The Road to Hastings

 We started the day with the usual banter over breakfast, which included some of Tim’s fine home-made bread.  Someone asked if he made his own sour dough, to which the reply was “Only when I’ve got enough apples…”  The logic of this response escaped us all momentarily…

We pedalled easily through the Sussex Downs on quiet roads familiar to Tim, and stopped for a pleasant coffee at Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare.  Then a takeaway lunch by Sovereign Harbour Eastbourne.  By the time we got to Bexhill, we were spent and desperate for a hot chocolate.  Spirits were low, humour had departed us, and then Den said “How high is a Chinaman” which he kept repeating when asked for the answer.  Dismay, sorrow and humiliation were added to our low spirits when it had to be explained (it’s a statement not a question).  

On reaching Hastings we were refreshed by some Camden Ale in the Lord Nelson where, with Led Zeppelin playing, Tim told us wistfully that he had once had an anorexic girlfriend who was a great cook.  Somewhat surreal.  After an Asian Feast for supper, Derek took a walk to the castle for more Norman History, while the rest of us went to Wetherspoons for one last, awful, beer.  Tim reckoned the “Loddon Fodder” to be even worse than Doom Bar…

Dover