I had hoped to write this post a couple days ago. However I’ve been shattered and trying to “recover”.
So last Saturday I drove the four hours plus from Wisbech on the eastern side of the UK to Blackpool on the north western side of the country.
I’ve never been to Blackpool in my fifty seven years on this earth.
I’d seen the signs for Blackpool as I drove up the motorway towards the Lakes or Scotland.
But until now I’ve never had a reason to turn off.
After parking my car in the multi-storey car park I had a little walk to find my hotel.
The hotel was on the corner of the road and was basically a converted three storey house. Checkin was finding my key and door code in an envelope in the hallway.
My room was on the second floor (the third floor was for staff). What I hadn’t realised when booking that none of the rooms were en-suite on the floor, but instead had to share a toilet and shower.
But it got worse. The toilet had no lock, and no toilet paper.
In my room there were no towels, and the pillows looked awful. Too soft and thin.
But the view of the sea from the room was cool. Plus the hotels location was actually great.
If I threw a stone I’d have hit five or six chippies. Two minutes from the dirtiest McDonalds in the country, 10 mins from the conference, five minutes from Primark, TK-Max, Poundland, and other shops. I think it’s best to say it was more or less on the sea front.
Luckily I had enough time to make it to Primark and Poundland to purchase some towels and toilet paper.
There was no breakfast included in my booking. However if there had been I don’t think I’d have eaten it considering the state of the hotel.
So for three of the four mornings I had a McDonalds breakfast. I’m not very adventurous and always go for the double sausage egg McMuffin, hash brown, white americano. Some times I add a second hash brown, and if really hungry a second breakfast McMuffin of some kind.
Sunday morning I got chatting to the manager at the McDonalds. It would appear this was the worst weekend of the year to be in Blackpool. Apparently this weekend each year is the Young Farmers AGM, who it would appear treat it as a three day stag weekend.
The conference itself was very interesting, and the debates informative.
‘First time delegate, first time speaker’ was greeted with a round of applause from the conference floor. But it felt very much like ‘long time listener, first time caller’ to me.
I was wearing a different themed tee each day. Such as a Star Wars pride tee for May the Fourth, or a V for Vendetta tee for the day we had a Labour guest speaker (turned out to be Wes Streeting).
I wasn’t overly social in the evenings. There was a branch meal Sunday evening at a Wetherspoon’s, plus a company sponsored meal Saturday for union reps in their employ.
On the last day of conference I got up early, packed, checked out (put my key through the letter box). Then with more stuff than I came with made the up hill walk to the multi-storey car park. Paid and then made my way to the car park next to the conference.
After parking I went to the Greggs round the corner from the conference, bought a bacon butty, hash browns, and a coffee. I had these outside sat at one of the benches in front of Blackpool church in the morning sun.
The conference didn’t finish until 3pm on the Wednesday. Another four hour plus journey back across the country, saw me arriving home at just gone seven thirty.
By the time I’d made a fuss of the dogs, unloaded the car I was in bed.
The two days at work had been very taxing because I was knackered. So as I type this post up I’m hoping a day of taking it easy will be enough to recover.
So that’s my week just gone.
