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

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Flying saucers! The powder in the middle is sherbet. You can also get sherbet dip dabs where the powder comes in a cardboard cylinder looking for all the world like a miniature firework, with a licorice stick to dip in and bring out coated with powder (once you've licked it to make it sticky...).

My daughter went to University of Sussex which is one of Brighton's two universities, so we know the town quite well.

My grandson adores trampolining which is great because it's meant to be a really good activity for autistic kids - something about biofeedback produced by the bouncing. We can all enjoy it but it helps them develop a sense of their own bodies.

I'm glad you had such a good time - Brighton is a typical Brit seaside resort and is much loved!! (Note glancing references in my Big Bang fic, South Coast.)

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous pictures! I love Brighton (and flying saucers *g*). That last picture of the deck chairs is really fab.

[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*)

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any other place quite like Brighton in the UK, a 'real blast' as a friend of mine once described it. So pleased you could have a taste of it and thanks for the pictures.

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Deck chairs on the pier is something that is inextricably bound up with England in my mind. And I love Flying Saucers - they used to be widely available here when I was growing up, but now I have to go to a British sweet shop to find them.

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Ooh, photos! Thank you for those and for the descriptions! I've never been to Brighton, but I can just see and feel how it is. Perfect weather for it, too. (Although I've learnt from EOS that if I go to any beach place, a 99 is required. *g*) That is a fantastic photo of Ros on the trampoline. Wow.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

London kid here so Brighton was a frequent day trip in the summers of my childhood. :D

When you went looking for the Brighton rock did you also run across the sweets made to look like the pebbles on Brighton beach?

Flying saucers were one of my favourites when I was a kid, along with the Sherbet Dab.

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Wonderful photos! Especially the sunchairs on the deck and the Elvis marriage piccie.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

We have something similar to Flying Saucers here. Satellite wafers, but they have little beads in them like Nerds only smaller. And you're right they taste like communion wafers. I loved them as a kid but I haven't had one in a long time!

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Great pics! I love the one of Ros on the trampoline!

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

Ha! There's a coincidence, I'm in Brighton at this very moment and have been for the past ten days or so! We've been spending some time down here getting a feel of the place in preparation to maybe renting an apartment here for a few months next year.

The verdict is that we absolutely love it. If we can find somewhere decent to rent I shall be a temporary resident this time next year! *g*

[soundofthesurf.livejournal.com]

Awww, georgeous!! And the pics aren't too bad either! *G* Seriously, those are awesome pictures, just wonderful! ♡♥♡

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

Lovely pics and I am so glad you had a good time. As I said all the pics are great but the in action trampoline one is especially fab.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Looks like you all had a great time!

To be perfectly honest, I've never been to Brighton but I grew up in a seaside tourist trap and have visited quite a few more, so many of the experiences are very much universal for the UK.

Did the rock shop still have those ones made to look like a plate of breakfast (eggs & bacon etc.)? I think we were probably about 20 years too early for anything pornographic.

As for the deckchairs, hours of entertainment watching tourists with those. As for other entertainment, no Punch & Judy? Ah, I see from the website (http://www.punch-and-judy.com/) they only do Sundays during school term time.

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

Love the pics - especially your super flexible girl (wow!) and the deckchairs. My grandmother lived in Brighton for a few years - although she was right at the west end and always insisted she lived in Hove, which in her mind was much posher :) I remember it mostly as not sunny - sitting in the car looking at the beach and gray, wind-tossed sea, eating sandwiches and drinking tea out of a vacuum flask :D