I'm back home from my summer holiday (which is why I didn't post last week). As per usual we went to our favourite place Appledore.
I know it's boring going to the same place every year. It's strange, it's not something I'd do abroad, but in the UK there is nowhere else I'd rather be. I've mentioned before I've been every year since I was 8, introduced my husband to it and he loved it and then my son, who probably loves it more than all of us.
My heart has broken a bit over the last few years because it's changed quite a bit. It used to be a little bit run down and nobody visited, but more and more people have discovered it and Deli's and things are popping up.
You can't go crabbing on the steps of the quay any more because there are groups of people who think they own the place going quay jumping. Basically taking over the entire quayside and s*d anybody else. Also with the whole COVID thing where people couldn't go into places the quayside over the past 2 years has been like the zombie apocalypse with people wandering slowly and aimlessly with glazed eyes.
It was a lot better this year though, the zombies weren't around because they could actually go to places and the tide was out during most of the daytime so the quay jumpers would have broken their legs if they'd tried to take over (you can guess what I want to say here).
So every morning I was able to take the dog out for a wander along the beach. Just me and the dog and nobody else and when we did go crabbing it was just us on the quayside. It felt a bit like the old days.
The main reason my heart has broken is that it's always been my husband and my dream to retire there. We planned to do it in stages. First get a cottage and spend all my sons school holidays in the cottage (son very happy at school so moving out of the question - if you're a parent you'll understand). Get to know people locally and become part of the community and then when we're ready sell up and move over there permanently.
We've literally just got to the point we could consider doing this - but as ever we're 2 years behind the times.
The problem is with COVID is that everybody has suddenly discovered the UK coastline. Prices of cottages in the area are twice the price they were 2 years ago. But worse than this the locals are now struggling to buy places themselves and they have turned against people that are not in their houses full-time. I totally get this and because I love the area so much it puts me off the idea of making locals lives harder than they need to be.
Even sadder is that most of the people that can afford to have done this are Londoners. Now if you're a Londoner don't get me wrong I don't hate Londoners as such. I just hate Londoners that move out of London.
We've had exactly the same issue where I live, in fact it's even worse in the area of town that I moved from. Londoners come for a visit and think 'what a lovely place to live, and oh look, if I sell my flat in London I can get something much bigger here and enjoy the lovely place'.
They then move to the lovely place and the very first thing they do is try to make it more like where they lived in London. Let's get something straight here. Those of us that don't live in London don't live in London BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT TO. We don't like what London has to offer, we don't like pretentious coffee shops and private clubs, we LIKE our run down restaurants and cafes that sell filter coffee. We LIKE the fact that the area isn't sophisticated and you can go out with no make-up and wear what we want to.
It irritates me so much that where I live the local paper is full of letters from people saying 'I moved here 2 years ago and the place has gone down hill, there is rubbish everywhere, graffiti is popping up all over the place and most of the houses need a good paint'.
Let's get something straight - THERE WAS ALWAYS GRAFFITI, RUBBISH AND THE NEED FOR A GOOD PAINT. The seagulls rip open bin bags, graffiti has always been a problem (though some of it is actually amazing) and because of the sea the houses constantly need painting. It's just that when you came here from London for the weekend all you saw was the sea and what you wanted to see and let's face it you were probably pissed.
So please don't turn the whole of the UK into London. IF WE WANTED TO LIVE IN LONDON WE WOULD LIVE THERE! And stop calling where we live London by the Sea. IT'S NOT LONDON!
Anyway......... as a result we spent some of our holiday trying to find areas that were close to the place we loved that the Londoners hadn't started to ruin. We have found one place. It's not coastal, but a 5 minute drive takes us to where we want to be to surf and dog walk etc. I'm not going to tell you the name - in case you are a Londoner and suddenly discover it too and the house we might buy turns into a f***ing Costa!
Actually we still can't afford it anyway because even the prices there are a third as high as they were 2 years ago. Hopefully things will calm down and people will go overseas again. Though I doubt those that will have bought will sell as they'll just rent them out as holiday cottages.
Fortunately because we are by the coast a similar thing has happened with our house and so if we do decide to move we will be able to buy over there by selling our current house. We just can't live our school holiday dream - things could be worse.
Other bits of our holiday were lovely as ever - husband and son went surfing, we ate well every evening using our spanking new Raclette - a very successful decision. We ate loads of Hockings icecream and husband and I went out on my new Kayak.
There was one day that wasn't quite so exciting. This last week was incredibly hot - I mean really really hot. All over the news it was shouting about how it was the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK (queue lots of concern about global warming). On the Tuesday I literally couldn't face it - husband and son went surfing, but dog and I stayed in the house with the curtains shut and sweated. I simply couldn't face the sun.
Turns out I made the wrong decision - on the beach it had apparently been really cool and as a result husband and son had to stop surfing because they got too cold! Hey ho.
As the rental prices have doubled we couldn't go to our favourite house this year - simply too expensive. We went to a small cottage that didn't have sea views. We really missed not having the view - essentially when you were in the house you could have been anywhere.
Anyway, we're back home again - now we are trying to decide what to do next year. Do we go for a week and pay the extortionate price for the sea view (I hate being ripped off) or do we go for a fortnight and spend the same amount to have a cottage without a sea view.
My personal choice would be to go for the fortnight without a sea view - but husband is the one with money in our house - so let's see what his preference is!
I'm really pleased that I decided to take most of this week off, spend some time with son - do unpacking - a spot of gardening (sigh) and generally not come straight back from holiday and go back to work.
Although I am already feeling sad that I'm not about to take dog out for walk along the beach like I did everyday last week. It's going to take me a few weeks to feel grateful that I live where I do again.
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