Personal

BAR - BAR - BAR

The wet weather drove tourists to Teignmouth Pier this afternoon. Naturally we joined them and I'm delighted to report that the pier has decided to reward my plea to the arsonists.

The pier's not changed much in the thirty years I've known it. Perhaps the most striking is the subtle addition of a gambling addiction advice sticker to each of the machines.

I normally favour the penny slides, but these old tupenny one-arm bandits were our main game. Limiting our spend to sixty pence, we were down to our last couple of coins when I hit a triple cherry and Em got BAR-BAR-BAR.

OK the payout was meagre, but we doubled our money - just enough for a celebratory cup of tea to wash down the roll of Refreshers we'd won earlier.