Littlehampton CAMC Site (N50.826833 W0.541944), contd.

Saturday, 1st April 2023

Surprisingly, isn't raining! By afternoon, there is even occasional sunshine.

Another day of amusing ourselves, reading for Kathleen, reading and computer for me.

A substantial walk in the evening, so that Kathleen can attend church.

Sunday, 2nd April 2023

Yet another grey and wet day.

Annoyingly, the forces for tomorrow is sunshine (both here, and, at home).

It seems sensible to travel on the "bad" day (ie today), and, enjoy the "good" day (ie tomorrow), accordingly, we pack up and go.

 

Littlehampton CAMC Site (N50.826833 W0.541944), contd.

 Thursday, 30th March 2023

13c, and, not raining!, at least, not until 15:00, when it poured down, for the. rest of the afternoon, and into the night.

We will be here over the weekend, which means that Kathleen will want to find a Catholic Mass to attend. Since Covid, it is usually possible to find an online mass, but, Kathleen does actually prefer to attend, in person.

Given the apparent shortage of priests, I wonder, is this the next development, just one priest, sitting in the Vatican, doing Mass for the whole world? I suppose, allowing for time differences, it would be necessary to have a small team, broadcasting a Mass, say, every hour.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Google provides the name of a Catholic Church, St Catherine of Alexandria,, and, directions on how to find it. I am sure Kathleen has been there before, on a previous visit to Littlehampton.

The Church is located near the coast, in a rather smart part of Littlehampton, think, Tynemouth, or Cullercoats. 

Whilst checking the location, a rather pleasant elderly lady engages us in conversation. Apparently, as a child, she was evacuated to Littlehampton, during the blitz, and spent the war living with nuns in a Convent. She is visiting Littlehampton on a coach trip, and is trying to find the Convent, to rekindle childhood memories. Her husband does not appear terribly enthusiastic at the prospect. Amazing how you can amuse yourself, in an out of season UK seaside town, on a dull day.

On the way back to the site, we throw caution to the winds, and, deviate from the "google route', it turns out to be a good decision, we manage to find. a route which is quieter, away from the traffic of the A284, so, we have had a good walk today, just under 5 miles.

Friday, 31st. March 2023

 It is still raining, none stop from about 15:00 yesterday, it does eventually stop, at about 10:00, but, only because the wind increases to a gentle gale.

Alternating rain and gale force wind for the rest of the day, definitely the worst days weather so far.

Wednesday 14th October 2009

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site

Overnight rain gives way to an overcast morning. So we decide to go to Chichester on the bus.

According to the timetable, the number 700 bus runs from Brighton, via Worthing, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Chichester and on to Portsmouth. But it also goes to Arundel, which is not on the previous route. We eventually learn it is actually two different routes, from the same company (Stagecoach), with the same number. Confusing or what? But it is free, to us “oldies”.

So first of all we walk to the bus stop just outside the site to get the 700 into Littlehampton. As we wait an elderly couple arrive to wait too. His ears are already bleeding and he sits quietly, whilst his wife engages Kathleen in conversation. Well Kathleen listens and she talks. She is a good talker, I reckon she could hold her own at the round table.

We arrive at Littlehampton and find the correct place to catch the 700 to Chichester. It turns out we have just missed the bus (which runs every 30 minutes) by about 3 minutes. We settle down to wait. Amazingly, since we Northerners are always told that we are friendly and that Southerners are “stand offish”, we are engaged in conversation by an old chap who is also waiting for the bus.

He keeps us entertained for the half hour or so we have to wait. He is a regular Alf Garnett. We learn that he does not trust any of the politicians, dislikes Gordon Brown, detests Tony Blair and Cherie, and as for Lord Mandelson, (that snake eyed b*****d he calls him), don’t even go there. He has a good rant ranging from Tony Blair and the weapons of mass destruction, through MP’s expenses and the size of his council tax bill. Along the way we learn that he had emigrated to Australia and lived there for 26 years, that his children and grandchildren are still there. He gets his pension from the Australian government rather than the UK government and at present is enjoying a nice little rise as the pound plummets against the rest of the worlds major currencies. Quite why he came back to the UK to retire is not clear, since he tells us that Australia is the best country in the world, but we think it had something to do with his wife.

As we chat, a young woman arrives pushing a happy little negro child in a buggy. Our new friend exchanges a few pleasant words with them, and then tells me (and I quote), “these African babies are all happy little things, I think it is because they get carried about on their mothers back all day”, so he is obviously of the Bruce Forsyth school of Political Correctness.

The bus (a double decker) eventually arrives, about 15 minutes late, but it is free. By now there is a large queue, most of whom appear to be ancient and infirm, so we (as the “youngsters”) go upstairs, since I am sure the rest of the queue could not possibly make the stairs.

Forty minutes later, having had a tour of numerous small villages, we arrive in Chichester. The bus stops right beside the weekly market, so we wander through there, viewing the usual junk which all markets seem to sell. The highlight is a chap who is auctioning secondhand bicycles, most of them are in a deplorable condition and would not have cost more that £80 when brand new, but people are merrily parting with £20 for them.

It is lunch time, so our next port of call is a Coffee shop, which is also full of old people, where do they all come from? I think our arrival has just reduced the average age by 10 years at least. We have a pleasant lunch on me, Kathleen conveniently has no cash to pay, since she needs to find a cash machine (I note she has not been looking very hard). Next some shopping, and more (womens) clothes are purchased, then an unsuccessful attempt to buy some (womens) boots. Finally a visit to the Cathedral, and it is time to go back to Littlehampton.

There is time for a hair washing, drying and straightening session, following which we enjoy a wonderful home cooked spag bol, and finish with the last of the Magnum’s.

Tuesday 13th October 2009

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site
Another beautiful sunny day, with temperature of 17C, this is just incredible for mid October in England!

We catch the bus to Littlehampton town-centre, then follow the walk recommended by the Tourist Information Office. It is supposed to be 4.5miles and takes you from the mouth of the river Arun, around the edge of the golf course, out to the (tiny) village of Climping and then back along the beach to where you started. Given the beautiful weather we have a great day, a picnic on the beach about half way around the walk, and a beer in Littlehampton when we finish, then on the bus to the campsite.

No photographs again, you know the reason why.

The remainder of the afternoon we spend sitting in the sun reading.

In the evening we visit the www.freerice.com web site to try and win more rice for the third world.

Monday 12th October 2009

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site
First a little note to continue yesterdays blog. While reading the Sunday newspaper, I came across an article relating to a website apparently frequented by Stephen Fry. This site is www.freerice.com. The site is a quiz site asking questions on vocabulary, geography etc. For every question you answer correctly, ten grains of rice are donated to the third world. The rice is paid for by advertisers who use the site to promote their products. So we spent some of the evening answering questions and donated 500 grains of rice to the third world by getting 50 correct answers. That made us feel a bit better about pigging out on Sunday lunch.

Today the sun is back. We decide to cycle to Shoreham-by-the-Sea, using the map we obtained from Tourist Information. Unfortunately the map does not have distances and is not very detailed, so we are not sure we will make it all of the way there.

In the event we make it as far as Lancing, just beyond Worthing, which gives us a 26 mile round trip. We take a flask of coffee, and picnic so we can be out all, or most of the day. It is a beautiful day and we stop off a couple of times to just bask in the sun, plus a couple of lagers and an enormous Chelsea bun on our return to Littlehampton.

This 26 mile trip brings Kathleen’s total mileage, since she got her current bicycle, to 1010 miles, which pleased her enormously. We don't have any photographs to record this momentous occasion because the camera was not with us.

Sunday 11th October 2009

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site
Disappointingly, the weather forecast is wrong, instead of being another sunny day like yesterday, it is raining.

Fortunately the rain stops before it is time for Kathleen to go to church, but is does not reach the dizzy heights of the sun shinning on the righteous.

I do my usual and find a newsagents, buy a paper and settle down outside of the church for a good read. I just get started on how Alex Ferguson is about to get fined a few minutes earnings for criticising a referee, when someone turns up and starts talking to me. I must have one of those faces which makes people think I really want to talk to them, when in fact I just want to read the paper. My new Irish friend, Liam, is obviously here for the duration, so I reluctantly put my newspaper back in my bag and move into listening mode.

I am entertained for the next 45 minutes by Liam, who I learn:

is a builder

owns a few properties which he rents out

is a keen cyclist, having cycled 700 miles across the Pyrenees at 100 miles per day, and usually does the London to Brighton cycle ride

plays in a band, including gigs in Germany

I for my part give away that I am from Newcastle, which he could probably have deduced for himself.

Just before the end of mass, a fellow Irish man emerges from the church and the pair of them head off.

Kathleen appears and given that the weather is still not too good, we return to the van for coffee.

Shortly after 13:00, we head for the Six Bells pub, which has been highly recommended to us for its food, and where I have booked a table for 13:30.

The meal and wine are excellent, as usual I pig out on all three courses, while Kathleen settles for a main and a sweet.

What is left of the afternoon is spent lying about stuffed full and reading the Sunday paper, what bliss.

Saturday 10th October 2009

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site
Sunny and bright today.

First task is to find the Catholic Church. According to Google, the nearest is “Our Lady of the Sea” and is about 2.5 miles away. Google even provides a little map, but of course I have no printer. I can see that it is the same general direction as the Sainsbury Supermarket, which I went to yesterday, so I painstakingly sketch the relevant part of the map, and note the street and road names along the expected route.

We set off on our bicycles, not having looked at the map at all, Kathleen decides she knows best how to find the church and immediately deviates from my carefully prepared route. We still have not found “Our Lady of the Sea”, At the point when we were hopelessly lost in a 1960’s housing estate of cul-de-sacs, Kathleen asked directions of a passing woman (men never ask for directions, it’s a man thing) and was told there was in fact a nearer Catholic Church (St Catherines), which we duly found. This enabled Kathleen to say that she was right all along, and that both me and Google were wrong. You cannot argue with that.

Having cycled about 8 miles to find the church, which was about 2 miles away, we then headed for the tourist information office. Here a very helpful young lady gave us details of some walks, and a cycle route to Arundel, which did not involve any busy roads.

We cycled to Arundel, which is a very pretty place, with a large castle (built apparently by one of William the Conqueror’s Barons in 1069), and a Roman Catholic Cathedral which somehow seems to have escaped Henry VIII's attentions.

We enjoy an excellent lunch and cycle back to the site, 19.8 miles in total, including the search for the church, Kathleen is a trooper, not a word of complaint. The remainder of the afternoon we spend sitting in the sun and drinking beer.

Friday 9th October 2009

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site

Not wonderful weather this morning. It is mild, but windy and cloudy. The weather forecast says rain by lunch time.

I am delegated to find the Sainsbury supermarket and to buy one or two things we need, whilst Kathleen does the washing.

The internet comes in handy, I use the Sainsbury Store Finder site to find the nearest store, and even a map of how to get there. Of course the map shows the route if you are driving, and I need to adjust it a little, since I am cycling, and like to avoid major roads.

I find Sainsbury no problem, and in addition to the things we actually needed, get a special offer on wine, 3 * £8.99 bottles for £10, not bad and return at 11:30, just as the rain is starting to fall, a little early!

Given the weather we decide to get the bus into Arundel. Kathleen goes to the “Information Room” to check out bus times (20 to and 10 past the hour), but after lunch we sit around reading, doing the crossword etc, and before you know it, it is 14:45, which means the next available bus is 15:10. We decide to continue lazing about!

Thursday 8th October 2009

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site

Another sunny and mild morning greets us, can this really be October in England?

By 10:30 we are packed up and on our way, traffic is light, sun is shinning, life is good.

We arrive in Littlehampton just after 13:00. When we checked the Caravan Club website, it showed this site as fully booked for the coming weekend, with spaces only for tonight (Thursday). Even the Warden at the site is unable to book us in for the seven days we want because “the computer says it is fully booked”. What is the point in having such a useless system? Anyway, he tells us to just choose a spot and we all agree to ignore the computer system.

We have a cycle ride into Littlehampton, it is a typical English seaside resort, a bit faded grandeur. The beach is not nearly as good as South Shields, but there is no North Eat wind blowing off the sea!, so we sit and drink coffee on the “millennium riverside walk”, it is even warm enough to have ice cream, which I do of course.

Looks as if there will be plenty of things to keep us occupied here for a week, fingers crossed the weather holds up.