We’ve had two very windy and pretty overcast days, albeit with temperatures still in the mid 20sC. The sea is really rough, lines of surf breaking, and not even the surfers are out.

Yesterday we wrapped up a bit and took to the beach for a brisk long walk from our apartments to the pier – about 3 miles round trip. It was nice to get out on the beach, although the return trip into the face of the wind was more challenging.

In the afternoon we went to the cinema to see “Dog” a lovely film starring Channing Tatum. At times very, very funny, and at times quite sad, it charts how a man and a dog, both damaged by their wartime roles, come to help each other heal. If you’re a dog lover, you’ll like it. I think I can say without spoiling it that there’s not a “sobby” ending. It was another one of those luxury cinemas with the fully reclining, massive leather seats. And a bargain at $5 each (about £3.75).

We ate in last night. Made lentil pasta in a rich ragu sauce with Italian sausages. Very delicious. And some butter pecan 0 sugar 0 fat ice cream. God knows what it’s made from but it is really, really good. Breyers is the brand. Have started watching the new Reacher series on Amazon. Much more like the books than the Tom Cruise films. They were enjoyable films in their own right, but suffered horribly for fans of the Reacher novels from the knowledge that Reacher is a 250 lb 6′ 5″ blonde hunk of a man, and Tom Cruise…… well……. isn’t. Anyway, it’s good, I recommend it if you haven’t watched it yet.

So, this afternoon we decided to catch another movie as it was windy again. We went to see “Uncharted”, an adventure yarn somewhere between Indiana Jones and National Treasure. We decided to book a DBox showing. These are special seats which move about and jolt and vibrate in time with the movie. It was about a tenner a ticket to sit in them – obviously they fully recline, are massive and have cupholders and the like. You can control the intensity of the seat experience with a slider switch in the seat. Soooo…. well, the film is a good yarn. The plot is quite ludicrous and doesn’t bear close or even any examination, but I enjoyed it. Quite spectacular visual effects, lots of jokes, laughs at the genre’s expense and homage to earlier films eg “Why did it have to be nuns?” asks Tom Holland at one point. The seats were …… interesting…… not entirely sure how much it added to the experience. I am assured that 4DX is a much better sensory expreience than DBox.

We came out and the skies had cleared and we headed back and were in time to see a launch from Cape Canaveral. This time an Atlas 5 rocket taking a weather satellite up. Given that it was 80 miles away , it was a good view from our balcony. Slightly shaky video below but worth watching and some good stills.