Not for the first time, have we, the hard-working team at Spacious and Gracious, hauled ourselves un-naturally early, out of our toasty boxing day beds, in order to prepare ourselves to take part in the annual post-festivities dash and dip, into the cold sea off Folkestone’s cruelly-named “Sunny” sands.

This year, we were to represent our alter-egos in the form of a pair of salty-sea-dogs from Folkestone’s bygone past.

As though we had stepped out from a vintage postcard, we dressed ourselves in shades of grey, painted our faces, and set out into an alien, coloured world. As it turned out, the weather had also chosen shades of grey as its theme, so much so, that as we previewed some of the photos being taken by members of the media crew, we were convinced they had set their cameras to black and white mode.

As we registered at the Ship Inn, it quickly became apparent that, as usual, hundreds of Folkestone’s citizens had bravely turned out to take part, most of them far more colourfully garbed than ourselves. Surely there must be a simpler way of shifting the hangover from the festive excesses?