Corinne took me down to Hastings on the south coast for some recuperation over our first wedding anniversary.

We booked into the White Rocks hotel, right on the seafront and overlooking a burnt-out pier. The hotel has a wonderful sea-front cafe/bar where we tucked into a smoked fish platter and a Mediterranean mezze.

We wandered down the seafront in the evening to the old town and had dinner at White’s, where we had an amazing hot and cold crab platter.  Gorgeous!

Breakfast in the hotel bar then next morning was ok and then we met up with our friend Lynne who took us to The White Dog in Ewhurst Green, a lovely little country pub with views across the countryside to Bodiam Castle.  We had  a lovely lunch and caught up with the latest gossip from Lynne and relaxed in the garden and sunshine for a few hours.

Lynne dropped us back in Hasting afterwards, where we had a pint in The Dolphin pub down by the smokehouses before heading for an early dinner (6:30pm, they claimed to have no later tables) at Webbe’s restaurant.

The food was lovely, especially the rouille, but the staff were pretentious and patronising and annoyed us when it was obvious that there would have been tables available at 7:30pm.

After dinner we wandered along the promenade back to the hotel where we had drinks on the terrace before heading off to bed.

Sunday arrived, our first wedding anniversary!

We took the bus in to Bexhill and wandered along the seafront where there appeared to be a triathlon happening.  The sun was beating down, it was an absolutely gorgeous day and there aren’t many places that can beat the English seaside on these rare days.

We went to Bistro 45 for lunch; we had booked it for dinner but decided to visit early.  What a fantastic find by Corinne!  Retro and quirky inside, 45 different recipes for mussels on the menu and a variety of Belgian beers.

We munched our way through a couple of pans on mussels and enjoyed some Belgian fruit beers, all in a really chilled out and bohemian atmosphere on the sea front.  Highly recommended!

A taxi back to the hotel to shower and change and then we waited on the terrace for the taxi to take us back into Bexhill as we had tickets for Eddie Izzard at the Izzard Theatre in Bexhill College.

We were having pre-show drinks on the balcony at the theatre when Eddie wandered up the stairs and greeted everyone before heading in to get ready.

The show was awesome, that’s all that needs saying really.  The supporting act was a french guy who has obviously been tutored by Eddie in surreal comedy for the English.  His influence was unmistakable and the guy was very funny.  Eddie himself was awesome.  Hilarious, irrelevant and, well, very Eddie.

After the show we had to wait a while for a taxi and ended up cancelling one firm and ordering from another.  We arrived back at the hotel and crashed into bed.  Great day!

Monday morning arrived and we packed up and headed to the lovely little town of Rye, where we explored the town and then had a lovely lunch.  Yes, another seafood platter!  Lovely!

What a fantastic relaxing weekend with my gorgeous wife, what a great way to celebrate our first wedding anniversary while I was recuperating.

This is what life is meant to be about!