Thursday 21st January 2016

Wednesday

With each passing day my breathing gets easier. But sometimes I have a sneezing fit, or suddenly get congested, but I hope things will get ever better.

The day dawned with clear skies, red on the horizon and the promise of a glorious day, which means it was such a surprise when the skies clouded over and all was overcast in St Maggies. I had work to do, once Jools had left, of course, and that kept me busy until lunchtime. However, after lunch I had to go and collect a hire car from town, and with the promise of clearing skies the temptation was to walk into town, so as to help my clearing breathing even further.

I put on my walking boots, but a nagging pain in my back had me wondering if I should take the bus instead, but seeing it leaving 5 minutes early in a cloud of blue smoke for Westcliffe kinda sealed it; walking it would be.

I cut through the churchyard, over Reach Road, through the housing estate and then over the large field towards the lighthouse. Past the WW2 remains of whatever it was in the first place, now covered by Dexter cows, through the gate, past the lighthouse and onto the cliff path.

That walk takes about half an hour to get to the start of the cliff path, and isn't picturesque if I'm honest; the field is just stunted grass, and the rain has made it muddy and slippery. The woods between the field and the lighthouse are not attractive, even art the height of summer, and in the winter the paths are just rivers of mud. I did wonder if I should have waited for the next bus.

But then you reach the cliff path, the vista opens out, and in the west the sun is trying to poke through the thin cloud layer, but already is casting a fine golden light on the scene.

As you imagine, walking along the cliff tops is wonderful in the summer, but in fact, at any time of the year is fabulous too, as the light changes, different plants and birds are about, and at least in the winter there are few other about to disturb the walker who might be lost in his own thoughts.

There are cracks in the topsoil, revealing deeper rooted problems with the cliffs, where maybe a future fall might occur. But then many of these have remained fairly unchanged for 80 years, looking like they will tumble to the beach at any moment. But they linger on.

The path was muddy too here, but I could walk in the long grass, wiping the mud off the bottom of my boots, straying close to the cliff edge. Down below it was low tide, and the different layers of sand and chalk glowed warmly in the late afternoon sun. I met only two other walkers, both photographers, as I neared Langdon Hole, the sun even lower in the sky, and the sky an even more attractive golden hue.

The port was clogged with lorries, something has disrupted ferries in Calais, so we get the backup here. Jubilee Way is solid, as is Townwall Street. There are lorries, buses and truck everywhere. I worry about my trip to Belgium the next day and whether I will get stuck either going, or sorse, coming home.I snap the scenes, and the golden sunset on the promenade and town beach down below.

All I had to do was navigate the last slope of the last cliff onto the path 10m away. I took one step, and my feet went from under me, my legs swung into the air and I landed on my bum, sliding down the slope towards the path, leaving my jeans and coat caked in chalky mud. Lovely. And I was going to collect a car. A brand new car as it turned out.

Down the path into East Cliff, past Athol Terrace, crossing between the lorries onto the promenade before passing underneath the main road again at New Bridge before making for Snargate Street and the car hire place. I tried to clean up, but was inpossible: once I had signed for the car, I turned my coat inside out, sat on that so not to get the seats dirty, and I carefully drove home up Jubilee Way as the traffic coming down now backed up to the roundabout.

I put all my clothes in the washing machine and set it going, go up for a shower and put on my dressing gown once dried off. We had a pizza menu pushed through the door during the day, so I get two large pizzas delivered for our dinner, both were big enough so we could both leave half and have them cold the next day too. Brilliant.

I have to get ready as I were to drive to Leuven the next day, hence the hore car, so the evening slipped through my fingers once more.