Thatch, Cream & Salt

What a wonderful day twas had! Driving down those typically English lanes with the roof down, enjoying summer weather when it should still be cold and April showers.

We headed off to a place called Selsey, with no idea what to expect apart from the fact is was by the sea. We passed lots and lots of lovely thatched houses, businesses and even bus stops that had been thatched along the way - I do enjoy a well-thatched property!

And by the sea it was... took a short walk along the beach front, and refreshingly there was no promenade or tacky seaside tat shops... just an ice cream trailer, sea gulls, kayakers and lots of people just parked up in their cars and not actually walking or sitting! I find it very strange still that people here will drive to the beach and just sit in their cars, weird, very weird. Of course being by the sea we had to indulge in an ice cream, yum!

It was then off for a little leg stretch around the 60 hectares of salt marsh and tidal mudflats that make up Pagham Harbour Local Nature Reserve. I think we probably made about a kilometre round trip - well we hadn't had lunch and the tummies were rumbling! So it was decided to drive along the coast a bit and see what caught our stomachs, er eyes!

And you'll never guess where we ended up... that tourist travel destination that everyone likes to smile about cause of it's Butlins, yes, Bognor Regis! The town that on average has more sunshine than any other town in Britain! So we drove along the sea front, spotted a parking spot and a takeaway and it was hot chips on the beach, with lots of salt and vinegar, yum, yum! The compulsory ice cream and chips on visiting the beach component had been completed and it was a happy journey home!

Not so happy was the very bad sunstroke, and consequent vomiting! That'll learn me to remember that when the roof is down in the car you must remember not only a hat but sunscreen as well!

Selsey:
http://www.visitselsey.com/
Some of those wonderfully thatched places, thatch costs a lot!
http://homes.trovit.co.uk/thatched-house-sale-east-sussex-pictures
Bognor Regis - yes, there is more there than Butlins!
http://www.bognor-regis.org/

Shake, Rattle & Demolish!

Since February 22nd life in my home city has not been the same: work from home, boil your tap water, use a chemical toilet, not be able to go to the city centre, and so on. The loss of life is very sad, and in years to come people in Christchurch will be asking where were you on 22Feb2011?

I'll have to say that I was sound asleep in my bed in the UK, whereas my family were panicking, wondering if anyone had been killed, or running down roads with buildings collapsing round them and water gysering up out the earth.

Today the place where I first used to go drinking is being demolished, at 105 years old it would only be considered a young building here in the UK, though in Christchurch it is category two listed historic building "...places of ‘historical or cultural heritage significance or value". It served New Zealand's first beer on tap in about 1939 and opened the country's first beer garden in 1947 and first drive-through bottle store in 1954. And today it has to be demolished.

There will be many such actions: at least a third of the buildings in central Christchurch will have to be demolished, and when I visit next the city will be a completely different one to that of my memories.

It is hard being so far away, only gleaning what I can from photos, video and speaking to those living in the now. And below are a few sites that can give you a little idea:

Photos: Before and after the Christchurch earthquake
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/4713590
Quaked: skating
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2bvozq-KK8