Evaded Zombies in Southend

Yes, zombies.

My friend's husband is a photographer and wanted to go to the Southend-on-Sea Zombie Walk to take some pictures of the undead. As you do.

I was invited along as non-zombie company.

We had a resoundingly mediocre lunch (that's what I get for not doing research...oops), and then set off to the pier. This Cliff Lift seemed to be closed for the season.

The Southend Pier is over a mile long, so there's a little train that runs back and forth to the end. We took the train out and walked back. We managed to time our train ride so that we were the only non-zombies in the carriage. There were some very cute (?) kid zombies across from us, and some very friendly grown-up zombies who offered us some fake blood in case we wanted to join in. C'mon guys, we're not THAT pale! 

Lovely English seaside:

The RNLI station, with what I would refer to as a Stiff Breeze:

As we were in Essex, we overheard someone commenting what a lovely "sunset" this was. Um, no, guys, it's only 2 in the afternoon. That's just regular light, through clouds. It was pretty, though.

I loved the way this building blended in and contrasted at the same time:

BRAAAAIIIIIINS! (aka mini-zombies, at full pelt...this was quite an athletic group)

The zombies, ready to be unleashed:

The train, on the pier:

Ok, that's a long pier.

I took a video of the train, here. (Mostly for my dad, but you can watch it too, if you want.)

Still not sunset:

Fishing boats:

Selfie, with undead:

After all of the walking (and walking dead), we were feeling rather peckish. We spotted this Cafe Rebecca, advertising hot donuts. Oh, yes, please.

We were tempted by the 6 for £3.50 but decided to be very restrained and just have one each, with a mug of tea. Not just any old mug of tea, though. I was not asked if I wanted milk or sugar, just if I wanted "large" or "small" tea. Erm, small? 

Our mugs of tea arrived, hot and milky, inexplicably on saucers, with the spoons standing up in the mugs. They were the perfect complement to our donuts.

This is their antique donut machine: the donuts plop out of the funnel into the hot oil, get flipped by the flipper thingy, then tumble into the waiting sugar. Mmmmm.

Seriously, look at that donut. It was quite small (maybe about 3 inches in diameter), crispy on the outside and squidgy in the middle.

If you're ever in Southend, have a donut. And watch out for zombies.