……over the edge

I have had a happy, enjoyable, great birthday week: after a hospitalisation me moms home, much better and thank you to friends on here who were asking after her.There was something I have wanted to photograph, for a long time, shoot done, however bad the photography? Spent a lovely day with my chauffeur, assistant and artistic director (Brother, sister-in law and their 2 year old respectively) on the shoot at the seaside in the sun with not a cloud to be seen, which in February meant it had to be cold, but I didn’t notice.

The crew secretly bought a cake for me and with the help of some lovely restaurant staff (thankyou Beth), pulled off a birthday song and a candle-blowing wish just for me. My artistic director helped out with some last minute aesthetic direction – crayons are wuuuuunderful things, although my assistant got a bit fed up having to pick them up! They say they had a lovely day and by the sound of what they are doing during this time, jury service, a thesis completion and a lot of drawing with crayons, I am pleased they had such a short but good break in the glorious sunshine on the oxygenated south coast.

There were a lot of people down on Gunners Wharf in Portsmouth, as we arrived, we realised it was either middle or the end of school half term and there was a Chinese New Year celebration on the wharf, lots of fireworks and dragons. This wharf is now fronted by many restaurants below the (must be) expensive apartments and just behind that a fairly large shopping complex. The best thing of all – no cars! All the car parks are buried, underground and once we dove down into a space in Blue 3 section and after a short lift ride to resurface – its all pedestrian, great when artistic director has to be pushed most places! I thought while we were there that Dad would have known this wharf as his first ever job was as apprentice to an electrician in the Her Majesty’s Dockyard, refitting or repairing HM’s ships. Now the majority of the secure, high walled, dockyard  of my childhood is now a modern, redesigned, pre-planned refurbished, tourist and travellers seafront wharf. With very large luxurious yachts at the key and still building! The almost all- glass pillars which look like hotels are clustering around the Spinnaker, which can be seen for nautical and land miles!

One of the best things of the day though, was a 2 year old’s fascination with the sea, shouting to bring his father’s attention to it as if only he had discovered the gentle surf on the strange surface of the shingle beach and of course, its lovely sound. He is even saying his uncles’s name, which completed the delight of having him as artistic- director that day, (most of these directors can never remember your name).

We visited some old haunts; as children I and my chauffeur attended the Grammar School in Mayfield Road, each from the age of 11. The school went comprehensive just as I slipped into the 6th form (16 to 18 year olds for my friend in the States). We stopped outside the Salvation Army where I celebrated the greatness of the Lord as a child until I decided for myself how I should use Sundays and it has to be said with no obstruction from mother and father – bless ’em.

And finally in my 50th Birthday week I have met someone, someone who perhaps can look after me and I her. I don’t know yet, only time will tell that one but she is obviously a very nice person who has got me thinking, an incredible achievement for a half-centurion – thought.

I hope you and yours are all well.