supertinks | (no subject)

So, Jamie and I went to Brighton this weekend. Kind of a delayed anniversary holiday, since we hit 2 years a couple of weeks ago. Brighton may be a step down on last year (Rome) but it was just as much fun, if not more so due to not being six billion degrees.

So, what did we do. Well there are certain things I’m sure no one wants to read about, but the family-friendly stuff is here:

Friday we got the train down which was surprisingly pleasant – Virgin trains are nice. We got there with no fuss, and managed to find our way to the sea front with little hassle. We wandered across to the pier and got a tourist map, in order to work out where our guest house was. We had a few hours before we were able to check in, so we went to a pub for lunch.

Found the guesthouse with no trouble, where we were very disappointed. We’d walked past a complete row of guesthouses on one street, and they all looked quintessentially English and nice. Then we walked into the street where ours was and it was completely different.

Looked like a dodgy student area, and the building we were in was just as bad. 5 floors in all, 2 rooms on each floor with the breakfast room and kitchen on the lower ground floor. All the rooms had a shower, but the toilets were shared (of which there were only 2). We were on the 1st floor, the loos were on the ground and top floors. When you went up the stairs, it was like walking into an Escher painting. All the doorframes and walls were at funny angles, and the stairs got narrower and wonkier the higher you went. None of the floors were even. And you’ll see from the photos what the shower was like!

Anyway, we’d resolved to not spend much time there (serves me right for going cheap – if I’d realised there was a Travel Inn right in the middle of the town I’d have booked there) so it didn’t really matter. We dumped our stuff and headed straight back out.

First stop was the Sea Life Centre at the Brighton Aquarium. Lots of fishes and sharks and turtles and things. Was not as good as the one in Scarborough that I went to on my Ecology field trip at Uni, as it didn’t have any of the outside stuff like penguins and seals and things. So it didn’t take very long to go around.

After that, we wandered down onto the beach, and along the pier. Sat in a pub for a bit just chilling out and enjoying the sea. Then we went and found a restaurant for dinner (it was raining by now).

My god, the food. The place we found was called “Il Bistro” – a French/Italian place. They had a set menu which looked appealing, so we wandered in and ordered food and things. It was divine. Best food ever. Neither of us have ever eaten out anywhere else that comes close. 3 courses for £9.95, which was superb value. We had a lovely bottle of wine (which was almost as expensive as all the food) as well. I had white fish in a cheesy mushroom sauce, followed by chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce, followed by handmade dark chocolate mousse. It was gorgeous. On reflection, I should have had the steak, as although the chicken was lovely, it didn’t follow on well from the fish dish. Too much cheesy mushroomy sauce. Jamie had some sort of spinach pancake with prawns, then lamb, then profiteroles. Very nice. Then we had a drink in a pub, but were very tired so just ended up going back to the guest house for sleeping.

Saturday was a very long and busy day. We got up early as breakfast was at 8.30 (although it really wasn’t worth it). We then spent the next 5 or so hours wandering round Brighton’s many shops. We didn’t buy much, but what we did buy was very special.

Many moons ago, Beaver bought me a plain silver ring from a shop called Silverado in York. I have worn it constantly since then, it has broken once and been fixed, until Renewal of last year, when I took it off for the event (as I usually do). It got left in the tent with my other very special ring (my Nana’s eternity ring) and I didn’t take them out before we packed the tent up. The tent then spent 6-8 months in Mike’s house. We eventually got the tent back, and got round to opening it up to find the rings. Which I did, and was very happy about. However, as soon as I put my silver ring back on, it snapped again (in the same place as before). Cue much me being sad. Jamie was insistent we would get it fixed, but I knew it wasn’t worth it as it would just snap again. So I was all sad. Until Saturday, for lo and behold, Silverado have a shop in Brighton! I got all excited, although it wasn’t open when we walked past (for some reason all the shops didn’t open till 10am). Anyway, we went in, and started looking for it. Jamie found it. It had only gone up in price by £1 as well, which is good considering it was 4.5 years ago the original one was bought. Anyway, long story short, Jamie bought me a new one! So now I have my ring back. Which is awesome.

After the shopping extravaganza, we popped back to the guest house to change (it was sunny, then it went all cold, and I was only wearing a strappy dress). Then we wandered out onto the pier, where we had pancakes, and played with the fairground.

Didn’t go on any rides, as it wasn’t sunny enough to warrant getting wet on the Wild River, and everything else was expensive. But we did play with the side show stuff. Tin Can Alley, that sort of thing. Didn’t win a bagpuss toy on that (which I was annoyed about, because we both came very close). Then we went on the Dolphin Derby, which is the thing where you roll balls into holes, and depending on how well you do depends on how fast your dolphin goes down the race, and there are 18 of you trying. Winner got a small cuddly fish, unless they won the big prize, which was a ginormous cuddly fish. We were there during happy hour, so the normal prizes were bigger. I went on it, and my dolphin was useless. I was in the lead at one point though. The little girl next to me on Dolphin 5 won, though, so I couldn’t be too upset about being beaten by a small child. Then Jamie decided he’d play too. So he sat next to me, on number 5. We started the race, and you just don’t concentrate on anything apart from your balls, you don’t even see where your dolphin is. Anyway, the bell sounded, the guy shouts out “we have a winner, its number 5” and my brain just goes “dammit, beaten by number 5 again.” I then turned to my right to see who had won (completely forgetting that Jamie was sat next to me) and then I realized, and the guy gave Jamie a big orange shark, which he then gave to me. I was very happy. It’s the first time anyone’s ever won anything for me on a fairground ride before. I was wondering why my shark was orange, and then I saw the stripes down its back.. it’s a Tiger Shark!

Anyway, after that we went to the cinema, and saw the Simpsons movie, which was actually more entertaining than I expected. The choral version of “Spider Pig” was hilarious, but I still think “I was elected to lead, not to read” is my favourite line. There was not enough President Schwarzzeneggar for my liking.

After the cinema, we went to the pub and sat and read and chilled out for a bit, before deciding we needed to eat again. So off we went (shark in tow) to find a restaurant. Browns was restaurant of choice for the evening, and we managed to spend as much as we had in Il Bistro, but on much cheaper wine and only 2 courses of inferior (when compared to Il Bistro) food. I had soup, and a steak and guinness pie. Jamie had prawns, and steak. After that, we felt a bit tired and rubbish, so we meandered back to the guest house, picking up some booze on the way, and chilled out in bed watching tv and reading for a while, before sleeping.

Sleep in that guest house was a precious commodity – it seems all our fellow holiday makers were there solely to get drunk and turn up at 3am, ringing the doorbell repeatedly and clumping up and down the stairs like elephants, chattering like monkeys. There was also an incident with one of the drunken lads attempting to climb up the outside of the building, outside our window, which was very irritating.

Sunday we got up, I didn’t bother with breakfast. Packed the bag and left. Bag was quite heavy and irritating, so the plan was to leave it at the station in the left luggage, and be free to wander all day (our train not till 7pm). However, we got to the station (after pulling the damn thing all the way up the hill) to find no left luggage facilities. So we were stuck with the bag, which meant no going back to the pier (I wanted to play more Dolphin Derby). We decided to kill time by going back to the cinema, and went to see Transformers. Which was awesome. A must see, for all of you.

Then, we wandered to the Walkabout, where we sat and drank and ate (Sausage and mash mmmm – Jamie had fish and chips as we hadn’t had any up to then – we would have had lunch on the pier in the fish and chip restaurant if we’d not been burdened by the bag) and read books and relaxed, until it got to half six, and we had to go.

Train journey back was long, but not stressful, and then we taxi’d home from the station. Mr Fidget was very pleased to see us. Andy had been in London all weekend, I’d been expecting him to come back on Saturday evening/Sunday morning, but he didn’t get back till 9pm last night, so Mr Fidget had been all on his own all day, with no fresh breakfast/lunch. Poor little boy. Very grateful to black_faery for looking after him on Saturday for me, otherwise he’d have been on his own all weekend, which isn’t nice.

Back in work now, and I can’t be bothered. Photos of Brighton can be found here.