Tuesday 7 May 2013

Low Tide03:18 (0.60m)
High Tide09:59 (2.30m)
Low Tide15:41 (0.90m)
High Tide21:44 (2.30m)
Sea temperature: 10.5 - double figures at last
Sea conditions: Glorious all over the Bank Holiday, calm and clear this morning
Weather: still, sunny and warm
Joined by: Sara, The Artist and a new comer to the fold, who shall henceforth be known as The Light Entertainment, being a comedy writer who has recently moved to the village. Originally the idea of giving people names for the blog was to protect privacy, but now it seems it's become a bit of a game. The Artist doesn't read the blog so didn't know that was her moniker and seemed happy with it but Sara demanded to know why she doesn't have one and as well as it sounding good with 'The Poet' I guess the other reason is that the natural one for her would be 'The Swimmer', which doesn't really work in this context!
It's been a busy time, with no routine for the last few days and so I've not had the opportunity to blog, so this is a round up as the morning swim has continued regardless. For me swimming at this time of year really cannot be bettered, except perhaps by the golden sunrises of September, when the sea still has the residual warmth of the summer lingering in its depths. I met a couple of LOTVs on the way down to the beach and as they passed they commented "There's a woman with a purpose" and it is true, at that time of day at this time of year, nothing will keep me away from the sea.
The Pirate's Wife has sent me some lovely pictures of her May Day morning, which I am reproducing with her permission. They do show, quite clearly that it wasn't all white and twig waving, and she was playing the fiddle and not drinking beer for breakfast, so it was rather tame compared to DK's imagination. She did say that she struggled to play the fiddle as it was so very cold and you can't play the fiddle with gloves on!
Dawn May 1st
Talking of gloves we had a long discussion about the best neoprene accessories this morning, although I did have a second swim yesterday without gloves for the first time yesterday. The Light Entertainment is waiting for her shoes to arrive and The Pirate has been trying to track down a pair to replace his favourites. I've looked online and can't find them anywhere, but will keep looking. I'm going to invest in what Sara calls a tw@t hat so that I can go back to having lessons in her way of swimming and was delighted when I found this, particularly because of the name - The Squid Lid. The most crucial element for me is to keep water out of my ears, I don't have a problem with eyes, which is surprising, but I get quite anxious about water in my ears.

The big news of the week has been that The Pirate's No 1 Son (the chef) and his girlfriend (also a chef) are opening a deli in the village. We could not be more excited. They are busy sampling suppliers food and testing equipment in readiness for a possible opening at the end of the month. In honour of local legend, but more importantly in honour of Bosco it will be called The Black Dog Deli. I'm looking forward to hearing more about it and trying out their menu, I'll see if they'll let me take some photos for the village website too.
If this weekend is anything to go by they will be busy, the village was absolutely heaving with visitors, both car parks were full and the beach was awash with windbreak and kites. I took possession of our beach hut on Saturday, so spent some time down there, painting the outside and fitting new locks, shelves etc. and it's always lovely to hear families who don't realise there is someone a couple of yards away on the other side of the dune, negotiating to get the children off the beach at the end of the day. My favourite this weekend was the dad who said hopefully "Right everyone, lets all go down to the village hall to look at the art exhibition and have a cup of tea...." as if that would tempt a toddler and a 5 year old. 
We'd hoped to make use of the hut this weekend but Mertz had a setback with his wound, which ruptured having become infected last week and we ended up in the local hospital on Saturday. They were brilliant and packed the wound with what the nurse called loft insulation made from seaweed, or alginate to be precise. The doctor also prescribed a new antibiotic, specifically for its wound healing properties, which was only released last week, so I'm hoping all these things will kick in to improve his health and therefore mood (and therefore my life and mood, as he's stuck at home). He's not allowed to do anything, so it's a good job that his job is sedentary.

The Light Entertainment and her husband are interested in a beach hut and had discovered that one of the posh huts is for sale. It's No 1 on the strip, which means that it is very close to the camp site and in stark contrast to ours is being sold for offers in the region of £50,000. Admittedly mine is only a shed on the beach, but as they can only be rented, only by residents, have a 4 - 7 year waiting list and can't be slept in it's a different kettle of fish altogether. We have some friends with a posh one and I worked out that mine could fit into the space taken up be their bed! None of this matters to me, I now have my own bolt hole, where I can work if needs be and the dogs seem to have taken to it already, I just need a cupboard, and a dog bed and I can spend the whole day there.
The local theatre festival http://www.hightide.org.uk is in full swing and there have been highs and lows already. DK, Legs and No. 1 son went to a performance of Pastoral which they hated so much that they wanted to leave half way through (but couldn't because there was no interval and they were in the front row) and Sara and The Poet had been seen Neighbors which they had enjoyed hugely. Sara was incandescent that it had been so poorly attended by locals, but it was full of people who had travelled up from London to see it, so it's obviously good for the local economy, come to think of it maybe that's one of the reasons all the holiday homes were occupied this weekend. She can't understand why some of us, who regularly go to the cinema and devour every dance performance at Aldeburgh don't want to go. It's simply not something I enjoy. 
I'd read a wonderful piece on Silvie Guilleme at the weekend who talked about walking out of performances. She advocates doing so if you are not enjoying something and has been on both sides of the curtain. She talked about a very 'edgy' Robert Wilson piece she had performed in where half the audience left, this was not something she disapproved of but rather said she felt that those who stayed behind were there till the end because they really felt a connection with the work and she would rather perform to those who did.
DK's shmoozing with the Pythons - he and Legs had been to Michael Palin's 70th and had a lovely time meeting old friends and new. He is about to be awarded the BAFTA Fellowship (Michael Palin that is, not DK, although who knows...) and we all agreed that there a few left, who haven't been honoured, who are as worthy.

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