The England Trip - Brighton

[przed]

I know it's weeks late, but I thought I'd put up a few pics from our trip to London. And I figured I'd start with our day trip to Brighton, because it was ridiculous and fun.

I'd never been to Brighton before, but one of Ros' best friends went last year, so she wanted to give it a go. The day we picked to go was a brilliantly sunny day. Brighton itself is sort of charmingly tatty, with everything sort of fraying around the edges, like the decaying pier you can see in the background of this pic.


We couldn't resist this ridiculous photo op. Ros took the picture.


All Ros really wanted to do was ride the Dodge 'ems on the pier all afternoon, and that's pretty much what she did. She was just a bit too small to have a car by herself, so she had to go with either the Sweetie or me.


The other thing she ended up doing a lot was this trampoline activity. Clearly, she is made of rubber.


Ros, the kid who won't try any new food, is always on the lookout for new and unusual candy to try. Flying Saucers aren't something we'd ever seen here, so she couldn't resist. It turned out, though, that I was the only one who liked them. (For those of you who've never tried these things, they're really bland wafers--"communion wafer bland," according to the Sweetie--surrounding a sour/sweet powder that all melts together in your mouth.)


We also popped into a little beachside shop in search of Brighton rock. (True story: the Sweetie thought Brighton rock was... a real rock. I will never let him live that down.) Whilst Ros decided what flavour of rock she wanted, I was desperately hoping she didn't notice the penis shaped lollipops on the shelf above. Brighton's rep as a gay party town is not exaggerated.

Whilst we were taking a little break sitting on the pier, this scene was right in front of us, and it seemed so quintessentially English seaside that I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Comments

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

Beautiful weather and the English seaside - what more could anyone want? *g* I'm glad you all got to try the seaside attractions and our weird sweets - flying saucers are, in the opinion of five year old me, a mean trick. I did like dib dabs though (as described above) and I loved candy cigarettes, which are understandably banned now but were a rather nice fondant sweet! And the rock (yeah, not actual rock... that's hilarious *g*)

[przed.livejournal.com]

We really did get a perfect day for visiting Brighton. I think Ros shares the opinion of five year old you with regards to flying saucers.

We still have candy cigarettes here, but they've been rebranded as candy sticks.

I definitely had a giggle at the Sweetie's expense about the rock thing. *g*

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

Do you have cinder toffee (which is where, IIRC, they add baking soda to boiling sugar to make a sort of hard sponge consistency)? That's one of my favourites.

Ooh, and Kendall Mint Cake. Solid very strong peppermint sugar, used at one point by mountain climbers as a glucose supplement.

[przed.livejournal.com]

The interwebz tell me that cinder toffee is what we call sponge toffee. I love that stuff! One of my faves as well.

Kendall Mint Cake looks like our peppermint patties. Used to love those, too, but the no chocolate thing has scuppered me having them.

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

There are several 'working' Victorian town museums in the UK, and most of them make cinder toffee with huge uproar of excited children in their sweetshops - that's the most fun way to get it *g*

As for Kendal Mint Cake - no! not with chocolate! that is sacrilege! I googled and the wikipedia illustration is basically lying. Or at least, that's a sub-type you don't usually get. The stuff you see around usually is a bar that looks rather like a slab of marble, white sugar mint goodness *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

The working town museums sound fun. Something to plan for the next time. (Ros had a great time, so there will definitely be a next time. Yay!)

Ooooh, if there's no chocolate, I may keep my eyes peeled for that next time. I do rather miss peppermint patties.