Dear DiaryAugust 6, 2014<August 6, 2014

My Day at the Beach and a £100 of Debenhams Vouchers for You!

Get the violins out. I’m not going on holiday this year.

Actually that’s not really true. I’ve had a few short breaks already, and no doubt I’ll go on a few more. But this year I don’t really have the time or money for a full week or two of lounging in the sun.

However, conveniently, the UK seems to have become confused about its exact location and for the last month or so we’ve basked in beautiful sunshine and I’ve taken my holiday in small snippets to make the most of it!

I was asked a while ago to take part in a Summer campaign with Debenhams and I was totally convinced that by the time I got chance to go anywhere near a beach with the “beach day” kit they sent me it would be snowing. But on Sunday I had a free day and there was not cloud in the sky, so we stopped by Waitrose to fill up on picnic food and headed out to the beach.

I decided to eschew the regular busy beach hotspots of Norfolk, and take a trip to a beautiful sandy beach at Waxham that I’d heard was lovely and not very busy.

Clearly you can see how accurate my information was from the small stretch of road visible over my shoulder on the (long) walk from the parking space we eventually found to the beach.

Obviously not a person in sight at this beach.

Actually we didn’t have as much trouble finding a spot as it happens, but I had forgotten how much I hate sand. It’s a pig to walk on, and Waxham beach is up a stupid hill. I was wearing the open toe Mel by Melissa rubber shoes that I have lived in since I sprained my ankle, and the sand just poured in one end and out the back. I don’t know if that’s better or worse than having shoes full of sand. Give me pebbles any day.

Still once we’d got all our goodies laid out it was lovely and soft! My beach bag essentials:

I’m not a “baking in the sun” kind of girl, so a parasol (similar one here on ebay!)and sun cream are a must. Nice big beach towel with a cool nautical print which almost immediately became covered in sand, and my kindle, on which I am currently reading “10-Minute Toughness: The Mental Training Program for Winning Before the Game Begins“, obviously this is a romantic tale of boy meets girl and love against the odds. Not really, it’s a book of techniques designed to stop me freaking out and thinking I’m bad at things that I can quite blatantly do if only I believed I could. It’s quite good so far.

Also essential for the beach, a bikini. Believe it or not when the weathers is nice British people DO wear actual swimwear on the beach, though they still reserve wearing it to the supermarket for when they go on holiday to Spain.

BEHOLD THE AWESOME ICE CREAM BIKINI!

It’s amazing. Long line halter bra top is nice and supportive, and nice high-waisted bottoms in a textured fabric that feels a bit 60s to me. It had a bow at the waist which I hated, but a pair of nail scissors soon dealt with that! It’s a little skimpily cut for my ample bottom, but not so much that you have to spend all your life with a wedgie, and I’m kinda used to that by now!

The other thing I forgot I didn’t like about sandy beaches, is sand flies. Seriously, next time I’m going to a sensible pebbly beach and not being swayed by the thought of somehow pretending I’m in a tropical paradise.

sandflies

Though tropical paradise is kinda nice.

This is a random aloe vera drink we bought with our picnic, I just thought it looked nicely tropical, sat there with the sea in the background. Unlike the rest of my picnic, which looks like a terribly British Gala pie and tasted of sand.

Advice for the unwary, if you bury your glass to keep it upright, make sure you knock the sand off the base before you pick it up and wave it around over your plate.

Super cool picnic hamper comes from Mountain Warehouse

Waxham beach is really lovely if you’re fond of sand! To find it you can follow the sat nav to Waxham Barns and just take a little turn off on a U-Shaped side road just before you get there.

The beach goes on for miles, and thankfully the sand gets a little firmer and less of a walking on nightmare as it gets wetter down towards the sea. It’s on the North Sea, so the water is cold, but it’s really refreshing to paddle in on a hot day.

I’ve never quite got the hang of running around in public in just my swimwear, but I’m perfectly happy in just a bikini top, and I always find that a regular skirt makes just as good a beach cover up as something more beachy, like a sarong. With it unzipped I can put it on over my head, then run down to the sea for a paddle with my modesty intact, and, of course, prance around for photos. It’s ok at the beach, no one thinks you’re weird, they’re all doing it.

And there ends my day at the Beach. Or rather more accurately, my day at the beach ended with trying to empty sand out of the insides of all my bags, my shoes, oh, and inside my top.

But I don’t think we need any pictures of that….

Outfit details for the day:
♥ Denim Dress – Oasis ♥ Anchor Beach Bag ♥
♥Ice Cream Bikini top and bottoms – Floozie by Frost French ♥
♥ Yellow Midi Skirt – Warehouse ♥
♥ Shoes – Mel by Melissa all c/o Debenhams ♥
♥ Parrot Brooch, bracelets & headscarf – Vintage ♥
(interestingly the scarf is vintage Debenhams, bonus coincidence points!)
♥ Sunglasses – Derek Cardigan* ♥

Thanks to Debenhams for helping me be a lot more stylish at the Beach than I would otherwise have been! They’ve also generously offered to help one of you guys with your beach wardrobe with £100 of Debenhams vouchers up for grabs, or you could just spend it on shoes, it’s up to you.

Want to win? Just follow the instructions on the rafflecopter widget below. There’s several entry options, and you can do them all for extra chances to win, or just one. If you’re already a fan or follower on any of these places then lucky you, free entry, just click the button!

The competition will run for 2 weeks and finish at midnight on the 20th August 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway