[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-chichester-mini-break":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"So I have this big looming picture book deadline and a couple weeks ago Stuart kindly said, 'Do you want to cancel our little trip to Chichester?' And I said, \u003Cfont size=\"3\">'NO!'\u003C/font> because, you know, \u003Ci>PRIORITIES\u003C/i>. And it was great! Stuart often comes along to book festivals with me, but I'm running around doing events, so it's not really the same as going away on holiday.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/chich14_unicorn_zpsa54efa7e-4b60a15a65.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI thought it was going to be more of a relaxing trip, but we ended up cycling 63 miles over three days; Stuart clocked it on his little bike mile counter thingie. \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichester\">Chichester\u003C/a> is a great area for cycling, lots of little paths through the wheat fields and by the sea.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/chich14_cycling_zps8ae53b71-aced2fc06c.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe even cycled a little bit \u003Ci>through\u003C/i> the sea when we reached \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosham\">Bosham\u003C/a> at high tide (pronounced \u003Ci>BOZZ'um\u003C/i>, we finally worked out).\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sarah_bikesea_zps4aff0f68-01ca0b27de.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOne of the only things I knew about Chichester is that amazing illustrator \u003Ca href=\"http://warwickjohnsoncadwell.blogspot.co.uk/\">Warwick Johnson Cadwell\u003C/a> runs boat tours there (\u003Ca href=\"http://www.chichesterharbourwatertours.co.uk/\">Chichester Harbour Water Tours\u003C/a>), so we met up with him down at \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itchenor\">Itchenor\u003C/a> Harbour and went along for a ride. I knew about this because almost every day he posts his 'Passenger of the Day' sketch \u003Ca href=\"http://instagram.com/wocco\">on his Instagram\u003C/a>. Actually, we missed the boat on the first day because it took longer than we thought to cycle from Chichester, so we saw him two days.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/wjc_chichester_harbour_tours_zps96be5767-b1d81807fe.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWarwick's kids used to read my comics when I was drawing \u003Ci>Vern and Lettuce\u003C/i>, so they knew about me a little, and it was fun getting to sit in The Ship Inn by the harbour and draw with them. And look, I got to be Passenger of the Day!! :D \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/wocco_pics_zps69c70383-61b20a6839.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for more under the cut!-->\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sketchportraits2_zps5c73aff8-7ded8fe879.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHester and I drew each other and I LOVE her drawing. It's stylised in a very cool way.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/hester_pub_zps2ef98920-5c5d1be50c.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWilly and I drew all sorts of things: dragons, Slender Man, etc, but here are doodles of Warwick and him: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sketchportraits1_zps06e92184-8b31c7d2c6.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nStuart was rather excited because \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_richards\">Keith Richards\u003C/a> was sitting at a nearby table, wahey.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/chich14_willydrawing_zpsf8e1bd24-bb203694c6.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd a snapshot of a rough sketch I made of Warwick ('Skipper of the Day') and Hester on the boat.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/wjc_hester_drawing_zps88910e7c-6ae9f3e5f6.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHester was making a comic (cover shown here) and was already making good progress on it by the time we docked. Thanks so much for meeting up, Warwick! You can follow him on Twitter as \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/WarwickJC\">@WarwickJC\u003C/a>. (He drew Young Tank Girl for the new \u003Ca href=\"http://www.moosekidcomics.com/\">Moose Kid Comics\u003C/a>.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/hester_wjc_zpscb42ae99-3b35f6e300.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOn another day, Stuart and I cycled over to the Witterings (isn't that a great name?) and visited the famous beach at \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Wittering\">West Wittering\u003C/a>. \u003Ci>Oh MY\u003C/i>, was that car park packed! It took us something like ten minutes to cycle from one end to the other; there must have been 10,000 people at the beach that day. The car park was so dreadful that we almost left, but then when we locked up our bikes and walked over the dune, suddenly the beach opened up, and it was so big that it didn't feel crowded anymore, and we could see why people love going there. I didn't take a photo of the whole beach, but here's a view of some of those little sandworm piles that used to freak me out when I was a kid. They look like little poos, or brains or something. And we spotted some Sarcastic Seaweed, just like you find in \u003Ci>Oliver and the Seawigs\u003C/i>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/chich14_sealife_zps955ec741-ffe0c860a9.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nA few more snapshots. I'm not a very good landscape photographer and these didn't come out half as good as they look in real life. But then I put a spooky filter on them and suddenly they looked kind of dramatic, like a horror film, so there you go. (It didn't really look like a horror film.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/chichester_landscape_zps08d8f1b9-31623185c4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhile we were in the Witterings, we stopped by to see my fabulous publicist \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/LoisNina\">Philippa Perry\u003C/a>, who lives in East Wittering. She has a cat named Frodo who looks SO much like the cat I had growing up. The cat and I jumped on the trampoline together and I was quite smitten.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/phil_stuartmap_zps2ea4077c-e27583c73f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSo a good holiday, and Stuart loved getting so many chances to ride his bike; I got a terribly sore bum from that, but the countryside around there is so beautiful that it was worth it, ow OW.","2014-07-24T09:16:00.000Z","chichester-mini-break",[],"chichester mini break",1776628726655]