Saturday, April 09, 2011

Back from our holidays

HASTINGS - an ode

We went on vacation to ‘Astings
And stayed at the top of the cliff
Ate seafood and saw lots of places,
And walked till our knees had gone stiff.

The journey down South was a long one
And seemed like a heck of a way
With a stop-off at Tunbridge for sarnies
It really took most of the day.

The town was once famous for water.
Kal-ee-bee-at Spring it was called.
They reckoned its power could cure ‘owt
And even stop men going bald!

The cottage was clean and quite pretty
With a wonderful view of the sea
The edge of the cliff’s in the garden.
As close as you’d want it to be.

In Hastings they have lots of cafés
With plenty of shopping at hand
But remember to take lots of money
Cos the use of bank plastic is banned.

The fishing fleet works off the beach front
And offers fresh shellfish for sale
Cos they go out each morning to fetch it
Except when it’s blowing a gale.

They store all their gear in tall net huts
That stand on the sand by the quay.
Unique – but they’re having to move some
Cos that’s where the gallery will be.

Hastings  is one of the Cinque Ports,
They say it so it sounds like ‘sink’
But there isn’t a danger of sinking.
It’s to do with the Normans, I think.



The old town of Rye is real ancient
With cobbles in every street.
They make it all look quite attractive
But they’re terribly hard on the feet!

The towns are all full of French students
Who can’t understand what you say
But they all get the message quite quickly
When you tell them to ‘Get out the way’.

At Brighton, Prince George was a peacock
He built a fun palace right there
Where he took all his mates for big parties
And sometimes a breath of sea air.



A wonderful place is the palace
Reminds you of China a lot
On account of the bamboo and dragons
And turnip-shaped domes that it’s got.

Victoria (Queen) didn’t like it
And sold it as soon as she could.
She couldn’t see sea from her bedroom
So she reckoned it wasn’t much good.

We spent the week walking on beaches
And staring out over the bay
We had a great time down in Hastings
We really must go back some day.






Just a few of my photos from the holidays. And a quick ode - with apologies to Marriott Edgar

6 comments:

Sandra Davies said...

We went
to Kent
last summer
in a tent
and I meant
to write more
but I took
more than one book
- wotta bummer
(and it was SO crowded compared to up north!!)

MorningAJ said...

Ha ha! I like that.

snafu said...

Very good, a proper poem - one that rhymes.

The Whinging Ginger said...

Excellent.

anthonynorth said...

Hastings never so poetically described :-)
Enjoyed that.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi AJ .. you missed me out!! Eastbourne?! Pevensey Bay .. Smugglers route .. oh well .. sounds as though you had a fun time with a bit of sun - and that definitely is the main thing. Cheers Hilary