I drove to the picturesque Southwold, and sat with a retired man at the coffee shop on the pier. He told me of his interesting life, having at various points lived in Africa, Hong Kong, and now Southwold, a once poor fishing village that is, or has transformed into a newly-chic seaside resort town, while retaining its fisherman’s cottage charm. On his advice, I headed down to the harbour and met some of the fishermen. Greg, a fish filleter and former chef, moved to Southwold from east London about12 years ago. He showed me the catch from last night and explained fish rigor mortis to me. I had no idea that fresh dead fish are stiff and tough with rigor mortis and need 2-3 days to ‘relax’ before they can be filleted and are good for eating.  At 38 he’s the youngest in his trade in this area. Many of the fishing huts have closed over the last few years, as EU regulations and limits on catches have almost killed the local fishing industry, and more fish are now caught by big companies and imported. It seems a shame.

I headed to Great Yarmouth. It might be the time of day, but this seemed like mobility-scooter central as I walked through the market; lots of chip stalls, no fish, and young mums with little ones. I walked to the beautiful wide sandy beach and looked out over the North Sea to farms of wind turbines in front of me and stall after stall of amusements and junk food waiting for the crowds of summer behind me. As I wandered back to the car I saw two little girls, maybe three, drinking cans of Diet Coke…

Back to Cambridge to spend a night in a haunted bedroom where a 7-year-old child died, and the room was locked off for 200 years, or so I thought. I arrived in a very typical council housing estate in Dunmow, Essex, and the ‘castle’ was the inspiration for the most remarkable extreme makeover ever… what was once a very typical 3-bedroom semi-detached house in Essex is now a kitchen from 1940s New Orleans; an attic that is an abandoned spirit house from Cambodia; a sitting-room from a castle; the dead boy’s bedroom I’m sleeping in; and a Zen conservatory from Japan at the turn of the 20th Century. Despite Air B&B describing my room as being, “not for the faint-hearted, with unexplained odours and noises”, I’m really looking forward to sleeping here. I’m inspired by what people can dream up and how they can rally support and build a community to create something so incredible from something so average.

The UK is special in its people’s love of hobbies and amusements and it’s wonderful to see how far this can go.