Tales of the Unexpected

Today has been very humdrum, we have driven along the South Coast from Poole to Bexhill, where we are undertaking more work to clear my mother’s house. Not a great start to the New Year, but something that has been lightened by some three unexpected things.

Firstly a hairdressing salon! Let me put this in context, Bexhill is a very sleepy town with a huge population of elderly people. The town centre is typical of those out of fashion seaside resorts that are gradually having the life squeezed out of them. It has many charity shops and sad cafes. Well in the main road there is a hairdresser that is so hip it would grace Hoxton. There are multiple TV screens, what I take to be modern music is pumping through speakers, and the actual hairdressers look like refugees from another land. However the haircut is great and they appear to be thriving, just shows that doing the unexpected sometimes succeeds.

Then driving on to the sea front we happened upon the most fabulous sunset framing Beachy Head, this bookended are day as we had seen the early morning sum reflected on Old Harry Rocks in Dorset. It was one of those jaw dropping stop and look moments.

 Then perhaps the most surprising moment, we were clearing drawers in the main bedroom, a really quite depressing task. At the bottom of one of the drawers there was a piece of paper in cellophane. I was just about to throw this into a rubbish bag when something made me stop. I looked at the ink signatures on the paper and the heading at the top showed it to be those of the 1938 touring Australian cricket team. Better still the signature at the top, that you can see, was of the legendary Don Bradman. For those of the my North American readers Don Bradman had the highest average of any international batsman think Babe Ruth. What a find!!!

 So I was not looking forward to today, but by keeping an open mind, and having some luck I have some happy memories.