squirmelia | Entries tagged with seaside

Jumped aboard a train to Eastbourne today and started writing my NaNoWriMo novel on the way. There were no power points on the trains (well, there might have been in first class), so I reverted to writing by hand, and now my hands are a vivid blue colour and blueberry scented.

Eastbourne is "the sunshine coast" according to a sign that greeted me at the station. It was gloriously sunny (for November) today, so that may be true. I walked along the pier, wandered along the pebbly beach, and then past the holy well, and up to the South Downs Way, where I tried not to fall down a rabbit hole, stared out at the sea and saw the lighthouse at Beachy Head.

My novel (3454 words currently) so far has in it: pigeons with super powers, strange village festivals, lesbianism, weird cloud formations, ghost shops. Oh dear.

The Essex coast is not one I visit frequently, but on Saturday, along with the Shabby Seaside Appreciation Society, I visited Canvey Island, which was fascinating, even in the rain. I saw the pajama-clad inhabitants of the island, a giant silver bee, abandoned sandals cloaked in seaweed, graffiti ('Canvey is the new Lourdes', 'Your Irish master is dead', 'Are your kids white rastas', 'I don't have check-ups or examinations'), abandoned paddling pools, a creepy Humpty Dumpty, a crazy golf rocket, power stations and rape fields on the other side of the water, lots of seaweed, amusements, a fairground, and other places of interest.