The madness of Londinium

Yesterday we drove into London to do some Christmas shopping. Driving in London is only for the insane. Shopping in Oxford Street in December is pure foolishness. Traffic is slow, parking is expensive, public transport is costly, slow and crowded. For a girl born and bred in our capital city a few years out to grass in Brighton have made me.... well a bit soft really.

In the evening we stayed next door to Amy Winehouse's husband Blake (he is currently being detained at her majesty's pleasure for perverting the course of justice in Pentonville prison) at Jason & Sammy's. We headed down to Kings Cross on a mini pub crawl, bars which were once no go zones have been given gastro makeovers. It's nice to see areas improve...if only we had bought a little property there 10 years ago, you'd be laughing.

Santa Dash

Saturday, it rained and rained the wind howled and it was freezing. Great and we have to do a 5k run along Brighton Seafront all in aid of the wonderful Rocking Horse appeal.

Watching people including myself having to hop around trying to get their suits on was amusing, but waiting at the start when the rain started to soak into the suit and make them heavier and heavier was not fun. It was a shame the weather was so awful, perhaps they should do an Easter Bunny dash....at least the weather might be a bit kinder.

Anyone for Avacado Houmous Crostini?

So Thursday sees us head off in the rain to The Montpelier and Clifton Hill Associations Christmas party. At Montpelier Hall we were greeted by a chap in white coat and fez. Our coats were whisked away and we helped ourselves to a glass of wine. We entered the drawing room which was a buzz with ...well Clifton Hill types, all very posh, we stood out a mile and were easily the youngest by about 30 years. We were served up smoked salmon, Russian stuffed eggs etc by gentlemen who were very nice but couldn't speak any English, they did manage to get across that the fez's played havoc with their hair.

Come on the Albion

Tuesday evening saw us head off to the Withdean stadium to see our local football team Brighton & Hove Albion play Walsall. Jo had some VIP tickets which entitled us to some nosh in a porta-cabin and couple of glasses of wine and to see the match. Withdean is basic to say the least, I look forward to the team having a decent stadium soon. Come on you Lewis residents let them have Falmer!

Well it was a chilly night but we enjoyed the game, its good to take your mind off everything sometimes. A 1-1 draw was a little disapointing as the Brighton side dominated the match but I have to admit Walsall's goal was a cracker.

Halloween

Surfs Up

Last Friday and we headed off to one of our favorite places North Devon for the week. We booked an apartment overlooking Putsborough beach, how's this for a view

Nice, the apartment block also has its own pool, good for stretching those old muscles.

Jo is preparing for an interview and I needed to write my final assignment for the finance module of my OU course, so it wasn't all fun and games.

But we did manage to catch some lovely waves and walk into Wooly for a swift pint at the Red Barn on a number of occasions.

Oh what a lovely house

Sunshine on Leith

If the sun was shining in Leith it certainly wasn't in Brighton yesterday! It poured all day not the best time to be painting your front door.

Last night we headed down to the Brighton Dome to see Charlie and Craig Reid better known as The Proclaimers.

They played some new stuff which was nice they are fine musicians but it was the 80's favorites that got everyone on their feet singing along and punching the air.

Building Bridges

We seem almost free of our builder.....after 5 months perhaps a bit of light at the end of the tunnel! After threatening Nigel with solicitors, nasty emails and wailing and screaming down the phone, he sent us Dave the alcoholic handyman....not the best in the world but perhaps we will finally get our home back.

I started my Swedish massage course last night, seem like a decent bunch of people and I'm really looking forward to learning something practical. The uniform is not nearly as bad as I thought it might be!

It's been a long while

11 months since my last blog, I really must try harder!

A lot has happened, most significantly my Mum died in July.

We have been having building work done on our house since late April, a 6 to 8 week job which is still not finished! Expect to hear many moans about this work or lack of it. Perhaps a few choice words about our builder Nigel.

After 20+ years working in the IT industry, I have finally seen sense to give up to pursue something resembling a portfolio career or at least it will be once I get rid of these builders and finish up the work on the house.

I am still studying via the OU and have enrolled on a massage and anatomy course. I still try and learn to play guitar but don't practice nearly enough.

My old laptop finally gave up on me, so I have a snazzy new red one, complete with wi-fi catcher and webcam. So expect to see images and maybe even some videos. Its a lovely day in Brighton today and I decided to take the new laptop out to check out this wi-fi milarky. I sat on the beach with a salad I'd prepared and my study books as I have an assignment to get in Friday. Did a bit of work then decided to try the laptop out, it was sunny and after a few frustrating minutes of trying to find some shade with my bag, I realised that the idea of sitting on the beach with a laptop in the sun was a silly one I was never going to see the screen. I expect my attempts made a few people laugh though, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. So I still don't know if this wi-fi thing on the move works or not. I notice lots of the local pubs have wi-fi these days but Jo has got us on another healthy regime at the moment so I don't know when I'll be giving that a go.
On the subject of pubs, thank god for the smoking ban. You can actually go out for an evening without stinking of fags when you get home. The only thing is the outsides are all smokers and in this summer sunshine you feel like retreating inside to avoid the fumes.

Anyway as I was saying ,I was sitting on Brighton beach today the sea was absolutely beautiful just laping up to the shore. I sat there realising how lovely it is to live here, water often makes me emotional and I cried a little at the beauty of the sea and how much it was making me think about people I love and just how much I miss not having my mum around anymore.