Author Archives: Stephen Smith

We bought postcards, wandered down the pier, Megan investigated an old bead shop (now sadly closed), I taught Genevieve and James about weathervanes, we discussed about how having ice cream that early in the morning would be a bad idea, and we threw stones into the sea. It was a very busy 45 minutes.

We got to the beach so early that we arrived before the ice cream van had even appeared! For future reference, the ice cream van arrives at 10:20am. Ice cream for breakfast is therefore not an option.

On the theme of inappropriate geology, James found a stone with boobs. He was beside himself with glee at his discovery.

Megan got the upper hand when it came to spotting animals though. As we got close to Blackgang Chine it transpired that one of the local residents had got hold of a retired model. “Look – it’s a velociraptor” she shouted. Brilliant!

I was all ready to start eating my breakfast when it got “stolen” by Genevieve who is now a firm lover of fried eggs in toast. She’s a cheeky little monkey, but how could I say no?

We’d decided ahead of time that it was going to be a paddling day, but we instantly regretted that decision when we saw how calm and shallow the water was. Genevieve resolved the issue by stripping off and running around naked. Brilliant!

The blackberries proved to be a constant source of bribery and bartering for good behaviour. It kept Megan entertained too – she simply loves picking blackberries and was often trailing far behind the rest of us while foraging for more.

James was fascinated by the sea again (despite having spent the previous couple of hours stood right next to it). He seemed determined to try and fall in – what a silly billy!

They kids hijacked Megan’s phone and recorded a series of video selfies. We only discovered this when the videos synced to our online photo storage. The cheeky little imps! They were very cute though.

After dinner it should have been calm play time, but instead the kids were riding each other around the room like horses. Standard behaviour – I’m not sure what else we should have expected really.