CHERYL GIBBS: Never take this part of the world for granted

I’m now working at Gosport and to get to my new offices I have to drive along Stokes Bay Road.

This runs alongside the beach with views overlooking the glorious Isle of Wight.

This will be a pleasure in the winter as much as it is in the summer – if you’ve read my column over the years you’ll know I am just slightly obsessed with the sea.

To me, there is simply no better place than the beach with the waves crashing on to the shore.

This week, with yet more glorious weather, I’ve spent a few lunch breaks enjoying my salad (the diet is well and truly back on) among the pebbles looking out to sea and pondering just how lucky I am to be living in this beautiful place we all call home.

On Wednesday, the prospect of chips on the beach at Hayling Island got too much.

So I drove home from Gosport to Clanfield, picked up Matt who had packed a bag of essentials (these being bread and butter for the chip butty and a bottle of Corona – okay, so perhaps said diet isn’t going quite as well as I had hoped) and we headed to Hayling to catch the last rays of the sun.

And what a glorious evening it was.

After picking up a few items from the chippie we headed to the part of the beach up by Inn On The Beach, where the rocks are, and sat there until pretty much the sun went down.

I could just about see the Spinnaker Tower from where we sat and I remembered seeing the tower from the other side earlier that day, from Gosport.

This made me feel incredibly lucky to have such amazing hotspots on our doorstep.

It is probably something that most of us take for granted.

But with the glorious weather approaching for this weekend (fingers crossed), wherever you are, just take a minute to think about how lucky you are.

I can assure you those up in the midlands and the north really aren’t quite so fortunate.

DEATH OF GROTBAGS

I am guilty of being one of those people who loves to talk about their childhood with great fondness.

I’m afraid I’m also one of those who loves to tell the younger generation of today how great the eighties were – and to be fair they really were.

So it’s with great sadness I can confirm that Grotbags has died – Grotbags!

Anyone who was anyone born in the ’80s, or ’90s for that matter, will remember her.

She terrified me, but what an actress. She starred alongside Rod Hull and Emu in Rod Hull’s Emu’s World and then in her own series for ITV.

It genuinely feels like a part of my childhood has gone.

Carol Lee Scott, who played the green-faced witch, was just 74 when she died this week.

I’D BE A HAPPY CHICK IF I AGED LIKE GOLDEN OLDIE GOLDIE HAWN

I find it difficult contemplating getting older. It’s scary, the thought of ageing.

However, you know it’s going to happen so there’s no point fretting about it.

Well, if golden oldie film stars Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandan are anything to go by, I wouldn’t mind getting older one little bit.

They stepped out this week for Berlin Fashion Week and wowsers do they look good!

Susan is 70 and Goldie 71 – can you believe it?

And both of them stole the show.

Forget the twenty-something models at that prestigious event.

These two drew more attention than anyone else and for good reason.

They’re looking incredibly hot and if I could look even half that good I’d be one happy chick.