Paddle Round the Pier

Unfortunately the weather was a bit of a let down today, it was very overcast and a bit drizzly this morning.  Xena and I were going to the Paddle Round the Pier event at the beach, and had planned to go out early to watch the Doggy Paddle, where they were trying to break a world record of the most amount of dogs on paddle boards.  When I saw the weather though, I told her not to rush and said we'd go a bit later to watch the Paddle Anything Goes event.  

It's a fun event where people make rafts and have to paddle out to sea and make it back again in one piece - unfortunately a few of them didn't make it beyond getting in the water!  I met up with David and Alan who are a couple of guys from the Brighton Skies group, and David got an amazing shot of a Shark's head in the water as the raft had collapsed and all the people were in the water - it really did look like a shark attack!

We also met Anne and Simon, but Simon had brought Cira his dog with him, and as dogs aren't allowed on that part of the beach we arranged to meet up with them after the event, and we had a wander in the Paddle Village.  In the village there was a dive tank with mermaids and divers, and we tried to get some shots of the mermaids but it was difficult due to all the reflections, although Xena managed to get a great close up which I've added to my extras.

There was a band playing on a stage, so we sat and watched for a while and had a drink and then we headed into town.  I wanted to go to Apple as my new Apple watch has stopped clocking how many lengths I'm doing when I'm swimming - it shows me at the end how many I've done, but when I first got it I could look at any point and I could see how many I'd done.  Unfortunately, they couldn't look at it as it was too late in the day, so I've got to book an appointment which I'll do.  

We then popped into Marks and Spencer and had a look at the sale and Xena was pleased to find a few pairs of jeans that fitted her.  She said she usually struggles in Belgium to find jeans, so she bought a couple of pairs, and I bought a couple of tops. 

When we got home, Alan had finished the decking - he's done a fantastic job, it looks really good.  So tomorrow he's going to pick up some more paint and also some decorative white pebbles to fill in some recesses.  

Unfortunately, dinner was late, as I had a roast chicken to cook when we got it, it's a shame I didn't think it through and buy something for the slow cooker, but as the weather improved, we sat out in the garden and had some nibbles while we waited for it to cook.

It's hard to believe Xena is half way through her stay with us, she's been here two weeks today and has another two weeks to go.  We've got used to her being around and will miss her!