Vacation - Friday

So where did I get to on the holiday news, anyway?

I think it was the end of the first night. So I went to bed that night (Thursday), read my book - The Strange Power from L.J. Smith's Dark Visions trilogy (don't knock it 'till you've tried it) - and woke up the next morning feeling strangely refreshed. I say strangely because, as any of you who read this blog often will know, I don't sleep well. A lot of the time I don't sleep at all. But when I'm away from home, the spirits don't seem to follow me, and I sleep better than I've done in months. (Providing I don't have to share a bed with anyone - or if I do, that they're someone I can tolerate sharing with. I don't snuggle well while I sleep.) I really relish the times when I get to spend a night or five away from my house, because I'm almost guaranteed a good night's sleep. Oh sure, there can sometimes be problems, like if I have to sleep on a camp bed, or if someone keeps the room too hot and stuffy, but most of the time it's great. And the last time I really got away, aside from one or two nights at my Dad's house in London, was when I visited Oli in Liverpool last October and spent five nights on his floor.

Not that he didn't offer to share the bed, or even give me the bed, but honestly I kind of like the floor, as long as I have a sheet or a duvet underneath me to protect my skin from the carpet.

Actually, there doesn't even have to be carpet. My floor is wooden, and I sleep on it well enough. And when I was in Spain I slept on a duvet on a stone floor, quite happily.

Anyway.

Friday we beached. The Bournemouth Air Festival was going on for the whole weekend, so Brian didn't want to drive into Bournemouth, so we went to Poole Sandbanks. I like the Sandbanks well enough, but it isn't as compact and convenient as a couple other places, like Boscombe or Branksome. The main Sandbanks part, where the car park is, has a little shop and a cafe and an ice cream stand, but the bit where we usually go just has a restaurant called the Jazz Cafe and the posh hotel, no shop or place to get a drink (unless you want to pay restaurant prices). On the other hand, I like that little bit, because it's where I'm used to. I'm comfortable there. So mostly we go to that bit, and if we want the shop or a snack, we walk up the beach to it.

I actually really like the Jazz Cafe, despite the fact that the prices are a bit painful. (Although not as painful as the hotel brasserie prices - those are extremely ouch.) Part of me likes the cafe because of the decor - the outside is bland, but inside it's really cool, with an old wood floor and surfboards on the walls, with all the menus painted in bright colours on blackboards - but the main reason is Keri.

Yes, Keri. I'll have to tell you more about her in a minute.

Anyway, we went to the little bit for awhile, but we didn't get lunch there. We usually do, but not this time. This time we walked up the road, past the watersports places (finding out that it's £50 for an hour's waterskiing lesson - eek!) and settled up by the shop. I ate a cheese and bacon panini and bought a bikini from the shop, white with little pink flowers on it, that funnily enough I thought about buying last year. Through the year I'd regretted not buying it, although at the time I figured that I didn't need yet another string bikini, and I was really surprised that they were selling the same ones again this year. I lay on the beach for a good long time, happily soaking up the sun and reading my trashy novel. I ate ice cream. Why is it that sea air makes a person so hungry all the time? Hungry and tired. When I'm down there, I eat like a hog and sleep like a dog.

Although not like my dog, actually...my dog snuffles and chases rabbits in her sleep.

We ate lunch in the cafe by the shop - a hamburger for me (I'm such a hamburger hound, I'd eat them every day if I could, but I mostly just eat them when I'm on holiday because of the calories) - and then lay in the sun some more. I swam two or three times, and for a long time I just lay in the water watching the air show. From Sandbanks you can see pretty far, probably as far as Boscombe, maybe even Christchurch way in the distance. The jets flew in some amazing formations, arrows and darts and crosses and it was so cool to watch. And then, something that I'd never ever seen before: they released coloured smoke that turned the jet streams different colours. They split into thirds, and had one third in red, white and blue. It was so pretty to watch, I just bobbed there in the waves and watched for nearly an hour.

In the evening we went home and ate leftover chicken. Nausea and exhaustion struck at about 8ish - that often happens after my first real day at the beach - so I went to bed early with a chicken sandwich and read my book until I basically passed out at about 9. I woke up in the middle of the night, starving, but didn't want to disturb Mom and Brian, so I ate potato chips and chocolate - very healthy, LOL - and read some more until I fell asleep again.

Aside from the nausea, it was a nice day. I love the ocean more than just about anything.

I wanted to write more about my vacation, but I have to go...dinner needs making (although I did just eat some wonderful fried parsnips that Mom made) and I want to watch Criminal Minds.