Well dear readers – what a stunning weekend, the sunshine came back with a vengeance didn’t it ? Unfortunately on the hottest day of the weekend I went out totally unprepared and so I’m sitting here on Monday, glowing a lovely shade of dusky pink !
But I digress, I’ve got three days worth of postings to rattle off here so I better get going :O)
Friday evening I went to visit my cousin who lives in Hoxton Square near Shoreditch. If you’ve never been there you really should give it a visit (not my cousin of course, the square!) It’s a green haven in the middle of an otherwise pretty grim area. A nice square with trees and grass and the perimeter made up of clubs, bars and eating houses. It’s a bit too busy for me, coming from the leafy backwater that is Watford, but it is nice being able to leave the flat and have this vast selection of places to go on the doorstep.
I stayed over there far too late really, considering my plans for the weekend, but managed to make it back home by 2:00 am
Saturday morning I was up at 7:30 and went around to collect my friend as we were going down to Brighton for the day for the Pride carnival. We made excellent time, arriving there at 10:30, and managing to get parked almost exactly opposite Preston Park where the after parade party takes place. We took a nice walk down the parade route and decided on our vantage point to get the best photographs of the procession – thankfully a steward pointed out a traffic island where we had an excellent position, didn’t get squashed nor asked to move on.
After about an hours wait (which passed quite quickly) the main parade started to pass us. This was the first time that I’ve seen the parade and it didn’t disappoint in the slightest. The theme this year was musicals and some of the costumes and routines were excellent. The highlight for me was the Wizard of Oz float with the 30 Dancing Dorothys – if I can work out how to post it onto you tube, I’ll post the link here.
After the carnival passed we waited for a while, comparing out photos, before walking up to Preston Park. I can honestly say I’ve never seen the park so mobbed – the combination of the good weather and a great atmosphere must have bought the crowds out. We stayed in the park for a couple of hours before taking a drive into Brighton and getting something to eat.
Now the last time we went, we found this Tapas bar on the seafront which looked really good and we said that we would go there next time we visited. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to expectations . We had to wait about 15 minutes for a table, another 10 minutes for a waitress to come and take our order (Meatballs, spicy potatoes and chicken/chorizo stew) and an hour later we were sitting there looking at empty drinks glasses and still no food – I think it was about seventy minutes from placing the order to getting served – really spoilt the meal.
Now I’d arranged to meet up with my mates from Cambridge whilst we were down there and he called just as we finished eating – he was leaving the park and coming into town. The idea being that we would meet up and go for a bite to eat and a drink with them. Unfortunately I’d only put 3 hours on the parking ticket, so thought it was better to go back to the car and put some more money in. Only to discover that after a 25 minute walk in the blistering heat , the car park was free after 6:00 (by now it was 6:30! Bugger :O( We just grabbed some water out of the boot and walked back along the seafront into Brighton
We eventually met up with Paul and Simon at around 8:00, found some nice little restaurant around the corner where I had fish and chips (nice) and they all had pizza / pasta dishes.
After that we just walked about trying out the bars and people watching – a really nice way to pass the evening. By the time we’d said out goodbyes and got back to Watford it was 2:00 am but a very enjoyable day – roll on next year !
Yesterday morning I work up quite late feeling the effects of two late nights, a lot of driving and the quite a bit of sunburn – ho hum !
I called my friend Odd-Thomas and asked him if he wanted to come and help me put down the decking in the back garden – luckily for me he said yes
So he arrived armed with a bag of Magnum ice creams and we started working. Unfortunately I bought the wrong type of drill to use on the concrete path and after 5 holes, it gave up the ghost on the 6th – the end snapped off and it turned into corkscrew !
Eventually we got about a third of the decking done, then my housemate Paul came in from work so we called time for the day and relaxed with beers, Jack Daniels and a barbeque – a fitting end to a great weekend !
So this morning I’ve come into work, still looking a lovely shade of lobster, and people are coming up and asking “have you been in the sun over the weekend ?” No, I got caught in a blizzard and its frostbite !
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