End of summer - some joy

It's been a miserable summer in much of Yorkshire. Yesterday was an exception.

The summer of 2024 has felt miserable where I live in the western part of Yorkshire. Weather reports say that parts of the UK have had more than 200% of rain this summer. I’m pretty sure a good amount of it fell near us. The other night, the wind destroyed a small greenhouse in our garden. And it looks like this year’s blackberry haul will be late and meagre. Our homegrown tomatoes and runner beans are borderline pathetic and will struggle to grace our table, let alone warrant a proud photo. So…it was uplifting to go to the East Coast and discover that Scarborough was packed with people enjoying (relatively) good weather and shops that say their takings are well up compared to 2023.

Scarborough? Doesn’t that have a (ahem) reputation for being a rundown seaside town? Doesn’t it have a deprivation problem? Yes and no. It’s certainly the case that visitor parking can be viewed as a competitive blood sport. At £7 for five hours, you need a car full to feel you’ve got money’s worth. The price of using the public toilets is 40p, although that seems to have been waived for now. And yes, those toilets were clean, which can be considered a win in 2024 UK.

An average fish and chip dinner will set you back the thick end of £10-11, but this is Scarborough, where the fish is freshly landed. For those who prefer an alcoholic beverage, happy hour pricing at one spot was £3.90 a pint of beer. That compares favourably with the £1.50 for a half pint of flavoured slush, although the profit margin for slush is much higher than for beer.

One arcade owner told me that takings are well up on 2023: “I have to fill the change machines each day. Last year, it was every two or three,” he said with a broad grin. You can still have half an hour’s fun playing shove ha’penny for one pound. Even the fine for getting caught publicly swigging booze (and telling the copper to do one) is a reasonably priced £100. Not so much the £1,000 fine for wasting the court’s time arguing your case of not indulging in the mysteriously named ‘psychoactive substances’ or taking a dump in the street. I somehow think the last would be a tad awkward, and I’m not sure the: “I got caught short after a rank vindaloo m’lud” would likely work. But heh - who knows in this sometimes topsy-turvy world?

There is a certain generosity to Yorkshire people that is often overlooked in the stereotype of tightfitedness. Most of us know it’s bollocks, but heh - why spoil a cultivated image that works so well? We had fish and chips at one place where the owner gave us curry sauce for free because he had mistakenly said it contained beef essence (some of us are Halal compliant), whereas it was vegetable-based. At a coffee shop, people at a neighbouring table celebrated glimpses of the sun even as they waited 20 minutes after we were served while the barista found fresh milk supplies. And on the beach, some optimists stripped for sunbathing while others braved the icy waters of the North Sea without care, despite them appearing an odd shade of blue.

I am celebrating a joyful end to a largely miserable and otherwise forgettable summer. What about you?