For those who don't know the area, its a seaside town on the east coast of England, but it doesn't get much tourism investment and sadly has lost some of it's shine. The beach however is absolutely beautiful with flat, damp sand that you can walk on for miles. For me that's it's only redeeming quality so my friend and I like to make it sound posher than it actually is. The surrounding seaside towns are also a bit run down so we verbally spruce them up by referring to them with French sounding names. Sutton on Sea becomes Sutton sur la Mer, and my favourite is Chapel St Leonards turning in Chappelle san Leonard. At these places all you can see for miles are caravans and trailers. Pretty soulless eh? But perhaps they afford cheap holidays for families who just like to play on the beach, although given the weather in the UK at times, holidays there won't work out THAT cheap. For example, two options for when it's raining - sit inside the caravan and play games (good option and very cheap), or take bored kids to the arcades and have lunch in a greasy spoon cafe (not cheap). Believe me, I know, we've done it when the kids were little. We once totted up the cost of such a holiday and quite honestly, we could have gone abroad!
Despite what I said above, I have the greatest affection for these little seaside towns. They struggle to keep going without the investment that the bigger resorts get, yet they still provide something for everyone. Yes it's limited with arcades, cheapo shops selling tat, bingo halls and karaoke, but people still like this stuff. My friend and I went into Mablethorpe to walk along the beach. It was a really hot day but we enjoyed the breeze coming off the water and the sand under our feet. We put on our shoes and went up to the promenade to sit on a bench with an ice cream each. Not just any old ice cream, but a blooming great '99' with twin flakes no less. Our philosophy is if you're going to have one, have a big 'un!
photo courtesy of http://emsb-solutions.co.uk/99-good-enough/
It was great smelling the fish and chips and candy floss, not to mention hearing the sounds of the funfair and children's laughter. We walked back to the car by a different route that took us on a man made path on top of the dunes. By that time it was scorching hot and we arrived at the car red in the face, looking very much like twin beetroots. Not a good look! Opening the car door was like opening an oven so we had to stand at let the heat out before we dare sit in to go back to the nearby village where we were staying.
Here's a jolly image of Mablethorpe. It's a nice picture and shows off the beach to its best.
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The second slot of time away was the following week where we spent 3 days in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, helping our elder daughter decorate her yoga studio that she is renting right in the town centre. It's a huge room which will take a class of ten comfortably, twelve at a push. It was pretty hard going, decorating in 30 degree heat. The paint was drying almost immediately, so it was dragging off the roller. It slowed things up somewhat but we got it done and it looks magnificent. All pure white, with red doors and a red carpet. The carpet was already down but it's almost new so there was no reason to change it. Red is an energising colour and Kat was happy to keep it. She's put some lovely little touches around the place, like some wall art of a flock of butterflies, and of course there'll be other Yoga orientated stuff going on.
We so want her to succeed at this venture as a yoga teacher. Although it's her side-job, it's her main interest and has been for years. She works hard at it and deserves to do well. She'll be setting up a new website soon called Great Malvern Yoga. It's not live yet but I'll do a link to it as soon as it is.
This is her finding alternative uses for good old Morrison's carrier bags to cover the light fittings while painting the ceiling.
