A Day in the Life

I live in a town called Eastbourne. It's on the south coast of England and is renowned as a genteel town where oldies like to visit, retire or just sit on the seafront, looking out to sea and dreaming memories of a life gone by. Eastbourne is also holder of the sunniest town in Britain title as the cliffs to the west create a micro-climate which seems to push a lot of the clouds around behind us. Remember those cliffs, as they come into play later in this shadow of my former blog-writing self.

Talking of blogs, I have a dreadful confession to make. I read back over some of the 2008/2009 ones when I was typing away like Mavis Beacon on Speed and blogging loads and ............ some of them were really funny! Now, logic dictates that if one writes humour then one should find it funny as, by definition, it is the sort of humour one enjoys. But I was giggling!!! I may do many things but I rarely giggle. Giggling is not me, I am the sardonic smile, the manly chuckle or, just occasionally, side splitting laughter. You know, the sort where you can't speak for laughing, tears roll down your cheek (and occasionally other places) and people look at you in that slightly bemused and scared way as nobody else has any idea at what you're laughing. One of these days,  I really ought to print this lot out for posterity so that my children, their children and their children's children can all read them and wonder what the bloody hell they've got in their gene pool.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Right, back to the point of all this. 11.30pm last night, I was watching a helicopter out of the living room windows. It stayed hovering slightly out to sea for a good 30 minutes and I wondered what was going on (is it a sign of my paranoia that I thought it might be paparazzi hired specifically to get shots of me in my night attire?). Anyway, this morning I switched on my PC to check the local news only to find that a guy had been standing on the cliff edge since 8 the evening before threatening to jump. The cliffs along here are quite well-known as a suicide spot although the primary place, called Beachy Head, is slightly round the headland and therefore out of sight. It's a beautiful place but sadly the sight of lifeboats or helicopters is all to common with an average number of deaths per annum in excess of 20. I got up to look out of the window and there, to my surprise, was the man together with a number of police vehicles parked nearby. Naturally I took some shots but just hoped and prayed that he would be OK.

Later this afternoon, we popped into town for a coffee and to pick up my daughter. As I sat there at a pavement table idly watching some guys practising their parkour, I saw a youngish community police support officer running down the road opposite followed shortly by another CPSO of slighter larger stature ambling quickly after her. "Hmmm, " thinks I, being of astute mind "something's going on there.". Next thing I knew there were cop cars coming from every direction and pulling up outside the mail sorting office! Dog vans, CCTV vans, all sorts of vehicles all with sirens blaring - right in front of me. Now I knew I had parked legitimately so I was pretty sure it wasn't me they were after but, as I (of course) had a camera with me I decided to stroll up and have a look.  I tried asking several officers what was happening but they very politely refused. One young lady officer even told me to stop taking photos. I was about to make a vehement speech about democracy and human rights and then saw two huge policemen get out of the car beside her and pull out riot shields and batons so decided to abandon freedom in favour of personal safety so legged it to a safe distance. 

I never did find out what it was all about. It all fizzled into nothing and, having just searched the local paper once more, there is no mention. In fact, the main headline just about sums up this little old town of mine. It says:

Hip Replacement Patient Home on Day Of Operation

A patient from Hailsham has become the first to undergo a hip replacement at Eastbourne DGH and return home the same day.

That is what I expect from Eastbourne, not suicide stand-offs and police actions - especially both in one day! 

Oh, and by the way, the potential jumper didn't.