Nowhere

For six weeks now I have been working from home and after work pounding the local streets to stretch my eyes after eight hours of concentrating on two screens. Today I decided to go exploring beyond my familiar territory and I walked all the way to the end of St Mary's Island, almost entirely straight from the bus station, a distance of 3km.
St Mary's Island turned out to be an astonishing place. It has all kinds of dwellings, plenty of waterfront, lots of open green spaces and a primary school. I didn't see a single church, pub, corner shop, petrol station or cafe. Nothing.
Crossing the bridge back to reality first there is an enormous retail outlet, which is where the cinema is as well as any number of family eating places like Nando's and Pizza Hut.
Then there are the university campuses and the Dockyard, the council offices and army barracks and finally the bus station.
God what a soulless place. Nowhere to nip out for a pint of milk nor a pint of anything stronger.
It also has this thing, a “millennium sculpture” called The Mariners, depicting a modern young yachtswoman and a generic Jack Tar in identical poses pulling their sails in opposite directions and getting nowhere.