We went up to Essex today – not actually to my old home in Basildon but to Southend, a little way down the road.

(Southend. Home of the famous Kursaal, where Dr. Feelgood were filmed playing live in 1975, available on a superb DVD called Going Back Home.)

We were there for my niece’s birthday party, which was a kiddie’s disco. It gave her Dad a chance to play with some disco gear he hired for the day while the young ‘uns beat each other over the heads with balloons.

Having helped David set up the gear I went for a stroll up memory lane in the rain. There was a time when I spent nearly every Saturday night down the seafront at Southend, but I have not been there much in the last 20 years, and hardly at all in the last 10 years, so it was interesting to see the place.

I am not sure whether I was more amazed by what has changed or by the few things which have managed to resist change while everything else has been transformed. Obviously it was sad to see the pier without anything much at the far end of it, but I expected that after the fire last year. If anything, it was a surprise to see that the trains were still running to the end. Mind you, given the appalling weather it was a surprise to be able to see the pier at all. I know it must be old news to anyone in Essex, but it was a shock to see the old bowling alley at the land end of the pier had gone. That was always a landmark of the place.

Eventually arrived back at the party drenched to find that my other sister and her husband had made it down from Bradford. By fortunate coincidence she is due to fly out from Heathrow in the morning, so made the detour.

It was good to see some of the family again. Well worth missing Dr Who for.