Batemans & Another Lazy Day - 16th Oct ‘20

The Brunnehilda morning drill is well established by now- lots of nothing followed by a bloody big cheese and mushroom omelette! I did manage to squeeze a shower in this morning though so that’s good eh?

Up and at em slightly earlier today. We had a 1.30 to 2pm booking at Batemans. A Natural Trust property about 20 miles inland.

It reminded me a little of Canons Ashby. A bit younger (1634) but that same peaceful tranquil family home that, unlike so many grander houses, remains pretty much as it was when it was built 400 years ago. Unfortunately only the ground floor (and only 4 or 5 rooms at that) were open to the public.

It was the home of Rudyard Kipling for the last 30 years of his life and proved an interesting look round. The formal gardens were nice for a stroll around too.

I read up on Mr Kipling after our visit and, like so many of these historical figures he had some less than desirable views. In Rudyards case he was very anti Irish and some what racist in his views. With a lovely Irish daughter in law I’m a bit more sensitive to this nonsense now.

We headed home via Rye. We decided not to stop but just get on home to Brunnehilda. When back at Norman’s Bay I had a brief walk on the beach just outside our campsite. The tide was completely out and that totally changed the look and feel of the place. What was all pebbles on Wednesday was now a vast expanse of sand. Weirdest thing was, there were a number of anglers all set up and waiting for the tide to come back in. I reckon it would be at least a couple of hours to wait just sitting there in the cold and growing darkness - nothing as strange as folk eh?

Another quiet evening which was differentiated from the others by the fact Kim slaughtered me at backgammon. Something that hopefully was a one off and won’t be repeated.

Another Relaxing Day (in Eastbourne) - 15th Oct ‘20

I have a great deal of empathy with my 3 regular blog readers ... a blog should be informative, interesting and exciting. I have just realised that this one is lacking in information, interest and excitement! I apologise for this oversight but the problem I have is that our trips with Brunnehilda just don’t lend themselves to an action packed blog!!

Take today as an example ... If I say we spent most of the morning in Brunnehilda’s big German bed reading, drinking and listening to the radio it would be accurate (ish). I actually didn’t haul my lazy bum out of the bed until 2 minutes past midday! And that was to drag myself onto the chair to have a fabulously tasty cheese and mushroom omelette for breakfast brunch lunch!

We did consider spending the day in Brunnehilda doing absolutely nothing but then the sun came out and we rightly suddenly felt very guilty about our sloth like behaviour.

We travelled the short distance back into Eastbourne and were parking up just outside the (closed) pier at just gone 2pm. We had a very pleasant stroll along the front in the Autumn sunshine until ...

We stopped for a coffee and cake at a beachside cafe. I stupidly put my Portuguese Tart (a cake not a Lisbon prostitute!) on the table and within a milli-second a very large seagull had whipped it away and he and his mates were ripping it to shreds on the floor. I gave one of them a whack with my hand - I gotta say they are surprisingly solid beasts (all those cakes they eat I expect?) Kim then had a very stressful 10 minutes eating her pain aux raison underneath her coat. Funny thing was, the pan aux raison was horrible. I’m not sure what the Portuguese tart was like - you’d need to ask the bloody seagull! Who said this blog wasn’t exciting?

Picture taken seconds before the vicious attack!

We walked through the town centre on the way back to the car. It reminded us of Llandudno but then I guess all fairly well kept Victorian seaside resorts are similar?

It was only 4.30 and the sun was still shining so we thought we’d find a “long way” home. We headed up to Beachy Head - wow, what a place! I was surprised, given all the suicide stories that the Cliff edges weren’t fenced off at all. The views were very impressive.

We then drove onto Seaford and Lewes.  Seaford is a very pleasant quiet little seaside resort. We didn’t see a lot to do apart from the huge stretch of pebbled beach stretching onto the more industrialised port of Newhaven. Lewes is a gorgeous old place. Lots of interesting old buildings and narrow lanes. We ended up in the County Hall car park which is when we realised it must be the county town of East Sussex! Who said this blog wasn’t informative?

Back home to end the day like we started it - lazily! Dinner, episodes of This Is Us on Amazon Prime, cup of tea, reading and blogging.  Gee, it’s a tough life?! So tomorrow is another day ... we go again!