The Sea

7 years ago today I went to the beach with Pete, one of many trips to the beach; uncomplicated and innocent, sand in shoes, a time of wide-eyed adolescence that you can’t really comprehend until it’s over. This particular day was the first time I met all of his friends, the teenage version of “meeting the parents”. His treasured friends who became my treasured friends: the beach became ours.

7 months and 7 days ago, Pete died. I could never have predicted I would be recounting those hazy, unburdened trips to the beach just a few short years later to a roomful of strangers at his funeral, grieving with those same friends. I thought I’d never visit a beach again.

I just got home from a tour that took me by the sea. New places, new beaches, new friends, the same 7 seas. Every single one takes me back to that earlier place in my life, a place which I couldn’t return to even if we were all still here. I still wake up knowing I have to make sense of something that will never make sense, no matter how long my life turns out to be. But I’m finally starting to understand what people mean when they talk about cherishing the past. My memories are not as scary as I thought, nor do they really fade; they vary, but they’re there. It’s always ourselves we find by the sea, all of our selves, past and present. They’ll always be there at the sea. I wish I’d learned that sooner in these seven months, but in a way, I will have always learned it too soon. Happy World Ocean Day.

“It’s always ourselves we find by the sea” – e e cummings and further discussed in this post.

Pete further discussed in these posts – 1, 2, 3.

Odaiba

Tokyo Bay in Odaiba! These photos bring back memories of such a dreamy and sunny day. I wore my brightest blouse to match the weather (those leggings were ditched about 5 minutes after these photos were taken). Odaiba is home to a lot of varied attractions, predominantly based around science and technology but also including food, shopping and entertainment – something for everybody!

There was a festival atmosphere on the day we went, with buskers, street performers and food vendors everywhere. The silver building is the Fuji Television building – I’ve wanted to see this building for an incredibly long time. It’s so huge! We spent a lazy half hour in the bay watching the boats with Rainbow Bridge in the background and of course the mini Lady Liberty watching over us. It was so tranquil sat by the boats on the sand; Tokyo is renowned for being one of the busiest places in the world, but in Odaiba we found a moment of serenity.

Brighton Rock

Hello from Brighton! Brighton is one of my favourite places in the UK. The colourful buildings, the quirky shops and stalls, the rich cultural history and of course the seaside! I’ve especially always loved the connection to mods in the sixties. It’s a bit day-dreamy of me but I often think I was born into the wrong decade!

Back in my teens I was really into mod style; as a curvy girl with thick dark hair I had a lot more in common with the sixties girls I read about and saw in films, than with the skinny blondes that were popular in early ’00s media. I’m still drawn to those influences – beehives have long been my go-to “stage hair” and as you know I love my white boots.

This dress was a Christmas present and one of the rare items in my wardrobe that’s not vintage or secondhand. It’s from Pop Boutique who do also sell vintage – I received two pieces by them and have been wearing them constantly! I was down in Brighton just for the weekend – my parka-wearing, scooter-riding pal is originally from there so we ran around indulging our inner mods. The two days flew by – isn’t that always the way with holidays? Here’s hoping I can get back soon to do some record-shopping or hit up a scooter rally…

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Tiny Islands

Today I’m going to share Ile Aux Cerfs and Ilot Mangenie, two beautiful islands just off the east coast of Mauritius and about a ten minute boat ride from where we stayed. Mauritius itself is a very small island and these neighbouring islands are about the size of one or two football pitches.We spent the most time on Iles Aux Cerfs as Le Touessrok has a boathouse there offering various activities for free. We tried out kayaks and pedal boats and explored the mangroves, trying to catch a glimpse of the monkeys. We also took a trip by speedboat to visit a waterfall. On the way we passed lots of colourful houses and a tree filled with sleeping Mauritian bats. The bats are endangered and theres been a lot of conservation efforts to increase the population so it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat.

We stopped on Ilot Mangenie for lunch with friends; it was completely idyllic. The dogs were strays who were hoping for scraps of food; you can see James is frowning at one rather persistent canine under the table but all in all they were very well-behaved, sitting patiently next to our table. There are over 400,000 stray dogs and they all look pretty similar as you can tell from the two I photographed. Strange to think they might all be members of the same family. James doing his best Hollister model impression.