With mum visiting for the weekend, it was another excuse to explore Brighton’s lanes and this weekend only, watch the pride parade as it passed through the town centre. Then on Sunday we travelled East to see the cliffs at Beachy Head.
Up and out early (for a Saturday at least), we meandered through the North Laine, shopping for books and sunglasses, stopping for some cyber candy, passing through the pavilion gardens and halting at the parade to see the LGBT floats go by, one by one, to the tunes of Katy Perry’s “I kissed a girl”, Abba and so on.
For lunch we parked ourselves at the ever tasty Foodilic (pronounced ilick or ilich?), for roasted butternut squash, greek salad, lamb casserole, and the rest of the all you can eat buffet. Excellent value for £6.95.
Walking off the gut, we continued along, down to the sea front, past the west pier and up montpelier, with a brief stop at Taj for some essentials.
With it being the first day of the football season, we caught the scores and kept an eye on the cricket before having an epic game of Settlers of Catan, (I’ll trade a sheep for two wheat and some ore – geek overload?), I shan’t say who won, because that would be boasting.
On Sunday we took a day trip, east along the south coast. Down the A27, past the Seven Sisters and Birling Gap to Beachy Head, with all its stunning views of distant Brighton and Eastbourne.
Sitting on benches looking out across the bay, we dined on a quickly packed bread, saucisson and cheese picnic (with unwieldy bread knife and an inquisitive jackdaw watching us drop breadcrumbs everywhere).
A small museum showed us how the lighthouse was built, it had gone all out on its exhibits, with buttons that sink ships or make sounds of sea birds.
After the enlightenment of how to build a lighthouse in the sea, we took the path around the steep cliff to see the wonder, peering over the edge and feeling a little vertigo. We were sombre at the markings and tributes to those that had jumped.
As the sun shone on the sea, it glistened a gorgeous laguna blue, and I marvelled at the tranquillity of the place. It’d be a great place to catch the sunset.
At the busy pub we fought off wasps (trapping some in glasses) to eat our sugary desserts before heading home, this time going through New Haven, Seaford and via Brighton Marina.
It wouldn’t be Sunday without drinking a cool beer and catching the end of a Bond movie, and after watching the invincible Bond jump crocodile backs in “Live and Let Die”, I served up a sweet potato, lentil and chicken creamy curry.
Jason Reitman’s “Up in the air” was the perfect end to the weekend, and the soundtrack will be with me all week.