Starting the road to winter

Hippieshed Ronni • 7 September 2024

We have hit the 'ber' months so its time to go home

September has arrived so have felt myself starting to go into 'hibernation mode'. It is a yearly phenomenon, which always seems to happen overnight.  This year I decided to mark the occasion by going to the seaside. Had a night in a lovely hotel called The Grand, in Seaburn which was just under an hour from Sentry. My companion on this jaunt was Jacey. We already knew we were 'shopping compatible', but hotel compatible? Only one way to find out. 


I've not been to the coast in probably 30 years, and found myself transported to a 12 year olds level of excitement when I saw the sea. Jacey is used to me so didn't bat an eyelid. 


Anyway, the reason I am telling you this is that the trip away really felt like a marker for me.  I've been getting a lot of markers recently. One of which is the desire to share what it is like being me, which is why I started this blog. 


I have suffered from chronic depression and anxiety for nearly 20 years now, and the last few months have been very transformative. I've really struggled mentally, but in those struggles, have been little chinks of light, and for the first time in my life I have decided to follow them. 


This is a huge thing for me, as normally the light just blinds and overwhelms me, but for some reason, this time the light was different. 

Anyway, getting back to my seaside break. It was LUSH! We just booked one night in the hotel, (never feel comfortable being away from home longer than that).  We arrived at 11am but couldn't check in till 3pm so obviously embarked on a 5 hour charity shop hunt, and am quietly confident we found all the surrounding charity shops. I'm not sure exactly, but I reckon we visited at least 10. 


The room in the hotel was lovely, and blooming huge! We had a double bed each. and a tv each too! Plus a straight on view of the coastline. 

Once we had dropped our bags of bargains off in the room and done the obligatory 'show and tell' revisiting all of our charity purchases, we headed out to the seafront for a walk and to find something to eat. 

We found this really cool place called 'The Stack'. It was basically a food, drink and music bar made from shipping containers! We were 'out out'!! We had food, a little drinky and listened to a really talented lad (whos name I forget) who played covers on his guitar. We even did a quiz! It was a good night.

I even persuaded Jacey to have a game of air hockey in the amusement archade on the walk back. She won, and I was 12 again.

Then one last look at the sea before we went to our respective double beds to starfish the night away.  


I slept like a log, a very knackered heavy log. Apparently I was gone the second my head hit the pillow. I was a very tired 12 year old who had had a very full and exciting day lol.


I was even awake early enough to grab a full english breakfast. Result. 

We had a little drive up the coast, just to have a little look see before we headed back to Sentry.

We travelled up to the mouth of the Tyne where there is a very interesting looking ruin. We decided to save that for another time and looked for somwhere to visit on the way home instead. The place we found was outstanding, and warrants a blog of its own to be honest, so you will have to wait for that one.  

Once home, I transferred into full on winter hibernation mode, and started on the mammoth task of packing up the stall.  

It had overwhelmed me, I'd been worrying about starting for a while. Always at the back of my mind, like a nibbling mouse, eating my brain.  But Ive started packing bags now so its all systems go.  

Why is it that it can take me weeks of worry and 'what ifs' , but once I do finally start, I whiz through like a knife through butter? 

I think this break really helped me relax enough to be able to get my head round the coming winter and what I want to achieve through the 'ber' months.

All in all a totally outstanding, enjoyable, exhausting, relaxing, brain clearing, eye opening 1 day holiday with my newest hotel compatible friend :0) 
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