[field assistant: day one]

I've been christened field assistant for the next few days. This means helping Steve scavange for sands suitable for luminescence dating. This also means trawling grey beaches in wet wet wet weather in search of pebbly laminations and evidence of 100 000 year old beach. Of course when I say beach I don't mean the beautiful stretches of pebbles and gloriously blue water of the south...no. East Yorkshire beaches (even those that have "won" best beach of the east awards!) are littered with broken beer and wine bottles, children's plastic spades and buckets, dog toys, and, strangely, styrofoam. Some of the towns here feel very strange. Walking up and down the empty streets is as if we are the last humans on earth. The roads are deserted, shops are boarded up, the only noise is the incessant squawking of the gulls. Lastnight we went out to the "town centre" in search of food. We found three places all serving fish and chips and then we found a fish and chip take-away. Choices, choices, choices. We went for the take away and ate in the comfort of our b&b room.