Life Lesson # 2

Last week I learned a life lesson – to not quit my day job and take up photography as a career. Today I learned another life lesson – never talk with your hands while eating a donut on the beach at Brighton, at least if you stop to talk. Today we went to Brighton. A two hour bus ride from London is this beautiful beach. Not at all like a Florida beach, no clean white sand here, this is a pebbly, rocky beach but the rocks are smooth, not jagged. (I'm not sure what the difference is between a pebble and a rock.) It has a pier with all sorts of interesting things on it, rides, a game room, and all sorts of "fair food." As I write this, my stomach is feeling a little ill from all the junk I ate today, but it was good. When we first got there, the sky was cloudy and the wind was blowing, it was COLD! We got off the bus, with Brian, our fabulous Blue Badge guy, and walked to the Royal Pavilion. On the way, we had to put on our sweaters and I even zipped mine up. We took an audio tour of the Royal Pavilion, which was just incredible. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so I can't show you what we saw, but the dining room of this place was incredible. The chandelier in the dining room is a dragon, and it is holding the biggest part, with five or six smaller dragons holding lotus blossoms where the lights are. It is magnificent. I think the audio guide says the chandelier weighs a ton. The kitchen was remarkably designed with a steam table to keep food warm and an actual menu from a meal with 35 entrees. Unbelievable! The whole pavilion looks almost Indian in design; with domes similar to the Taj Mahal, but the decorations inside have a definite Chinese flair.

After our tour, we walked back to the beach and Andrea, Lenese, Katherine and I struggled our way down the pebble beach closer to the water. Three of us got our feet wet and wow, was it cold. Trying to get back up was much harder. Pebbles in your shoe hurt a whole lot worse than sand in your shoe. We had fish and chips for lunch. According to Brian, the real way to eat fish and chips is with vinegar on it, but I had ketchup anyway. We ate outside with the sound and smell of the water – by now the sun was shining and it was quite warm. It was fabulous.

After lunch we went down the pier. We walked past the candy shop and the jewelry shop and through the game room. We made our way to the ride section, where we were amazed at the prices of things. All the rides took tokens and each token cost 1. Most of the rides took between 3 and 8 tokens. That means for the ride called the Booster, which required 8 tokens, which is equivalent to $16, for one ride!!! Needless to say, we didn't ride anything. There is an electric train, which goes from one end of the beach to the other, and we rode on that, right past the "Naturist Beach" which is a story for another day. While we were on the pier, Dr. E found some cotton candy, which is called candy floss over here. It was delicious, so we helped her eat it. Then we saw this booth selling waffles on a stick, which is regular waffle batter, made sort of like a corn dog, but with chocolate and nuts on it. Quite delicious. Later, we passed a booth making and selling fresh donuts. They actually dropped into the hot oil right in front of us and made their way down this little hot oil bath, where they fell out into sugar. Lenese and I had to have some fresh, hot donuts. They were so hot when we first got them, that we couldn't eat them. So, we're walking along, minding our own business, eating our donuts. I stopped to look at a sign that said "Fish and Chips, with Mushy Peas" which is a cultural anomaly. How can a country as civilized as Britain actually eat and be proud of eating mushy peas? How gross is that? Anyway, while I was pointing at the sign and commenting on mushy peas, I felt this "whomp" against my hand, and my donut was gone. I looked up and a giant sea gull flew away, with my donut. I even looked all around thinking I dropped it, but nope, that bird snagged my donut. I was not a happy camper. I hope it made him sick! So, we learned while eating donuts don't stop walking, and don't stop and point at anything. If you stop, I guess the sea gulls think that you are fair game. So, we got on the train and rode down to the end, and then rode back. It was a fabulous, relaxing, fun day.

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