Phillip Holt's World

When flying from A to B, I love the window seat.

Having the window seat has a number of advantages.

I can look down at the passing world below me, wondering if people know I am up above them.

I can look at the ever changing landscapes, mountains, deserts, seas, coastlines, cities and towns with their interconnecting roads, railways and rivers.

I do not get disturbed by people wanting to go to the toilet, but then that means I cannot go myself.

The biggest advantage is that I can lean my head against the bulkhead of the aircraft, and sleep.

  Flying with Alitalia over the snow covered Alps

After a day of preparing for my up and coming trip to Bahrain, reloading software, ready for the training courses I will give there in NLP, PhotoReading, Mind Maps and two courses for over forty kids, I needed a break and a long walk.

Near to my home in Kingston upon Thames is Richmond Park. My last walk in the park, (click here to read), was last November, with the leaves turning lovely colours of browns, orange and yellows, and it was cold. Today, it was sunny and hot, and the Royal Park was the place to go.

It was a time to explore, as the quietness of the park was only broken by the rat-tat-tatting of a woodpecker, the birds singing their songs, and the occasional plane taking off from Heathrow racing into the sky.

I knew that there was somewhere in the park some small lakes, but I had never visited them, so like an explorer, I set out into uncharted grounds, OK, following some little used footpath into the center of the park.

 

It was then that I came across Isabella Plantation. (Watch video). I had never heard of the area, a wooded and fenced off area of some 17 hectares. It was enclosed in 1831, when most of the oak, beech and sweet chestnut trees were planted.

In and around 1950, a garden was started and continues to be worked upon, containing heathers, rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and camellias, set between the mature trees and little streams of water.

At various points in Isabella’s Plantation the streams entered little ponds of water. Swimming there were many ducks and coots, and the colourful Mandarin ducks.

 

On the walk home a herd of deer (no sick ones) relaxed.

A wonderful walk, to empty my mind ready for the flight to Bahrain.

So the old song goes :-

            I do like to be beside the seaside!
            Oh, I do like to be beside the sea!
            I do like to stroll along the prom, prom, prom,
            While the brass band plays tiddleyompompom!

It is a song that dates back in the UK music halls and was written in 1907. Here is an old film that might amuse.

                                        Basil Rathbone from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (1939)

Why is it that the sea seems to draw us to it? It does for me. The sound of the waves. The ever changing patterns of waves. The smell. The energy. The relaxation.

I was such a lovely day, and the seaside called.

Brighton, an English seaside town on the south coast is about an hour journey from Kingston upon Thames, (click to see video) my home town. The train was quick and easy, five stops from Norbiton Station (click to see SouthWest train arriving at Norbiton Station) to Clapham Junction, then a fast train from Clapham Junction to Brighton with only two stops.

Exiting from Brighton railway station, the sea can be seen, but it is a long walk down to the prom or sea front.

How many times as a young boy, did I long to be the first to see the sea when we went away on holiday with my mother and father?

    “First one to see the sea gets six pence,” my father always said, and always I got the six pence.

Brighton beach is pebbles, not a sandy beach, which plays havoc on ones feet, and can be quite uncomfortable to sit on, but thousands do, especially on such a warm sunny day.

The sea water is a little too cold in May to go swimming for the masses, only the brave few could be seen in the calm waters. But, there were the odd one or two bikinis to be seen, and bare chests as people tried to get a suntan. I think I caught the sun as my face is quite red now.

It was relaxing just to spend an hour on the steep pebble beach between the two piers.

Brighton had two piers. A pier is a strange British custom, mostly built and dating back to pre First World War.
 
Ther are either a wooden or metal structure, built out to sea, so that holiday makers could promenade up and down the pier taking in the sea air. Often there would be a theatre built on the far end, and amusement arcades and kiosks placed along the length. Many would have fun fairs or lunar parks.

                                                                 Brighton’s pebble beach

                

                                                                                              Brighton beach and pier

                                                     Fun fair or Lunar Park

Due to the materials used in the construction of piers, many have been washed or blown away, or as in the case of one of the Brighton piers, burned down.

                                                      The remains of one of Brighton’s piers

Another tradition of the seaside experience is a fish and chip meal, perhaps with mushy peas, and in my case a glass of Champagne. Sorry folks, I am a man of tradition, and I was hungry.

                                                      Traditional British Fish n Chips

See A couple of hours beside the sea

Sunday has been so hot, even for the animals. It was reported that parts of the UK were hotter than the Caribbean and the Canaries.

  A squirrel too hot, splayed out.

I think I disturbed the squirrel from its’ sunbathing