Delia was doing the Riding Camp with her cousins, so we all piled into the car for the trip to Gloucester. We had had bagels and tea for breakfast, but nevertheless were famished by the time we arrived with Deborah’s sister, Kate.

Deborah offered us a cup of tea to go with Kate’s homemade cake, and there followed a slightly embarrassing kafuffle, as Kate searched for something approximating Indian tea. An assortment of anonymous-looking tea bags was produced, each one being sniffed in turn to establish its contents.

Eventually, we left Delia and Genevieve with their cousins, and drove down to the seafront to explore ‘downtown Gloucester’.

Gloucester is perhaps best known these days as being the setting for ‘The Perfect Storm’, which follows the true story of a fishing boat and her crew, as they battled with two storms which collided in mid-Atlantic.

Still hungry, we suggested that Deborah collect us at 5pm, on her way back to Boston … so that we could look for a café! In the event, it appeared that we were not the only ones who were hungry.

When we met Deborah back at the pub, she had already ordered for us a mountainous plate of nachos and cheese.

That evening we took a stroll after dinner and discovered the Castlebar pub, one of many excellent Irish pubs in Brighton, which served a singularly good pint of Guinness!