Swimming in the sea in October

Well, that was a first for me; swimming in the sea in October. Like many thousands of other people I packed up the car and headed to the seaside. Our choice was Camber Sands, somewhere I've been many times before, in all seasons. But never have I seen as many people there (or on any other British beach) as I saw on 1 October. We had a struggle to find a bit of beach to put down our rug and bag!

But it was fun. There was a holiday atmosphere you don't often get on British beaches. The weather was warm and so was the sea. I spent a good hour or so splashing and swimming with my daughter, her friend and friends mum.

We spent the whole afternoon there then tootled down to Dungeness. A weird and wonderful place that I never tire of visiting. We had dinner in the Britannia before spending some time showing the girls the stars including the rarely-seen-in-London Milky Way.

A fab day out. The photo is courtesy of my partner. More of his work is at www.whisperingcat.co.uk

Something old, something new...

No, I'm not getting married but have been pondering about fashion recently. It started with a flick through the Next catelogue. There doesn't seem to be any fashion at the moment, other than recycled old fashions. There's 60's style block pattern dresses, 70's maxi skirts and dresses are still with us. Late 80s and early 90s leggings are back with tunic-style tops. But there isn't anything I'd say was defining the decade (yet).

Personally, I've always argued against the slavish following of fashion and am quite glad that we've had a relaxation on the style front. It is still odd that we don't have anything that defines our time.

I've mentioned this to a few other people who agreed. And then found this 100 years/style/East London