Sunshine!!!!!!!

Ok, so not quite bikini weather, but I woke to beautiful blue skies out of the skylights at the place I'm staying (friends I met on my America trip, we bought them an Elvis wedding in Vegas to renew their vows - after about four weeks of marriage).  But I've yet to tell you of my last few days in East Dean.

Boxing Day was beautiful and sunny so we took the opportunity to wander the streets of East Dean.  It's the type of village where everyone knows each other and so all sorts of people waved to us as they drove by as they must have assumed they knew us.  Old age and poor eyesight was fairly prevalent I think.  Great views out to the Channel from the heights of our walk.   Then it was back to the cottage for lunch (left overs and trifle mmmm).

On Christmas Day, my hostess' brother received a book on England's 100 best views.  One of these was the Seven Sisters which was a 10 minute drive from us.  So after lunch the four of us bundled into the Land Drover and headed out.  It's a stone beach with white cliffs similar to Dover.  There were some brave surfers out (god knows why, the waves were crap - Iris, help me out with the correct lingo here), and some crazy crazy crazy father and son going for a dip in their speedos.  We wandered along the beach for a bit and I heard a bit about the rock on the cliffs from our resident engineer - was a busman's holiday for him.  

I then thought I'd just whip up the hill for a quick look at Belle Tout lighthouse.  Unfortunately, it was a bit further than I thought but I wanted to get there in time to get a photo looking back at East Dean while the sun was still high enough, so it was almost a sprint.  I went from shivering with my hands in pocket in zipped up jacket and scarf to just about walking in a t-shirt in a very short time.  The views were spectacular.  Out to the sun setting on the Channel.  To the west where the white cliffs gleamed the creamy yellow of reflected sunset.  And back to East Dean where we tried to pick out the cottage.  I cheerfully clambered around between the lighthouse and the cliff and only realised on my way out that it was a no-go area, but the fence had fallen down.  Oops.

The next day, my last in East Dean, we went out for lunch at a local pub called Eight Bells.  It was another old English pub with a low ceiling full of Christmas decorations, various polished bits of horse paraphernalia, and lots of interested characters. 

The trip to London was reasonably stressful as a lot of the trains were delayed because of the bad weather.  I saw several slips on the tracks that had been temporarily repaired and held back with large bags of rocks.  I had to make two changes but these went surprisingly well and I was in the London suburb called Bromley about 3 1/2 hours after I left (compared to the 2 hours 12 mins the timetable had predicted).

I had less than a full day in London but it was very nice including a party, a walk to the local playground, and lunch at the Kingswood Arms pub on the way to the airport.

Speaking of, that's where I'm typing this post.  In Garfunkel's at Gatwick airport where I was excited to see a flat white on the menu.  Not a good flat white (it needed two sugars) but a flat white nonetheless.

Amsterdam...here I come.