Brighton

Eleanor's off to Brighton for the day today, with two friends from University - hope the weather holds for them!

It's been a nice but coolish (for the time of year) day - hope Eleanor and friends had a great time!

Mmmhhh... seems she hasn't made it home yet!?

She got home at about 10:45 last night - great day, but very tired.

She'll be on later!

Thanks, all! Had a lovely time!

It wasn't even spoiled by my friend and I being accosted by a drunk Jamaican man as we were on our way up Queen's Road to the train station. Although we were all exhausted by that time, so it took us by surprise!

He was quite obviously drunk, so I didn't answer when he said Hi to us. My friend did, though, so he took that as a sign that we were both interested in him. According to him, it was his birthday and he'd been given £1000, and that he'd give us each £100 to come and share a bottle of wine with him. We refused, obviously, but he wouldn't stop. He then got in between the two of us and grabbed us both by the shoulder, trying to pull us down the street. Call me crazy, but neither of us found it that flattering to have a middle-aged, drunk, stale-beer-stench man flashing his gold teeth at us, grabbing us and seemingly unaware of the term 'say it; don't spray it'.

I said no again and told him we were going to miss our train, although it still didn't stop him. He then grabbed my friend's arm, ignoring her 'ow's. I pulled his hand off of her and told him again that we needed to get our train, wishing him a happy birthday (I doubt it actually was his birthday). We managed to get away from him, finally.

My friend was more put out afterwards that nobody stopped to help us, despite it being crowded. At the time, I was surprised that it annoyed her, as we handled it okay and it didn't seem like the sort of situation where we needed help. In hindsight, though, the situation must have looked quite bad, so it wouldn't have killed somebody to ask if we were okay - two young women being grabbed by a drunk isn't something I'd think was normal. Our third friend seemed quite shocked as well. Luckily, she'd been slightly behind us as we came out of the restaurant, so she avoided him.

It was a very good day, though! My friend dragged me onto most of the Brighton pier rides, despite my protests. We were told afterwards by some friends we made on the pier that they could hear me screaming to my friend, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" all through the rides.

Beach!


More beach!



Pebbles! The child on me insisted in digging a hole, even though there wasn't any sand. You can't really see the hole properly in these pictures, but it was big enough for us to store all of our bags and guard our food from the herring gulls.


The water was literally filled with red seaweed! My friend wouldn't come down to the water, so I brought some back onto the beach for her. She wasn't impressed.



She then tried to bury me with pebbles. I told her it wouldn't work, but oh well!


Sand sculptor on the beach front!

Glad you had a good time, but sorry to hear about the drunk.  Unfortunately, seaside towns tend to attract people who are prone to this sort of behaviour, but you handled it very well.

Nice pics - and I recognise the sand dogs! They appeared in our local shopping centre earlier this year (although they were given a polythene sheet to lie on there).

Forgot these ones. My friend insisted on riding the Booster. My head was still spinning from the Air Race, so I was not a happy camper.

LyndaW wrote:Glad you had a good time, but sorry to hear about the drunk.  Unfortunately, seaside towns tend to attract people who are prone to this sort of behaviour, but you handled it very well.

Nice pics - and I recognise the sand dogs!  They appeared in our local shopping centre earlier this year (although they were given a polythene sheet to lie on there).  

At least we can look back on it and laugh! I'm surprised that was the only obstacle we came across!

I thought the sand dogs were amazing! Further along, there were loads of human statue performers. I wanted to stop for pictures, but they were crowded and my friend was terrified of them!

Seriously scary ride!

Strange that your friend likes them when she is scared of humans standing still!

She's a strange one! Love her to bits, but I could have cheerfully strangled her on some of those rides yesterday, as I mentioned very frequently.

I can't stand white-knuckle rides, and never could. I remember going on a child's one - what we used to call a scenic railway - when I was 20 and was terrified! I think I just don't trust machinery.

When I was a teenager, we used to go to Bognor and Brighton at bank holidays (it was the era of the Mods and Rockers). A friend and I went into the Ghost Walk on Brighton pier (like a ghost train without the train) while our other friends stayed outside and laughed at our screams of terror. I had nightmares for weeks (those cobwebs we had to walk through in the dark - shudder shudder).

I used to love those sorts of rides! I thought I still did, until I was about to go on them in Brighton! I screamed so much, I could hardly talk by the end of the day.

There was a ghost train at Brighton pier when we were there, but it was a very tame one. The only part that made me jump was when it was pitch black and the carriage went through a curtain of material. I'm not so keen on the walk-through ones. They're usually scarier. I'd probably have nightmares as well!

Glad you had a good time, and got home relatively unscathed.

Looks like a really fun day. The dog sculptures are lovely.

Thanks!

There was also a man with a very large albino Burmese python on the beach front, offering pictures for a charge. He was still there when we were on our way back. As much as I like snakes, I'm not too keen on the idea of any animal being passed around from person to person all through the day in a busy environment.

I know very little about snakes but I expect they get tired too, and fed up of being hauled from one person to another for hours on end.

I imagine that the RSPCA are aware of this man and his snake and are happy that it is not being mistreated (well let's hope so).

I hope so.