And not a monkey in sight ...

(No cheek, please!)

EdiSteve and I went down to the North East of. England today to see my Dad, and we took a trip to Hartlepool, notorious as the place where the townsfolk hung a monkey they mistook for a French sailor in the Napoleonic War - well, it was dressed in uniform when it washed up as the only survivor of a shipwreck.

Allegedly.

Anyway, here we are at Hartlepool Marina - pretty, but replete with some awfully common (sweary, drunk, barely dressed) people - with the restored RN frigate the HMS Trincomalee, Britain's oldest surviving warship, in the background.

We also sought out the Andy Capp statue - fantastic!