A New Beach

On Saturday we went to look at the place we are going to be living, and looked to see how far it was from the beach. It was a bit hard to tell, because it’s down a steep hill, so the road winds a lot, and the shortest route (which the map lady sent us on) is quite complicated.

The beach is very different from where we are now. Fewer freaks and weirdos (as S put it). Well, no freaks and weirdos (that we saw). What it does have though, is aeroplanes. The planes are not so bad just where we are going to be living, but the boys and I walked (they likeabiked) along the path towards the airport. The planes varied, in how steeply they climbed and what angle they went when they took off, but when a big one came over us, they seemed very close, very loud, and very low. A and D thought it was quite exciting. There were quaint looking houses and villas all along the beach front – it must be a rather unrelaxing place to come on holiday (and when a tsunami comes, they are in a whole heap of trouble).

We met a man on a bike who’d come from England when he was 6. He told the boys that they should concentrate on keeping their accents, ‘cos then the women would like it. They looked nervous and backed away slightly.

We drove through a weird ghost towny sort of place. Their used to be houses there but when the airport expanded they were right under the flight path at the end of the runway, so the airport bought the land, and knocked down all the houses. But it left the roads, so there is an area that looks like a town that a really strong wind blew through, about 40 years ago. There are still slightly recognizable boundaries, and small plants growing up through cracks in the street. The area is fenced off and is a nature reserve now.