Welcome to my world

Do you remember when you were a child and you went to the seaside? You sat in the back of the car, craning forward to see, and after fifty million are we nearly there yets, you came around a corner or over the brow of a hill and there, in the distance, you saw the sea. Probably just a flash or a sparkle at first, but it was definitely the sea. Remember that excitement? Since I moved to Weston-super-Mare in 2017, I experience that every time I walk outside and cross the road. And, you know what? The excitement never dies. Every time I see the sea it’s like the first time, and it lifts my heart.

The purpose of this blog is to share that feeling and the many other joys and weirdnesses of living at the British seaside with anyone who cares to read it. After all, the British seaside is like no other place on earth.

So, where am I?

Weston-super-Mare is a small town on the south-west coast of England. There are approximately 80,000 residents but this number is boosted throughout the summer, by families coming here for a traditional British seaside break, couples reliving past visits, older people who were stationed locally in the war returning to reminisce and the inevitable groups of young and not-so-young women, celebrating impending weddings.

Those of us who live here watch the town and the seafront change throughout the year. It would be easy to believe that everything is focused on the pier, the funfair, the sand sculptures, Comic-Con, the donkeys and the general tourist entertainment, but running alongside those things there is a whole other world. Weston inspires its residents to become poets and writers; it generates wonderful amateur theatre and operatic groups, writers and gamers meeting in pubs and cafes and a committed, active movement of people working to achieve and maintain plastic-free status across the area. Not to mention the lifeboat team or the people working to save the beautiful old Birnbeck Pier before it collapses into the sea.

So, read on and discover what it’s like to have a childhood fantasy fulfilled. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to visit, or perhaps it will be enough to read about it and look at some wonderful photographs. We do have amazing sunsets.

Let’s talk about the mud

Ok, I think we should get this out of the way at the start. The beaches are beautiful, but there’s mud here; lots of it. It’s not unusual to hear the town referred to as Weston-super-Mud. If you walk too far out on the beach when the tide is out, you will find your feet making distinctly squelchy sounds, as you pull them from the increasingly deep depressions they are making in the sand. This means that, although there are a few people who swim regularly in the sea, it’s generally not ideal if that’s your preferred form of exercise. Our beaches suit those who want to lie in the sun, build sandcastles, eat ice-cream and/or chips, ride a donkey, bounce on a bouncy thing, play frisbee or football. A great day out for a family or a group of friends.

Sadly, the mud sometimes attracts idiots. There are signs all along the beach, alerting us to the dangers of the mud and advising people not to pass the signs. Unfortunately, there will always be those who don’t think signs apply to them, and inevitably need to be rescued.

Weston is the only place I know (feel free to correct me, if I’m wrong) where there are car parks on the actual beach. This is great, because people visiting don’t have to trek miles with their bags, beach umbrellas, children and other paraphernalia. They step out of their cars onto sand. I would have loved that as a child. But, when there is a high tide due, there will be very clear signs to indicate the point beyond which no rational person should park, and this also applies to the areas where mud is a threat. It’s difficult to work out therefore, why this should have happened, particularly as it wasn’t even in a car parking area.

I should point out that, when I first walked past the place where this car was, I didn’t see it, because it was entirely submerged. On the way back from my walk, the tide was going out and the car was being gradually revealed, to the amusement of several passing dogwalkers and others out for a stroll. It was initially full of water (did you spot the open sun-roof?), which had pretty much drained away by the time the rescue teams arrived with their trucks.

So, please come and enjoy our beaches, eat your ice-creams, build sandcastles, fly kites and generally enjoy yourselves. But please, please, watch out for the mud.

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