My wife and I both had the day off together yesterday so, as a little treat, we decided to take a bit of time out and drive to the coast. Living in Essex, we're lucky to have the longest coastline in England and as we're surrounded by beautiful coastline it's not exactly a major outing to just nip out somewhere to be by the sea for the afternoon.
After a little bit of thought, we decided to go to Leigh on Sea. Old Leigh, is a lovely little fishing village with a beautiful harbour and it's only about 25 minutes drive from us so it's not far to go to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life for a bit of tranquillity. And, as I'm a bit of an amateur photographer, I took my camera along for the ride, too!
The traffic wasn't too bad and before we knew it we were there. And what a lovely afternoon it turned out to be. The sun was scorching hot and so the warm sea breeze was welcome. We started off by having a little wander through the cobbled streets of Old Leigh and then took a stroll along the harbour. We had a little sit on the harbour wall, dangling our feet over the edge and watched some 'big' kids having a wonderful time throwing each other into the sea off the breakwater. Oh to be young and carefree again! They were having an absolutely wonderful time. Chasing each other around and pushing each other in. Picking the girls up and pretending that they were going to throw them in, making them squeal, but they were all squeals of joy and it was light hearted fun. They created some fun and happy memories to take away with them, that's for sure.
A short time later we decided to move on and took a very slow stroll indeed along the sea front. Kat had a little paddle and collected some 'pretties' or shells to everyone else, and, I took lots of photographs of the boats dotted along the harbour and further out into the sea. And, with my super duper lens I could even see the end of Southend Pier, looking a little warmer than the last time I saw it, I might add!
We ambled along like a pair of old timers, in our flip flops, no rush to get anywhere. I really do love days like this, there's nothing better than a visit to the seaside to forget all your stresses. Before we knew where we were we were almost in Chalkwell, the next town along. Knowing that we had to walk all the way back we decided to turn around just before we got there and make our way towards the temping pubs we had so far managed to elude the clutches of. It was time for a well deserved beer.
We found a lovely little pub on the harbour wall and managed to bag ourselves a little table overlooking the sea, which was decidedly more 'mud' by this time as the tide had all but gone out but that didn't matter to us, we were just happy to be away from it all for a little while, enjoying each others company in the sunshine and calm.
After our beer it was time for us to start making our way back. Unfortunately, the pressures of time, namely car parking restraints, were upon us and so we started to head back along the harbour towards the car. The smells of the sea and freshly caught fish, cockles, muscles and the like wafting past our nostrils as we walked by the cockle sheds and fishmongers. This is a smell I can honestly say that I don't miss, phewy!
So, that was our opportune afternoon outing to the sea.
Oh, I do love to be beside the seaside.....
Wow...that was a whirlwind week!
If you read my last blog you might remember I was talking about looking forward to a visit from my niece and her little family from the Isle of Skye. Well, they came, they had fun, they left.....a trail of destruction and sleep deprived, broken aunties behind! Little did I know, but our lives in our peaceful little home were about to be completely turned upside down!
What a week! They arrived last Tuesday at Luton airport. It's too far to get a cab so I drove over and picked them up. That day was pretty much lost on travelling so other than the kiddies going to play on the local park and us eating together, nothing much else happened. So far, so good!
Wednesday was their first full day and they'd planned to spend it in London sightseeing. The kids were up nice and early, 6am! I honestly, did not realise that a day had two 6's in it!
So, off they went and caught the 9:25am train into London and had a wonderful day together, visiting the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, the Natural History Museum, going on a river cruise and an open top bus ride. So much fun. Charlie was full of beans when they got home telling us his tales of all his adventures. His favourite part? The train and bus journeys! Typical Kids, eh?
The week continued well with them visiting a local Essex attraction, Marsh Farm, and then back to London for some more fun. They managed a little look around Chelmsford and some more fun in Central Park and then a trip to Southend on Sea, to which we accompanied them. It was absolutely freezing. I haven't been so cold in a long, long time.
When we got there we made our way to the Sealife Centre to warm up a little and have a look around. After an hour in there we thought it would be a good idea, since we were in Southend and it has the longest pier in the world, to go to the end of the pier. I'm not entirely sure who's decision this was, i'm certainly not accepting the blame, although, I think I might have mentioned it, in passing, briefly!
Anyway, it was far too cold to walk, especially with two toddlers, so we decided we'd take the train. The pier is 1.33 miles long and let me tell you, in the snow and with the temperature in minus degrees, when you get off that train at the end it's bloomin' well cold! The best description I can give you to explain it is, it's like when you put too much ice cream in your mouth at once and you get brain freeze! Yep, it's really that cold, and boy, was it windy!
There's a little cafe' at the end so after a very brief wander around, we ventured to the cafe' to get a drink, warm up and await the return train to arrive. When we got back to shore, there's not much else to do in a seaside town during the winter when there's snow on the ground, well, other than eat fish and chips! So off we went to find a little cafe' and had a lovely spot of lunch together, and then it was back to the car.
By the time we got back home we were all absolutely frozen but we'd all had a lovely day and I'm glad, as cold as it was, that we went to the end of the pier. I've got some lovely memories of us freezing half to death and hanging on to the handrails to stop us getting blown out to sea!
The weather was so cold that they didn't get to visit the zoo in Colchester as they'd previously planned and both Ava and Charlie got a little bit poorly and both had rasping chesty coughs, poor things and neither of them slept particularly well, so, as you can imagine, neither did anyone else!
By the time the end of their holiday had come along, my wife, Kat, and I were completely exhausted and neither of us had done anything particularly draining. It was just from a pure lack of sleep. I actually do not have a clue how Chloe', my niece, does it. She just doesn't stop from the minute she gets up at 6am, sometimes earlier, until she sits down on an evening and that's usually not until 8pm and some nights it was after 9pm! She's just constantly on the go. I'm in complete awe of her.
And who knew that a 3 year old could make quite so much noise? It's incredible! I'd forgotten how noisy kids are. I've been so long living a quiet, peaceful existence in my little home with my lovely wife, watching what we want on the t.v, doing what we want to do and when we want to do it, that I had completely forgotten what it was like to have children in your life. How demanding that life is. I know one thing for sure, I couldn't handle a life of children on a full time basis. Three demanding cats is just about my level of commitment.
Anyhow, yesterday came and it was time for them to catch their flight home, so we set off at 7:30am on our drive to Luton and it's a good job that we did, the traffic, as you can imagine on the M25 during the morning commute, was a nightmare. But we got there in plenty of time in the end.
It was sad leaving them at the airport, saying goodbye to them is always hard, but after spending a week with them and knowing I won't see them all now for at least another year, well, it's never easy saying goodbye, no matter how sleep deprived!
The drive home was less stressful. I had no target time to get anywhere and the traffic had eased off a little by then. I was so happy to get home, though. I had a cup of tea and then lay down on the sofa in the spare room and fell asleep for a good couple of hours, just enough to see me through the rest of the day. Although, I was still good for nothing!
Last night we went to bed at 9pm, me with a banging headache, and I was straight to sleep, waking at 8am this morning. I'm not at all good at being sleep deprived. I sooooo needed that sleep catch up.
I still feel like I could sleep for a week but for now, peace is restored.
My wife and I both had the day off together yesterday so, as a little treat, we decided to take a bit of time out and drive to the coast. Living in Essex, we're lucky to have the longest coastline in England and as we're surrounded by beautiful coastline it's not exactly a major outing to just nip out somewhere to be by the sea for the afternoon. 
A short time later we decided to move on and took a very slow stroll indeed along the sea front. Kat had a little paddle and collected some 'pretties' or shells to everyone else, and, I took lots of photographs of the boats dotted along the harbour and further out into the sea. And, with my super duper lens I could even see the end of Southend Pier, looking a little warmer than the last time I saw it, I might add! 
