I've never changed. It's like those sticks of rock...
I have had a most incredibly splendid day in Brighton with pim2005. We met at London Bridge this morning & leapt onto a train (well perhaps not actual leaping) and bounced along (quite literally) to the Sussex coast.
Ah, Brighton. It is so exciting to exit a station and see the sea shimmering before you. We went down the big huge hill to the sea and went and admired it being shimmery and swirly in its versicoloured splendour. I love the sea and the sound of waves breaking gently on shingle is so soothing, with the rattling rush as the sea draws back again. After a time we dragged ourselves away from the shoreline and up to the path, as walking on pavement is less exhausting than struggling across the pebbles. We paid a visit to the Fishing Museum which was mildly diverting. We found a giant poking-stick that was apparently once part of the West Pier. But we were very good and did not borrow it. Oui.
On leaving the museum we took ourselves off to play on the carousel which graces the seafront. I found a horse called "Claire", which is about as close as I ever get to finding one graced with one of my baptismal names. So of course I rode that horse and had a splendid time because there was sea and sunshine and the carousel was fabulous and had a most marvellous pipe-organ set-up. Sadly I also bumped my leg. So I have yet another massive bruise. Obviously injuries were on some kind of special offer today because the bruise is not just a bruise - it is a red centre with a blue border & it is raised for extra effect. Lucky lucky me. But in the scheme of things it does not matter much as the carousel ride made a very good distraction...
Our next port of call (unintended nauticalesque pun, my apologies) was the pier. Which we strolled along and admired. And used the loos which are actually very nice & also free, should any of you happen to be thinking of visiting that part of the world. (Brighton I mean, rather than a pilgrimage to the loos on the Palace Pier...) As it was then obviously lunch time we wandered up to Red Veg. Of course I had a complete dither because I had a choice of things to eat which always throws me. I ended up having a mushroom burger & pear juice, both of which things were really quite incredibly scrummy. It is always a joy not to have to explain the no dairy concept to people as well. There was a little bit of window-shopping & I coveted pretty vegetarian shoes - when I am rich & famous I will patronise the vegetarian shoe shop but until then I think I will have to stick with getting random childrens shoes from TKMaxx. After this I dragged Pim into Infinity Foods in search of cake. Obviously whichever aspect of God deals with cake-related prayers decided I deserved cake, because I got the next-to-last slice of their vegan chocolate cake which is everso neverso scrummy & which I have now had twice in my life & I think it is a good thing I am not that often in Brighton as otherwise I might develop a cake addiction & end up the size of an entire terrace never mind just the one house...
Anyway, to get back to our sheep: Pim and I then paid a visit to the wonderful second-hand bookshop. I may have splurged a very little - I got a book of ballet stories; an Arthur Ransome; a copy of The Wouldbegoods; and A Bear Called Paddington as while I had a very splendid set of some Paddington books I never got to read that one... The books are all reasonably priced in there though so I do not feel guilty about buying them. After that we wended our way down to the pavilion gardens. We mocked the pavilion a little because it is a piece of architectural absurdity & then ate our cake (la Pim had got ginger cake from Infinity Foods) on a bench in the sunshine. Because we are sensible souls there was a pause in which suncream was reapplied. I also thought to put on my bandana because a sunburnt parting is just not a plan at all. The sensible further extended to bopping into the Tourist Information to get a map. Oui.
There is a Sea Life Centre almost opposite the pier in Brighton which we had contemplated visiting earlier in the day and we decided this was indeed a plan and headed off there, past a fountain that featured fish rather than shoes as someone originally thought... There was some minor woe when we got to the Sea Life Centre because there was a very huge queue & noone to ask sensible questions about disabled access and things. Pah. Eventually I was told I was allowed to wait while Pim queued, but I then had to move outside because I was being a fire hazard. Mumph. Plus they do not lend wheelchairs. Today & Saturday have demonstrated to me that museuming on foot even on a "well" day is not überplanly which is, to be frank, more than a little annoying. Pah. But on the plus side we got in at a very discounted rate (they give a disabled concession PLUS a carer gets in for free). There were swarms of people & it was noisy both of which things make it harder for me to remain working. Especially when people seem hell-bent on squishing me and/or sending me flying. There were many obnoxious people visting at the same time as us and the culling list may have grown rather...
There were lots of very splendid seacreatures. I liked the seahorses and starfish and terrpins and turtles best of all. And Pim liked the rays, especially the wee ones. The main bit of the centre is very pretty because much of the old aquarium building survives so there are pretty archways and so on. Walking through the glass tunnel was really quite fine. The sharks were sharking about above us & apparently they do not eat the smaller fish because sharks do not snack & thus they only eat the food provided for them. Sharks to promote healthy living? I am sure the government could create an advertising campaign using sharks... Plus there were huge turtles swooping about. They looked very graceful gliding about the place. And quite wise. Maybe they could be consultants for the shark-based healthy-eating plan... The last part of the Centre was very incredibly exciting - we went on a submarine trip. There was juddering and shuddering and a wonderful commentary and footage of dolphins and whales and giant squid and other exciting things. It was very splendid indeed. The shop was full of tat, some of which was really quite splendid. I was awfully tempted by one of the t-shirts which was pink & had sparkly bits and flowers on. It was quite cool in a surfy sort of style and was £8.50 which is not bad for a t-shirt when you are a grown-up, even if the t-shirt being coveted is an age 9-10 one... I was very good and resisted though. Oui. I also refrained from buying the bouncy-ball thing that said "They didn't have my name" on it...
We escaped the courtyard in front of the Centre and went across to the beach. There was an awful lot of basking and playing with pebbles and finding shells and gazing at the sea. Then there was some paddling. Quite a lot of paddling. And I even remembered to get out of the sea before my feet could turn blue. We wandered along the beach a bit and sat some more, did a few random bits of ballet, bounced and skimmed some pebbles and generally amused ourselves quite nicely until we felt it might be getting towards teatime. We wandered back up into town to Shakeaway to get milkshake (via a shop called pink where we both tried on dresses but did not buy... possibly it was a bit optimistic of me to think a size 10 would look anything other than tent-like on me) before going back down to the beach to get chips. So we had milkshake and chips while looking at the sea. While having tea we had a genius idea (mwahahahahaha) and there was plotty-plotting over the execution thereof.
We made another trip to the pier to admire the sun setting - it was beginning to dip towards the West Pier & it looked wonderful - and then we took ourselves off up to the station. The return journey was fairly uneventful and I am now very awfully sleepy and should possibly actually already be being asleep. Decorating work in my bedroom begins tomorrow so sadly I will have to get up relatively early in the morning. I might go and sleep on the sofa once the work is underway though... Hmm...
Ah, Brighton. It is so exciting to exit a station and see the sea shimmering before you. We went down the big huge hill to the sea and went and admired it being shimmery and swirly in its versicoloured splendour. I love the sea and the sound of waves breaking gently on shingle is so soothing, with the rattling rush as the sea draws back again. After a time we dragged ourselves away from the shoreline and up to the path, as walking on pavement is less exhausting than struggling across the pebbles. We paid a visit to the Fishing Museum which was mildly diverting. We found a giant poking-stick that was apparently once part of the West Pier. But we were very good and did not borrow it. Oui.
On leaving the museum we took ourselves off to play on the carousel which graces the seafront. I found a horse called "Claire", which is about as close as I ever get to finding one graced with one of my baptismal names. So of course I rode that horse and had a splendid time because there was sea and sunshine and the carousel was fabulous and had a most marvellous pipe-organ set-up. Sadly I also bumped my leg. So I have yet another massive bruise. Obviously injuries were on some kind of special offer today because the bruise is not just a bruise - it is a red centre with a blue border & it is raised for extra effect. Lucky lucky me. But in the scheme of things it does not matter much as the carousel ride made a very good distraction...
Our next port of call (unintended nauticalesque pun, my apologies) was the pier. Which we strolled along and admired. And used the loos which are actually very nice & also free, should any of you happen to be thinking of visiting that part of the world. (Brighton I mean, rather than a pilgrimage to the loos on the Palace Pier...) As it was then obviously lunch time we wandered up to Red Veg. Of course I had a complete dither because I had a choice of things to eat which always throws me. I ended up having a mushroom burger & pear juice, both of which things were really quite incredibly scrummy. It is always a joy not to have to explain the no dairy concept to people as well. There was a little bit of window-shopping & I coveted pretty vegetarian shoes - when I am rich & famous I will patronise the vegetarian shoe shop but until then I think I will have to stick with getting random childrens shoes from TKMaxx. After this I dragged Pim into Infinity Foods in search of cake. Obviously whichever aspect of God deals with cake-related prayers decided I deserved cake, because I got the next-to-last slice of their vegan chocolate cake which is everso neverso scrummy & which I have now had twice in my life & I think it is a good thing I am not that often in Brighton as otherwise I might develop a cake addiction & end up the size of an entire terrace never mind just the one house...
Anyway, to get back to our sheep: Pim and I then paid a visit to the wonderful second-hand bookshop. I may have splurged a very little - I got a book of ballet stories; an Arthur Ransome; a copy of The Wouldbegoods; and A Bear Called Paddington as while I had a very splendid set of some Paddington books I never got to read that one... The books are all reasonably priced in there though so I do not feel guilty about buying them. After that we wended our way down to the pavilion gardens. We mocked the pavilion a little because it is a piece of architectural absurdity & then ate our cake (la Pim had got ginger cake from Infinity Foods) on a bench in the sunshine. Because we are sensible souls there was a pause in which suncream was reapplied. I also thought to put on my bandana because a sunburnt parting is just not a plan at all. The sensible further extended to bopping into the Tourist Information to get a map. Oui.
There is a Sea Life Centre almost opposite the pier in Brighton which we had contemplated visiting earlier in the day and we decided this was indeed a plan and headed off there, past a fountain that featured fish rather than shoes as someone originally thought... There was some minor woe when we got to the Sea Life Centre because there was a very huge queue & noone to ask sensible questions about disabled access and things. Pah. Eventually I was told I was allowed to wait while Pim queued, but I then had to move outside because I was being a fire hazard. Mumph. Plus they do not lend wheelchairs. Today & Saturday have demonstrated to me that museuming on foot even on a "well" day is not überplanly which is, to be frank, more than a little annoying. Pah. But on the plus side we got in at a very discounted rate (they give a disabled concession PLUS a carer gets in for free). There were swarms of people & it was noisy both of which things make it harder for me to remain working. Especially when people seem hell-bent on squishing me and/or sending me flying. There were many obnoxious people visting at the same time as us and the culling list may have grown rather...
There were lots of very splendid seacreatures. I liked the seahorses and starfish and terrpins and turtles best of all. And Pim liked the rays, especially the wee ones. The main bit of the centre is very pretty because much of the old aquarium building survives so there are pretty archways and so on. Walking through the glass tunnel was really quite fine. The sharks were sharking about above us & apparently they do not eat the smaller fish because sharks do not snack & thus they only eat the food provided for them. Sharks to promote healthy living? I am sure the government could create an advertising campaign using sharks... Plus there were huge turtles swooping about. They looked very graceful gliding about the place. And quite wise. Maybe they could be consultants for the shark-based healthy-eating plan... The last part of the Centre was very incredibly exciting - we went on a submarine trip. There was juddering and shuddering and a wonderful commentary and footage of dolphins and whales and giant squid and other exciting things. It was very splendid indeed. The shop was full of tat, some of which was really quite splendid. I was awfully tempted by one of the t-shirts which was pink & had sparkly bits and flowers on. It was quite cool in a surfy sort of style and was £8.50 which is not bad for a t-shirt when you are a grown-up, even if the t-shirt being coveted is an age 9-10 one... I was very good and resisted though. Oui. I also refrained from buying the bouncy-ball thing that said "They didn't have my name" on it...
We escaped the courtyard in front of the Centre and went across to the beach. There was an awful lot of basking and playing with pebbles and finding shells and gazing at the sea. Then there was some paddling. Quite a lot of paddling. And I even remembered to get out of the sea before my feet could turn blue. We wandered along the beach a bit and sat some more, did a few random bits of ballet, bounced and skimmed some pebbles and generally amused ourselves quite nicely until we felt it might be getting towards teatime. We wandered back up into town to Shakeaway to get milkshake (via a shop called pink where we both tried on dresses but did not buy... possibly it was a bit optimistic of me to think a size 10 would look anything other than tent-like on me) before going back down to the beach to get chips. So we had milkshake and chips while looking at the sea. While having tea we had a genius idea (mwahahahahaha) and there was plotty-plotting over the execution thereof.
We made another trip to the pier to admire the sun setting - it was beginning to dip towards the West Pier & it looked wonderful - and then we took ourselves off up to the station. The return journey was fairly uneventful and I am now very awfully sleepy and should possibly actually already be being asleep. Decorating work in my bedroom begins tomorrow so sadly I will have to get up relatively early in the morning. I might go and sleep on the sofa once the work is underway though... Hmm...