Stay In The Sun - Mon May 11

Oh man, I needed that! What a super-fine day all round, and a great way to really kick off my Birthday Fortnight! I knew something special was in the air when I was up before eight on a Sunday and gazing out of the window into a blue cloudless sky - but even then I couldn’t have anticipated just how sunny and calming a day at the beach at Weston-super-Mare would be!

It’s been quite a few years now since our last Impulsive Day Trip to the beach. And even this wasn’t that Impulsive, having been planned a couple of weeks ago. Sadly we just don’t work in a climate these days which allows for Impulsive Day Trips. What happened to the world, man? (shakes head sadly)

Previous Impulsive Day Trips usually took us to Hunstanton cos on paper it’s pretty much the closest Seaside to MK. But doing a little bit of research on the AA website confirmed that MK is so landlocked that almost every coastline is within a two to three hour drive radius. We could have gone to Southend, Brighton, Great Yarmouth, Bournemouth, anywhere really in a similar amount of time. But Brian recommended Weston-super-Mare, and the rest of the team jumped at the chance to get West Coast.

And oh what a day! Even the slight delay getting there (it took just under four hours in the end, Diane’s Irish SatNav man Sean taking us through Bristol city centre as a detour to an M5 queue – how was he to know some of the central road system was closed for some sort of marathon??) didn’t dampen our spirits.

WSM’s beach has apparently won awards for being a good beach – and it really was! It stretched quite a distance, there were no dogs allowed, and it was virtually spotless! We were able to set up base camp on a beautiful stretch of soft warm sand and lie back in the glorious hot sunshine. (sighs contentedly at the memory and idly rubs slightly burnt neck)

The only quibble we had on arrival – that the sea was miles and miles away and wouldn’t come anywhere near the beach for five more hours – soon faded into the background as we spent the afternoon eating fish n chips n cockles n fudge, playing Crazy Golf, buying gay shades, kicking a football around in our bare feet and generally lazing on the sand. Grahame dug an impressively big hole and sat in it.

Simon, Caroline, Helen, Diane and I built… well, not a sand castle. More a sand-Tolkien landscape, complete with multiple castles, a moat, roads, caves and a huge pinnacly mountain thing. About five minutes after we finished it and went back up to our base, we saw a couple of ten year old kids kicking it to shit. Ah, the cycle of civilisations. It’s how History works, you know.

Finally the sea came near enough across the mud flats for us to paddle a bit – though in the end Diane and I didn’t stick our faces in the water to give it a kiss as I’d promised Fay. Cos not only was it murky and slightly foamy, but Grahame and Brian had just spotted what I believe is technically known as “a floater”! Soz Fay, er… maybe next time!

We packed up around half sixish, as the beach emptied and the sun began to amble mellowly towards the glittering water. The long journey home didn’t matter, our tired happy faces had caught the sun and there it would stay. (smiles) Plus we had a hefty supply of Bangin Dance Choons to keep us going. And Sean the SatNav man, now fully qualified as a member of the team in his own right.

Depressed? Mournful? Listless? Struck with ennui? Uh, go to the beach, dude. Seriously. Easy as that.