The Problem With My Left Ear,

was not going away, 

the drops were not helping, and as it happens the pain was now getting pretty intense, much though I did not want to spend any money, as ear cleaning is not on the NHS, I made an appointment for the afternoon to have my ears cleaned and to find out if my worse fears were founded, that I did in fact have a ear infection, so a walk past Beckenham Green, 

and the graveyard, 

where these cyclamen were still putting on a good show, 

I waited at the bus stop near to the church entrance, a number 227 soon arriving,

alighting in Bromley by the market square I went to both Lloyds and Barclays to pay money and cheques in, back on to a 227 to Shortlands, 

where I went for my appointment passing the Shortlands Tavern, the clinic I used was the Clear Ear Wax Clinic, aptly named, I was seen promptly at 3.30, I explained the problem, the technician had a look and confirmed that A, my left ear had really large build up of wax and B, I did not have a ear infection, he explained that he would put in some fluid to loosen the blockage and then remove it, he warned me it would sound loud, and as I was already experiencing some pain it may hurt a tad, as it happens after what seemed no time at all, and with no discomfort, and louder than all of the other noises there was a loud 'Pop!' and I could hear perfectly again, normally the charge is £80.00 to clean both ears, but as they had a special offer on for £59.00 to clear both ears I thought I would get my right ear checked and cleaned as well, but he mentioned that there was hardly anything to remove there, I left the clinic so happy, my hearing was all back to normal, I could no longer taunt Diana by saying "what was that?", as the deaf ploy will no longer work!

I made my way to the bus stop, just in time to see my bus disappear under the bridge, 

another soon arrived, so a walk back past the rear graveyard,

and part of the church,

through the green,

and past Foxgrove Lodge and home, Diana had already arrived home, so a coffee and a chat, after our evening meal there was no BattleBots, as a dart championship was playing but there was a program on terrestrial television we wanted to watch, 

photograph Channel 4, Big Names Little Trains episode 2, this week featuring Eddie Izzard, there were 2 stories in the program this week, firstly Eddie's 2 train layouts at Bexhill-on -Sea, and secondly the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway, both of which we had visited, 

in Bexhill the first layout was the Izzard family railway,

and then the 1940 Bexhill winter railway,

which as you can see was huge, we visited Bexhill in August 2021, 

a long time before that in September 2010 we visited Dymchurch with Duncan and his family,

and took one of the trains, which are a lot bigger!

you can read about the history of the 15" gauge worlds famous one-third full size steam & diesel locomotives, that are used on the 13½ miles of track from the Cinque Port town of Hythe, terminating in Dungeness here, and a fascinating history it is too, after Big Names it was a Midsomer Murder before we were off to bed.

We Passed Through A Village,

with some really old houses in it,

talking to the locals some dated back to the 16th centaury,

we left the bus, for Diana £3.90 return, for myself free! my London OAP bus pass is accepted down here.

and this is where we are,

a look back at one of the old houses,

we were going downhill as we passed the station,

the photograph does not do justice to the real colour of these flowers,

at the seafront we passed the memorial,

and a rather nice looking fish and chip shop on the corner,

in the distance the yacht club,

the turreted building had a distinct eastern look about it,

a quick pose,

and we were upstairs on the balcony,

looking at the small craft on the beach,

a very strange photograph on myself, not a beer but a J2O,

all of that walking had given me a thirst, next a larger and lime later, (no change there then!),

and we were walking along the sea front,

some of the beach front house had theme gardens,

but most were conventional,

all immaculately kept,

still lots of cloud,

we made our way past the pavilion,

were heading towards Cooden Beach,

not that there is a lot to see there,

but it was still a nice walk in the sea breeze,

this building very futuristic,

we were tempted!

a quick break for both of us,

I later found out that the clock has not worked for some time,

a bite,

although it looked good, it all came to nought,

Diana spotted the Bexhill Museum and wanted to go in and have a look, more good news they have a special rate for OAPs!

what a wonderful collection, 

the museum opened in 1914 and has been going strong ever since,

from an impression of a Victorian collectors study,

to a modern learning centre,

but of course many exhibits date from the 1900s,

many years ago I had a collection of mounted fish like this one, 

Diana had found something that interested her,

and I found these interesting, hydrostatic bubbles, they were used to measure the strength of spirits, each bubble having a slightly different density, they enabled customs officials to charge the appropriate duty,

there were so many cases of mounted animals, fish and birds,

there were so many things to look at, the building a bit too small for the collection truth be told,

a nice display of things aquatic,

we passed into the costume room,

mostly featuring dress from the UK,

from school,

through to the flappers of the 1920s,

it was an amazing collection,

with some from the Middle East,

this display from Afghanistan,

we went downstairs,

to the transport section,

from bicycles,

to electric cars, I also nearly missed a step, in the distance at a first glance I thought it was a aluminium E type Jaguar, 

but of course it was the Elva,

and nice it looked too,

and for unusual how about Leon Serpollet's Easter Egg? it was for its time a high speed steam car,

back down to earth,

we made our way into my seventh heaven, 2 model railway set ups, the first the Izzard family railway,

the second the 1940 Bexhill winter railway,

also its roots in the Izzard family,

the layout huge, the curator showing Diana and myself points of interest using a laser pointer,

what a great little/big museum, and a real treat, on the way out an original Lowry painting, of the windmill in Bexhill, now unfortunally demolished,

we made our way back to the bus stop,

but I had to look at this really nice piece of street art,

on the bus,

we were soon headed back to Hastings,

past the old houses,

and village,

everybody of course knows about the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but in all of Hastings there is only one statue to commemorate the battle, and this is it, sorry it is not better but were were still on the bus, the statue is depicting King Harold II and his first wife Edith Swan-Neck (1025-1086?), Harold is depicted lying on his back dying and the figure of Edith is hunched over him, holding up his head towards her face,

we stopped off for some refreshment,

at The White Rock Hotel,

coffee for Diana,

a larger and lime for myself,

just what the doctor ordered!

for Diana some cheese fries,

no Diana did not really drink my larger!

back past the tall flower,

I could really have done with a telephoto zoom rather than the wide angle one I normally use to get a close up of the flower,

a wash and brush up,

and we were out into town, where we really dropped the ball, we had not booked a table, even though we walked as far as we could before all of the restaurants finished, all of the restaurants that appealed to us were full,

so we made our way back out of the other end of town, to the Jali, next to our hotel for another Indian meal, which as we both love Indian food was no hardship,

'Cheers!' as our starters arrived, 3 types of tikka for Diana, onion bhajis for myself,

for our main course, mushroom pilau rice,

aloo gobi,

lamb masala, and a chicken dansak,

what a feast, 'Cheers!',

I forgot the nan bread as well,

we rounded the meal off with a coffee and a couple of large dark rums, next to our room one from New Tricks and we were off to bed.