Hi again everyone and I do hope this post finds you fit and well.
Let me get straight down to the matters mentioned in the title of this entry. First of all, my beloved beach hut.
We decided, on the spur of the moment it has to be said, to buy a beach hut in the autumn of last year. Me being the 'hippy' that I am, have always longed for a beach hut and/or a caravan. Hubby, being the realist that he is, has always implied that a) he wouldn't ever stay in a caravan...the words 'why would you stay in a caravan when you can stay in a hotel?' spring to mind...and b) we couldn't afford it.
However, things change and, while the caravan idea is never going to materialise, the beach hut hut idea did. I went down to Hayling Island in October and saw a beach hut that was for sale, came home and told hubby about it, he said 'get it', I said 'OK' ( and a lot more besides!) and the deal was done. We bought the hut without me even seeing inside. Fortunately, the hut had been in the same family for 30 years and was a much loved part of their life. The interior was perfect and we didn't need to buy a single item to make the hut usable. We were very lucky.
Hubby and I spent New Year's Eve 2013 in the hut with a bottle of wine, a hot water bottle and a blanket and we saw the New Year in watching the fireworks that were going off on the Isle of Wight. i
It was a cold, windy night but I loved it. It was certainly memorable!
In January I received a call to say that the hut, along with many others, had been broken into and a few items were stolen. We were disappointed but no damage was done internally so we had the locks replaced and looked forward the the coming months of Spring and Summer and I, at least, was daydreaming about the memories that would be made there.
In February, as you will all, no doubt, recall, we had the worst storms that the UK has seen in many years. There were regular news updates and footage of beach huts being blown away/destroyed across the country. I remember thinking that if the hut survived the appalling weather we were having, it would survive almost anything. Well....
the hut survived but it was not unscathed. When we went down to see for ourselves the extent of the damage, we saw that the hut had been forced back from its base by about a metre by the high sea levels and the gales. The hut next door to ours was leaning against our roof and the shingle that had been washed up had made the doors of the hut almost impossible to open. When we did finally get inside, the cupboards were full of sea water and the floor looked like it had most of the beach on it....sand everywhere.
I was not unduly concerned because I felt sure that, once the hut was moved by the council ( hats off to Havant Borough Council who have been brilliant) all would be well. Nothing that a good airing and a spring clean wouldn't sort out.
Unfortunately, today's emails included one from the aforementioned borough council, with photos attached, showing further damage to our hut with a request to get it repaired asap. How annoying! I envisage another insurance claim and another call to the lovely chap who repaired our hut after the break in. Who would've thought that owning a beach hut could be so exciting!!
And now, for the good, amazing, totally brilliant news for the day.
Back at the beginning of March, a team of 4 of us completed the Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon to raise money for a local centre that supports disabled children, young people and adults, their families and carers www.whitelodgecentre.co.uk. We were running/walking in memory of two brothers, one of whom I worked with and who died in 2012.
Our team consisted of me, my son, the sister of the brothers we were running in memory of and their cousin. For anyone who may be interested, I wrote a blog, my first effort, which chronicled our journey and the trials and tribulations of the training etc which you can still find here www.teamrunjojo.blogspot.com
When we decided to take part in the race we thought that we ought to be able to raise £500 between us without too much trouble. It seemed a realistic target considering that people are generally feeling the pinch financially and, more importantly, I seem to be requesting sponsorship or support at least once for year for one of my hairbrained fundraising ideas and, while people are incredibly supportive, I don't think it's fair to keep relying on family and friends to back me.
As usual, it has taken a couple of weeks to get all of the money raised by the four of us but, finally today we managed to get the job done. While we are still not sure of the actual definitive figure that we raised because it has yet to be confirmed, our total raised comes to just over
£2,300!!!!!!
I cannot tell you how proud we are and how grateful we are to everyone that supported us. Not only that, but that total may be increased by £210 if my son's employers agree to match the amount that he raised and he is very confident that they will do so.
So it's another positive day all in all. The beach hut will be fine. The centre that we fundraised for costs £1000 per day to run so we have paid for 2 complete days for people to benefit from the wonderful work that is done there. Life is good.
I hope you will feel that you want to come back and continue reading this blog from time to time. I am so excited to be writing it! Please do feel free to spread the word. The more people that check in to read my ramblings the happier I will be.
Lots of love
xxxxxxx
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