After sticking to West Sussex on Monday and popping over to Kent on Tuesday, we paid a visit to Surrey on Wednesday. The idea was to take the children ice skating at the Spectrum Centre in Guildford, but to spend some time looking round the town first.

Guildford is a bit like Horsham with hills, but a lot bigger. We went to the castle and climbed to the top of the tower for the views, went round the museum and went up and down the main shopping streets. It was a strange experience. Compared to Crawley there were far fewer old people, hardly a black face to be seen and hardly any fat people until we turned up. In a word, everyone looked richer.

I learnt a few things in the museum, like the fact that Denis (the company famous for fire engines) started off in Guildford, and that a fairly average-looking 1930s 3-bedroomed house costs £350,000.

We cocked up a little bit with the times for skating, and only had a little over an hour on the ice, which was just as well. I have never been good at skating, and have only ever done it a few times. It did not take long for the skates to make my feet and ankles ache. The kids enjoyed whizzing around though, and that was the point of the whole journey. Mind you, it was a really hot, sticky, and uncomfortable day, so that blast of coldness as we walked into the ice rink was worth the cost of admission on its own.

While shopping I picked up a new road atlas. When we were out in Kent I noticed that my old one was starting to get so out-of-date that it was probably useless in many places. The most visible problem was that it was missing the M11 and the M25. Go to any reasonably sized modern town and my road atlas could remember when it was all fields.

One reflection which I had in Guildford was just how short Crawley is of decent old buildings. Back when Guildford, Horsham, Lewes, and other places were thriving towns or market towns, Crawley was just a small village. Now its quite a large town, but whatever size and importance it has now is all recent. It struck me how easy it must be to feel affection for and patriotism towards a town with some history, and solid old buildings to back it up. Its quite a tribute to our town that so many people feel so strongly about the place without such aids. All we really have is each other but that seems to be enough.