Beside the seaside

This week saw me taking myself off to Eastbourne for a few days. I booked into my favourite hotel on the seafront. I just fancied a change of scene from rainy London and to be fair, I swapped it for the very sunny seaside town on the South coast. I know Eastbourne like the back of my hand, as my parents moved there, once they retired, and I used to visit regularly. When my father died, I used to travel down there at least once a month to spend a week with my mother, doing a big shop for her, taking her to appointments, doing her garden or whatever else needed doing. So it's like a second home to me. 

On the drive down this week,  I called in to see Nellie.  Now 97,  she and her husband were neighbours of my parents about 35 years ago and stayed firm friends even when each couple moved on to different locations. Sadly her husband died 2 years ago and Nellie has somewhat declined since. She has no children or other relatives and her current neighbour has been caring for her, but since December, Nellie has become very frail after several falls and has been moved, most reluctantly she has made it clear, to a care home in Sussex. I thought it only right to call in on her, on my way down, as it may well be the last time I see her. I hardly recognised her as she looked so frail and gaunt compared with two years ago. Clearly her memory was going too and she thought I was someone else. I think being in a care home can do that to you.

Once I arrived in Eastbourne, it was lovely to visit familiar haunts - pop in and out of my favourite shops, do long promenade walks to Beachy Head and lay flowers at the crematorium where my parents ashes are scattered.

The carpet gardens by the pier once looked like this for decades,

but Eastbourne Council in their wisdom have converted it to this....

                                           

Goodness knows what they were thinking, probably an attempt at conservation or penny-pinching, but it looks like a colony of blond heads poking up above the gravel and not at all the colourful picturesque flowerbeds they once were. 

The Bandstand was under renovation so no open air concerts yet.

I was so lucky with the weather - normally it rains wherever I go - even in the Mediterranean.

On the last evening, I met up with Greg's best friend from schooldays who also happens to be Kay's godfather. We haven't met for about ten years, but he and his wife live at Hastings which is only a short drive from Eastbourne. It was lovely to spend time with them in my favourite Italian restaurant in Eastbourne and catch up on one another's news.

I was only there three nights, as I had to get back for an important choir rehearsal on Thursday. Driving through the Ashdown Forest (famous for Winnie the Pooh) with its gorse bushes shining bright in the sunshine was heavenly. It did me the power of good to get away for a few days.