Doc Sleaze's Day Off

I took a day off work today.  Officially this time, not like that Friday afternoon I got pissed off and went AWOL.  This time it was pre-planned.  It couldn't have come at a better time, as the four days I did work this week were trying, to say the least.  So today's trip to the seaside was a most welcome diversion.  I ended up spending a fair proportion of my afternoon in Milford-on-Sea, once a tiny coastal village now, if not quite a resort, certainly somewhere that has attracted its fair share of the well off, judging by the kind of housing you find as you approach the beach front.  But I didn't confine myself to the sea front and its upmarket residences, I also spent some time in the older part of the village, which has an agreeably slightly run-down yet twee look.  It's early in the season, so there weren't many tourists about and the local shops weren't full of the usual seaside tat - plastic buckets and spades and inflatable rings - which seemed to make us so happy in those hazily remembered, seemingly endless Summers of our childhoods.

There's much to be said for spending some time sitting on the green, observing village life, which, as you can see from the above picture, I did this afternoon.  That's actually a screen cap from some of the video footage I shot today - at some point I'm hoping to put it together into a film about the village.   It was all very relaxing, just sitting there, watching the world go by.  Which was just what I needed.  I really need to do this sort of thing more often, but unfortunately it seems to be getting increasingly difficult to take odd days off of work.  I did think about taking along a friend on this trip but, in the end, I decided to be selfish instead.  I just wanted a day of me time - no demands from other people, no having to accommodate the wishes of others.  I just wanted a day off of work when I wasn't painting ceilings or assembling beds, which is all I've seemed to do during my time off recently.  (Yes, I finally assembled that new bed I bought - it nearly killed me, but I'm finally sleeping on a bed/mattress combination which is neither in danger of collapsing nor trying to stab me).  So there you have it, Doc Sleaze's Day off.  Not as exciting as Ferris Beuller's, I'll grant you, but that was the point: an uneventful, undemanding and very relaxing day.