- iaindryden1
Drama by the seaside.
Walking through Lyme Regis’ seaside park, we were elated. Granted, two glasses of wine, excellent food and a shot of expresso helped, but it was the kindness which propelled us. A fine restaurant had treated us to a complimentary meal to erase a negative experience when we’d celebrated a huge birthday. The waitress had turned what ought to have been a grand occasion into a battle of wits, making everything a hassle, from the table to the wine, and all but ignoring us whilst lavishing attention and charm on those around.
Her truculence had arisen from my having asked for the window table we’d discussed with her manager over the phone. I’d been polite, friendly, but even had I not, her behaviour was unforgivable and yesterday the manager gave us faith in his establishment. But he went further.
Erased is too small a word for the tide of wellbeing which gently greeted us from the moment we walked in to his restaurant. At the end, stating that had we ordered the most expensive of everything it would have been accepted, he refused money for the fine wines we’d intended to pay for. Being well brought up we’d specifically chosen the cheapest dishes, but nothing was cheap, every mouthful was excellent. Three hours after arriving, as other satisfied customers smiled and left, with our coats back on, we chatted with the lucid, energised manager, who with natural Italian elegance, brushed off our thanks. His boss, the patron might have made a commercial decision, but there was more, far more, we bathed this man’s genuine warmth and kindness as we absorbed his natural wisdom.
It is human kindness we all seek, and a plethora of world-wide research has shown that those who don’t have much of it to give lacked it in early childhood.
And nature was at play as we enjoyed Hix’s seafood restaurant. Perched within Lyme’s dramatic park, we were entertained by bursts of fast moving weather rippling across a panoramic view second to none. Sun bursts rushed along the dark Jurassic cliffs. Deep gloomy sea-squalls were cut by intense shafts of light; wild wind sprites whipped sections of sea high like champagne bubbles; white tipped waves scratched a mossy green surface. For ten extraordinary minutes an acute, clear rainbow stood against a furious maritime background.
No wonder we were as high as kites as we sought our car.