I really fell in love with the beach area behind the wall at Rooms, especially in the evening. Most nights, we had the whole area almost to ourselves. There is just enough landscape lightening for there to be no dark corners, but not so much as to feel bright. When you needed a refill, Sunnyside was just over the wall and there were plenty of loungers and picnic tables to spread out.

I was particularly fascinated by a pair of giant wooden picnic tables. They were the usual kind of table but with one unique difference; there were actually benches on all four sides of the table, not just on the long sides of the rectangle. It seemed clever to me especially if you had a big group.

We had been sitting at one of these tables on a couple of occasions, watching the bats and the crabs and other night creatures about. I decided to set up the camera on the timer to get a shot with both of us. Loving the 4-sided table, I wanted to take the photo the long way, so got Sunshine set up at one end and the camera at the other. Our red stripes were on the table, ready to be props. I started the shutter countdown and ran around the table to jump into place. Sunshine is ready, arm out ready to tuck me in for the required cuddling pose. I plunk my fluffy butt down.

Now any of you who have ever been on the short end of a bench when everyone else stands up may better appreciate what happened next.

In the blink of an eye, we discovered ourselves unwitting participants in a physics experiment, that ended with us landing flat on our backs in the sand. It was as though the table had literally ejected us. For those of you BBC watchers who may be familiar with Graham Norton's Red Chair, we had one of those moments. I compiled a little video of a couple of segments to help illustrate the experience.


Three miraculous things happened in less than a second. First, neither of was hurt in any way in way. Second, we both held on to our Stripes, though I did end up wearing some of mine. Finally, I actually caught the camera as it tumbled down towards us. Sunshine swears this picture was taken while the camera was somersaulting towards the ground. Everything I know about photography says that just can't be, but there was no other explanation.


Did I mention the table also had lovely big beach umbrella through the centre of it? It must have been quite the sight when the whole thing umbrella and all momentarily flipped up and deposited us in the sand. We certainly did get security's attention, though after a discrete walk past, our laughter seemed to assure him that no damage was done.

Not in the least dissuaded from our evening, we took ourselves down the water and captured a few shots goofing around in the surf. The thumb up pose is a shout out to Sunshine's baby brother. There are a good ten years of family pictures with him giving us the thumbs up in almost every shot, including at our wedding.





Our night was not entirely done, but this will be where the evening ends for you. Something about time warps and showers maybe? I don't know, use your imagination...