Surf's not quite up

Yes Scarborough's Grand Hotel was a dead give away on yesterday's blip. I drove in to town from Scalby this morning via the north bay where it was quite misty and these two surfers were contemplating the waves. A few more from the same session. In that series I only converted one to monochrome. The others, like this one, were simply drained of colour by the bright sunshine and mist.

The wind had turned northerly and it was much cooler today. Chatting with old fishermen has been great fun and reminded me why I came in to journalism - to meet and talk to people - and why I became bored with on-screen and telephone work.

I had a fish and chip lunch with a friend who just happens to run Scarborough's best fish and chip restaurant, The Golden Grid. His restaurant appears as The Golden Kipper in a fantasy story, Mariah Mundi, The Midas Box, by G P Taylor. The book is being made in to a feature film and John, the restaurant owner, whose character is called Charity Jack in the book, is being played by Michael Sheen. You can imagine John is pretty chuffed about all this. If the film is a success it should be very good for business.

Another thing that John is chuffed about is the success of a campaign he started called Heroes Welcome that encourages local authorities to show their support for our armed forces. He started the campaign when he read of a serviceman who had been turned away from a hotel because he was in uniform. John served in Afghanistan and knows how important it is for service people to feel appreciated when they return.

As a "Wessie" (from the West Riding of Yorkshire) who used to holiday in Whitby I've always had a bit of a downer on Scarborough but after this trip I'm a convert. It's a great place with lovely people.