Out Of My Tree

Doing the post at Karl’s yesterday was like hanging out of a 50 storey window while tied to a really good bungey rope – scary as all hell but not going to kill you. Good times, and I don’t think I broke his blog!

It was a day off for me all over, so I did a very ‘day off’ thing and went to the beach.

Near me is Blackpool, famous for being cheesy and a little bit trash.  Just down the coast is St Annes which is a much nicer town, and has a better beach.  It’s usually not too crowded and I fancied just a little peace and quiet.

And that’s what I got.  Yes, there were people about but they were all right up at the top near the dunes, and yes there were donkeys.

I was on the pier for a while but standing on a pier looking out over sand… on your own… is not only not romantic… it’s a little sad… and the elderly couples were giving me weird looks and wigging me out so I looked out to the sparkly ocean and decided that before going to catch my train home I would go to the edge.  It was a fair distance, but sometimes you just have to go and touch the sea.

The wind was warm and blowing straight in from the water and I let my hair down so that it could fly free.  That was kind of the moment I realised I am in desperate need of a haircut.

Walking down I saw families and couples but no one else appeared to be a single stroller,  but for once I didn’t care.  It felt good, the sand beneath my feet, the salt air filling my lungs…  Actually the salt air was a bit much, having not eaten anything all day and breathing deep I felt a little sick… but in a good way.  Ahhh, I didn’t care.  I was just being… and the world was getting further and further away.

As I was passing the jetty I noticed the time and realised that I would have to turn around and go back now if I was going to make my train… but the sea was… still so very far away but it looked so inviting.

There’s always another train but who knew when there was going to be another day like this.

I mean, what was up with the weather – it was perfect!  Like it was summer or something!

And the jetty had a church thing going on.  This has nothing to do with anything else but… look, seriously… okay, tilt your head to the side and squint with one eye.

See it?  Okay.  It was the heat getting to me then.

Oh, side note.  I wasn’t really planning on beach walking… well, I was but it had been so long since I had walked on a beach I had forgotten what walking on a beach was like, and had things from movies in my head – you know where it is sand sand sand sand then a gently lapping water line so I though jeans and Sketchers were fine.

Mmmm.  No.

Feet wet, jeans wet a lot… and I still hadn’t reached the line.  Yes, I know if your feet are disappearing under water you’ve probably reached the ’sea’ but there was still ’sand’ in my photos… and it was one of those ‘I’ve come this far…’ times.

There was water all around me and I was starting to really think about things – the way my life has been recently with the health crap and the job crap.  I felt like a time to breathe deep.

I need to find a place near the sea.  Because then I can just walk out of my front door and see this, and not have to catch trains covered in annoying and sugared-up kids.

The beach should always be this way.

I got to the sea (ruined my favourite pair of Sketchers (they have been washed twice since and are still… something…)

I stood at the edge and just let myself be in the moment, gazing out at the thing which separates us, and joins us together.  And, do you know something?  I realised that…