Sitting on the Downs

[martin]

with the dogs - guess what whizzed over!

[rondurrans]

Great piccy - did you zoom in?

[martin]

hedgehopping! It's Eastbourne Airbourne today, so sat on top of the downs overlooking the town - Sony Alpha, 85-300 zoom (effectively 450mm on digital) - manual exposure and focus - it's a crop of about a quarter of the frame

[martin]

together.......

[rondurrans]

Hope there is some more entertainment on from tomorrow - my wife, five year old daughter and I are putting up our tent to the east of Eastbourne for seven days.  

If I remember correctly you were a little disparaging about Eastbourne some time ago.......

[martin]

I spent a lot of my youth there (it was a red-blooded bloke's paradise - girls colleges everywhere), but sadly, like many places it's gone downhill a lot since then - the situation is still lovely as is the surrounding countryside, and still a great area for a holiday!

[martin]

I find it very evocative to see the Spitfires and Hurricanes over the exact spot they fought - one of the wartime airfields is around 2 miles away from where I took the photos - my mother used to go to dances in the local villages during the war, would be dancing with the airmen, the alarm would go and they'd scramble - they'd keep the music going until they got back - sadly many didn't make it ..........

[rondurrans]

Hard to imagine what it must have been like being shot at ……. brave brave men (and women) ….. lest we forget.

[biff]

i built a lot of houses in biggin hill in the early 90s,
                        town houses,3 stories high, tall and narrow brick affairs.i doubt if any of my fellow workers,(all english) had as clue as to the history of the place.it is still an airdrome and also houses the aero crash investigation dept.
    there is still a bit of the area 51 about the place,small wonder.
                                                                            biff

[cirrusvfr]

If weather tomorrow is any good , I will make my way over there ...perhaps Belle Toute  by cycle............ to be followed by supping some "Legless Rambler" at the Tiger in East Dean

[martin]

The Tiger was my "local" in the late 60's - five and a half pints of mild, a scotch egg, and you'd still get change out of ten bob!

[biff]

the only thing wrong with that egg ,was that it left you breaking the most foul gas known to man,first time i tried scotch eggs the barman told me to go easy,"try the pickled one,s instead"and i ate 6 of the blighters.i had to keep moving round the bar till eventually i went outside to a pitch and toss game,as you know,pitch and toss involves people running back and forth,even with that,and out in the open air the eggs took their revenge.i headed home on the bus and i swear that everyone was complaining about the gas leak in the bus."ye see it has this foul damd smell,like rotten eggs,its to warn you,see,,just in case the gas overwhelms you,, but christ it must be a busted gas mains"
   in retro,if i had held on to it and got home in one piece,i could have probely cooked the dinner with it.,,funny enough i never touched a pickled or scotch egg ever since.
                                      biff

[rondurrans]

Martin you just missed the 'mods and rockers' then?

[biff]

he wuz a mod,

[martin]

I remember riding my 50cc Suzuki pop pop up Eastbourne seafront, and having the elderly visitors' cars swerving out of the way lest I was a rod or a mocker!
Pickled eggs........ a true delicacy!