Author: nlpnowcom

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  

As I have said before, it seems I do not sleep in the same bed more than ten days in a row, and this trip seems to follow the trend.

I came to Istanbul for a few nights, then flew down to Gaziantep for two nights, back up to Istanbul, staying on the European side in the Seminal Hotel for a few more nights.

As the venue has been changed for the NLP Practitioner course I am now giving, to the Asian side of Istanbul, I have been move across the Bosphorus, to Kadikoy to a hotel overlooking the ferry port. Click to see video of the dolphins in the Bosphorus.

The hotel is called the Deniz Hotel, deniz means sea in English, and I was told I would have sea views.

   The Deniz Hotel, Kadikoy

Well I can see an island from my bedroom window. An island with car and bus traffic racing round it.

Not an island at sea

I do have a mosque opposite. Early morning prayer call starts at 5:30am. I know, it wakes me up as they call for believers from the loud speakers on the minarets.

The mosque which wakes me up at 5:30am in Kadikoy, Istanbul

It is good to have variety, to have noise, to have life about me, because it means I am alive, and long may it last.