Low Tide	04:03 (1.00m)
High Tide	10:05 (2.50m)
Low Tide	16:26 (0.70m)
High Tide	22:58 (2.40m)

Sea temperature: 16.5
Sea conditions: wind whipped but calm, hitting the shore with some force
Weather conditions: unseasonably warm, windy but warm
Joined by: Abs
Topics of conversation: Not much from today from me as I had to leave to get to yoga, but the main thing was to welcome Abs, who is hoping to join us on a regular, but not daily, basis over the winter. She comes from 'inland' and has to get small people to school so getting to the sea for our early start won't be easy, but she's already talking about getting stone shoes, so she must be serious.
Some topics from the last week which have stayed with me:
Voice recognition software and its fallibility. The Pirate uses this for his work, which involves marking and setting course-work for the OU, amongst other things. He warned us against becoming reliant on this knid of technology by relating an incident: he was marking work which had been based up on the Bhagavad Gītā, part of the Mahabharata. Having spoken the words "Bhagavad Gītā" he continued to go through the work and fortunately remembered to check it before he sent it. The voice recognition had heard the name of the Hindu scripture and decided to write "bugger the teacher" in its place. There's something rather classy about that.
Tamarisk - the illusive name of the plant which we all pass everyday and The Pirate kept trying to remember the name of. It's a wonderful plant, which grows in sandy, windy, dry places and is also (we now know, thanks to a landscaping app) known as Salt Cedar. I'd like to plant some in our garden.
The Panto - Wind in the Willows and all its politics are discussed on a regular basis, but I leave that for those closer to the production to record as I am totally out of my depth. I thought live Friday night TV was edgy, but I'm learning fast.
High tides - we've had some pretty full on ones this last week and occasionally I've had to take a detour to get to the sea.

 Inevitably we also discussed the sad incident at the Harbour on Friday. Redsanpper and I were on the beach when I heard the first sirens at about 3.30 (she didn't notice them as she comes from Reading) but it was clear that there was something serious going on. An elderly man had driven his vehicle into the deepest part river, thought the barriers at speed and the rescue crews were unable to save him. Later that evening it became a recovery exercise. The police have said that it is unlikely that it was accidental.