Yay, St Leonards for the day.

Saturday 5 August 2023 – St Leonards-on-Sea.

I approached this day trip to St Leonards with some trepidation, it’s my first visit since Easter when I handed over the keys to my flat to a tenant who could be there six or twelve months and I was unsure how I was going to feel once I got there. I was hoping that I’d just be mildly ambivalent about the whole St Leonards thing. I didn’t want to love it and regret not being able to live there but neither did I want to feel glad I can’t. I’ve invested some emotional energy on St Leonards and I’d hate to feel it wasted. The pouring rain that was being blown all over the place as I waited for the train back to London did enough to bring me back to reality. I enjoyed the half day, and would have stayed a lot longer if the weather hadn’t been so rubbish.

I was harbouring thoughts of moving back if my tenant moved out after six months. Much as I want to have my flat back, I also can’t really afford it at the moment. Having a tenant means I can pay the mortgage and be able to do nice things like the Ghent trip in a few weeks. We also want to go back to New Zealand for a month in early 2025 and that is going to need some serious saving.

This trip was delayed by a couple of weeks due to the train strikes. I was going down to meet some people from my block to discuss the hugely delayed works on the south side of the building. I wanted to get a list of what needed doing and see it for myself. The business part of the visit was really enjoyable and I had a pleasant hour chatting to my favourite neighbours, and I miss them a lot.

I caught the 9:17 train from London Bridge, the train was mostly empty; it’s not a nice day, definitely more autumn than summer. I enjoyed the journey down. Music and a book over coffee and a muffin to sustain the journey’ regular morning train journey fare.

I left the train at West St Leonards and trudged up the hill under a solid grey, but thankfully dry sky,  the wind pushed me along a bit. The empty and derelict Eversfield Hospital was looking even more derelict than last time I walked past. I so badly want to sneak a look inside….

I love the building my flat is in; it looks amazing and it ‘feels’ good too. What I don’t like is the cost to maintain it, nor how long it’s taking to get the south side work completed. It was supposed to have all been done by Christmas last year; yet here we are 8 months later with no end in sight and we’ve been battling the maintenance company for weeks. It feels like we have a breakthrough and I was there to make sure everything we knew that needed doing was on the needed to be done list. I remain hopeful it will be over soon and the scaffold can finally come down (again).

After the meeting at the flat I walked back down to West St Leonards to see a small photography exhibition of the works of Mick Williamson, a Folkestone based photographer who’s been taking daily photos on a film camera since the 70s. He’s taken some fantastic images. What I loved about the exhibition was the use of 10 slide projectors on a central pedestal showing images all around the room, none of them in sync. The clinking and clunking as the carousels moved and the slides we loaded was incredible; I could have listened to that for hours.

I left the gallery in a gap in the rain and walked along the almost deserted seafront to St Leonards. There were some incredible gusts of wind and there was the odd occasion when I felt I could jump and be borne 50 feet forward. The rain held off for most of the walk but the right side of my trousers got soaked by the wind blow spray.

I was planning on stopping in at Heist for lunch and a glass of wine but it was really crowded, which I’m taking as a good sign for the health of St Leonards. I’m kinda glad it was busy, I like it there so not being able to find a table meant I won’t miss it. I had lunch at the greasy spoon café instead, it’s perfectly good but not as good as the one in Walthamstow. It too was really busy.

I left there then took a slow stroll up to the station and waited 10 minutes for the train back to London. It was blustery and a bit cold considering it’s still summer. As I said up top it was not a bad way to end the day. I miss St Leonards.