Volunteering 5 was easy and surprisingly enjoyable. Inspired by my friend, Mr H, who won a civic award for undertaking weekly litter picks in his neighbourhood, I bought a grabber and set off down our street with a rubbish bag. 1.5 hours later and one full bag, I had completed a litter pick. Our street is 215 houses long and I didn’t go in to the side terraces or the ten foot (alleyway round the back of the house, which is 10 feet wide, for those in East Anglia). I marvelled at the way in which no fewer than 5 times there are residents parking on the street who must persistently run over the same drinks can to the point that it is one with the road, they have been run over that many times. I am not a fan of the plastic wrapping around cigarette packets, which until yesterday, was a regular adornment to the grass verges in surprising quantities. Individual sweet wrappers are wholly unnecessary. I thank my neighbours for the sheer number of used tissues discarded on our street. ‘Disposable’ Costa coffee cups were surprising in their number, too. Do they just fall out of cars once the beverage is finished? I don’t know. A few folks did stop and thank me, which was kind of them. I had some music on and was happily boogling away down the street. A chap from the local residents association was delivering newsletters and wanted to take a photo to encourage other people to do their own litter picks. Wearing gloves, I sifted through the bag to retrieve the recyclable items and was content that the street looks just a wee bit tidier. We have a lot of communal planters with flowers, shrubs and herbs and a lot of people give their time to making these look ace; I’m glad that, for now, there is no accompanying litter. I have invested in a grabber now, so I am sure I’ll head out again in the future.

The other thing I have been up to this week is taking a little time to explore local places that I’ve been meaning to go to for a long time but never have. This is my twentieth year living in Hull and despite being a member of the RSPB for 4-5 years, I have not been to RSPB Bempton Cliffs. This nature reserve is a point of pride for the RSPB, and understandably so. It is home to the largest nesting site for gannets in the UK, with several hundred breeding pairs and up to 1000 non-breeding gannets calling the limescale cliffs home. From Hull, it is a local train journey of just less than an hour to Bempton station and a calm 30 minutes’ walk to the cliff-face, passing through a very new and shiny visitor centre. The RSPB have laid on view platforms and a number of information panels about the local bird life, which also includes puffins and a number of other sea-birds. Bempton cliffs are part of a bit of Britain that sticks out to the east, Flamborough Head. I turned the visit to Bempton cliffs in to a bit of a day out, walking around the headland, which is a local walk that, again, I’ve been meaning to do for some time. Flamborough Head is interesting and a lot of it is a managed nature reserve by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The coastal path around it is easy-going and makes for stunning views across to Bridlington and out to sea. There is a smugglers cove and a couple of landing points on the way around. Flamborough village is home to the Chalk Tower lighthouse, which is in-land and one of the oldest surviving lighthouses in Britain, dating to 1669. Whilst it saved a number of ships from disaster, a second lighthouse was built by Trinity House out on the rocks in the very early 19th Century – for the 35 years preceding this, there was a shipwreck on the rocks around Flamborough every 3 months on average so it was determined that a better warning was required.

By the time I arrived at Sewerby Hall near the end of the walk, the tide was out and I was able to walk the final 1.5 miles along the beach in to Bridlington, where I caught the train back to Hull (having sunk an obligatory amount of pocket money in the 2p machines in the arcade on the way through town). I’m not sure of the mileage, but I walked 5 hours at a fairly good pace, stopping for many photos and a quick sandwich lunch. It was a lovely day out and I’m really pleased to have visited a local attraction, finally.

Another local attraction I have visited this week is the Streetlife Museum in Hull. I’ve been in to the museum once before, many years ago, and it has been spruced up a bit since. I’ve also developed a habit of actually reading displays in museums since I was popped in before, so this felt like a first visit, really. The museum contains collections and displays about transport and life in Hull, including an old trolleybus and tram that you can climb on board, the history of local railways with rolling stock and an old signal box (Cottingham North) that you can enter. There is a display on cycling in Hull as well as some preserved storefronts and shops, as well as many other displays, including a coaching inn and scary side-street. It’s a great museum and I learned some parts about local life that I didn’t know before.

Today, I had a day out on That London. I was using a train ticket that I had originally booked for Plan A of this career break, where today would have been the day I returned from European travelling after 3 months away. It seemed a shame to waste the ticket, so for not very much money, I caught a morning service down and made a day of it. I went to places that I’ve been before, but the exhibitions were new to me: Magical Realism and Bauhaus art at the Tate Modern, Jenny Holzer’s Artist Room at the Tate Modern, ‘Degenerate Art’ at the Wiener Library in Russell Square and Nevinson’s prints at the British Museum. All were really good exhibitions and, as ever, I’ve come back with a page in a notebook full of things to look up. Something I did today that I seldom do and very much enjoyed was to take 5 minutes to sit on the bank of the Thames and watch the world go by. I had a cup of tea to finish and it was lovely, sunny day. The view of the Thames outside the Tate Modern is rather lovely (if you ignore the bloody Walkie Talkie building – GRRRRRRR) so I took a little time to take in the view for a change.

Tomorrow – heading to t’wrong side of t’Pennines on the way to managing a Youth Hostel from Sunday. Marvellous (even if it is in red rose territory).