Soaked to the skin

Up at the crack of dawn today to go birdwatching in Pagham Harbour. Goodness me, but it was wild and windswept in the south. Not to mention the rain. The first bird-hide we came to was distinctly strange as it was set on one side of a busy road with the lake on the other side. Cue cries of: Oh look, is that a redshank? No, it's a lorry. No, a bus! It was also tricky when you actually tried to open the window to get a clearer view as the Force 9 gale took your breath away and the sound of the traffic drowned out the noise of the birds. Ah well.

We then took a walk through the reserve, heading for the next hide. Which was lovely and bracing and stuff (Nature: red of tooth and claw, you know ...) and we spent much longer in the second hide watching the cormorants lose their island as the tide came in. Which ... um ... constituted something of a problem as we stayed so long laughing at the cormorants that the tide actually cut us off from the car, dammit! Birds: they always have the last laugh, you know. So we had to exit the reserve the long way round and go through several - thankfully shallow enough to walk through - bits of the sea to do so. Not to mention freezing cold and open to the wind fields and that busy road again. Ho hum. At least I've found out that Lord H's walking shoes are more water-proof than mine. New birds spotted: Brent Geese. Hurrah!

Once back at the car, we took a quick trip to Selsey Bill which, bizarrely, also contains the Manhood Peninsula. There's something to think twice about before you Google it indeed. Actually, it was rather thrilling as the sea was so wild that it was coming up over into the actual car park entrance and virtually attacking the cars. I loved it! So much so that I persuaded Lord H to get out with me and we took a short walk along the front to admire the force of the spray (cue a manhood joke here, but really, m'dears, I'll let you do your own), and found a small flock of turnstones. Another new bird - double hurrah!

On the way home, we popped into West Wittering Beach and took the longest walk ever round the salt marshes. It was okay going one way, with the wind behind us, but coming back, we were literally drowned in salt. Lord but we must be mad. Mind you, Lord H thought he might have seen a few sanderlings (final new bird seen today - triple hurrahs!), but my binoculars were frankly so caked with salt by then that they could have been anything. Exfoliation - it's a marvellous thing.

Hell, that's probably my exercise for the week. And we've done our civic duty, you'll be pleased to hear. As we found a parking slot in the road at home, someone opposite reversed into the car parked in front of us and simply drove off. Honestly - what an idjit. He must have seen me gesticulating at him (in a nice way of course!) - so we got his registration number and have put it under the windscreen wiper of the damaged car. Which presumably means that the Godalming mafia will ensure that a horse's head is put on our pillow tonight. Ah well, it'll save making breakfast.

Tonight, I'll be glued to "Strictly Come Dancing" - being the fickle thing that I am, I think that my affections are slowly transferring from Gabby and Letitia to the utterly adorable (and surprisingly hot) Matt. I do hope he stays in. He could well be the next Mark Ramprakash (sp?).

Here is a short section for a Writer's Scream Moment instigated by the fact that a writing acquaintance on the Writewords site is upset as only 9,000 copies of her book have been sold in the first few months. The nice and supportive part of me wants to say well done, anyway, that's great, but my inner bitch (Gawd bless it) can only scream: arrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!! Get real, people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (cue sound of jealous gnashing teeth and existential rage). Hey ho.

Oh, and Lord H and I were chatting about computers and relationships this week, so here's a haiku for that occasion:

Computers need care.
If ignored, they can sometimes
switch off. Much like wives.

Today's nice things:

1. Seeing three new birds
2. The sea at Selsey Bill - fab!
3. Strictly Come Dancing.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website