My work and travels take me to many exotic places, China, Malaysia, Sri lanka, India, Turkey to name just a few, as I am invited to give my courses in NLP, PhotoReading, Mind Maps, Memory and Hypnosis, plus working with people on a 1-2-1 basis for personal issues like phobias, fears and confidence building, and today was no exception, as I visited Clacton on Sea.
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. (click to listen to the song). Yes it invigorates me, it relaxes me, it clears my mind, I feel refreshed, and I needed all these, so a visit to Clacton on Sea on the East Coast of England, a place I had never visited before.
I took the train, a quick trip into London Waterloo Station, the Jubilee underground to Stratford where the new buildings for the London 2012 Olympics are clearly visible, and then a fast train straight to Clacton on Sea.
Well it should have been a fast train. Unfortunately, the train was stopped at a very small station in the middle of nowhere, Marks Tey as there was a person under the train further up the track, and the police had closed the rail track.
We were asked to get off the train after sitting there wondering what was happening, only to see the train return to London, and we stood there asking the now invisible station staff what was our next move. After a long wait we were told a bus would take us on our onward journey, and it would be with us in fifteen minutes. Obviously the locals had other ideas as the passenger numbers reduced as some of out fellow travelers jumped into arriving cars and taxis.
What seemed like hours the bus arrived, and the driver told us that he would take us onward to the next station, Colchester, were we could take another train to Clacton on Sea. Arriving at Colchester, I asked a member of the station staff what was our next move, and was told to go to platform one and a train would be there in five minutes.
Strange how railway staff have a different concept of time, as we were still waiting an hour later.
Still, one has to consider that someone had lost their life, that there were people who had to deal with the aftermath of that death, and there would be friends and family who would have lost that person. Being delayed seemed insignificant.
The stiff upper lip of the British came into play as we made conversation, told jokes, asked for advice from each other.
Eventually I arrived in Clacton on Sea, a typical small British holiday resort, especially on a not so warm out of season midweek day. It was empty.
I had come for a purpose, and I carried my work out that need.
Clacton on Sea Pier
I found myself on the seafront, with the pier, amusements arcades, and fast food restaurants, similar to many other resorts around the coast of the UK.
Clacton on Sea seafront promenade.
It is sometimes good to get away from the stresses and strains of everyday life, to take in good fresh air, to allow the mind to empty, to become one with the environment, even when to get there, there could be many trials, many distractions and many things that we had hoped for do not happen.