A palace and a pavilion

Eltham Palace

I have had so much to do this month and now it is ebbing away and I long to get the house back to normal - whatever that means.

The old and the new, Great Hall (left) House (right)

On Tuesday I escaped for a bit of me time, though with a friend.  We met up about lunch time and after a quick pit stop at her house she drove us to Eltham Palace, a place I had wanted to visit for some years.  The house was owned by the Courtauld family (there is a gallery in London with their name on it).  The house was constructed in the 1930's and decorated in the style of Art Deco.  I loved it!  Such elegant rooms, the height of luxury with large bathrooms en-suite with onyx and mosaic.  The bedrooms were sleek with masses of storage space - everything hidden behind cupboard doors.  All the bedrooms are en-suite and have heating - my kind of house.  The family had a pet lemur who had the run of the house.  In one room there was a video, film taken by the family throughout the seasons and very entertaining.

I hadn't realised that there was a connection to King Henry VIII.  There is an older part, The Great Hall which was built in the 1470's for Edward IV and there were many other buildings, some walls can still be seen outside in the beautiful gardens.  Anyway Henry VIII played there as a boy.

Main entrance, Eltham Palace

It was a fascinating place and my friend and I sat out on the lawn eating a cream tea while some kids were being entertained with stories and playing some mock battle.

I stayed the night with my friend and the next morning we headed down to Brighton where she has a holiday apartment overlooking the Marina.  We nipped to Asda for food and on going through the car park we spotted a distressed seagull.  It had a broken wing and was bleeding. Probably it had been hit by a car. Other people were commenting on it.  We went to the security office and reported it and they said they'd contact the RSPCA.  We had to walk back through the car park to leave the Marina and it was still there but surrounded by more people including a young man from Asda who said he'd tried to contact an animal rescue centre they usually use but no one was picking up.  A family came along and the girl who was about ten or eleven tried touch the seagull which got hold of her finger.  As she pulled away the seagull was still hanging on.  We were so shocked and shouted out.  The seagull plummeted to the floor.  Whatever the mother was doing letting her child touch it is beyond me and we were all angry and I (being squeamish) was feeling a bit faint.  Suggestions were made as to what to do.  Someone said someone should ring it's neck to put it out of its misery and then another person suggested putting something over it.  My friend said that would be a good idea as this helps to calm birds down when they are in the dark.  The lady wandered off and got some coloured plastic sheeting and draped it over the bird and the man from Asda went off to get a box to put it in.  At that time we realised it was all being dealt with and felt we could now leave them to it.  I was very grateful and hope the seagull would be dealt with humanely.

The Wheel on the seafront, Brighton

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton

We continued our walk into Brighton after having eaten sandwiches on the beach.  I tried to get that distressing picture of the seagull out of my head. We then visited The Royal Pavilion.  This is another place which is out-of-this-world with beautifully decorated rooms, so elaborate in the Chinese style.  Again we watched a short film which showed some of the places visitors are unable to go, like the roof and the underground tunnel which ran to the stables - now the Museum. I had been there before many years ago when the children were young but I'd always promised myself another visit so it was great to be back.

We decided to take the Volks Railway back to the Marina and then went to The Harvester for dinner in the evening. We then went for a brief walk along the harbour wall.  We saw something out there in the sea which was bigger than a fish.  We speculated on seals, dolphins and by then my imagination was running to shark! We had a laugh over this.  Whatever it was came to the surfaces a few times but not enough to work out what it was but there seemed to be more than one. (My hubby said latter that it could have been a basking shark....see Shark is not an impossibility!)

Evening over the Marina, Brighton

The next morning we had to wait for a plumber to come and mend the bath tap but as it was raining first thing we weren't so bothered.  By the time he left it was sunny and hot so we went for a walk around the back end of the Marina and to Asda to pick up sandwiches and after looking at a few shops we ate our lunch sitting on a bench on the boardwalk.

Back to the flat for a cup of tea and last bits of packing and then it was time for home.  A lovely break.