MS ELLIOT: Surrounded, but...

Hello, reader. You find me this week slightly breathless and dizzy. It’s to do with this exercise DVD I was given at Christmas. I feel funny every time I pick it up. I’m finally thinking about taking the shrink-wrap off...

Do you know how it is when you’re at a busy party and everyone seems to be having a good time and, even though there are lots of people around, you can feel really lonely?

I was feeling really positive about the move last week, but I seem to have woken up with a bad case of the Worthing blues today. So, to cheer myself up, I’m making a list of groups to join in Worthing. I would join the historical society – but we’ve got a history. I would join a samba group but something happened in Rio. I thought about joining the Rainbow choir: but they said they already had someone who was “blue”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Do you have any suggestions of fun things to do in Worthing?

Anyway, I got completely lost in Worthing recently – talk about embarrassing!

“Where do you want to go, love?”, asked the harassed bus driver. I was looking confused and I could see him casting a glance at the busload of people he had to deliver. I hesitated. Where did I want to go?

The thing was, I wasn’t entirely sure where I was. And when you look round and you don’t know where you are, then it makes the matter of where you are going difficult to pin down. You see, if you don’t know where you are, how do you know if you aren’t already in the place that you want to be? And the thing is, you might be nearer, much nearer, to the destination that you wanted than you know that you are.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And then, if I was near to where I needed to be, and I proceeded to ask, I’d be laughed at by the bored passengers and then I’d really cringe.

If only I could see something I could recognise. Most of the time in Worthing I can get my bearings by looking around – ah, the sea is there, the pier is there, then I live… somewhere over there-ish. But, truth be told, I’m a bit lost at the back of town. All the roads look the same – picturesque houses with road names of dead poets and within seconds I’m completely lost. “Where am I?” being both a philosophical and geographical question in these cases. And then I start to think: “What am I doing here?”

Just as I think I’ve cracked it – found the road I wanted; discovered a new nodding acquaintance – then I can’t find the road the next day and that new face forgets to look my way. And I feel that Worthing can be a lonely place. But maybe that’s just me?

“Where DO you want to go?” the bus driver asked again. And I stepped back off the bus, “Sorry, my mistake,’ I said. ‘I think I’m here already.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

If you feel lost, or found, in Worthing – you can find me on Twitter @MsElliot1 or email me [email protected]

I look forward to hearing from you…

Ms Elliot is a writer, traveller and creative type. Mother of one and a disastrous cook, she is a native Londoner but has lived in the South Pacific, South America, North America... and now Worthing. She will be sharing her experiences as she finds her feet in her new home in a new town. You can follow her on Twitter:@MsElliot1

Related topics: