Out and about

There's a limit to the amount of housework and gardening that one can face with equanimity.  Yesterday being dull and chilly, it was a ideal day for housework.  So we went to the pictures.  Florence Foster Jenkins with Meryl Streep excelling in the title rôle, and Hugh Grant doing pretty well as her 'husband'.  Simon Helberg gave a super account of her accompanist, Cosmé McMoon.  Though there are some hilarious moments, the pathos predominates.

View south from the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill

Today was a perfect day for gardening, since the grass wanted cutting and the spuds needed a final earthing-up.  So we went to the seaside instead.  Birling Gap, from where we could see the fallout from the recent cliff rockfall from the Seven Sisters.  Beachy Head for a spot of botanising and admiring the vast horizon.  Eastbourne for lunch at Harry Ramsden's, then the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill for more cups of tea on the first floor balcony, looking out to sea.  The contrast between the professional, well-groomed, articulate, polite Poles at Harry Ramsden's, on the one hand, with their spotty, tattooed, perforated and over-slapped indigenous opposite numbers at the De La Warr, on the other, was striking and just a bit depressing.  We felt that a lot more could be made of the De La Warr, given its fine location, stunning pre-Gropius architecture and wonderful views.  It is already looking a bit scabby following a recent restoration. 

We were lucky with parking (which is just as well at the moment).  A fair bit of motoring, but in manageable chunks.  Lots of fresh air, so we'll have to impose some portion control tonight, given our healthy appetites.