16 October 2010 (Saturday) - Hastings Bonfire

To work. We have a Saturday rota in which we each get to work on a Saturday morning once a month. No one really wants to do it, but it is paid as overtime. I’m doing loads of Saturday mornings at the moment.

And then home for a quick sarnie and to pack some beer for the evening. Rather than spending too much time in the pubs, it’s cheaper to take a bag of beer. Cheaper, and heavier. I lugged my bag to the railway station, got my ticket and then bought a bag of crisps from a particularly sarcastic chap who had told the person in front of me in the queue that he should smile occasionally. He told me that he finds if he has a laugh and a joke with the customers, they come back. I just smiled, but wondered if the bloke really was that dumb that he didn’t realise that the travellers have to go to his shop: there are no others on the platform.

Apart from a Chinese chap asking everybody if he was on the train to Eastbourne for the entire journey, the trip to Hastings was relatively uneventful. On arrival I couldn’t face lugging my bag of beer all the way along the sea front so I got the bus. It’s a long time since I last got a bus in Hastings; I had forgotten. Let’s just say that it will be a long time till I get another one….

I made my way to the lifeboat station where ‘er indoors ^TM , “Daddies Little Angel ^TM ” and the Rear Admiral were flying kites with the Brighton Kite Flyers. I say “flying kites” – I arrived to see the octopus kite being dragged out of the sea. I did laugh. My Auntie Linda had come down to see the kites, and we spend a few minutes catching up before wandering over to the fishing club to see my daddy.

On the train down I’d had a text, and so we then set off to the FILO to meet up with old friends and to have a couple of pints before the bonfire procession started. Now bearing in mind that the FILO does (arguably) the best beer on the planet as standard, when they are running a beer festival you can be sure of a decent pint. We had a decent gallon before moving on to Winkle Island; a local landmark which had aroused the interest of several of our party (for no apparent reason)

Winkle Island is right next to a pub. The Dolphin is (probably) the second best pub in Hastings, so we decided it would be rude not to have a pint (or two) there. It was at this point that flashing rabbit ears were acquired and we then met up with “My Boy ^TM ” , who for some reason had been trying to meet us on the pier. We soon found my brother and his family, and we then cheered at the bonfire parade and fireworks. You can’t beat a good bonfire parade…

And then home, pausing only a few times for various members of our party to blow (not me, I hasten to add!). I remember a similar journey home from Hastings this time last year…