Top day!

When we woke up this morning the sky was blue and there wasn' t a breath of wind - and it said one thing to me "beach!" So after a quick visit to Pippa's weekly music group, which Stan took totally in his stride, we packed up our swimmies and buckets and headed out to Scorching Bay. Sasha took the long and scenic route all along the coast and it showed once again how beautiful that stretch is. Some of the houses along the shoreline are truly magnificent, a particular favourite has a wooden dingy hanging off the roof, ready to go at any moment! Stan and Pippa dutifully fell asleep. When we got there Pippa woke and sat in the shade of her buggy whilst we set a shady spot up on the beach under an umbrella for Stan to continue his snooze . The sea looked fantastically inviting and I did think I should take advantage of his snoozing to have a swim but BRRRRRRRR was it cold - I did have a paddle later and think I could have made it in, but was a bit chicken to say the least! After a wonderfully lazy sunbathing session and having made a short sortie to the cafe to get coffee etc we packed up and went for lunch at Chocolate Fish, under the awnings with views of the sea - as we were packing up the first of the two boats from the Volvo Round the World Race accompanied but lots of support boats and spectators came round into the harbour. We watched a very exciting race between them, one in front then the other and also watched the red helicopter swooping unblievably low to get it's footage. The picture is, clearly, not mine and was taken almost as they crossed the finish - just 9 seconds beteween them.

So, lunch at the Chocolate Fish, what a place, the food was yummy, the service friendly and the location to die for. They have a wonderful collection of artworks - the chairs, each one has been painted differently and this one is just for Georgia!

Time caught up with us as we got back to the car and realised it was time for Sasha to head over to Eastbourne to pick up O. She dropped Stan and I in town and we went off to explore the race village and see the boats. It was very exciting and buzzing, the two boats we had seen were safely berthed and the crew were doing their media interviews. Having spent many late nights when we lived with Paddy in Alexandra Park Road, staying up to watch the race highlights I felt very lucky to be on the jetty. We went to look at the helicopters which land on the harbour which Stan loved! Then on to the awards ceremony for the 2nd place boat and narrowly missing a Champagne shower before heading off to catch the train home - but we intend to go back at the weekend to show Oliver and then head out to watch the race restart on Sunday for the challenging leg through the Southern Ocean.

Walking to the station with Stan was great fun, sometimes on my shoulders and sometimes tottering along at my side - he seems very small in the big city. We had fun looking at the boats, at our reflections in the windows of the offices and shops, giggling and chuckling all the way. The station is a fabulous building, really easy to use and we bought our tickets from a friendly man who forgave my (mis)pronunciation of the station we were going to. The train leaves the city with the docks on the right and we could see containers and ships and loads of other trains, Stan was thrilled as we climbed up into the gorge and disappeared into one tunnel after another, looking down onto the road we normally drive up with Sash. Soon it was time to hop off and walk the short stretch back to the house, I took lots of pics of Sasha's road and the house, to follow.