Hurricane honeymoon

Wild gales and hurricane force winds overnight. One of the Velux widows was yanked open by weird air pressure. And the rain battered the roof in a savage way. The morning a little calmer, though exceedingly blustery. No trains to Gatwick from Brighton, so Lorraine drove us. Luckily, we encountered no obstacles, and arrived in good time.

Amazingly the plane was exactly on schedule too. As we were flying into the remains of a hurricane, I took the precaution of taking a tranquilliser. But this proved unnecessary, for beyond a fair degree of lurching and sheering as we landed, it was a surprisingly pleasant journey, passing between white castles of cloud.

Waiting for the case to arrive on the carousel, glanced up to see people standing on Brighton beach discussing the weather on the TV. Pleasant local cab driver took us to La Barbarie. A warm welcome, and after Raivis gave us a free cup of tea and coffee we were upgraded to one of their lovely new rooms, where we found a small bottle of Tattinger champagne, a Guernsey lily and a handwritten card.

After unpacking we walked straight away to Icart point. Approaching this place I felt a huge wave of love for Lorraine and an intense certainty that we belong together. Stood hugging moist-eyed in the lane, and then went onto the cliffs. Nobody else mad enough to be on the cliff path as the wind felt so strong it could snatch us up and plonk us inland. We went back to the place where I had proposed and stood there surrounded by all the beauty in the salty buffeting wind, too strong to hold a camera still in. Lorraine's hair whipping about.

Then the wind bullied us around the headland towards Saints. The sea beautiful and the light changing quickly. Curiously hungry we walked to The Captains where we had a spot of lunch. The tranquilliser had definitely worn off by now for I found Eastern European charm school the barman had attended second rate. But I got over myself and we tucked into a pint and some lasagne and chips, enjoyably stodgy comfort food after walking in the gale. Back to La Barbarie looking at hydrangeas and oak apples and other things in hedges. The air unbelievably fresh.

The luxury of a quiet doze in the evening, and we sauntered back to the restaurant and had a three course meal and wine. Sat chatting happily in the bar afterwards before returning to the comfort of our room. It's rather nice to be married.