Today

Back from another Sussex weekend. Initially because our friend Derek was celebrating his 70th birthday and we were invited to the bash. We set off on Friday because we also hoped to take some time to have a another look at our lovely flat.

We met John at the flat and, yes, it was really lovely. The bedrooms & kitchen are places to cook and sleep, but the drawing room with its beautiful mouldings and French doors overlooking the sea.......

We gained access this time to the Kemp Town enclosures, to which we'll be given a key as soon as we become resident and sign up to the annual maintenance. 5 acres of private garden without ever having to lift a pair of secateurs? Rather!

I found the tunnel that goes from the Enclosures under Marine Drive to the Esplanade at Black Rock.

In My Day

Walking along the Undercliff Walk was a standard feature of visits to Brighton. Sometimes we would get the Volks railway, sometimes we walked the whole way from the station, past the Clock Tower and the Old Steine. There was graffiti on the walls in those days, too, largely done with the pieces of chalk that lay about on the path. After seeing a "A loves B" bit of writing, Beatrice, aged about 8, wrote in large letters "I love my Daddy".

Marine Drive was then, as now, shored up with huge walls. Some, at the Madeira Drive end, had arcades and shelters. I was fascinated by the life in those walls. Little shops and businesses like mole's homes. Benches and shelters for those who couldn't cope with the long walk in howling winds. The walls were mostly brick or concrete, but every now and then there were facades with gated entrances.

Only now do I realise that the most ornate of them was the entrance to the enclosures.

Sort of a full circle, really