24 May 2016
The cold light of day and night
Eating Tapas in Warrington
It gets light here before 5am. It is still light here now at 9:30pm. I assume there is actually a night at some point, it has been getting dark very slowly for 3 hours already.
It is also cold, in a weeks time it will be summer, but on a clear night like tonight its no more than 5 degrees. The locals are getting around in t-shirts and flip flops thought.
Thats when I see a local, the next zombie movie should be filmed in Warrington, I am staying in the centre of town and there are just no people ever. The bus station and train station are open, but empty.
The local Asda (British Walmart) stays open until 10, and only has a few staff in it looking annoyed that I might walk around the place.
Apparently the large multi storey shopping complex next door to my hotel has all the big stores like Debenhams, M&S and a multi screen cinema complex, but I am yet to see any evidence it actually opens.
Before all that, I had to make a 90 minute drive south, and then north again at the end of the day. This was quite confusing as there are no posted speed limits on the motorway, my GPS unit kept telling me I was in an average speed detection zone for 50MPH, everyone else was going 90, and I sat on 70 in the second lane of 4 from the left and angry people were flashing their lights at me.
Next up was a series of roundabouts, The English have next level roundabouts, the Adelaide 'peanut' makes sense now. Many roundabouts around these parts have 6 turn offs, traffic lights, multiple lanes that end half way round, people that just stop in the middle lane and wait to head left, and idiots who go through them at 90mph without looking.
Despite all this, I completed my journey largely without incident. Then I had to pay for parking using a call and then sms service, it took 30 minutes to complete, the call dropped out twice and I dont know if my SMS has been sent. Perhaps the car will be towed.
I was up before 5am so went for a walk, first stop was the local park attached to the law courts. Looks ok here but there were empty beer bottles everywhere.
Local building, the town hall I think.
Some overly intricate gates that serve no purpose.
The town of Warrington has fallen on hard times, most businesses are $1 shops, pawnbrokers, or ambulance chasing lawyers. After welfare the main source of income is personal injury settlements.
A random street, nothing at all open, no people, many abandoned shops.
More random shops.
This area is a bit more developed, the cafes arent open even at 7am. I think its part of the mall as its all branded chain stores, and the street furniture has fresh paint.
Many hours later, time for a late dinner, I decided to eat fishfingers and various types of sausage.
Only one update today, get used to it until the weekends.