On Thursday we headed off to Deal, which is a quite delightful old seaside town on the Kent coast to see some friends, who have recently returned to Blighty having spent so long living and working abroad that they still appreciate just how wonderful England is. Naturally it was a barbecue. Naturally, Mr Abroad stood outside under an umbrella cooking whilst we watched him, and the rain, from inside.
After that we headed round the coast to Brighton. I'd quite forgotten just how far it was and just how up and down it is. The clue was in the alpine-style switchback bends that kept me concentrating. We loved the drive...there's so much to see...it's quite lovely...even when passing through Dover and Folkstone. We loved that every time we crossed the Romney Hythe Dimchurch railway the sat nav gave us a toot too train whistle. Well I loved it, and the rest of the car despaired. Truly. As the miles piled on I promised The Cats Mother that the De La Warr Pavilion was well worth staying awake for. And indeed it might be. But it was late. You come to the back of it first, and that part looks like a council car park. And here may have been a little strop as no one would get out of the car to have a look at one of Britain's finest pieces of architectural heritage from the front. The journey continued in silence.
As they say, the best things in life are free.
So we will ignore our trip to the Brighton aquarium with the Muffins and Up, because even with a voucher for 40% discount, it still came to over £100. Actually it was quite good...aquariums can't help but be fascinating. We also went to The Pavilion. I've been there a hundred times, The Boy slightly less, The Cat's Mother once - six months ago when it was so cold, we went from one room to the other merely searching out the radiators...anyway The Muffins loved it. It is truly a splendid place indeed.
We then rushed off to the cricket ground to see England thrash the Aussies. You may have read that England just drew with Australia...but that was not in Hove where it was women's cricket. We turned up late enough in the day to get in for nothing and early enough to see a finely balanced match tumble England's way. I may not be a cricket fan as such, but this was definitely fun...
But best of all was the #BAbeachside . On the seafront, we were lucky enough for us all (or at least those over 1.5 metres to win lunch courtesy of British airways. This was not just any lunch. This was lunch 150 foot in the air....the UK's highest pop-up restaurant Hoisted up by crane, strapped to our seats, this was true dining extraordinaire. Our trip was sponsored by Lanzarote, so the food was appropriate to that destination...as was the very delicious wine. It was a terrific experience. We loved it.
