Good morning from sunny Dorset. Second Friday and we're meeting in Poole today, a pint in the George then a wander down the High Street to the quay for a bite to eat and visit a couple of pubs. The Dolphin shopping centre has seen many changes and the top floor of what was Beales department store is now an NHS facility and where I had my DEXA scan. It feels surreal as the other floors are still a shop, so you wander past the bedding and up the escalator to the NHS facilities. When they build the Dolphin centre it straddled the high street, so although it is one monogamous building, part of it is still the High Street and therefore has to remain accessible 24 hours a day. There’s a huge floor to ceiling roller shutter that blocks off part of the centre from about 7pm, but walking from the bus station still entails entering the building and wandering past Primark, Boots etc before exiting into the pedestrianised Falkland Square then crossing the railway lines that still dissect the High Street.
