Scargill

Archive for January, 2026

Maureen and I are back in the UK for a few days for a wedding and to see friends and relatives. Last night, we went to the local Indian restaurant in Hexham and were rather shocked at the prices, which have shot up again. We both had only starters, not main courses. I had two pints of Cobra, Maureen had one and a half pints, and that was about it. A grand total of £70. Of course, by now, people who live here full-time will just take this in its course. But to me, that’s a horrendous amount of money.

Today we went to the Metro Centre for a spot of shopping. Maureen had to do some stuff at Marks and Spencer’s, and so as Marks and Spencer’s is not my thing, I thought I’d go into their cafe for a quick cup of coffee. A simple milky white coffee was around £4 so I gave that a miss and headed off down to McDonald’s. It never ceases to amaze me how McDonald’s manages to keep reasonable pricing while others just go up and up. For less than £4, about £3.20, I got a nice cup of coffee and a cheeseburger. Not exactly fine dining, but good enough for breakfast. Just to keep this in perspective: normally when we’re in our local cafes in Spain, I would expect to pay between 1.20€ and 1.50€ for a cup of coffee. I can’t really compare cheeseburgers because that’s not what we have in local cafes. Typically a toast with olive oil and tomato, or as it’s called, “tostada con tomate” would be again between €1.20 and €1.50 so McDonald’s is doing reasonably well, but Marks and Spencers – no.

We have to travel down south in a few days for a wedding. We’ll be stopping a couple of nights and then coming back up before heading back off to Spain, where in fact we are about to move house. I certainly won’t miss the drizzle here and general cold. It’s not much warmer in Spain, but at least it’s dry most of the time where we are.

The weather has been that miserable in fact that I’ve not gotten around to taking any photographs in the UK. So here is a photograph I took just before we left Spain a few days ago.