Making the most of it

July 22, 2018 by Ray Morgan

This weekend was half loud, half quiet, and wholly local - so I thought I'd share it with you!

My nephews are 2 and a half and 4 and a half, and love nothing more than going to the airport and watching the planes land and take off. I've been with them before, to the Holiday Inn cafe with their amazing floor-to-ceiling windows and perfect viewing space (and nice coffee). But this time, on Saturday, my sister picked me up and we all went over to their other, SECRET plane-watching spot. I'm not going to give you actual co-ordinates, but let's just say there is a patch of grass overlooking the runway. We laid out a picnic blanket and my sister casually pulled a flask and some cakes out of her rucksack. SHE IS A PRO. She said "English Breakfast or Ceylon?" while digging out camping mugs, and the boys played with toys on the blanket while guzzling cold drinks and munching on raspberry oat bars. Ceylon cooling in my mug, and banana bread my elevenses, my sister checked her phone for the arrivals and departures.

Over the hour or so we were there, we saw two roaring, epic take-offs, ear-splittingly loud and thrilling. The boys were so excited it couldn't help but be infectious. They are also pros, so knew to look for the lights in the sky when the planes are coming in to land. They also know to wave at the planes, and to my surprise, the pilots AND passengers waved at us having our little picnic. It was all so Famous Five, I loved it. Sam, the youngest, enjoyed pointing at things and telling me what they were, the cutest being "wind sock" but he says it "windddshock". Jack, the eldest, picked blackberries for me to eat and trundled around with his Easyjet toy planes (so meta).

I know the airport gets a lot of stick. There are people on Twitter and the Echo comments section who really hate it. I live in the flight path and it really doesn't bother me, but that's me. I used to live in the Heathrow flight path, and that was way worse. The TV would temporarily black out every time a plane went over and it was extraordinarily frequent. I also lived in a house once that backed onto the c2c line. It's amazing how quickly a sound can go from annoying to sort of comforting. Anyway, I digress. To see how much joy it brought the kids (and not going to lie, my sister and I loved it too) made me think what a great, free morning out this was for us. And yes, I waved at the planes too. Was it you coming in to land around 11am on Saturday morning? If so, thanks for waving, you made two young boys very happy.

Sunday was a much quieter story. Less 'roar of planes' and more peace and tranquility. Jo and I hopped onto the train to Benfleet for a cool £1.60 armed with icy bottles of water, suncream, a picnic and binoculars. We first stopped off at Barge Gladys (the coolest pub, if you know, you know) for a Coke and then embarked on a 1.2 mile walk to West Canvey Marsh, a gorgeous RSPB site. It was so bloody hot walking, and it's pretty difficult to navigate your way there on foot (as in: you walk along a main road) but once we got there, it was lovely. Forget the main road, and forget the industrial horizon, and there are reed beds, saltmarsh, lagoons, beautiful plants and trees, and hides. We walked paths so dry and desperate for rain they were cracked and dusty, and as we walked, huge dragonflies dipped in and out of our way. We promptly went into a hide to get some shade, eat our lunch, and do a spot of birdwatching at the parched lake. A couple with an elderly parent in a wheelchair came to join us. He spotted Jo and I munching crisps and said "Ooh I came at the right time!". We all sat in this lovely, silent hide and watched birds through our binoculars. Coots, herons, curlews. Squabbling black-headed gulls. Graceful swans. All my childhood birdwatching ways came back to me: I managed to identify an egret after not having seen one since I was about 10.

After a while, we started to head back, saying we must come back again soon. We got back on the train and headed for home, but ended up having a quick half in Old Leigh and walking all the way along the cinder path to Chalkwell Beach (where I found some amazing driftwood for the garden) and then home, clocking up 10 miles in total. We flopped down with sore feet and tired legs.

It was a cheap weekend making the most of what we've got locally, and I couldn't have loved it more. We moan about our summers in this country, so while it's lovely, get out there. There's so much to explore!

Other thoughts this week:

• Was in Southend High Street around the time of the Pride march and was disappointed to see religious fanatics shouting in the marchers' faces to repent. I'm all for free speech, but this was invasive, and unpleasant on what should be a positive day. Well done to the organisers though, it looked like a spectacular event.
• I've been catching up on some of the Proms on iPlayer and last night cried through the entirety of 'Jupiter' from Holst's Planet Suite. What a piece of music. Recommend catching up.
• It's been such a DRY few weeks and we entertained in the garden the first time for dinner on Friday it rained! After we had just lit the fire pit! It did feel lovely though...