Nov 16
I got an unexpected sunny welcome landing at Heathrow Airport this morning. Fast forward ten hours and I’m sat in my parents conservatory looking out at the South Downs which are quickly becoming shrouded in November darkness.
Please click for moreBermuda went green on the fabled traffic light list this week, so I will take this window of opportunity to fly home tonight to see my family for the first time in two years.
Please click for moreWhilst Americans are up early switching on ovens, plucking turkeys, shelling pecans and peeling pumpkins, I’ve arrived at my parents in East Sussex ready for a cup tea and a bourbon.
My company is of American descent, not quite as far back as the Pilgrims, but therefore we close the office tomorrow and today the place is as a quiet as a church full of mouses. So I’ve flown to London for a couple of days for a whirlwind whizz around to see family and mates. Maybe, perhaps, I might pop by SE7 on Saturday.
For the first time this season I will be at The Valley tomorrow to cheer on Lee Bowyer’s boys. My first Charlton game of the season. I’m shocked by that sentence.
Anyway I felt it was time to get behind the Addicks as we go in search of a play-off place and what was an ever increase improbable promotion when Karl Robinson was in the managerial seat. We’d won one game of the previous 8 under Robinson and I shake my head at how we are still in with a shout.
Last on my short agenda of Top Five’s is Places. My list for 2017 is a mix of old and new. I was lucky to get to some familiar places again last year such as Barcelona, North Fork, Beaver Creek and San Francisco, all of which I love but although they didn’t make my favourite five, a couple of my old tried-and-true did.
So here are my Top Five Favourite Places that I visited in 2017:
A week back in a combination of East Sussex, Chislehurst and London Town, all now surrogate homes to me, and now I’m back to reality, if Bermuda is actually reality, with an imminent general election which the media is full off. It’s the week after next and if I can bring myself to, I’ll put a few words together on it soon.
I do a lot of travelling but generally as a rule I don’t like being away for as long as a week on my own, and I was ready to get out of dodge yesterday. As is usual I did a lot of running around, and caught up with a lot of people including old mates on Friday for 50th birthday celebrations. That was a long but funny day.
As the Americas Cup in Bermuda finishes and the super yachts make their way out into the Atlantic to find the next nautical shindig, I myself thought I would do a runner for a week and have headed back to the U.K. and home. I arrived back this morning and drove down to my parents in the East Sussex countryside. I’m here for a couple of relaxing days to catch up on some sleep, update myself on the family gossip and drink my Dad’s red wine.
Tales of 34 C temperatures looked a little fabled this morning driving down the M23 in grey rainy skies. I might not have packed appropriately.
Driving around this picturesque part of East Sussex these last couple of days one can’t help but notice the hundreds of scarecrows that adorn front gardens, and pavements.
I remember being here last year, albeit a bit later in the summer, and seeing a few weathered scarecrows scattered around villages, and I found out then it was due to the first ever Pevensey Villages Scarecrow Festival. Well it is back better and bigger this year to coincide with the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.
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The first of my 2015 Top Fives, and an annual look back at the stuff that sticks out in my memory as something a bit special.
I’ve done this for many years now and always welcome your comments. Some Top Fives are regular features, some others I mix up a little bit, but one list I always compile is the Favourite Places I found myself in during the past year.
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My son and I fly back to the UK tonight to spend a week with my parents down on the sunny East Sussex coast, which culminates next Saturday with a trip up to The Valley for the Addicks’ first game of the new season.
My Mum for the longest time has had on her ‘bucket list’ a trip on the Eurostar, so in the middle of the week my son and I are taking her to Brussels for a couple of days. I think, hope, that the crazy stuff going on at the moment is restricted to the freight trains and not passenger. Certainly trains seem to be getting through unhindered.
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My body is normally a temple, as those that know me will attest! But this morning it is questioning how it ever got mixed up with me in the first place. The last four Sunday’s I have been in Bermuda, Los Angeles, Miami and Eastbourne. Not quite Del Boy’s van, but in the same condition.
This morning we are off to meet an old mate of mine from Chicago and his beautiful new fiancé for breakfast in Bills. Just what I need, another pile of bacon, sausage, egg and mushroom, but I am looking forward to seeing them all the same.
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Great to hear that the Eastbourne Pier will re-open this weekend just two months after a fire ravaged the front part of it. My parents, who live very close to the town, texted me on that fateful night in July distraught, not because they will miss the penny slots, but because the pier is the centrepiece of the seafront where they spend many an hour.
The photos did not paint a good picture but thanks to the Eastbourne Hospitality Association, insurance recovery and fundrasing by the Pier Benelvolent Fund the pier will be back open for business on Saturday.
Visitors will be able to access two-thirds of the Grade II listed building after walkways were constructed to make is safe. Access will be from the front of the pier which will take people around to the parts that were saved from the fire including cafe’s, the fishing platform, shops and the Atlantis Nightclub.
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The East Sussex Chicago Addick family household burst into life at eleven minutes past three this afternoon as Jeff Stelling announced a Yann Kermorgant lead at The Reebok. Fully deserved said the reporter perched up in the stand after Yann finished a delightful Wiggins run to put us ahead after dominating the early stages.
Sadly just before the half-time whistle the teleprinter told of a Bolton equaliser by Kevin McNaughton, although by then we perhaps should have been further ahead.
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From East Sussex to the The Royal County of Berkshire today to see two really old friends of mine. Really looking forward to seeing them and another change of scene (and bed) before we head back to Bermuda on New Years Day.
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Back in the car and driving down to the East Sussex countryside this morning to see my parents, who live in the tiny village of Wannock which sits in the shadows of the South Downs.
Wannock is mentioned in the Domesday Book but is a sleepy little place that sadly lacks a pub, although there are plenty in neighbouring Polegate and better ones in nearby Jevington and Willingdon. My old man no doubt will be ready and waiting with the corkscrew and a hardy bottle of Syrah as well as Soccer Saturday on the box so the family of Addicks can follow Charlton’s fortunes at The Valley this afternoon, a game I was hoping to get to, but was outwitted by our Christmas scheduling.
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Chicago Addick 