This is probably my favourite black and white photo that I have taken since I got my new camera at the end of last year. This was taken at the end of January this year after meeting the lovely Anya in Eastbourne. We'd had coffee and a great chin wag and then I walked back to my car in the rain and enjoyed looking at the stormy sky and the pier for a while, before the departure back to real life and the school pick-up.
Eastbourne pier means a lot to me, it holds a very special place in my heart as it is where dh and I shared our first kiss. Back in December 1994 I worked as a trainee manager for Friendly hotels and my placement was at their head office in London. As the office would be close for Christmas I was shipped off to the hotel in Eastbourne to work the season as trainee managers were not allowed Christmas off. It is funny to look back now, as I remember crying about having to go to Eastbourne, my thoughts at the time were that it would be an awful place full of old people.
The first person I met when I walked into the Mansion hotel was my dh to be. I didn't think much of him if I'm honest, he was the assistant manager and he had heard about me before I arrived from other trainee manager friends of mine. We obviously worked together for a while and got to know each other a bit and I remember one particular night when we both drunk our body weight in red wine and fell asleep in the public lounge but it was not until 28th December 1994 that we actually got together. In fact until that night I had no idea I had any interest in him.
After finishing work a group of us were heading to the nightclub on the pier (Odyssey I think it was called back then) and it was a rainy and windy night. Being a 21 year old girl I wanted to look my best so I had my umbrella to protect my hairdo and dh warned me to take it down on the pier as it was too windy. Not to be deterred we started to walk towards the club and the wind combined with a wet wood floor meant that I landed on my bum and he picked me up.
Later that night in the club a creepy guy was trying to dance with me and again dh rescued me and we danced and kissed. There followed some interesting and stormy years getting to know each other and forging a relationship. In 2002, after 8 years together we finally felt ready to be married and here we are three children and nearly 20 years after first meeting.
A few days ago when I was on holiday I was super sad to hear that part of Eastbourne Pier has burned down. We now live about 15 miles from Eastbourne and visit fairly regularly and it still holds really special memories for me, I pray it gets rebuilt and history restored.
Here is a picture taken by my husband yesterday where you can see the first part of the pier (closest to the beach) and all that is left is the iron structure, it used to be a white wooden cuildng iek the others on the pier.
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