Going well (touch wood)

I thought that my blog was lacking a bit of colour so here are a few pics from our long weekend in Brighton at the beginning of August.  We went for the first match of the season against Brighton but made a weekend of it staying with some old pals of my family from our time in Nigeria.

The Sunday morning we were there was when the tail end of that hurricane, Bertha I think, hit the UK.  We were staying in a flat on the seafront and thought it was going to take off it was so windy!  So, we decided that some indoor culture would be in order once we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and where better than the Royal Pavilion?

It was fascinating.  A bit mad and slightly seedy from the outside and even more insane inside but the tour was informative and interesting and suddenly it all made sense.  The banqueting room was dazzling and apparently it is a lot quieter and calmer than in was in its heyday.  But the kitchen was the room which impressed me the most - so tall and airy, almost modern.  Surrounded by shelf after shelf of numbered, perfectly polished original copper pans, bowls, molds, ladles, measures and implements of every shape and size, all stamped with the royal seal and custom made for that very kitchen.

We enjoyed a glorious cream tea in the Pavilion itself, next to an open window through which we could hear a brass band playing.  Perfect.

Then, by the time we came outside, the sun had emerged so we headed for the Pier of course!  The sea was still wild and clouds scudded across the sky but what a gorgeous day.  Talk about fresh air!  We had intended to go for nice meal out that evening but we were so knackered after hours of sea air and a long walk home that we ended up staggering over the road to the Marina for a pub supper instead.  

It's nice to go somewhere new once in a while.  Lovely in fact.  I wonder where we'll be playing at the beginning of next season?!

PS. Sorry about the weird layout of the photos.  They are uploaded from my mobile and look fine if you're reading this on a phone but are wrongly formatted for a laptop.  Does anyone know how to sort this out??