April 26

Hastings – “Slots of Fun”
I walked along the beachfront street with a retired mounted police officer; she was walking a dog as big as a horse, Sid, the very well-behaved Irish wolfhound.
“We’re better off out of the EU; things are getting more difficult; it’s better to control of things yourself.” (I’ve noticed there are a lot of dogs where I’ve been so far, a lot of very well-behaved dogs, and Sid was particularly well-disciplined.)
Down to the beach and among abandoned fishing boats and rusted-out bulldozers, I heard someone scaping the deck of one of the boats and I asked if I could come up. He’s retired, but working on his friends’ boat: “I don’t know why we don’t have a harbour; by rights we should – look at the condition of all these boats dragged up the beach.” I ask, “What, these still fish?” Apparently so: on the tide, they are shoved across the gravel and down into the ocean to fish and then dragged back up the beach by a winch when they are done; these rusted old bulldozers I thought had been dumped are in active service!

Bexhill
I visited the Bexhill giant Tesco (I’m still trying to work out what Omo for the washing machine is here – I think it’s Persil). Supermarkets everywhere are pretty similar now, although there was a lot of fish – what’s dyed fish anyway? It’s yellow and orange: who wants their fish dyed? And there are a lot of potato products. A nice touch having loos and a coffee shop actually in the supermarket, and it’s pretty snazzy that you can take a scanner and scan as you go for a fast checkout, although no-one seems to be using this in Bexhill.
Debbie from the Bexhill car park sausage stand was very considered on the EU issue: “I don’t think I know enough about both sides yet to have an opinion.” But, when pushed, she talked about the refugees and is worried that someone needs to help and, for the greater good she thinks she’d probably like the UK to stay and be part of the solution. She then wanted to talk about Parliament: “it’s embarrassing, them shouting and laughing and carrying on in Parliament: we’re working hard, and they should be sitting down and working things out properly, not wasting our money carrying on.” I quite like Debbie, who continued: ‘Average working people should be representing working people, people that know how to run a business; it’s too disconnected from us.” She then stops and has a worrying thought about average people representing her: “But then not all people are capable…” she says, and I heard a story about a poor woman, “clearly on benefits”, who had bought a sausage this morning and “wasn’t all there; you could just tell.” Then it started snowing, by the sea, five days before May.

Beachy Head
This place (the highest chalk cliffs, at over 530 feet) reminded me of Boaty McBoatface, a fun name chosen by the internet for a research vessel. A spectacular and beautiful walk until I came across all these little crosses and wreaths of flowers; sadly this spot attracts people who want to throw themselves off the edge of the world. May 2005: “Michael, I love you, son.” I was quite moved.