Spent the day in Eastbourne yesterday – keeping Philosopher, and our car, company. Went to the Towner Gallery, Beachy Head, Waitrose- such excitements!
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| Sunny, but cold, on Eastbourne Beach |
Our old friends Sue and Graham were supposed to be coming to stay this week, but couldn’t due to Sue having sick bug, so I decided to keep Philosopher company. Our faithful Skoda Yeti had to go and spend the day at the main dealership in Eastbourne – it is one of the cars affected by the VW emissions scam, so had to be modified, and it needed a new something or other that cost £400…Cripes. Not what you need before Christmas.
However, they cleaned it as well, for nothing, and gave us a courtesy car – a new Octavia. It was very comfortable, but all so automated that we couldn’t see how to work anything and spent the day driving around with the car temperature at 29 degrees, with the blower thing roaring like a jet plane taking off. It was a cold day but really….
There’s lots in Eastbourne, but maybe not so much before 9am on a cold November morning. Here’s another blog post about the town.
We started off with a short walk on the beach. it was beautiful but freeeezzzing….
Soon gave in and slunk indoors for coffee and a huge sticky bun in Favo’Loso, the retro cafe/ice cream parlour opposite the Winter Gardens.
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| Favo’Loso – off the internet |
Apparently it is Bill Bryson’s favourite place on the South Coast. Sure, it is pleasantly old-fashioned, the bun was yummy and they have a real roaring Gaggia machine for the coffee, but maybe you need to get a life, Bill. Battleaxe is (surprisingly) not an afficionado of retro ice-cream parlours, but try Broadstairs for example… the beautiful Morelli’s. Read this if you are into such things.
As soon as the Towner Gallery was open, in we went. There was a much publicised exhibition ‘Towards Night’ that I wanted to see. It has some good things in – on until 22 January. This is Philosopher’s favourite (photo from the internet).
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| Gertrude Hermes ‘Through the Windscreen’ 1923 |
Then we discovered there was another exhibition as well – ‘One day, Something Happens: Paintings of people’ which we actually liked much better. It is only on until 8 January. This is by a painter I had never heard of:
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| Kenneth Wootton ‘Portrait of a Lady’ 1934 |
So, by the time we had studied both exhibitions (both free – well worth the outing) and had yet another coffee, it was midday and time to go up to Beachy Head. I had a money off voucher from WI Life magazine for lunch in the pub…. Had a brisk shortish walk – the scenery never fails to please – but still freezing. I took some scenic photos to put on Facebook for poor sick Sue up in Brum – to make her feel still sicker – before a long, sleep-inducing lunch. Battleaxe always recommends The Beachy Head pub.
Then down to Waitrose to browse and buy over-priced Christmas luxuries. Think Charbonnel et Walker chocolate shoes in a little handbag – plus a few everyday essentials like Dorset raspberry and pumpkin-seed porridge and Burt’s Bees almond hand-cream….
All that made me quite fancy an afternoon cuppa in the Grand Hotel, but the car place called to say that our car was ready for collection, so we went home.
Talking of sick bugs, in the evening we went round to friends Jan and Tom. She told me that while we were away on our cruise they had gone to Glyndebourne and she had been seized with nausea ten minutes into the performance. She just managed to get out of the auditorium before throwing up. She said the staff were wonderful but how truly awful for her, and even more awful to speculate about what they do if someone is actually sick during a performance. It must happen…. Would they carry on?
Anyway, we reassured her that Don Giovanni was not that good, so she didn’t miss much.
There are lots of nasty bugs around just now. Battleaxe says wash your hands, people…..
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