Brighton

Saturday 3rd Feb 2018

Our first planned weekend away since we settled down into our flat and FINALLY both into work. Lew had the excellent news last week that he gained full time employment with a very savvy and technologically advanced company called Andiamo. It is a complete game changer since he is no longer confined to the furniture business and it may have opened up some exciting new doors in his career with more of a focus of product design in healthcare. I have decided now that we both have an income that we have to travel at least once each month since I know its basically impossible to see and do everything in the UK and Europe before our planned two year O/E is up. Brighton was the first since every other place I wanted to go to in the UK (Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow etc) had expensive train tickets and Brighton was only £22.65 ($43.60 NZD) return so that made my mind up. We left home on Saturday 3rd Feb and caught the underground to Victoria station where we were able to transfer onto the national rail service which would take us down to Brighton in about an hour. Every time we get on one of these trains we think about how amazing it would be to have this sort of service in NZ and to have the option of catching a fast train from Auckland to Christchurch for the weekend. It really was a hour well spent as I had discovered on Facebook whilst I was at work on Friday that the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) is selling tickets to the Division 1 World Mens Ice Hockey Championships which are being held in Copenhagen and Herning, Denmark. We have never had the option to go to such a thing and now it is literally just a flight across the ditch for a matter of a few hundred pounds. We decided the first weekend of May would work the best since the gold medal game at the end of May had already sold out. The first weekend in May happened to be a long weekend anyway for the UK so it was perfect to see some of the city and the games. The main game happening that weekend that Lew was keen to watch was the Sunday night Sweden vs Czech game and we then also brought cheap rink side tickets for France vs Belarus on the Saturday afternoon. The hour went by fast and before we knew it we had pulled up at Brighton station! It was a dreary cold and drizzly day as we dragged our bags across town to our waterfront Airbnb. We caught a glimpse of "The lanes" which I had been told by some of the girls I work with are the place to go if you want to shop. Despite having spent most of the money in our bank accounts buying Ice hockey tickets shopping was still absolutely on the list. Our Airbnb host Dan had offered to babysit out bags for the morning until our room became available in the afternoon so we dropped these off to him. He was in the middle of serving breakfast to the other guests and we caught a glimpse of how cute the place is going to be! After leaving my small blue suitcase and our laptops behind we were ready to hit the town with our rain jackets and umbrella in hand. Lew declared that he was starving and one of my work colleges whos Bf lives here mentioned that "Cafe Coho" does some of the best avo on toast - our favourite, so we were both sold. We went via one of the famous things of Brighton which is the Royal Pavillion built in 1787 by King George IV as his seaside pleasure palace. The building also served as a military hospital in World War 1 and is now open to the public to visit. It is thankfully being refurbished as we speak as it certainly looked a little worse for wear! Once we got to Cafe Coho it was certainly busy with locals when we arrived but we managed to find a spot perched on the end of a long table. Lew of course got the English breakfast and I got the Vegan version of this since I wanted Avo. I was craving bacon and of course I forgot that when you order a "vegan" breakfast theres no way your getting some bacon with that! Still with a hot chocolate and a smoothie we were sorted and it filled a gap preparing us for the bad weather outside. We were slightly rushed to leave since a large group of of kids had sat themselves at the other end of the table and the parents were waiting for us to be done so they could have our seats too. Once we left the cafe we continued walking up the street finding some narrow lanes with the most enormous amount of small jewellery stores selling Art Deco engagement rings. My eyes almost popped out of my head as I had only ever seen these sorts of rings on Pinterest. One store in particular caught my eye and there were a couple of sapphire rings that I liked. Lew surprised me by allowing me to go inside and try them on. He didn't even run in the opposite direction! I think it’s because he knows he still has a couple of years up his sleeve and now that we are in the UK there’s no chance of a wedding anyway. Hes also lucky that my fingers are so small so he can get away with buying me a small stone and it will still look rather large haha. The ladies in the shop kept commenting on how they would be able to get this sized up by the afternoon but Lew and I both laughed since we knew we wouldn't be needing it by this afternoon! After taking some pictures of ones that I kinda liked I still left the shop feeling completely and utterly confused at what I would want when the time came. We continued walking around the lanes checking out lots of homeware stores for ideas since were are in the process still of decorating our bedroom. We even found a couple of cool clothing stores and Lew tried on a few things despite a few complaints at having to take his clothes on and off since it was freezing. I brought him a cool stripy t-shirt since the fabric was so nice and I still owed him one for Xmas as I brought the wrong size and had to return it to Le Coq Sportif. The only other purchase we made was a small stamp to put custom messages in your cookie dough before you bake them. Probably an unnecessary purchase but Lew was rather excited about it so I know what I will be making on my next day off! Once we started getting chilled to the bone we went back to check into our room. Dan had taken all our bags up there already and it was an adorable blue and white painted room with pink accents. It was warm which was the main thing and we snuggled in for an hour or so with a cup of tea in hand and searched for some flights to Denmark. Lew drunk his first cup of English breakfast tea and actually didn’t mind it at all, something we would never have touched back home! I think he would still prefer a hot chocolate. Just before the sun went down we plucked up the courage to change into our running gear and went for a jog down the promenade for 9kms. Returning to our warm room we still struggled to get ourselves back out into the cold for dinner straight away so we continued to look for flights. The most annoying thing being that there are SO many airports to fly out of in London and it’s not always the best option going for the cheapest flight since you may have to add a train ticket on top of it. We couldn’t make our decision and finally decided to go hunt for food just before 8pm as starvation kicked in. As usual we couldn’t make a decision and spent almost an hour wandering around finally deciding on a chain restaurant I wanted to try in London called PHO. They said there was a 25 minute wait for a table which seemed ridiculous at 9pm at night but thankfully they had a bar seat looking into the kitchen that was free, not the best view but when your starving you just don’t care anymore. It took awhile to order since everyone kept ignoring us as they walked by. I knew exactly what they were doing since I often have to do the same thing myself when I have a needy patient or family vying for my attention every few minutes. After finally flagging someone down we ordered a vermicelli beef noodle dish with some pork spring rolls. The food was relatively quick despite the place heaving with people and we scoffed our food and headed back out into the night. A short walk back via an ice cream store for Lewis of course we called it a night.

Sunday 4th Feb 2018

We were able to check out at midday so we didn’t rush. Lew went for a 20km run up to Devils Dyke which overlooks Brighton and was pleased to find some mud up there. I didn’t think I could handle a run that long so I stayed back and continued my search for the perfect ring as well as grabbing some bread rolls and a smoothie for breakfast. We were trying it keep the cost down a little since we still had to buy lunch and dinner. I message our Airbnb host to see if we could leave our suitcase with him again but they would be out later and it wasn’t an option. I found something called Citystasher which is basically just a dairy or a cafe etc that has a spare room and you can pay £6 ($12 NZD) to have it there for the day. It was close to the Brighton train station which meant we could pick it up on our way back to catch the train to London. Lew has seen a cute cafe/bread shop on his run and insisted we walked that way since it was 1pm and time for lunch. It was called The Flour Pot and instead of buying straight bread to eat we went for their potato, broccoli and chilli soap with homemade bread. Perched in the corner in the sun we did some people watching for half an hour and contemplated the rest of the day. So far it was beautiful and sunny outside so a walk down the promenade to Hove seemed like a good plan. Despite the sunshine the wind was bitterly cold but the views of the ocean with it coloured pebble beach made us feel closer to home. It was also rather impressive that out in the distance you can see the large amounts of wind turbines of the Rampion wind farm which is still under construction about 13km from the shore. Its expected to cover 72 meters squared once construction has finished and I think it is something we could think about doing in NZ as well. We also got to see a large selection of dog breeds out with their owners for a Sunday walk and it was hard not being able to have some dog cuddles. We are both missing having a pet around, human cuddles just are not the same sometimes! On the promenade there was lines of cute little boat houses painted in different colours which were so contrasting to the old plain stone buildings behind them. They reminded me of the ones on the shorelines on your way to Akaroa just outside of Christchurch. At lot of the small shops we looked into had many photos and painting of what we thought was a piece of junk that needed demolishing in the sea. It turns out that it used to be the west pier which closed in 1975 and has become derelict ever since. It was built to encouraged tourism to Brighton and even had a concert hall on the end of it. There have been plans to renovate it but it is in such a state after two fires it really just needs to be removed. We also sort shelter in another tourist attraction that has recently been opened which is the British Airways i360 which is just a tall pillar in which a large round viewing platform travels up and down giving you a view of Brighton and its surroundign coastlines. It stands out like a sore thumb and we didnt bother paying money for it but it did seem to be a popular activity! On the way back towards Brighton the sky was turning grey and we were feeling rather like ice blocks despite our merinos. We sort shelter in a few cute shops tucked under the road including a homeware store full of incredible Danish designs and a couple of clothing stores. Realising it was only about 3pm and our train wasn’t until 8pm tonight we decided to get our Denmark trip sorted since I’m sure flights will be more and more expensive being a long weekend for the UK. We found room at the breakfast club cafe and orders a hot chocolate and a tea to warm up whilst we went through every single airport in London and the proximity to our house. Like I said earlier sometimes it’s not the best to take the cheapest flight on Skyscanner as you may end up paying a lot for transport. The easiest are Gatwick and Heathrow for us but all of them other than Heathrow you end up paying at least £20 ($40 NZD) each way in train fares. We stayed until 6.30pm feeling exhausted from all the airlines we had picked apart to get the best deal before walking 10 minutes along the waterfront to a restaurant called The Regency which Dan our Airbnb host has recommended. He had said the interior design was lacking but the fish was some of the best in town. We had both decided that we had to have fish n chips at least once whilst we were in the seaside town! Unfortunately for me the batter had milk in it but our Italian waiter insisted he could get it with a garlic and chilli sauce instead and he promised it would be a hit. It was certainly delicious and Lew found the batter fish to be pretty top notch also. We were finished by 7.30pm and promptly made our way to the train station which google told us was a 20 minute walk. With it being so cold we did it much faster and picked up my bag in the way - thankfully with my laptop still there and our running shoes hanging off the side. We were nice and early for the train and got some cash out since we were also picking up my birthday present on the way home! It’s something I only thought we would be getting as a wedding present since they are crazy expensive in NZ. Instead Lew was the one who started looking for one on Gumtree (like trademe) and when we found one in pistachio green for an alright price we just knew that we had to splurge on it. You will have to wait for photos below to find out what it is! Looking at the screen with the train departures it said that our train due to leave at 1959 was now delayed by 15 minutes as they were having to wait at a station for one of the crew. Deciding its never a bad thing to ask we went up to one of the assistants on the gate and asked whether we could get on the train that was leaving at 8.10pm seeing as our one was delayed. No questions asked he swapped out our tickets to ones that were for any trains during the day and also included the London underground. We were stoked as this train was more of a direction one with less stops anyways so we would get into London even earlier! The only issue was that not a single toilet on this train was working and they told us at a point where there wasn't any chance for us to run back to use the terminal toilets. I had deliberately not gone at the restaurant as I knew I could use the toilet on the train haha! Not to worry Lew distracted me by deciding which Airbnb we would book for our up and coming trip to Madrid and also our trip to Copenhagen. Getting back into London just after 9pm we took the underground to Clapham South where we picked up our new Kitchen Aid mixer! It was in immaculate condition as the people had only used it a handful of times and were now moving to Canada. We felt like new parents carrying a baby home as we kept peaking into the bag to admire it and it got its own seat on the tube. Arriving back at the flat exhausted and feeling pleased with ourselves we unpacked and headed to bed ready for another week of work - Lews first full week of work in a while!