Hastings Bonfire Procession 2010! - Smugglers Adventure!

I always love the events that go on in my home town, there aren't many places that have quite so many crazy things going on - the pram race, street parties, bonfire procession, fireworks, pirate days, etc etc... This year I was lucky enough to be involved in the bonfire procession with work. We held our Smugglers Adventure banner, collected money for charity, sung sea shanties all whilst dressed as pirates! It was such brilliant fun!

On our way down to the old town from Smugglers Caves... There were a LOT of steps to carry our galleon down. Luckily we had lots of strong piratey men to lend a helping hand :)

As part of the procession we were allowed into the special fenced off area around the bonfire and after the fireworks we had the whole place practically to ourselves! We all sat around by the bonfire in our pirate gear singing songs and drinking rum and a good time was had by all!

The Smugglers Adventure bunch!

Some of our charity collection buckets

Me and my younger sister

Bonfire silhouettes

Pirate face painting and tattoos!

I love face painting. When I worked at my local aquarium I loved having special events and face painting was always my favourite part of the events. I painted seahorses, sharks, clown fish, and sea gulls. I am working at Smugglers Adventure caves at the moment and yesterday we had a special Pirate themed event, where children could make their own pirate hats, take part in a pirate quiz, dare to put their hands in the "unlucky dip", guess how many pirate coins are in the barrel and have their face painted as a pirate and have some pirate "tattoos". I was chief face painter and tattoo artist for the day and here is some of my handiwork...

The most popular tattoo of the day, and my favourite.

A selection of my pirate tattoos...

Naturally the members of staff had tattoos as well as the customers, we have to have a little fun too!

Castles and Caves

Well, it's that time again... the Easter holidays. Time for me to break from uni and earn myself some money to supplement my student loan. I work in Smugglers Adventure Caves and Hastings Castle. My first day at the Castle, it was a beautiful day, the sky was blue and I took these photos of the Castle and the views.

The remains of the church

The Eastern view from the castle.

The church archway

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the original castle grounds have been lost to the sea. Over two thirds of the grounds, including the castle keep, slipped into the sea when the cliffs receded in the 1800's... which just goes to show how much our coast is ever-changing. The church, East gate and dungeons are still standing, and on a sunny and clear day the views from the castle are lovely. I'm looking forward to working in the castle again, and spending some of my summer days working in the sunshine!