It’s the beginning of summer here in Guernsey after a mixed bag of showers in June. When I lived in London, I used to say that there was nothing better than when the sun comes out in London. But then I moved to Guernsey and, well, living by the beach trumps that. The sunsets here are just beyond what you could hope for. There is a real sense of being lucky to be in this place at that time when the sky is pink and orange and glowing. After a busy couple of days in London last week, we decided to go to a beach and just enjoy some time in the sun. We decided on Fermain Bay, because it is sheltered, it has a restaurant attached and it is a place where you can swim – or rather Rob can, I’m still plucking up the courage to swim in the freezing Channel! Fermain is a rocky beach so you don’t get covered in sand. That isn’t something that bothers me, but Rob isn’t a fan.
Anyway, the rocks are quite smooth and each to sit and lie on so we drove down there and set up camp. We arrived around 2pm and I was waiting for Rob to do his swim before we could go and eat, but it took him a while to pluck up the courage to do so! And once he was in, I set about reading a book. Luckily for me though, he didn’t last very long and came out, cold to touch, within about 20minutes or less. The irony that this was the book that I was reading, wasn’t lost on me. We wandered up to The Beach Cafe restaurant that sits in this bay and joined the queue to order lunch. Steak ciabatta and a pint for Rob, salmon salad and a glass of rose for me. Plus, a slice of carrot cake to share afterwards – this place is known for the cakes. It isn’t a cheap place to eat, but I could sit all day at those tables overlooking the bay with the boats bobbing around and the distant views of the other islands on the horizon.
After lunch, we went back down to the beach to enjoy the sun a little more. I picked up this book out of my bag and it’s a game changer already. I can feel that I am going to be a better writer by the end of it (but more on that later!). I read, Rob read an article and dozed post-lunch and I suddenly had the feeling that we were lying like Julia Roberts & Hugh Grant in Notting Hill. I’ve always loved that scene where they are lying on the park bench and both doing their own thing – reading and enjoying the time together and just being. So I had to snap a pic. We left shortly afterwards and popped to the supermarket on the way home to grab a couple of things. I had to remark as we got home that I loved how easy it was to go – to grab a blanket and a book and just go. I want to do that more often this summer. Just go. Just be. Just enjoy.
When we were at lunch at The Beach Cafe, I got chatting to the ladies next to us who liked my ‘Live. Eat. Travel. Write.’ bag. I smiled and said, “It’s actually my own tagline for my blog”. They told me they loved it which made me smile.
Then one of them told me that she had been wanting to start a blog for a while but hasn’t. I looked at her and said, “Oh you should do it! Just write. Honestly. Just start writing. That’s my only advice.”
The irony there wasn’t lost on me – I hadn’t just written for a long time, stuck in some to do list of my blogging backlog. Stuck trying to make my blog a brand or a niche or something unique. The URL is my bloody name for crying out loud. You can’t get more unique than that.
This is my little corner of the Internet and so I am just here to write as I so please. I hope that you all like it. But if you don’t, I don’t mind. I’m just here to write.
