Christian's Birthday Weekend Day 2 - Airbourne

Up early, we were in the lovely dining room by 8am. Wendy, in the kitchen preparing breakfast, greeted us with a warm smile, bringing out tea for me and decaf coffee for the Birthday Boy.
We started off with fresh berries and yoghurt, followed by a large Full English much to Christian's delight. As usual, I had a more vegetarian option of toast, an egg and tomato. All the bread and the large selection of jams are homemade, and it was lovely. We were just finishing up when the other two couples arrived; a group of friends also visiting Eastbourne for the airshow. We spent the remainder of the meal chatting till we realized at 9:30 it was time to start our day.
We finished getting ready in the room, leaving ourselves plenty of time to walk the mile+ to the seaside, considering Christian's back. David, our host, would have none of it and insisted on driving us the distance instead. What a lovely, lovely thing to do! Christian, and his back, are eternally grateful.
When we arrived at the sea, vendors were still setting up, including the Officer's Club on the bandstand where we were to spend our day.
They allowed us to leave our enormous umbrella with them, and we wandered amongst the street vendors for an hour. They actually allowed us into the Officer's Club early, and Isabel showed us to our table. The Club is an incredibly exclusive manner of watching the show. It is positioned on the large balcony behind the bandstand, so having a direct view of the entire English Channel and truly the very best vantage point in all of Eastbourne. It consisted of three small marquees; each of the two having four couples and the centre marquee holding 25 mayors from all over the southeast. A quick word with Peter, one of the council organizers, and were having a lovely chat with Mary Pooley, the mayor of Eastbourne; standing there in all her Mayorial bling and still so warm and inviting; holding my hand and telling us about how Eastbourne is growing.
Our marquee had two tables, each one with four place settings. Christian and I were by far the youngest people there, probably due to the cost, but everyone in our tent was wonderful. The waiting staff served us champagne, tea and pastries, and we could elect to sit either in our tent or just outside on the balcony. It was overcast but luckily not raining, nor did it rain for the entire show. The first attraction on the agenda was the Red Arrows at 11:30. Even before they came out we questioned why they would go first. The Red Arrows are arguably the greatest air acrobatics team in the world, and we queried the fairness of making everyone else go AFTER them. Their show was stupendous, as expected, although the ending was a bit of a wash, and they flew off. We expected more of a bang, but oh well.
During the day the lot of us were able to enjoy the air show in the comfort of our tents; a welcome feature as it was so very windy all day. The programme included the Blades, the Guinot wing-walkers, the Hurricane, Spitfires, and the Sea King, to name a few. Also included were American aircraft the Blue Eagles, Kitty Hawk and the P-51 Mustang. Only once did I have to leave the comfort of the oasis we had paid dearly for; when Christian's hat was taken by the wind to the beach below. Otherwise, we never left the Club. We enjoyed an incredible meal, starting with a tomato and basil pastry followed by steak for Christian and a phenomenal stuffed pepper for me, all thanks to Alexander's the caterer.
Later on came Christian's surprise. We were joined on the balcony by several of the pilots and trainers. They were delightful young men who just chatted with us and were happy to have photos taken. They even gave us goody bags! Including a gorgeous baseball cap each with "Royal Air Force" written on it. You can't even buy these! It was so cute to see Mayor Pooley gleefully wearing her hat. She came over to us to ensure we were having a good time. We assured her we were having the BEST time!
Christian elected not to wear his hat due to fear of losing it to the wind. To my delight, Tom, one of the lovely gentleman we shared our tent with, showed me a roll of toilet paper he stole for me from the private lavatory. He had been standing with Christian when I bought over a sheet saying I wanted this high quality paper decorated with the posh fleur de lis for the house, so he liberated me a roll, that dear man.
The show ended just before 5pm with the RAF Falcons. We said goodbye to our new friends and walked back the mile to our B&B. To our delight, several people pointed out our hats, wondering aloud where we got them. Wendy and David were in one of the living areas and we told them all about our terrific day. It was cold by then, so we were happy to retire to the room for the night. Wendy came up a few minutes later to tell us that Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves was on; notable because the scene we turned to was when he and Azeem land on British soil, which was filmed at Pevensey Bay, very near where we are. We watched the movie, shared some champagne we had with us, and snuggled in for the night.