Thank you for a great day out…

Today was rather a marathon day out, inspired in part by the thought of seeing Antony Gormleys ‘Critical Mass’ again after all these years. This time we made tracks for Bexhill-On-Sea, a rather long and tortuous journey by car as we seemed to get caught behind Sunday drivers, who’d hit the road a day early. Once at the pavillion we joined the bronze casts in their various positions on the roof and posed with them for photographs. We weren’t the only ones. And it was free.

The excitement continued with a rapid tour of charity shops when I managed to acquire ‘1977’ and ‘Nu-Clear Sounds’ for fifty pence each. Best not tell Ash. For some particular reason we also paid Hastings a visit. Still not sure why. Soon we were back in the car and heading for Beachy Head, the prospect of having wind in the hair and a good bracing walk spurred us on.

On arrival at the car park I was strangely drawn to the closed cafe in search of two hot cups of tea. Uncle Mark and I were desperate for a brew. Mrs W and boys, totally unconcerned strode on.

After a short sulk we rejoined the party and strolled to the Head itself, taking in our share of fresh south coast air and enjoying the spectacular views of the other Sisters.

Later I would recall the last time there, when standing at the top, with arms outstretched, I poured out my heart to God – a significant moment. I probably had a thermos of tea tucked away in the car boot too.

The seafront at Seaford was our next destination.  Not much doing, but with deserted beach, low light, sea mist closing in and an open cafe, it met the criteria, pressed all the right buttons. The woman who served us was obviously learning English, so we exchanged a fair number of pleases and thank yous. One hot drink later we were on the way home. Mrs W, Uncle Mark, boys and Mr Gormley… I thank you.

Summer Days out

Thanks to another financial gift designated for Summer Holiday, we’ve enjoyed a number of good days out as a family.

Among those days were a trip out to Amberley Working Museum with my parents, where we all enjoyed the miniature railway, an open top bus ride and playing with ancient telephone sets which allowed us to talk to another, strange that. The hands on approach to history really gets the boys attention and Nanna and Grandpa seemed to enjoy it too. Mr Whippy and his soft ice cream also was in attendance, much to our delight.

Airbourne, (the Airshow) at Eastbourne in Sussex turned out to be another good idea, and we joined our friends J, L and M for the journey and the day. After a slow start or rather a very slow start, and after teasing our hosts (whether we’d got the right day or not) the seafront airbourne show burst into life with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight which featured the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster, oooh. Later after a short intermission, we were treated to Eurofighter Typhoon F2, the Red Arrows, a parachute display team who chose to land out of eyesight somewhere on the pier, (sensible) and some Wingwalkers which looked particularly brave, as well as utterly pointless and highly dangerous. The Red Arrows were phenomenal and their stunts were similarly pointless but breathtaking. I wonder how long they have to train and how much they get as danger money?

Between the 7 of us we took over 400 pictures, those taken by me mainly featured jet streams streaking across blue sky and fluffy white bits, but I came away happy for the experience. The doughnuts and the soft ice cream treats were most welcome. Mr Whippy once again proved he gets around a bit, as we met him along the sea front parked at a bus stop before some officious officials from the council offices decided to move him on.

Travelodge also had our custom. Mrs W is a whizz at booking accomodation on our families behalf and the four of us we spent three relatively comfortable and quiet nights in one room that looked just like all the others we ever stayed in. By day, we ventured forth to such places as Aldburgh and Southwold on the Suffolk coast, happy hunting grounds for us in previous years. We were blessed with fantastic weather, in fact if anything it was too hot. Bah Humbug!

When at the beach, the boys enjoyed making sand castles throwing pebbles into the sea allowing mum and dad to rest between car journeys. A couple of seaside rides and a bounce on the bouncy castle also proved popular. Maybe next time we’ll let the boys have a go.

If there were any down sides to our time away, one was that our short break was too short and secondly that it wasn’t long enough.