It has been Black Armband week, a period of mourning as GS has been on the ‘intermittent fasting diet’ also known as the ‘not eating while we are asleep’ and ‘skipping breakfast’ diet. He comes downstairs fully clad in rowing regalia. The rowing machine has been dragged in front of the TV. To be fair, 3 kilos had been lost in 4 days. Well, not exactly lost, more slid across the bed.
I earn an honest crust through property. Experience has taught me my own mantra ‘Houses want to fall down and gardens grow up’. So after a week of dieting we were on a jolly to Worthing to try to try and tell some Grade Two listed bricks that no they can’t perish into dust and blow across the road to play in the sand.
Worthing is genteel, it is a little bit prickly. They just about tolerate outsiders, but which they mean from Shoreham. Don’t ever say you are ‘Down From London’ – a DFL- or they will hide children behind their legs and frogmarch you in the direction of Brighton. Foreigners making a noise near the residents Beach Huts (ten year waiting list) will be fed to the seagulls.
I rather like seagulls but they are thugs. Once we went for lunch in a Turkish restaurant on the sea front, and were tucking into our mese when from the skies came a splat and that was me, whitewashed in seagull poo.
My Dad used to call Worthing ‘God’s waiting room’ That is no longer the case and the old school predominant personality type of Victor Meldrew meets Captain Manwaring is disappearing. I love it, especially in winter with the fairy lights strung out between the ornate lampposts and the sea churning wild, but yesterday was full sun, early summer.
Increasingly Worthing is a Mecca for artists and artisans.
If you are looking for unique vibrant original art then go no further than the two face twins.
This is a picture of my lovely old Gran on a knees up at the beach back in the day. This is because we don’t have a picture of my next ‘must mention’ candidate Anchored in Worthing.
In the past, GS and I have stayed overnight and I cannot stress enough that this is a stay in Worthing/ do not drive activity.
Anchored in Worthing is one of our favourite haunts, and GS’s spiritual home combining both mariner and marinated delights. It describes its self on Facebook as ‘Small proper micropub. Serving exclusively Sussex ales ciders wines and sift drinks’ I am not sure whether a ‘sift’ drink is a soft or a stiff drink. I suspect that those writing reviews are clients who were either in the pub or had recently left it.
Firstly it is tiny. So if there is anyone else there, chances are you are going to be chatting to them. You are also likely to participate in the Pub Quiz. Sussex ales ciders wines and sift drinks must all be supped and tasted.Those delightful beverages are served on tasting trays and, assuming you still have the power of speech, it is very, very, very hard to say no.
One night, having been roasted in the pub quiz, GS and I waltzed somewhat loudly along the back streets of Worthing carouselling like old pirates. I do not quite know what we had done with the kids as my memory is a bit blurred. GS found a ‘Lebanese restaurant ‘ with a small eating area but no cutlery which the kids identified as a kebab shop. He then in the middle of the night turned on the tap in the bathroom forgetting that we had been warned that the water was being switched off for maintenance. ‘I can hear water’ says I, ‘its the sea’ says he as when later, when it came on at optimum pressure we flooded the bathroom’. But then life with GS is always an adventure.
On this occasion though, it was just a day trip so I had lured GS down on the promise of lunch at The Crabshack.
The Crabshack is a place of pilgrimage if like us you like fresh fish, locally caught. The best, best, best thing is a the cockle and shrimp popcorn. A half carafe of wine to slosh it down, the sun bearing down on the promenade, the sea as blue as the Caribbean and you know life is sweet. Then its just a gentle stroll back
2 Comments
Our favourite haunts in Worthing, all captured beautifully! Thank you!
Thank you darling heart! x