Fully 18 months since our last coastal trip to Felixstowe -- for a pleasant literary double bill of All Things Nice and Scribble -- but whither Kev, lord of this manor? When he's not working his way through every last time travel flick, good or bad, he's busy preparing rice for his homemade sushi in a two-oh-two-three kick o' health. The kilos and the years are dropping away and he won't be joining us today.

Third time for the pair of us back at 1b Hamilton Road, once home to Bonnet with their homemade chocs then Crafty Coffee with their Karlsson clock. I'd have liked an eatery beginning with "D" next but instead we've skipped eleven letters to jump to Nutshells By-The-Sea. That's a smart frontage. Through the door and there ain't a free table to be had downstairs, where dogs are welcome amid the displays of biscuits and jams: room upstairs, smiles Mrs Nutshells, so it's up the wooden hill for us. Everything's clean and bright and white and already I'm jealous of those women next to us enjoying a cake stand of afternoon tea.

I'm back down to order a sausage & onion panini plus a bacon bloomer for Andy: any sauce, she asks? I'll pop up and ask him, she says, which is some pretty good service. "Always brown" is the answer, apparently. Time to gaze out at the anonymous cabbie firm opposite and Tony's Nil Spa with its missing letter, then incoming plates with crisps and salady bits (with grapes!) and dressing, oh yes. The literal writing on the wall says something along the lines of the tougher the setback, the sweeter the comeback: owners Jill and Ian previously had a Nutshells cafe in Stowupland which burnt to the ground at the start of 2022 despite the presence of 18 fire vehicles.

Once more the only living boy in my office, there's more than time for summat sugary. Andy's the one descending for surprise sweetness which turns out to be date slice and a lemon & lime cake, going down all too easily with a dinky flat white. Not sure about the driver but I waddled downstairs. Nutshells, in a nutshell, is rather nifty.

If it was a car -- Shell Concept Car.
If they were passing by -- Michelle Keegan.