Word on a Whim

Archive for the tag “travel”

11 Oct 2026

Hornsea in October

Having been to Whitby in October for the past couple of years, we decided to try somewhere less busy this year. Whitby was always a popular place for a holiday, but these days the pavements are heaving and you have to shuffle along within the swarm.

Whilst Hornsea was very pleasant, and far less crowded, it didn’t move me the way the landscape and atmosphere of Whitby does. If Whitby were music, it would be a passionate anthem I would play on repeat, whereas Hornsea is more like relaxing background music.   

Enough about Whitby – this is supposed to be about Hornsea, and sharing some photos I hope you might like. Highlights of the week included seeing dolphins in the sea. No photos – they just popped up suddenly on their way up to Scarborough. I also saw two of my lovely cousins (on dry land) and discovered a good Chinese takeaway (The Golden Wok).

Not sure if you can see them the horizon in this photo, but there are wind turbines everywhere. I find them slightly sinister as they spread and multiply as if taking over the world …

The central part of Hornsea has good sea-defence walls, which also provide a lovely spacious double promenade:

It’s a pity it doesn’t extend further along the coast. The chalet park at Withernsea where I went every year of my childhood has now gone, and it was a shame to see these chalets at Hornsea heading in the same direction:

The sea is steadily eroding the cliffs, and England is gradually shrinking:

We had a flat for the week, decorated with a nautical theme. The cross on the wall was a nice touch, but I’m not sure about the two pokey-uppy bits at the bottom!

In the evening, we could see the working lighthouse at Flamborough Head, flashing four times and then pausing. Naturally, I was drawn to it, so we had a ride up the coast and took some photos.

The working Flamborough Head lighthouse:

Julz took this photo of me taking photos:

Not far from the working Flamborough lighthouse is the oldest surviving lighthouse in England, The Chalk Tower, which was built by Sir John Clayton between 1669 and 1674:

These are the cliffs at Flamborough Head:

Back at Hornsea, I would run up the beach each morning and pick up a few groceries from the shops. There was always a healthy young seagull perched on a car roof, apparently identifying as a peacock:

I have about a dozen decks of The Lighthouse Tarot remaining from the hundred I had printed, and left one in a charity shop in Hornsea. My initial thought was to leave it near a lighthouse for someone to find, but it would probably have been ignored and got damp and then litter-picked.

Similar to casting a message in a bottle, I’m curious to know where it might end up. It would be lovely to think whoever takes it home might look it up on the internet and find this post 🙂

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30 Jul 2026

Suzuki Vitara – how to switch off the oil light

Here’s how to switch off the yellow oil light on a Suzuki Vitara.

The light can be switched off using a plastic stalk that sticks out from the dashboard. (My Vitara has two of these protruding stalks: the one on the left resets the trip counter, and the one on the right is used to adjust other things, including the oil light.)

Turn the ignition switch without starting the engine.

The change engine oil warning will appear on the central panel, and then go away again, leaving just the word “oil” and a spanner at the top of the display.

Press and hold the plastic stalk until a list of options appears on the panel. This picture shows the “plastic stalk” in case you haven’t a clue what I’m on about:

To scroll down the list, tweak the stalk clockwise and then release it. You have to do this multiple times to skip down the list to the “Oil Change” setting:

When the “Oil Change” setting is selected, a short sharp push on the stalky-thing will switch off the warning light and reset the reminder, with confirmation that the reset was successful.

Here’s the backstory to explain why I shared this procedure. Feel free to ignore it!

You know the feeling when you buy a used car, and it takes a bit of time and mileage before you trust that you did the right thing buying it?

I’d had my Suzuki Vitara about six weeks when a yellow, “oil” light came on the dashboard with a spanner next to it, and stayed on.

With that sinking feeling, I wondered if that’s why the previous owner had got rid of the car … because the oil light kept coming on. Fortunately, I was only on my way to Aldi. If it had happened a couple of days later, as I set off up the motorway for Mum’s funeral, I would have had a meltdown!

I knew the car had been serviced before I collected it from the garage, and the dipstick was showing fresh oil, at the correct level.

The handbook that came with the car isn’t much use, as it covers every existing variation of Vitara and frequently uses the caveat, “if equipped”. Also, the terminology doesn’t always translate well. I haven’t dared try the Cruise Control feature, owing to the following warning:

Back to the oil light.  Another reason it might come on is if the oil pressure is wrong, which could be an indication of impending catastrophic engine failure. Great!

Fortunately, there were no strange bubbling noises coming from the engine, so I decided perhaps it was just a sensor at fault, and started googling to find out where the sensor could be located. Aren’t sensors a nuisance?! What’s the point of them if every time a warning light comes on, it’s nothing more than a sensor at fault.

After much investigation, I found that the “problem” might not be the oil, nor the oil pressure, nor even the sensor. It could be just a case of too much information!

Apparently, each time the oil is changed, the “Oil Change” reminder should be reset. The garage I bought the car from had serviced it in May this year, but when I looked at the service history, it had previously been serviced in July 2025. The “Oil Change” reminder must have been reset in 2025, but not in 2026 when the service had been done a few weeks early. So, that scary light on the dashboard was merely to let me know it was a year since the reminder had been reset. Cheers!

I hope this post might be useful to someone. Occasionally, I try to share something useful on a whim 😉

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26 Oct 2025
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Whitby in October

Whitby is a beautiful seaside town on the east coast of Yorkshire, England. Like most lovely places, it’s become very popular and is much busier than when I first visited. That would have been August school holidays, so I’m going way back! It used to be lively but not over-crowded, but these days the pavements in the town are crammed whatever the time of year.

Fortunately, there’s still loads of space on the beach when the tide is out. We don’t currently have a dog, but enjoyed watching them enjoying a bit of freedom. Where we live, the land is mostly privately owned or common land grazed with sheep. Dogs are not allowed on playing fields, so they tend to be confined to public footpaths. We have a disused railway track that is popular for dog-walking. We also have a scourge of dog owners – mostly posh older ladies – who disregard the on-lead/off-lead etiquette and allow their off-lead dogs to go charging up to dogs that are on their leads.

Only this morning, my attention was drawn by an emphatic, carrying voice, “Oh please don’t do that, Walter. You know how much you hate it when other dogs sniff your bottom!” … whilst the other dog pirouetted on the end of his lead, tail between his legs, trying to keep his bits covered.

Sorry, digressing already! Back to Whitby and the space on the beach …

I stood for a moment gazing at this cliff, reflecting on the floral tributes and love-locks on fences, and trying not to think too hard about the rocks below:

… and of course I took lots of photos of the lighthouses 🙂

We stayed in the same flat as last year, (me and Julz). It’s small, basic and comparatively cheap. We took our own pillows this time, because last year there was a cheesy old dog smell that seemed to be infused in the soft furnishings of the bedroom. Happily, this year the smell had gone (new bedding, I think) and the place was scrupulously clean. The flat is up a few flights of stairs within an old building, and lots of its fixtures are tired and worn and don’t quite work properly. I know how they feel! It was a relief to leave the place without breaking the hot tap, as it had to be turned overly-tight to stop the water trickling out.  

But the view from our window was priceless!

Whitby Abbey was a source of inspiration for Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’. It’s easy to see why, as it’s very atmospheric. Here’s a closer look:

On the last afternoon, we called in the Elsinore pub for a pint, before retreating back to the cosy flat for the last evening. Scrolling through Facebook posts, I discovered I’d missed my favourite royal, Princess Anne, who had visited the ‘Save the Children’ charity shop, just a few doors down from the pub. What a shame we didn’t stay for another drink!

When it got dark that evening, the abbey came alive as different coloured lights were beamed at it. Presumably, this was a test run for the ‘Illuminated Abbey’ event, which was scheduled to start the next day, so I guess it’s still going on now.

This was my final photo, until next year … all being well 🙂

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