Oh I do like to be beside the seaside ...

Tankerton Beach

Back in the UK after being in the Baltics for a month, we spent some of our time at the seaside. Part of that was in Kent, where our families are, and part in Brighton.

In Kent, we spent a lovely day enjoying a BBQ with family at their beach hut. I do love a beach hut. It is one of those things, like fish and chips and bright pink sticks of rock, that absolutely screams 'British seaside'.

Tankerton Beach

And it's a bit like glamping, in that you can have all the informality of a picnic or BQ at the beach, but still have a chair and the ability to make a good old British cup of tea when it starts getting colder.


The beach at Tankerton isn't exactly the Caribbean. It's pebbles rather than sand, the water is generally cold, and you'll have to make do with a 99 ice-cream instead of a pina colada in a coconut shell.


But one thing that I have always liked here is the stunning sunsets that you can get. When I lived here and commuted into London, I loved to see the sun setting across the beach if I happened to pass by at the right time.

Tankerton Beach

That evening wasn't the one of best sunsets, but it was still beautiful, and I rather liked the inclusion of a stray sky lantern floating across, and people paddling through the dregs of the outgoing tide.

Old Sea Bathing Hospital, Margate

While in Kent, we also took the chance to catch up with some of my family in Margate. Now Margate really is one of the classic British seaside resorts.

Years ago, this would be a destination of choice for the seaside holiday, or just a day out. From factory workers on a daytrip from London, to groups of Mods and Rockers coming to have a scuffle in the sand, Margate was a major attraction.

Dreamland, Margate

I remember coming here as a kid, playing on the sandy beaches, going as high as possible on the swing-boats (which when I see them now are much, much smaller that I remember them), and best of all, going to Dreamland.

Dreamland was my first taste of an amusement park, albeit on a much smaller scale than somewhere like Alton Towers, and at that time without the big rollercoasters. But it did have the Bumper Cars, the Waltzers (still a favourite of mine), and the Scenic Railway.

The latter was an old wooden roller coasters, that at the time, felt very big and very fast, but really wasn't! Enough about Dreamland for now though - perhaps I'll write about that some other time if we get around to going to it again.

Margate Carnival

For now, we were here to go with family to watch the carnival. Now as a child, I remember going along to the carnival of whatever town we lived in at the time, and seeing all the big, colourful floats, throwing change for the charity collections and trying to catch the boiled sweets that they threw.

Margate Carnival

The best decorated floats - and the ones that sometimes had better sweets or even little gifts - were the big company one, but the prettiest ones were usually those that carried the Carnival Princesses.

Each town would have crowned it's own Princess and ladies in waiting, and they would turn up at all of the local carnivals, waving and smiling. it was always a fun day out.

Margate Carnival

Now I don't know if it's just that everything just looked bigger and better when you were a child, that I'm older and more cynical now, or that I've been thoroughly spoiled by seeing the huge Mardi Gras carnivals in New Orleans, but I have to say I was pretty unimpressed by this Margate Carnival.

There weren't that many floats, and most of those that were there were clearly far more about the advertising than about the carnival. The decorations were generally a bit sad, and in a very sad indictment of your average British carnival goer these days, the Princesses' floats had been surrounded my netting, to stop people from trying to hit them with projectiles. We used to throw money onto the floats for charity - now they are using the poor girls as target practice!

Hmm, perhaps carnivals aren't really the thing for me anymore. But at least the kids seemed to enjoy it. For me, the best bit was the yarn-bombed mini.

Margate Seafront

After the procession passed, we headed down to the seafront to pick up some fish and chips, and sat eating those and fending off the increasing bold seagulls.

It is still a fun day out, but these days Margate is a little down at heel. The town is working on a revival, but it still made me laugh out loud when one of the travel guides included it is a 'must go' list a little while back. It definitely isn't there yet, but maybe in time it will be back at its best

The other thing that we did in Kent was a quick visit to Howletts, the local John Aspinal zoo park famous for its gorillas. So I'll leave you with a few lemur photos at the end of the post, and an odd pig.

Margate Seafront

Our other seaside destination was Brighton. We were doing a weekend cat sit, but first we treated ourselves to a couple of nights at the fancy little Blanche House hotel, which we had been to once before some years ago, back in the days when we worked and earned money!

I like Brighton, it has a nice feel about the place, although it can be unbearably busy at times. We've been here a few times before, so we didn't do the touristy stuff like the Pavilion - which is definitely worth going to, but just strolled around the streets and lanes, doing a bit of window shopping and finding nice places to stop for refreshments.

Margate Carnival

Margate Carnival

Yarn-bombed mini, Margate Carnival

Crowned lemur with baby, Howletts

Black and White Ruffed Lemur, Howletts

Red Bellied Lemurs, Howletts

Crowned lemur with baby, Howletts

Red River Pig, Howetts

Springtime in ............ the UK (Throwback posts)

One thing that we quite like to do when we are staying in London, is to pick a few different parts of the city to stay in, usually in Airbnb accommodation. We also like to try to fit in a few housesits if we can, as that helps to keep the costs down, and gives us both a place to ourselves for a while, and a pet to borrow.

Having arrived back from Spain at the end of February, delays in the build meant that we didn't end up moving in to our new place in Greenwich until late July, so we had a few months of dotting about a bit. It did give us a chance to catch up with family and friends though, so that was good.

It wasn't all the easy life though, after spending some time looking after my mum's cats while my parents went on holiday, we agreed to stay on and help with the joys of clearing out my dad's big shed. By the time we had finished with it, it was unrecognisably tidy and uncluttered; last I saw though, it didn't stay that way for long!

We did a couple of short house-sits for a pair of lovely ginger cats in Hampstead, and I suppose it goes without saying that this is a lovely part of the city. We rather enjoyed taking a wander around the Heath, and pottering about in the village. I was thrilled to find a lovely little button shop, and Nic went off and had a coffee while I spent a very happy half hour looking through trays and trays of lovely old and new buttons. I was very restrained though, I only bought a few.

We had another couple of short sits, this time for a lovely dog in Camden. After a little reticence with us to start with, the dog soon decided that she would sleep on our bed at night, if she could get away with it, right up in between us, taking up as much room as she possibly could.

While in Camden, we managed to fit in the excellent Camden Crawl, which isn't quite as inebriated as it sounds, as although it is in bars, it is more about the music than the drinking. It is an excellent way of getting to hear a lot of new(ish) music acts, some of which aren't all that great, but some are. We took a particular liking to Longfellow and Felt Tip.

We stayed in Finsbury Park for a month. We didn't do a great deal. I had taken up crochet, and spent quite a lot of time here making granny squares and turning them into a handbag. I have taken quite a liking to making things, though I definitely need a lot more sewing practice, and as it is all hand done - sewing machines and rucksacks don't really mix - it takes a long time.

One evening, we had an unexpected visitor. The place was on a private courtyard, so we were leaving the door open to cool it down. We were sat on the sofa, and I suddenly looked down to see a fox standing next to me, presumably attracted by the smell of our bacon sandwiches - and who can blame it for that? We had no intention of giving up any bacon, so it didn't stay long. When Nic stood up, it turned around and trotted back out the door.

For a quick change of scenery, we popped down to Hove for a week, spending our time there and in next-door Brighton. Brighton can be a bit of a love it and hate it place for me, as I do like the place, and it has great shops, bars and restaurants, but I'm not so keen on just how busy and crowded it gets. Staying in Hove was a great solution, as we could easily walk or get the bus in to Brighton, but other times we had the much less busy, while still very enjoyable bars and restaurants of Hove.

As well as lots of food and drink, we came across a great shop where the owner, Alistair sits inside at his sewing machine making the handbags that he sells. In case you're wondering, yes, he is much better at it than me. He picks some lovely and interesting fabrics to work with, and because he makes all of his bags individually, even though some are similar, they are still all unique. We spent quite a while chatting to Alistair, and whilst I was very tempted by a number of bags, I restricted myself to one big one and one little one. If you are in Brighton, you can visit his shop at 47 Upper North Street, but if not, you can check out his bags on facebook and Etsy, both under McCreadybags.

Back in London, another place that we stayed was in Walthamstow. We stayed with a couple guys and their two gorgeous cats. Walthamstow really is one of those places that highlights the diversity of London, with the upmarket village area, and the more down to earth main area. It is also home to the L Manze pie and mash shop.

For those who don't know, pie, mash and liquor is a real London institution. And in the pie and mash world, Manze's is definitely an important name. Michaele Manze, was an Italian - not obviously the most likely source of traditional London pie and mash. In fact he married into it, when he married Ada Poole, the daughter of his friend Robert Cooke, who was the top pie and mash shop man. Manze opened a string of stores, starting in Tower Bridge Road in 1902. The shop in Walthamstow was the 1th store, and opened by his brother Luigi in 1929. It was designed by Herbert Wright, and was kept in the Manze family until 1970. It is a lovely traditional building and is a Grade II Listed Heritage Site.

To be fair, these traditional pies often aren't the best quality compared with some around these days, but they are a true part of our heritage. And there is no need to be scared of that green liquor - it is just a parsley sauce. Of course if you want to be really traditional, you may have to go beyond the pie and mash, and try the jellied eels. As a non-seafood eater, that isn't for me, but Nic has given it a try here and in other places, and his verdict was "quite tasty".

Aside from the pies and eels though, Walthamstow has some decent restaurants and bars, and an excellent local brewery, The Wild Card Brewery only has a few types of beer but they are good, and the (small) industrial park location makes an interesting place to sit out in the evening.

But before you start on the beers, you should check out the next door God's Own Junkyard. Established by the late Chris Bracey, a leading creator of neon signs for businesses, Hollywood and anyone else that wanted them, this is a fabulously crazy haven of neon. I found myself desperately wanting to buy five or six pieces.

So, having had a quick springtime jaunt around London, we finally moved into our new Greenwich flat in July. We had to buy all new furniture, which involved a long battle with Ikea when they first said they would deliver and then said they wouldn't. Grrr. But we worked it all out in the end. So for the next six months, we were installed in Greenwich, having our own stuff around us for a change, and taking the opportunity to cook and to have a few friends and family around.