The rain was bad enough. I’m glad I’m not in a tent tonight, I would be in danger of taking off. I’m at Lou’s, and we can hear the gusts from the windows and the skylight. When we arrived home the front door had blown open and it was whistling up the stairs. The cat is mildly traumatised and couldn’t be quite certain if she was more pleased to see us than pissed off that we had been away for the day. We went to Camber Sands.
The council put the charge up to £30 for the main car park at Camber Sands which is frankly absurd. I found a place to put Bergman for free nearby, and we wandered into a wind tunnel of sharp sand. We clung for a while to the bottom of a sand dune like gorse. Beside us a large group of boisterous Indian men played and sang along to their favourite tunes while joyfully bonding and playing keepie-uppie in the wind as we shared our quiet and reasonably woo-woo conversations. It wasn’t long before we all decided it would be nicer in the spa, and Bella had a membership so off we went.
I was the only man in this large group of women. Beaches, clothes shops, art galleries, spa… After I was pickled by the sauna I went and got myself a pint of lager and sat in the sun and for a moment there was no extreme weather. Then off to Bella’s place briefly.
She’s got an incredible woodland home, with two cats and so much light and quiet. It’s a woodland retreat. What a wonderful place to have moved to. She’s renting it, but still I envy her. For a while I lay in a deckchair facing the sunset falling perfectly between the trees to light my face. Peace.
Then out for dinner and a drive back to Lou’s. We saw a BADGER, running across the road, likely spooked by the wind. I hope it got back safely. Branches down all over the place, debris blown in the road. A couple of times the wind slammed Bergie and I had to hold him hard. This gale has come in all across the coast and it isn’t fucking around. I think if I were in a tent tonight, I’d wake up in the same tent 100 miles north.
AlBarclay 