Families

With my wife and daughter away, I gave my son the choice of what to do today, as he's off to visit his mother tonight and for the next couple of days.

He chose to come here, where a few weeks ago there were seals. However there were no seals today. We did see more families than last time, a surprising amount of people for a cold, hazy grey day. It's always strange seeing other families, my son and I are very alike, and sometimes we struggle to get on. Today, we had one of the best days we've had for a good few years, lots of conversation, lots of laughs, and two bizarre meals (fruit picnic as we didn't fancy savouries, and with a roast, giant yorkshire puddings the size of loaves of bread).

There's a song lyric - "Every night around this time he feels the old self loathing" (Ben Folds & Nick Hornby) which stuck in my mind, as although it's completely out of context here, I've dropped my son off and now hate that we have to have this separation. Somehow having a really good day always makes the bad stuff seem so much more regrettable. I know that this is an over-reaction, but right now that's how it feels. It's strange, because I've not reacted that strongly since he was about five.

Anyway, a picture of some beach huts (yours for around £60000 each) and some people. I had planned to take the big camera, but backache made me go for something lighter, and this was taken with a 135mm f3.5 Soligor lens, which dates from the 1960's, used to belong to my grandfather, and is far better than it has any right to be.