It's a great shame that Blackpool didn't win the casino bid as there's no Plan B for regeneration. We walked along the prom today (and yes, we did eat fish and chips from newspaper), and thought how sad it would be if Blackpool went the way of Morecambe with its DSS hostels, desolated seafront hotels and leaden, grey population. Blackpool's a great place, just in need of a bit of TLC and some cosmetic surgery. Manchester got all that with the Commonwealth Games and the massive injections of cash that they brought. Poor Blackpool, but it wasn't for the lack of trying.

It's been a very sociable weekend all in all. We helped celebrate Grace's 60th birthday on Friday. It was very convivial and lovely to see all my old castmates from the Players. Hopefully we'll see a lot more of them now we're back up here.