I stood in the drizzle and saw the flame!

Yesterday, I booked the day off work to watch the Olympic flame being run past down here in Leigh-on-sea  up to our local Olympic venue of Hadleigh Castle were they are running the Mountain Bike events up and down the cliffs around the castle.

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High Vis Jackets were de rigeur with the organisers.

The Motor Bike Police were hooting and high fiving the school children.

Every vantage point was comandeered.

The local schools were so well behaved, especially Yr 3 from North Street.

My friends, Deborah, Sally and Tracey cheering the runners on.

And then came the coach with the next runners,
if you look in the window you can see the torch holders.

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And here he comes... no, the drizzle has not extinguished the flame.

They were running at quite a lick!

And there he was gone...

It was a wonderful atmosphere and despite the rain everyone left with happy smiley faces... and then don't you know it, the sun came out!

It's a mugs game!

One of the things that I love about this time of the year is local artist, Howard Robinson's annual release of his new bone china mugs.  He does a limited edition and they are always of local scenes... and so far I have collected over a dozen of them.

And finally this year's have arrived.


Howard chooses local landmarks, this year we have The Billet Pub from the old town, Hadleigh Castle, The Arches, the beach huts, the signal box and the lagoon over on Two Tree Island.

It is so lovely to be reminded of how blue the sky was in the Summer when we have Milk of Magnesia skies at the moment...

And here is my favourite, it is Hadleigh Castle and is rather special because it shows the 2012 Olympic Mountain Bike course which is all around the castle.

So if you are in Leigh over the weekend, pop in and see Howard and Joy at Gallery 3... but please leave some mugs for me!