The quest for 'The Waverley'

I started our last full day at Bognor with more crumpets followed by a bacon sandwich on white bread. Crumpets good, bacon started good but a little dry by the time I got it, bread poor. Why is it that a hotel which must, one might think, get through a fair amount of factory bread find it so difficult to serve the stuff fresh?

Extension

Two of the four smart new chalets which have been added to the accommodation available at the Beachcroft. Next time we are there, we must remember to ask what the vicious looking heritage spike was for: a deterrent to a German landing or what?

Google's take on 'The Waverley'

On this occasion we thought to head west against the fresh breeze in an attempt to make to 'The Waverley', the southern outpost of the Young's empire, with our last visit being noticed at reference 1.

Good beach, despite the breeze, and plenty of it. Plenty of seagulls feeding and fighting, with one having a good go at what I thought was a green apple, but which turned out to be a tennis ball. It seemed to be pecking away for a good while before deciding to give it a miss.

Royal Norfolk

The sign

The puff

We pulled up some way short of the Waverley, at the once proud Royal Norfolk Hotel, where we were rather surprised that they were unable to serve coffee, this being mid morning. Investigation this afternoon reveals that they are in the same business as Shearings, this last a very slick operation once patronised on a regular basis by FIL & MIL. I can't see Shearings putting their name to a hotel which did not serve coffee to non-residents mid morning.

Brekkers with Wetherspoon's

Access was also denied at the café perched above the bowling green club building at the end of the Steyne (as in Brighton Rock), with their having moved to members only, so we went to the nearby Wetherspoon's instead. Maybe about 20 customers there when we arrived, half on hot drinks, half on cold. Some old soaks. BH passed the coffee machine challenge (new to both of us) while I admired the complicated breakfast menu. What on earth were cookie dough sandwiches?

The place was warming up by the time we left at midday, with the good tempered, lone food waitress never seeming to stop and with a party of loudly dressed ladies who lunch turning up for their lunch, taken with beverages. It might have been quite fun to have gone back a couple of hours later to see how things developed, but in the end we didn't make it.

But we did make it to the book shop, already noticed at reference 3, where, in addition to the fine map already noticed, I also acquired, for £1.80, a copy of Deloitte's iGAAP 2009, the definitive guide to IFRS reporting in the UK. All 3,203 pages of it, stuffed into a hardback book less than three inches thick. Clearly Bible quality paper, the sort of stuff which used to be favoured by the natives in the South Seas for rolling their cigarettes. Or so I was taught by my art master at my secondary school. So far, all I have learned is that making up accounts these days is a very complicated business. And while I dare say that the likes of Deloitte make a very good thing out of it, it is also true that international business, as a lot of  large business is these days, is complicated; complications which will not evaporate at the wave of a Bullingdon hand. With an elementary guide to IFRS being available at reference 4.

Site of EU Supermarket

Next stop the large Polish & EU shop, not yet made it to Street View, not updated in this far-off place since 2012. A very large selection of Polish sausages and such like, but not much choice in the all important matter of kabanosi. There even being a suggestion of chicken. But fired up by the young lady giving me a sample, I did buy some, also some of the sort of very pale rye bread which I like. Once for sale in a fine baker in Brick Lane, probably no longer. And there they did it with caraway seeds which I like even better. Bread and sausage which did for our picnic (taken at home) the following day.

Lunch at Howard's, already noticed at reference 6, at the top of the arcade. Very disappointed in their ham sandwiches, dripping saline all over the place. Clearly the wrong thing to pick from their menu - which clearly had some right things as they were busy enough.

Smoking den

Our last port of call in Bognor proper was this smokers' den, thriving to the extent of needing more staff. Not something one comes across in London very often these days. Not like the days when there were two quite decent cigar shops in Victoria Street alone. And quite a good display of the things in a floor standing cabinet the large downstairs bar the Rubens Hotel around the corner. Maybe the even posher Goring Hotel still does them. Last visited properly in 2012, as noticed at the end of reference 5.

Casual dining later at the Lobster Pot. I stuck with the crab, but BH moved onto sea bream and we were both very happy with our choice. Mine only slightly marred by the sliced white bread not being of the freshest. But I was confirmed in my opinion that proper bloomers being rarely available, sliced factory white is the thing for crab sandwiches, as it is for bacon sandwiches.

And rounded out with a fine slice of lemon meringue pie, a dessert I am rather fond of when it is not made too sweet, which this one was not. Furthermore, as I declined the offered ice cream, BH got her dessert for free. Not sure that the manageress approved of the loss of revenue.

Place quite busy by the time we left at 1900, mostly over 40's. The staff, apart from the manageress, completely different from last time. Presumably mostly, if not all, part timers.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/09/rocks.html.

Reference 2: https://www.alfatravel.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/army-navy-co-op.html.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Financial_Reporting_Standards.

Reference 5: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=goring.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/fake-84.html.