Wintry

"It's getting warmer," says Ailz- by which she means the temperature is now half a degree above zero. Our corner of the South East has missed out on most of the extreme weather this winter but we're assured we're absolutely, definitely going to have snow tonight.

A Cold Day By The Seaside

We singled out a Chinese restaurant in St Leonards and turned up outside it shortly after 12.00. I hasten to add that we hadn't booked. The sign in the window said they were open but the lights were off and a man was unenthusiastically sweeping the floor- and we decided this wasn't the atmosphere we wanted to eat our lunch in- even if it was cheap- so we drove along the front a bit and went to La Bella Vista- which is where the beautiful people go...

Here's a picture of the beach at Bulverhythe as it was early this afternoon. Hastings is the town in the distance. I was hoping to view the wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman Amsterdam (which ran ashore with a plague-stricken crew in 1749) but I'd chosen the wrong time of day and it was underwater. The story of the Amsterdam is dramatic and lamentable. She was carrying silver bullion and the locals thought they were within their rights to liberate it- and anything else that was lying around. There was fighting on the beach and a man was shot dead- but the Hastings coroner refused to rule on the killing because it had happened below the tide line and therefore in his opinion "at sea" and so outside his jurisdiction.