As mentioned I went to the seaside yesterday. However, because everything is very quiet there I'm not going to blog about it. What's the point of living in the South of France if I can't tell you how exciting it is and making you jealous. So instead I'm going to list my favourite seaside locations and a brief word why. I can't do everywhere I have been otherwise it would be way too extensive and I'd have to include such places as Wells-Next-The-Sea (rather pretty and lots of shops of sea related bits and pieces) and also Happisburgh, (pronounced Hazeborough as my dad was always pleased to point out.
10) Whitby Haven't been there often, although I do remember seeing both the castle and the giant whalebones, but more importantly, it was the seaside town where my Grandma got stuck in the lavatory. Oh dear, what can the matter be......
9) Littlehampton A place to visit in my teenage years. Much as I don't like to admit it, I was very shy when I was young and going to an all boys school didn't help when it was time to approach young ladies. Anyway, I went to a party at a friends house and thanks to Dr Alcohol, and it's effect on me and possibly the girls involved, not ony did I cop off with one girl, when she went home I then copped off with another. This was my most successful 24 hour period of picking up girls in my life to date. Anyhoo, before the first girl left I persuaded her to come to Littlehampton next day on the youth club outing. Unfortunately I forgot to invite Dr Alcohol and I couldn't muster up the courage to speak to her. (anyone who knows Raj from the Big Bang Theory will get the picture). It was her friend whose party it was the night before and was also on the trip. I got a right earful from her when we got back.
8) Margate Ah! Dreamland. Went a few times on days out and then a good friend had a weekend stag party there. 14 of us went. We drank so much on the train going down that the first round in the hotel bar was all soft drinks!
7) Great Yarmouth As a youngster, having been in hospital a lot, I never really liked being away from mum. I had been a to a couple of cub camps but was always a bit homesick. My nest friends family took me camping to Great Yarmouth for a weekend as part of a bigger plan. I can't say I was overjoyed to be away but I obviously enjoyed it enough not to be homesick which made a difference some 12 months on.
6) Galveston Visited here when my Dad got remarried in Houston. Interesting architecture but not a wildly fascinating sea side town. But I knew the song and just to visit it has always meant I've enjoyed the song more as I can visualise it.
5) Weymouth A couple of years after number 9 I had a girlfriend and we went as a crowd down to Weymouth. It was a really lovely day and perhaps the one I remmeber best from our time together. Years later, in fact about 8 years ago, I visited again with some friends, one of whom had been on the original trip and liked the place just as much. A proper English seaside town.
4) Rimini The reason for going to Great Yermouth was to see if I coped away from home as the family planned to take me with them camping round Europe for 3 weeks. We went to France, Italy, Germany and Austria and is still one of the best holidays I ever had and propbably the second most important one. Rimini is memorable partly for the place itself but mainly for the lemon curd filled doughnuts which to my 11 year old tastebuds was the best thing I'd ever tasted. (Other than Leeds fish and chips of course).
3) Lyme Regis/Ilfracombe/Budleigh Salterton The first holiday I went on with the Magnificent M. We booked a week off and set sail, wel, set tyres and drove down to Dorset with no plan other than turning up in places and hoping there was a bed and breakfast somewhere. A mini adventure which she would never have done before with her ex.
2) Narbonne Plage From the moment we both visited this beach, 11 years ago this year, we knew we wanted to be there as often as possible. It was the beach here as much as the rest of this bit of France that made us realise how much we wanted to be here if only when we retired. Even ysterday, when it was pretty deserted and we couldn't even get a cup of coffee, it was nice just to walk on the beach, knowing that in 6 months time it will be packed to the gunnels. Not that we will see it then, we will be too busy, but we will get there before and after the season for a bit of a swim and a sunbathe.
1) Blackpool For me, the ultimate seaside location. People either love it or hate it. Every holiday in Leeds visiting my Grandma would entail a day trip to balckpool on a Wallace Arnold coach. When my brother did well on his o'levels my mum took us to Blackpool for the weekend. It had always been important to her too as it was to many Yorkshire people before and after the war. Then, 17 years ago I went back to Blackpool with a mate who went every year and had been nagging me to go. I had a bit of an epiphany and realised that maybe things might be able to be changed in my life and the upshot of that became being with M adn ending up in the South of France. I love the illuminations, the donkeys, the tackiness. Just everything.
4 comments:
I know, there are rather a few spelling mistkes. It might be because it w as late in the evening I typed it, or perhaps a misty eye or two....
Weymouth, Yarmouth, Lossiemouth, we went to all those as kids. Anything with a mouth in it. I think Yarmouth was my favourite... because it had a funfair.
Only ever went to Blackpool once - for my stag weekend. I don't remember much about it, to be honest.
And I have a mate who recently moved to Happisburgh, so I shall impress/bemuse him with the correct pronunciation when next we speak.
I think I must have led a sheltered life, I have never been to any of those places!
What a brilliant blogging topic. And what a smashing collection of memories.
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