Escaping to the seaside

This was just a few short hours ago, sat on a stripy deckchair on the pier at Skegness. 

We weren't even there for 24 hours, but goodness me I feel well rested and rejuvenated, just from that sort time away from the chaos at home. 

We took a hotel room looking towards the sea, and spent the evening drinking gin and tonic and watching the local festival in the park from the comfort of our easy chairs. 

This morning, we pottered around the charity shops, lounged in our deckchairs, ambled around the fair, and then came home. 

I do love a traditional British seaside resort. You can call them tacky if you like, I don't care. Ice cream and doughnuts and chips, seagulls and brightly coloured buckets and spades, and novelty glasses and just-too-much sand in your sandwiches, gaudy music, fairground hot dogs and amusement arcades. 

I confess we did have a small go on the 2p machines in the arcade, and I'm sorry to say we didn't win back any the eight pence we spent between us. It seems gambling rarely pays after all. 

I don't know how going away for just one night can feel like a week sometimes, but this time it did, and it's reminded me to do it more often. Not necessarily the seaside, not necessarily a hotel - sometimes an overnight visit to a friend is all it takes, or camping in the car somewhere new. Just getting away from the day to day, from the towering piles of Things To Sort Out that are threatening to take over our house. Once a month getaway from now on I think!