Weekend in Eastbourne (Part I)

Eastbourne. It's one of those places with a reputation for genteel pensioners enjoying their retirement, isn't it? As a child I knew of it as the home town of my Great Aunt Doris's 'friend' Vera. We called her Auntie Vera. As a child I didn't realise quite what sort of friends they were, even though I knew they each wore a diamond ring from the other. Auntie Vera was charming and friendly and evidently very dear to my Great Aunt. Anyway, that's by the by - as per usual I've wandered off down one of those tangents which prove irresistible to me once my fingers start tapping on a keyboard.

What this blog post is really about are (some of) the pictures I took when my lovely friend Lily Wren and I went to Eastbourne for a weekend in July. Lily spent some time in Eastbourne in her younger years, when she was at Uni down that way; she'd never been back since. I'd never been there, but the prospect of meeting up with my old chum Bertie (who now lives there), together with the chance to photograph a lovely place, was more than enough to warrant a weekend away with Lily, who wanted to revisit old haunts.

We chose that weekend because it saw the staging of Eastbourne Extreme - an annual extreme sports event, which we thought might be good to photograph. (Lily, Bertie and I are all of a photographical persuasion). There was the promise of wind-surfing, skate-boarding, kite-surfing, power boat racing, jet ski-ing, BMX-ing, and land yachting, to name but a few of the activities being showcased, and all three of us could use some practice on our action shots.

Lily and I left here early on the Saturday morning and passed through some lovely countryside on our way down south. The journey was only marred by an aggressive woman in Eastbourne itself, but the least said about her, the better! In true 'best laid plans ...' tradition, we never actually got to the Extreme Sports 'bit' of Eastbourne that weekend. Well, Bertie did, but us girlies didn't. There was a bit of a cock-up on the telephonic and crossed wires front, which meant we didn't meet up when and where I'd thought. No matter, we still all had a lovely time.

Lily and I wandered along the beach, where we had lunch, and then walked up and down the pier. It was an incredibly windy day so I didn't get too close to the pier railings for fear of being lifted over and deposited into the briny. There were lots of people on the pier, and some fishermen doing their 'thing' right at the end. Eastbourne turned out to be a great place to get some people shots.

When we (eventually) met up with Bertie, he and I swapped cameras for a while as he was keen to see how the lens I was using that day performed. (For those who are interested, it is a Tamron - AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 DI II VC LD Aspheric [IF] Macro Zoom Lens, and I am mightily happy with it. It's what is termed a 'walkabout' lens as it covers many options within one lens, and is therefore ideal to take away on holidays, etc.) We wandered around the Western Lawns, taking lots of pictures.

There was a concert going on in the very beautifully-roofed bandstand, which is right on the beach.

After Bertie went home, Lily and I visited a local hostelry for a quick drink and possibly something to eat. However, we turned out to be too late for food, so after our drink we visited a local fish and chip shop and then made our way back to our hotel. I thoroughly recommend this hotel to anyone thinking of paying a visit to Eastbourne. The owners were very welcoming, friendly and helpful. The rooms were beautifully clean, well-equipped and very comfortable (and we had wifi). An extremely cute little dog lived there too - he was as friendly as his owners.

I think I'd probably better stop here - at the end of our first day, and leave the pictures from our second day to my next post. Otherwise it'll be one mahoosive post, and anyone reading might doze off!

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